DL Dining plan vouchers

[Mommarella]

Hi ALL !! Sorry if this has been asked recently but I can't seem to find an answer if it has.

We have been to WDW several times and have always used the dining plan and found it very easy to use. I am planning our first DL trip for November and hoping I find the DP vouchers as easy to use. Any tips or suggestions?

I cannot wait to go and have been lurking through all the pics on the dining review thread. I hate to admit this but I think a lot of the trip is going to be planned around food.

Thanks so much for any advice, it is greatly appreciated.

 

[JadeDarkstar]

i liked them for my last trip they worked fine for me. you dont get money back so you have to budget and know how to use them or pay a bit like 50 cents here or there to not over use voutchers. a few pages back i have a post on it.

This time im only buying my charcter meal voutchers becouse its all i really need this time. and not going though disney (cheaper some where else)

 

[disneyfaninaz]

Unfortunately DL does not have a dining plan like WDW.

In order to help with the budget, a lot of people have suggested saving your budgeted amount for food and putting it on a Disney Gift Card. That way you can use it at any Disney restaurant and not lose money by not getting change back with the vouchers.

 

[Queenbillabong]

We did the dining plan in May and would not do it again. You get vouchers - either dollar amounts or for specific meals, ie. dinner at Goofy's Kitchen. It was not convenient because unless you spend EXACTLY the face amount (other than the character meals), you either owe some or do not get your change back.

We found we actually ordered and wasted far more food than we would have otherwise. For instance, we went to Cafe Orleans and each ordered pommes frites and a Monte Cristo sandwich. The fries were more than enough for 2-3 people (one order) and I could only eat a quarter of the sandwich, so overall wasted a LOT of food and spent more than we needed to.

The vouchers that are for say a character lunch, if it has a face value printed on the voucher, you can use that amount at a different restaurant of your choice. The dinner at Goofy's Kitchen had no face value, so we had to go there for dinner (not one of our first choices, but it was either go or lose the over $30/person).

There are no savings with this, I was thinking the convenience of prepaying for food would be good. Like I said, we won't ever do this again, but I guess it does work out for some people. Personally I'm just going to budget X-amount for food, etc., and go from there......

 

[DLR29]

The dining plan at DLR is inferior (IMO and many others here) to WDW's because:
a) It doesn't save you as much money
b) You get a set amount of dollar amount vouchers and when you use those vouchers you don't get change. So for example if you want to pay for something that costs $4.95 with a $5 voucher, you will lose 5 cents. That's not a big deal, but if you have run out of $5 vouchers, you need to either pay in cash (which defeats the purpose of a dining plan) or pay with a $10 voucher and lose $5.05 (which can add up significantly)
c) You can't use the vouchers at Downtown Disney restaurants

 

[Mommarella]

Thank You so much for the replies!!

I think the idea of the Disney Gift Card would be a great idea, because then it would be "pre paid". AND I wouldn't "lose" money, kinda the same as the DW dining plan.

I am so glad I found this board. In all my trips to DW I had never found it, and I have now become addicted.

I'm also glad to learn that the portions are big enough to share if I wanted since my oldest and I often do that here at home, too !!

Thanks again !! and I am sure I will have a few more questions the closer to November I get.

 

[samkj]

A couple other things. If you were to do the dining vouchers, make sure to get it for less than your total number of days. We went for 6 days, and got 3 day dining vouchers. We still came home with some un-used. We were able to save them for another trip so this was fine for us, but may be a problem for others not planning on returning before they expire.

Another suggestion that has been made is to get Disney dollars rather than gift cards. The dollars can be used at the outdoor vending carts where the gift cards can not.

 

[Mommarella]

Thanks Amy !! I will remember that, too !! I always get Disney dollars for the girls to use so I'll pick up some more

 

[ballarinamom]

Getaway today has character meal vouchers that offer a discount and can be prepurchased. Just remember to use the code PODCAST to save the $10 service fee

 

[pixiewings71]

We use Disney dollars for the carts and we have used gift cards for the restaurants. I don't like the dining plan they have, they really should just do it like it is at DW, it would be so much easier. Have a good trip and I hope to see you around posting!