What's the difference?

[DisneySuiteFreak]

I used them the very first time I went to Disneyland, it was easy and I did well. I learned over the years to just use a gift card, or cash. I will tell you, Always use the full voucher, use the ten dollar ones for meals like burgers and such, you will need to go over the amount to save as if you get something 8.99 or less you loose money, we always got 2 burgers and then doled out cash. Now days its best to use cash, or gift card but you still can have a great time using them if you do it right Have a great trip!!

I agree w/ Teatime. When DLR had the unlimited FastPass feature, we did the meal vouchers because you had to book a package and so that's what we did. I liked the idea of having all my meals prepaid. To be honest, I can be somewhat of a tightwad. I hate spending money on expensive meals, and imo, the food at DLR is seriously overpriced for what you get. However, we were doing the park commando style, and we were there from beginning to end with no daily breaks. At that time, it was more inconvenient for me, and I wouldn't have even thought of leaving the parks for anything until after the park was closed! So as I said, we got the meal vouchers. We loved it! Even my DH, who is more of a tightwad than I am, loved it. Normally, we'll look at prices and say to heck w/ that we're eating off site, or we'll eat later, because we're not spending $12 for a sandwich from RBT. (Gosh, back then it was around $12 for a whole Turkey meal w/ mash potatos, stuffing, gravy, and cranberry sauce. That was a deal compared to the $12 sandwich!) On that trip, we ate whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted, it was all pretty much paid for and we didn't think about prices. What we did do though, to maximize the benefit, is we always rounded up. So if we had a $10 coupon, we made sure to spend at least the $10 and pay the difference out of pocket. If it cost $12, we used the $10 coupon and paid the $2.
At the end of our trip, we had so many unused coupons, that we went to Blue Ribbon Bakery and splurged, buying all the cookies, pastries, Rice Krispy treats -- you name it -- that we wanted so we could use up all our remaining coupons. We had snacks for days after leaving the park! It was worth it to us for the convenience and peace of mind knowing that it was already paid for (less any minimal differences in pricing) and it allowed us to enjoy eating without 2nd guessing the cost. Now we've been there so much, that we don't do this anymore. We don't do the park commando style, we do take breaks, eat off site and even go to other parks/activities (heaven forbid!). We don't get package deals through Disney anymore because they are usually very overpriced. It was only worth it to me because we would get unlimited Fast Passes if we bought a DLR package at that time. What a deal! Too bad they no longer offer it. If they had that, I'd consider buying a package again. So it's not worth it for us to do the dining plan anymore. Since you're kind of stuck with it, enjoy it FWIW, and round up to get your money's worth. If you have extra coupons, just get a bunch of snacks to take home with you. BTW, you can use any coupon for pretty much anything. Just cuz it says 'snack coupon' on it doesn't mean they won't take it for a meal. All they really care about is the dollar value of the coupon.

 

[DisneySuiteFreak]

no. The breakfast in the park vouchers are just for a restaurant in the park that serves breakfast. If it says "Character Breakfast" then it is the Minnie Breakfast.

Or any Character Breakfast. Don't forget about Goofy's.

 

[teatime]

I agree w/ Teatime. When DLR had the unlimited FastPass feature, we did the meal vouchers because you had to book a package and so that's what we did. I liked the idea of having all my meals prepaid. To be honest, I can be somewhat of a tightwad. I hate spending money on expensive meals, and imo, the food at DLR is seriously overpriced for what you get. However, we were doing the park commando style, and we were there from beginning to end with no daily breaks. At that time, it was more inconvenient for me, and I wouldn't have even thought of leaving the parks for anything until after the park was closed! So as I said, we got the meal vouchers. We loved it! Even my DH, who is more of a tightwad than I am, loved it. Normally, we'll look at prices and say to heck w/ that we're eating off site, or we'll eat later, because we're not spending $12 for a sandwich from RBT. (Gosh, back then it was around $12 for a whole Turkey meal w/ mash potatos, stuffing, gravy, and cranberry sauce. That was a deal compared to the $12 sandwich!) On that trip, we ate whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted, it was all pretty much paid for and we didn't think about prices. What we did do though, to maximize the benefit, is we always rounded up. So if we had a $10 coupon, we made sure to spend at least the $10 and pay the difference out of pocket. If it cost $12, we used the $10 coupon and paid the $2.
At the end of our trip, we had so many unused coupons, that we went to Blue Ribbon Bakery and splurged, buying all the cookies, pastries, Rice Krispy treats -- you name it -- that we wanted so we could use up all our remaining coupons. We had snacks for days after leaving the park! It was worth it to us for the convenience and peace of mind knowing that it was already paid for (less any minimal differences in pricing) and it allowed us to enjoy eating without 2nd guessing the cost. Now we've been there so much, that we don't do this anymore. We don't do the park commando style, we do take breaks, eat off site and even go to other parks/activities (heaven forbid!). We don't get package deals through Disney anymore because they are usually very overpriced. It was only worth it to me because we would get unlimited Fast Passes if we bought a DLR package at that time. What a deal! Too bad they no longer offer it. If they had that, I'd consider buying a package again. So it's not worth it for us to do the dining plan anymore. Since you're kind of stuck with it, enjoy it FWIW, and round up to get your money's worth. If you have extra coupons, just get a bunch of snacks to take home with you. BTW, you can use any coupon for pretty much anything. Just cuz it says 'snack coupon' on it doesn't mean they won't take it for a meal. All they really care about is the dollar value of the coupon.

Yep, you said exactly what I said!!!!!! I mean a 4.50 strawberry ? Oh heck no ! but we loved the vouchers, we also went commando and by the end of the trip we had so much left that we got tons of goodies for on the way home, and even for days afterwords. I was shocked at the prices, I was like no way! but I did well on those vouchers, they did well for us on the trip. I do not go with Walt disney travel any more either, wish I could have but there usually way higher any more. I also loved the fact my meals were all paid for, heck I have a hard time scraping up enough for all of us as it is, I would have loved to add the vouchers to our package and paid payments over time.

 

[bumbershoot]

But...when you add it all up, unless you're doing the most expensive character breakfasts, you're just breaking even. There's no savings; you're basically paying dollar for dollar.


Eh, even the WDW plan would be a waste of money for us. So who am I to talk?


But I did want to reiterate that since the OP has only paid the deposit, the OP is NOT stuck with the dining plan. S/he might have to pay the change fee, but s/he can change it.

 

[DisneySuiteFreak]

But...when you add it all up, unless you're doing the most expensive character breakfasts, you're just breaking even. There's no savings; you're basically paying dollar for dollar.
You're right of course. It was more psychological, piece of mind knowing it was paid for so we didn't have to feel guilty about eating way overpriced food we wouldn't normally eat.

Eh, even the WDW plan would be a waste of money for us. So who am I to talk?
I've read so many good things about WDW dining plan, I'm surprised to see you say that. People eat til they'e stuffed and then they take home all their extra snacks to savor for an extra week. You can still get your moneys worth I think. I almost booked a WDW free dining deal last year, but we couldn't see spending $4500 on airfare and then dropping another $4k on the rooms, food, and tickets. DH nixed that idea pronto!

But I did want to reiterate that since the OP has only paid the deposit, the OP is NOT stuck with the dining plan. S/he might have to pay the change fee, but s/he can change it.

That's good for them to know.

 

[teatime]

You're right of course. It was more psychological, piece of mind knowing it was paid for so we didn't have to feel guilty about eating way overpriced food we wouldn't normally eat.

yep me to!!!

 

[brookies_mommy]

"You're right of course. It was more psychological, piece of mind knowing it was paid for so we didn't have to feel guilty about eating way overpriced food we wouldn't normally eat."

Your right.. I am so weird about spending money on food. And if I were to pay for everything while I was there and not use the vouches I would feel like I spent too much money.. Even though technically its the same. I feel alot better knowing over time I have paid for it and once I get to disneyland I have my alloted funds to use and then thats it.

 

[DisneyMomma81]

I use gift cards and character meal vouchers as pre~payment for our meals. That's why I'm ok with lunch @ Blue Bayou, dinner with the princesses, etc. If I used my debit card to pay for these meals (although I do to buy the vouchers & GCs just like those who use the meal plan *paid for in advance) for these meals they wouldn't be as easy to do.

 

[brookies_mommy]

"You're right of course. It was more psychological, piece of mind knowing it was paid for so we didn't have to feel guilty about eating way overpriced food we wouldn't normally eat."

Your right.. I am so weird about spending money on food. And if I were to pay for everything while I was there and not use the vouches I would feel like I spent too much money.. Even though technically its the same. I feel alot better knowing over time I have paid for it and once I get to disneyland I have my allotted funds to use and then thats it.