Care to weigh in your thoughts on new dining plan??

[DisneyAngelXOXO]

Not being a current AP holder, I would definitely consider one if they would add a similiar dining plan to MYW. Considering that with MYW you can't add the plan onto a discounted room rate. The AP would be the best of both worlds, most likely a good rate and good dining plan, and a good excuse to go back to Disney more then once a year. Hehe Sounds good to me!!

 

[disneyjunkie]

When is Disney going to care about DVC members and annual pass holders? I am so frustrated that this meal plan isn't open to some of its most loyal customers. Weak!

Didn't Disney just give DVC members a huge discount on APs?

 

[MagicKingdom05]

I have thought about that myself, but since you can't add the dinning option on to an AP and using that will save me atleast $600 on an 11 day trip, it will be MYW package for me.

disneyjunkie,

I believe that DVC members got $100 or something like that off.

 

[JerseyJanice]

We bought park hoppers with extra days and pluses on them for our last trip (in 2002). So our park admission next trip (11/05) is paid for.

We would jump on the $35 a day meal plan, but have no intention of purchasing MYW park admission for this trip.

Any chance that Disney will offer a very basic package (e.g., resort room and miniature golf tickets) on which the dining option can be purchased?

I guess I'll have to wait and see. This dining option would work very well for us. For DH, myself and our 8 year-old, we're looking at $80 a day. That's less than we usually spend. Moreover, a table service dinner and counter service lunch or breakfast plus a snack is generally what we buy.

I've got my fingers crossed!

 

[Philly81]

I'm really scratching my head on this one. I think it could be definitely cost saving for most. I'm still not 100% sure about our family. My kids will be 10, 11, and 15 when we go next year so I'd have to pay adult price for all of us. Still wouldn't be a bad deal on a lot of days but there is NO way that we could eat 5 appetizers and 5 desserts with our entrees. I guess I wish that they didn't require everyone in your party to get on the plan. If I could get 3 of us on and we could order and pay for what the other 2 got and share appetizers and desserts much like you can with the current voucher system I'd do it in a heartbeat. Plus dh and I like to indulge in a couple glasses of wine, or beer, or tropical drinks when we go to sit downs on vacation and all that would be extra so I am starting to think we can go to a sit down and order what we want (normally without appetizers and desserts normally but with 2 glasses of wine) and come out about the same? Not everywhere but....Am I nutso or is anyone else having this dilemma?

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

The real value, I think, is going to be revealed in the details of the plan. I just re-read the info on MouseSavers.

Character meals actually will only cost you ONE sit down credit. Dinner shows or "signature" restaurants will cost you two.

There is not a clear definition of "snack". If a medium soda is a "snack" then I fail to see that as a bargain!

Children might get tired of selections exclusively from the kids' menu, and it doesn't really say if they can choose appetizers/desserts at sit-down meals.

Having tax and tip included makes it very nice, but only if your family will save money doing things this way. Still not sure what I think, but pretty sure we will not buy the package unless we can keep our discounted room rate.

 

[EEyorelover22]

The dining option isn't a good deal if you can't get a room discount too. You'd have to save a lot of money on food to make up for the loss on the room discount. The base cost of $35 for the 4 of us would be cheaper based on what we spent on food last time we were there, but we'd be out the room discount which is much higher than what we were save on food each day while we were there.

 

[suzywindy]

They have never offered ap holders any food plan. It is all tied into packages. It is a shame, we would add it in a second since it would cut down on the cash we would need to bring and make it even easier to be on vacation. We used to buy the packages because we liked everything on one card. But after I started using these boards like a junkie I could not just be a regular person, so we now also play the codes game.

In addition my ap does get me $ off at DD and 10% off lunches in resorts mon-thur and Epcot countries. However - if we go on an extended trip the tickets are so much cheaper with YOUR WAY new package I would have to stop and really figure it out. I just renewed my AP before they announced this.

At least they are keeping it interesting!

 

[Wish I lived in Fl]

We ate a Le Cellier in May. A lovely meal but it took 1 1/2 hours from Park time. I hadn't really thought of that ahead of time and that was eating at an off peak day at 2:30.

 

[debbiedoo]

I don't know about you guys but when we do 1 sit-down a day either late breakfast or late lunch/dinner we are so full!!!! We drink a lot more. The snack and the counter service probably would be partly wasted. I know when you go to ohana's and chef Mickey's they more than take care of you!!

As mention no break for the dvc members, guess we need to start voicing our opinion is that is what you want. The freedom to choose.

 

[Nik's Mom]

Debbiedo,
What we do is spread our meals out. Maybe we'll have a Character breakfast at 8:30 (for example), have a small snack around 1pm and then have dinner at a counter service around 5:00 or 6:00pm. It works for us.

 

[crisi]

As a DVC member, if they offer this to me, great! If not, I'm already getting a fantastic deal on a fantastic room - so I don't think Disney "owes" me any way to save even more money. There are AP members on this board getting park admission for less than $10 a day - I don't think Disney owes them a way to save even more money either.

And the idea is not for this to save everyone money.....if that were the idea, they'd just lower prices. The idea here is to "upsell" (either by having you spend $35 instead of $25 on food each day per person, or by making you stay in a Disney resort on a package instead of offsite or on a code) and make money on people who don't take full advantage of the package....i.e. people who won't eat (i.e. order) five desserts or appitziers, but will buy the package anyway "so its all paid for." The advantage is this helps tie you to Disney restaurants for your stay - spend the day at Universal and you won't be a good candidate for these "savings." If more people were going to save money than spend more, this would be a poor business decision for them.

 

[hopetoseedisney]

I spoke to someone at 407WDISNEY last week about the dining plan. The rep I spoke to said that there would definitely be an option for AP holders to have the dining plan. The only concern I have is that we are eligible for room discounts due to dh being an airline employee. It wouldn't be worth it to me to have the dining plan if we can't get the discount on the room, because we get a 50% discount on the rooms. Guess we'll find out in the next day or two.

 

[MagicKingdom05]

I think at some point Disney will release Dinning option to AP's. At this point however they want to try it with the packages and see how it works. I am sure that if you go with a package that includes the dinning option, they will send you some kind of survey asking your opionion on it after you get back to see if they need to tweek it.

 

[pamlet]

I spoke to someone at 407WDISNEY last week about the dining plan. The rep I spoke to said that there would definitely be an option for AP holders to have the dining plan. The only concern I have is that we are eligible for room discounts due to dh being an airline employee. It wouldn't be worth it to me to have the dining plan if we can't get the discount on the room, because we get a 50% discount on the rooms. Guess we'll find out in the next day or two.

I was talking to a former co-worker - a few years back a similiar dining plan was offered as well. His wife worked for an airline and they were able to utilize their airline discount as well as use the dining plan. Maybe they'll do the same thing this time around - as well as offer to AP holders, DVC, etc.

 

[MagicKingdom05]

pamlet,

It is funny that you mention that. I was told by a couple of people that if you have a AAA membership that you can get a discount on the room only portion of the package if you go through AAA directly. It may only be 10-15% depending on season, but that could still save $200 or so depending on the room.

 

[pamlet]

I suppose we'll just have to wait until tomorrow to see what the score is..

Of course they may change things as they go as well - especially if they really want to make the food deal work. It should be interesting to see how it works out.

Good to know about the AAA discount - that'd be great if they don't offer the room only discounts ..

 

[MagicKingdom05]

pamlet,

I agree. Atleast it's something. The big saving for me however, will be the dinning plan and the tickets. The dinning plan will only cost me $350 instead of 800-$1000 and the 10 day ticket will cost me $247 instead of 503.74 that the old UHP cost. When I went the last time I never used the water park option so that a waste.

 

[gymmom]

I talked to someone at CR about 2 weeks ago or so. We have 2 connecting rooms on a seasonal discount code Jan 22-29. I asked her about adding the dining plan and whether she had heard anything. She swore we would be able to add the plan to our room without paying more for our rooms. I guess we will all find out soon. She suggested I wait to call on Jan 3rd or 4th as they are expecting a flood of calls for a day or two!!

So will we be able to use the meal plan for character breakfasts, or only lunches and dinners?

Lisa