Dining Plan Misuse

[lovehoney]

What do you think? Is the system set up for misuse? I've read a lot of posts saying that adult and children TS and CS are clumped together. Say you have 2 adults and 1 child plan for 5 days. You would get 15 TS, 15 CS and 15 snacks. The child plan is not distinguished from the adult so in theory you could use all TS and CS for adult meals even though you only pay for 2 adults.


Do you think maybe they are only clumping them together during the free dining? I was just wondering.

 

[JoiseyMom]

The credits have been this way since the beginning of the dining plan. This is the way the dining wishes were on the old Silver, Gold and Platinum plans also. The pooling has nothing to do with the free dining promotion.

 

[jcemom]

Even under the old packages the wishes were 'clumped together' so it's really nothing new, IMO.

 

[honeymo78]

Just agreeing with other posters that this has been the way the dining plans have operated for at least 10 years.

 

[Anewman]

What do you think? Is the system set up for misuse?

I think the plan is being used exactly the way Disney set it up to be used.
Misuse would be if one could use it in a way not setup by Disney.

 

[DisneyMom5]

Well, in our case, when we used adult CS credits for children it was for two children to split one meal, and we ended up with CS credits left over. And one time I ate a kid's meal instead of an adult one. So in our case, it ended up being better for Disney than for us. It was just so much food we did not need a meal for each person each time. We did not hoard any TS credits for signature events or anything. We already had more credits than park days as our hotel stay was longer than our park tickets.
We were also glad they were pooled because we had connecting rooms and one card said one adult, 2 kids and the other said 2 adults, 1 kid. We were able to pay for meals using only one card regardless, instead of having to haul them both out each time. Worked fine.
I really think once most of these people trying to figure out how to work the system will get down to WDW and realize they have way too much food to work with and won't be doing as much creative credit using as they are trying to plan out in advance. It really just is a matter of eating when a person is hungry. Everyone probably won't use all of their credits. It's still a $ savings, so great!

 

[swilshire]

I've seen as many posts about guests who ran out of time and left credits on the card at the end as I have those who "worked" the system. The average family with a couple of kids will not typically be able to eat all that food, especially when the age for "adults" is so low. My DS11 and DS6 put together don't usually finish a counter service meal.

I'm sure WDW has mountains of data to show that what they are doing is going to make money for them. If it doesn't, they'll change it. They are raising the dining plan prices slightly next year, for example. These people are brilliant at separating us from our money. Nobody does it better (and I mean that in the nicest possible way).

Sheila

 

[lovehoney]

I guess I should have read "FAQ about Disney Dining Plan" before posting this. They go over this ad nauseum. slightly embarrassed

 

[jcemom]

I guess I should have read "FAQ about Disney Dining Plan" before posting this. They go over this ad nauseum. slightly embarrassed

We'll forgive you, but just this once!