Hi...just back from WDW using the dining plan, what a great food week we had! The plusses..Not only did it end up saving us over $500 
for a family of 4, 2 Adults/2 children, 9 day stay (with 9 snacks remaining), but another great thing was the fact we got to try many different food venues that I normally wouldn't have! There was so much food to eat, you won't go hungry on this plan. I also got pleasantly surprised when I went to the Tangerine Cafe for lunch and presented my room card to charge and she said "oh, you have the dining plan, would you like to use that instead?" Woohoo bonus!, that was not on the list they gave me at check in (which I guess has since been updated,they just gave me an old one). All child counter service meals were ordered as adult meals with out any problems. All CM's seemed to know about the plan. I will put together a dining plan review a bit later for anyone interested...
The minuses...A lot of food gets wasted. My BF is a HUGE eater as is my DS 7, Even they rarely finished their food. So to try all your dishes you can't eat it all or no room for that wonderful desert! We stayed at AKL, were for some reason many of the cashiers believe that when ordering breakfast on "the plan" you are not entitled to two "items" (ie: lunch = meal, desert), only 1 and a drink. Other cashiers there and in the parks, gladly gave you the two items, even reminding you to get them. So just a word of caution. Many of the table service restaurants now have child appetizers included on the childrens menu that they get to pick. My kids didn't like the choices so went without getting one. We did have one mixup were the card should have had 4 table service meals left and when the server came back he said there were none, Ahh, but wise people of the Dis board told me to keep track so I knew there were still 4. It took about 20 minutes with the Mgr of the restaurant on the phone with I guess AKL front desk to finally resolve it and get it though. And lastly we just could not use up all the snack points. After at least 1 desert a day even the kids couldn't eat anymore ice cream
, so 9 went unused, need more choices here.
So thats the quick summary, any questions about it, ask away!
for a family of 4, 2 Adults/2 children, 9 day stay (with 9 snacks remaining), but another great thing was the fact we got to try many different food venues that I normally wouldn't have! There was so much food to eat, you won't go hungry on this plan. I also got pleasantly surprised when I went to the Tangerine Cafe for lunch and presented my room card to charge and she said "oh, you have the dining plan, would you like to use that instead?" Woohoo bonus!, that was not on the list they gave me at check in (which I guess has since been updated,they just gave me an old one). All child counter service meals were ordered as adult meals with out any problems. All CM's seemed to know about the plan. I will put together a dining plan review a bit later for anyone interested...The minuses...A lot of food gets wasted. My BF is a HUGE eater as is my DS 7, Even they rarely finished their food. So to try all your dishes you can't eat it all or no room for that wonderful desert! We stayed at AKL, were for some reason many of the cashiers believe that when ordering breakfast on "the plan" you are not entitled to two "items" (ie: lunch = meal, desert), only 1 and a drink. Other cashiers there and in the parks, gladly gave you the two items, even reminding you to get them. So just a word of caution. Many of the table service restaurants now have child appetizers included on the childrens menu that they get to pick. My kids didn't like the choices so went without getting one. We did have one mixup were the card should have had 4 table service meals left and when the server came back he said there were none, Ahh, but wise people of the Dis board told me to keep track so I knew there were still 4. It took about 20 minutes with the Mgr of the restaurant on the phone with I guess AKL front desk to finally resolve it and get it though. And lastly we just could not use up all the snack points. After at least 1 desert a day even the kids couldn't eat anymore ice cream
, so 9 went unused, need more choices here. So thats the quick summary, any questions about it, ask away!
