how does dining plan work with Cinderella's Castle?

[jelo]

We are going to WDW for 5 nts, March 3rd to 9th. My dd is celebrating her 8th birthday and would either like 1900 park Fare or the castle.

I was able to book with the free dining plan(quick service)and I know it won't work with these choices...

We check in on the 3rd, so are we alloted meals for that day? What about the morning of the 9th that we check out? Can some of oure extra meals be pooled to cover the sit down meals?


Would it be easier or are we expected to pay out of pocket for these character meals>

I've never done the dining plan before,so I'm a bit confused!

 

[Faldred]

Dining credits are allocated based on the number of nights you are staying at the resort. So, you would receive 5 TS credits, 5 CS credits, and 5 snack credits per member of your party, all of which can be used at any time from the moment you check in until the midnight following your checkout.

Cinderella's Royal Table requires 2 TS credits per person if using dining plan credits. This is generally not considered a good value for adults (but good value for children), however, if you would otherwise have unused dining credits, then "value" is kind of by the boards anyway. Park Fare is similarly not such a great adult value, but is a good use of child credits.

If you had a use for the extra TS credits, generally I would suggest paying adults OOP for CRT/Fark Fare and use credits for any children. Regular sit-down restaurants generally have fairly cheap kids' meals, compared to character meal/CRT/dinner show prices, so do the opposite there: use adult TS credits and pay OOP for the kids.

Edit: It would, of course, have helped if I had caught the part in the original post about being on QSDP -- the following posters are correct in saying that you can't use CS credits, in any combination, to pay for TS meals. If one of those two are the only TS meal you want to do, best pay OOP. If you'd rather have the basic DDP 1 TS/1 CS/1 snack, then you can upgrade the free QSDP to DDP for the price difference between plans.

 

[havoc315]

You receive all of your meal credits the moment you check in, and they are all valid until midnight of your checkout day.

QS credits cannot be used for table service meals -- so you can't use them for 1900 Park Fare or the Castle. In fact, the castle requires 2 table service credits -- though it is often more economical to simply pay out of pocket.

So your choices are either to pay out of pocket, or to pay to upgrade your plan to the basic DDP.

 

[It'sWDW4me]

Unfortunately, no, with the Quick Service Dining you will not have table service credits to use for character meals. You would need to pay OOP (out of pocket) for those.

How the credits work is: you get a "pool" of credits to be used at any time from the moment you check in until 11:59 pm of the day that you check out. You don't HAVE to use 2 a day - use them as you like until they're gone. Each receipt will show you how many credits remain in your "pool".

I hope this helps!

 

[twelveone]

I have a follow-up question regarding the DDP and Cinderella's Royal Table. I have found conflicting reports on the Internet and have hopes that it can be answered here. Does the CRT meal include an appetizer on the basic dining plan even though no other table service meals do?

 

[Faldred]

I have a follow-up question regarding the DDP and Cinderella's Royal Table. I have found conflicting reports on the Internet and have hopes that it can be answered here. Does the CRT meal include an appetizer on the basic dining plan even though no other table service meals do?

CRT is a fixed-price meal, which includes all listed courses for all guests.

There are a limited number of other options to get a full 3-course meal on basic DDP -- some restaurants have a fixed-price sub-menu that includes lower-end entrees and limited appetizer and dessert offerings; these are valid on basic DDP. Also, the Mama Melrose Fantasmic! package allows a full 3-course option from their full menu for basic DDP.

 

[havoc315]

I have a follow-up question regarding the DDP and Cinderella's Royal Table. I have found conflicting reports on the Internet and have hopes that it can be answered here. Does the CRT meal include an appetizer on the basic dining plan even though no other table service meals do?

Yes the appetizer is included. But be warned, it's not a very impressive appetizer. You go to the castle for the Princesses, not for the food.

It's a small salad, a small cheese plate, or 1 of the worst little shrimp cocktails I've ever had.

 

[purple figment]

We are going to WDW for 5 nts, March 3rd to 9th.

We check in on the 3rd, What about the morning of the 9th that we check out?

Just a quick correction - checking in on Mar 3, checking out on Mar 9, you will be there for 6 nights so you'll have 6 nights worth of QS credits.

 

[jelo]

Now I get it, thanks everyone!

We will do the oop then. We had breakfast at the castle last May like I said, my 6 yr old at the time didn't eat one bite, she was so excited! The food wasn't the most amazing I've ever tasted, but it was good.