Disney Dining Plan

[Lostgirlz]

OH WOW!!!! Boy if you're going to Disneyland then you really need to make sure you want the dining plan. I see there is a lot of confusion on who is going where. For you going to Disneyland the dining plan is NOTHING like WDW NOTHING like it at all. Disneyland's dining plan does NOT include credits, and Downtown Disney dining venues DO NOT take the dining plan vouchers. You each get a book of dining voucher, each voucher is worth a set amount. 1 voucher might be worth say 5 bucks well if you spend 4.50 you lose 50 cents as you DO NOT get change back, also if you go over the amount you either pay the difference, or waste another voucher. You don't get a set amount of meals/snacks daily like you do at WDW, so if you spend to many vouchers before the end of your trip, or you don't use them all you will have either wasted money, or spent more. I have done the dining at both WDW, and Disneyland. I love WDW version, but everytime I have done the Disneyland one we either never use them all, or end up having to spend money on top of prepaying for the plan due to downtown disney not taking the vouchers, and there are many good, and fun places to dine in Downtown. Also NONE of the candy places in disneyland will take the snack vouchers, so that also will need to be paid for. Honestly you need to really debate if you want to be limited to only park/disneyland hotel dining, or do you want to have more flexibility to choose other places without losing prepaid money.

 

[bumbershoot]

We have decided to do the Disney Dining plan. Does anyone have any tips? Are all of the restaraunts in the resort included? Anything else I should know about it?

Ok found the list and then went to Disney.com and looked at the menus! Thanks! Are all of the menu items included on the meal plan or is just select items?

OP, are you going to WDW?


If you are going to DLR like another poster, the plan really hasn't been that great. But there are no menu limits, because it's just a voucher for dollar amounts.

 

[mbfqueen]

Ooooh THANKSSS Lostgirlz!!!

Ok, see *THIS* is exactly what I was wondering!

Now my reasonings:
I have 3 teens (bottomless pits)
I have a son who is thin/avg. and could eat all meals as much as two persons
I had heard if you had small kids, don't do dining plans as you get too much food, that's why I thought perfect for teens!

Ok, all you wise helpful ones .. what do you think I should do? (knowing the kids would be starvin marvin being IN Disney, all day) .. cause if you take the plan divide it by 5 and the days we will be there, it's a great deal .. (not saying it's good, since I heard what you said), but just sharing that's what I was thinking .. make sense?!

 

[sonnyjane]

Ooooh THANKSSS Lostgirlz!!!

Ok, see *THIS* is exactly what I was wondering!

Now my reasonings:
I have 3 teens (bottomless pits)
I have a son who is thin/avg. and could eat all meals as much as two persons
I had heard if you had small kids, don't do dining plans as you get too much food, that's why I thought perfect for teens!

Ok, all you wise helpful ones .. what do you think I should do? (knowing the kids would be starvin marvin being IN Disney, all day) .. cause if you take the plan divide it by 5 and the days we will be there, it's a great deal .. (not saying it's good, since I heard what you said), but just sharing that's what I was thinking .. make sense?!

Did you do a search of the DisneyLAND forum to find out about dining plans? You cannot compare it to DisneyWORLD at all. Like the others said, you do not SAVE any money. In other words, there is no discount for buying vouchers, what you put in is what you get out, so if you pay $90 for your plan, you're just getting $90 worth of food vouchers, nothing more. If you buy something for $4.00, and pay with a $5.00 voucher, you just lost $1.00 because there is no change. Say you run out of $5.00 vouchers and have to use a $10.00 to pay for the same thing. Then you lose $6.00! At BEST you break even, but more likely you lose money, or have to just supplement your own money anyway. If you really want to pre-pay for meals, then just get Disney gift cards, which are accepted *almost* everywhere in the DL and DCA parks, but I personally wouldn't waste time or money on the dining plan at DL.

 

[mbfqueen]

Well darn .. I thought I was going to get a deal ..

Ok, I totally get the concept of losing money if you don't use the whole voucher, got it .. but on the Costco website it says on the different levels you have say 6 places to eat from with the Donald plan, 9 with Goofy and all the places or certain places to use the vouchers from .. if this is so .. why is this a bad idea? Just trying to understand here ..

As I said, I get you use or lose the vouchers and you can't use them everywhere, got it... but if we plan ahead to eat at the places where they are used, is it still a bad idea?

OH another thought .. you know the character meals? Where it's all you can eat for breakfast? do they have those for lunch/dinner? Maybe that would be a better purchase? (thinking of the kids here) ... yes I will cruisie around on the board and get all the dining info .. not trying to get out of searching .. was just wondering experienced disney goer's ...

 

[sonnyjane]

I have not done the DL dining plan, so I am not sure how the non-voucher "one lunch" type meals work, or what the limit is, etc.

Here is a link to DL's information about the plan (packages are all the way at the bottom):

http://disneyland.disney.go.com/disneyland/en_US/plan/landing?name=PlanYourDiningPage

I am not seeing the same information that you are from the Costco website, so I don't know if what you're seeing is the same information listed on DL's website, but if they are different, I'd believe what DL's says.

I am hoping SOMEBODY on this board can help you more than me, lol, but the reality is not many of us have done the DL dining plan because it's just not a deal. To me it just seems like instead of paying $50 cash at the grocery store, I put $50 on a gift card, and then go to the grocery store to redeem it. Just seems like an added, unnecessary step to me. If someone here knows how the other meals other than vouchers work, maybe you can explain that to me as well as to you

 

[bumbershoot]

I'm still wondering where the OP is going... I really hate adding to the thread about DLR, if she's going to WDW...


******
mbfqueen...the WDW plan can save you money. Up to 30%, if you read their literature. The DLR doesn't. It's a *great* way to pre-pay, as long as you know you will need to pull money from your wallet. Honestly though, I'd rather just get some disney giftcards, throw the money on them, and have it "pre-paid" that way.

The different levels, named for characters, are the number of days you have the plan. The one nice thing about the DLR plan is that you don't have to get it for the full length of stay. So you can get a 3 day plan for 5 days, for instance. But honestly I still don't, personally, see the point.

There are a few vouchers, depending on how long you buy the plan for, that are vouchers for the character meals. Lunch and dinner are served at Ariel's Grotto (princess meal), and dinner is served at Goofy's Kitchen.

But the majority of the vouchers are in dollar amounts (Breakfast In the Park is a dollar amount, which is NOT explained well on the Costco page or the disneyland page or the AAA page last time I checked AAA).

 

[GrandBob]

OH another thought .. you know the character meals? Where it's all you can eat for breakfast? do they have those for lunch/dinner? Maybe that would be a better purchase? (thinking of the kids here) ... yes I will cruisie around on the board and get all the dining info .. not trying to get out of searching .. was just wondering experienced disney goer's ...

I'm still unclear -- are you going to DisneyLAND or DisneyWORLD?

Anyway, in Disneyland, you might want to check out the Big Thunder Ranch BBQ. It's kinda pricey -- $20 for adults (incl teens) at lunch, $25 at dinner. But it's all you can eat. If your teens really are bottomless pits, as most are, you could fill them up at lunch and be good for the day. Oops, teens, make that for a few hours, anyway

-Bob

 

[mbfqueen]

I have not done the DL dining plan, so I am not sure how the non-voucher "one lunch" type meals work, or what the limit is, etc.

Here is a link to DL's information about the plan (packages are all the way at the bottom):

http://disneyland.disney.go.com/disneyland/en_US/plan/landing?name=PlanYourDiningPage

I am not seeing the same information that you are from the Costco website, so I don't know if what you're seeing is the same information listed on DL's website, but if they are different, I'd believe what DL's says.

I am hoping SOMEBODY on this board can help you more than me, lol, but the reality is not many of us have done the DL dining plan because it's just not a deal. To me it just seems like instead of paying $50 cash at the grocery store, I put $50 on a gift card, and then go to the grocery store to redeem it. Just seems like an added, unnecessary step to me. If someone here knows how the other meals other than vouchers work, maybe you can explain that to me as well as to you

Oooh thanks! I have seen that and yes, I get that .. was just wanting persons who have used it before ..

I am thinking pre-paying would be good .. but then .. if I did that, probably using a debit card would be just as good ..

Thanks for your digging, I appreciate it .. and will *report* back with what I've decided and what worked!

 

[DisneyMomma81]

The WDW Dining Plan is wonderful ~ especially when it's free, like it was for us last month. We do not use the dining plan at DLR. I pre pay/ budget for food by purchasing Disney Gift Cards (that way it can only be used at Disney) *they ship for free - https://tickets.disney.go.com/buy/T...wtbjyX1JNqm2RYqU41yNIgAIeIiRK2oKPx3IWWxP2YrM= & http://www.disneystore.com/gift-cards/c/305800/

I also buy character meal vouchers ~ in some cases they'll save you $$ (Goofy's & Ariel's) they're available from AAA, ARES - http://arestravel.com/77_DisneylandResort.html *click character experiences **the breakfast voucher will work for all character breakfasts and GAT http://www.getawaytoday.com/ *"hover" over tickets, click Disneyland Resort, for Step 4 select dining.

 

[bumbershoot]

I'm still unclear -- are you going to DisneyLAND or DisneyWORLD?

-Bob

mbfqueen is going to 'land.

The OP, however, has not yet clarified, though the fact that she found info based on the instructions given in one of the first posts tells me that she's off to WDW, and might be searching for her post!

 

[mbfqueen]

Thanks for your help!

Hey I noticed in your signature you mentioned the Anabella are you staying there or have stayed there?

A scrapbooking friend of mine just gave horrible review after horrible review .. but from the website, I couldn't believe it .. so if you have staying, what was your experience?



Shelley-

I'm still wondering where the OP is going... I really hate adding to the thread about DLR, if she's going to WDW...


******
mbfqueen...the WDW plan can save you money. Up to 30%, if you read their literature. The DLR doesn't. It's a *great* way to pre-pay, as long as you know you will need to pull money from your wallet. Honestly though, I'd rather just get some disney giftcards, throw the money on them, and have it "pre-paid" that way.

The different levels, named for characters, are the number of days you have the plan. The one nice thing about the DLR plan is that you don't have to get it for the full length of stay. So you can get a 3 day plan for 5 days, for instance. But honestly I still don't, personally, see the point.

There are a few vouchers, depending on how long you buy the plan for, that are vouchers for the character meals. Lunch and dinner are served at Ariel's Grotto (princess meal), and dinner is served at Goofy's Kitchen.

But the majority of the vouchers are in dollar amounts (Breakfast In the Park is a dollar amount, which is NOT explained well on the Costco page or the disneyland page or the AAA page last time I checked AAA).