Deluxe DDP Credits Split

[jaklgreen]

You're right, the server will just see credits. You (or the OP) will probably not have a problem. But if the restaurant is aware only 3 people are on the dining plan (and it's 1 adult and 2 children) but you want to use those pooled credits for 3 adults and 3 children, management might give you a bit of the stink eye depending on how you try to use the credits, especially if you try to use them by, say, letting the adults use the dining credits and pay for the kids OOP.

All I'm suggesting to the OP is, budget like it's not going to work. As the old Mel Brooks song goes, hope for the best, expect the worst.

I don't think that they will care because Disney says that you can use your credits to pay for someone else's meal. So the server does not know if that is the case or not. The DDP is such an outrageous cost and I can't see anyone making it into a good value. Even if the OP uses it for others in their party, they probably still paid more for it then they would have paid OOP.

 

[jaklgreen]

Let me provide the other perspective that will annoy everyone.

The cost of the deluxe dining plan is significantly less for children than it is for adults. We're not talking about $5 here. For the 2019 regular season, the deluxe plan is $76.26 less for a child than for an adult.

For that significantly less money, the plan comes with the explicit statement that "Guests ages 3 to 9 must order from a children’s menu, where available." Here is, for example, the official deluxe dining plan web site where that is stated:

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/guest-services/disney-deluxe-dining-plan/

When you are on the deluxe plan, it is true that there is no difference between table service and quick service credits. It is also true that credits get lumped together into a pool, so a server (or anyone else) cannot really tell what is an "adult" credit or what is a "child" credit. But, none-the-less, it is very clearly stated that children are supposed to order from the children's menu.

What's my point? Well, even though Disney's system has a loophole that will allow you to interchange these credits however you want, the fact remains that if you pay for a child and then use the credits for an adult to eat -- or even if you let the child order from the more expensive adult menu -- then you are violating the terms of the dining plan and, let's be honest, cheating Disney by paying less than you should.

Some people might be fine with that, and I'm not here to argue about value and moral judgments. But I think everyone should at least be aware that's what they're doing so they can make an informed decision as to whether or not to do it.

While all of this is true, paying $40 for a couple of servings of mac and cheese or chicken strips and a mickey waffle for breakfast is highway robbery. If they actually across the board offered legitimately decent meals for children instead of that processed crap, then maybe it would be worth the cost, and even then they would be making money on it. I am still dumbfounded on how so many parents feed their kids this kind of stuff on a regular basis. We all need to complain to Disney and refuse to buy that junk until they start offering normal smaller portions of food for our kids. My kids would always just split a normal meal when they were younger, which is why we never did the dining plan.

 

[DrummerAlly]

I don't think that they will care because Disney says that you can use your credits to pay for someone else's meal. So the server does not know if that is the case or not. The DDP is such an outrageous cost and I can't see anyone making it into a good value. Even if the OP uses it for others in their party, they probably still paid more for it then they would have paid OOP.

This is what I don't get, I've been traveling to Disney with the dining plan for years and have never seen this to be true, despite the fact that a lot of people hold this opinion. On multiple trips now, we've saved our receipts and tallied them up and saved a HUGE amount of money on the dining plan. That said, we frequent the most expensive restaurants and order the most expensive items, but I feel like even if we didn't do that it would still work out in our favor.

 

[HwdStudio]

I'm pretty sure the servers have been trained to not allow adults to use children's credits.

Absolutely they have.

 

[HwdStudio]

I'm booking a trip for 3 adults and 3 children (ages 6, 4, and infant) with two separate rooms at CBR. We want the dining plan, but I realized that if I put 1 adult and 2 kids in one room and purchase the deluxe dining plan for that reservation and then other two adults and infant in the next room with no dining, that I'll end up with a similar amount of credits to split among my party for approximately $400 less than purchasing the standard DDP for everybody.

1. Am I missing something? This will work right? By my estimate, I end up with a similar number of credits, minus a few snacks, minus two mugs, but plus alcohol.
2. Are servers really not going to give us any hassle about adults using "child" credits at a restaurant?
3. Why in the world does WDW allow this loop hole?

Too shady.

 

[jaklgreen]

This is what I don't get, I've been traveling to Disney with the dining plan for years and have never seen this to be true, despite the fact that a lot of people hold this opinion. On multiple trips now, we've saved our receipts and tallied them up and saved a HUGE amount of money on the dining plan. That said, we frequent the most expensive restaurants and order the most expensive items, but I feel like even if we didn't do that it would still work out in our favor.

Yeah but would you have ordered the most expensive items at the most expensive restaurants if you did not have the dining plan? Do you factor in all of the extra tip money you spent getting the most expensive items? The most expensive meal with drinks, etc will cost you over $100 per person per meal. So with 2 of you, you are adding $40+ to each meal for tip. Add that into the cost factor. And if all you are doing is trying to get your money's worth and stuffing your face when you probably would not eat like that normally, then it is not really saving you money compared to how you would normally eat. The deluxe dining plan is more food then anyone should be eating on a regular basis to get your money out of it. I enjoy food as much as the next person and I get it if you really go into for the food and to enjoy the experience. But I personally would never be able to eat as much food as it would take to make the dining plan any kind of value.

 

[nickys]

You're right, the server will just see credits. You (or the OP) will probably not have a problem. But if the restaurant is aware only 3 people are on the dining plan (and it's 1 adult and 2 children) but you want to use those pooled credits for 3 adults and 3 children, management might give you a bit of the stink eye depending on how you try to use the credits, especially if you try to use them by, say, letting the adults use the dining credits and pay for the kids OOP.

All I'm suggesting to the OP is, budget like it's not going to work. As the old Mel Brooks song goes, hope for the best, expect the worst.

But you can use the credits in any way you choose. On the regular dining plan, you can choose to use all your TS credits buying a meal for a big group of friends on Day 1, leaving none left.

The same applies here on the DDXP; you could be using those credits to buy the most expensive meals, ie: for the adults, and paying OOP for the children’s meals. That is allowed by their rules, they actually marketed it as such in 2017 as a way to encourage people to buy the DDP. So the CM has no way to monitor what you are doing. You may have bought the children’s meals earlier in the day.

Five factors here mean the CMs have absolutely no way to know how you’re using the credits:

1) all credits are the same, no differentiation
2) you can choose to use those credits as you want, so can use as many as you want for one meal
3) you can buy meals for guests not on the plan using your credits

Plus

4) you can mix and match credits and OOP - to allow for (2) above, eg: in a signature restaurant
5) the CM cannot see a history of what credits you have used and what you spent them on (adult or children).

If they thought they thought they were loosing money on this, they would simply differentiate between the adult and children’s credits. After all, they do on the DDP, so they could do it on the DDXP. That would prevent this happening overnight.

 

[nickys]

Absolutely they have.

See my reply below. On the DDP, yes I agree. On the DDXP, they can’t. I have explained it below.

 

[DrummerAlly]

Yeah but would you have ordered the most expensive items at the most expensive restaurants if you did not have the dining plan? Do you factor in all of the extra tip money you spent getting the most expensive items? The most expensive meal with drinks, etc will cost you over $100 per person per meal. So with 2 of you, you are adding $40+ to each meal for tip. Add that into the cost factor. And if all you are doing is trying to get your money's worth and stuffing your face when you probably would not eat like that normally, then it is not really saving you money compared to how you would normally eat. The deluxe dining plan is more food then anyone should be eating on a regular basis to get your money out of it. I enjoy food as much as the next person and I get it if you really go into for the food and to enjoy the experience. But I personally would never be able to eat as much food as it would take to make the dining plan any kind of value.

We would never do the DXDP normally because its too much food, but since we are splitting the credits among a larger party, our itinerary is to do two meals a day - mostly a character breakfast/lunch in the morning and then table service or character dining for dinner. A buffet at 10am, a sit down/buffet at 4pm with some snacks in between is a perfect amount of food. We've always added tip into the cost.

Here's some numbers from 3 of the meals we are booking. The DXDP for our party is going to cost us $203.26/night for our party of 5 (3 adults / 2 kids / 1 infant) purchasing the DXDP for 3 of us. Over the 5 night stay, the 3 people with the DXDP have 45 credits to use. Split for our party of 5, this works out to 9 table service meals during our vacation, or $113/meal. This works out to $22.58 / meal / person before tip. (Ignoring my one year old who will also plow his way through a buffet).

Garden Grill Dinner: $50.08 / $29.82
Tusker House Lunch: $48/$29
Crystal Palace Breakfast: $36/$21
Add tip in to those numbers and it's still a pretty good deal.

Using the regular DDP at the normal cost obviously doesn't work out quite as advantageous, but for us, it's always saved us a bit of money at the end. Additionally, we see a huge value in having pre-paid for food and knowing its built into the vacation cost. We are the types of people who, on a normal day, would want the salmon but would order the pasta because its $10 cheaper. On vacation, I get to eat the salmon and enjoy it without having to think about the cost in the moment.

 

[HwdStudio]

We would never do the DXDP normally because its too much food, but since we are splitting the credits among a larger party, our itinerary is to do two meals a day - mostly a character breakfast/lunch in the morning and then table service or character dining for dinner. A buffet at 10am, a sit down/buffet at 4pm with some snacks in between is a perfect amount of food. We've always added tip into the cost.

Here's some numbers from 3 of the meals we are booking. The DXDP for our party is going to cost us $203.26/night for our party of 5 (3 adults / 2 kids / 1 infant) purchasing the DXDP for 3 of us. Over the 5 night stay, the 3 people with the DXDP have 45 credits to use. Split for our party of 5, this works out to 9 table service meals during our vacation, or $113/meal. This works out to $22.58 / meal / person before tip. (Ignoring my one year old who will also plow his way through a buffet).

Garden Grill Dinner: $50.08 / $29.82
Tusker House Lunch: $48/$29
Crystal Palace Breakfast: $36/$21
Add tip in to those numbers and it's still a pretty good deal.

Using the regular DDP at the normal cost obviously doesn't work out quite as advantageous, but for us, it's always saved us a bit of money at the end. Additionally, we see a huge value in having pre-paid for food and knowing its built into the vacation cost. We are the types of people who, on a normal day, would want the salmon but would order the pasta because its $10 cheaper. On vacation, I get to eat the salmon and enjoy it without having to think about the cost in the moment.

You know what you are doing is dishonest. Please don’t ask for validation.

 

[Hockey89]

You know what you are doing is dishonest. Please don’t ask for validation.

No doubt and pathetic...