Dining Plan = Bad Service?

[biggroofy]

I've gone thru this forum, and have the following impression:
Disney Dining Plan = Good $$ Saving = Poor Service offered by waiter/waitress

Is that necessary true?

Furthermore, I saw a variation in response, regarding entree item selection and if surcharge is required on certain items - just curious, if your server will be paid 15% - 18% on top of whatever the cost of the meal, I think every server should encourage you to choose the most expensive item on menu?

Lastly, is it common to get mistakes on your dining credits, such as deducting more credits than they should?

Those who have used dining plan in the past, please give some opinions.

 

[rgf207]

We were there on the dining plan when it was free. We did not have bad service anywhere except Cape May Cafe. I think we just had a waitress that was new and wan't quick at taking plates & filling drinks. Other than that, we had excellent service from everyone.

 

[Lewisc]

Some of the non-Disney owned restaurants base the tip on the approximately $20 Disney is paying them and not on the dollar value of the meal you order. If the service is good you might consider leaving an extra cash tip.

I used the dining plan on two trips. I think the service was fine. Bad service can occur if the restaurant is crowded, under-staffed or if you have a server having a bad day. The dining plan may be contributing to crowded restaurants but otherwise I don't think it has any effect on service.

 

[pedro2112]

We had the opposite experience. The service was excellent at the restaurants for which we used our TS Credits. However, the worst service was on some meals we paid out of pocket.

 

[Hopefully]

We used the Dining Plan in October and we had excellent service everywhere we went. In fact we felt the service was so good that we added to the tip to bring the included 15% up to 20%, which we felt we would have paid for the same service if we had been paying OOP.
Some people have reported they felt there were "classes" of service with those on the Dining Plan being a second class citizen.
I strongly disagree with this based on our experience, and the experience of many others who have posted here. JMHO!

 

[Thinktinknpixiedust]

I never noticed any bad service at all. In fact all of our service was great!!

 

[lbmom5]

We were on the plan two weeks ago and had ADR for Alfredo's. It was our first TS meal and I had a question. Our waiter had been laughing and joking prior to the question but immediately after finding out we were on the plan, he changed, never laughed again. Our service was poor, busboy ran into my husband with a tray(empty thank goodness), we weren't given utensils to eat our dessert with and the waiter got mad at the busboy. They had a huge arguement in Italian involving about 5 waiters, right out in the restaurant! It was awful! The whole time we were there I felt awkward and was glad when our meal was over. The food was nothing special either, are the rolls always so cold and hard? Disappointing. Maybe we just came at an off time, maybe it didn't have anything to do with the dining plan but it sure seemed that way to me. We have been there before and all was well but we won't ever go back now, plan or no plan. Every other meal we ate in our nine day stay was the opposite, great service, great food.

 

[fran99999]

I also had the free dining last Oct. I had fantastic service. I also made more work for the waiters/waitresses as I also have the DDE card. So I received 2 bills for all TS meals. The servers were great. The food was excellent. I am looking into it again for my next trip even though I have the DDE it was so good.

 

[waltdisneyworlddreamer]

We used the dining plan in Nov. with no problems at all. We had great service, smooth transactions and no mistakes or glitches anywhere. I loved the DP and will definitely use it again!!

 

[Princess Tess]

what is dde ? can a dvc member do the dining plan ? cost ? plusses

 

[Eeyoresgal78]

I never had any problems with service while on the dining plan. I think MAYBE it's a problem with Alfredo's and NOT the dining plan. DH and I were walking through Epcot WS not long before closing and a waiter actually chased a couple out of the restaurant SCREAMING at them and accusing them of not leavine a tip. The couple insisted many times that they had left a tip. DH and I were horrified and walked away quickly fearing things could get ugly the guy was THAT mad . Even though DH and I love Italian food. We'll probably NEVER go to Alfredo's due to that fiasco

But all of the restaurant's we went to had wonderful service. Oh and the only proble we had was with them taking off too many snack credits and some stands not knowing how to do the snack credits but this was last March when the program was still very new. All we had to do is go to town hall in the MK (or infomation in what ever park you're in ) and they took care of it right away. As a matter of fact we had to pay out of pocket cause the lady said at one snack booth the cards weren't working but when we went to get dinner later the bill said 4 of our snack credits were gone (2 for each of us) turns out while the lady was trying to scan it it had taken off the credits plus too more. We went to town hall and they refunded our money AND all 4 credits "for the inconvence" that it had caused us.

 

[sajetto]

We had the DP last year and the only time we had bad service was our dinner at CRT. Our waitress was very short, and wanted us to spit out our order asap. She made us a little uncomfortable but the food was good and the atmoshphere was great. All other times we were treated very well and had great meals

 

[Batistuta]

Just returned from WDW. We had the dining plan and didn't notice any difference in service.

We experienced no problems with them deducting our meals, with each receipt it tells you how many are remaining.

 

[keishashadow]

Yes, true & true.

IMO, not only has the service gone south but, many long-time favorite more expensive items have disappeared from the menus.

We tipped extra when we felt the server deserved it.

When we didn't use the plan in Dec., miraculously - most of the waitstaff in the same sites were more attentive. Either a strange co-incidence or due to not be guaranteed a tip, perhaps?

I've gone thru this forum, and have the following impression:
Disney Dining Plan = Good $$ Saving = Poor Service offered by waiter/waitress

Is that necessary true?

Furthermore, I saw a variation in response, regarding entree item selection and if surcharge is required on certain items - just curious, if your server will be paid 15% - 18% on top of whatever the cost of the meal, I think every server should encourage you to choose the most expensive item on menu?

Lastly, is it common to get mistakes on your dining credits, such as deducting more credits than they should?

Those who have used dining plan in the past, please give some opinions.

 

[IwannaseeMickey]

We were there in Oct. at the end of the free dining plan and we had absolutely NO problem with it. We had good service everywhere, everyone was pleasant and helpful too. I don't recall any server ever encouraging us to get any certain thing at all.

There's no possiblity that we'd go to DW w/o it again as long as it's offered! We loved it!

 

[ReneeA]

We didn't notice anything but fabulous service while we were there on the dining plan in August. We also left an extra $5 - $10 tip at all of the ts meals.

We did have an instant where they deducted one too many credits at LeCellier. I went to the front desk of the resort, explained that 4 credits were deducted, but we only ordered 3 meals - I explained that my DD is 2 and shared our meal, but that may have been where the confusion came into play. It took the Cast Memeber 10 seconds to put the credit back on my card.

We loved the dining plan and will be doing it again on any future trips.

 

[pezpam]

We've gone using the DP and not using the DP and didn't notice any difference in service. We've eaten at a lot of restaurants and the worst experience I can think of was feeling a bit rushed one time (out of 2 visits that trip) at Crystal Palace as breakfast was ending and they wanted to set up for lunch. If that's the worst we've encountered, I guess we're doing ok. We have had some truly exceptional service, most notably at Norways' Princess lunch and at a Rose and Crown lunch, but have mostly received what I'd consider above-average service.

 

[chesirechik]

Just back yesterday - We used the dining plan and we recieved nothing but great service at Marrakesh, WCC and Le Cellier.

 

[TDC Nala]

You do not have to order what the server recommends, expensive or not.

 

[DiszyDean]

I think whether you are paying with the DDP or OOP, service really depends on the server. There are good ones and bad ones. I would doubt that a professional would think to himself/herself, "well, they are on the dining plan, so I can lower my standard of service"...