FAQ about the Disney Dining Plan

[DW mouser]

No, I did not know that you couldn't have 3 connecting rooms!! Looks like since I booked with disney travel they would of told me that since it was my only request!! Oh well. Mom, Dad and kids can be connecting and us close by . Hope they will at least do that!! Of course there are no guarantees!! Thanks!!

 

[dismom03]

We are going to WDW in 6 weeks and are staying at the cabins in the campground. We purchased the dining plan and from reading a lot of the posts to this sticky, I am SOOO glad we did.

We basically will have 4A,1C on the meal plan and will have 7 days of meals for everyone. My 10 year old is looking longingly at the kid's meals and doesn't really like "adult" food. I hesitate to order her adult meals 'cause I know she won't like them.

Since the DP allows us 4A meals at TS restaurants, would it pay off to order her the kid's meals and pay OOP? We will be going to several (at least 7) sitdown places during the stay and as someone said previously, saving the unused TS meals from her portion of the DP will allow us to do a couple of TS that require 2 TS credits to eat at.

Another thing is that our 5 year old usually orders a kid's meal (chicken nuggets, etc.) and barely touches it. However, eating off the adult meal (ie sharing mine for instance) isn't an option unless I order myself the nuggets and I can't eat that sort of thing. I barely eat myself but I like the DP because nearly every restaurant has a healthy choice for me to eat.

What I am thinking is ordering 1 kid's meal and letting the 2 picky eaters share the chicken nuggets and then they can eat some of the sides off of other people's plates. Also, I am not a dessert eater so the 2 kids can share my dessert. This would "save" 2 TS meals for later use and only be OOP for one kid's meal. If we did this, every 3rd day we could technically eat at a more deluxe restaurant that takes 2 TS credits.

Will Disney let us do this?
Another nice thing about this is that everyone can order just about anything off the menu (and not worry about the huge cost of the entree). We've already talked about ordering 3 completely different entrees and letting everyone eat off of all 3 plates (kind of like family style). My 12 year old will eat anything not nailed down and likes almost any kind of food, unlike my girls.

From what I have read on this thread, there is certain to be lots of food and probably some leftover.

My kids are very excited to get to go to WDW (1st time) since all of their Disney experiences have been at Disneyland and they LOVE Disney anything.

 

[mommyoeo]

Don't stress about it! We got back 6 days ago and had meals we didn't even use! We have a child who is nearly 2 and two older children also, so we had meals for 4 but needed to feed 5 of us. We never once wanted to pay oop to save credits for another meal. There is just not time or tummy room to eat that often! Sitting down once a day was plenty for us. Sharing CS breakfasts and lunches were more than enough because the side items often were large enough to count as meals (cinn. buns for a side a breakfast, etc).

I sadly gained 10 pounds on our 14 day trip!! And that was without using all of our meals up!!

I say, plan well, but don't worry. The plan is easy and using credits for kids meals is still a great value. I never saw my children actually finish one by themselves anyway.

I don't think you'll have any problem getting a kids meal for your older child. I don't think I was told "no" by anyone on our whole vacation for a single request. It truly is magic!

 

[DW mouser]

I had a travel agent tell me she gained 10lbs. also. Humm, I'm beginning to rethink the dining plan!!! I'm thinking there will just be too much wasted food!!

 

[Camping Griswalds]

It dosen't sound to me like the food is wasted if they are gaining 10 pounds. Maybe WAISTED!!!!! I'm sure I'll be one of the WAISTERS in Jan!!

 

[GPALANGE]

My family just got back from Disney last week and we were on the dining plan. I guess because we did character meals and buffets I didn't feel we had wasted a lot of food. We did Hoop Dee Doo Review, it was GREAT!! Ate at Biergarten in Germany, Boatwrights at Port Orleans Riverside, Liberty Town Tavern, and Le Cellier. A lot of times if anything got wasted it would be dessert as we were full from dinner and wouldn't finish it but everything else we didn't have a problem finishing.

 

[my3girls107]

We are on the dining plan but a couple of nights will be taking my family out to dinner with us. They are not on the dining plan and we want to pay for their dinner. Does anyone know if disney will let us use our plan to pay for their meals? (In reading through all of these posts, it was mentioned once that they were allowed to, I am just wondering if anyone has had a recent experience with this.)

 

[5DisneyNuts]

We are on the dining plan but a couple of nights will be taking my family out to dinner with us. They are not on the dining plan and we want to pay for their dinner. Does anyone know if disney will let us use our plan to pay for their meals? (In reading through all of these posts, it was mentioned once that they were allowed to, I am just wondering if anyone has had a recent experience with this.)

Yes, just hand the server your card and ask to take "X" number of TS off. It won't be a problem if you have enough credits left.

 

[dumby]

I am a little confused. We will be there 8 days and 7 nights but we will arrive early on the first day and leave late on the last day so we need meals for all 8 days. With the dining plan will we get meals for 8 days or 7 days?

This may have been answered in here somewhere but I am unable to read the all the post right now.

Thanks for the info.

 

[lucky1]

I searched through this thread, but did not find the answer, unless I just missed it. Is a cup of Coffee, considered a Snack?

 

[dismom03]

The way I understand it, I purchased 7 nights at the resort and 7 table service meals, 7 counter service meals and 7 snacks PER person. My travel agent assures me that I can get the room key with the meals attached early on the first of my 8 days at the front desk of the resort where we are staying. This means I can begin using the meals even though I am not officially "checked in" the hotel yet.

This is my understanding. Someone please correct me if I am wrong, please.

Thanks!

 

[highlander447]

yep u can start as soon as u have your keycard

 

[dismom03]

Thanks for the verification. It's always nice to hear it from more than one place.

Here's another dining question. I know I read about this SOMEWHERE but I can't find it.

We are thinking about eating at Beaches & Cream. My family is tickled about ordering standard food there with ice cream treats for dessert. However, we have seen on the menu this jumbo dessert that seems colossal and of course way to much for any one person to eat. They call it the "Kitchen Sink". We thought it would be fun to order it (and extremely fun for the scrapbook) and share it. It comes served in a dish that looks like a sink!! Will they allow us to do that on the meal plan???

Also, someone mentioned another similar type of monster dessert somewhere other than the Beaches & Cream...does anyone know what restaurant has another fun but huge dessert?

Now just one more question....between the 2 of them, my 2 youngest just might polish off a single kid's meal. The oldest one we had to pay the adult price for on the meal plan as she just turned 10. On the meals that aren't buffet or all you can eat, would the CM allow us to order the 5 year old a kid's meal and let the 2 girls share it? If we paid OOP for the kid's meal we can then use these 2 TS meals for a character sit-down breakfast every couple of days in addition to the TS meals we've scheduled in the evenings.

Believe me, my girls eat so little that we NEVER usually buy the character breakfasts because we don't seem to eat our "moneys worth". This meal plan certainly helps us "relax" a little so that if we're not too hungry, it won't really seem wasted if we spread it out a little.

I was a little concerned when I heard about the large amounts of food that others seemed unable to eat. The sharing of meals makes since because then we can spread them out a little bit more.

We're not trying to take advantage of Disney but it would be a shame to waste a ton of food at each meal too.

Thanks!

 

[MemoryMakers2669]

Yes, we checked into Pop Century right around noon, walked right to the food court for lunch. Will do the same this next trip as well.

 

[adrock1976]

I am a little confused. We will be there 8 days and 7 nights but we will arrive early on the first day and leave late on the last day so we need meals for all 8 days. With the dining plan will we get meals for 8 days or 7 days?

This may have been answered in here somewhere but I am unable to read the all the post right now.

Thanks for the info.

You receive your meal allocation based on the number of NIGHTS in your package...so in your case, you will need to pay out of pocket for your last day, or try and spread your meals around during the week so you have some leftover to use on your final day.

 

[Pollito916]

Now just one more question....between the 2 of them, my 2 youngest just might polish off a single kid's meal. The oldest one we had to pay the adult price for on the meal plan as she just turned 10. On the meals that aren't buffet or all you can eat, would the CM allow us to order the 5 year old a kid's meal and let the 2 girls share it? If we paid OOP for the kid's meal we can then use these 2 TS meals for a character sit-down breakfast every couple of days in addition to the TS meals we've scheduled in the evenings.

We were told that we could share meals, but that they would still charge for each person at the table. So if there are 4 of you and you order 3 meals, they will still charge you for 4. We were told this at both CRT and Sci-Fi, then gave up asking after that and just took leftovers back to the room. I have not seen any specific rules on this, though, so you might get lucky at some places, depending on the server. Have fun on your trip! We just got back 3 weeks ago, and DH has already started planning another trip for next year!

 

[barefootMom]

Does anyone know if you can "take out" a table service meal on the dining plan? my mother-in-law will be traveling with us and is going to do the meal plan as well but will not want to be going where my family is going each night and may want to use her ts at the resort (WL) or elsewhere but may be too "nervous or shy" to eat alone...can she ask for an entire meal to go?
Also, what if you don't have enough room in the belly to eat a dessert but want to order it maybe to eat later--can you do that? will they pack it to go?

 

[eam]

Would like to know the answer to barefootMom's question!

Thanks!!!

 

[Pollito916]

I know you can take desserts to go, we did it many times, but we never tried to get the whole meal.

 

[kimmbagley]

We were told that we could share meals, but that they would still charge for each person at the table. So if there are 4 of you and you order 3 meals, they will still charge you for 4.

I don't think so! How can they do that? If you want to take credits for 3, you should be able to take credits for 3! This will be a problem for me as I am planning to share because DD age 9 doesn't eat!