Disneyland Dining Plan

[boltfan]

Has anyone used the Disneyland Dining Plan? I've used the WDW plan and loved it, but all I hear is negative things about the one used in DL. Any help would be great. How does it work? Is it with vouchers or is it like at WDW and everything is just through your key card?

 

[sonnyjane]

The DL dining plan is not like that of WDW, as is not recommended. You pre-pay for dollar amount vouchers, and there is no savings. If you pay $100, you get $100 in food vouchers. The other downfall is that you do not receive change, so if you use one of your $15 vouchers on a $13 meal, you will lose the remaining $2. There is only one instance in which you could save even a few bucks, and that's if you bought the vouchers, but plan to go during a peak time, like Christmas, when the price of the character meal is higher, but even then, the savings is a few bucks at best. If you would like to prepay for meals, we always recommend putting money on a Disney gift card instead.

 

[jdb in AZ]

Dining is one way WDW and DLR are very different. There are SOOO many more restaurants at WDW, and you need to reserve them months ahead of time.

At Disneyland, it's more of a walk-up, spontaneous experience. Reservations are helpful for Blue Bayou, but even then, you can usually score a wait-list dinner during off-season.

 

[redheadtove]

We used the Dining Package for Disneyland for Christmas 2010 and it was the best thing I did. It was nice to know that I have already paid for our meals. We are going back to DLR in October and I plan to use it again. For me it was a good idea.

 

[hootey]

We have used the prepaid service and found it very useful. Ours was through our "keycard" system. It was set up for meals as well as snacks. At the end of our stay we recieved an itemized printout of all purchases similiar to a CC statement. We spent about what we had paid for the service, it was with-in a couple dollars. The older system used the vouchers and it was dismal system at best. Good to use if you are at the park during summer months when it is warm and you intend to ride a lot of water rides.

 

[isisisme]

We have used the dinning many times at DLR. This last year we went without and I am not sure we will be doing it again.
We liked knowing that our meals were paid for basically before we went, but it was a bit of work to make sure you don't lose any money on them. For example, if something comes to $12, don't give them a $10 and a $5 voucher, give them a $10 and then $2 in cash. Otherwise you lose the balance from the $5 voucher.

We were really keen on this since it was easier to budget having food paid for (basically). But, last year we did not add the dining plan and realized we did not eat nearly as much (which is good and bad!) and that the vouchers were an "iffy" thing for us.

We might use them again if we need to have the food portion paid for with our trip (we book through WDTC or Costco and make payments). I feel like I am the master at using it effectively.

 

[sonnyjane]

We have used the prepaid service and found it very useful. Ours was through our "keycard" system. It was set up for meals as well as snacks. At the end of our stay we recieved an itemized printout of all purchases similiar to a CC statement. We spent about what we had paid for the service, it was with-in a couple dollars. The older system used the vouchers and it was dismal system at best. Good to use if you are at the park during summer months when it is warm and you intend to ride a lot of water rides.

Hootey, when did you go that you used your key at Disneyland for the dining plan?

 

[skiingfast]

Hootey, when did you go that you used your key at Disneyland for the dining plan?

I'd like to know more about this as well, because it doesn't sound like the Disneyland Dining Plan in any way.

 

[DryCreek]

I have read here where someone recommends just getting the pre-loaded Disney gift cards. You spend what you want on meals, and anything left over is still there for you to use on whatever you like (providing it is Disney related).
You have still pre-paid for your meals, but you don't have to worry about losing any balance not spent at that meal - as you do with the voucher system.