Partial dining plan

[coloradodad]

Does anyone know with a DVC stay if we use the dining plan if we can skip the plan for some staying in our unit.

At the moderates that we usually stay at it is all built in to the room, so if we had 4 adults they would all need to be on the plan - all or none.

How does this work with DVC?

Also, can I select days to be on the plan and days to be off? Do these days need to be consecutive?

It is so much food that it would be nice to be 2 days on 2 days off etc, or split with the spouse.

Thanks,
mg

 

[MdmMim]

The DP is for everyone staying in your unit, and it's for the duration of your stay. You can't have it for only a few days.

I agree that it is a lot of food. I tried it and think I'll skip it in the future.

 

[3DisneyKids]

You can have 2 consecutive reservations if you want (and arrange them so that you don't have to physically check in and check out). For example, if you are doing a 4 night stay, book two 2-night stays. The first 2-nights you are all on the DDP and the second 2 nights you are not. This will work fine. The only problem might be if you have to be out by 11 and then have to re-check-in (and possibly to a different unit) at 4pm. I have read reports here where people have said that they never even have to move in order to have this work (though I have never personally tried it, so ymmv).

 

[1000th happy haunt]

The requirements of using the DDP are why we only use it during split stays. We'll be trying it again in October when our stay will be split between OKW and BCV.

It's a lot of food.

 

[Dean]

You can have 2 consecutive reservations if you want (and arrange them so that you don't have to physically check in and check out). For example, if you are doing a 4 night stay, book two 2-night stays. The first 2-nights you are all on the DDP and the second 2 nights you are not. This will work fine. The only problem might be if you have to be out by 11 and then have to re-check-in (and possibly to a different unit) at 4pm. I have read reports here where people have said that they never even have to move in order to have this work (though I have never personally tried it, so ymmv).

I don't think this will work if I understand what you're saying correctly. You can have separate reservation that are linked, they are treated as one reservation and it's all or none. You can have separate reservations in the same unit type and ask not be to moved but it's not guaranteed. And you will usually have to check in again and get new keys even if you don't have to change units. With some of the programs in the past that required purchase LOS for all in the unit, DVC counted all consecutive stays at a given resort as one stay for purposes of the program even if different unit types. So this is something that could easily change in the future.

You can have totally separate reservations with a different unit type or even different resort if you want. If you have more than one unit you can get it for one unit and not the other if you want.

 

[loveit]

I agree it is a TON of food!! Our last day (which was only 2 days ago ) we had 16 snacks to use!! We ended up getting rice crispy Mickey Heads and some Mickey and Minnie mints to take home. I also found myself eating dessert after every dinner and even lunch (which I absolutely never do at home!). I thought, "hey, I'm on vacation, at Disney, why not?" I think it's just the mentality when you know its been paid for! I'm not sure it was really worth it for us to just keep eating and eating and eating! But, different strokes for different folks!!

 

[crys5]

ok, so , say you and your husband are on the dining plan, can you use one of your counter service credits for breakfast and share and do the same for lunch? that way you will be sharing and not each have his own and then for your sit down meal you will each have your own? i am thinking that would work out better if it can be done. but i don't understand when some people say they have snack credits left at the end of the trip, we usually get a snack a day anyway and we eat breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday also, we just don't usually have dessert , so that is why i thought the food paln would work out.

 

[fishermouse]

I would imagine Disney is counting on a percentage of guest having unused meals at the end of thier stay. Most all inclusives rely on the consumers that do not fully utilize the plan to offset those that know how to get the most out of it. Just one or two TS or even CS meals missed per resi is a huge savings for Disney. Imagine if every one missed just one snack in a five day stay, at $2. each thats two thousand a week for every thousand DDP's sold saved by Disney. Disney can only make out on this by selling DP as a length of stay option. If I could do DDP every other day I would get it every time I visit, and eat left overs on the off days, but as is it's just not worth it for me.

 

[coloradodad]

I have done the dining plan and we only ended up with about 5 snack credits at the end and we were always snackers during the day.

What you find is that you might buy a popcorn that you share with the family, so that would only be one snack, but we at least do not buy 3 popcorns at a time, so our snacks start to add up.

Also, I did buy a few items to preserve my snack credit for more expensive snacks such as ice cream. When a banana cost $1.25 I did not want to use the whole credit when I could get a $4 ice cream later.

Plus the kicker is the TS and CS desserts. At TS I would never have dessert before the plan, but we ended up stocking up on cookies, rice crispy treats, etc so we had a big pile of desserts and snacks that we could not manage to eat.

It is a lot of food, but it is nice to go to the TS restaurants and not need to worry about the check.
mg

 

[3DisneyKids]

I don't think this will work if I understand what you're saying correctly. You can have separate reservation that are linked, they are treated as one reservation and it's all or none. You can have separate reservations in the same unit type and ask not be to moved but it's not guaranteed. And you will usually have to check in again and get new keys even if you don't have to change units. With some of the programs in the past that required purchase LOS for all in the unit, DVC counted all consecutive stays at a given resort as one stay for purposes of the program even if different unit types. So this is something that could easily change in the future.

You can have totally separate reservations with a different unit type or even different resort if you want. If you have more than one unit you can get it for one unit and not the other if you want.

Sorry for the confusion...not I did not mean "linked" reservations in the official sense as this would be treated as one reservation (as you stated) and thus everyone would have to be on the DDP for the entire stay.

I was talking about your second comment...which is certainly not guaranteed...where you simply ask to remain in the same unit and thus not move your stuff (but DO go through the check out/in process again). Hope this clarifies. In this case, you would be able to have the DDP for the first 2 nights and not the second 2, correct?

 

[TEK224]

I would imagine Disney is counting on a percentage of guest having unused meals at the end of thier stay. Most all inclusives rely on the consumers that do not fully utilize the plan to offset those that know how to get the most out of it.


I guess they don't like me then. I fully utilize the DP. It is a lot of food, but I have a big appetite! (walking around the parks maks me hungry! )

I've never had anything left on both times I've used the DDP.

 

[n2mm]

I
I guess they don't like me then. I fully utilize the DP. It is a lot of food, but I have a big appetite! (walking around the parks maks me hungry! )

I've never had anything left on both times I've used the DDP.

US too!! We have used the DDP 5 times (2 times free--05 & 06), then paid for it May 06, Oct 06, Feb 07. We use ALL of our credits. Yes we sometimes use some for breakfast at CS and sometimes share CS lunch just to save room for the big TS dinner. Plus we have the DDE card that we use for those few sit down breakfasts at Spoodles and WCC. We will be using the DDP again later this month (again for 12 nights). For the poster who asked about the CS credits, you can use them anyway you want, breakfast, lunch, dinner, and you can just share one between the two of you, as we do, espe. at Colombia Harbor House. My only thing leftover on the last day is the snack credits and we usually hit the candy store at MK and buy bags of cookies, snacks, and fudge for the return home and as gifts.

 

[Teyedoubleguhrrrr]

I'll start this by saying we have NOT used DDP - yet, but are considering it as many others are.

For this I would say that DVC has a distinct advantage in that you have fridge/kitchen availability. I know with our girls, we would be doing some signature dining, which would eat up our TS credits, but if we could save our leftovers...then it might work out because we could eat leftovers to make up for the meals we might "miss" in doubling up our credits.

And before anyone says it - I KNOW it is a pain to traipse your leftovers back to the room, but I'm not talking every meal, just the occasional - I'm stuffed, but this <insert food here> is really good type of thing.

Anyone ever do that?

 

[DVCLiz]

Here was our problem with the DDP when we tried it two weeks ago at WDW. We arrived at 11pm after a 10 hour drive, so we weren't there to eat anything on our first day, but we each had 3 snacks, 3 CS and 3 TS meals for that night. The last day, we had the same number of meals, but we left at 10am, so again, we weren't going to be there to use them in a normal day.

I made sure we used our TS meals, by doubling up and using one set of 2 at Sci-Fi for lunch and another set of 2 at dinner the same day at 50s Prime Time, so we had 6 nights of meals, plus a TS for lunch one day. That took care of our 7 per person TS meals.

The point about the desserts is why we had so many snack credits left. We had dessert at each lunch, then had another big meal scheduled within about 7 hours, which was also going to include a dessert each, so we just didn't snack the way we normally do.

Not saying the Dining Plan isn't a good plan, just that we didn't use it very effectively this trip. It will probably work better for us to use our DDE card in the future.

Another point to make is that if you travel with preteens or teens like I do now, they don't always get up in time to take advantage of a breakfast meal, which cuts into the amount of time you have to use up your credits. I made DD get breakfast 2 days, which we normally wouldn't do, to use up CS credits.