DDP Drawback - Be Advised !!!

[costpenn]

I love WDW, but one thing I thought is complete garbage is that when ordering, the CM's have no way of verifying how many credits you have left on your plan, and they don't want to ring it up if there's any doubt because if you do not have enough, they will have to void the whole transaction and start over (and you get the implied "Do you really want to hold up everyone behind you in line" look or you get it told LOUD in your face by a very rude CM at the newly opened Captain Cook's last Friday) It's not a big deal on the TS meals, but on CS and snacks it starts to get a little fuzzy after a few days (with a family of 4 on the move). So at least once, I wound up paying OOP for something I had credits for. I'll bet it's all by design - Disney figures a fair amount of credits will not be used (which falls straight to the bottom line) indeed we wound up with 5 CS units unused.
My advice - constantly keep up with your used credits to maximize the cost effectiveness of the plan.

 

[robinb]

So at least once, I wound up paying OOP for something I had credits for. I'll bet it's all by design - Disney figures a fair amount of credits will not be used (which falls straight to the bottom line) indeed we wound up with 5 CS units unused.
My advice - constantly keep up with your used credits to maximize the cost effectiveness of the plan.

My advise is to stick to your guns at CS places. I have been on the DDP twice and we had some minor problems. However ... I always made sure that everything was on the up-and-up with the DDP before I left the counter. I am sorry that you chose to pay OOP instead of fighting it. In addition, I am sorry that you chose to not stand in line at your resort to have things resolved. Things happen. People make mistakes. If you are not willing to make things right at the restaurant or back at the resort then I don't have a lot of sympathy for you.

 

[DisneyDork712]

Thanks for the warning! I made a little chart for our Counter Service and snack points. So when we use them, I can just mark them off. That would be too much to try and keep track in my head!

Now that I'm thinking of it... Doesn't it say somewhere on the receipts how many credits you have left??

Okay... I just went and looked at some of our receipts from last year and it tells how many you have left. Even on the TS receipts. Do they not do that any more?

 

[costpenn]

Quote:

"Okay... I just went and looked at some of our receipts from last year and it tells how many you have left. Even on the TS receipts. Do they not do that any more?

You're right - It does say that on the receipts. I didn't notice it until later on during our stay.

Quote:

"If you are not willing to make things right at the restaurant or back at the resort then I don't have a lot of sympathy for you"

Wow - I promise I won't do it again! Please don't ground me. FYI - I saw two other people have the problem I'm discussing here at the Main St Ice Cream place on Thursday.

All I was saying is that to someone using it for the first time, keep up with your usage. They WILL NOT TELL YOU AT THE ORDER STATION FOR CS AND SNACKS how many credits you have- and it's ridiculous that they can't - or at the very least, have the ability to utilize any credits you have and then be able to pay cash if you're short a credit on a purchase without completely having to re-invoice the whole order.

 

[suzannews]

I work at a WDW table service restaurant. We can not tell how many credits are available until after the order is rung up and we swipe your card. Once we swipe the card though, the computer will either take the transaction or tell us there are not enough credits but tell us how many can be used. We then must split the check, one check for the amount that can be used and one check for the extras. We must then swipe your card twice, one for the credits and one for a room charge for the extras. Maybe counter service and snack computers don't have the ability to split the check once its rung, its kinda an all or nothing. I do know if you are unsure and charge it to the room, you can take the receipt to the front desk of your hotel and then can move it from your room charge to the package.

 

[Lisa F]

As someone who always seems to get stuck behind people who have no clue what they are doing before they get in line for something, I'm kind of glad that the CMs are saying something about this. You spend enough time standing in line at WDW without spending forever behind people who have no clue what they want (happens to me all the time) or how to pay for it. It's the consumer's responsibility to make sure they have enough cash in their pocket, or enough room on their credit card, or enough dining credits before they get in line and make everyone behind them wait while they figure out how to pay.

Or am I the only person in the world that knows what I want to order (even if I have to stand OFF of the line for a little while and decide) and then has the payment ready and in my hand before I get to the register?

 

[bicker]

I do know if you are unsure and charge it to the room, you can take the receipt to the front desk of your hotel and then can move it from your room charge to the package.

I'd try using the Dining Plan first, and if that doesn't work, I'd have the bill split using up whatever Dining Plan credits I have left and then paying the rest via credit card or room charge.

 

[kellyg403]

For us the snacks were the most confusing because we had 2 rooms on our reservation and sometimes used only one card at a time. But, you can call the front desk and they will look up what you have if there is a question in your mind. I actually did this once before we headed out one morning because I couldn't remember which room had snack credits left. They were very nice and I was able to keep a better track by day. I am memory challenged.

Kelly

 

[BirdsOfPreyDave]

The receipts show how many credits remain for the type of credit you used. If you want a more-comprehensive listing, you can ask the front desk (or the concierge, where the line is sometimes shorter). They can print you two listings. The first is just a short listing of how many of each type of credit you have remaining. The other is a comprehensive list of every credit you've used, and where it was used.

The front desk may also have been able to correct the CS that was incorrectly charged. There was a comment here on Dis not too long ago about someone who had a CS charged to the room instead of the DDP and the front desk was able to correct it for them.

 

[costpenn]

It's kind of funny how people can misconstrue one's intentions. What I'm ineffectually saying is that the electronic communication system is the problem - not the cast member. Let's do a hypothetical to illustrate the point

The Place - Toy Story Pizza Planet
The Family - 4 - DD, DS, DH, DW
The Time - Lunch - approx 11:30 AM

How It Is Today
The family walks up to the register to order

DH - " I'd like 2 No.2 Meals, 1 No. 4 meal, and 1 No. 3 meals all with Coke for the drink. (was already decided well in advance of the moment of truth)

CM - "That will be 40.00" (OK- maybe that's a little exaggerated)

DH - "I'd like to use my DDP" - (However DH secretly thinks to himself maybe there might not be enough credits left - it's the first CS used for the day- yesterday's receipts were left in the room and should I really be working this hard on vacation but hey, if there's not enough, I'll just pay cash or charge to the room.)

CM - (swipes card) "Oh - you do not have enough credits left - I'm going to have to start all over. " CM has to laboriously re-enter the order - tell the food prep people to void that order there's another one coming and DH is seriously sorry that he's holding everyone up.

How It Should Be (on ANY kind of competent order processing software)

The family walks up to the register to order

DH - " I'd like 2 No.2 Meals, 1 No. 4 meal, and 1 No. 3 meals all with Coke for the drink. (was already decided well in advance of the moment of truth)

CM - "That will be 40.00" (OK- maybe that's a little exaggerated)

DH - "I'd like to use my DDP" - (However DH secretly thinks to himself maybe there might not be enough credits left - it's the first CS used for the day- yesterday's receipts were left in the room and should I really be working this hard on vacation but hey, if there's not enough, I'll just pay cash or charge to the room.)

CM - (swipes card) "Oh you only have three credits left - charge the balance to your room account?"

DH - "Yes please do."

DONE.

 

[belleandthebeast]

How It Should Be (on ANY kind of competent order processing software)

The family walks up to the register to order

DH - " I'd like 2 No.2 Meals, 1 No. 4 meal, and 1 No. 3 meals all with Coke for the drink. (was already decided well in advance of the moment of truth)

CM - "That will be 40.00" (OK- maybe that's a little exaggerated)

DH - "I'd like to use my DDP" - (However DH secretly thinks to himself maybe there might not be enough credits left - it's the first CS used for the day- yesterday's receipts were left in the room and should I really be working this hard on vacation but hey, if there's not enough, I'll just pay cash or charge to the room.)

CM - (swipes card) "Oh you only have three credits left - charge the balance to your room account?"

DH - "Yes please do."

DONE.

I agree.

 

[n2mm]

Whenever I get a little lost, I just zip up to the front desk and ask for a print out. The print out will show where you used your credits and when. I had a problem last month at Mrs. Potts and they charged my card and went to the front desk and the CM quickly fixed it and took the charge off and applied it to two snack credits. I didn't want charging on my card, but somehow it was added. At that point I removed it so that this didn't happen. It also happened at a CS too and had to fix it, no problem. If something happens incorrectly, just go to the front desk of your resort and the CMs are wonderful about helping you out and fixing the problem. It's not a big deal, and the ddp is easy to use. We love it and glad it's an option for DVC members now!

 

[vascubaguy]

I guess it really depends on how you use it. Basically, if everyone uses their own card for their own meal, all is well. We had 8 people in 2 rooms with no problems. Everyone knew they could get 1CS, 1TS, and 1snack on the plan each day. Anything other than that they needed to pay OOP.

This was when the plan first came out so the snack options were VERY limited back then, so we ended up having a bunch of those left at the end. However, I just brought home a big back of mickey rice krispie treats.

If you do have the DDP split between two rooms, I would recommend making 2 different orders for the people that are in whichever room.

 

[sandym718]

I guess it would be nice if the system did work that way, but it doesn't appear to. Since that is the case, I have to agree with Lisa and some of the others - keep track on your own and know exactly how you're going to pay (credits, cash, room charge) and what you're ordering when you get to the front of the line!

 

[mamamary]

We are a family of 4 and we didn't have any problems. We all used 4 cs and 4 ts every day of our stay. That made it very easy for us to keep track of things. With the snack I know we didn't use any (I think for the first two days) so with that I just kept track by the receipts which shows exactly how much you had left. We were also lucky in that we didn't have any problems with the computer showing different from what I knew we had.

As for some of the others posting, it is amazing how some people can stand on line for maybe 10 mts. and get up to order and seem to be deciding right then and there what to order. Then they did in their pockets or wallets for their cards. That always amazes me.

 

[costpenn]

As I've said, it's really funny how some of you choose to respond to the essence of the OP - which is be careful to track your DDP usage. If you "have never had any trouble" great for you - but I thought this was supposed to be a forum to share experiences and tips with others who might not be so "In The Know". I had trouble because I wasn't so knowlegeable about the system and I'm just hoping to pass it along to others. But sadly, some people have to go into attack mode (i.e. "I have no sympathy for you" -I'm still rolling on the floor about that one) because they percieve anything wriiten that possibly be construed as being remotely anti Disney as a personal attack. Sad.

 

[missj1975]

I feel for you Costpenn. I saw your point.. thanks for sharing... sorry everyone is so combatitive. Merry Christmas

 

[lyzziesmom]

I don't understand how the OP could not have had enough CS credits, and then ended up with 5 extra CS credits. If you don't have enough, you don't have enough. Where did the extra ones come from?

 

[robinb]

But sadly, some people have to go into attack mode (i.e. "I have no sympathy for you" -I'm still rolling on the floor about that one) because they percieve anything wriiten that possibly be construed as being remotely anti Disney as a personal attack. Sad.

I'm glad I could provide you some amusement .

I stand by my statement that if you were charged $$ for a CS meal that should have been charged as a CS credit then you really have no one to blame but yourself. It's your responsibility to keep things straight and to fix them if there was a mistake. If you choose not to do that then that's your fault. I'm sorry that you consider what I am saying as an attack as it isn't.

The DDP software isn't perfect. Cast members are not perfect. I appreciate you sharing that mistakes can happen and that people should keep up to date with the number of credits they have remaining at any time. I agree that it would be great to be able to determine how many credits you have before you order something ... but you can't for now. It's really not a giant 4-fingered rodential conspiracy to make you pay more.

 

[WDWBetsy]

Personally, I don't give my order to the CM without first stating I'm charging it to the DP. Per the 2007 DP brochure:

Present your Key to the World card to your server or cashier prior to ordering and specify the number of meals for guests ages 10+ and the number of meals for guests ages 3-9. Tell the server or cashier to charge those meals to your Disney Dining Plan. This will save time at checkout.

So to me, if you follow the brochure suggestion, you shouldn't run into a problem with the CM asking for $ when it's to be charged to the DP.

IMO, it's my responsibility to keep track of meal credit usage and to go to my resort's front desk/concierge to reconcile any mistakes. The receipts show how many credits are left when you use them - I just kept the receipts and stashed them in my purse and ultimately saved them in my PassPorter pocket of that day. I can see where it would be more difficult to keep track of credits if members of your party are using credits at different locations throughout the day (ie father/son eating a CS and various snacks at Epcot while mother/daughter eats at CS in Magic Kingdom), but in our case (with just 2 adults) it just wasn't confusing at all.