Disneyland Dining Plan Confusion

[DisneyBabies]

Ok everyone, I am in need of serious help. We would like to take our children for their first trip to Disneyland March 31 - April 6, 2012, but I can't figure out how the Disneyland dining plan works and with two young children, the dining plan just works better for us. I'm sure it's as simple as the WDW one, but for some reason it totally confuses me.

We are looking at Mickey's five day dine in the magic meal plan. Here are my questions:

1- What exactly do we get for that? (ex. WDW DxDDP gets 3 meals and 2 snacks per day/per person)

2- Is there a limit on how many character dining meals we can do?

3- Are all the restaurants included in the meal plan?

4- How far out are dining reservations made?

Thanks for helping a Disneyland newbie.

 

[sonnyjane]

The reason you're confused about how the Disneyland dining plan works is because, well, it doesn't work (how's that for shooting from the hip!).

Now I'll explain...

The Dining Plan at WDW has great value...but at Disneyland, it doesn't work the same way at all. At Disneyland, you pay face-value for vouchers. For example, you may get a voucher for a $36 character meal, a $15 dinner, and a $5 snack (these are just samples) per day. That's $56 worth of food but you know how much it costs you? $56! You do not save money at all, you simply are pre-paying. In fact, you can LOSE money by choosing the dining plan at Disneyland because you do not receive change. If you buy a $12 meal with a $15 voucher, you lose the $3 difference. If you genuinely enjoy pre-paying for meals, we always suggest getting a Disney gift card instead.

IF however you choose to go with this for some reason, you can make reservations beginning at 60 days out, and must call to do so (can't do it online).

 

[Goofy_Mom]

The character meal vouchers will say "character meal" on them and you'll get one for each of your party over 3 years old. Unless they changed it, you'll also get a "breakfast in the park" voucher. These are not character meals. The two places that serve breakfast without characters are The Carnation Cafe and River Belle Terrace.

We've done the dinning plan before and didn't use all our vouchers, talk about a loss of money.

 

[DisneyBabies]

The reason you're confused about how the Disneyland dining plan works is because, well, it doesn't work (how's that for shooting from the hip!).

Now I'll explain...

The Dining Plan at WDW has great value...but at Disneyland, it doesn't work the same way at all. At Disneyland, you pay face-value for vouchers. For example, you may get a voucher for a $36 character meal, a $15 dinner, and a $5 snack (these are just samples) per day. That's $56 worth of food but you know how much it costs you? $56! You do not save money at all, you simply are pre-paying. In fact, you can LOSE money by choosing the dining plan at Disneyland because you do not receive change. If you buy a $12 meal with a $15 voucher, you lose the $3 difference. If you genuinely enjoy pre-paying for meals, we always suggest getting a Disney gift card instead.

IF however you choose to go with this for some reason, you can make reservations beginning at 60 days out, and must call to do so (can't do it online).

And I never would have known that if you hadn't pointed it out! I'm assuming that is why I can't find any information about it online? I think we will be going with the gift card method. Thank you so much for your help.

 

[DisneyBabies]

The character meal vouchers will say "character meal" on them and you'll get one for each of your party over 3 years old. Unless they changed it, you'll also get a "breakfast in the park" voucher. These are not character meals. The two places that serve breakfast without characters are The Carnation Cafe and River Belle Terrace.

We've done the dinning plan before and didn't use all our vouchers, talk about a loss of money.

Thanks for your help with this. It really doesn't sound like a good idea to do the dining plan at DL.

 

[DisneyBabies]

Another question . . . is gratuity added at any of the restaurants and how much is it in general?

 

[sonnyjane]

Another question . . . is gratuity added at any of the restaurants and how much is it in general?

Obviously you don't have to pay a tip at the counter-service restaurants. For the sit-down places like Blue Bayou, Cafe Orleans, etc., you will be presented the check as you would at any other restaurant, where you will fill out the gratuity as you feel appropriate. You'll only be charged a mandatory gratuity if you have a party of 8 or more I believe.

As far as character meals, I'm not sure how the gratuity works. I know you can buy vouchers from places that include the gratuity. I did the Surf's Up breakfast and they didn't include the gratuity in the bill there, I added it myself after they brought the check. Not sure how the others work, sorry.

 

[DisneyMomma81]

sonnyjane has described the DLR Dining Plan perfectly ~ don't do it!! We pre pay for our meals by putting $$ on Disney Gift Cards *did you know you can add money to a Disney GC by calling DelivEARS ~ 877-560-6477 *you give the CM your credit/debit card info and they mail you the receipt. Last time I did this *a couple months ago* the $$ was on the GC the next day. You can add what ever amount you'd like as often as you'd like - I suggest emailing yourself your card # and it's PIN in case you lose the card, with that info it can be replaced.


We prepay for character meals *and often save $$* by purchasing cm vouchers *they include tax & tip.
They're available from LMT *select Anaheim then restaurants* & GAT & ARES *click Character Experiences. We've used all 3 *most recently LMT and have had no problems.