Disneyland's meal plan

[twinspluscade]

Does anyone use this? Is it convenient?

I like the thought of pre-paying for meals before we go (I'm always nervous we'll end up going over-budget on vacation ), but wondered if it's kind of a pain to haul all the meal vouchers around.

Also--do the cashiers give you change back if you "over-pay" with a voucher? For instance, say I buy a $5.99 child's meal, and pay with a $10 voucher. Do I get change back? Or still have $4.01 on my voucher yet to use?

Are the kids and adults vouchers separate? Do I have to use an adult voucher for an adult meal, etc? Can you buy snacks and drinks with the vouchers too, or is it meals only?

Thanks!!

Kelly

 

[bumbershoot]

There are some who find it convenient.

To me, however, hearing how it works, it would not be convenient.

You do NOT get change back. And you don't keep x amount on the voucher. That money is GONE.

I think the vouchers are just money amounts, no difference between adult and child.

To budget for food, I spend quality time with the menus on allears.net and dlresortinfo dot com, to familiarize myself with menus and prices (be careful to check the date of each restaurant's menu!). Since we're vegetarian our choices are nicely limited, which is good budget-wise.

I figure out how much I want to spend for food (and souvenirs as well, though that's a bit harder, or when money is tight it's easy...zero is zero, right? lol), save that. Then move it over to checking, and when I get to the parks, I go to any store and buy a gift card in either the full amount or a certain amount per day. Then I use that giftcard for the food and souvenirs, and so far that has kept me UNDER budget. It doesn't work for the food carts that do not accept cards, so this time I'm getting about 20 bucks in Disney Dollars (I could carry cash, but I like the DDs instead) for those carts.

That's what I do, to budget myself.

 

[bumbershoot]

Oh, to finish my thoughts...

With giftcards if you don't use all the funds you can't get cash back, but they do not expire, and you can also use them on disneyshopping.com if you wish. That store has nice sales sometimes, and their outlet is great. We saw some Ratatouille toys back in December that were $$, but then a couple months ago they were marked down to under $10 on the disneyshopping outlet, so I used some of my leftover giftcard funds for those.

Disney Dollars you do get change back, in regular money. And if you have any leftover at the end of your stay, just go to the giftshops and turn them back into dollars.

 

[prettyprincessbelle]

Yeah, I agree with Molly. I was thinking about the Meal plan, but it you're not getting a deal. What turns me off is not getting change back. Our next trip we are just going to get a giftcard and Disney dollars to keep us within budget.

 

[Grandma Debby]

I like the Disneyland Dining Plan - We used it in 2005 & 2007. I gave my daughters and granddaughters coupons and they didn't have to carry cash and we always bought fresh fruit or water or something with the unused amount. Our trips were paid for before we left home except for souvenirs You can use Disney Dollars or credit on your Disney Visa Reward card almost the same way but we have found this easier for us.

 

[mystic_path]

Where and how do you pre pay for your meal before your trip? Does Disney Dining take care of it?

 

[bumbershoot]

Where and how do you pre pay for your meal before your trip? Does Disney Dining take care of it?

It's offered when you're getting a package to stay at DLR.

 

[mystic_path]

Gotcha! Thanks!

 

[MPHARJ]

We used the dining plan last year for our first visit to DLR nd actually enjoyed it. I would never use a voucher higher than what I needed and paid the few dollars difference in cash as to not waste the vouchers. We have it on our package this year too. I just like to have everything paid for ahead of time. Either way we would spend the same amount so I enjoy using it. Every one has their opinion, however when I am on vacation I like to enjoy different restaurants and not eat fast food or the same old places.

 

[bumbershoot]

"paid the few dollars difference in cash as to not waste the vouchers"

And see that would drive me nutty, too. If you are spending above and beyond, then you haven't totally pre-paid for meals. And for me, if I have the perception of pre-paying it all, I want it all to be pre-paid.

But I totally understand simply *wanting* to use a plan. I've been trying for months to get the WDW dining plan to work for us, but it just won't. We'd lose money, or we'd eat tons of food we don't want just b/c we *can*. So I totally understand just wanting to use something when it doesn't necessarily save you any money!

 

[iceskatejen]

The Dining plan is not a good deal. I suggest gift cards for those places with cash registers and Disney Dollars for those that don't (this of course won't help in DTD except at World of Disney and Marceline's Confectionary). As per California law, if the gift card has $10 or less on it, it can be cashed out. The stores in DL/DCA and Disney hotels can cash out Disney gift cards that have $10 or less on them.

 

[Mike_M]

On our trip last year, We met a mother and son at our hotel that were finishing up their trip and they had a couple ticket books full of meal vouchers that she didn't get to use and ended up giving them to us (If that person is a visiter to this site, I would again like to say thank you). There was a couple free character breakfasts, some standard meal vouchers (Both full meals and snack coupons) and even some preferred seating in them. (We used up all the meal vouchers but didn't use the preferred seating so we passed them along to a family we met at breakfast on our last day) The meal vouchers only covered up to a certain ammount so we saved them for meals and snacks that we knew were more than the value so that we were using them to their full ammount. Since I didn't buy them directly, I'm not sure if they are a good value or not but they were nice to have since I didn't have to think about my budget when using them. I may get some next trip since they really wern't about saving $$ but more about not having to worry about $ since it's already paid for.