Which dining plan to buy for food and wine festival?

[sgends]

Curious which dining plan "if any" people use during food and wine?

 

[loves to dive]

I don't use one but then again I haven't used one in about 6 or 7 years. For F&W I find myself pretty much getting full just snacking at all the booths.

 

[MrInfinity]

If we were to get a dining plan, it would be the regular DDP, even during F&W.

DDP is a nice mix of a few TS, a few QS, and some snacks. We've never had a problem using them all, and end up eating a couple meals more than the plan, so we can use the points to pay for the more expensive ones only. Even during F&W it worked out for us since we had a couple 2-point dinners mixed in so we were able to use more QS and Snacks at F&W, then the TS points elsewhere. If I remember correctly, the F&W snacks were a pretty good use of a DDP point.

All this w the caveat that as we get older and our kids become Disney-Adults and we do fewer character meals, the plan will become less of a value. We may get to squeeze in one more trip w 3 of our kids being 9 or under.

 

[karrit2000]

Curious which dining plan "if any" people use during food and wine?

Unless you routinely need to have at least one TS meal per day I do not find that there is any need to have any type of DP if your visit is primarily for F & W. The booths do let you use snack credits for food items but I am able to find enough to eat at the different booths and do not want a sit down meal after eating at the booths. Also we tend to do some of the special F & W pairing & dining events in the different countries that are held during the day so that serves as our sit down meals on those days and on some of those days we don't even get anything from the booths as we are full from those meals. If you are big eaters you may not find the food at the booths to be filling and may want a big meal also. There are plenty of people who do so you will get differing opinions. There is rumor that this year they will be allowing people on the DP to convert a QS credit to 3 Snack credits but you will need to use all three credits at that booth during that transaction. Since the snack credits can only be used on food items there aren't too many booths where doing the conversion would be very cost effective.

 

[jon18uk]

I think for a majority of people it isn't worth paying for any dining plan at any time.

 

[sharonabe]

Even with F&W you need to do the math. Go find the menus and see what you might want to try at the various booths. Some of the snacks are a great value as they are in the $6 range, but some of them are still in the $4 range. Plus, if you use the majority of your snacks for F&W on a couple days, you have fewer snacks during the rest of your trip, so you'll probably still pay OOP for a few. As others have said, the F&W snacks can be a meal in themselves, so then you have to find a way to use the meal credits you've skipped. A 2TS meal is one way, but on the regular DDP, it is rarely a good value for your money. You could plan an extra breakfast buffet or two, but even those are barely breaking even for a TS value. And what to do with the leftover QS credits. Yes, you can exchange them for snacks to take home, but you're going to have a hard time finding 3 snacks that add up to $18. You could use them for breakfast, but that's another loser value wise.

Go plan out all your meals and snacks and DO THE MATH to see if it will work for you. I'm not saying it can't, but I think it's pretty difficult.

 

[karrit2000]

I should have prefaced my earlier answer by saying that I don't normally buy any DP no matter when I visit WDW. I have in the distant past done "free" dining, once when it included appetizers & tip and the following year when they removed the appetizers & tip. I used it once for a split stay where we only had it for one or two nights. I also did the QSDP the first year it was offered for two segments of a split stay when it included 2 snacks per day. Our normal eating habits are usually QS with one to three TS for the entire visit no matter what time of year so the DP doesn't really work for us. I also found myself trying to maximize the value of all credits which becomes a lot of work. The one year my friend got tired of the amount of food that was included, that was when apps were included. When I travel with my mom she doesn't eat enough at any meal to justify any DP. So you definitely need to do the math to see if it would be of any benefit to you.

 

[Lee & Kerry]

Curious which dining plan "if any" people use during food and wine?

We got the free one, you can use the snack credits to sample the foods though out the world show case, and you can eat like crazy for your stay.

 

[FrozenDuck]

We time our vacation with Food & Wine + Free Dining, which works out far better for us than any room only discounts at the same time. We go with the regular DDP, using our snack credits for F&W.

 

[lizzytizzy]

Unless you routinely need to have at least one TS meal per day I do not find that there is any need to have any type of DP if your visit is primarily for F & W. The booths do let you use snack credits for food items but I am able to find enough to eat at the different booths and do not want a sit down meal after eating at the booths. Also we tend to do some of the special F & W pairing & dining events in the different countries that are held during the day so that serves as our sit down meals on those days and on some of those days we don't even get anything from the booths as we are full from those meals. If you are big eaters you may not find the food at the booths to be filling and may want a big meal also. There are plenty of people who do so you will get differing opinions. There is rumor that this year they will be allowing people on the DP to convert a QS credit to 3 Snack credits but you will need to use all three credits at that booth during that transaction. Since the snack credits can only be used on food items there aren't too many booths where doing the conversion would be very cost effective.

I also heard that you can go to your concierge at your resort and have them convert your QS credit to 3 snacks as well. This way, you don't have to get all 3 snacks at one booth.

 

[sharonabe]

I also heard that you can go to your concierge at your resort and have them convert your QS credit to 3 snacks as well. This way, you don't have to get all 3 snacks at one booth.

PLEASE do not repeat this. That has NEVER been the case, and they cannot do that. The one person who first said this might be a possibility was getting snacks at that time at the resort. The CM who said they could convert them to just snack credits and leave them on the band is misinformed.

 

[karrit2000]

I also heard that you can go to your concierge at your resort and have them convert your QS credit to 3 snacks as well. This way, you don't have to get all 3 snacks at one booth.

This is not true.

 

[BigMommaMouse]

PLEASE do not repeat this. That has NEVER been the case, and they cannot do that. The one person who first said this might be a possibility was getting snacks at that time at the resort. The CM who said they could convert them to just snack credits and leave them on the band is misinformed.

This is not true.

Hi Guys,

Do you work at WDW in one of the hotels as guest relations? It would be helpful to know if it is CM advice or just friendly advice.

 

[sharonabe]

Hi Guys,

Do you work at WDW in one of the hotels as guest relations? It would be helpful to know if it is CM advice or just friendly advice.

Just friendly advice based on years of experience with the DDP. The PP was talking about ONE person who had a conversation with a CM during her own exchange of QS credits to snack credit items at a resort which has been done for a long time. No where in any of the rumored changes or actual changes has there been anything about turning one type of credit into another type of credit and leaving it on the magic band to be used anywhere you like. It has never worked that way, and it will not work that way now. Would not like for anyone to purchase the plan or plan out their meals with incorrect advice.

 

[BigMommaMouse]

Just friendly advice based on years of experience with the DDP. The PP was talking about ONE person who had a conversation with a CM during her own exchange of QS credits to snack credit items at a resort which has been done for a long time. No where in any of the rumored changes or actual changes has there been anything about turning one type of credit into another type of credit and leaving it on the magic band to be used anywhere you like. It has never worked that way, and it will not work that way now. Would not like for anyone to purchase the plan or plan out their meals with incorrect advice.

Thanks for the reply. On a different board we have a thread going trying to understand the whole swap thing. It is rather confusing.

 

[sharonabe]

Thanks for the reply. On a different board we have a thread going trying to understand the whole swap thing. It is rather confusing.

For QS, it shouldn't be that confusing, because it is spelled out in the brochure. At any QS place, you SHOULD be able to exchange your drink and/or dessert for any snack item on THAT menu and at THAT time, in one transaction. Most reports back now are saying this is happening just about everywhere, so it seems the CMs are finally trained and know how this works.

The exchange of one QS credit for 3 snacks is a little more unsettled. You SHOULD be able to do so just about anywhere they have snacks, but using the credits in this way is not even mentioned on the brochure, so technically, they don't have to allow it. But again, it has to be done at one place all in the same transaction, and the CM has to know how to do it.

 

[BigMommaMouse]

For QS, it shouldn't be that confusing, because it is spelled out in the brochure. At any QS place, you SHOULD be able to exchange your drink and/or dessert for any snack item on THAT menu and at THAT time, in one transaction. Most reports back now are saying this is happening just about everywhere, so it seems the CMs are finally trained and know how this works.

The exchange of one QS credit for 3 snacks is a little more unsettled. You SHOULD be able to do so just about anywhere they have snacks, but using the credits in this way is not even mentioned on the brochure, so technically, they don't have to allow it. But again, it has to be done at one place all in the same transaction, and the CM has to know how to do it.

It is the snacks part the thread is about. We have written conformation for WDW that we can exchange the QS for 3, it is more about the reports of where people have
had success of doing it.