DVC and Disney Dining....park tickets questions.

stich1fan

Mouseketeer
Joined
Dec 26, 2009
Hi,

We just signed up with DVC and we were wondering what everyone else does. We visit twice a year and I believe the disney annual pass will save us about $800 a year. But was wondering about the dining. We normally do the deluxe dining plan. How would that work with DVC? Would we be eligible for the free dining offers? What does DVC give as far as dining incentive?

Any help would be appreciated.
 
no free dining for dvc. We are not charged the "prime time pricing" though. I belive for regular dining it is 41.99 for us all the time but if you are not DVC it could be up to 46.99 if you are travelling at a busy time. If you have aP you can get a tables in wonderland card and you would recieve 20% of table service meals.
 
There are no dining incentives (involving the Disney dining plans - DVC members do not get discounts on the dining plans) for DVC unless you count that DVC members apparently don't have to pay the peak prices on the basic dining plan for 2010.

There is no park ticket purchase requirement to add a dining plan to a DVC reservation. But if you want free dining you will have to book a regular package reservation - you can't use DVC points to book and get free dining - so if you go that route and book a package, you'll have to buy park tickets.
 
Congratulations!!

For dining, you do not get a discount on any of the dining plans as a DVC member. You are also not eligible for free dining when you stay using your points. Only way is to book a cash package through DRC (like you may have done in the past).

As an AP holder, if you enjoy TS meals (incl. appetizers and possible adult drinks), then you might do well with a Tables in Wonderland card. It is $75.00 but gives you 20% off everything, up to 10 people.

For those that eat a lot of TS, it is a really money saver. We don't so I would never get it. We just do the regular DDP for 2 nights and then the QSDP for the rest. Since we will be doing a split stay every trip, this works out for us. We get a few TS meals (which we enjoy) and then the flexibility of CS the rest of the time.

We only go once a year, but will always be making our trips 51 weeks apart. This allows us to buy the AP every other year.
 


It all depends on you and your likes and dislikes.

We don't see the value in the regular dining plan and would never buy the deluxe version. For us the DDP for a few days can make financial sense but any longer and we are sick of eating and have noticed that we start waisting food and making less value choices.

An AP makes sense if you can get 11 or so parks visits per AP valid period. We don't visit the parks that much anymore so for us a 10 day non expire is a better fit.

:) Bill
 
When we go out park tickets cost something like $748 per person per trip....10 day hoppers, and the ap is about that per person. So it is alot but def will save money.

Does disney offer 20 day hoppers with no exp?

We love to eat all our meals in disney....usually breakfast and dinner.

Where do you get a disney wonderland pass? Are all the rest included?
Where can I get more info on this?
 
When we go out park tickets cost something like $748 per person per trip....10 day hoppers, and the ap is about that per person. So it is alot but def will save money.

Does disney offer 20 day hoppers with no exp?

We love to eat all our meals in disney....usually breakfast and dinner.

Where do you get a disney wonderland pass? Are all the rest included?
Where can I get more info on this?


No 20-day tickets -- 10 days is the maximum (for the US anyway).

You can buy the TiW card at guest services in any park or DTD. They will give you a list of the restaurants, but I believe that the ones owned by Disney are included. It can also be used in food courts at properties that don't have a TS restaurant.
 


Sandi,

Are you saying we can buy the ddd plan for only a couple of days of our stay? If we stay for 10 days can we buy the deluxe for only 4 days and then the qs plan for the rest?

Am I understanding you correctly?
Cherilyn
 
Sandi,

Are you saying we can buy the ddd plan for only a couple of days of our stay? If we stay for 10 days can we buy the deluxe for only 4 days and then the qs plan for the rest?

Am I understanding you correctly?
Cherilyn

Only if you are doing a split stay. Each Stay has its own dining plan availablity. So, if you stay at BLT for 4 nights and SSR for 6 nights you can choose to have different dining plans for each stay as they are two different reservations.
 
Are you saying we can buy the ddd plan for only a couple of days of our stay? If we stay for 10 days can we buy the deluxe for only 4 days and then the qs plan for the rest?

Am I understanding you correctly?
Cherilyn

You can when you do a split stay. I'm not Sandi, but I do the same thing. :goodvibes
 
Only if you are doing a split stay. Each Stay has its own dining plan availablity. So, if you stay at BLT for 4 nights and SSR for 6 nights you can choose to have different dining plans for each stay as they are two different reservations.

I am assuming that your first "dining plan" would expire on your first checkout date? That would mean that if you did regular dining plan for the first part of your trip, you wouldn't be able to use it for TS during the second part if you opted for QS at second resort?
 
Sandi,

Are you saying we can buy the ddd plan for only a couple of days of our stay? If we stay for 10 days can we buy the deluxe for only 4 days and then the qs plan for the rest?

Am I understanding you correctly?
Cherilyn

No you have to buy the same dining plan for all the people on the reservation for the entire length of the reservation. There are many people that do split stays so they will buy whatever plan they want for one of the reservations but not the other
 
A good thing to know is that as DVC members you get your AP's at a discounted rate. I believe it is approx. $100 off regular price per person. My family also goes twice a year and we have AP's. Our last visit we bought the TIW card. It worked out great!! We saved a considerable amount of money. We have also done the DDP. I think we prefer the TIW card because you don't have to order an appetizer, entree, and dessert like on the DDP and you get the 20% off adult beverages with the TIW, which was a big money saver. Also my 12 yr. likes to sometimes order off the children's menu and she can still do this with the TIW, but would have to order off the adult menu with the DDP.
 
On one room reservation, if you wish to purchase a dining plan you must purchase the same dining plan for all members of the party (age 3 or over) for the full length of your stay. On one single reservation, you cannot mix and match dining plans, and you cannot have certain party members have the dining plan for only a portion of the stay - if they're registered on the reservation, they must have the plan for the whole reservation. It's either all members of the party get the dining plan for the whole reservation, or none of them do.

On a split stay with DVC, because there is no ticket purchase requirement, it is possible to book different dining plans without having to spend more on tickets. It's also possible to drop people off the reservation so they won't have a dining plan for part of the stay.

For example, a party staying 4 nights at BLT and 4 nights at AKV can buy the regular dining plan for the 4 nights at BLT and the quick service dining plan for the 4 nights at AKV. The credits they receive on the regular plan will expire at midnight of the day they check out of BLT, so if they have credits left over they'd need to keep their BLT key cards and use those to pay for meals until they've used up all their credits.

The same party can on the same day check into AKV, where they'll receive their key cards with the quick service dining credits on them - these are available for use as soon as they receive the cards and don't expire until midnight of the day they check out of AKV.

So if they have any credits left over from the BLT stay, and they don't use them before midnight after they've checked out, those credits expire and can't be carried further into the AKV reservation. As of the second day of the AKV reservation, they'd have to be sure to use the AKV key cards to pay for meals.
 
We love to eat all our meals in disney....usually breakfast and dinner.

Where do you get a disney wonderland pass? Are all the rest included?
Where can I get more info on this?

Check out this link for more info and a list of restaurants:

http://allears.net/din/dde.htm

The restaurants can change without notice. We bought our Tables in Wonderland Card on our trip in September for Food & Wine. We ate six table service meals in one week and by the fourth night we had paid for the card, but we ate a places like the Yachtsman, Tutto Italia, Flying Fish, and by Kouzzina the card started paying for itself. There were only two of us, but between adult beverages and the Signature Dining, we had some hefty dining bills. The 20% off helps.

We'll be back in a little over three weeks, and this time we're eating at V&A's, & CA Grill, with a party of four, so it will really pay off. Great if you like to dine at lots of TS restaurants.
 
my family stays the 1st night or 2 some where on a deluxe dining plan, to get free mugs, and then either the regular or no dining plan. We come in on a Fri or sat and stay at a less expensive resort with weekend points. Like BW, AK and/or even choose a studio, to save points. We get 2 or 3 expensive buffets in, and then use out dvc discount from the rest, and we have mugs for the whole time. You have to be willing to move, for us the studio in for the 1st day or 2, works then we go for the 1 - bed room sun till when we leave. If we are going more than 5 days the dining plan is too much food.
 
Again, thanks for all the replies....I think I got it.

We can do ddd on 1 reservation at akv , then check out and check into another hotel and do the dining plan under ddd for that reservation.

We have a medically challenged child who comes with alot of equipment and supplies....packing up and then unpacking might be too much for us.

But it gives me something to think about.

Thanks.
 
My husband had a follow up question......could we do a split stay by checking out of akv and then check back in on the same day? or does a split stay have to be in two different hotels/resorts?
 
My husband had a follow up question......could we do a split stay by checking out of akv and then check back in on the same day? or does a split stay have to be in two different hotels/resorts?

Yes, you can do that. You might have to change rooms, but not resorts.
 

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