ANOTHER dining plan question

[Mic]

We will arrive two days before our friends will. We will be in a 1-bedroom with 5 people on our dining plan, but really only 4 of us will be using the credits for most of the trip. Our friends will be at Port Orleans, and will stay 2 days longer than us. They, too, have the dining plan(party of 4), and we will be dining with them twice for dinner. Since we will have extra credits, would it be possible for me to use my room key with dining credits to pay for their dinner one evening? Or will I only be allowed to pay for up to 5 guests at once? I hate to see the credits go to waste. Thanks...and I apologize for asking so many questions.

 

[dvcdisney]

I believe the rules are that you can only use your credits for yourselves. So if it says 5 adults on your "key", you can only use 5 adult credits at table services at once.

However, I believe you can "downgrade" your credits. For instance you can use a TS credit for CS meal. So this may be an option for you to be able to use up your credits.

 

[ssawka]

Not sure if it is technically allowed, but when my parents stayed on the DxDP last month they were able to use there points for my brother that did not have the DDP and also for my cousin who was not even staying on property. Not sure if it had anything to do with it being free dining at the time. Your milage may vary!

 

[hellerjw]

We have done various versions of the dining plan the last 4 years and have never been asked to verify who is included in the plan and who isn't. I don't think they would know or care unless you said something. If you had 10 table service credits left and wanted to buy dinner for 10 people I don't think it would be a problem. This is more my opinion than known fact since we have only used it for our family who were all under the same plan.

 

[Mic]

Thanks so much for all the responses. Now that I know what the official policy is, I will understand if I am not allowed to "share". However, since we will be dining with our friends the last night of our stay, I hope the waiter just runs our card, realizes we have x amount of credits left, and deducts everyone's meal. Otherwise, we will be losing at least 5 table service credits.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Thanks so much for all the responses. Now that I know what the official policy is, I will understand if I am not allowed to "share". However, since we will be dining with our friends the last night of our stay, I hope the waiter just runs our card, realizes we have x amount of credits left, and deducts everyone's meal. Otherwise, we will be losing at least 5 table service credits.

They will probably charge your card cash for the extra meals if you don't give them any other means to pay. The CM is only supposed to use credits for as many people (and ages of people) listed on the KTTW. It will say, for example, 3A 2C on the card if you have three guests age 10+ and two guest 3-9.

How are you getting dining credits for five if only four are actually dining? Where is the fifth person dining?

 

[dianeschlicht]

How are you getting dining credits for five if only four are actually dining? Where is the fifth person dining?

I was wondering this as well.

 

[Dean]

Generally they will limit you to the number on your card. But there may be ways you could use your credits for them. You could pay for a meal for them when you are not dining together or you could pay for multiple CS meals by doing them in increments. Both technically not allowed but in keeping with the spirit of the rules given that all will have the DDP. I also bet that if you show them that both groups have it and that you want to use your credits for that night, the restaurant can find a way to do so.

 

[JimMIA]

My understanding is that the servers not only check the number of participants on the card, but the computer system is set up not to allow more TS purchases than participants.

What you want to do is clearly against the rules of DDP (and always has been), and the server risks their job if they let you do it. According to servers who post on the DIS DDP board from time to time, some have been fired for violating the DDP rules.

This is all a big change from a couple of years ago, when servers were actively helping DDP participants to "maximize" the value of the plan. The obvious benefit to the server was larger tips with larger bills. That abuse is one of the main factors that led to the elimination of both the appetizer and gratuity from DDP this year, which was effectively a 25-30% price increase to the guest.

As some have indicated, you might even end up with meals room-billed instead of being credited to DDP.

I wouldn't risk it.