Unused meals under DDP to be gifted to others

[mrrigby]

Do you know whether WDW has a program where you could gift unused meals to a child or parent who is less fortunate and may be visiting WDW through Make-a-Wish or some other similar program?

I'd like my DW and I to donate a CS meal, if we could, to a child who may be visiting and cannot afford the costs associated with his magical experience.

 

[msklcassidy]

to Disney Dining and suggest it. It's a great idea! You might also want to metion it to one of the managers at any of the restaurants you go to.

 

[coachyo]

Great idea!!!

I did read about some here on the boards who told how on their last day the were at the MARA and had CS left over and they waited for someone they felt might like it and as the person went up to check out they stepped in and said it was on them and used their credits left over. If whoever posted that please you can tell it better than I can. It was really cool what you did.
I really liked that and have already thought about doing it if we have any left over.

I somehow have a feeling DW won't be too gung ho over the idea of donating them, who gets them & who would manage them? Lots of $ involved.

Still a great idea, if it comes to fruition thanks for your idea.

YO

 

[wdwgoofeeee]

Do you know whether WDW has a program where you could gift unused meals to a child or parent who is less fortunate and may be visiting WDW through Make-a-Wish or some other similar program?

I'd like my DW and I to donate a CS meal, if we could, to a child who may be visiting and cannot afford the costs associated with his magical experience.

What a wonderful idea! We all need to take some time to help those less fortunate.

 

[Milobaby]

Just back last night-Due to snowstorm my family left a day early-all together we had 5 CS and 2 TS left-we found people in the cafeteria in the hotel and asked if they had the dining plan -we didn't encounter anyone who did-and asked if we could use them for thier meals-every person was shocked and couldn't believe that they wouldn't have to pay-they got to pick out an entree an dessert and drink. They were all so cute, they wanted to pay us for it and we kept insisting that they not give us any money. You can use a TS for a CS you just have to let the cashier know. We broke even on the dining plan 4 adays into a 8 day trip so it was worth every penny-we got to eat at some amazing places that we wouldn't have . Our highlights were-Spoodles,Coral Reef,Le Cellier. We also enjoyed Boma,Crystal Palace and Hollywood and Vine.

 

[OKW Lover]

Interesting idea. But why would Disney do this? Right now they pocket the money on any un-used dining credits. I'm sure Disney already does a lot of charitible giving, why a new program?

 

[CoolDisneyCat]

I think it would be a wonderful idea to give the meals to Make a Wish or a similar charity. A dear friend of mine was given a trip to Disney for his terminally ill daughter and they had a wonderful time. These trips really mean a great deal to families who have had so much hardship to deal with.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

I agree it would be a neat idea, but I think it would be a logistical nightmare. Those credits are designed to expire the day you check out. Trying to develop a system where unused credits could be "banked" and then distributed to designated families would be a very costly endeavor. Not to mention that there would be kinks in the system that would cause frustration for everyone involved.

And I think Disney intends for people to leave with unused credits. They probably generate a lot of income that way. "Use them or lose them" is the way it is for a reason, I would imagine. Otherwise they would just let you carry the credits over to a future visit.

 

[bicker]

Interesting idea. But why would Disney do this? Right now they pocket the money on any un-used dining credits.

There is no question that Disney prices the dining plan based on factoring a certain amount of unused credits. By the same token, as you said, they already do a lot of charitable giving, so they could readily ear-mark (pardon the pun) some of that giving against a new "donate your unused dining credits" option. It wouldn't cost them any significant amount of money (since they would have donated that money anyway), and they could use it to promote the plan.

 

[OKW Lover]

There is no question that Disney prices the dining plan based on factoring a certain amount of unused credits. By the same token, as you said, they already do a lot of charitable giving, so they could readily ear-mark (pardon the pun) some of that giving against a new "donate your unused dining credits" option. It wouldn't cost them any significant amount of money (since they would have donated that money anyway), and they could use it to promote the plan.

Or the guest could just give some money to their own favorite charity and leave out the middleman.

 

[Lewisc]

There is no question that Disney prices the dining plan based on factoring a certain amount of unused credits. By the same token, as you said, they already do a lot of charitable giving, so they could readily ear-mark (pardon the pun) some of that giving against a new "donate your unused dining credits" option. It wouldn't cost them any significant amount of money (since they would have donated that money anyway), and they could use it to promote the plan.

I'm not sure how easy it would be to keep track of which guests are donating unused meals.

If Disney thought this would promote the dining plan it might make more sense to just say they are using all the unused dining credits to provide meals for charitable groups.

 

[bicker]

I was thinking they should just have it as an amenity code, and you could handle the transaction as you're checking out.

If Disney thought this would promote the dining plan it might make more sense to just say they are using all the unused dining credits to provide meals for charitable groups.

My guess is that that would require revealing some proprietary information to the general public, that is best kept private.