Disney Dining PLan

[Lizzybear]

I would be interested to hear how this goes once you get back. The servers are very good at encouraging you to take home 'boxed' desserts if you find you can't eat one

Also with the days you are eating offsite, are you planning to roll up the spare TS credits in order to dine at the signature restaraunts??

Yes we have 2 signature places in mind (Jiko and California Grill) Were considering Citricos but I think 2 'fancy' dinners is enough for us for one trip
I usually have room for dessert *lol* but if don't feel like it I might take it back boxed if I know we're going straight back to the resort and i'll feel like it later (We did this at The Cheesecake Factory as the desserts are so rich there that we couldn't eat them all at once) I think it's more starters I won't have regularly as I find they spoil my main meal and if me and bf have them it's usually to share
I'm not sure if i'd pay for the dining plan.. Maybe for a week rather than the 2 we'll have it next trip.

 

[MrsJobba1]

Im not sure but I believe the servers tips are worked out including the deserts and starters - that is why they encourage you to order them- otherwise they wont get their tip.

 

[Funniebunny]

We can't add the dining plan to our reservation with Virgin. I have spoken to them twice but still get the same response, as we have an independant stay for the second week they can't add the plan to the booking. They said it's something to do with a multi stay trip, if they try to add it the plan wont load on their system. What I don't understand though is I went onto their website and priced up a trip for my Fiance's brother, same date at us, same Disney hotel and the second week at a hotel in Sarasota. It offered the dining plan doing that, so why can't we have it?

 

[AlanUK]

Sounds like a case of 'Computer say's no' to me

There is no reason why you shouldn't be able to do this it's just a case of Virgin being inflexible as far as I can tell

 

[Chester's Mum]

We are going in May 2007. I'm a little wary of the dining plan, as we don't usually eat appetizer, entree and dessert when we eat at a restaurant. However, otherwise we would not be able to afford to experience the disney table service restaurants more than once or twice during our holiday. I have decided to book the dining plan for 1 week of our 2 week holiday. (we split our stay between two resorts). I think the key is not be obsessed with squeezing every penny of value out at every meal. Eat the way you normally would, but choose food you might not otherwise choose because of the price. Don't be obsessed with choosing appetizer, entree and dessert at every meal.

 

[Chester's Mum]

Im not sure but I believe the servers tips are worked out including the deserts and starters - that is why they encourage you to order them- otherwise they wont get their tip.

Your server receives 18% tip on whatever you order. So, if you do not order dessert and appetizer they would not be tipped on those things. However, if you don't order those things, you will be out much quicker and they will have another table to serve. It all works out in the end.

 

[Lizzybear]

Im not sure but I believe the servers tips are worked out including the deserts and starters - that is why they encourage you to order them- otherwise they wont get their tip.

They will get their tip no matter what you order but obviously the more you order the more they get. If we split a course we'll tip the server extra (as if we'd both ordered it) I know some may think that's strange when we could just order 2 courses for free but I really don't think I could order more food than I was hungry for knowing I would only pick at it (I think it's down to having the starving children in Africa thing drummed into me from a young age) It'd only be a few $$ extra anyway

 

[dee slack]

Sounds like a case of 'Computer say's no' to me

There is no reason why you shouldn't be able to do this it's just a case of Virgin being inflexible as far as I can tell

Would anyone know if you can book DDP direct with Disney if you have booked your hotel/package thru' Virgin?

I was debating adding DDP to my existing Virgin booking (2 nts RPH, 9 nts AKL, 6 nts I-Drive), but sounds like a lot of trouble, so maybe don't waste my brain weighing up the pro's and con's of it

 

[catherine]

Would anyone know if you can book DDP direct with Disney if you have booked your hotel/package thru' Virgin?

I was debating adding DDP to my existing Virgin booking (2 nts RPH, 9 nts AKL, 6 nts I-Drive), but sounds like a lot of trouble, so maybe don't waste my brain weighing up the pro's and con's of it

You have to book the DDP with whoever you booked your package with. Last year we originally booked this years trip with Virgin without the DDP. Later we changed our minds and decided that we wanted the DDP (Virgin weren't offering it at the time) so we changed our booking. We booked a fly drive with Virgin and booked our accomodation, tickets and DDP direct with Disney UK.

 

[wifey]

We discussed our choices of where to eat and what meals to have and then worked out the approximate cost and then calculated if the DDP was worth it for the 3 of us, we have one character breakfast, three lunches and four dinners total of eight meals. We worked out what we want to spend and how much Disney expects us to spend on average on the DDP which we found in our Passporter 2007 edition.
It is not worth it for what we eat it's just that simple, and the money we save we can use for other things.

 

[GrumpyUK]

Thank you everyone for your responses.
Today we think we are going to add the plan to our booking - owever yesterday we didn't think we would and who knows what tommorow brings (in a world few hearts survive?!).

I appreciate what everyone says about wasting food and this is ine of my big worries generally but we have decided that we won't necesarily have three courses just because they are offered. We usually usually spend about $40 dollars (+ tip) for dinner and about $40 during the day - breakfast and lunch. We think we could have our snack option for breakfast (I'm sure they allow a muffin as a snack - that's what we usualy have anyway - if not I guess we could have a banana). So if we spend $80 dollars a day for 14 days that's £1120 - factor in a few treats (lets have pud!) and I think that we'll spend on the dining plan what we'd usually spend on food - but will have spent all the money BEFORE we go away. (I ALWAYS worry about how much money I'm going to spend when away).

We'll try it this year and if it doesn't suit we won't do it again.

Am I mad????

 

[ely3857]

We'll try it this year and if it doesn't suit we won't do it again.

Am I mad????

Nope, sounds like you have thought it through and reached a sensible conclusion.

I would never go with this option as we spend alot of time offsite so we would never get through the credits but if we were onsite for all the time I would consider it, if only for the benefit of budgeting & paying in advance



Jodie

 

[AlanUK]

It seems like you've gone through exactly the same process that we did and I know having done that how hard it is to argue against the DP

So it doesn't sound like you're mad at all

 

[Lizzybear]

No I think that's a good way of looking at it Grumpy IMO the paid dining plan is more of a budgeting in advance benefit than a saving money one and though we may have still considered doing it this trip if it wasn't free we probably won't do it again, or at least not on our next trip.

 

[dee slack]

We can't add the dining plan to our reservation with Virgin. I have spoken to them twice but still get the same response, as we have an independant stay for the second week they can't add the plan to the booking. They said it's something to do with a multi stay trip, if they try to add it the plan wont load on their system. What I don't understand though is I went onto their website and priced up a trip for my Fiance's brother, same date at us, same Disney hotel and the second week at a hotel in Sarasota. It offered the dining plan doing that, so why can't we have it?

Well, that's funny 'cos we've just had an email from the Frequent Virgin dept and the reason we can't add DDP is because our first night isn't at Disney (we've got 2 nights RP @ US, then 9 nts AKL, and finally 6 nts I-Drive). Seems they have a different excuse for each person!!! They did say we can change our hotels around, but we've arranged the dates around our Disney so I'd really rather not do it that way, but then again.....

Sounds like a case of 'Computer say's no' to me

There is no reason why you shouldn't be able to do this it's just a case of Virgin being inflexible as far as I can tell

DH thinks they've probably got a c*%& computer system that can't deal with anything that's 'not standard'

Anyway, for now he's emailed them back to ask for a Virgin/Disney ref no. to see if we can book it direct with Disney - here's hoping (but not holding my breath!)