Question about dining plan

[DisneyHoosier36]

I seem to keep hearing a lot of horror stories about service and treatment if you are on the dining plan. We will be on it for the first time later this year. Do waiters/waitresses and staff actually treat you differently if you're on the plan? Seems like this is a huge negative in trying to get you to buy the plan.

 

[jon18uk]

Never received any poor service on the dining plan.

 

[angierae]

We had the DP on our first two trips (paid the first time, free the second) and I didn't notice any difference in how we were treated between that and trip #3, where we did not have the dining plan.

 

[angierae]

Whoops, posted on the wrong thread! Edited!

 

[lovndisney12]

We have never had poor service on the dining plan and this December will be our 3rd trip using it. We love it for multiple reasons but most of all because I like the idea that my growing teenage boys can order whatever they want and I don't have to worry about how much it will cost. We all look forward to the dining experiences as much as we do the other components of the trip which didn't happen on our WDW vacations prior to using the DP.

 

[PoohsHunnyBee]

I have seen reports of this, but I've also seen other reports of the opposite. Some servers may experience some people who are "not paying" for their meal on the plan skimping on the tip. Some servers may get larger tips when some people on the plan up the meal "cost" by ordering the more expensive entrees plus desserts and soda for everyone rather than sharing dessert and drinking tap water. So, different servers may have different feelings about the plan.

However, if the server gives someone bad service because they're on the plan or not on the plan...they're a poor server and you could get bad service from them for any of a multitude reasons unrelated to the plan. For what it's worth, I have never yet received bad service at Disney dining and I have received outstanding service a couple of times whether on or off the plan (I've done both at a variety of restaurants).

 

[angierae]

Of course, it begs the question - how could they tell if you were there on free dining or not? I've been during free dining and not taken advantage of it. On the old cards, it just said you had DDP. I don't think there's any way a server can tell if you paid for your dining plan or not, is there?

Nevermind, the post was about DDP in general, not free dining. My brain is fried today.

 

[mickeynut1]

I seem to keep hearing a lot of horror stories about service and treatment if you are on the dining plan. We will be on it for the first time later this year. Do waiters/waitresses and staff actually treat you differently if you're on the plan? Seems like this is a huge negative in trying to get you to buy the plan.

We have paid OOP, had the DDP as well as the DlxDDP and we have never been treated any differently while on the plan.

 

[Nancyg56]

I have never had bad service. We have been on FD, paid ddp, and no plan.

 

[Jadyreen1282]

We've never had a bad server. Slow sometimes that I've asked the first one that walked by to fill my glass. I have since learned to ask for the refill before it was empty.

 

[POOHsie]

We've never noticed a difference in treatment if we're on DDP or not. There have been some posters (not many) who reported this, but couldn't prove it in any way. In reality, the server could be having a bad day, and their attitude might not have anything to do with the guests they're serving or how they're paying.

 

[honeybunches]

We have had the DxDP and the DDP. I've never felt that we got bad service because of it.

 

[DisneyHardin]

We've used the Dining Plan the last 5 years and have always had good service. They do ask right off the bat if you are on the plan, but I think that is just so they can code the check correctly.

 

[brnrss34]

We will be using it for the 4th time in Sept. I love the fact of not worrying about cost. Getting to see all the nice restaurants, and character experiences. The waiters and waitresses have been nothing but nice or entertaining every single time. Very helpful if u have a question about your plan.

 

[Allison]

I see people say they have heard stories about poor treatment but I have never actually seen the stories they are hearing about.