Changes to MYW Dining?

[ceecee]

I called and spoke with Helga Joan???? (I think that's what she said) to cancel a PS and asked by the way how do these credits work. She said they are on your card and everyone has their own card thus they know if it's child or adult. So she said you "pay" by showing them your cards. Never mentioned a master card. Seems to me this would be the way they could tell the difference. I also think the plan was being exploited and can't believe some people are angry because they can't get adult meals for child meal price......come on, it is still a good deal!

 

[freakylick]

So honestly the whole damn thing is confussing and I wish Disney got it all stright . I honestly new nothig about the dinning plan till tlaking to the CM .

This is the real shame of it all. As always with Disney, no CM can ever give the correct answer and even when they do, you don't know if you can believe them or not because they are wrong so often.

Of course, I blame upper management style for this. Their "roll it out and change on the fly" style keeps CM's completely confused b/c things change so much that it is hard for them to keep up with the oft-changing World. Maybe CM's should be required to register and read the DIS boards, they might know a little more

 

[shaycamp21]

Now I know the dining plan is going to be free (we had planned to purchase the plan but because we leave August 21st we got it free).

I think one of the the problems with the MYW plan is that it only covers two meals a day (I know there is a premium plan that covers three meals but because it also covers other things (i.e shows, recreation, childcare) that it makes the premium plan beyond the reach of the average budget) . So I think that everyone has been pooling / sharing meals so that they can cover three meals per day. So many are just sharing all of their CS credits (buying only adult CS meals) so that they can get their meals covered. (i.e. a family of four sharing two large breakfasts and two large lunches and then having a TS dinner). One of the reasons I would have shared with my girls is that the children's CS meals seem to be really limited unhealthy choices (hotdogs, PBJ--I know some offer carrots and fruit instead of fries but I am just saying IN GENERAL) whereas we could share a wrap and a salad. Now I know the debate is more over pooling the child for adult Table Service Credits but I am just trying to point out some flaws in the plan and to understand why people are pooling / sharing. Also the snack choices are quite limited so you really couldn't just choose a snack that would tie you over to your next meal.

Another problem with this plan is the Signature restaurants, now I've been on allears and honestly with some of the restaurants that are marked as Signature there is not really very much difference in appetizer/meal prices (child prices are almost identical) that with nonsignature places yet for the Signature restaurants you must use 2 credits--when really the meal is not worth two adult credits. So this is why I think that some are pooling their child for adult credits because if they choose a Signature restaurant then they will run out of credits for their stay. I think it would also help if people could buy credits for the number of days they will be there instead of the number of nights. You'd have to pay for you last day (before your flight) OOP unless you saved some CS/TS credits.

I don't really believe people are trying to scam Disney but just trying to make the most of the Disney magic on their limited budgets. I think that overall people would just like an all-inclusive package and know that all of their meals are already covered.
That's all. Enjoy your vacations everyone.

 

[mello]

There are a lot of situations that aren't being taken into account, though.

For example, say the Smith familiy wants to eat at the Hoop De Doo review. It's 2 credits, but the adult price is roughly $50 and the child price is $25.

So, if they pay for the kids out of pocket at, say, Sci Fi and 50s Prime Time where the kids meals are less expensive (like $5) it would allow them to all go to the Hoop De Doo together on the MYW dining program.

As far as it being a scam to the Disney people, if you calculate some of the better sit down places, you can easily reach the $50/$25 mark with a smoothie, appetizer, dessert, steak kids dinner, etc. on the meal plan. (For example, Concourse Steakhouse or Les Cellier). There are going to be families who want to eat somewhere like 50s Prime Time who will spend far less on a meal than those who eat at a steakhouse - and there are times when our family will eat a big meal at a sit down and some days we won't go to the most expensive place on the menu. Either way, we have the allowance within the program to spend a fortune, if we went to Les Cellier every night. I mean, if we got the most expensive appetizer ($13 each), the $37 prime rib, and the $12 signature dessert - with drinks...plus all three of our kids got the $9 kids steak and the $7 dessert we would spend like $175 before tip and taxes. The most expensive meals we could eat at 50s Prime Time is $83. The Hoop de Doo review is $175 as well. But - it's two credits.

I guess my long, rambly not making too much sense point is - sometimes we just try to "maximize" it and really don't end up saving any money in the long run. If we pay for the kids at one restaurant to have another restaurant dinner, I don't see how Disney is out any additional money - especially when you consider that we're then paying *cash* out of pocket for the extra items (and gratiuty on these items).

And, while we (and some families) will be eating mac and cheese ($5) others will be having grilled chicken and steak ($7-$9) for their kids when we use the TS credits.

It's all a crap shoot - just depends on who orders what, which restaurant you pick, and how much they can eat.

Also, our three year old is a passholder and we have to pay for her tiny self, even though she sleeps *in* our bed and weighs 20-something pounds. She's considered a resort guest, she's considered someone who should pay admission, etc - and we do all that, of course. BUT - she doesn't eat. I mean, literally a banana and a handful of cheerios. She's a toddler. So, we'll have all her credits but there is NO way she'll eat all that food. She, at best, shares with her 5 year old sister who has sensory issues and will not/cannot eat certain foods. I mean the two of them can share a grilled cheese sandwich at Sonic and it doesn't get finished.

Is it fair that these children are counted at the same rate as the 7 year old who can eat a steak, baked potato, and dessert - plus?

I understand what some of you are saying, but I think there are many shades of grey in all of this. Whatever Disney decides we'll have to abide by, but it isn't necessarily "fraud" to swap around some meals. Especially when you consider that in the past three years I have paid Disney WELL over $9,000 for our three trips. And we haven't even arrived on that third trip. Is the admission price "fair"? Is the resort price "fair"? (I mean, we can stay offsite in a Ramada Inn Kidsuite for $72/night all as a family - we can't even stay in ONE room onsite because of our family size).

If we were using our AP rate, we couldn't get the dining. The AP rate would have saved us a lot, but we wanted the convenience of the dining package. The dining package, though, we had to pay full price for the resort AND buy one day tickets that we won't use.

Like someone else said - they know what they're doing. They get our money either way . Whether they give us some discount on our rooms, or tickets, or whatever we end up typically spending the same amount.
If we have a budget of $3000, and we "save" by not paying for dining, don't we usually make it up in souveniers - or special events - or other things we might not have spent the money on? It's just a shift in where we're paying them.

ITA. I have a toddler who eats next to nothing as well. Truly she does not eat $10 worth of food in a day. It would be a waste to get her that much when she could share with me. I also have a just-turned-12 yo ds (an "adult" by Disney standards) who eats cheeseburgers and macarori. So his adult credits will not be used on $40 lobster or shushi dinners, they will be used on $5 kids meals much of the time. So, if we use one toddler's child credit for an adult meal, but at the same time use one "adult's" credit for a child's meal - it all evens out.

 

[Goobergal99]

Ok, you guys are gonna be shocked with this coming from me, however I don't think it is a big deal that you can't pool the credits together. I honestly don't have the energy to go through and punch numbers to figure out how much I would be saving if we used DD's credits somewhere else and Blah! Blah! Blah! It is a vacation after all and part of the reason I booked the free dining was because I wanted to enjoy my vacation without the added hassle of worrying about paying for meals

My only ? and it may have been answered but I don't feel like going back and reading 10 pages, is can each individual person still use there credits however they want? Meaning do I have to use 1 table service, 1 sit down and 1 snack per day? or can I use them any way I want?

 

[clombardi]

Ok, you guys are gonna be shocked with this coming from me, however I don't think it is a big deal that you can't pool the credits together. I honestly don't have the energy to go through and punch numbers to figure out how much I would be saving if we used DD's credits somewhere else and Blah! Blah! Blah! It is a vacation after all and part of the reason I booked the free dining was because I wanted to enjoy my vacation without the added hassle of worrying about paying for meals

My only ? and it may have been answered but I don't feel like going back and reading 10 pages, is can each individual person still use there credits however they want? Meaning do I have to use 1 table service, 1 sit down and 1 snack per day? or can I use them any way I want?

You can use them any way you want.

 

[BeckWhy]

Maybe someone already asked this, I don't know, I might have missed it while skimming the post (its 3:44 am).

I recently printed out a list of Restaurants that are included in the dining plan from disneyworld.com. And a few things that confused me were, well 1) it had Le Cellier listed as a table service (last I knew it was a signature) and 2) no Wolfgang Puck Express listed (one of my faves) which a while ago I was informed was added to the listing.

Did Disney change the restaurants again, or is this an old list?

 

[clombardi]

Maybe someone already asked this, I don't know, I might have missed it while skimming the post (its 3:44 am).

I recently printed out a list of Restaurants that are included in the dining plan from disneyworld.com. And a few things that confused me were, well 1) it had Le Cellier listed as a table service (last I knew it was a signature) and 2) no Wolfgang Puck Express listed (one of my faves) which a while ago I was informed was added to the listing.

Did Disney change the restaurants again, or is this an old list?

LC is a one credit restaurant, originally it was 2.

Wolfgang Puck Express is also included as a counter service.

 

[disneyfreakjackie]

Its about time Disney got around to this. I'll probably be in the only one, but I think its the right thing to do....please excuse my while I put on my flame proof suit

You're not the only one . . . I totally agree with you!!

 

[Disneysnel]

Has anyone yet confirmed the change? If they change it I am curious if they are going to put all credits, children and adult, on a single account or require you to have a seperate account for each person in your party. My primary concern is logistical with regards to account management. Keeping track of pooled credits on a single account is much easier than dealing with 4 seperate accounts in our case. Some people have reported the occasional problem with credits not being recorded properly. It would be signifigantly more work to track multiple accounts as opposed to one pooled account.

As for the reason behind the changes, if they occur. I would speculate that it is not necessarilly the abuse of people that paid for the dinning package and on occasion used the children credits as a license to print money but the people abusing the free dinning offer that they ran. I assume that Disney monitors the main internet boards and were aware of some people using children credits for adult meals. But at least they were paying something for the dinning plan, adult and children rates and there are people that leave with snack or counter service credits unused. They must have figured that in the end they made out alright.

Now with the free dinning promo you have people with AP's booking "phantom" children into thier rooms and buying a single day ticket and then getting free dinning for the length of stay. For example a couple with an AP could book a room at All Stars for 7 nights for example, make up two children and pay for a single day bare bones park ticket for each. Then they would have the equivalent of 4 TS credits per day or 28 for the trip. So for the cost of 4 single day tickets, that they don't use and can save for some other time, they could in theory eat at signature restaurant each day and use the counter service meals for breakfast and lunch. Just for the price of 4 single day tickets, $215, or only aprox. $31 per day they would get 2 counter service, 2 snacks and one signature meal. There is no way that Disney can allow that loophole to continue to exist. Admitedly the people doing that are engaged in outright fraud by booking children into a room that don't exist but it would be hard for Disney to monitor that type of fraud.

What Disney could have done during the promotion is required a length of stay park ticket to get the free dinning. If the goal was to sell more rooms and park admission then that would have accomplished it and prohibited some of the abuse. The other way is to seperate credits into children and adult. I just hope that they do this in a way that logistically isn't a big problem to deal with.

Just my .02

I TOTALLY agree with you Pedler! We booked our package long before the free dining was announced and we are not bringing our children (who are grownups). We were able to add the free dining to our ressie however.

Now for my 2 cents:

I think if you have a child 10 or over who doesn't eat much and you want to share meals and use the credits elsewhere - go for it! The "adult" credits are for your party to use anyway you want to. BUT you can not use the child credits towards an adult meal regardless how much that child eats! If you want to share with the child and order a child's meal for yourself that's perfectly fine.

You can not use your child's pass to get into the parks - whether that child is going to be sleeping in the stroller or won't ride any big rides makes no difference you still can not use a 5 year old's ticket to get an adult into the park.

The issue is NOT whether or not you share meals or how much your child eats - the issue is using child credits for adult meals - period. Free or not.

Now, I know this does not affect me directly but if you do a search for free dining and read the posts you well see many ARE taking full advantage of the loophole. I have even seen posts where guests are booking rooms with fake children and 1 day tickets just to get all the dining credits. This will affect how busy the restaurants are and make it much harder for others (who are not taking advantage of the loophole) to get reservations at the places they would like to eat at.

 

[Julia M]

Now, I know this does not affect me directly but if you do a search for free dining and read the posts you well see many ARE taking full advantage of the loophole. I have even seen posts where guests are booking rooms with fake children and 1 day tickets just to get all the dining credits. This will affect how busy the restaurants are and make it much harder for others (who are not taking advantage of the loophole) to get reservations at the places they would like to eat at.

well, I don't think people really are booking rooms with phantom kids........I think there was one post that asked the question, "what's to keep this from happening?" Big difference.

I don't disagree with you......I tend to be a "rule follower", and I believe the **INTENT** of the MYW dining is to allow people the freedom to mix and match meals. I imagine that meant the freedom to be having 2 CS meals one day, and 2 TS another day, not paying cash for a kids meal so an adult can utilize the credit at a signature restaurant. But, the way it's currently designed, people can do what they want.

I have two thoughts about this.
One, I'm not interested in being the DIsney police, here on the boards, or at WDW. So, I don't care how people use credits. I also don't care if you reuse mugs, or heck, if you bring your big gulp cup from 7-11!!

Two, although alot more people are using the dining plan than before ("wishes", or whatever it was), and there may be people utilizing the plan in a way that is not so good for Disney, those people are NOT the average vacationer. The average vacationer books a package, maybe reads a guide book (potentially a Birnbaum guide) and goes. They book table service meals based on where they want to eat, not to maximize value. They may not use up all their credits! I believe the number of people who maximize/abuse (whatever word you want) the dining plan is minimal. It's not worth the time and energy to Disney to make changes based on a very small number of people.

And if they do change it, I imagine the only change will be to separate adult and child credits. We'll just have to wait and see.

Right now, with 2 "adult" children" and 1 "child" child, I'm thinking of using one adult meal and one child meal to feed my three kids at a TS meal or two. Then I'll use the extra credits for a nice dinner for dh and I.

I wouldn't even be doing that if my 10 year old weren't an "adult".

Julia

 

[maxaroni]

have two thoughts about this.
One, I'm not interested in being the DIsney police, here on the boards, or at WDW. So, I don't care how people use credits. I also don't care if you reuse mugs, or heck, if you bring your big gulp cup from 7-11!!

Two, although alot more people are using the dining plan than before ("wishes", or whatever it was), and there may be people utilizing the plan in a way that is not so good for Disney, those people are NOT the average vacationer. The average vacationer books a package, maybe reads a guide book (potentially a Birnbaum guide) and goes. They book table service meals based on where they want to eat, not to maximize value. They may not use up all their credits! I believe the number of people who maximize/abuse (whatever word you want) the dining plan is minimal. It's not worth the time and energy to Disney to make changes based on a very small number of people.
And if they do change it, I imagine the only change will be to separate adult and child credits. We'll just have to wait and see.

I agree with you and was going to post about the same thing but just never sat down to do it. It's been said before that the amount of people on the disboards is really a small fraction of the amount of people that go to WDW. Several of us have said that we would never have thought of pooling the child TS to use for an adult TS, if it hadn't been for the boards...myself included. I think the average vacationer do use the meal plan....adult for adult meal and child for child meals. As I've said my ds12 is an adult in the eyes of Disney, so this doesn't affect us anyway.

As for the rest...I don't care to be a disney police here or at the World. Relax, go on vacation and have fun...

 

[Disneysnel]

Hi,
I also agree with you both Julia and Maxaroni and please ... I am not trying to be the "Disney Police" and I will have a wonderful time on my vacation regardless of who uses child credits and for what.
I just fear packed restaurants + a lot of angry people(who can't use child credits for adults and those who are turned away because of no available seating) = no more dining plan. Even before it was free my package was still an excellent deal (IMHO) and I don't want to see it go away.
That's all I am saying. I know that the dis represents a small percentage of people but word of mouth can spread like wildfire.

 

[meatballsmom]

I TOTALLY agree with you Pedler! We booked our package long before the free dining was announced and we are not bringing our children (who are grownups). We were able to add the free dining to our ressie however.

Now for my 2 cents:

I think if you have a child 10 or over who doesn't eat much and you want to share meals and use the credits elsewhere - go for it! The "adult" credits are for your party to use anyway you want to. BUT you can not use the child credits towards an adult meal regardless how much that child eats! If you want to share with the child and order a child's meal for yourself that's perfectly fine.

You can not use your child's pass to get into the parks - whether that child is going to be sleeping in the stroller or won't ride any big rides makes no difference you still can not use a 5 year old's ticket to get an adult into the park.

The issue is NOT whether or not you share meals or how much your child eats - the issue is using child credits for adult meals - period. Free or not.

Now, I know this does not affect me directly but if you do a search for free dining and read the posts you well see many ARE taking full advantage of the loophole. I have even seen posts where guests are booking rooms with fake children and 1 day tickets just to get all the dining credits. This will affect how busy the restaurants are and make it much harder for others (who are not taking advantage of the loophole) to get reservations at the places they would like to eat at.

Well said!!! I agree. The thing I find funny reading these posts is that most of the people complaining about this are the ones that got the free dining. Come on. You already are getting an incredible deal. What are you complaining about??? Yes I probably would have taken advantage of the loophole for a couple of meals to stretch out the meal plan myself, but I am not upset with Disney at all for recognizing this was happening and changing it. I'm surprised it took them this long!!!

 

[Waltbelieve]

We are going in September and have the MWY + dining. Has anyone been down there this last week who could confirm that the pooling has stopped?

 

[Waltbelieve]

Are you sure you can use your credits anyway you want? I heard you couldn't do that. I want to save our CS and add them to our TS so we could eat at Artist Pointe and was told by Disney that I couldn't do that any longer.

 

[JoiseyMom]

Are you sure you can use your credits anyway you want? I heard you couldn't do that. I want to save our CS and add them to our TS so we could eat at Artist Pointe and was told by Disney that I couldn't do that any longer.

At no point in time were you able to use CS for TS meals.

And as far as this "loophole" you guys are calling it. THis has been around with the other meal plans. We went on the Silver plan in 2001 and was told by the CM's that the "wishes" are pooled and we can use them in any way we wanted to. The computer program that handled that meal plan is probably the same one that is handling the new meal plan. If they are going to stop the current pooling of meal credits, it will stop when they get the changes to the software up and running.

 

[Dopey's twin Dippy]

im still trying to decide whether to go and use the free plan.........i have such a headache over it all..............some of the posts here are to FUNNY, esp. POOHAPPENS-im rolling on the floor now............ i would never of thought to use a kids for an adult meal..........or vice versa........haha , guess im to slow to catch on. for us in the summer, i could not imagine eating all that food each day, esp POT ROAST dinner........ithink this is just to funny.................keep on writing........i might get some more ideas.......hahaha.

 

[TarGander]

Hokey smokes!

I haven't been to this board for about a year ( since getting ready for our last trip) and I was psyched to find the link and be back. Now, I'm not so sure.

My family of 5 ( Me, DH, DS-13, DS-11, DD-9) will be traveling to WDW 9/4-9/12 and were thrilled to find out about the free dining. Wow! We can each get lunch, dinner and a snack for free? YeeHa!

It truly never occured to us to try and scam WDW into getting more. Our 13yo eats very little, but, oh well, we're still getting a great deal.

It saddens me that people spend so much brain power on trying to figure out ways to get something that they are not due.

Be grateful, people, that we are all fortunate enough to be able to take our families to WDW. Relax and enjoy your vacaton and don't worry about who's scamming the sytem. Just make sure that you aren't.