Please Clarify a Few Things For Me...

[GriswoldDisneyMom]

Hi all! Trip coming up, first timers, 5/27-6/2. Family group of 10- parents, three adult children, one spouse, and 4 assorted kids. (2 17yo, 2 10yo). My mom booked everything- she's in charge, mostly, but I'm the one obsessing and trying to plan. We are there 6 days, but only 5 nights, and we've got one character meal, one dinner show, one signature, and one dinner with an imagineer for two members of the group, so already we're over our TS meals. ( I think she got free dining when she booked.)

My questions about the dining plan are these:

1) Can you trade down? (2 QS for 1 TS on the regular dining plan?)

2) Can you and must you book res. for places even if you're paying OOP and not applying those meals to the dining plan? Do you still need to make res. for places not on the dining plan?

3) If you go to a snack or QS place, and you've already used up your credits, will it allow you to accidentally go over, and if so, how does it charge you? Just charge to your room or make you pay OOP? Is it an added penalty?




Thanks ahead of time for your information! I'm sure I'll think of more questions later, but this gets it for now.

 

[ses1230]

1. Im not sure, but I dont think you can use 2 cs for a ts meal. I have heard of the resorts allowing snacks for extra cs credits (lowerr price point) but not the other way.

2. If it is a ts restaurant, you should have reservations, especially during free dining times.

3. It will not let you go over your credits. You will have to pay oop right then, or charge to your room.

 

[plutolovr]

1) Can you trade down? (2 QS for 1 TS on the regular dining plan?)

No.

2) Can you and must you book res. for places even if you're paying OOP and not applying those meals to the dining plan? Do you still need to make res. for places not on the dining plan?

ADR's are necessary at most if not all table service restaurants even if you're not using the Dining Plan.

3) If you go to a snack or QS place, and you've already used up your credits, will it allow you to accidentally go over, and if so, how does it charge you? Just charge to your room or make you pay OOP? Is it an added penalty?

You won't be allowed to purchase a snack without an available snack credit. You can charge to your room or just pay cash.

Have fun planning?

 

[gem21]

1)Sort of... it really depends on the place, but generally the consesus seems to be if you have an extra TS you can use it for a CS, and if you have an extra CS you can use it for three snacks. (not vice-versa). Double check with the restaurant before hand because some people have had success doing but others were not.

2) You can make ADR whether you are on the dining plan or not, anyone can make them. And yes you should, especially if you want to eat at the more popular ones at "regular" meal times. Some of the restaurants don't take ADRs but not many...

3) No it won't let you go over.

 

[robinb]

Hi all! Trip coming up, first timers, 5/27-6/2. Family group of 10- parents, three adult children, one spouse, and 4 assorted kids. (2 17yo, 2 10yo). My mom booked everything- she's in charge, mostly, but I'm the one obsessing and trying to plan. We are there 6 days, but only 5 nights, and we've got one character meal, one dinner show, one signature, and one dinner with an imagineer for two members of the group, so already we're over our TS meals. ( I think she got free dining when she booked.)

My questions about the dining plan are these:

1) Can you trade down? (2 QS for 1 TS on the regular dining plan?)

2) Can you and must you book res. for places even if you're paying OOP and not applying those meals to the dining plan? Do you still need to make res. for places not on the dining plan?

3) If you go to a snack or QS place, and you've already used up your credits, will it allow you to accidentally go over, and if so, how does it charge you? Just charge to your room or make you pay OOP? Is it an added penalty?

1. No. You can not convert TS credits to CS credits or visa-versa.

2. Yes. You absolutely need to make ADRs for all restaurants no matter how you are paying for it.

3. You will not be able to "accidentally" do over on snacks. The CM will tell you that you are out of snack credits and will ask you how you would like to pay for the item. You can use cash, credit card or your room key.

Something that you may want to consider to help stretch your TS credits. You said that you have 2 10-year olds in your group. They are considered "Adults" on the DDP and they receive adult credits to spend. You may pay for THEIR meals out of pocket from the kid's menu if you wish and save their credits for the other adults to use at a more expensive meal. The only meal in your current plan where you could do that would be the Signature meal, but if you paid the $10 each OOP for kids meals then you can save the 4 adult dining credits to use on another meal. At the character meal and at the dinner show they will be charged as adults, so you can't pay child pricing for them.

 

[Eeyore's Wife]

Greetings,

There are a few things to consider. First, using two credits to pay for a dinner show, such as Hoop Dee Doo, is not usually a good idea if you are going to end up paying out of pocket for two additional table service meals, as the cost of those two meals is usually much more than the cost of paying for the dinner plan out of pocket.

Second, where are you staying on property? When we stayed at Pop, we were able to stretch some of our conter service because if you ordered the pizza meal at the counter service, NOT ROOM DELIVERY, you only had to use two counter service credits for an entire pizza, two drink, and two desserts. That meal easily fed three, leaving an extra counter service.

Go ahead and do the math. If you are planning on buying the refillable mugs, then tally up the cost. Add up what you will spend out of pocket for those additional table service meals. It may be in your best interest to pay to upgrade to the deluxe plan, which will give you two snacks per day, a refillable mug, and three meal credits per day, plus you get an appatizer. You can do the signature meals and dinner shows each evening and still have a sit down breakfast or lunch. Those breakfasts are a great way to see the characters in air conditioned, non-line conditions.

Lastly, Robinb gave you a good idea. paying Out of Pocket for the ten year olds, at the table service meals, except the dinner shows or buffets, can be a huge savings of credits. When our eldest daughter was ten, she was really happy to have an appatizer and then eat most of my dessert. Or you can purchase a kids meal. You need to really look at how your family really plans to eat, and then plan accordingly.

 

[HolliePoppins]

Greetings,

Sorry to hijack you thread OP.

Hello Eeyore's Wife We met in Sept. at Downtown Disney and shared a bus back to Pop. I hope you and your family had a great trip! We had a great trip. It was wonderful watching our daughter experience Disney for the first time.

 

[Eeyore's Wife]

Hollie Poppins, nice to hear from you again. Our next trip to Disney will be January of 2012 to be there just before our little one turns three. It is also our oldest daughter's senior year in college, so a few months after that she will be off to the real grown up world.

Our next trip will not be at Pop. We are staying at Bay Lake Tower and really hamming it up. We wanted a big ta-da as a way to celebrate our oldest graduating from college. It just does not seem possible that she is such a grown up woman.

To somewhat tie this back into the thread, Pop Century really has a wonderful counter service restaurant with several great meals that can easily be split, especially if you get the enormous ice cream sundae as dessert.

 

[havoc315]

Hi all! Trip coming up, first timers, 5/27-6/2. Family group of 10- parents, three adult children, one spouse, and 4 assorted kids. (2 17yo, 2 10yo). My mom booked everything- she's in charge, mostly, but I'm the one obsessing and trying to plan. We are there 6 days, but only 5 nights, and we've got one character meal, one dinner show, one signature, and one dinner with an imagineer for two members of the group, so already we're over our TS meals. ( I think she got free dining when she booked.)

My questions about the dining plan are these:

1) Can you trade down? (2 QS for 1 TS on the regular dining plan?)

2) Can you and must you book res. for places even if you're paying OOP and not applying those meals to the dining plan? Do you still need to make res. for places not on the dining plan?

3) If you go to a snack or QS place, and you've already used up your credits, will it allow you to accidentally go over, and if so, how does it charge you? Just charge to your room or make you pay OOP? Is it an added penalty?

1. No, can't trade down. You might be able to trade for 2-3 snacks, possibly you can use it for 1 CS meal, but no.. you absolutely cannot trade it down for multiple CS meals.


2. See a chorus of people saying you MUST book ADRs well in advance. Not totally true. We are going President's Week, just 1 month away. Most of the restaurants still have plenty of availability. If you want the most popular restaurants and character meals, at prime meal times, then yes... you need ADRs far in advance. But especially if you are willing to eat a bit early or a bit late, you will have no trouble finding a TS meal, with or without a reservation.

For example-- today is a pretty busy day, MLK day. It is now 6:30 pm. If you wanted to eat dinner 1.5 hours from now... at 8 pm -- There are still 46 restaurants with availability, and only 17 restaurants with no availability. So you can't get into CRT of Les Cellier at the last minute, but you can easily get into Liberty Tree Tavern or Crystal palace tonight.

3. You just pay OOP.

 

[rlovew]

I am not positive but I am fairly sure that Dining with an Imiganeer is not covered by the dining plan. I know it was not when we did so a couple of years ago and were on the plan.

 

[Altoqueenkelly]

My questions about the dining plan are these:

1) Can you trade down? (2 QS for 1 TS on the regular dining plan?)

2) Can you and must you book res. for places even if you're paying OOP and not applying those meals to the dining plan? Do you still need to make res. for places not on the dining plan?

3) If you go to a snack or QS place, and you've already used up your credits, will it allow you to accidentally go over, and if so, how does it charge you? Just charge to your room or make you pay OOP? Is it an added penalty.

1) No you will not be allowed to trade in QS credit for TS credits.
2) Yes, absolutely you must book reservations EVEN if planning to pay OOP, otherwise it is not likely you will be able to be seated as a walkup.
3)No, the DDP will not allow you to "go over" your alloted credits. However if you have a credit card linked to your KTTWC then you will be allowed to charge the purchase to the card.

 

[kaytieeldr]

I am not positive but I am fairly sure that Dining with an Imiganeer is not covered by the dining plan. I know it was not when we did so a couple of years ago and were on the plan.

You're right, it's not included.

 

[GriswoldDisneyMom]

Hi all! I just talked to my mom, and she told me that, as you all are saying, the Imagineer experience is not on the dining plan. (I didn't know all the details. She paid for that one on her card already.) We discussed upgrading the plan, but she's thinking that if it's something like $37 per person per day to upgrade to DDP, then it would be MUCH cheaper to just pay OOP for a couple of TS meals if we want them.

Also, I may have forgotten to mention that we had discussed only part of the group going to Le Cellier. I think she's got us all booked, but we thought maybe just my sisters and BIL and I might go there, to save TS credits. (But then that's just another reservation to make for the rest of them!

I want to take my kids at some point, split off from the group and go to T-Rex. Also want to go to either Rose & Crown or Raglan Road. Also going to try to get Biergarten, maybe. Off to the restaurant thread now to post thread on those specifically.