dining plan through DVC?

[treehugnmama]

we love to eat and we bought the delux plan in feb IT WAS TOO MUCHFOOD lol we did a dinner show and a sig dining and crt that is why we got the plan but we walked around full all day. We were so full from all the ts meals with apps and dessert we didn;t use our snacks.....even with all that walking I gained 7 lbs lol

 

[Gina35]

we love to eat and we bought the delux plan in feb IT WAS TOO MUCHFOOD lol we did a dinner show and a sig dining and crt that is why we got the plan but we walked around full all day. We were so full from all the ts meals with apps and dessert we didn;t use our snacks.....even with all that walking I gained 7 lbs lol

You wouldn't choose deluxe again? We are also thinking about it, but I'm afraid that we'll feel like you...full all day & not really enjoying/appreciating it. The only reason we're considering it is b/c we want to have a TS every night, at least one Signature dinner, several breakfast buffets, and maybe one TS lunch. We also enjoy appetizers, which don't come on the basic DP. I'm thinking it may be worth getting the deluxe b/c of all of the "extras" we want that aren't on the basic...even if we get some CS meals instead of TS meals. Or do you think it would work out better for us to get the basic and just add on those others OOP? I'd hate for it to get to the point where we would actually not even look forward to our meals...but trying to think of which way would work best for us. (Also like the idea of not having to
"worry" about paying for anything aside from grats.) Thanks for any input!

 

[Dean]

I'm really confused by this and am also considering doing a "split stay" where I either change rooms in the same resort or switching resorts the last couple of days to avoid having to add on the DDP for the entire trip. My family is now 6 "adults" and I'm not excited about paying $240 every day of the trip for the plan....any advice on how to do all this is greatly appreciated.

To clarify on the split stay. As others have said, if you do a split stay, you can get the DDP for each section separately. But there are some caveats. The credits only apply to that portion of the stay. So if you booked 4 nights then a separate 3 nights, the DDP would only be good from the time you check in (go to the front desk) to the applicable reservation until midnight the day you check out of that reservation and NOT for the entire you you are there. This can be a great way to use it also as you can get the DDP for a portion and have extra time to use all the credits as well as target the credits to the more expensive options. The other caveats only applies if you make 2 separate reservations at the same resort for the same unit type then link them. After linked, they are treated as one reservation. This doesn't apply to different resorts or even truly different unit types in the same resort which can't be linked.

Booking a split stay can be a good way to get the DDP for a portion of the trip OR when someone will join you for part of the trip but not the entire trip and you don't want to have to pay for that person for the total number of nights for your trip.

 

[crzy4mk]

To clarify on the split stay. As others have said, if you do a split stay, you can get the DDP for each section separately. But there are some caveats. The credits only apply to that portion of the stay. So if you booked 4 nights then a separate 3 nights, the DDP would only be good from the time you check in (go to the front desk) to the applicable reservation until midnight the day you check out of that reservation and NOT for the entire you you are there. This can be a great way to use it also as you can get the DDP for a portion and have extra time to use all the credits as well as target the credits to the more expensive options. The other caveats only applies if you make 2 separate reservations at the same resort for the same unit type then link them. After linked, they are treated as one reservation. This doesn't apply to different resorts or even truly different unit types in the same resort which can't be linked.

Booking a split stay can be a good way to get the DDP for a portion of the trip OR when someone will join you for part of the trip but not the entire trip and you don't want to have to pay for that person for the total number of nights for your trip.

Thanks. I think the split stay is what I'm leaning toward. Trying to do 5 nights at AKV with the DDP, then switching somewhere else for our last 2 nights. If I have it figured right, when I check out of AKV on Thursday morning, I still have the rest of that day to use my DDP credits, right? So even though I would already be checked in at another resort, I could use a leftover TS credit for Thursday dinner. Then I'd just be looking at dealing with Friday without the DDP. Am I doing this right? Here's my tenative plan:

SAT: check in day. TS credits at Ohana
SUN: CS credits for lunch & dinner
MON: CS credits for lunch, TS credits for 50s PTC
TUES: TS credits for Biergarten, CS credits for dinner
WED: TS credits for Tusker House, CS credits for dinner
THRS: OOP for lunch, TS credits for Garden Grill
FRI: OOP for all meals

If I calculated correctly, that's 5 CS credits & 5 TS credits. So the DDP on my 5 night stay at AKV should be enough....right?

 

[Dean]

Thanks. I think the split stay is what I'm leaning toward. Trying to do 5 nights at AKV with the DDP, then switching somewhere else for our last 2 nights. If I have it figured right, when I check out of AKV on Thursday morning, I still have the rest of that day to use my DDP credits, right? So even though I would already be checked in at another resort, I could use a leftover TS credit for Thursday dinner. Then I'd just be looking at dealing with Friday without the DDP. Am I doing this right? Here's my tenative plan:

SAT: check in day. TS credits at Ohana
SUN: CS credits for lunch & dinner
MON: CS credits for lunch, TS credits for 50s PTC
TUES: TS credits for Biergarten, CS credits for dinner
WED: TS credits for Tusker House, CS credits for dinner
THRS: OOP for lunch, TS credits for Garden Grill
FRI: OOP for all meals

If I calculated correctly, that's 5 CS credits & 5 TS credits. So the DDP on my 5 night stay at AKV should be enough....right?

You are correct in that you will have it for all day the day you change over even though you've checked in somewhere else. The other way to stretch it is to stay elsewhere the night you arrive and check in early in the am so you can use it for all day including breakfast, lunch and dinner day 1. Given the options you're looking at, I bet you would end up just as cheaply if not cheaper if you just went OOP unless you really hit all the high ticket items and/or unless you maximize your CS options. I'd suggest you go through the menu's and see where you stand with your anticipated choices. Unless your saving around 20%, I wouldn't do it due to the risks involved. If anyone gets ill or anything happens, your SOL on the DDP. WP express, Pepper Market, Cosmic Rays combo meal and some specific choices at mostly Epcot CS and the moderate's food courts tend to return the best $$$ value on CS.

 

[Sammie]

just make sure if you do a split stay that you remember that your last day, which is Thursday, your meal credits will be on the Resort cards from AKV, do not lose those and don't be shocked if when you try to use them, they have become deactivated due to checking in at another location if that location is another Disney resort.

 

[dvcdenise]

Can you get the dinning plan for a one night stay?

 

[Chuck S]

Can you get the dinning plan for a one night stay?

Yes.

 

[crzy4mk]

just make sure if you do a split stay that you remember that your last day, which is Thursday, your meal credits will be on the Resort cards from AKV, do not lose those and don't be shocked if when you try to use them, they have become deactivated due to checking in at another location if that location is another Disney resort.

Thanks for the tip! So if that happens (cards are deactivated) how do they handle that? I assume the restaurant would be able to check and see that we still had dining credits somehow?

 

[bangzoom6877]

You wouldn't choose deluxe again? We are also thinking about it, but I'm afraid that we'll feel like you...full all day & not really enjoying/appreciating it. The only reason we're considering it is b/c we want to have a TS every night, at least one Signature dinner, several breakfast buffets, and maybe one TS lunch. We also enjoy appetizers, which don't come on the basic DP. I'm thinking it may be worth getting the deluxe b/c of all of the "extras" we want that aren't on the basic...even if we get some CS meals instead of TS meals. Or do you think it would work out better for us to get the basic and just add on those others OOP? I'd hate for it to get to the point where we would actually not even look forward to our meals...but trying to think of which way would work best for us. (Also like the idea of not having to
"worry" about paying for anything aside from grats.) Thanks for any input!

I've crunched numbers based on the way we normally eat on vacation and the basic plan works out better for us, even with the addition of a couple of extra character breakfasts and appetizers being paid OOP (if we decide to try an app at an a la carte TS). We would still pay about $600 less if we get the basic DDP, add in a few apps, add in a few character breakfasts, and pay OOP for those, than we would pay to just get the deluxe plan and have these things all included. It makes more sense to us to pay OOP for these little extras than pay $600 extra for food we wouldn't need or want. We go for 10 nights, so 80 snacks for the 4 of us is way too much! I also did charts comparing how we would eat on the basic DDP (which is how we normally eat) to how we would eat on the deluxe plan, and the deluxe would just get sickening after a day or 2. Can't imagine eating like that for 10 days straight!

 

[thepops]

If you're doing 10 nights, I might guess that someone in your party will have an annual pass (since that should be cheaper than a 10 day) so you could also do the TIW card and just take 20% off and not worry about squeezing in items you really didn't want in the first place.

 

[kristenrice]

We did the split-stay plan this past June and it worked out great.
We arrived at AKV at 3pm for a one-night stay in a value studio. The next day, we moved to a value 1BR for 4 nights.

We added the Deluxe DDP to our 1-night reservation. That gave us the refillable mugs for the rest of the trip ($55) and 8 snack credits ($32). Then, we used our meal credits for dinner at Boma that night ($110), breakfast at Boma the next morning ($70) and dinner at LeCellier ($130). We used the snack credits for zebra domes, apples and caramel, cinnamon rolls and brownies (from Main St Bakery) so our snacks were set for the rest of the week too. All total, we received almost $400 worth of food. The cost of the dining plan was $184 so it saved us a lot. We were planning on eating breakfast at Boma and dinner at LeCellier anyways, and we were going to purchase the mugs. Had we done those OOP, it would have equalled the cost of the DxDDP so the snacks and the dinner at Boma were an added bonus.

In April, we are taking my parents for their first trip to the AKV. They haven't been to WDW since 2001 so the whole idea of a dining plan is foreign to them. We are doing a split stay (2 nights in 2 studios followed by 3 nights in a 2BR) and I think we are going to try the QSDDP for the 2-night stay. We have the TIW card so we will do 1-2 TS meals also. The only problem with taking my parents to a TS restaurant and paying OOP is that dad will have sticker shock. It would be much easier to get him to order what he wants and enjoy it if he were using a "credit" instead of a "credit CARD" to pay for it.