Dining options under the new 2005 packages

[drumflower]

I am planning on buying vochers for RFC and buying breakfast vochers for $18.25 to use for the breakfast buffets. I will save the "magic wishes" for more expensive meals not breakfast buffets.

 

[disneyjunkie]

I am planning on buying vochers for RFC and buying breakfast vochers for $18.25 to use for the breakfast buffets. I will save the "magic wishes" for more expensive meals not breakfast buffets.

I'm planning to do the same thing.

 

[simzac]

Ok, I'm confused on this great bargain of $35.00 per person/per day for dining. You only get 2 complete meals for this price, so you have to pay for the 3rd meal each day, or on snacks to tide you over because you only get 1 snack with the plan. Our family of 4, myself, DW, DS age 14, DS age 10, would cost us $140 a day for the plan. When we last visited in 2003, we were there for 5 nights, so based on a 5 day meal plan, this would cost us $700 in food before the extra meal or snacks are added in. I kept my receipts from our last trip, everything was charged to our room so I know exactly what we spent. Our grand total for food for the 5 night trip was $473, and no we didn't ever starve ourselves or skip a meal, we always ate 3 meals a day and at least 1 snack. So where is the great bargain, again, I am very confused on this issue.

 

[disney4us2002]

If you only spent $473 in five days you did very very well!! Our family of five (3 boys) spent nearly $200 everyday in food. For us it would be advantageous. If you ate at Chef Mickey's for dinner for your family of 4, it would cost $111 w/tax and 15% tip (which is included in the new plan), you would still get lunch and a snack that day. Our typical dinner meal was $120 and that often included dessert but rarely appetizer and that amount is before tipping. I sure hope we get to try this dining plan!

 

[Lizzydoll73]

It does sound like a great deal. I do have a question that I hope someone can answer for me. This is a package so if the room only codes come out, am I correct to assume it can not be applied to this? TIA

 

[Soccer Princess]

So could two of us split one of the table-service wishes? Or would we have to each use our own. An appetizer, entree and dessert is a lot of food. If we could split those and just order and extra drink, that would save us a bundle!
Thanks

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Soccer Princess-
Everyone in your hotel room has to have the dining plan. I don't know if you can just use one and split the food, but everyone in your room will have vouchers for every day of your stay. So if you aren't using all of your vouchers you are paying for something you don't need AND probably paying more for your room, too! I wonder if the unused dining options can be carried over to a future trip? Probably not!!

simzac-
I am so glad somebody else doesn't exactly see the value in this! I am also glad to know that you all spent less than $100 per day on food with one more child than I have! Considering the character meals we are doing DH and I will probably spend more than $35 per day on food, BUT the increase in our hotel room rate would wash out any savings on food. I can't remember EVER eating an appetizer, and entree, and dessert all in one meal, especially for four days in a row! We would pretty much just have to roll back to the room after that and wait for it all to digest! (Or risk seeing it all in reverse on a ride after the meal!)

I would rather try to keep our food costs low than worry about whether or not we are getting our money's worth out of the dining option!

 

[swilphil]

Ok, I'm confused on this great bargain of $35.00 per person/per day for dining. You only get 2 complete meals for this price, so you have to pay for the 3rd meal each day, or on snacks to tide you over because you only get 1 snack with the plan. Our family of 4, myself, DW, DS age 14, DS age 10, would cost us $140 a day for the plan. When we last visited in 2003, we were there for 5 nights, so based on a 5 day meal plan, this would cost us $700 in food before the extra meal or snacks are added in. I kept my receipts from our last trip, everything was charged to our room so I know exactly what we spent. Our grand total for food for the 5 night trip was $473, and no we didn't ever starve ourselves or skip a meal, we always ate 3 meals a day and at least 1 snack. So where is the great bargain, again, I am very confused on this issue.

I'm glad somebody else sees it this way. I didn't keep track of how much we spent on food, but I don't think the plan is for us. We have a picky eater 4 year old, as well as a two year old. The youngest wouldn't need to buy the plan, but occassionally he wants to order a child's meal, so we would need to pay extra for that. Since my kids aren't big eaters, they eat more often--2 snacks a day, though we usually bring our own snacks, plus 3 meals. We only do 2 sitdown meals during the ENTIRE 6 day trip, and my husband and I wouldn't each order an appetizer AND a dessert. Plus we usually just order water to drink, or DH orders a beer (again, we'd pay extra). Frankly, I don't want to have to deal with 2 antsy kids during a sitdown meal EVERY day, and I don't think getting a PS for a character meal EACH day would work with our flexible schedule. The "specialness" of the character meal also might wear off for the kids if we did it every day.

I also agree with the previous poster, I don't want to eat TOO much, and I'm not willing to give up my code rate for CR and POR in order to get more food.

 

[Gillian]

We have an unusual situation because our 1 year old who eats as much as our 4 year old. The 4 year old is starting to eat more because he's growing very fast, and she keeps up! If we do non-buffet restaurants we save having to get her a meal because there will be enough food to share.

Some of the discounted package rates (room + tickets) have been very good, so it might be worth it if they offer discounts and your family likes to have a sit down meal most days.

Right now we are paying AAA rates for our room. If a code comes out and the packages are not discounted, we won't do the meal plan. But if there are package discounts, we'll consider it.

 

[tarheelmjfan]

Basing this on dining alone, not as a package, it looks like a good deal for what is offered. The only problem I have with it is that your choices are limited. We like to dine at alot of what they consider "signature" restaurants. Our bill is never twice as much as it is at some of the other sit-down restaurants. I don't think this is a good deal on the signature restaurants, except for the dinner shows. It would be nice, if they had found a middle ground. JMO

 

[the kabuki]

Overall, those purchasing the 6day/7 night plan or longer would probably benefit from this plan, but if like me , you were comparing the 4 day Park hoppers to the new MYW 4 days and the increased rack room rate,(we got ours at a discount), the savings from the food is not that much compared to the increases in ticket and room prices. Each family is different in regards to our much they spend on food per day, but for us the overall savings only came out to $50 for the whole visit, and we're limited to the restaurants on the list. Not worth it for us, I will stick to the old way for this one last time.

 

[pennyplanner]

My only complaint is the limited dates that this special plan is available. From what I can tell from the very fine print is that these deals are available at VERY limited times. It would not apply if I were there in November or late April.

Am I reading this right???

Thanks,

pennyplanner

 

[disneyjunkie]

My only complaint is the limited dates that this special plan is available. From what I can tell from the very fine print is that these deals are available at VERY limited times. It would not apply if I were there in November or late April.

Am I reading this right???

Thanks,

pennyplanner

The prices that are quoted are available for value season. If you book your trip during regular or peak season, the rates will be higher.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

After exhaustively going through the menus on AllEars and plotting what we will eat during every day of our stay, I also come up with only saving $48 with the meal plan. And that is if I buy the 4 Day PHP now, not the MYW tickets. If the package means you have to buy passes, hotel and dining all together then I actually come out WORSE because the ticket price goes up. Paying rack rate cancels the dining savings for us, but it does sound like a good deal on the surface!

 

[IloveWINNIEthePOOH]

Could someone please post the restaurant list on here?? The PDF won't work on this computer for some reason!

 

[bobcat]

I sat down last night and figured out what my family would save using the new meal plan. I used the average prices for restaurants listed in the Passporter which include appetizer, entree, and drink and I believe dessert. I highlighted the restaurants where we usually eat or have always wanted to try. On average each of those meals would cost $30-$40 per adult so the meal plan is a good deal. I figured that we would save at least $130 dollars on a 10 day trip. x2 and that doesn't include the few dollars savings on the child meals. Now we usually don't eat at that many sit downs and we never order appetizers and rarely dessert so it is more food than we would normally purchase. Still waiting for the package pricing and if rooms will be rack rate but if they are close in price I may just go with the meal plan and eat at more expensive places.

 

[RescueRanger]

I know alot of people have said that you will not be able to add the dining option onto room only reservations, but I was talking to a Travel agent friend of mine and she said that Disney is advising the travel agents to get guests to book room only and then they can adjust their ressies later. So, maybe there is a chance that they WILL allow the dining option to be added to room only.