How to make DLR trip all-inclusive?

[MaryPoppinz]

My mom has taken my extended family on a couple of trips to WDW in recent years. She wants to treat us, so she has covered the cost of room, tickets and dining plan and likes how that makes it feel "all-inclusive". She is thinking of taking us to DLR in the near future but is hesitant because of the lack of dining plan. Any suggestions for how to get that all-inclusive feel at Disneyland?
Thanks for any help.

 

[StyledSugar]

Perhaps using pre-purchased gift cards? Or if you are staying onsite, you can charge all food purchases in the restaurant to your room using your room key, which can then be paid off at check out.

 

[DizMe]

If the plan is to stay onsite, maybe getting concierge rooms would be a partial solution. You can't dine in the parks, but you can have meals (although dinner is mostly appetizers) in the concierge lounge. That way, if anyone was hungry they could head to the lounge for something to eat.

Getting character meal vouchers is another possibility, as they can be used at face value in most Disney restaurants. In other words, if you have a premium character meal voucher valued at $45, you don't have to use it for a character meal. You could use it at almost any restaurant and often, you'll get a lot more mileage out of the $45 than you would at the character meal. One thing to note is there is no change given, but you can use vouchers singly or in combination. You can use a voucher and pay the rest in cash, or you can allocate the remainder of the voucher, if it is over the bill amount, to the tip.

I also like the ideas of charging to the room and using gift cards. That seems like the easiest way to do it.

 

[Geemo]

I'll be taking 3 of my grandkids, one daughter-in-law and are paying for the entire trip. We're staying off-site and there will be times were not all together.

I have purchased a couple of gift cards, for the times we split up. This way they have gift cards to buy whatever they need when not with me.

I've never thought there was a need for a dining plan. We tried making reservations but found we weren't ready to eat or near the dining location at the reserved time.

I will make a reservation for a character breakfast if the group wants to do one during the trip.

Once we begin our day in the parks, we just wing it for meals and have never had a problem.

Gift cards are the way to go to make it feel like an all inclusive trip for you and those traveling with you.

Geemo

 

[TheChapman6]

Staying onsite and charging everything back to room would work but she wouldn't know how much it would cost. You could go the gift card route and use any leftovers for toys and treats to take home at the end.

 

[Indiana Scott]

We stay across the street at a neighboring hotel and it still feels all inclusive because these hotels revolve around the park.
All of our time is spent somewhere in the DLR complex whether in a park or in DTD.
We stay for 5 days and never feel like we've left the magic.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Best way to make it feel all inclusive for the family will be to stay onsite & charge to the room, then she can pay the hotel bill which will include all room charges. Hotel bill and 99% of everything in the parks can be charged using room keys (we found 1 ice cream vendor in the parks who only took cash one time).

The concierge level is a nice suggestion if price permits. It provides a continental breakfast (no meats or eggs), snacks in the afternoon, appetizers in the evening and desserts at night as well as wine & beer in the afternoon & a few cordials at night. The ONLY meal it substitutes is breakfast. The apps can lead to lighter dinners but they are not meals and are not meant to be dinner. The concierge level is available at all 3 hotels and is cheapest at Paradise Pier. You don't need to stay concierge in order to charge everything on your room keys though!

Word of caution on using gift cards. You can't pay in advance so you can't just put all the gift cards towards the room when you arrive & forget about it & enjoy the trip. You can pay the room & charges off each day, if you don't want to hold onto all the gift cards until the very end, but this definitely brings you out of the "all-inclusive" feel. And holding onto that large an amount of gift cards until the end of the trip can be unnerving.

 

[MaryPoppinz]

Thanks to all of you for the helpful tips!

 

[Malcon10t]

We stay across the street at a neighboring hotel and it still feels all inclusive because these hotels revolve around the park.
All of our time is spent somewhere in the DLR complex whether in a park or in DTD.
We stay for 5 days and never feel like we've left the magic.

I think by "all inclusive" her mom is trying to make sure the kids are not having to pay for things (and wondering how to do it without a prepaid dining package.)

 

[Nonsuch]

...Word of caution on using gift cards. You can't pay in advance so you can't just put all the gift cards towards the room when you arrive & forget about it & enjoy the trip. You can pay the room & charges off each day, if you don't want to hold onto all the gift cards until the very end, but this definitely brings you out of the "all-inclusive" feel. And holding onto that large an amount of gift cards until the end of the trip can be unnerving.

Target Gift Card Mishap Frustrates Vegas Family’s Trip To Disneyland

 

[Malcon10t]

The concierge level is a nice suggestion if price permits. It provides a continental breakfast (no meats or eggs), snacks in the afternoon, appetizers in the evening and desserts at night as well as wine & beer in the afternoon & a few cordials at night. The ONLY meal it substitutes is breakfast. The apps can lead to lighter dinners but they are not meals and are not meant to be dinner. The concierge level is available at all 3 hotels and is cheapest at Paradise Pier. You don't need to stay concierge in order to charge everything on your room keys though!

Each of the hotels have different concierge lounges. DLH and GCH do have eggs (hard boiled), ham, turkey, and cheeses at breakfast. PPH doesn't have them though. You can also get Mimosas at DLH and GCH with your breakfast. At lunch time, GCH has tea sandwiches, and DLH will soon have them also. For evening, the DLH and GCH offer 3 appetizers, and while we rarely use it as dinner, we have. Over Christmas, options were a beef or chicken skewer each night, in addition to 2 other options. Examples were lumpia, raviolis, mini corn dog, mini pizzas, chicken quessidillas, egg rolls, spring rolls, rattatoie, corn nuggets, mini calzones, and a few more items. Add to it the veggies and fruits and cheese that are out, you can make it dinner.

Word of caution on using gift cards. You can't pay in advance so you can't just put all the gift cards towards the room when you arrive & forget about it & enjoy the trip. You can pay the room & charges off each day, if you don't want to hold onto all the gift cards until the very end, but this definitely brings you out of the "all-inclusive" feel. And holding onto that large an amount of gift cards until the end of the trip can be unnerving.

I did. I handed the person who was checking me in a stack of gift cards, and was done. I had a large credit at the beginning of the trip. And each day it slowly dropped. Just like if you had handed them a wad of cash.

 

[junmatno]

Each of the hotels have different concierge lounges. DLH and GCH do have eggs (hard boiled), ham, turkey, and cheeses at breakfast. PPH doesn't have them though. You can also get Mimosas at DLH and GCH with your breakfast. At lunch time, GCH has tea sandwiches, and DLH will soon have them also. For evening, the DLH and GCH offer 3 appetizers, and while we rarely use it as dinner, we have. Over Christmas, options were a beef or chicken skewer each night, in addition to 2 other options. Examples were lumpia, raviolis, mini corn dog, mini pizzas, chicken quessidillas, egg rolls, spring rolls, rattatoie, corn nuggets, mini calzones, and a few more items. Add to it the veggies and fruits and cheese that are out, you can make it dinner. I did. I handed the person who was checking me in a stack of gift cards, and was done. I had a large credit at the beginning of the trip. And each day it slowly dropped. Just like if you had handed them a wad of cash.

Me too! At PPH I did that to pay for the rooms and had a large credit that dropped every day they charged our room

 

[gottalovepluto]

I handed the person who was checking me in a stack of gift cards, and was done. I had a large credit at the beginning of the trip. And each day it slowly dropped. Just like if you had handed them a wad of cash.

The first time we went they did that, but the last couple times they refused. Others on the DIS have reported similar experiences to mine, I hope your experience is how they do it now & they are consistent about it, it was a ridiculous policy! My last trip was a couple years ago now. (And our boys eat a lot, we couldn't make full dinners off club level stuff, but I guess it's different for everyone.)

 

[Malcon10t]

The first time we went they did that, but the last couple times they refused. Others on the DIS have reported similar experiences to mine, I hope your experience is how they do it now & they are consistent about it, it was a ridiculous policy! My last trip was a couple years ago now. (And our boys eat a lot, we couldn't make full dinners off club level stuff, but I guess it's different for everyone.)

I think what has been reported is they couldn't prepay the room via phone or online. They had to wait until arrival.

As for the concierge lounges, I wouldn't want to make meals off it, but we would take a night off, and could munch on all the variety filling up the teens but personally, I prefer a restaurant. But there were a couple nights we did lounge food and sent one to DTD to pick up nachos or a sandwich and it was a nice way to just relax. I will say the calzones and the corn nuggets were my favorite. Chef commented he just added them.

 

[junmatno]

I think what has been reported is they couldn't prepay the room via phone or online. They had to wait until arrival. As for the concierge lounges, I wouldn't want to make meals off it, but we would take a night off, and could munch on all the variety filling up the teens but personally, I prefer a restaurant. But there were a couple nights we did lounge food and sent one to DTD to pick up nachos or a sandwich and it was a nice way to just relax. I will say the calzones and the corn nuggets were my favorite. Chef commented he just added them.

No you can also call after reserving and pay your room only balance in full. I did it for our trip last Christmas when I booked in July.