FAQ about the Disney Dining Plan

[HaleyB]

Travel Agent says we must buy 3 adults and 1 child but I suspect the Concierge would be a bit more flexible, yes?

Thanks for all this great info.

Because it is a package add on, and the rules of a package require everyone in the room to have everything the same, so the TA is right, you would have to buy the 3 adults and one child. However you do not have to use the credits on your MIL. You could, instead, use her credits towards the 2 credit Signature meals.

Me thinks I would be making a nice ADR someplace romantic for two... and sending MIL and son off for a special meal with Mickey (hey Grandparent bonding is important ). That would use up 6 TS credits, if you are staying awhile you could take everyone to another Signature meal on another night...

 

[Marthasor]

If you are going concierge at Poly, I wouldn't get the meal plan - you are getting so much food already with the concierge service!

 

[clombardi]

If you are going concierge at Poly, I wouldn't get the meal plan - you are getting so much food already with the concierge service!

I have to agree with this. We stayed Poly concierge in July and while I loved having the meal plan, I would never do it again unless I wasn't staying concierge. I felt like we had access to way too much food! Since we had the dining plan, we did not use the concierge evening service to the degree I would have liked to. Chef Dick is amazing and it would have been very easy to make dinners out of those appetizers many nights!

 

[trvlr4301]

just subscribing!

 

[MemoryMakers2669]

Don't see it posted here, but thought I would add it just in case. The Candlelight Processional Dinner Packages are now accepted on the Dining Plan!

My group had a dilema (sp?) with this actually, as 3 of the 9 of us will have the Dining Plan, while the others won't. So, they wouldn't have been able to stay with us for the Priority Seating, but now they can!!

 

[have2getaway]

What is this? Just curious.

 

[have2getaway]

There will be me, dh, and our son (4). Will we use 3 credits? Can we use 2 and pay for ds? How about CRT, can we do the same?

 

[clombardi]

There will be me, dh, and our son (4). Will we use 3 credits? Can we use 2 and pay for ds? How about CRT, can we do the same?

We did this during our July trip and had no problems. Just make sure to tell the wait staff at the beginning of the meal.

 

[MemoryMakers2669]

What is this? Just curious.

One of the events at Christmas time in Epcot. You can book a dinner package to get priority seating, just like the Fantasmic Dinner Package.

 

[Selena]

Hi
We are going in October with my three children and my parents. We have two rooms and I had to put my four year old in my parents room as we are exceeding people limits in our room. I am however paying for both rooms and we have the free dining. My question is does each person get a room key with the dining credits? My concern is that my parents wont always be with us but my four year old will. How will we work the dining? If each person gets a card then I can take his card but not sure? HELP!

Thanks in advance

PS Is anyone having the worst time getting ADR's?? We originally going in late Nov but when I heard about the free dining we pushed our trip up only to find it nearly impossible to get reservations at "normal" dining hours.

 

[mommyoeo]

I have found that to be the case too!

I booked the free dining about 110 days before my trip was to start. When the 90th day came around, I made all the ressies I could. A week later, I called to make changes but everything was booked solid. ABout a month later, they offered the free dining plan again and I felt sorry for those who were getting it becasue I knew the restaurants were already full and that they would probably not even be able to USE the free plan. I'm sorry you've had such a hard time getting ressies-- hopefully some folks will cancel theirs and you can jump right in.

My inlaws are joining us but they are wasting thier money on the dining plan. That's even worse-- when you PAY and can't get a reservation anywhere!

Good luck--

 

[macraven]

i booked my adr daily once i was at the 90 day out period.
after the fact, the 100 day out promo came......

i had to move two dates around to get what i wanted with the free dining.

i wanted to drop one place and add another and called.

no room at the inn saga...........the cm told me to call at the 30 day and 20 day out as the resturants were releasing ressies at different time periods.

the cm told me they allowed the resturants to book about 35% at the 90 days out and add more adr times closer in like the 30 day and 20 day time periods.

with that in mind, call , call, call, again to get what you want.

 

[foolishmortal]

Just my 2 cents here but I didn't start calling for my adr's until the 45 day mark and I got everything I wanted!!!

This includes Coral Reef, Cali Grill, H&V, Crystal Palace.

So I don't think it is really anything to do with free dining as I am going 9/4 - 9/10/05, I may have got in right as they opened more I don't know, but it's 4 of us and got all the times at all the places we wanted.

 

[daisy112878]

We just booked three rooms at POFQ with the dining plan.

If we are all at dinner do we just give them one card from each room or do all the cards have to be presented? Also what happens if my parents (in one room) take my niece (in another room) to a restaurant. Do they need to present her card and their card? Or could they just use their card and later on my sister could get a meal for them off her card?

sorry if this is confusing.

 

[3mickeys&me]

So you can use the table service for a Charactor Breakfast???????

 

[angel's momma]

So you can use the table service for a Charactor Breakfast???????

Yes.

 

[luv2go2disney]

I have a question for anyone who knows about the dining plan. I have read through this thread and see how people paid for their children's meals in order to save the credits for future adult meals. I heard that they stopped lumping them all together so that people can no longer do this. If I skipped a child's meal, I would still have to use it later for a child. I even called the 407-wdw-dine and they said that meals could only be re-used for a child and not saved for an adult meal. Does anyone know if the plan (as of october 2005) will allow adults to use saved children's credits? Are the disney people trained to say that this won't work, even though it will? I just don't want to plan on saving them and then lose them in the end. Also, when I booked the dining option, I as told that TS meals could be used as CS Meals. Today, the disney PS agent said that TS meals had to be used only for TS and not downgraded. Have they changed that? I knew CS could not be traded up for TS but it would save them so much $$ if they'd let it switch the other way. Thanks for any help!

Does anyone know if this has changed. We are traveling in 2 weeks and I don't want to be stuck paying for meals because we didn't plan properly....TIA

 

[kidsluvmickey]

We went the first week of August. We loved it!! We were concerned about having to follow a schedule with all the ressies we made but it really worked out great. I have 2 children (3 and 5) and we were able to do a character meal every day we were there. It was great!! We never stood in line to meet mickey and pals, winnie the pooh gang, or princesses. We ate with them instead. One character meal at the "Liberty Tavern" at MK was over 80 dollars, I think that was the least expensive meal. We had lunch with the princesses at the castle, we had the Ohana breakfast, the princess storybook breakfast,and crystal palace lunch. WE spend the money we paid for the dinning package just with these meals. We thought it was a great bargin. We want to do it again. I say try it.

I do have one question though. Can DVC member purchase the dining plan?? Does anyone know??

 

[WDWBetsy]

I do have one question though. Can DVC member purchase the dining plan?? Does anyone know??

No they can't - I would certainly hope that Disney would let them in the future, but until then, I think a lot of DVCers are purchasing the DDE card.

 

[jillbear]

I called 2 days ago and was told by a CM that I could not share a TS meal at the Sci-Fi Diner. I saw on this board that many people have had no problem ding this. We are going in November. Think this is a change or just an uniformed CM? This is my first time to write anything, so if I did something incorrectly, please let me know!