New rules for dining plan? No more kids meals OOP?

[Dale-Not-Chip]

This is from the Disney Web page FAQ about the +dining. i put in bold the part the is important to our current thread. Untill they change this They won't stop us from paying OOP when we want.

I'm not making an argument on the paying for kids and eating adult. But about what a CM said about not letting you use your Coupons for just part of your party.

Q. What is included with the Disney Dining Plan?
A. The Disney Dining Plan includes one counter-service meal, one snack, and one table-service meal per person, per night of your stay for everyone in your travel party ages 3+. For example, a party of four that is staying for five nights would receive 20 counter-service meals, 20 snacks, and 20 table-service meals to use during the current trip.

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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.

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Q. How can I get the Disney Dining Plan?
A. When you stay at a Disney Resort and purchase a Magic Your Way Base Package (additional options available), you will always be able to select the Magic Your Way Plus Dining Package, which allows you to add the Disney Dining Plan and choose the meals you and your family want for up to 30% savings.

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Q. What restaurants are included in the Disney Dining Plan?
A. The Disney Dining Plan can be used at over 100 counter-service and table-service locations across Walt Disney World® Resort. Look for the "Disney Dining Plan symbol" in your Park Guide Maps for the locations in the Theme Parks or consult the restaurant listing in the Disney Dining Plan brochure.

The Disney Dining Plan can be used for:
Character dining experiences – Your server will redeem one table-service meal for each person participating in the Character dining experience.
Disney Signature Restaurants – This exclusive group of restaurants provides unparalleled cuisine served in elegant and relaxed surroundings. Your server will redeem two table-service meals for each person dining at a Signature Restaurant.
Dinner show experiences – Show tickets can be acquired through Concierge or Guest Services. Two table-service meals will be redeemed for each person participating in a dinner show experience.

And by the way. I gurantee they won't make a an unbending rule that Either the whole family eats on the plan or oop.

If you only have one TS left and the family sits down to eat. They will not tell you sorry but since you do not have enough dinners for all that you'll just have to waste that coupon.

 

[Lewisc]

If Disney intended that to be the case they would have separated the credits into child and adult categories.

Let's take a hypothetical example. A family of 2 adults and 2 children use their TS credits for dinner every night and use 4 credits. The last night they put the kids in one of the programs and have dinner in a signature restaurant. The guest can tell the server they only have 2 adult credits left and want to pay for one meal out of pocket. The truth is they have 4 TS credits left and the computer will debit the account 4 TS credits to pay for the meal. The system doesn't keep track of adult/child credits, it can't because the distinction doesn't exist. It really isn't the guests responsibility to keep track of who used how many credits.

I suspect that's the kind of flexibility Disney had in mind. I'm not sure if Disney anticipated many guests making a game out of "banking" all of the TS credits paid for at the child rate for adult meals.

I wouldn't be shocked if Disney changes the plan and seperates the credits. We don't know how many guests leave with unused credits. Disney may not be taking the beating some of us think.

Good posts LeesyUD - I've posted this several times myself, but people seem to be ignoring this fact as well in order to suit their own needs. The fact that Disney says that children must order off of the children's menu is very specific indeed and despite what people are arguing it is the same thing as using child's credits to pay for adult meals since those credits that were paid for at child's prices must be used to buy child's dinners, end of story.

 

[diznyfanatic]

I have no problem whatsoever if they decide to separate out child from adult credits on the Dining Plan and have no clue why it wasn't done from the beginning.

In fact, our resort cards/keys with our names on them already had this information on them anyway, (marked as Adult or Child) so it's a strech to me that Disney never thought about the effects that pooling credits might have and couldn't have made them separate had that been the intent.

As we used the plan "as intended" anyway, I would just like to see them offer a more affordable solution for families who don't need or want the amount of food currently offered without having to lose or give up part of what has already been paid for.

 

[LeesyUD]

We're planning to go in late March and have selected the dining plan. I do have a couple thoughts.

One thing I noticed when reading the fne print on the online brochure is that it states that children must choose the kids menu at TS dining. It said that specifically, but said nothing to that effect on CS dining. Maybe that's a change for '06.

I have no problem with that "rule".....well it's more a guideline maybe than an actual rule. I agree it's unethical to pay $11/day for a kid and then use the credit on an adult $50 dinner. To me, it's manipulating the system. Everybody's got opinions.

Based on what I read, though, I won't give it a second thought to order exactly what my child wants at CS.

As for sharing (within the guidelines of the program), Disney shouldn't have a problem with. You should be able to pay OOP for anything you want, and use the credits for what meal you desire, as long as kids select from kids menus at TS. That's the way I see it.

Maybe Disney should lump CS's together and specify A-TS and C-TS. That would give them some protection from abuse of the system, and still let folks stay flexible.

Anyhow, my $0.02.

As I posted before if you look at the Disney website it states that chidren ages 3-9 must order from child's menu....BOTH under counter service and table service.
Boy oh boy I hope Disney does make "child" and "adult" credits...apparently alot of people choose not to read the fine print.

 

[Heather-atl]

I was just wondering(while I'm reading all of this ) if Coral Reef is a Signature TS or just a regular TS? I thought I read that CR was two dinning credits per person. But on the PDF on the WDW site its under TS in Epcot. We are going in May and trying the DP for the first time. We have a DD 4 1/2 and even though she barely eats, the fact that shes only costing us 10.99 a day is a pretty good deal in itself to us. We plan on following the "rules" even if there Isn't one set in stone by WDW, its still pretty obvious they want you to use the credits as they are bought. Adult menu for adults and Children s menu for the child. Only thing I can see happening is DD not eating when we do TS. But since we only pay 10.99 for her for that day.. what are we losing if she doest really eat her fill at that meal? Or we never make up the TS credit, No big

 

[Tiger926]

Coral Reef has been changed to 1 ts credit for 2006 - it's listed on new Dining Brochure, but it seems as if some people have had trouble downloading it. The new brochure also has listed the old credits needed for CRT, and the new credits (2 for b/l/d) after Feb. 1/06. The new list is pretty specific and up to date as it lists all signature restaurants as well.

Tiger

 

[IndyJammer]

Hey Heather-atl - Congrats on your first post!

Coral Reef is 1 TS now - I think that they have changed this recently - but I called to confirm - and it is one TS! (We are going at the end of the month!)

This will be our first trip under the Dining Plan - and DS is 10 - so he's an adult!!! (At least price-point-wise) One of the big problems that I foresee is him wanting to eat off the Kids menu! (He'd live off Chicken nuggets if we'd let him!) When this arises, I plan on paying for him OOP and "banking" his TS credit for a different time.

 

[oxhoward]

As I posted before if you look at the Disney website it states that chidren ages 3-9 must order from child's menu....BOTH under counter service and table service.
Boy oh boy I hope Disney does make "child" and "adult" credits...apparently alot of people choose not to read the fine print.

I went back and read the brochure, and it does say that about CS dining and kids. I was misinformed.

What I originally saw was the plan description as found in the trip reservation section, where you actually select the dining plan. There may be some discrepancies between the description and the plan brochure.

And if your "wish" for Disney to go to separating credits ever comes true.... that's fine with me. We are one of those using the plan as described, no reason for us not to do so.

Also, why be so confrontational, and vengeful? No need for it, and its just ugly.

 

[Nancyg56]

Has anyone else been recently (in January...I have read that new rules apply as of Jan 1st)? Are they still letting you pool all your TS and CS credits and pay OOP for kids if you want to?

Do you think this is unethical? What about if the CM's tell you to do it this way, as others have reported?

I think that individuals need to do what is comfortable for thenselves. We have just returned, and used the meal plan, with one child. My DS and his DW live in Fl, as well as my niece and nephew. They all joined us for many of our meals. We paid OOP for them, and did not use the child credit for anyone but the child. Our last evening, my niece joined us at CG, which was 2 TS credits. The waiter advised us to pay OOP for the 4 year old, and use her TS for out niece. This was the only place that this was suggested, and I think it may have had to do with the cost of the restaurant coupled with how small my DGD was. We would not have done this if it seemed to be frowned upon, and we did use the money that would have been spent on DN and buy a nice bottle of wine. I was okay with this, esp after my DGD informed us that she was not hungry.

 

[Lewisc]

Let's make an easy example. A family of 2A and 2C. The parents put the children in a kids program and eat in a signature restaurant each night. The family gets 4TS credits per night. They don't get 2 adult TS credits and 2 child TS credits since there is no such thing as an adult or child credit.

The restaurant will debit the 4 TS credits per signature meal. The rules are being followed.

Disney may decide to change the plan and create adult and child credits but they haven't done that.

Now let's assume the family know they don't have enough TS credits for all the meals they plan. Don't they have the right to decide what meals they'll pay for? They may change the plan to require all guests in the party use the meal plan or none of them but that's not the current rule. A family is better off paying out of pocket for a child at Jiko and using 2 credits for 2 dinners at Boma instead.

Whether there is or is not "child" credit doesn't even matter. You just stated the same issue that I just argued. The question has been if Disney pools all the credits together...yes right now they do. The other question has been whether you can use the credits for all the adult meals and pay for kids out OOP. The answer is no. Regardless of whether or not there are adult or child's seperate credits, there are seperate adult and child menus and the dining plan stipulates that. If you have a party of 2 adults and you purchase a package for 7 days, you will get 14 TS per day for which you can order fof the adult menu bc you paid for 2 ADULTS...If you have a party of 1 adult and 1 child you will get the same amount of TS credits but it would be 7 meals from adult menu and 7 meals from the childs menu bc you paid for 1 ADULT and 1 CHILD. It doesn't matter if it does not differentiate "adult" and "child's" credits...they differentiate that for a child you pay $10 a day to order from the child's menu NOT the adult menu; you pay around $40 a day to order from the adult menu. People are ignoring that. Why is fair for a party of 4 adults to pay $120 a day to order from the adult menu...while some days a party of 2 adults and 2 children pay only $20 for the adults to eat from the adult menu and then the cost of the OOP meals for kids (which we all know would not be anywhere near $120 per day)? I don't see how that is

 

[aviva5675]

Ok guess Ill jump in--the only thing I question is the person that indicated that just because there are TS credits on the card they will be subtracted... ie, if 2 adults put the kids in child care and go to a restaurant (this could be the first night even), if they want to pay for one of the people OOP I dont think they will "automatically" subtract 2 TS ( or 4 if its signature) because the credits are on the card...They will subtract 1 ( or 2) and then charge the 2d person OOP as requested.....right...???

 

[patsal]

Ok guess Ill jump in--the only thing I question is the person that indicated that just because there are TS credits on the card they will be subtracted... ie, if 2 adults put the kids in child care and go to a restaurant (this could be the first night even), if they want to pay for one of the people OOP I dont think they will "automatically" subtract 2 TS ( or 4 if its signature) because the credits are on the card...They will subtract 1 ( or 2) and then charge the 2d person OOP as requested.....right...???

I would have to say exactly. Since you get a reciept and if for some reason you were charged for 2 rather than one you would be able to go to the concierge at the hotel and get it straightened out. I had one meal where my room key would not work so I had to pay witha CC, the manager came over and spoke to me when the card was returned to explain that all I had to do was go to the concierge and my CC would be credited for the meal and the TS credits adjusted to reflect the transaction. It was no big deal really. I don't think they will do that with the cards anyway--it isn't effecient. My children are considered adults and my DHh and I often split up with the kids in the summer; if we wanted to eat or use a snack that would never work. The only thing that could happen would be for each room key/ticket/meal plan card to have only credits for the person listed on it--then you'd have to go through the CS places several times with children--doubt that would be effecient!

 

[N.Bailey]

I've pretty much read this entire thread and I am shocked that people get so bent out of shape with issues such at these. It's all debatable and falls in line with bringing back mugs to resorts, pool hopping, yada, yada, yada.....

Personally, I feel Disney expects guests who pay the child price to order from the child's menu and adults to order from the adult menu, with no paying OOP to save child credits for signature restaurants or what not.

Disney obviously knows what's going on and IMO, if they want to put a stop to it, they certainly have the capability to do so. Perhaps that's exactly what they're doing now?

Now, my children are 14 and a 15, so this is of absolutely no benefit to me one way or the other, but if Disney doesn't stop it, I'd have to conclude that it's not really up there on the list of concerns that they want to address.

ALL MOO though. The thread was a good read.

 

[Lewisc]

Pool hopping violates a posted rule, with the exception DVC Club members who are generally allowed to pool hop. Most resorts have a sign that limits mug refills to your current stay in the resort. Again you're violating a posted rule if you bring your mugs back.

People are following the written rule as well as following the CM suggestions when they pay out of pocket for kids meals. BIG DIFFERENCE. My kids are in their 20's so I don't benefit from Disney's generosity.

I have no way of reading Disney's mind but these threads have been going on for almost a year and the same policy applied to the prior meal plans. When and if Disney thinks it's a problem they'll change the rules. Some guests order adult beverages. Some guests don't use all their credits. Some guests try to "work the system" going to the most expensive restaurants and pay out of pock for kids meals whenever possible. Disney is more than capable of analyzing the situation and making whatever adjustments they feel is appropriate.

I've pretty much read this entire thread and I am shocked that people get so bent out of shape with issues such at these. It's all debatable and falls in line with bringing back mugs to resorts, pool hopping, yada, yada, yada.....

Personally, I feel Disney expects guests who pay the child price to order from the child's menu and adults to order from the adult menu, with no paying OOP to save child credits for signature restaurants or what not.

Disney obviously knows what's going on and IMO, if they want to put a stop to it, they certainly have the capability to do so. Perhaps that's exactly what they're doing now?

Now, my children are 14 and a 15, so this is of absolutely no benefit to me one way or the other, but if Disney doesn't stop it, I'd have to conclude that it's not really up there on the list of concerns that they want to address.

ALL MOO though. The thread was a good read.

 

[N.Bailey]

Pool hopping violates a posted rule, with the exception DVC Club members who are generally allowed to pool hop. Most resorts have a sign that limits mug refills to your current stay in the resort. Again you're violating a posted rule if you bring your mugs back.

People are following the written rule as well as following the CM suggestions when they pay out of pocket for kids meals. BIG DIFFERENCE. My kids are in their 20's so I don't benefit from Disney's generosity.

I have no way of reading Disney's mind but these threads have been going on for almost a year and the same policy applied to the prior meal plans. When and if Disney thinks it's a problem they'll change the rules. Some guests order adult beverages. Some guests don't use all their credits. Some guests try to "work the system" going to the most expensive restaurants and pay out of pock for kids meals whenever possible. Disney is more than capable of analyzing the situation and making whatever adjustments they feel is appropriate.

You may be right about the pool hopping. I've not followed any of those threads for years, so I wouldn't begin to say what current policy is. I've never had a need or a want to do it myself, so it wasn't worth keeping up with.

As for the refillable mugs, I've seen many thru the years say that a CM has told them it's okay to reuse them. Same situation as the dining, IMO. Just for the record, I've never taken one back.

As for the dining, I think we agree. If Disney has a problem with it, they'll make the appropriate changes. If they do nothing, then it's their own fault if the plan isn't utilized the way they envisioned (assuming they envision a child uses a child's credit only).

 

[sara74]

So, we are headed to WDW for the first time in April. DH, me, DD4 and DS 21 months. We have the dining plan. I have read this ENTIRE thread. And it never occurred to me, until I read about it on this and other boards, to use the credits for adult meals and pay for kids OOP. Not sure what we will do, not sure what the status of the 'rules' will be in April. But I have one question and one observation...

1. We have both CRT and CG planned, for the whole family. Our plan was to pay OOP for CRT for the adults and use the DP for CG later in the week as this would be the more expensive meal (the reverse being true, I think, for DD - ie CRT would be more expensive than a CG kids meal for her) According to some posts this would be 'illegal' as of this year, that we would not be able to decide where to pay OOP vs using credits. I would find that very hard to swallow as in this scenario we are not paying for kids meals OOP to save credits for adults, but deciding to use credits for more expensive meals and paying OOP for less expensive. Disney still gets our $ either way. If this rule existed would I then have to change my ADR to CG to earlier in the week so that we ate cheaper meals at the end of the week after we used up all of our credits???

2. While I think all the DISers are wonderful, intelligent people who are highly motivated to enjoy their vacations , I think that Disney employs more intelligent, more highly motivated people who are well paid to imagine any possible scenario for every ticket, DP, hotel and experience that we partake of. Marketing firms and the people employed by them know so much more about what we will do when given a choice and what motivates us to spend $ than we know ourselves. I find it hard to believe that they haven't imagined these issues and planned for them well in advance of introducing a dining plan. Also, are we naive enough to think that there aren't Disney employees checking out the various boards to see what our experiences are? And wouldn't one of them have reported back on the DP 'abuses' by now? Surely Disney would take action if they felt an abuse was being committed?

 

[metivier]

So, we are headed to WDW for the first time in April. DH, me, DD4 and DS 21 months. We have the dining plan. I have read this ENTIRE thread. And it never occurred to me, until I read about it on this and other boards, to use the credits for adult meals and pay for kids OOP. Not sure what we will do, not sure what the status of the 'rules' will be in April. But I have one question and one observation...

1. We have both CRT and CG planned, for the whole family. Our plan was to pay OOP for CRT for the adults and use the DP for CG later in the week as this would be the more expensive meal (the reverse being true, I think, for DD - ie CRT would be more expensive than a CG kids meal for her) According to some posts this would be 'illegal' as of this year, that we would not be able to decide where to pay OOP vs using credits. I would find that very hard to swallow as in this scenario we are not paying for kids meals OOP to save credits for adults, but deciding to use credits for more expensive meals and paying OOP for less expensive. Disney still gets our $ either way. If this rule existed would I then have to change my ADR to CG to earlier in the week so that we ate cheaper meals at the end of the week after we used up all of our credits???

I JUST asked this question to Disney Dining one hour ago! (Well, close to this question.)

We are staying at the Poly in May (with 4 yo DD and 2 yo DS) and have ADRs at the Princess Breakfast (Norway) and CG (the same day). I asked the CM at Disney Dining if I could pay for DD out-of-pocket at CG for dinner where she might eat one piece of bread and use her TS credit for the day at the Princess Breakfast. The CM said yes I could do just that. Since we have so many character meaks planned (and maybe adding a breakfast at Holywood & Vine if the Pixar character breakfast comes to be in April!) that planning our use of TS credits is how to best spread them out for our 4 yo and planning how to share meals with our 2 yo.

 

[Anjelica]

looking for the new 2006 dining plan brochure. I can't find it on the website....

 

[LeesyUD]

Let's make an easy example. A family of 2A and 2C. The parents put the children in a kids program and eat in a signature restaurant each night. The family gets 4TS credits per night. They don't get 2 adult TS credits and 2 child TS credits since there is no such thing as an adult or child credit.

The restaurant will debit the 4 TS credits per signature meal. The rules are being followed.

Disney may decide to change the plan and create adult and child credits but they haven't done that.

Now let's assume the family know they don't have enough TS credits for all the meals they plan. Don't they have the right to decide what meals they'll pay for? They may change the plan to require all guests in the party use the meal plan or none of them but that's not the current rule. A family is better off paying out of pocket for a child at Jiko and using 2 credits for 2 dinners at Boma instead.

I do not have a problem with people paying OOP pocket for their kids and using the meals that they purchased for the kids at other times for the kids...I have a problem when adults pay OOP for kids so they can use the credits to go to extra meal for themselves or to upgrade to a signature. Again I know there is not specifically "adult" and "child" credits...however there are adult and childs prices....adults to order from adult menu...children to order from child's menu. Disney should not have to do the math for people.

 

[bstnsprts]

As I posted before if you look at the Disney website it states that chidren ages 3-9 must order from child's menu....BOTH under counter service and table service.



Absolutely right! My child must order off the childrens menu if I am using a credit to purchase her meal. But I can choose to pay OOP, save the credit, and buy her whatever meal she wants. You won't be able to show me where it says I can't do that. That's part of the flexibility of The Dining Plan. Now seeing that the credits are all pooled by Disney, that credit can become a meal for myself or my wife. Like it or not, agree with it or not, that is the reality of The Dining Plan. Nobody is breaking a rule if they do this because there is no rule to break. I paid Disney X amount of Dollars for The Dining Plan, Disney in return choose to pool the credits that I purchased. For eight days in December we used the plan this way on some meals and encountered no problems, only encouragement from CM's.