Dining Plan

[FreeTime]

I know that everyone says that the DL plan isn't worth it. But I am looking for convenience. How much is a 2 or 3 day plan? So it gives you a character meal, $15 toward a sit down or CS meal and a snack? Right?

Can I only get this with a package? Or when using DVC. Thanks

 

[TheColtonsMom]

I know that everyone says that the DL plan isn't worth it. But I am looking for convenience. How much is a 2 or 3 day plan? So it gives you a character meal, $15 toward a sit down or CS meal and a snack? Right?

Can I only get this with a package? Or when using DVC. Thanks

I believe you can order it from WDTC without a buying a package but I am not sure. I do know you must buy it B4 your trip it is not available onsite. We did it at Christmas and we ended up eating more & differently than we normally would have because we wanted to get full value for our $.

You get one premium character dining per package not per day...To get the full value on this your choices are Ariel's or Goofy's. If you use the character voucher for the others you lose money. We did use our TS coupons to do other character meals and this worked well for us we were able to do 4 character meals total during our trip.

In a 3 day plan you get one premium character meal voucher, 2 TS vouchers, 3 CS vouchers & 3 snack vouchers for $156 per adult & $93 per child 3-9

In a 2 day plan you get one premium character meal, 1 TS voucher, 2 CS vouchers & 2 snack vouchers for $104.00 per adult & $62 per child age 3-9

Each voucher has a max value so if for example you wanted to use your TS to go to BB you will likely end up with an out of pocket cost in addition to your voucher.

Overall our favorite part was that our food was paid for so the money in our pockets was for fun stuff like souvineers.

For our next trip in order to get the convinience of having our food pre-paid without the work to make sure we didn't lose money we are going to put the amount of the dining plans cost on a Disney gift card and use that for Food only. We are interested to see if we actually spend that much when we aren't using the set amounts on vouchers. Bonus is that if we spend less we can use any balance on the card for more fun stuff on our last day!

 

[FreeTime]

Thank you! So with the TS and CS does it include a meal, drink, dessert? Or, do we just have a certain amount that we are permitted to spend, per meal?

 

[TheColtonsMom]

Thank you! So with the TS and CS does it include a meal, drink, dessert? Or, do we just have a certain amount that we are permitted to spend, per meal?

You have a set amount per voucher..TS was $30 for an adult and $20 for a child... which was enough to cover character meals (except GK & Ariels) we just had to pay the tip.

Also you can combine the vouchers too..

For example when we ate at Carnation Cafe we only used my voucher and my DHs voucher and the amount covered all 3 of us...and we used the "extra" voucher from this meal to cover part of our dinner at BB.

When we ate at TP in DCA we had "extra" money on our 3 vouchers so we bought a "snack pack" that included string cheese goldfish crackers and some other stuff for our son to snack on later. When we got snacks we sometimes bought an extra bottle of water and stashed it in our backpack in order to use the full value of our snack vouchers.

Snack vouchers are not limited to snacks either..we often used them to make up differences at meals & we used 1 snack voucher for a couple of skewers at Bengal BBQ.

My only warning is you have to work the plan in order to get full value for your $.

In all I think we worked hard at using every penny and ended up spending about $25 additional out of pocket when we went slightly over our vouchers as to me it was better to be over and spend a little than to be under and lose that money.

Glad I could help!

 

[DizNee Luver]

We found for ease of use, that prepaying on a Disney giftcard was the way to go. Otherwise you have to figure out exactly what your spending & use the vouchers to make sure you get your money's worth out of them. You will not be given change for any used amount. With the giftcard, we could pay & go.....we also could use it for souvenirs.

I like the idea of prepaying for our meals, but did not find the DL's Dining Plan to be quick & convenient. I understand that WDW's plan is set up differently.

 

[ConnieB]

We found for ease of use, that prepaying on a Disney giftcard was the way to go. Otherwise you have to figure out exactly what your spending & use the vouchers to make sure you get your money's worth out of them. You will not be given change for any used amount. With the giftcard, we could pay & go.....we also could use it for souvenirs.

I like the idea of prepaying for our meals, but did not find the DL's Dining Plan to be quick & convenient. I understand that WDW's plan is set up differently.

This is the best way to go....because the convenience of the vouchers is actually not all it's cracked up to be...carrying them around is more inconvenient than carrying cash. Plus....You will still need to carry cash (or have a credit card) to pay for anything above the dollar amount of the vouchers, to pay for tips, etc. And if you decide not to use one, or use it for less than it's face value you LOSE money because of the no change rule. With a Disney gift card, if you don't spend it all it can sit on the card until your next trip. Even better (though a little less "Disney") would be to put your money on a VISA gift card, because then any leftover money can be spent anywhere so you don't lose it's use until your next trip.

I am totally for convenience....but not losing money so the DL dining plan never works for me.

 

[the donut]

Are they still charging a surcharge for character meals during the high seasons (like spring break season)? Maybe the dining plan is one way to avoid the surcharges. Last year the surcharge was around $5 I think (depended upon the meal).

 

[MrsJackSparrow4Life]

Like others have said I would just take the price of the meal plan and put it on a gift card instead.

The meal plan coupons are dollar for dollar, so you don't save any money and they don't give change, so there is a good possibility of losing money.

Now if the Character meal vouchers still include tax and gratuity, then they may be a good deal. You can buy them separate from the meal plans.

 

[DisneyMomma81]

Are they still charging a surcharge for character meals during the high seasons (like spring break season)? Maybe the dining plan is one way to avoid the surcharges. Last year the surcharge was around $5 I think (depended upon the meal).

I purchase Character Meal vouchers *almost always a savings even without the high season surcharge* CMVs are availabe from several online sites ~ LMT ~ GAT ~ ARES *under Character Experiences *they include tax & tip. I also put $$ on Disney Gift Cards as a way to pre pay for meals.

 

[spiderdust]

I purchase Character Meal vouchers *almost always a savings even without the high season surcharge* CMVs are availabe from several online sites ~ LMT ~ GAT ~ ARES *under Character Experiences *they include tax & tip. I also put $$ on Disney Gift Cards as a way to pre pay for meals.

The price Ares is listing for their character meal vouchers seems to be the same price as what you can buy them for on the Disneyland website.

 

[annadette]

Hi there! I used Disney Dining Plan vouchers on my first 3 trips as a way to budget the food into our package. As a PP said, it's dollar for dollar, so there's no real savings except for the tax and gratuity on the character meals, which is included in the voucher. My last trip was in 2008, and at that time, restaurants were still giving me change back if I didn't use the whole amount of the voucher. I know a couple of them had commented that they weren't supposed to or that the policy was changing soon, but at the time, I never had a problem with that. That having been said, using the vouchers did open up our willingness to do more character meals than we would've otherwize. The results now are that, we generally do a character breakfast or goofy or ariel at least once every day of our trip. We just love them. So now, for this upcoming trip, I just bought Premium and Regular Character meal vouchers from flightcentre.ca (but you can get them through lots of places, as a PP explained) The value of the vouchers is printed on the coupon, and I am pretty sure that it's no hassel if you wanted to use them towards your Blue Bayou dinner, or anywhere else in the park. I like that you don't have to always figure out the tip - it's all rolled in. So in that sense, you are saving that way.

 

[aribelle]

I purchase Character Meal vouchers *almost always a savings even without the high season surcharge* CMVs are availabe from several online sites ~ LMT ~ GAT ~ ARES *under Character Experiences *they include tax & tip. I also put $$ on Disney Gift Cards as a way to pre pay for meals.

They include a very generous tip!

According to Allears/MouseforLess at Storytellers breakfast and Plaza Minnie's breakfast...the cost is $23.99...tax would be 2.09 (8.75% per internet search)...that leaves $5.92 tip (that's a 25% tip). And...it gets even more generous of a tip if you use the same voucher at PCH Grill (Surf's Up), which is $21.99, so your tip is OVER 30%.

Maybe I'm cheap or out of touch, but isn't a normal meal tip 15% to 20%....and the lower end would be for a buffet where all they do is clear dirty plates and possibly refill your soda (though some buffet are self serve soda as well). I may tip 25% in a full service restaurant where they have taken good care of me, but not a buffet unless something extraordinary occured, and even something extraordinary wouldn't warrant over 30% for clearing plates and filling drinks?


However, it looks like the Premium Voucher might be a deal, if you used to your advantage. Goofy's Kitchen is $29.99 for breakfast ($2.62 tax) BUT $35.99 ($3.14 tax) for dinner....the voucher is $42. For the breakfast your tip is 32% BUT for dinner it's not even 10% (which even cheap me would consider under tipping for dinner!).

Ariel's Grotto the voucher is only good for the breakfast which is $36.99, so that makes it even less of a tip than Goofy's dinner.

So...I guess the moral of the story....in some cases it's going to save you only a couple of dollars, depending of course on your tipping style...and in some cases it's going to make you a VERY generous tipper.

Please...someone fix my numbers if I'm wrong...I love the idea of the convenience of the vouchers, but not so much the very high tipping. In fact, personally I hate that the vouchers include the tip....I've often found that when the server already knows what tip they're getting, they don't work hard for it. Mostly I see this when it's a large group and the tax is added to your bill for you.....I always feel like we can never find the server. Or maybe my problem is I don't buy into the "large parties are more work"...how is my party of 8 more work than two tables of 4? In fact, it seems like my table would be a bit easier, because you can take the drink/dinner order all at once...and after delivering the meals get any condiments or missing ingredients all at once as well....whereas with two tables, that's two trips and two deliveries and twice as many checkbacks.

 

[DisneyMomma81]

They include a very generous tip!

According to Allears/MouseforLess at Storytellers breakfast and Plaza Minnie's breakfast...the cost is $23.99...tax would be 2.09 (8.75% per internet search)...that leaves $5.92 tip (that's a 25% tip). And...it gets even more generous of a tip if you use the same voucher at PCH Grill (Surf's Up), which is $21.99, so your tip is OVER 30%.

Maybe I'm cheap or out of touch, but isn't a normal meal tip 15% to 20%....and the lower end would be for a buffet where all they do is clear dirty plates and possibly refill your soda (though some buffet are self serve soda as well). I may tip 25% in a full service restaurant where they have taken good care of me, but not a buffet unless something extraordinary occured, and even something extraordinary wouldn't warrant over 30% for clearing plates and filling drinks?...

Goodness you really did your math ~ alright then put some $$ on a Disney Gift Card and pay for your meals that way, the Dining plan will not save you $$ and it takes some work to make it work.

 

[aribelle]

Goodness you really did your math ~ alright then put some $$ on a Disney Gift Card and pay for your meals that way, the Dining plan will not save you $$ and it takes some work to make it work.

I didn't mean to insult you, sorry you took it that way. I'm seriously wanting to know if my math is incorrect....and you and others stated so matter of factly that the vouchers save money, but I wasn't able to make the numbers work to see it....so PLEASE help me understand why/how it saves you money. Is my math wrong? Or do you only use the premium vouchers which do seem to have a small savings? Help me understand!

 

[MrsJackSparrow4Life]

When my daughter and I did the Princess lunch at Ariel's Grotto a couple of years ago the people on here told me the vouchers would not save me any money in the long run but after I got the bill I really wish I hadn't listened to them.

For the two of us my bill ended up being over $60 when you added tax and a 18% tip. Right now you can get vouchers for one adult and one child for $47.46 at LMT and this include the tax and the tip.

So I would get the character meal vouchers but avoid the meal plan.

 

[DisneyMomma81]

I didn't mean to insult you, sorry you took it that way. I'm seriously wanting to know if my math is incorrect....and you and others stated so matter of factly that the vouchers save money, but I wasn't able to make the numbers work to see it....so PLEASE help me understand why/how it saves you money. Is my math wrong? Or do you only use the premium vouchers which do seem to have a small savings? Help me understand!

No worries ~ truely I did not feel insulted - I'm hard to insult But again, if you are correct - the easiest route IMO to pre pay for meals would be to put money on a Disney Gift Card ~ you can add money to a DGC by calling DelivEARS ~800-362-4533 *you give the CM your credit/debit card info and they mail you the receipt. Last time I did this *a couple months ago* the $$ was on the GC the next day.

 

[ConnieB]

When my daughter and I did the Princess lunch at Ariel's Grotto a couple of years ago the people on here told me the vouchers would not save me any money in the long run but after I got the bill I really wish I hadn't listened to them.

For the two of us my bill ended up being over $60 when you added tax and a 18% tip. Right now you can get vouchers for one adult and one child for $47.46 at LMT and this include the tax and the tip.

So I would get the character meal vouchers but avoid the meal plan.

Can you post a link to where on LMT you found this? I can't find anything about Ariel's Grotto on that website. I found the vouchers on the Ares website but they are $39 for adults and $20 for kids, so much higher than yours.

 

[MrsJackSparrow4Life]

Oops, seems I clicked on the wrong character dining section, that price was for the regular character dining. Premium character dining is $10 more, which is still less than I payed two years ago.