Will dining plans be returning?

Many people love the dining plan, even knowing it doesn’t save them money.
I think some form of it will be back in a year or two, but with a huge price increase.
 
I'm wondering why they cancelled our Deluxe DP yesterday. Our vacation starts in 8 month and two weeks. So much time but it is cancelled. :hyper2: Very sad about it.

Our vacation has now the double price as 5 years ago same hotel and room only "preffered" instead normal One Bedroom (hopefully all preferred rooms are refurbished till April/29/2021) but without any dining.. Struggling to go back to the CSR with Club Level that we booked first. Than waited to be able to book SSR One Bedroom Suite because we like the walking distance to Disney Springs. But for 150 $ less saving with the combine and save option we'll have plenty of food and drinks and nothing to pay because the balance is paid in full since March for our cancelled vacation May this year. We can go to the Restaurants we love and pay out of pocket but we can use the Club food too and drink what we want. We will receive the refund in the next weeks. Does anybody knowing if the Chronos Club is open or is it closed at this time? Maybe the dining plan is coming back but I expect much more expensive...
 
I'm wondering why they cancelled our Deluxe DP yesterday. Our vacation starts in 8 month and two weeks. So much time but it is cancelled. :hyper2: Very sad about it.

Our vacation has now the double price as 5 years ago same hotel and room only "preffered" instead normal One Bedroom (hopefully all preferred rooms are refurbished till April/29/2021) but without any dining.. Struggling to go back to the CSR with Club Level that we booked first. Than waited to be able to book SSR One Bedroom Suite because we like the walking distance to Disney Springs. But for 150 $ less saving with the combine and save option we'll have plenty of food and drinks and nothing to pay because the balance is paid in full since March for our cancelled vacation May this year. We can go to the Restaurants we love and pay out of pocket but we can use the Club food too and drink what we want. We will receive the refund in the next weeks. Does anybody knowing if the Chronos Club is open or is it closed at this time? Maybe the dining plan is coming back but I expect much more expensive...
All Club Lounges are currently closed, and you cannot book CL for 2020, but reservations in 2021 are currently allowing CL bookings. That does not mean CL will be back in 2021, as we know Disney can cancel closer to the date, but at least they are currently allowing CL bookings for 2021. There is an extensive thread on the Resorts board about CL. Lots chatter, but also lots of info if you read through the posts over the last month or two.
 
I hope so, the new option with 2 table services looked appealing!

My thoughts exactly!! I absolutely love Disney dining, some of those restaurants made me the best food I had ever eaten so next time I go (hoping for nov. 2021) I really hope they have them back and I can go for that deluxe option. I am the only one of my friends who used every single credit daily when I went... I really made great use of my dining plan and the security I felt knowing my meals were pre paid was worth every penny.
 




Travel agent has contacted us saying the dining plan has been removed from our booking but will be offered to add it back on if it returns. Watch the price of it skyrocket when it does...

Please clarify you are saying the agent said it for sure will be offered or that they will just monitor and if it comes back they will then add it back for you.
 
Please clarify you are saying the agent said it for sure will be offered or that they will just monitor and if it comes back they will then add it back for you.
If Disney offer it again, we will be able to add it back to our booking. TA will contact us if anything changes.
 
Just fyi, I was playing around with some Jan/Feb 2021 dates on disney.com and after I added the tickets, a screen popped up that said "Select Your Dining Plan"! It disappeared after a couple seconds and I couldn't replicate the results, but looks like it's at least possible they're gearing up. The screen looked different than what I've seen before when booking trips.
 
More
likely a result of Disney’s Cracker Jack
IT

heavy sarcasm
byt thank you!
we will see what’s next. Will the extreme layoffs I doubt we will see dining plans sooner than the 3rd or 4th q 2021

its anyone’s guess
 
I also love the dining plan. I do the math and it always works out to benefit us financially but we do eat at places and order things we don't normally do to get the most for our money. I mean I'm on vacation, I want to go to character dining, eat in the castle, have an experience that is truly magical and I do and its worth every penny and paid off before I even leave my house so, no worries only good times and magical adventures.
 
More
likely a result of Disney’s Cracker Jack
IT

heavy sarcasm
byt thank you!
we will see what’s next. Will the extreme layoffs I doubt we will see dining plans sooner than the 3rd or 4th q 2021

its anyone’s guess

Other half works in IT and said it could be due to them tinkering behind the scenes as the code for the dining is still in there but if some code is removed/diverted or whatever it could pop up. I would love for this to be not the case & considering the park menus as in Epcot have the purple snack credit logos on they will bring the dining plan back whenever they can. Food is such a huge mark up and money maker. They will hire back staff when more people go back to the parks & it becomes safer to do so.
 
Until enough places open up, it probably won’t be back anytime soon. Disney actually did us a favor because it would limit our choices. They put the customer first for once.
 
I just noticed on the Disney site while looking at different restaurants it states
”Dining plans are temporarily unavailable.”
Has that always been the wording? That definitely sounds to me like they’re going to be bringing it back at some point?
 
Dining plans have been a big winner for Disney for a long time. There's no way they're not brining them back once the operating conditions return to some level of normalcy. This might be a good time for them to think about revamping the system, so there's no guarantee that what they'll offer is going to be exactly comparable to what has been offered in the past, but Disney tends to be averse to radical changes.

Personally I'd like to see more flexibility, such as flexibility in the number and types of credits you can buy in your package or some type of points system where you buy a certain number of points and different types of meals cost different amounts of points. But those are more significant departures than I'd expect they're willing to make.

My boldest prediction - off-site guests will have access to a limited version of dining plans via MDE when dining plans return, likely in the form of pre-purchased counter service credits that can be redeemed via in-app mobile order.
 

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