Dinning plan

[HaleyB]

A few people on here are saying I will have X adult TS credits and X child TS credits. That is not how Disney figures it. You have TS credits, all in one pool. They do not distinguish between child and adult credits.

That means if you have 4 people in aroom for 3 nights you have 12 TS credits and 12 CS credits. If you have 2 adults and 2 kids, or 1 adult and 3 kids, or 4 adults- it all is the same credit wise (too bad it is not all the same price wise). You can use all 12 on adult meals and pay out of pocket for any kids meals. This makes the planning easier and more flexable.

Sometimes while we were on the plan it worked out cheaper to use the credit for our daughter and pay cash for my meal. That was because she always wanted to order dessert and she liked the expensive kids choices. Sometimes I just ordered soup or a salad and ate off my DH's meal. When I planned everything out I thought it would always be the kids meals that we would pay for. Go figure. It was so much food. But it didn't really matter which meals we used credits for and which ones we paid for, just so you know

 

[disneyvacalover]

HaleyB
So did you have 2 ressies w. 2 rooms? If so how many on the DP and waht ages were on DP? I really think this will work for my family but am wooried I will run into trouble from CMs.

 

[disneyvacalover]

1 of 6
Thank you.
I look forward to your report.
Have agreat trip!!!

 

[Crankyshank]

DH & I used the plan in October. It was just the 2 of us and it worked out quite well and we definitely saved money. I think if we only did character meals it wouldn't have been worth it, but Kona and Le Cellier alone made it well worth it and we didn't do any of the tricks they posted about on the restaurant board to maximize your return on the plan. Plus the snack credits at the F&WF definitely made it worth the $$

 

[1of6]

I'm not sure how the CM added the dinning plan on but I added it last week. At first he said he would have to drop my ressie and then rebook me with 2 different packages. He did not do this. He figured out some other way. He was affraid to drop and rebook, we have a fridge, bed rails, crib & conecting rooms. He said it might not be there to rebook it. I'll let you all know if it all goes as planned.

Also don't forget to ask on the resturant board. I got some great help there (they pointed me in the right direction.) The thing that helped me the most was to sit with paper, pencil and a calculator. I went to allearsnet.com and could get prices at each resturant. I made sample menus of what I thought we would eat and added it up. It didn't take too long and it gave me a better picture of just how much food was going to cost us.

Hope this helps.

 

[leslieh]

The last poster had a good point, even when we went to Beaches & Cream with the old lunch/dinner vouchers, we always put a nice tip on top of it. They still have to serve eveyone splitting or not. Im not sure what percentage of tip they get with in the dinning plan?

 

[pezpam]

The last poster had a good point, even when we went to Beaches & Cream with the old lunch/dinner vouchers, we always put a nice tip on top of it. They still have to serve eveyone splitting or not. Im not sure what percentage of tip they get with in the dinning plan?

Last I heard, the servers were getting 15% at most places, 18% at a few of the more upscale places. No idea if that's changed.....

 

[HaleyB]

I think they get 18% now. That was part of the small price increase.

We didn't have two rooms, we were all on the dining plan. But we used a lot of the kids credits towards signature dining. We paid out of pocket for one of us at almost every meal, on something like a salad or the 4.99 kids plate. That left us enough credits for 3 signature dining nights. The Flying Fish was my favorite.

The way the credits work you only show your server one card (the credits are linked to your room keys) and you tell them exactly what to do (use 3 credits and charge the childs meal/salad to the room). They always did it right and never blinked an eye. We always told the servers when we ordered, which I think helps.

Now getting it booked correctly is another thing. Use the 800 number to CRO and if you get a CM that seems like they can't figure it out hang up and call again! I have done split stays and all sorts of crazy ressies (because my entire extended family treats me like a Disney travel agent) and have learned that just about anything can be done if you get the right CM on the phone

Oh, if you need the 800# I am pretty sure it is 1-800-438-9876 but that is from memory (I know, it is a sickness).

 

[poohfriend]

There were several restaurants and Counter services that would only charge the meals for the number listed on the front of our key to the world card (1 adult, 2 children). We worked around it by having the checks reflect that number. I'll tell you it was a real HASSLE. I suspect that the folks that manipulate the plan to use only adult meals instead of children's meals have caused some additional hassle for the rest of us. I'm NOT saying this to flame anyone. I think it's smart..but I anticipate more people having trouble at more locations or Disney finding a seperate designation in the computer system for child and adult meals.

That said, it the OP case, I think the meal plan would be worth it...you must have a lto of teenagers -- and they sure EAT!

enjoy!

 

[etwinchester]

I know for our next trip, we will be adding on the dining plan for a couple of reasons.

* It will be our first onsite stay / more magical trip
* Why not splurge, we don't go to disney as much as we'd like (enjoy it since we don't know when we'll get back)
* The ability to eat such nice meals that I may not order otherwise
* Comfort of knowing that it's all paid for when we arrive

 

[pammypooh]

The dining plan is worth it for as since we always do at least one TS meal a day. We will be there the end of Feb. and can't wait to see how it works.

Pam

 

[Twende]

For our next trip we have two rooms booked on two reservations. One is room only and the other is room and meal plan.

 

[princessjv]

We used the dining plan last Oct., during the free dining promo. It was great in many ways, but the negatives for us were-
1. Made us less flexible on what park we were at, at the reservation time
2. Was difficult eating a lot of sit down meals with a small child
3. Required a lot of planning and scheduling of the sit down meals

Does it save you $$. YES! I saved all of my reciepts and calculated what we would have spent ($1500 for 9 nights & the plan would have cost around $750 at the time). If we weren't on the plan we would not have spent $1500, since we would have not gone to as many TS resturants and we would not have always ordered an appy or dessert. My guess is that we still would have spent close to $1000 for food though.

What I would love to see is WDW allowing you to use your TS credits for CS if you wish. This would save them $$ and allow more flexibility to meal plan users. (If they allow this now, please let me know...In Oct. it was a no no!)

 

[1of6]

Hey all. We got back last night. The meal plan worked out well for us. We had 2 rooms, 4 adults, 3 kids & 1 two yo. We had the plan for only 1 room (2A & 2K) for 6 nights.

We had 2 different character breakfasts planned for a party of 8 as well as a Fantasmic package at H&V. I had the CM's take off 7TS credits at each place. Never a problem! Our CM at H&V joked with me about being the big spender and treating all the free loaders I was with. He was great! At each place I simply asked to have the credits removed from my card and the CM's took my card after bringing drinks. They all said they like to take dining plan cards early in case there is a problem they are not fixing it as you are on your way out the door. Like I said, we never had a problem.

This used up 21 of our 24 TS credit and I had 2 vouchers for Planet Hollywood so we ate there on our last night. This night was tricky...the vouchers had a limited menue which was no big deal. Our CM asked for our card up front. He said he had to run it through the computer to see if they were A or K credits. I think this was because there were 4 people on the room and only 3 credits left. WDW doesn't keep track of A or K credit so he came back frustrated. CM gave us 3 bills at the end. One for the vouchers=0 , one for the dining plan=3ts credits=0 , and one for 2 kid's meals and adult drinks (DH had beer and the rest of us had some yummy margaritas. ) They had to fix the bill twice but got it right finally.

On to CS. Each time we ordered a different number of meals. (3,4,5 & 7) We always started as a big group at the register and then DH took the kids to sit while DM, DA and I got the food. It was never a problem.

 

[dsnymomadopt2china]

This is possibly the only time we could justify the polynesian as our 6th person will turn 3 in june. We booked a 4 night package and a AAA rate for the last night. Our boys who normally can eat real well, were really too excited the whole time to really eat. they will be 10 and 11 next time and it would not be worth it for them. Our 2 year old ate more than all of the others. At $110 a day it was worth it, especially for the snacks and the counter service. We did eat at Kona's, Le Cellier, CRT(mom and 2 girls), Crystal Pallace(dad and 2 boys), Ohana's. Le Cellier and Kona's was $148. but, we would never order the appetisers and we would split 1 dessert normally. Next time it would be at least $174 a day, and that would not be worth it.
We also found that it was more challenging doing the TS with the 4 kids, next time we will bring the grandparents and really enjoy the TS.
I think our best bet next time is 2 rooms, the one with the dining will be 2 adults and 2 kids. And then we will just do the nice TS without the kids!

 

[littleEinsteins4]

Very informative THanks

 

[NeverlandClub23]

We don't do the dining plan. We did years ago (the old dining plan) and found it to be a waste of money for us (back in '93 and '96). We now pay out of pocket for everything as we don't eat any CS meals and the two or three TS meals a day we eat at would take 2 of the credits per meal from the dining plan, meaning it would cost us even more money after paying for the dining plan if we wanted to eat at those places. For two adults it usually costs us $1,000 for food (and drinks ) for 6 nights/7days.

 

[ryty44]

I have a ? If we arrive on Thursday and leave Sunday morning do we pay for 3 or 4 days? And if we eat at a signature restaurant and there are 3 of us can we just use credits for 1 person and pay for the others?

I beleive you get the amount of credit per # of nights you are there. I am sharing those first nights credit w/ half for check in day and half for check out day.

Good Luck
Happy Planning