How to know what to order with DDP?Are menus labeled?

[pinkcheezit]

I am getting the free dining plan for the fall for the first time, and I am having trouble understanding what you actually get with it. I know you get a meal, a drink, and dessert, but my question is, when you are looking at the menu how do you know what counts?? How do you know which dessert, which drink, which side etc? Is it marked on the menu? I am wondering this about Counter service and Table service restaurants. I know some meals may not be included (like some lobster ones) and I thought I saw something about some desserts. Like at Pizza Planet, if you order one pizza can you get a cupcake for dessert? How many cupcakes? And how do you know how many credits the pizza is? Is it labeled somewhere on the menu?
This is a lot of questions rolled into one! I appreciate any clarification. I am afraid I will get to Disney and order everything all wrong and be charged for stuff and hold up the lines!

 

[MarieLightning]

Like you mentioned, the regular dining plan includes an entree, a dessert and a drink per meal, regardless of whether it's quick service or table service.

I couldn't see about some meal items or desserts not being included - all the restaurants I ate at, I could get anything I wanted off the menu. I know some restaurants are not part of the dining plan though, which you can verify in the restaurants section on wdwinfo or on Disney's website directly.

Basically, if you go to Pizza Planet, you get to pick your meal (pizza), your dessert (cupcake), and your drink. They will let you know if you're forgetting something - when I went to ABC Commissary, my aunt wasn't in the mood for a dessert, so we didn't ask for one. The lady reminded us about it, and when we mentioned she didn't want a dessert, she told us that we could get something else instead, like a bottle of water. Everyone makes sure you get what you payed for (or well, would've )

The only meals I had that were different were the following: Mama Melrose on the Fantasmic dining plan allowed us one appetizer and one entree each, and then a dessert platter to share. Cinderella's Royal Table meal includes an appetizer, an entree and a dessert for everyone - I may be wrong, but I think this is the case for most signature/2 credit dinings. And then Chefs de France had an option of also getting a three course meal. If you chose to do that, there were select items that you could pick from for all three courses, mentioned on the menu. If you opted out of that, you would get your normal entree and dessert meal, and then you could pick whatever you wanted off of the a la carte menu.

In all cases, when we were getting something slightly different, the waiter/waitress explained it to us at the beginning of the meal

The credits are also on a per person, per nights basis. Basically, with the regular dining plan, you get 7 table service credits, 7 quick service credits and 7 snack credits. It is up to you how and when you want to spend those. You could do two days in a row of just eating table service meals if you wanted - all that would happen is after those two days, you would only have 3 TS credits a person left.

Also, though I cannot vouch for what you mentioned with certain meal options not being included, I am 100% that they will mention it to you. Every TS meal we sat down at, one of the first things the waiters asked us is if we were on the DDP - even at Planet Hollywood in DTD

 

[Cafeen]

First off, if ever in doubt when at WDW, simply ask the Cast Member that's serving you (either in line at the CS or your server at a TS) and they'll be able to answer whatever you may ask .

In all restaurants accepting a dining plan, all single serving entree items will be covered (so yes, those lobster entrees at Narcoossee's are, in fact, covered by DDP!) Some restaurants offer items "for 2" (or more). In most of these cases, you must have 2 people on the dining plan ordering that item (to split) for it to qualify. Hacienda de San Angel has a couple examples of this (note: the larger pizzas at Via Napoli are NOT available on the plan, this is because they are far more strict about plan usage than any other restaurant at Disney). Further, some restaurants offer a "prix fixe" menu that includes an appetizer, entree, and dessert (yes, an app, even on the DDP!) The "rules" for this type of menu differ between restaurants, but in general they are covered with the exceptions of Flying Fish (not covered at all) and Restaurant Marrakesh (requires a surcharge).

As far as individual entitlements (drinks, desserts, etc), typically anything that's NOT covered on a menu will be explained by the CM (there's far less not covered than covered). Other than multiple serving items and the Kitchen Sink over at Beaches and Cream, I can't think of a single dessert-like item (or item on the dessert menu) that wasn't covered. Drinks are usually soft-drinks/juices and potentially standard (not specialty) coffees/teas and the like. Some places (e.g. WCC) even offer milkshakes as part of the entitlement (50s does too, but I think it's a dessert there?), so if you see something, ask away!

As far at Pizza Planet specifically, I can't help you there.

Once you get down there and start using it, a lot will be made clear. It's complex to explain ahead of time, but quite simple to actually use. Plus, every TS (and probably most CS) server will explain it to you. It will get old by the end of the week .

 

[lizzi6692]

Since most of your questions have been well-answered I just have this to add, the pizzas at Pizza Planet are meant to be individual sized pizzas so one pizza = one dessert.

 

[TDC Nala]

They aren't labeled because almost everything on the restaurant menus is included. There are so few exceptions that they aren't published by Disney. If you have any questions about the plan, ask the server or cashier.

One thing that is never included is alcoholic beverages. The only way to get those included is to book a dinner show - whatever's included on the fixed price menu for the dinner show is included on the DDP, and that goes for the beer and wine too.

Yes, the Narcoosees lobster is covered.

Pizza Planet's pizzas are intended to be one individual serving - they do not have large multiple serving pizzas there. So for one CS credit there you get one individual pizza, one cupcake (for dessert) and a non-alcoholic beverage.

Every once in awhile you'll find a restaurant that excludes certain things. Via Napoli won't allow any specialty beverages, alcoholc or non-alcoholic, so it's not always every non-alcoholic beverage on the menu at every restaurant. The servers will help you with what is included and what isn't.

 

[DisneyMom5]

Pizza planet has individual sized pizzas, and, last I knew, the entree choices were either the pizza; or a pizza and a side salad; or a main course salad. There might also be a sandwich. So you would order an entree, a dessert, and a drink.

It seems stressful going in, but it actually is a LOT easier than it sounds.
And, things that are available for a SNACK credit are usually marked. Which helps a lot.

Sometimes we would split a QS meal and then throw in another dessert or drink using a snack credit.

Oh, and no one at WDW needs to know you have the FREE dining. It doesn't matter. The dining plan is the same whether you paid for it or not. I made that mistake my first trip!

Happy planning (and don't be afraid to keep asking questions!)

 

[TDC Nala]

Oh, and no one at WDW needs to know you have the FREE dining. It doesn't matter. The dining plan is the same whether you paid for it or not. I made that mistake my first trip!

Something a lot of folks don't know is that free dining is not a restaurant discount. It's a resort discount. The restaurants have no way of knowing if you are on free dining or if you paid for the dining, and there's no reason to tell them.

 

[Sunnywho]

All I can add is that the cupcakes at Pizza Planet are delicious, and you should try one!

 

[melissafox18]

We did DDP on our trip last year for the first time and I was slightly overwhelmed with the concept. Once you read a little about it, things are actually pretty easy and essentially everything on the menu is available for your choosing. For TS meals, the CM asks if you are on the dining plan when you sit down, asks to see your KTTW and then lets you know of any restrictions on the menu based on the plan (at least that was our experience from 6 TS meals).

My advice is definitely go in with a plan of where you'd like to eat in each park or at different resorts and go from there. If you have an idea of what QS serve what type of food and how big the portions are, the easier your days will be. I made notes in my iPhone with the QS places that seemed interesting to us based on our plan for the week and a quick one liner of why and then I read them off to DH when we got hungry for a meal during the day.