dining plan questions

[tianna26]

Hi
Im new here and dont know if there is a thread about this yet but i am confused about the dining plan. I have never been to DW my first time will be june 2013, so i have alot of questions. Does the dining plan only work for certain places and do you have to pay extra for meals that include shows ex. Luau?

 

[Cafeen]

Hi
Im new here and dont know if there is a thread about this yet but i am confused about the dining plan. I have never been to DW my first time will be june 2013, so i have alot of questions. Does the dining plan only work for certain places and do you have to pay extra for meals that include shows ex. Luau?

The first thing you should do is to check out the dining plan brochure available on the WDW official site (Dining Plan Page).

After that, check out the stickies in the dining plan subforum here, and that should get you most of what you need to know.

For the 2 questions here,

1) Yes, the dining plan is only accepted at select restaurants, however, this selection is quite large. Check out the 2012 brochure for the list, as the 2013 has not yet been finalized (it is highly likely that every restaurant that took it for 2012 will take it for 2013, but they have until the end of the year to sign the contracts).

2) No, there is no additional charge for dinner shows. They do "cost" 2 credits on the plan instead of the 1 that most restaurants charge, but outside of that, there is no out of pocket expenses tied to these experiences.

 

[tianna26]

thx alot I never knew this much planning goes into DW. im glad i stumbled on this board

 

[henrymilathy]

Firstly i welcome to you in this forum.As you are new to this forum..So it is very general thing that you don't know about the dinning plan..There is no extra payment for having dining plan..And also not all the restaurants provide this facility....And if you want the exact information then just search it on internet..You'll get everything....

 

[Cafeen]

thx alot I never knew this much planning goes into DW. im glad i stumbled on this board

I felt the same way a couple years ago when I was planning my first trip as an adult. I knew next to nothing about the actual planning side of things. I knew the parks (well, all but AK since that hadn't opened before I had last gone) and I had a general idea about the resorts and transportation, but it's still quite a bit to learn overall.

However, it can be planned as little or as much as you prefer. There are tons of people who just kinda wing it and still have a great time. There are lots of people who plan down to the last minute, and still have a great time . Best thing to do is plan to be flexible .

For me, I always start by getting a rough outline of my days and my desired meals. Since I travel in slower seasons, and since I use the Deluxe plan, I focus on my meals first, and then design a rough outline of what I want to do outside of those after. Usually this outline is as vague as "Start in Adeventureland". It's what works for me, but not everyone (I'm less ride focused and can be much more flexible traveling in the slower months). In fact, most of my planning (beyond meals) is "Which lenses should I bring today, and should I bring the tripod?" heh.

So, while there's a TON of planning tools and information and stuff out there, don't let it overwhelm you. Find your balance and your priorities and you'll be good to go

 

[BuzzandWoodyMom]

The Disney Dining Plan is accepted at all Disney owned restaurants and most non-Disney owned restaurants - even Rain Forest Cafe and T-Rex and all of the Epcot restaurants. There has never been anywhere on Disney property we wanted to eat that did not accept the Disney Dining Plan.

Over the years, I have discovered the best way to do our ADRs is to use one of the many crowd calendars to pick your park days - we use www.touringplans.com - and then plan our meals at restaurants that are in those parks or in resorts that are next to those parks. The first time planning can see overwhelming, but really, it's not hard and you will be glad you have your meals planned out. We always get the Basic/Plus plan and use our Table Service Credit for our dinner meal.