-
Welcome to the WDWMAGIC.COM Forums!
Please take a look around, and feel free to sign up and join the community.
dining plan
- Thread starter Tenny317
- Start date
Monty
Brilliant...and Canadian
- In the Parks
- No
The DDP brochure explains a lot. The "Free Dining" is the same plan, only it's free with a MYW package.
Free dining is offered mainly for trips between mid-August and early-October. They usually announce its availability in early-to-mid April.
Recently, you got the Quick Service dining plan for free if you're at a Value Resort and the Standard plan at Moderates and Deluxe'.
With the standard Disney Dining Plan, you get one Table Service, one Quick Service [sometimes called Counter Service] and one Snack credit per person in the resort room per night of your stay. So if there are three people staying 7 nights you'd have a pool of 21 TS, 21 QS and 21 Snack credits available for use in any way you like from check-in until midnight after check-out. Anyone with one of the resort keys has access to all the credits for the room. You can use two TS credits for Signature restaurants or Dinner Shows or technically you could eat all your TS credits in one day [if you could possibly eat that much].
Complete details of the various packages, including Disney Dining, can be found in JPVonDrake's thread here.
Upvote
0
erstwo
Well-Known Member
The Dining Plan is essentially pre-paying for you food at Disney.
It means you don't have to "budget" for food during your stay and you don't have to worry about any bills after you get home (if you are they type of person to use credit, not cash during your trip.)
People will go on and on at length about the value of the Disney Dining Plan (DDP,) but for us it works. One character meal (dinner) can cost $34.99 per adult. We can get the basic DDP for $46.99 per adult, and have that character dinner, one counter service meal (about a $10 value) and one snack (about a $5 value.) The plan doesn't include tips - you pay those out of pocket.
We've used the Deluxe Dining Plan before ($71.99 per adult, 20.99 per child) and loved it too. You can go to up to 3 table service meals a day. We did all character meals and it was great for our kids, no lines to meet the characters AND food while you wait!
Isn't perfect and isn't for everyone, but like I said, I think the main advantage is knowing how much your food will cost and having it paid for before you even leave on your trip.
Also - to "pay" when you use the dining plan, you'll just give them your room key (Key to the World) and the system will automatically know to delete a meal from your pre paid "account."
It means you don't have to "budget" for food during your stay and you don't have to worry about any bills after you get home (if you are they type of person to use credit, not cash during your trip.)
People will go on and on at length about the value of the Disney Dining Plan (DDP,) but for us it works. One character meal (dinner) can cost $34.99 per adult. We can get the basic DDP for $46.99 per adult, and have that character dinner, one counter service meal (about a $10 value) and one snack (about a $5 value.) The plan doesn't include tips - you pay those out of pocket.
We've used the Deluxe Dining Plan before ($71.99 per adult, 20.99 per child) and loved it too. You can go to up to 3 table service meals a day. We did all character meals and it was great for our kids, no lines to meet the characters AND food while you wait!
Isn't perfect and isn't for everyone, but like I said, I think the main advantage is knowing how much your food will cost and having it paid for before you even leave on your trip.
Also - to "pay" when you use the dining plan, you'll just give them your room key (Key to the World) and the system will automatically know to delete a meal from your pre paid "account."
Upvote
0
marcriss
Member
The "free" part of "free dining" means that instead of getting a discounted room you pay full rack rate for your room and get the dining plan for "free." Unless you're staying at a value, you should do the math on the variety of discounts available on rooms.
We've never opted for the "free dining" because we do better with the room discount. Plus, we really don't need that much food. It pays for us to pay for our meals.
We've never opted for the "free dining" because we do better with the room discount. Plus, we really don't need that much food. It pays for us to pay for our meals.
Upvote
0
We've had the free dining plan before and then upgraded it to the deluxe plan. gratuities used to be included in the dining plan, they were rmoved last year I believe, and that greatly diminished the value of the plan.
Now you're responsible for tipping, and with Disneys inflated prices of food your tip can be substantial.
Upvote
0
Disneykidder
Well-Known Member
The dining plan isn't for everyone. Luckily, as mentioned above, there are a few plans to choose from too. You need to assess how much you want to eat and time sitting down at restaurants, too.
My family did the dining plan 2 years in a row. The first year we paid for it and did not receive any room discounts, either. The second year we got it for free. The first year gratuities were included and the second, no more. (Not sure if it is true or not but I heard they put gratuities on because the quality from the servers was not great because some didn't care because they were getting their tip from Disney whether they perfomed good services or not) Each time we did the dining where we had one snack, one counter service and one sit down per day. This worked out well for us. We always wanted to sit at one meal and relax(usually dinner and a couple of breakfasts), while the other meal could be a quick grab (usually lunch) and we brought cereal from home and had cereal and milk in our rooms for breakfast. (This saved us time since we are not morning people)
Take a look at all of the options out there and decide which would work well for your family.
Tip--our fav restaurants are O'Hana, Chef Mickey, Crystal Palace, Whispering Canyon, Le Celier, to name but a few.:slurp:
My family did the dining plan 2 years in a row. The first year we paid for it and did not receive any room discounts, either. The second year we got it for free. The first year gratuities were included and the second, no more. (Not sure if it is true or not but I heard they put gratuities on because the quality from the servers was not great because some didn't care because they were getting their tip from Disney whether they perfomed good services or not) Each time we did the dining where we had one snack, one counter service and one sit down per day. This worked out well for us. We always wanted to sit at one meal and relax(usually dinner and a couple of breakfasts), while the other meal could be a quick grab (usually lunch) and we brought cereal from home and had cereal and milk in our rooms for breakfast. (This saved us time since we are not morning people)
Take a look at all of the options out there and decide which would work well for your family.
Tip--our fav restaurants are O'Hana, Chef Mickey, Crystal Palace, Whispering Canyon, Le Celier, to name but a few.:slurp:
Upvote
0
tink65
Active Member
My family and I have been fortunate to enjoy "free dining" since it was first offered in 2005! It offers us an opportunity to eat at some restaurants that we ordinarily would not be able to experience. We've also been when it wasn't offered and purchased the dining plan as part of our package. To us knowing that our meals are paid for prior to our trip is a huge stress buster! My advice would echo some of the other posts. Review the plans and see which one best suits your family needs. If you don't mind some planning beforehand then the basic dining plan is great. If you don't really want to be commited to any type of time frame in your day go for the quick service option. There are alot of quick service options in the World that are far above the standard burgers & pizza choices. I would never do the deluxe plan. It will take up a tremendous amount of time and to be honest we could never eat that much food!
Upvote
0
dazzle_em55
Member
We have used the basic dining plan our last two trips and have loved it. We are able to eat at places that we usually would not be able to afford. It does take some planning (like what days you'll be visiting which park).
Our last trip was the week after Christmas. Because I was student teaching, I was late in planning our meals. This forced us to try new restaurants instead of sticking with our favorites. Some of them we loved and will add to our list of favorites, while others we didn't hate but will probably not return to.
One thing we still do is purchase a resort mug. We tend to eat an early sit-down dinner and then have a quick service meal for a late dinner. I'll use my resort mug and get a bottle of water, Power Aid, or juice to save for breakfast or the park the next day. In the hot sumer months it provides us with a second beverage without using up all of our snack credits.
I then purchase Mickey Mouse cereal treat to take home with any leftover snack credits. It make the magic of WDW last a little longer.
Our last trip was the week after Christmas. Because I was student teaching, I was late in planning our meals. This forced us to try new restaurants instead of sticking with our favorites. Some of them we loved and will add to our list of favorites, while others we didn't hate but will probably not return to.
One thing we still do is purchase a resort mug. We tend to eat an early sit-down dinner and then have a quick service meal for a late dinner. I'll use my resort mug and get a bottle of water, Power Aid, or juice to save for breakfast or the park the next day. In the hot sumer months it provides us with a second beverage without using up all of our snack credits.
I then purchase Mickey Mouse cereal treat to take home with any leftover snack credits. It make the magic of WDW last a little longer.
Upvote
0