Dining plan

[Tasia]

Why does everyone have such a negative view of the dining plan?

 

[sonnyjane]

Why does everyone have such a negative view of the dining plan?

Since you're asking, and are a relatively new poster, I'll assume that you're not yet familiar with how the dining plan at Disneyland works.

First of all, Walt Disney WORLD does have an excellent dining plan which can cover all of your meals and beverages throughout the day at a terrific savings. The WDW dining plan is generally viewed as fantastic. Unfortunately, it is nothing like the Disneyland dining plan.

The Disneyland dining plan is simply a system of dollar-amount vouchers that offer no savings, and can potentially lose you money. For example, if you get the "two day" dining plan for $106, you receive $106 worth of vouchers. There is no savings. You pay exactly as much as you receive. You get two $33 vouchers, two $15 vouchers, and two $5 vouchers. You can use them wherever you like within Disneyland or DCA same as cash. The downside is that you do NOT receive change, so if your meal costs $13 and you pay with a $15 voucher, you will lose $2. If you want to break even, you have to order things that cost MORE than your voucher and then pay the difference out of pocket, thus negating any convenience that using the vouchers would provide since you still would have to carry cash or a card on you.

Some people prefer to pre-pay for their meals for budgeting purposes, which is great, but we recommend that you put money on a Disney gift card if you prefer to pre-pay. That way you don't have to worry about the dollar amounts or whether or not you will lose change.

 

[Flynn_Rider]

Since you're asking, and are a relatively new poster, I'll assume that you're not yet familiar with how the dining plan at Disneyland works.

First of all, Walt Disney WORLD does have an excellent dining plan which can cover all of your meals and beverages throughout the day at a terrific savings. The WDW dining plan is generally viewed as fantastic. Unfortunately, it is nothing like the Disneyland dining plan.

The Disneyland dining plan is simply a system of dollar-amount vouchers that offer no savings, and can potentially lose you money. For example, if you get the "two day" dining plan for $106, you receive $106 worth of vouchers. There is no savings. You pay exactly as much as you receive. You get two $33 vouchers, two $15 vouchers, and two $5 vouchers. You can use them wherever you like within Disneyland or DCA same as cash. The downside is that you do NOT receive change, so if your meal costs $13 and you pay with a $15 voucher, you will lose $2. If you want to break even, you have to order things that cost MORE than your voucher and then pay the difference out of pocket, thus negating any convenience that using the vouchers would provide since you still would have to carry cash or a card on you.

Some people prefer to pre-pay for their meals for budgeting purposes, which is great, but we recommend that you put money on a Disney gift card if you prefer to pre-pay. That way you don't have to worry about the dollar amounts or whether or not you will lose change.

One small correction, if you are in fact refering to the WDW dinning plan.. it is not great. Here's a great article about the supposed "savings"

http://blog.touringplans.com/2012/07/17/the-disney-dining-plan-exposed/#more-29494

In summary, if you do the math, you have to optimize every single meal, eat huge meals all the time and have the best reservations set ahead of time to get the most of the WDW dinnning plan. Most folks do not end up saving that much under the current dinning plan for WDW. And as the previous poster said, the Disneyland dinning plan is almost a joke.

 

[JadeDarkstar]

i used to love the dinning plan but recently ive been changed to gift cards and chr meal vouchers from getaway today working better. just because some times you end up wasting money

 

[sonnyjane]

One small correction, if you are in fact refering to the WDW dinning plan.. it is not great. Here's a great article about the supposed "savings"

http://blog.touringplans.com/2012/07/17/the-disney-dining-plan-exposed/#more-29494

In summary, if you do the math, you have to optimize every single meal, eat huge meals all the time and have the best reservations set ahead of time to get the most of the WDW dinnning plan. Most folks do not end up saving that much under the current dinning plan for WDW. And as the previous poster said, the Disneyland dinning plan is almost a joke.

Thanks for posting that. I should have clarified in my original post, but WDW can offer special promotions that include a FREE dining plan when you book a package, and in THOSE cases, it's a fantastic savings. That's what I was referring to specifically about WDW.

 

[GretaAnn12]

Thanks for posting - I was going to ask them same thing. I guess we'll stay away from the dining plan this trip!

 

[Tasia]

Oh no! We already have it .. We have two kids under three who will be eating without dining plans so I'm hoping that we can deal with that a bit better by feeding them. Can we stockpile water??

 

[skiingfast]

Oh no! We already have it .. We have two kids under three who will be eating without dining plans so I'm hoping that we can deal with that a bit better by feeding them. Can we stockpile water??

At the sit down restuarants then under 3s can eat of your plates. At the character meals they are buffets or buffet like so that won't be a problem.

When you are using the dollar value vouchers you won't get change if you spent under the voucher total. So you should bring money and pay the extra amount over the voucher. Doing this you could add waters or other items to bring you over the total.

 

[disneychrista]

The Disneyland meal plan is basically pre-paying for your meals. Make sure you spend at least the dollar value of the voucher, if your meal is $12, you better throw in dessert & a bottle of water to bump it up. You are better of paying a bit extra than to be under and lose money.

 

[JadeDarkstar]

if you use them just make sure you know what you are doing. if you go to a cs meal make sure you use a 15voucher for both of you. if you want a snack use the snack (6.50) voucher if you can get two snacks for 6.50, do it0 you just got be careful not to over use them if you use a 15voucher and need another 3 or so use cash to pay the differences add what you want

also dont forget ice and water is free.

I have used the dinning plan three times. each time worked for me because i did more then two chr meals. I also did bb and others.
I liked it but this time in oct and last time in may i didnt try to get the dinning plan. I saw that if i put that money on gc it worked jsut as well and chr meals from getaway today if its gk or princess meal saves you money. if its normal chr meal just pay with gc you will not save money.

good luck

 

[Tasia]

We already have it. We didn't know much about it but our travel agent recommended it. So I will just make sure we work it out. Do the vouchers say the amount on them? Or just snack, counter service, etc?

 

[TDC Nala]

First of all, Walt Disney WORLD does have an excellent dining plan which can cover all of your meals and beverages throughout the day at a terrific savings.

While this was almost certainly the case in the not so distant past, it is not so much anymore. At this point the WDW dining plan has the general capacity to produce a modest savings, and only result in a terrific savings if you eat in a way that would maximize it. that said, Disneyland's dining plan is basically a prepayment plan for convenience only and has little to no chance of resulting in a discount.

The vouchers are in dollar amounts. But keep track of what you spend them on, as you will not receive change for them. If you use a $5 voucher to buy a $3 Diet Coke, you need to find something worth at least $2 to purchase at the same time, because you won't get that $2 back.

WDW can offer special promotions that include a FREE dining plan when you book a package, and in THOSE cases, it's a fantastic savings.

Even this is no longer true in all cases.

 

[Tasia]

So then I could use a bunch of snack or counter service at say blue bayou? To ensure I use the full amount and use cash if I don't spend enough?

 

[skiingfast]

So then I could use a bunch of snack or counter service at say blue bayou? To ensure I use the full amount and use cash if I don't spend enough?

Yes you can combine them for expensive meals. Or a Character Meal voucher to buy a ton of snacks, they have a $ value too.

 

[Tasia]

Awesome!

 

[Girimama33]

I have used them before, and did not find it a horrible thing like some people on this board put it. Sure, if you don't understand the policies it could be a $ waster, but if you educate yourself on the dining plan (which you seem to be doing)...it is fine. We are a family of 3 and would usually spend a $15 and a $5 voucher for QS meals. We would usually only have to pay a few dollars for the difference. Whenever we bought a snack, we always got a bottle of water too. The vouchers are very flexible. It is a good way to pre-pay for meals at DLR...especially if you want to take advantage of the character meals/table service.

 

[DisneyMomma81]

One small correction, if you are in fact refering to the WDW dinning plan.. it is not great. Here's a great article about the supposed "savings"

http://blog.touringplans.com/2012/07/17/the-disney-dining-plan-exposed/#more-29494

In summary, if you do the math, you have to optimize every single meal, eat huge meals all the time and have the best reservations set ahead of time to get the most of the WDW dinnning plan. Most folks do not end up saving that much under the current dinning plan for WDW. And as the previous poster said, the Disneyland dinning plan is almost a joke.

Yep, we had the WDW plan "free" and that was great; I'd never pay for it. If we don't get it "free" next year, I'll prepay for food the way I do @ DLR, which Jade describes below.

i used to love the dinning plan but recently ive been changed to gift cards and chr meal vouchers from getaway today working better. just because some times you end up wasting money

Yay for seeing the light

 

[JadeDarkstar]

with gc i can also use money on stuff i want not just food lol