Dining plan complaints

[jesserin]

Okay -

1. You can get the Discount Dining Card for $50 and it is good for one year from date of purchase - proof of AP to get the original discount (original price is $75 - AP'ers get it for $50)

2. You cannot purchase the MYW dining plan with the AP tickets. the Dining plan is an add on to the MYW tickets... although if you think it will save you enough - you can purchase a one day MYW ticket and add the dining plan for your entire length of stay.

3. Your option of purchasing the MYW tickets and adding the Dining plan - saving the tickets for your next trip and using the AP tickets is a great idea. Call to be sure they will allow this but as long as you purchase the No Expiration option - it seems to me like that's a good idea. You can upgrade the MYW to an AP later as well.

 

[wannabeBelle]

Okay -

1. You can get the Discount Dining Card for $50 and it is good for one year from date of purchase - proof of AP to get the original discount (original price is $75 - AP'ers get it for $50)

2. You cannot purchase the MYW dining plan with the AP tickets. the Dining plan is an add on to the MYW tickets... although if you think it will save you enough - you can purchase a one day MYW ticket and add the dining plan for your entire length of stay.

3. Your option of purchasing the MYW tickets and adding the Dining plan - saving the tickets for your next trip and using the AP tickets is a great idea. Call to be sure they will allow this but as long as you purchase the No Expiration option - it seems to me like that's a good idea. You can upgrade the MYW to an AP later as well.

Yeah What Jesserin said!!! Belle

 

[Pumbas Nakasak]

Im just itching to hear where this place is on disney that can provide a sit down meal for a family of four.

BTW I have gone through the menus on Debs site and have to say that for my tribe it does make financial sense, well as much as paying for food on property ever can. Still theres always the burgers and pizzas at crossroads if im a tight wadd.

 

[jesserin]

I'm not sure what you were saying here...

"Im just itching to hear where this place is on disney that can provide a sit down meal for a family of four."

Are you asking which restaurants serve families? or where a certain restaurant is located?

I'm sorry - clarify that a little and we'll try to help you out!

 

[Pumbas Nakasak]

I'm sorry - clarify that a little and we'll try to help you out!

No Im asking about the comment in an earlier post who said the dinning package was too much as their family of 4 ate for $50, Id be lucky to get counter service for that amount, but them i am a bit of a porker :animwink:

 

[jesserin]

Ahh... Gotcha now! and excellant point - I know that most families of four can't get away quite that cheap - but if they do it usually involves splitting meals and drinks...

 

[Pumbas Nakasak]

Ahh... Gotcha now! and excellant point - I know that most families of four can't get away quite that cheap - but if they do it usually involves splitting meals and drinks...

Chance would be a fine thing, my youngest would rather leave a nearly full drink than risk the remote chance of taking on some ones back wash from a shared drink, and that includes us.

 

[jesserin]

We solved that problem by asking for extra cups when ordering a large (I'm the oldest of 4 kids and my parents always let us bring friends to WDW... so they usually got a couple large drinks with lots of cups and then split it up so we didn't have to "share backwash" ) Ahh, how I remember those years!

 

[kal1484]

Snack tips:
You cannot get a bucket of popcorn.
You can split your soda bottles by asking for cups, most carts have them, if not, go to another one.
At the small outdoor food carts, each snack must be put in seperatly, if you are in a hurry, and order 5 snacks you'll be there awhile.

 

[jesserin]

Snack tips:
You cannot get a bucket of popcorn.
You can split your soda bottles by asking for cups, most carts have them, if not, go to another one.
At the small outdoor food carts, each snack must be put in seperatly, if you are in a hurry, and order 5 snacks you'll be there awhile.

Clarify~ You cannot get a bucket - but you can get a single serving "scoop"!

 

[Nansafan]

hereis the link to the thread. http://forums.wdwmagic.com/showthread.php?t=49086
Hope this helps!!! Belle

You are a peach! Thanks for the link Belle.

~ Nan

 

[wannabeBelle]

You are a peach! Thanks for the link Belle.

~ Nan

of course!!! Anytime!!!! I just got my card yesterday!! I Am so psyched!!! Belle

 

[kal1484]

Yes, correct. A scoop yes, a bucket no.

 

[Pumbas Nakasak]

what if the scoop is made as big as a bucket? :hammer:

 

[JPVonDrake]

I thought I had read everything about the dining plan but I now see that I missed a key thing. I understood everything said about how the meals work, I understood the reasoning behind the certain limitations on what you could order. I printed out the brochure about the plan and have the current list from the Disney website about what restaurants accept the plan. How did I miss the part about AP holders not being able to use it? We have AP's, will be visiting the world in July to get in one more trip before they expire and were seriously looking at the Dining plan as an option. I guess I didn't realize it was an "add-on" to the MYW ticket thing. Oh darn it anyway. We'll have to do the usual charge it to the room and pay later thing.

First of all..

Three Cheers for Jesserin for his clearifications!

Secondly, do keep in mind that the Disney Dinning Plan is an add-on to a Walt Disney Travel Company "Magic Your Way Vacation Package" not an add-on to a Magic Your Way Ticket. The vacation package required you to book a Disney Resort room and a Magic Your Way Ticket (of your choice) as a package deal, so you will not be able to book a room only reservation with a discount offer and add this dinning plan.

Does this exclude Annual Passholders? No, not really. True you cannot take advance of any Annual Passholder discount offers, (they are available for room-only reservations) but discount offers are limited and not always available for the dates you wish to visit.

True you must purchase a "Magic Your Way" ticket for everyone in the party, but you can purchase any Magic Your Way ticket. And unlike the old DreamMaker packages, the ticket you choose does not expire until 14 days after first use. If you don't use your Magic Your Way ticket on this trip, it will not expire until you do use it sometime in the future.

The big advance is that any and all Disney ticket media can be exchanged for a ticket of equal or greater value. How does this help? Well when you go to renew your Annual Pass in person at the parks, exchanged your Magic Your Way Ticket for an Annual Pass Renewal and simply pay the difference.

So Annual Passholders, you can choose to save money on the room if available OR you can choose to save money on dinning.

Hope this Helps! :sohappy:

 

[Pumbas Nakasak]

:lookaroun pssssstttt any one wannna 14 day ticket :lookaroun

 

[jesserin]

:lookaroun pssssstttt any one wannna 14 day ticket :lookaroun

(you could always purchase a 1 day ticket for everyone and then add on the dining plan - use your ticket towards the later purchase of your AP passes - much cheaper option!)

 

[jesserin]

First of all..

Three Cheers for Jesserin for his clearifications!

Secondly, do keep in mind that the Disney Dinning Plan is an add-on to a Walt Disney Travel Company "Magic Your Way Vacation Package" not an add-on to a Magic Your Way Ticket. The vacation package required you to book a Disney Resort room and a Magic Your Way Ticket (of your choice) as a package deal, so you will not be able to book a room only reservation with a discount offer and add this dinning plan.

Does this exclude Annual Passholders? No, not really. True you cannot take advance of any Annual Passholder discount offers, (they are available for room-only reservations) but discount offers are limited and not always available for the dates you wish to visit.

True you must purchase a "Magic Your Way" ticket for everyone in the party, but you can purchase any Magic Your Way ticket. And unlike the old DreamMaker packages, the ticket you choose does not expire until 14 days after first use. If you don't use your Magic Your Way ticket on this trip, it will not expire until you do use it sometime in the future.

The big advance is that any and all Disney ticket media can be exchanged for a ticket of equal or greater value. How does this help? Well when you go to renew your Annual Pass in person at the parks, exchanged your Magic Your Way Ticket for an Annual Pass Renewal and simply pay the difference.

So Annual Passholders, you can choose to save money on the room if available OR you can choose to save money on dinning.

Hope this Helps! :sohappy:

Thanks for the 3 cheers VonDrake! (Just to let you in a little secret that only a few of my closest friends know... I'm a girl! A pregnant one in fact! Just thought I'd share... lol!) My name is actually Jess Erin... so that explains why everybody thinks it's Jesse rin - It's actually quite fun - you can be anybody you want online - quite literally!

 

[Laura]

Here's a question for you. In your opinion, which would be less expensive.

Option 1:
6 nights at Caribbean Beach purchasing 7 day plus tickets utilizing dining plan, followed by 3 nights at Polynesian purchasing 1 day ticket utilizing dining plan (so basically 9 nights altogether, 8 days in the parks, plus 5 waterpark options with dining plan) for 2 adults, 1 child. Grand total = about $4,000

Option 2:
Buy 1 AP for 1 adult and 2 discounted waterpark passes, buy 8 day tickets with plus options for other adult and child. Use AP discount to get the dining and resort stay discounts throughout the trip. Grand total = no idea.

My dilemma is I want to book my vacation in April, but the AP discounts won't come out for September until the summer. So what if I book my trip using the MYW packages and then come to find out that I would have saved a ton had I done everything seperately and used an AP. Is there any going back, or would I be stuck with the packages I bought?

 

[jesserin]

Well - to answer number 2 - let's see just what you want: If you dont mind where you stay (AP discounts are limited and not offerred for all resorts - so you'll be staying at the resorts that are the least booked at the time the AP discounts come out), and if you don't think you'll eat as much as the dining plan includes - (the average meal in an average sit down restaurant that includes and Ap, entree, dessert, and drink is usually around $35+ pp - a counter service meal that includes an entree, dessert, and drink is upwards of about $10-12 a person - and a snack would be around $3 - thus your total for the day would be around $50 - 20% off that is $10 - which is more expensive than the dining plan, however you can dine at the restaurant of your choice and are not limited to a select list...)

I know this doesn't sound really helpful - but it's hard to pin point an exact amount that you would spend - personally the general rule states that 10 days or more in the parks justifies the AP pass - 10 or less and you're losing money... so I think if this is your only trip with the AP pass you should stick with the regular plan - however if you are making more than one trip or just don't care for the restaurants on the Dining Plan list... then consider planning it the other way... personally I like the dining plan b/c it's all paid for before you arrive - making your vacation less stressful, b/c though very few admit it - we all look at the prices on the menu before ordering... how nice would it be to have a price-less menu? Very nice indeed - we loved the silver plan that used to be offerred just for that reason - no, we never got our money's worth like the we could have with the new plan - but it was wonderful not having to eat burgers every day... Hope this helps!