Can someone help me understand dining pkg?

[beehive123]

I don't understand the dining package, you get a snack, a counter
service meal and one sit down dinner each day? Where is the
counter service meal valid, every park? And I have a 3 & 4 year
old we don't do sit down dinners yet, can you exchange that for
another counter service meal?

 

[3princesses4us]

Counter service meals are everywhere- parks, resorts, DT Disney, etc. We ate breakfast everyday in our resort's food court and it counted as a counter service meal. Basically those quick serve places at the parks for example where you walk up and order a burger, fries & Coke and then go eat at a nearby picnic table are counter service meals. Snacks of course consist of water bottles, Coke, Mickey ice cream bars, etc. Alas turkey legs don't count as a snack- I tried.
Those restaurants requiring advanced dining reservations (ADR's) are the table service ones. The big differences are obviously the price and the speed of service. I personally would never use one of my precious table service meals as a counter service one. You're really not getting your money out of the plan this way. For example, one counter service meal may average around $12 but a steak dinner using a table service would cost you $60 for just yourself- big difference in how you use it!
I have a 4 year old myself. Have you thought of doing a character meal? Those count as 1 table service meal. It's hard to screw up breakfast. There are 3 princess breakfasts at WDW that my daughter would be on her best behavior for. They're fun and festive and the cute pictures are worth it even if the meal sometimes isn't. Most of these are all-you-can-eat buffet types too including dessert!
Bottom line: the plan becomes well worth the price when you start taking advantage of the table service meals. If your kids won't get excited over steak, try a character meal. I'll bet they would love it!

 

[Amyg]

Agree with about poster! Don't "waste" your TS credits for CS! Your kids would love the character meals!

 

[beehive123]

Thanks, I'm going to look into it, I know I always complain about
the most money being spent on food when we go down. I am
always amazed how much a breakfast and lunch can cost.

Thanks everyone.

 

[Frantasmic]

Definitely review the PDF available on the WDW website (just search for dining) and it explains everything very nicely.

With kids, you could probably get a lot out of your CS credits since they can split a meal. This means you could get more meals, including breakfast.

Character buffets in the mornings are plentiful; many have indicated enjoying Chef Mickeys at the Contemporary, Park Faire 1900 at Grand Floridian, Crystal Palace inside the MK, and Ohana's.

Many of these places also have character dinners (see the list to make sure).

You can't trade your TS, but you could probably double up and enjoy some signature meals so as not to lose them.

 

[beehive123]

Ok, done some reading, I noticed it said (excluding breakfast) does
this mean you can't use your counter service meal for breakfast?

 

[Frantasmic]

You can use your CS credit wherever you want that accepts them, including breakfast.

Where did you see excluding breakfast? It may have just been someone's means of differentiating the Premium plan, where breakfast IS included from the Dining My Way package added to the plans.

 

[BrerMama]

I think the excluding breakfast thing is a blurb put in to clarify that after Jan. 1, you no longer get a dessert with counter service breakfasts. You still get the dessert with CS lunch/dinner, but after that date, no more dessert for breakfast.

 

[henrylovespooh]

The dining plan is only cost effective if you use the TS credits - and even then you can just break even (which is fine).

If you don't think you would use the TS meals, I don't think the plan is for you.

I will add that I have a almost-3 and 4 year old, and we've managed in many TS restaurants. Disney restaurants are kid friendly and noisy. You can do the character meals for your TS credits.

I wasn't sure if you were aware that if you buy the plan, you will be given a pool of credits that can be used at any time. You can do two TS meals one day and two CS meals another. You can also do a CS breakfast, TS lunch and TS dinner, etc. You have the length of your stay to use up the credits in any way you wish.

 

[beehive123]

Thanks Henrylovespooh,

I have been racking my brain all weekend trying to figure out what to do.
My problem is I have 2 reservations, 4 days at CBR and 4 at POFQ, I split
the stay since there were deals on CBR and I didn't want to spend all
8 days at CBR with the pop warner kids.

So I thought about doing the plan the first four days, at CBR, with
the dining plan. If I didn't use all the credits the first 4 days would
they still be valid the last 4 days, do they expire?

According to Disney website I can't get the deal available for the
dates I need at POFQ, the last 4 nights.

 

[PatMcDuck]

the food plan is strange in some ways. we have enough credits to use the plan for breakfast at the food courts. Here at Pop, the lines for hot food for breakfast are all REALLY long. SOME of the cashiers allow you to call cereal, jiuce and a muffin (dessert") a breakfast meal. This is what we have been doing alot. We are going to food court for snacks, like the choc chip cookies, and the bottles of juice and soda.