Question about dining plan changes and people not on dining plan

[diskids2]

If I am reading and researching correctly, I can now use my dining plan TS credits for people not on the plan. I always have two rooms booked so this is actually a change that I like! I was wondering how it will work for pre-paid type dining, like Cinderella's or Candlelight Processional. When we traveled last December the dining plan credits were pulled from our "pool" before we got to the restaurant...I am guessing that I will ONLY be able to use the credits for the number of people on the plan i.e. in the room....not sure how it would work otherwise.

 

[aaarcher86]

Don't think the plan confirms or mentions this change specifically.

http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/me...alog/WaltDisneyWorld/en_us/PDF/2016Dining.pdf

Probably need to wait for experiences to be reported. But credits, at least for CRT, aren't actually deducted until you dine.

 

[diskids2]

Last year both Candlelight and Hoop De Doo were deducted before we dined. Only reason I know for sure is that in the morning I noticed the credits were down too far after breakfast and this was confirmed by guest services. I am figuring we will hear how this works or doesn't work.

 

[Figmentmommy]

Not sure - maybe the early deduction you experienced was a fluke. Last December our CP dinner package was not deducted until after we had our meal.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

There's no way to deduct credits for a certain meal before you actually pay for the meal. Something else was going on there. Most likely they mistakenly deducted too many sets of credits when you paid somewhere.

 

[senadler]

It has been a few years, but the last time we were on the dining plan our credits for HDDR were deducted in the morning the day we went.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

HDDR is prepaid,they may do something with that when they print your tickets. But the Candlelight Processional is not prepaid and will not be deducted until you scan your band or card at the restaurant.

 

[12disneybee]

Scenerio #1:
If you have a package on DxDP .. 2 adults and 2 kids under 10: if dining as 2 adults and 2 kids yes the credits are pooled but with kids present they will try to enforce ordering off child's menus so 4 credits will be deducted.

Scenerio #2: (this is our situation, kids often go off with the grandparents/cousins from Orlando and we adults have dinners with no kids. The kids are welcome but by day 2 of 15 nights they have had it with sit down dinners.. I still book DxDP package for 2 kids and 2 adults. (15 Nights is how long we can use the credits..we are staying with family after checkout for 3 more nights)

2 adults on our package wearing magic bands. We take another adult couple with us to the new boathouse in downtown disney...we tell the server to deduct credits for 2 people off my magic band and credits for 2 people off DH magic band... the server cannot say."hey you only have child credits left " because they aren't separated like that. DxDP
Only has a number of credits.. not child and adult.. if the children go we pay oop for them if they aren't that hungry . We have done this for years. When my credits are gone they are gone. If my kid is hungry and it's just us..sure we will use a credit for him. We have 168 DxDP credits and we use our 112 snack credits for lunch. Many times the kids eat off the snack credits alone and they are stuffed. Its not unethical... I pay for my package exactly for the # in my family..my kids always have the ooption to dine out with us.... if they wanna stay in the parks with Grammy or their cousin we invite my adult family to dine with us or my DH and I eat signatures every night for 15 nights...

 

[supersnoop]

Scenerio #1:
If you have a package on DxDP .. 2 adults and 2 kids under 10: if dining as 2 adults and 2 kids yes the credits are pooled but with kids present they will try to enforce ordering off child's menus so 4 credits will be deducted.

Scenerio #2: (this is our situation, kids often go off with the grandparents/cousins from Orlando and we adults have dinners with no kids. The kids are welcome but by day 2 of 15 nights they have had it with sit down dinners.. I still book DxDP package for 2 kids and 2 adults. (15 Nights is how long we can use the credits..we are staying with family after checkout for 3 more nights)

2 adults on our package wearing magic bands. We take another adult couple with us to the new boathouse in downtown disney...we tell the server to deduct credits for 2 people off my magic band and credits for 2 people off DH magic band... the server cannot say."hey you only have child credits left " because they aren't separated like that. DxDP
Only has a number of credits.. not child and adult.. if the children go we pay oop for them if they aren't that hungry . We have done this for years. When my credits are gone they are gone. If my kid is hungry and it's just us..sure we will use a credit for him. We have 168 DxDP credits and we use our 112 snack credits for lunch. Many times the kids eat off the snack credits alone and they are stuffed. Its not unethical... I pay for my package exactly for the # in my family..my kids always have the ooption to dine out with us.... if they wanna stay in the parks with Grammy or their cousin we invite my adult family to dine with us or my DH and I eat signatures every night for 15 nights...

Yes, that's a very detailed explanation with clear directions on how to scam the system.

 

[PoohsHunnyBee]

Scenerio #1:
If you have a package on DxDP .. 2 adults and 2 kids under 10: if dining as 2 adults and 2 kids yes the credits are pooled but with kids present they will try to enforce ordering off child's menus so 4 credits will be deducted.

Scenerio #2: (this is our situation, kids often go off with the grandparents/cousins from Orlando and we adults have dinners with no kids. The kids are welcome but by day 2 of 15 nights they have had it with sit down dinners.. I still book DxDP package for 2 kids and 2 adults. (15 Nights is how long we can use the credits..we are staying with family after checkout for 3 more nights)

2 adults on our package wearing magic bands. We take another adult couple with us to the new boathouse in downtown disney...we tell the server to deduct credits for 2 people off my magic band and credits for 2 people off DH magic band... the server cannot say."hey you only have child credits left " because they aren't separated like that. DxDP
Only has a number of credits.. not child and adult.. if the children go we pay oop for them if they aren't that hungry . We have done this for years. When my credits are gone they are gone. If my kid is hungry and it's just us..sure we will use a credit for him. We have 168 DxDP credits and we use our 112 snack credits for lunch. Many times the kids eat off the snack credits alone and they are stuffed. Its not unethical... I pay for my package exactly for the # in my family..my kids always have the ooption to dine out with us.... if they wanna stay in the parks with Grammy or their cousin we invite my adult family to dine with us or my DH and I eat signatures every night for 15 nights...

Scenario #1: They will try to enforce it because those are the rules as laid out in all official dining plan literature.

Scenario #2: If it's not against the rules, may I ask why you give 2 bands to the server instead of 1?

 

[lwc]

For informations sake, I just asked a CM over chat if I would be able to pay for a guest dining with us with my credits and was told, after a lengthy pause while he checked, "Yes. You can now use your entitlements for Guests that are dining with you, even if they are not on the Disney dining plan themselves."

 

[PoohsHunnyBee]

For informations sake, I just asked a CM over chat if I would be able to pay for a guest dining with us with my credits and was told, after a lengthy pause while he checked, "Yes. You can now use your entitlements for Guests that are dining with you, even if they are not on the Disney dining plan themselves."

While I don't doubt you at all, check out javaj's report in the sticky. Something may have changed with the rules, but people have been told different things at different locations and by different CMs. Hopefully things get sorted out soon and the rules and enforcement are standardized.

 

[supersnoop]

For informations sake, I just asked a CM over chat if I would be able to pay for a guest dining with us with my credits and was told, after a lengthy pause while he checked, "Yes. You can now use your entitlements for Guests that are dining with you, even if they are not on the Disney dining plan themselves."

Unfortunately, the CM's, both on the phone and through the chat feature, are known to give out bad information. Many of them have never even stepped foot in Florida, let along Disney World. The only official document available still says that, at least for 2015, you cannot use your credits to pay for someone who is not on the plan. From what I've read here, there was ONE person who asked at three different restaurants, and was told it was allowed at one of those, but they were not in a position to act on that information at the time. I have seen NO reports of anyone with bona fide experience on the topic. Nobody has reported being able to pay for someone on the plan, with the exception of those who have found ways to scam the system.

 

[lwc]

While I don't doubt you at all, check out javaj's report in the sticky. Something may have changed with the rules, but people have been told different things at different locations and by different CMs. Hopefully things get sorted out soon and the rules and enforcement are standardized.

I hear you. And clearly not everyone on staff has received the same information.

BUT I think it is a stretch to question the ethics of someone doing what booking agents are telling them is allowed.

If the person who's job it is to sell me a Disney vacation tells me that I can use my dining plan entitlements to buy meals for others and I go ahead and purchase a vacation that includes the dining plan based on that information, wouldn't it be unethical for Disney to not honor those terms?

Perhaps they don't legally have to because something different is spelled out in the brochure, but ethically?

 

[PoohsHunnyBee]

I hear you. And clearly not everyone on staff has received the same information.

BUT I think it is a stretch to question the ethics of someone doing what booking agents are telling them is allowed.

If the person who's job it is to sell me a Disney vacation tells me that I can use my dining plan entitlements to buy meals for others and I go ahead and purchase a vacation that includes the dining plan based on that information, wouldn't it be unethical for Disney to not honor those terms?

Perhaps they don't legally have to because something different is spelled out in the brochure, but ethically?

Look, I am really not trying to engage in an ethics debate with anyone. I'm just wondering why if one considers everything to be on the up and up, one would act as though they are using separate plans by paying with multiple bands when the credits are the same for either band? I agree that Disney should be held responsible in some capacity for information released by their employees, but that does not appear to be how things have worked in the past.

Edited to add: Removed any reference to ethics in my question. I didn't introduce the word unethical into the discussion and I'm not trying to make remarks on anyone's character.

But my question remains: If there isn't a problem with it, why misrepresent the situation? And I thought it was universally agreed that if you are allowed to use the credits on people not on the dining plan that was a change within the last month and has not been the case for years as the scenario asserts? Perhaps I am mistaken.

 

[maxiesmom]

I hear you. And clearly not everyone on staff has received the same information.

BUT I think it is a stretch to question the ethics of someone doing what booking agents are telling them is allowed.

If the person who's job it is to sell me a Disney vacation tells me that I can use my dining plan entitlements to buy meals for others and I go ahead and purchase a vacation that includes the dining plan based on that information, wouldn't it be unethical for Disney to not honor those terms?

Perhaps they don't legally have to because something different is spelled out in the brochure, but ethically?

Ethically? I don't think you want to get into an ethics discussion on a board where so many posters claim that if they are not forced to follow a rule, then Disney must not really care if they dos o or not.

As with any business it is best to go by what is written, not by what someone over the phone has told you. As has been pointed out, unfortunately many of the phone people are clueless. Or just don't really care if they are telling guests the correct information or not. Always best to go by what is in print and official.

Say a guest is told over the phone they can use dining credits for people not on the plan. And that guest gets to the park, and finds that it is not the case. What recourse do they have? Saying Joe CM told me it was ok over the phone won't get them anywhere, when Disney states something else in print on all its literature. And truly it shouldn't because the next thing that would happen would be a sudden surge in guests claiming they were told it was ok over the phone. Because if Disney doesn't make them follow the rules, it must be ok to lie about it.