Just back - latest on the dining plan

[DisneyMomx7]

Hi,

We just got back and must say the dining plan was wonderful. Here the answers to most of the questions I've heard asked. The credits are still pooled - althought he card will say 2 adults and 3 children the credits are not differentiated. You can pay out of pocket for kids meals for some adult meals without a problem. One night at Tony's dd wasn't feeling well so we just got her soup and paid out of pocket. In Morrocco we paid out of pocket for kids meals, no problem. We actually left with counter service meals and used our remaining snacks for waters for the plane ride home. I don't think you can eat all the food they give you. The kids were allowed to order adult appetizers at Kona Cafe and they were offered smoothies. That was the only place we asked about the appetizers since there were no children's appetizers on the menu, the smoothies were offered to us. We will definitely use the plan when we go back in July.

 

[Kaycee]

Thanks for sharing your dining plan experience with us. I hope you had a wonderful trip.

 

[Lewisc]

That's a change. Last year they were only able to put 4 guests on a card, one card would say 1A 3C and the other card would say 1A.

 

[abk96]

That's a change. Last year they were only able to put 4 guests on a card, one card would say 1A 3C and the other card would say 1A.

In July our cards all said 2A,3C.

 

[Lewisc]

In July our cards all said 2A,3C.

My brother had 2 rooms. Actually 4 of them were adult and 1 child and Disney could only put 4 of them on one card. This was in August.

Maybe it was an issue of exceeding the room capacity?

 

[DisneyMomx7]

Our room capacity was 5. We had all five of us on our card.

 

[1stTimeDisneyer]

Thanks for the info. I hope you had a great trip. Any great places to eat we should check out?

 

[DisneyMomx7]

Some of our favorites are

table service: Liberty Tree Tavern, Ohana, Kona Cafe, 1900 Park Fare, Le Cellier, Chef Mickeys, Restaurant Marrakesh (Morroco) Sci-fi, Hollywood Brown Derby, 50's Prime Time Cafe and RFC in DTD.

counter service: Columbia Harbor House, Tusker House and Earl of Sandwich.

The MYW dining plan worked out really great for us. We would usually take fruit as a dessert with the counter service and put in the frig in the hotel room for a quick start up breakfast (chocolate cake too!). Have fun planning.

 

[Dale-Not-Chip]

Hi,

The kids were allowed to order adult appetizers at Kona Cafe and they were offered smoothies. That was the only place we asked about the appetizers since there were no children's appetizers on the menu, the smoothies were offered to us. We will definitely use the plan when we go back in July.

Any resturant that does not have apps or desert on the menu the kids can order off the adult. And we found that although Smoothies and such can't be had for the drink it can be had as your dessert choice.

 

[biggroofy]

Thanks for sharing your experience. We have 5 people (4 adults + 2-year-old toddler) and will be purchasing the dining plan too. The staff said that children under 3 eats free.

I had a glance at the menu at http://allearsnet.com/menu/men_cdfd.htm, it seems the pricing varies. Is it true that we can pick anything from the menu, despite the price?

When you pay out of your pocket, do you settle with cash (or it charges to your room)? I understand that gratituty is included in Dining plan, should we pay extra tips if we order a child meal (e.g. a pasta) for our child? How does that work?

Lastly, did you make reservations before you go? If you have made reservations (i think it is priority seating only), do you still have to wait?

 

[DisneyMomx7]

We did make all our reservations in advance. We never waited more than 10 minutes. We would tell the waiter that we were paying for the kids out of pocket and they gave us a separate bill for that part. Some we paid in cash, some in room charges. If we had ordered alcoholic beverages they were on the same bill as the kids meals. We added our extra trip to that charge. When we all used the dining plan we gave the extra tip to the wait person in cash. Every where we ate we were allowed to order whatever we wanted - appetizer, entree, dessert and beverage. At Kona Cafe the smoothies were counted as the kids drinks, they also ordered Kiddie Kones for dessert, wings or chicken noodle soup for appetizers and kids meals. They definitely got their money worth that night!

 

[beth_cam]

Under three eats free - just wanted to add just incase you didnt know so you dont get surprised - they can eat free at the buffets and they can eat off your plate but anything you 'order' for them you pay for.

And about ordering anything - I had quite a meal at Tappenyaki(sp?). I ordered a fruit as a desert to give the kids as an appetizer for the kids so that they could wait. We had salad and I ordered steak and lobster, wanted to give my son the steak. Well you know that was the most expensive - well wait a minute - mam we have a upgrade to filet if you want it it comes with you meal plan okay. And by the way mam you get a side (I had been debating between the lobster which I didnt know if I'd like and shrimp) so you can get some jumbo shrimp as a side. Okay twist my arm. Lobster and shrimp and give the kid the rest lol. It was a great meal.

 

[DisneyDreamer2]

Disneymomx7- I noticed you listed RFC as one of your family's faves. Are they now accepting the dining plan???

 

[DisneyMomx7]

No - RFC doesn't take the dining plan. We just pay out of pocket for that dinner and use the dining plan for a character breakfast that day.

 

[TooBoyz4us]

No - RFC doesn't take the dining plan. We just pay out of pocket for that dinner and use the dining plan for a character breakfast that day.

Doesn't that just break your heart? RFC is my son's absolute FAVORITE restaurant. If you ask him he will say its the best part of Disney,LOL.
I truly wish they had not been removed from part of the dining plan.

Chris

 

[DisneycrazedX6]

Hi!! Could you clarify a couple of things for me cause I am a bit slow on getting this. We will have 7 people with us on our trip. We are DVC members so we are eligible for the plan. We will have 4 adults and three kids with us. We were planning on only getting 4 people the plan(one room) and have everyone else order off the menu(too much food)(other room). If we put 3 adults and one child on the plan are you saying that all the credits are pooled together? Does the card when redeemed just say (example) 4 t/s credits left? Or...does it say 3 adult t/s and 1 chld t/s left? I am just wondering if I have to keep track or does the card? I plan on splitting up quite a bit this trip and thus 2 parties will have the card.
Also....Can you order anything off the menu, even the most expensive? Do they have a problem with meal sharing-I usually do this when we are not on the plan.
Any ideas where the best choices for C/S are, app/entree/dessert?
Hope this makes sense..Thanks for you help!!!

 

[1stTimeDisneyer]

Thanks for the info on the places to eat.

 

[DisneyMomx7]

Hi!! Could you clarify a couple of things for me cause I am a bit slow on getting this. We will have 7 people with us on our trip. We are DVC members so we are eligible for the plan. We will have 4 adults and three kids with us. We were planning on only getting 4 people the plan(one room) and have everyone else order off the menu(too much food)(other room). If we put 3 adults and one child on the plan are you saying that all the credits are pooled together? Does the card when redeemed just say (example) 4 t/s credits left? Or...does it say 3 adult t/s and 1 chld t/s left? I am just wondering if I have to keep track or does the card? I plan on splitting up quite a bit this trip and thus 2 parties will have the card.
Also....Can you order anything off the menu, even the most expensive? Do they have a problem with meal sharing-I usually do this when we are not on the plan.
Any ideas where the best choices for C/S are, app/entree/dessert?
Hope this makes sense..Thanks for you help!!!

On our card it said 2A 3C. When we would pay it would just subtract the credits, and not distinguish between adult and child. FOr example, we started with 25 credits (10 adult, 15 children) table service. After our first meal at Tony's (one child only ordered an appetizer so we paid out of pocket for her) it subtracted 4 ts and our receipt said 21 ts remaining. You can order anything off the menu (at least we were able to) and they did not have a problem with meal sharing. Hope that helps.

 

[Dale-Not-Chip]

Hi!! Could you clarify a couple of things for me cause I am a bit slow on getting this. We will have 7 people with us on our trip. We are DVC members so we are eligible for the plan. We will have 4 adults and three kids with us. We were planning on only getting 4 people the plan(one room) and have everyone else order off the menu(too much food)(other room). If we put 3 adults and one child on the plan are you saying that all the credits are pooled together? Does the card when redeemed just say (example) 4 t/s credits left? Or...does it say 3 adult t/s and 1 chld t/s left? I am just wondering if I have to keep track or does the card? I plan on splitting up quite a bit this trip and thus 2 parties will have the card.
Also....Can you order anything off the menu, even the most expensive? Do they have a problem with meal sharing-I usually do this when we are not on the plan.
Any ideas where the best choices for C/S are, app/entree/dessert?
Hope this makes sense..Thanks for you help!!!

The problem lies in the fact that you can't pick and choose whos on the plan and whos not. Either everybody under on reservation is on the plan or they are not, and it dosn't matter what room they are in. If you make it under one reservation you do not have a choise.

Now if the people in the other room makes their own reservation and handles payment on their own. then they could not be on the plan. Then you will have no garuntees of being anywhere close to them.

A couple of your questions.

Yes you can order anything off the menu, even the most expencive thing

The waiter will not have a problem with meal shareing as long as the resturant does not have a policy against it. I don;t know of any Disney one that does. Plan or not

Your Meal coupons are actually in the Disney Reservation System. Your Key to the world cards access these coupons. Therefore every card you have will be able to acess the coupons. If you went into the resturant with 10 credits left. 5 min before you ring out your evil friend buys himself and 9 strangers Dinners you would be paying cash. I do not know if you can take away access to the meal plan from others, I didn't ask. Every receipt will have how many credits used and how many are left. So if you forget your next receipt will remind you. And it will unless changed in the future total credits and will not seperate child and adult.

 

[zachnlucy]

Yes you can order anything off the menu, even the most expencive thing

You can't order the lobster in Teppanyaki.