Need Advice on MYW dining choices

[timandlesley]

We purchased a MYW plus dining for 6 nights and I'm trying to figure things out so I can start making my priority seating arrangements, but all of these changes are so confusing. I would love some advice on the restaraunts I think we'll be choosing and if you can tell me if they have been taken off the MYW list to your knowledge.

Here are the restaraunts I want to use ours at (keep in mind it is my husband, myself and our two children under the age of four)
Sit downs: Cinderella's Royal Table (Dinner)
Crystal Palace (Dinner)
Concourse Steak House (Contemporary resort/dinner)
Mama Melrose MGM for dinner
Chef Mickey's (breakfast) or Primetime Cafe dinner (can't decide which to use vouchers for and which to pay for help w/ this would be great.
ESPN club (for my husband) dinner. : )

Any comments/ suggestions. Has anyone had any good or bad experiences at any of these. . .anyone know if any of these are NOT included in the new lists. I really wanted to go to Mitshutaki (spelling?) in Epcot but was told it is not included today. I am trying to get the most bang for my buck with these vouchers any help would be great.
Thanks so much,
Lesley

 

[MomofKatie]

You look like you will be eating well! As far as I can tell, all your selections are covered by the MYW dining plan.

If you are trying to decide between Chef Mickey's and Primetime Cafe, I think I would pick Primetime for dinner as your MYW sit down meal, and pay for Chef Mickey. Chef Mickey is a fixed price buffet, and b'fast is less expensive than dinner. I'm not sure, but if your kids are UNDER 4, I think they might get to eat free at buffets... someone will correct me if I'm wrong, I'm sure. OTOH, Primetime for dinner would cost you more, especially with appetizers, drinks, etc., that are included at a buffet restaurant.

Also, you aren't issued vouchers for your meals- they are tied to your room key card- they load them all in, and when you use the card, the appropriate meal is taken out of your "banked "meals. Hope I explained that right- hard to describe fully.

I know you'll have a great time! Write up a trip report when you come back- let us know how the Dining Plan went! We have a trip booked for November with the Dining Plan- we'd love to hear about it before we fo!

 

[cslittle999]

AllEarsNet says the children's price at Chef Mickey's is ages 3 to 11. I think this is typical of restaurants at Disney.

 

[MomofKatie]

Thanks, Chris- I couldn't remember if the buffets were free for kids three and under or kids under three. Guess it's only kids under three.

 

[timandlesley]

Thanks so much for the Chef Mickey advice, I think we will do that and then use the voucher for Prime Time.
My question is, if everything is on the card how does that work? We usually put cash on our room card, so if we have money on our cards plus the vouchers do we just tell them at the time of purchase we want to use the voucher or use the money on the card, can they do that? Or on this trip do we need to carry our money and only use the cards for vouchers (which would stink). I guess I wish they were actual vouchers. If you could explain this further I would really appreciate it, I am happy you gave us the heads up.
I will definitely write up a report upon our return. It can't get here fast enough, we are so excited. Just LOVE Disney!!!
Lesley

 

[cslittle999]

Here the answer from Disney's ticket FAQ (http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/wdw/common/helpFAQ?id=HelpFAQTicketsPage)

Q. How does the Disney Dining Plan work?
A. Use your meals and snacks in any order and in any amount throughout your stay until your total is completed. For example, on the day of arrival your travel party of four could use four counter-service meals, and then on day two your party could use four table-service meals, four counter-service meals, and two snacks. You can continue using meals any way you like for the rest of your stay until the number of meals allotted are completed.

Present your Key to the World card to your server prior to ordering so your server knows to charge meals to your Disney Dining Plan. Applicable taxes and gratuities are already prepaid and included. Your meal usage will be tracked electronically to your room reservation. Each time you redeem meals or snacks from your Disney Dining Plan, your server or cashier will provide you with a receipt showing your remaining balance.

The end result of this is that you decide when to use you room key as a charge card or for the dining plan.

 

[timandlesley]

Thanks for that quote. I still am a bit confused though, is the card for dining a separate key from the one we would use to charge things to the room. If we go to a sit down restaraunt (like Chef Mickey's for breakfast) the first morning but we don't want to apply the dining plan and we hand them our room key wanting them to use the cash on it rather than the dining plan meal option can they do that? Are we better off not putting money on the card this year since we are dining. If the dining card and room charge card were separate that would be great, but otherwise I guess I'm a little unclear on how to use the dining options when we want to and pay cash at other restaraunts to get the most out of our money. I really hope I'm making sense here and that someone will be able to "show me the light" . Thanks so much.
Lesley

 

[MomofKatie]

From what I read, it sounds like you present the same card for charging as well as Dining plan. If you give your card to the server BEFORE you order and tell them you are using your Dining plan, they deduct that meal from the balance. If you wait until AFTER you eat and get a normal check, they will use your key card as a charge to your room. Does that make sense? From the sound of it, it is up to you to remember to present the card and specifically tell them you are using the Dining option. If you don't, then they will treat the card as a room charge card.

 

[timandlesley]

O.K., that makes sense, thank you. I just hope it works that smoothly and we don't end up paying for one of the more expensive meals we hope to put on the dining plan.
Lesley

 

[cslittle999]

My understanding matches MomofKatie's. The CM is going to do whatever you tell them to.

 

[Luv2Roam]

I would agree only because our first WDW trip was a package and we had flex features. And that was how that worked (as meals were flex features options).

The only word of caution I would use is when charging any food against your room card, make sure you are being charged and they are not using your meal option in error.
Pepper Market used ours and our friend's flex features for separate meals at various times, when neither of us told them, or wanted them to.
It took hours to straighten out their mistakes with no compensation to us.
Lesson learned to us to pay attention and understand what we were signing off against our room!

 

[timandlesley]

Thank you for that response. Now I must admit I am a little apprehensive about putting money on the card along with the dining but I hate to have to carry cash, we LOVE using the card. I just hope the CM's won't make any mistakes. I do worry about that though. How can we tell they did it right?
Lesley

 

[Luv2Roam]

Just make sure you are reading the final amount being charged to your room.
It has been years, but if I recall the receipts they missed charged us looked screwy.
They had the total amount of the meal, which we thought we were paying. But then at the very bottom of the receipt was zeros.
Being newbies at that time it did not dawn on us what was happening until we went to use our flex features and was told we had already used them!