FAQ about the Disney Dining Plan

[d4est]

Thanks for the responses. This might sound kinda cheap or weird...we already have the dining plan, but am considering calling my AAA TA & having it taken off so that I have less to pay off at my 45 day mark (Dec 15--right before Christmas!), then adding it back on in mid January (our arrival is 2/1). This would give me a little longer to pay for it.

Does this sound crazy? An extra $521.82 is a lot of money for us right before Santa's big day!

 

[jjohnson]

Thanks for the responses. This might sound kinda cheap or weird...we already have the dining plan, but am considering calling my AAA TA & having it taken off so that I have less to pay off at my 45 day mark (Dec 15--right before Christmas!), then adding it back on in mid January (our arrival is 2/1). This would give me a little longer to pay for it.

Does this sound crazy? An extra $521.82 is a lot of money for us right before Santa's big day!

It's not crazy & many have done exactly the same thing.

 

[Camping Griswalds]

Thanks for the responses. This might sound kinda cheap or weird...we already have the dining plan, but am considering calling my AAA TA & having it taken off so that I have less to pay off at my 45 day mark (Dec 15--right before Christmas!), then adding it back on in mid January (our arrival is 2/1). This would give me a little longer to pay for it.

Does this sound crazy? An extra $521.82 is a lot of money for us right before Santa's big day!

I don't think that it is cheap or weird!!!

We have not added the dining plan because we are doing a split stay, and to add on the dining plan actually ends up costing us way more because you need to purchase at least one park tix with each reservation to add on the dining. However, If I can swing it, I may just add it, but it depends on how much work, etc I get before then!! so we may just add it on right before we go as well!!

 

[d4est]

Thanks guys. I don't feel so weird after all. I am going to call tomorrow & have dining removed. My AAA TA isn't going to like it...I think I drove her crazy with the last batch of codes...but she'll get over it.

Thanks,

 

[DisneyMom5]

You cannot transfer your plan, even in part, as it is stated. Obviously that means you cannot give meal credits to those not on the plan, otherwise the language would not make sense.

I suppose it is possible that Disney could interpret it that way, but transfer usually refers to ownership, like the other poster stated. In this case it does not clearly state usage. For example, you cannot purchase the dining plan for 7 days in your name, and hand it off to someone else after 3. Now, like I said, individual Disney CMs could interpret it like you are saying. But I do not think it is intended to convey what you are saying.
That being said, there has been enough discrepancy between individual experiences to warn new users that their outcome may vary. If I were going back next spring, I would be prepared for the plan to be very different from my experience with it this August. Unfortunately it not only seems to be dependent on changing Disney policy, but upon the interpretation of different CMs in different restaurants.
I think everyone would be best served not to plan on sharing meals, being able to pay out of pocket for some of the party, not being able to pay for others, and not having pooled credits. That way, if you ARE able to do any of those things, it will be a happy surprise, right? LOL

 

[macraven]

not to start any flaming but wanted to explain my actions here.


i went solo to disney and bought the dining program.

i could over hear the family next to me, a mom with two teens, talk.
apparently, they scraped together just enough money to make the trip and the sit down dinner was going to cost them more than they had planned for.

from what i could hear, the 2 girls kept thanking their mom for making their wish come true and be at disney. both kept mentioning how expensive the food was to their mom and a few times thanked her for their first sit down dinner at a nice resturant. i guess they had been living on food they brought along and also at counter places.

i just wanted to pass on the magic to that family.
i told the waitress i wanted to buy their dinner with my dining program as i had 4 ts left and i would just pay cash for my breakfast and lunch the next morning/afternoon. the waitress said, sure it's no problem.

if it was not allowed to use my dining program on others, it was not noted to me. like i said, the waitress had no problem with it.

it was a good thing to spread the magic ..............and i would do it again if i could.

 

[Ladyhawke10]

Wow, I bet your made their night!


I have a question about the dining package that I can't seem to find the answer to earlier in the thread.

I have a package for three nights for our first resort. We are actually staying at WDW 10 nights and are switching to a second resort with room only ressies. If I don't use all my credits within the first three days where we booked the package, do they expire, or can I use them over the 10 days of our trip while we are at the second resort? Thanks for info.

 

[scrapperjill]

I would like to know if they seperate the credits for adults and Children. The reason I ask is that we are going to WDW in April 2006 with the dining plan. It will be myself and my husband and our DD9 (who looks older than she is) Does she have to order only from the child's menu or will they know the difference. I am sure that she will get tired of mac and cheese and chicken fingers. So my question is does Disney mark the credits xxx amount Table Service credits for adults and XXX amount of Table service credits for Child. Or is it possible for her to order from the regular menu.

Alot could change from now until April...so I really wouldn't count on the information you get here today...to be the same a few months down the road... I'm just saying gather information now..but double check closer to your dates to see whats new...or changed.

Back to your question...our dd who was on the "child" plan...was at times able to order off the adult menu...actually most of the time she was able to. I also learned here on the dis....that if your at a counter service...and you order for say you and your dd you can with out any trouble order two adult meals...no questions asked...then have your DH get in a seperate line and order for himself...that way you are only ordering "2" adult CS meals at one time....Now for the TS credits...we were in a LARGER group....so when she'd order off the adult menu our whole groups credits were pooled together then deducted off each of our cards (we had 3 families...so three cards)...nothing was ever said...actually it wasn't untill the second or third TS meal that we even realized she'd been ordering off the adult menu...We had a good sized group of kids with us...so at TS places...we had a "kids" table and an "adult" table....She's right in the middle of the age group with the kids...so when the servers took her order off the adult menu...nothing was ever said.

 

[macraven]

Wow, I bet your made their night!


I have a question about the dining package that I can't seem to find the answer to earlier in the thread.

I have a package for three nights for our first resort. We are actually staying at WDW 10 nights and are switching to a second resort with room only ressies. If I don't use all my credits within the first three days where we booked the package, do they expire, or can I use them over the 10 days of our trip while we are at the second resort? Thanks for info.

it would be great if you could spread the dining packet out for the 10 days, but you can't.

the dining portion expires at midnight on the day you check out.
since you will be on it for 3 days/nights, on day 4 they would be expiring as of midnight. you could use the snack/ts/cs on day 4 without any problems though.

 

[jjohnson]

I don't think that it is cheap or weird!!!

We have not added the dining plan because we are doing a split stay, and to add on the dining plan actually ends up costing us way more because you need to purchase at least one park tix with each reservation to add on the dining. However, If I can swing it, I may just add it, but it depends on how much work, etc I get before then!! so we may just add it on right before we go as well!!

Did you change your plans? If your still doing a room only at AKL you can get add the DP to your package at PC with tickets for your entire stay at WDW.

 

[Camping Griswalds]

Did you change your plans? If your still doing a room only at AKL you can get add the DP to your package at PC with tickets for your entire stay at WDW.

What we are doing right now is the first part at POP 6 nights with MYW package 10 day tix, and then room only at AKL with AAA for 5 nights. We might do the dining plan with the POP stay, but to add dining to the AKL stay, We'd have to get a one day tix for each of us, and then add on dining. It just really bumped my budget out of whack, and would actually be costing us a lot more than any savings we would have gotten with a package. Believe me, my poor TA got about 25 e-mails and requests for about 15 different quotes when all of those new codes came out. I think she's still irked with me!! Anyway, she and I agree that if I wanted to stay the split stay, the packages just weren't as good of a deal for me. I could have done the package and dining all at POP for about 500 less, or all at AKL for close to the same price , but because I wanted to stay at both places, it dosen't make financial sense to do dining and tix at both! However being the OCD person I am, I still think about changing that around sometimes!!

 

[jjohnson]

What we are doing right now is the first part at POP 6 nights with MYW package 10 day tix, and then room only at AKL with AAA for 5 nights. We might do the dining plan with the POP stay, but to add dining to the AKL stay, We'd have to get a one day tix for each of us, and then add on dining. It just really bumped my budget out of whack, and would actually be costing us a lot more than any savings we would have gotten with a package. Believe me, my poor TA got about 25 e-mails and requests for about 15 different quotes when all of those new codes came out. I think she's still irked with me!! Anyway, she and I agree that if I wanted to stay the split stay, the packages just weren't as good of a deal for me. I could have done the package and dining all at POP for about 500 less, or all at AKL for close to the same price , but because I wanted to stay at both places, it dosen't make financial sense to do dining and tix at both! However being the OCD person I am, I still think about changing that around sometimes!!

Yes. That what I toss around with my split stay all the time. I would add the DP to your POP reservation then if you could possibly extend the credits into your first night at AKL leaving only 4 nights not on the plan.

 

[Camping Griswalds]

Yes. That what I toss around with my split stay all the time. I would add the DP to your POP reservation then if you could possibly extend the credits into your first night at AKL leaving only 4 nights not on the plan.

I am definately thinking of doing this, especially since a lot of our ADR's are in the beginning of the stay, and we really will get at POP the first night at around 7:00 pm and will have eaten by then I'm sure.

The nice thing with being able to add the DP on up to 48 hours before the trip, is that I really don't have to decide until late January!!

 

[jjohnson]

I am definately thinking of doing this, especially since a lot of our ADR's are in the beginning of the stay, and we really will get at POP the first night at around 7:00 pm and will have eaten by then I'm sure.

The nice thing with being able to add the DP on up to 48 hours before the trip, is that I really don't have to decide until late January!!

Planning the trip is half the fun - Enjoy!

 

[pedro2112]

I think everyone would be best served not to plan on sharing meals, being able to pay out of pocket for some of the party, not being able to pay for others, and not having pooled credits. That way, if you ARE able to do any of those things, it will be a happy surprise, right? LOL

I think those are seperate issues. You must be able to pay for some out of pocket, as the dining plan does not cover all your meals. It would be impossible for a restaurant to "force" you to use a TS voucher for everyone in your party at a meal, as perhaps some will use the TS vouchers at a later meal (or earlier meal) that day. The plan itself tells you that anyone in your party can use any of the credits at any time, as long as there are credits left. In fact, the CMs at the resorts were told by their managers to assist the guests at check in by explaining that they could pay out of pocket for their children, saving their TS vouchers for more expensive adult meals. Unless they actually change the plan language itself, of which I have seen no evidence, then they cannot disallow you to pay for some of your party out of your pocket.

I concur that sharing meals is not on the plan, so that is an issue up to the indvidual CMs at the restuarant.

Regarding the issue of using credits for those not on the plan, I was just reiterating what was told to me by a manager at Coronado back in March. I had a question regarding a situation at one of the snack carts in the MK. It wouldn't allow me to buy 5 water bottles. The manager stated that the number of bottles didn't match our dining plan party, so it wouldn't allow us to buy them. He said that the system is built that way so people can't by others not on the plan, meals. A server at Whispering Canyon, on another board, confirmed this. I know that the CMs obviously have a way of getting around this (because of the reports of people using more TS credits than people in their room), but it clearly is against the rules and is built into the computer system this way. I found that language on the plan documents (which is very ambiguous, I agree), as the closest I can see to this in writing.

The one question I do have, however, is there any objective proof that the dining plan language will change to seperate child and adult credits? Some have suggested so, but I haven't seen anything in writing to this effect.

 

[GPALANGE]

If I already have my park tickets and have a room only reservation for 7 days, am i understanding right that if I buy a one day ticket I can add the dinning plan on to my room only reservation for the whole 7 days??? For some reason I thought the dinning plan went along with the number of park days you had not the number of nights stays. I didn't think you could add the dp if you got your tickets separately. Someone clarify this for me.

Thanks

 

[macraven]

if you buy the myw packet with dining, the tickets are included.

if you already have tickets or an AP, then in order to get the complete package you need to buy a one day ticket for everyone that will be on the myw with dining packet.


ie, 3 people in the room, buy 3 one day tickets to qualify for the dining program that you purchased.

use your tickets that you bought and save the one day ticket for a later trip.
or you can apply the one day ticket towards the purchase of an AP

 

[DisneyMom5]

I think those are seperate issues. You must be able to pay for some out of pocket, as the dining plan does not cover all your meals. It would be impossible for a restaurant to "force" you to use a TS voucher for everyone in your party at a meal, as perhaps some will use the TS vouchers at a later meal (or earlier meal) that day. The plan itself tells you that anyone in your party can use any of the credits at any time, as long as there are credits left. In fact, the CMs at the resorts were told by their managers to assist the guests at check in by explaining that they could pay out of pocket for their children, saving their TS vouchers for more expensive adult meals. Unless they actually change the plan language itself, of which I have seen no evidence, then they cannot disallow you to pay for some of your party out of your pocket.

I concur that sharing meals is not on the plan, so that is an issue up to the indvidual CMs at the restuarant.

Regarding the issue of using credits for those not on the plan, I was just reiterating what was told to me by a manager at Coronado back in March. I had a question regarding a situation at one of the snack carts in the MK. It wouldn't allow me to buy 5 water bottles. The manager stated that the number of bottles didn't match our dining plan party, so it wouldn't allow us to buy them. He said that the system is built that way so people can't by others not on the plan, meals. A server at Whispering Canyon, on another board, confirmed this. I know that the CMs obviously have a way of getting around this (because of the reports of people using more TS credits than people in their room), but it clearly is against the rules and is built into the computer system this way. I found that language on the plan documents (which is very ambiguous, I agree), as the closest I can see to this in writing.

The one question I do have, however, is there any objective proof that the dining plan language will change to seperate child and adult credits? Some have suggested so, but I haven't seen anything in writing to this effect.

They limited your snacks? Again, this must have been an individual CM thing, because we bought 8 snacks at Pop Century and we had 6 people in our party. In fact, we only had 3 people per card, and we were always allowed more than 3 meals per card, TS and CS.
It is so frustrating to hear that so many people have so many different experiences.
Besides, we DID eat all of our own food. How would they prove otherwise? And what if one person wanted to use 2 of his own snack credits to get a popcorn and and a soft drink? It sounds like you had a non-helpful CM.

And to GPLANGE - yes you have to have a package which includes tickets, but NO the plan is not hooked to your number of park days, but IS hooked to your number of nights at the hotel. You can have more or less days on your tickets with no problem.

 

[pedro2112]

They limited your snacks? Again, this must have been an individual CM thing, because we bought 8 snacks at Pop Century and we had 6 people in our party. In fact, we only had 3 people per card, and we were always allowed more than 3 meals per card, TS and CS.
It is so frustrating to hear that so many people have so many different experiences.
Besides, we DID eat all of our own food. How would they prove otherwise? And what if one person wanted to use 2 of his own snack credits to get a popcorn and and a soft drink? It sounds like you had a non-helpful CM.

In Defense to the CM at the turkey cart in Frontierland, the dining plan was very new then and she had never used it before at her cart. The main point was that the computer wouldn't allow it because she was (accidentally) ringing it up as counter service, and I was trying to use more credits than people in the party. The manager at Coronado says that the reason the computer won't allow this is because you are not allowed to use more vouchers for people in your party for meals (not snacks, I guess), becuase you can't use CS or TS credits for people not on the plan (which is the point I was making originally). A CM at Whispering Canyon confirmed that this is how the computer system works. Obviously they have a way of getting around this as some have reported using more meal vouchers than people in their dining plan party, but I just wanted to warn people that using your vouchers this way is not part of the plan, and you may be disappointed if a CM decides to stick to the rules.

 

[adrock1976]

In Defense to the CM at the turkey cart in Frontierland, the dining plan was very new then and she had never used it before at her cart. The main point was that the computer wouldn't allow it because she was (accidentally) ringing it up as counter service, and I was trying to use more credits than people in the party. The manager at Coronado says that the reason the computer won't allow this is because you are not allowed to use more vouchers for people in your party for meals (not snacks, I guess), becuase you can't use CS or TS credits for people not on the plan (which is the point I was making originally). A CM at Whispering Canyon confirmed that this is how the computer system works. Obviously they have a way of getting around this as some have reported using more meal vouchers than people in their dining plan party, but I just wanted to warn people that using your vouchers this way is not part of the plan, and you may be disappointed if a CM decides to stick to the rules.

Out of curiousity, why are you so hung-up on how people use their meal plan credits? You have seen that dozens of people use as many credits as they want. Bottom line, if someone has an individual issue with a manager or CM at a restaurant, they should call Dining to have it resolved or renforced.