Heads up for plan fudgers in 2007

[sconnell]

Ok, I haven't read this whole thread. Just the first few pages, but here is my imput.
Forget the Dining Plan! lol. Unless my DH and I ever go back for a trip by ourselves or our kids get old enough to be big eaters, it's just not worth it for us. Well, unless it's free dining, then we plan an extra trip.

 

[Lewisc]

Internet saavy guests made the plan complicated. Using kids credits for adult meals and saving credits for others not on the plan.

The plan can be simple. Pay cash or use snack credits for breakfast. Use your CS credits for lunch and your TS credits for dinner. Kids get kids meals and adults get adult meals. Your kid wants an occasional adult meal. Use the kids credit for your drink and fries. Pay cash for an extra adult burger.

The kids plan costs $11/ day. The snack is worth $3-$4 and a kids character meal is about $15 including tax and tip. The kids don't have to eat much to get your "monies" worth, long as your family is going to eat a TS meal almost every day the plan works. The plan won't work if you're going to mainly eat CS meals or want to eat meals offsite.

Ok, I haven't read this whole thread. Just the first few pages, but here is my imput.
Forget the Dining Plan! lol. Unless my DH and I ever go back for a trip by ourselves or our kids get old enough to be big eaters, it's just not worth it for us. Well, unless it's free dining, then we plan an extra trip.

 

[amytheobald]

I still think at face value when DDP is used the way it s intended it a good deal.(If you plan to eat a TS a day) When exploited its a fabulous deal. It's not complicated, if you use it according to the "rules" there will be no trouble during your visit and you won't be hungry either. I believe the new kids menus (the ones that I ve seen) are fine, and most kids should be able to find something to eat, if it so happens your at a restaurant and you kiddo can't find anything suitable, prepare yourself to pay OOP for something, put a smile on your face and ask the CM ever so sweetly if they can help you find something your darling child will eat....you may just be surprised, they may help you and it may not cost you anything...if on the other hand they can't help you pick something off of the adult menu for your kid.. The only hangup about these menus are with the preplated meals and desserts, but being a family that eats family style alot if our kids want some of the adult desserts thats fine....also if I have to come OOP for a dessert here or there the DDP is STILL a good value. Children are certainly able to get $10.99 a day worth of food out of the plan. We will have some extra Kids CS because our kids are going on the pirate cruise which includes lunch...those will simply become breakfast sometime during our trip. This plan is still a good value, still flexible, even if all of the exploitable loopholes have been closed!!!

 

[DisneyJo]

After reading lots of DDP reviews and coming to the conclusion that there will be way too much food for me, DH, DD10 and DD8 to eat I had already come to the conclusion that we will share. I had already decided we could share 1 childs and 1 adults breakfast then share 2 adult lunches, leaving us each a TS meal in the evening. (one DD will be an adult one still a child on the plan) Last visit we did not have DDP and hardly ate anything as it was just too hot so even by sharing we will still probably be stuffed!
Portions are large so can be easily shared, also choose CS places that don't just offer PB&J etc. With TS the menus look better with more variety on the kids menus. We will be there for 14 nights so I don't want either of my DD just living on fries. So what I'm saying is don't cheat the system, share between you and choose your restaurants to suit your tastes!

 

[keishashadow]

Good to plan where you'll dine based on offerings, our same method.

Which is why we were floored when mid-way through our vacation last October, the new kids menus were rolled out. Felt bad that I had promised my gourmand son menu items & they weren't offered any longer...guess who ate the kids' meal & adult appetizer.

Didn't see advance notice here (the definitive source lol).

 

[Lady V]

Because a lot of people were getting adult meals for their kids, since the credits weren't differentiated.Now, parents won't be able to do that. They'll either need to eat the kids meal, or pay out of pocket, if their child won't eat what's on the kids menu.

Good- those people were basically stealing as far as I am concerned. If you paid for kids prices you should only get kids meals for them. If you don't like the choices then don't get the plan. Pretty simple.

 

[JimMIA]

This just proves that DDP is not for everyone. Not every package offered will work for every family. If it's a good fit for you, you book it. If not, you move on to something that will work for your family.

I agree. I think the new enforcement of long-standing rules will reduce the number of families for whom DDP makes sense. I also suspect that reduction in potential market is perfectly fine with the Disney F&B folks. In fact, I think they are specifically trying to limit the the plan to people who use it as Disney intended.

There are other discount options. People who formerly enjoyed using all the credits interchangeably might investigate the DDE card, which gives you 20% off virtually all food and beverage, including alcohol. (You have to be an AP holder or Florida resident to qualify, but it's also a great discount program.)

Buy one AP, get the AP room discount instead of paying rack rate, and get 20% off your F&B, and eat whatever you want!...

 

[Gillian]

Thank you for the information.

We used the plan as indended, and it was still a good value for us. With the new kids meals, we'll have to see, but we're not going until August and have some time to figure it out. The change in credits is not such a big deal if you're not concerned about working the system, so to speak.

We're going with family with older kids ("adults") and that may impact our decidsion. Lots of big eaters, but the older ones may not want to sit still for TS meals. Also, a pool home might work really well for this particular group, so offsite is still a possibility.

 

[lillygator]

Good- those people were basically stealing as far as I am concerned. If you paid for kids prices you should only get kids meals for them. If you don't like the choices then don't get the plan. Pretty simple.

I agree....I am anxious to see how and if it is enforced.

 

[minijeanie]

next march I will be using DDP for just 2 adults. the first nite a friend will be joining us for dinner.

He will pay OOP but quite honestly why can't I use a TS for him.. what difference does it make. It only means that by the end of the trip I will just pay OOP for one TS meal.

With the adult coupons I do not see how this matters if I treat the whole table next to me for dinner or I use all my TS and CS in one day

I paid up front for it and if I use all my credits what does it matter who I use them on as long as it is used by the end of my trip

 

[bicker]

next march I will be using DDP for just 2 adults. the first nite a friend will be joining us for dinner. He will pay OOP but quite honestly why can't I use a TS for him.. what difference does it make.

We can only speculate about Disney's specific reason, but some of us are pretty good at speculating about that: Like all similar offers, the Dining Plan is priced based on an assumption that a certain amount of credits will remain unused. Allowing Dining Plan credits to be transferred to pay for meals for folks not on the Dining Plan disrupts that pricing model. Eliminating that restriction would be reflected in a higher price for everyone. I suspect many folks are happy enough with the restriction and the lower price.

As it is, regardless of speculation about "Why?" -- it isn't permitted for Dining Plan patrons to use Dining Plan credits for guests not on the Dining Plan, so as you suggest, paying for your friend's dinner in cash is the correct approach.

 

[Lewisc]

One explanation is given earlier in this thread

http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=16042983&postcount=17

Chances are you'll want to use your credits to treat your friend at a more expensive meal than the meal you'll wind up paying OOP. Most people wind up using their credits at a variety of restaurants, some restaurants are "better deals" than others. Using your credits to treat others will result in more of your credits being in more expensive restaurants.

Disney gets to make the policy and gets to price the plan in accordance with that policy.

next march I will be using DDP for just 2 adults. the first nite a friend will be joining us for dinner.

He will pay OOP but quite honestly why can't I use a TS for him.. what difference does it make. It only means that by the end of the trip I will just pay OOP for one TS meal.

With the adult coupons I do not see how this matters if I treat the whole table next to me for dinner or I use all my TS and CS in one day

I paid up front for it and if I use all my credits what does it matter who I use them on as long as it is used by the end of my trip

 

[ACJT]

Is this for sure, or just speculation as in the past??

We are being told that as of January 1st, the computers will know a child credit from an adult credit and there will be no way to get adult food when you paid child price on your DDP. Also, servers will be held strictly accountable for the number of diners on your key. This means no sending adults up to the CS counter twice to get grown up meals for the kids and no saving credits to buy relatives or friends who aren't on the plan a dinner.

 

[Sammie]

Is this for sure, or just speculation as in the past??

She works for Disney, I would say this is for sure.

 

[kaytieeldr]

More than that, she works at several of the Table Service restaurants, so I agree, BuffaloGal knows whereof she speaks (and she's a fantastic server, besides )

 

[rolshuk]

I think it is a good idea to seperate adult and kids meals.
Would it be wrong if we shared 3 adult cs meals between myself,dh,dd13 and dd8 then use 2 kids cs credits for breakfast to feed dds paying oops for ourselves? Could we even do this?
I full intend to used 3 adult and 1 kids ts when we eat ts meals.

 

[unbroken chain]

I have a question: will children who are "adults" on the plan be able to order a child's menu item using an adult credit? Will it be different for table service vs. counter service?

I ask because I just came back last week. For table service, in several restaurants, my 10 year old was able to order off the child's menu, or basically any simple thing not even on the menu (plain pasta with nothing on it, plain rice, etc.) with the adult credit.

But when we tried to order a kid's meal for her at Tusker House (counter service), the clerk refused to let her have a kid's meal and insisted that because we had only adult credits, she had to order an adult meal for an adult credit. I asked if she couldn't just have a child's meal and he would deduct the adult credit for the child's meal, but he said no. His explanation was that they were "cracking down" on this.

It doesn't seem to make sense to me, since the kid's meals are cheaper. (There was nothing she wanted and she ended up ordering a platter, eating the french fries and throwing away the sandwich.) So is this really the new "rule", or was this clerk misinformed??

 

[bicker]

Generally, at TS restaurants, they'll be pretty accommodating of any special requests, such as ordering things off the menu. CS generally isn't like that. While it might seem reasonable to us to just allow you to use an adult credit for a child meal at CS, I can foresee at least one problem: Word is that they're monitoring the performance of CMs by how closely the number of adult vs. child meals served match the number of adult vs. child meals charged. So until such time as that specific eatery has a specific inventory item "child meal paid for with adult credits" I wouldn't expect the CMs to offer that substitution.

 

[BuzzBelleMom]

After reading this thread, I am so glad that we will not be going back until at least 2009; hopefully by then, the bugs will be worked out.

Our problem is that DD8 is almost a vegan (she likes DH's scrambled eggs, the occasional chicken nugget and cheese pizza), so several times she had a snack in the parks while DH, DS5 and myself ate a CS. She then had a cheese pizza or Pasta Alfredo when we got back to the hotel. Luckily we were at CSR.

 

[bicker]

I doubt that the program will even evolve to a point where every individual specific needs are accommodated seemlessly within the context of the offering. Rather, over time, the program will become more and more attuned to the typical guest, adjusting to the abuse detected, with the price increased or the services provided decreased to achieve a better match between price charged and value perceived.