Downgrading and Cancellations

[Raidra]

We're planning a late Jan 2013 trip (yes, I know it's a full year away). Our current plan is to stay at the Contemporary in the garden wing, and do the regular dining plan. We have four kids (9, 7, 4, 2) and plan to do a lot of character meals.

There's a possibility we may have enough cash to upgrade to either a Tower room with a MK view, OR the deluxe dining plan. Obviously, either upgrade should be done sooner rather than later (in the dining plan case, we'd need to make ADRs). I'm wondering what would happen if we needed to downgrade a week or two before our trip. The big risk with the room up/downgrade would be there not being something available. But what would happen if we needed to downgrade the dining plan and cancel some ADRs?

I've just started looking into the deluxe dining plan, I'd never considered it before. In theory, we could do a character breakfast and then a 2TS dinner, with snacks in between for lunch, right? Is there an easy way of finding out what all the 2TS places are? The shows are, right? Hoop De Doo, the one at the Poly, and the BBQ? Do they take a lot more time than a regular restaurant?

Any other tips or advice you can give would be greatly appreciated, too.

Thanks!

 

[DisGirl1971]

We have a large family also - 5 kids. The Contemorary is beautiful! I do know that they will charge you a fee for "downgrading" any components of your package if you are less than 45 days from your check-in. I'm not sure what the fee is anymore. You can cancel your dining reservations without penalty - the ones that have to have a credit card hold - up to 48 hours before without penalty. We really like the disney dining plans - the great restaurants and character meals are so much fun and really part of the Disney magic for us. We did the Deluxe dining the first year they had it, but I kind of felt like it was overkill - SO much food and it kind of took away park time too - but the food and characters were still great. We like the regular plan now - 1 sit down meal, 1 fast food meal and 1 snack. Also, the dinner show do take much longer than the regular meals.

 

[Faldred]

Downgrades within 45 days of arrival get charged the package change fee, which was $50 last time I checked. Any changes (including upgrades) within the last two weeks have an additional $10 or $15 change fee.

The brochures (check out the stickies in this forum) list which restaurants take 2 credits. As a rule, they all take considerably more time than a regular TS restaurant (except CRT, which in my opinion was a bit on the rushed side). The dinner shows are indeed 2 TS and they require a significant investment in time as they run about 2 hours plus the time to get there and back (and the recommendation to arrive half an hour early if possible).

 

[TDluvsDaisy]

You can always make your ADRs for the deluxe plan without any penalty as long as you cancel those you don't use.

As for timing, yes the dinner shows take longer than a regular sit down meal. However a signature dinner can take as long as you wish. If you want to speed up the process a bit order everything at once and let them know you are on a timeline. Some servers delay putting in the entrees until the appetizers come out. It makes for a more relaxed meal.

I've had meals last an hour to 2 hours depending on how we like them and our server's cooperation with our dining requests.

 

[figment_jii]

Our current plan is to stay at the Contemporary in the garden wing, and do the regular dining plan. We have four kids (9, 7, 4, 2) and plan to do a lot of character meals...Obviously, either upgrade should be done sooner rather than later (in the dining plan case, we'd need to make ADRs)...In theory, we could do a character breakfast and then a 2TS dinner, with snacks in between for lunch, right? Is there an easy way of finding out what all the 2TS places are? The shows are, right? Hoop De Doo, the one at the Poly, and the BBQ? Do they take a lot more time than a regular restaurant?

Any other tips or advice you can give would be greatly appreciated, too.

Thanks!

In terms of making your ADR's, the actual ability to make the ADR is independent of the dining plan. To access the 180+10, you need a resort reservation. You can do this without having booked the dining plan.

Yes, on the DxDP you can do a 1 TS breakfast and a 2TS dinner or any combination of meals. Remember that the credits are allotted at the start of the trip and how you use them is up to you (in other words, you don't have to use three per day). You could use two one day (e.g., Chef Mickey for breakfast and Akerhaus for dinner) and then four on the next day (e.g., CRT for breakfast and Jiko's for dinner).

The 2 TS places are usually only open for dinner. The ones that I can think of are: California Grill, Citricos, Narcoossee's, Flying Fish, Yachtsman Steakhouse, Jiko's, Bistro de Paris, Le Cellier (dinner), Brown Derby (lunch and dinner), CRT (breakfast, lunch, and dinner), and Fulton's (lunch and dinner).

Disney allots about 90 minutes for the average Signature meal, but when I was on the DxDP (three courses) most meals took between 2 and 2.5 hours. They can probably go faster, but we didn't feel the need to rush. The longest was Citricos at over three hours and the shortest was probably Le Cellier at around 90 minutes.