Something to keep in mind when planning your trip.
You CANNOT get the Disney Dining Plan if you are staying MORE than 10 days.
You can try this at the Disney website and it will tell you that you must make your reservation for a maximum for 10 days to get the dining plan.
We are staying 13 days so are not eligible for it. Seems Disney thinks negatively of people who would dare spend more than 10 days at their resorts or parks giving Disney their hard earned money.
Either that or they figure if you can afford more than a 10 day stay, you must be rich, so they are going to sock it to you by making you pay full price for the food. We aren't rich and have been saving for this trip since 2000. This is only our second time going and can't afford to go every year for even a few days so we just save up and do a longer stay every five years.
I can see Disney limiting the dining plan for 10 days but why not do that for people staying more than 10 days? They could just give you 10 days of credits to use anytime during your stay or even let you have 10 days on the plan but require it to be used the first 10 days then make you pay full price for the rest of your stay. I think that is fair. I even would like to see Disney let the guest chose the number of days they want the plan regardless of the number of says they are staying. For example, you are staying 7 days but only want the Disney Dining plan for 4 of those days. In our case we are going to Universal for 2 days so won't need the plan on those days, so 10 days dining out of 13 days would be perfect.
As it stands now, we would have to split our reservation up but since part of our stay is the week of Dec. 20, the room rates go up $50 a day if your reservation doesn't start before Dec 20.
We are arriving on Dec 16. If we made a 3 day reservation for our first 3 days, Dec 16-18, we would be without park passes for these first 3 days as it would be foolish to spend $513 (for 3 people) for a 3 day pass and then $624 for a 10 pass when we are only going to use 10 days total at the parks (a 10 day pass would be required since our second reservation would be for 10 days and the park passes and dining plan days must match your reservation).
We wanted to go to Disney parks the first few days, then a couple days at Universal as a break from Disney, and then back to Disney rather than be forced to go to Universal the first 2 days and then Disney the rest of the time, although that is an option I guess.
We could make a 10 day reservation first and then a 3 day but as I mentioned previously, since the 3 day reservation would begin after Dec. 20 the room rates go up $50 a night. We already paid $87 for our original reservation so would probably lose that in order to cancel it and rebook two new reservations. When I add the loss of the $87 and the extra $50 a night I start to wonder if the plan is worth it. We looked at the restaurant menus and I don't know if we would spend enough with the addition costs involved to break even. Some of the menu items sound gross, for example, a Shrimp Cocktail (Yum) with Lip Mussels (Yuk!). Just my opion of course but we found many restaurants where their lunch menu had items we would want while their dinner menu did not so we would be doing more lunches which are cheaper, than dinners.
Add to that the stress of being forced to do sit downs and order food we don't like in order to break even and the plan becomes even less desirable. Last time we were at WDW we rarely did a table sitdown meal but that may have been because of the cost. Maybe with the plan we would do more sitdown meals. Then again the week before Christmas is the busiest time of year so we may want to skip sitdown meals and use the time saved to tour the parks.
Bottom line is if your reservation if for more than 10 days, you can't get the dining plan. If it is 10 days or less, it is a great deal.
If they gave us a ten day dining plan to be used anytime during the 13 day stay or even just the first 10 days, we would go for it.
My wife said she thought she saw something on the Disney website regarding 20% off meals for $75 bit can't find it now. If she does, find it that might be a better option as we would only have to spend around $400 for meals for 3 people in 13 days to make the $75 back.
With the cost of food we would make that back in much less than that.
You CANNOT get the Disney Dining Plan if you are staying MORE than 10 days.
You can try this at the Disney website and it will tell you that you must make your reservation for a maximum for 10 days to get the dining plan.
We are staying 13 days so are not eligible for it. Seems Disney thinks negatively of people who would dare spend more than 10 days at their resorts or parks giving Disney their hard earned money.
Either that or they figure if you can afford more than a 10 day stay, you must be rich, so they are going to sock it to you by making you pay full price for the food. We aren't rich and have been saving for this trip since 2000. This is only our second time going and can't afford to go every year for even a few days so we just save up and do a longer stay every five years.
I can see Disney limiting the dining plan for 10 days but why not do that for people staying more than 10 days? They could just give you 10 days of credits to use anytime during your stay or even let you have 10 days on the plan but require it to be used the first 10 days then make you pay full price for the rest of your stay. I think that is fair. I even would like to see Disney let the guest chose the number of days they want the plan regardless of the number of says they are staying. For example, you are staying 7 days but only want the Disney Dining plan for 4 of those days. In our case we are going to Universal for 2 days so won't need the plan on those days, so 10 days dining out of 13 days would be perfect.
As it stands now, we would have to split our reservation up but since part of our stay is the week of Dec. 20, the room rates go up $50 a day if your reservation doesn't start before Dec 20.
We are arriving on Dec 16. If we made a 3 day reservation for our first 3 days, Dec 16-18, we would be without park passes for these first 3 days as it would be foolish to spend $513 (for 3 people) for a 3 day pass and then $624 for a 10 pass when we are only going to use 10 days total at the parks (a 10 day pass would be required since our second reservation would be for 10 days and the park passes and dining plan days must match your reservation).
We wanted to go to Disney parks the first few days, then a couple days at Universal as a break from Disney, and then back to Disney rather than be forced to go to Universal the first 2 days and then Disney the rest of the time, although that is an option I guess.
We could make a 10 day reservation first and then a 3 day but as I mentioned previously, since the 3 day reservation would begin after Dec. 20 the room rates go up $50 a night. We already paid $87 for our original reservation so would probably lose that in order to cancel it and rebook two new reservations. When I add the loss of the $87 and the extra $50 a night I start to wonder if the plan is worth it. We looked at the restaurant menus and I don't know if we would spend enough with the addition costs involved to break even. Some of the menu items sound gross, for example, a Shrimp Cocktail (Yum) with Lip Mussels (Yuk!). Just my opion of course but we found many restaurants where their lunch menu had items we would want while their dinner menu did not so we would be doing more lunches which are cheaper, than dinners.
Add to that the stress of being forced to do sit downs and order food we don't like in order to break even and the plan becomes even less desirable. Last time we were at WDW we rarely did a table sitdown meal but that may have been because of the cost. Maybe with the plan we would do more sitdown meals. Then again the week before Christmas is the busiest time of year so we may want to skip sitdown meals and use the time saved to tour the parks.
Bottom line is if your reservation if for more than 10 days, you can't get the dining plan. If it is 10 days or less, it is a great deal.
If they gave us a ten day dining plan to be used anytime during the 13 day stay or even just the first 10 days, we would go for it.
My wife said she thought she saw something on the Disney website regarding 20% off meals for $75 bit can't find it now. If she does, find it that might be a better option as we would only have to spend around $400 for meals for 3 people in 13 days to make the $75 back.
With the cost of food we would make that back in much less than that.
