Dining plan and 2 rooms

[Graciegirl5]

We are a family of 5. In the past, we have stayed at AoA in a suite, so we all had the dining plan (free dining). I am looking at the option of getting 2 regular rooms this time. If I book both rooms on my MDE and get a room discount, can we purchase the dining plan for only 1 room? We always waste so much food, I thought we could share the credits from the meal plan and pay OOP for anything else? Is this OK?

 

[Lisa F]

We are a family of 5. In the past, we have stayed at AoA in a suite, so we all had the dining plan (free dining). I am looking at the option of getting 2 regular rooms this time. If I book both rooms on my MDE and get a room discount, can we purchase the dining plan for only 1 room? We always waste so much food, I thought we could share the credits from the meal plan and pay OOP for anything else? Is this OK?

yes, it's fine. You might also want to look into the deluxe dining plan - you get 3 meals a day (can all be TS) plus 2 snacks. if you purchase it for the room with only 2 people registered in it you would have 6TS credits to use per day... if any of those people are kids it can be a very good value because you can use those TS credits for all of the adults and pay OOP for the kids.

 

[Graciegirl5]

yes, it's fine. You might also want to look into the deluxe dining plan - you get 3 meals a day (can all be TS) plus 2 snacks. if you purchase it for the room with only 2 people registered in it you would have 6TS credits to use per day... if any of those people are kids it can be a very good value because you can use those TS credits for all of the adults and pay OOP for the kids.

Thank you, I hadn't even thought about the deluxe plan. I'll have to run the numbers on that. Unfortunately no Disney kids for us, they're all past that magical age of 9.

 

[sharonabe]

Thank you, I hadn't even thought about the deluxe plan. I'll have to run the numbers on that. Unfortunately no Disney kids for us, they're all past that magical age of 9.

Remember with the DxDDP, you also get apps which might make the sharing of meals even easier.

 

[StuckInKS]

I have kind of an add on questions to this (hope that's OK! Thought it'd be OK to hijack since your questions was already answered and mine is related )

We are getting two rooms each with 2A/2C (our 2 oldest are Disney adults). I am considering getting the DxDP for one room and splitting the credits, since 84 meal credits are more useful to us than 56 TS & 56 QS credits (plus, us adults would get apps!). Now, since I haven't done the plan yet, I went ahead and made reservations for CRT and paid OOP. However, I was only able to get us in by doing two 4 person reservations on two different MDE accounts (mine and DH). So, how do I go about getting the refund for both reservations since only one room will have the dining plan associated with it?

Also, how does one room splitting credits work at family style/buffets/dinner shows? Beside CRT, we's also like to do Spirit of Aloha, Chef Mickeys and the family style all-you-can-eat option at WCC. Do I just order the meals, pay with my MB and 8-16 credits will come off instead of 4-8? We've had QSDP and DDP before, but this will be our first time trying to 'share' one plan, so I want to make sure I've got everything straight and there's no surprises.

 

[senadler]

I'm not entirely sure about CRT. I assume you can ask to cover the meals for both tables with your credits and ask for a refund. I don't think you will have a problem, but we have not specifically done that.

As far as your others meals, it should be pretty easy. At the beginning of the meal the server will ask if you are on a dining plan. At that time you can tell them how many meals you want to cover with the dining plan and which ones. For example, you can tell them you want to pay for the kids meals OOP and use your credits only for the Disney adults. For a dinner show, if you prepaid, you can pick up your tickets at your hotel, have them apply the dining plan for everyone, and get a refund. We did this for HDDR last trip. We covered 10 for the show and only had 6 on the dining plan.

 

[sharonabe]

I have kind of an add on questions to this (hope that's OK! Thought it'd be OK to hijack since your questions was already answered and mine is related )

We are getting two rooms each with 2A/2C (our 2 oldest are Disney adults). I am considering getting the DxDP for one room and splitting the credits, since 84 meal credits are more useful to us than 56 TS & 56 QS credits (plus, us adults would get apps!). Now, since I haven't done the plan yet, I went ahead and made reservations for CRT and paid OOP. However, I was only able to get us in by doing two 4 person reservations on two different MDE accounts (mine and DH). So, how do I go about getting the refund for both reservations since only one room will have the dining plan associated with it?

Also, how does one room splitting credits work at family style/buffets/dinner shows? Beside CRT, we's also like to do Spirit of Aloha, Chef Mickeys and the family style all-you-can-eat option at WCC. Do I just order the meals, pay with my MB and 8-16 credits will come off instead of 4-8? We've had QSDP and DDP before, but this will be our first time trying to 'share' one plan, so I want to make sure I've got everything straight and there's no surprises.

Since you say that your 2 oldest are now Disney adults, does that mean you have 2 others that are still considered Disney kids? If so, you need to make sure that the room WITH the plan is the room where those 2 kids are. You will pay the kid's price for their 2 plans, however, as of right now, you can use their credits for adult meals. For whatever reason, Disney is not enforcing the "kids must order from the kid's menu" clause on their brochure. That's a HUGE loop hole and savings for those of you who still have Disney kids.

 

[StuckInKS]

Since you say that your 2 oldest are now Disney adults, does that mean you have 2 others that are still considered Disney kids? If so, you need to make sure that the room WITH the plan is the room where those 2 kids are. You will pay the kid's price for their 2 plans, however, as of right now, you can use their credits for adult meals.

We have 2 real adults, 2 Disney adults (11 & 12) and 4 Disney kids. I was going to put 2A/2C in each room. Putting 1A/3C in the room with the plan and 3A/1C in the other room would save about $550, but I don't want to run into problems because I'm charging 4A/4C meals to a room with 1A/3C, especially at fixed-price meals like CRT, Spirit of Aloha and the buffets. Are there restaurants where credit sharing has been an issue, even though its now allowed?

 

[senadler]

While you most likely would not have an issue if the dining plan was for 1A/3C, I personally would not take the chance of setting up the plan that way. I think you are already way ahead using the plan to cover both rooms. We had the dining plan for 4A/2C and covered meals for 8A/2C.

We did not have an issue sharing credits at any of the restaurants we dined at, and I have not heard any reports of others having any issues either. I would definitely take advantage of paying for the 2C, especially at regular TS meals, and using their credits on adults.

 

[StuckInKS]

While you most likely would not have an issue if the dining plan was for 1A/3C, I personally would not take the chance of setting up the plan that way. I think you are already way ahead using the plan to cover both rooms.

Yes, that's what I was thinking too. The extra $550 is definitely worth it to be able to finally get the deluxe plan for us to share. Thanks to the new rules, we are finally going to get to enjoy some of the dinner shows and buffets we usually pass up due to not having enough credits on the DDP.

I would definitely take advantage of paying for the 2C, especially at regular TS meals, and using their credits on adults.

This is a great idea and would allow us to get a few more meals in.

 

[Graciegirl5]

I have kind of an add on questions to this (hope that's OK! Thought it'd be OK to hijack since your questions was already answered and mine is related )

We are getting two rooms each with 2A/2C (our 2 oldest are Disney adults). I am considering getting the DxDP for one room and splitting the credits, since 84 meal credits are more useful to us than 56 TS & 56 QS credits (plus, us adults would get apps!). Now, since I haven't done the plan yet, I went ahead and made reservations for CRT and paid OOP. However, I was only able to get us in by doing two 4 person reservations on two different MDE accounts (mine and DH). So, how do I go about getting the refund for both reservations since only one room will have the dining plan associated with it?

Also, how does one room splitting credits work at family style/buffets/dinner shows? Beside CRT, we's also like to do Spirit of Aloha, Chef Mickeys and the family style all-you-can-eat option at WCC. Do I just order the meals, pay with my MB and 8-16 credits will come off instead of 4-8? We've had QSDP and DDP before, but this will be our first time trying to 'share' one plan, so I want to make sure I've got everything straight and there's no surprises.

I don't mind the hijack at all! It sounds like you got some good answers and I hope you enjoy your trip. My daughter loved CRT when we went.

 

[Nancyg56]

We have 2 real adults, 2 Disney adults (11 & 12) and 4 Disney kids. I was going to put 2A/2C in each room. Putting 1A/3C in the room with the plan and 3A/1C in the other room would save about $550, but I don't want to run into problems because I'm charging 4A/4C meals to a room with 1A/3C, especially at fixed-price meals like CRT, Spirit of Aloha and the buffets. Are there restaurants where credit sharing has been an issue, even though its now allowed?

Via Napoli. They are by far the strictest of all restaurants, and the one that I would not attempt to do this at.
We booked DxDDP for one room and DDP for the other, listed the little ones on the room with DxDDP and 5 adults on the room I had with FD. This worked out really well. WE had plenty of credits and were able to share whenever we wanted with the exception of Via Napoli. WE all had credits of our own, so that was not really an issue, but there was no way that we could order more than 4 appetizers.

I am doing the same thing in December when we have two room booked.

 

[senadler]

We had a group of 10 at Via Napoli and did the following. Six adults ordered full meals (app/entree/desert) even though our dining plan was 4A/2C and then we ordered a pizza out of pocket. It was still way too much food.

 

[Nancyg56]

We had a group of 10 at Via Napoli and did the following. Six adults ordered full meals (app/entree/desert) even though our dining plan was 4A/2C and then we ordered a pizza out of pocket. It was still way too much food.

Nice! Our server in August was pretty darn specific about what we could order.

 

[StuckInKS]

Via Napoli. They are by far the strictest of all restaurants, and the one that I would not attempt to do this at.
We booked DxDDP for one room and DDP for the other, listed the little ones on the room with DxDDP and 5 adults on the room I had with FD. This worked out really well. WE had plenty of credits and were able to share whenever we wanted with the exception of Via Napoli. WE all had credits of our own, so that was not really an issue, but there was no way that we could order more than 4 appetizers.

I am doing the same thing in December when we have two room booked.

Thanks for the warning. We will avoid it unless paying OOP. Sounds like it may vary depending on the server, but we have some better uses of our DxDP credits anyway. We'd probably split apps/pizza/dessert if we ate there so OOP would probably work out better anyway.

 

[Nancyg56]

Thanks for the warning. We will avoid it unless paying OOP. Sounds like it may vary depending on the server, but we have some better uses of our DxDP credits anyway. We'd probably split apps/pizza/dessert if we ate there so OOP would probably work out better anyway.

We enjoyed the meals we ordered, and once apps are on the table we shared them. We also shared desserts and paid pizza oop.

 

[DawnCh]

Hello, so I am hoping to do this exact same thing when we go. We have 6 in total, but 2 adults are my parents in a separate room. I have booked them the QS plan and us (2 a, 2k) the Deluxe plan .. but I feel like that will be a lot of food! We are really only planning on going to Mickey's BBQ and 1900 PF for breakfast .. the rest of time we will just do QS ( because we have done so much table service in the past)
So in reality, for the 7 night we are there we would have 84 credits to use for 6 people. Is this do able and still not end up paying too much? Or is it better to keep the QS plan for my parents??

So much to decide

 

[Nancyg56]

Hello, so I am hoping to do this exact same thing when we go. We have 6 in total, but 2 adults are my parents in a separate room. I have booked them the QS plan and us (2 a, 2k) the Deluxe plan .. but I feel like that will be a lot of food! We are really only planning on going to Mickey's BBQ and 1900 PF for breakfast .. the rest of time we will just do QS ( because we have done so much table service in the past)
So in reality, for the 7 night we are there we would have 84 credits to use for 6 people. Is this do able and still not end up paying too much? Or is it better to keep the QS plan for my parents??

So much to decide

Have you access to a RO discount? If so, I would run some numbers to see if taking the discount on the rooms and paying food OOP would be your best option. I do think that you are paying lot of money for plans you really are not using.

 

[DawnCh]

Not sure yet about the room discount (we are going in November!). I'm just trying to decide if I should drop the QS plan on the other room .. I like the idea of having the food pre paid ..it does make it seem easier!@

 

[sharonabe]

So in reality, for the 7 night we are there we would have 84 credits to use for 6 people. Is this do able and still not end up paying too much? Or is it better to keep the QS plan for my parents??

I like the idea of having the food pre paid ..it does make it seem easier!@

Well, if you plan on eating breakfast in the room most days, the 6 of you could use the 84 credits for lunch and dinner for the bulk of your trip, and you won't need the QSDP on your parents' room. I'm pretty sure any other meals you would need will be cheaper than the QSDP will cost you.

With that said, with 2A/2C, you're paying close to $300/night for the DxDDP. I don't see how the six of you will "spend" that much on mostly QS meals. I understand the ease of prepayment, but it sounds like you're over paying.