Questions about sharing a Dining plan

[drtbmx]

My last visit to WDW a few weeks ago with my family was the first in almost 9 years for all of us. My parents, fiance and i, and my sister and her friend all discovered that we could easily share a quick service meal and have more than enough food, which essentially gave us two quick meals a day (two people each split one meal) along with our snack and full service dinner each day......now for our visit to the world next year, my fiance and i are trying to save as much money as possible since we will be spending on our wedding before we leave.....
disney now has the "Magic Your Way Package Plus Quick-Service Dining" plan which gives each person two quick meals, two snacks, a a refillable resort mug. We found that unless we spent our sit down meal points at "two point" restaurants we werent overly impressed over what we found taking our time seeking out good counter service meals.....sooo long story short, we are contemplating simply buying one of the new "Quick service dining" plans and sharing all our foods.....if we can that is. And simply paying for dinner one night during our stay at a "two point" counter service place.

also another added bonus of only eating quick service meals aside from saving money is that we wont have to plan our days around getting to a park at a certain time for reservations, something which threw off some of our plans last time we were there......let me know what you think of this plan....or if anyone knows if disney will even let us do it.....thanks,
mike:king:

 

[BigRedDad]

Well, the QSDP will be by room, so you would have to figure that out on your own. The other issue is the Disney policy on the dining plans is that you will not share meals and will not use your credits for someone else that is not on the reservation. :lol: Now, that is only the official policy. In reality, I would do it like you are planning. My wife and I can split a meal easily. This is why the DDP has caused such a degradation of the value.

 

[mousefan1972]

Unfortunately that won't work. When you purchase a vacation package (and having any of the dining plans means you have a package, unless you are staying on DVC points) everyone in the room must be on the same package. So there is no way to have 2 guests on the ressie but only have one on the dining plan. You both must purchase it. You both must also get the same park ticket. One of the restrictions of the MYW package. HTH.

 

[Rob562]

The actual question was pretty buried in the OP's post, but as others have said, everyone on the reservation *must* be booked on the same package, which includes tickets and (in this case) Dining Plan. There is no way to "legally" do what you want to do.

Now, what you *can* do is to each get the Dining Plan and then share each Counter Service meal, kind of like you described before. Doing this for one or two meals per day would mean that you could each have three meals most every day without having to pay for any of them out-of-pocket. You essentially get 4 credits per night. If you shared a breakfast and a lunch, you could each get your own dinner that night. Perhaps supplement your breakfast with a danish or croissant purchased with a Snack credit.

Oh, and a tip on using the Quick Service credits at breakfast I learned last year at Pop Century:
If you have a refillable mug, like you'll have, you can usually subtitute a side item (like a danish) for one (or both) of the beverages. I had a refillable mug for coffee, so what I would do was get my breakfast entree, an OJ and a croissant. Or if I wasn't THAT hungry, I'd grab a bottle of water to take with me for later. (Which is alsoa good tip when you don't want to get dessert with your lunch or dinner... get a bottle of water as your dessert)

-Rob

 

[JrBernal83]

What I would try to do is:
Say your going to stay 6 days, ask for the quick service dp for only 3 days out of the 6. That gives you 6 total qs meals, if you plan on sharing 1 qs meal a day that is. Just say you are planning on dining with friends offsite those 3 other days. If you think you need more than 6 meals, do 4 days, which would give you 8 meals for your 6 days. You don't have to eat only one per day because they charge the total number of meals to your room. So you can use all of you credits in 1 day if you really want to. Hope this helps...

 

[JrBernal83]

Another thing is, with the thousands staying on property while you are there, I'm pretty sure Disney won't single you out and monitor your meals. You can also both grab your food and redeem your points with just 1 room key. There are ways around it. I wish I would have thought of this earlier, we went in June of last year and my daughters are light eaters and wasted most of their food. I'm pretty sure it is possible, just give them a call and ask. Update all of us on what they say/do, I would really like to know for when we plan our next trip. Thanks

 

[drtbmx]

well i had heard that each person in the room needs to be on the same "package".....now the way my uncle buys his tickets when he goes every year is he gets them separate from his room or vacation package, i believe he buys them from a third party place.....would it not be possible to buy the room for one guest, thus only having to purchase one dining plan and then purchase two park tickets from this outside source.....when you do this disney essentially has no idea who's park ticket is attatched to what room. and with it only being the two of us we could easily make due with just the one room key......i mean there arent spot checks at night to ensure you are staying in a room yourself? haha

 

[cblodg]

Unfortunately that won't work. When you purchase a vacation package (and having any of the dining plans means you have a package, unless you are staying on DVC points) everyone in the room must be on the same package. So there is no way to have 2 guests on the ressie but only have one on the dining plan. You both must purchase it. You both must also get the same park ticket. One of the restrictions of the MYW package. HTH.

We stayed on DVC points and everyone in our room *had* to be on the dining plan. So I don't think DVC is exempt from this. Or we got raked.

 

[mousefan1972]

What I would try to do is:
Say your going to stay 6 days, ask for the quick service dp for only 3 days out of the 6. That gives you 6 total qs meals, if you plan on sharing 1 qs meal a day that is. Just say you are planning on dining with friends offsite those 3 other days. If you think you need more than 6 meals, do 4 days, which would give you 8 meals for your 6 days. You don't have to eat only one per day because they charge the total number of meals to your room. So you can use all of you credits in 1 day if you really want to. Hope this helps...

The only way that will work is if you make 2 separate resort reservations. The DDP is tied to the number of nights you are staying. If you are staying 6 nights, you must get the DDP for all 6 nights. Unless you split up your reservation, there is no way around this.

well i had heard that each person in the room needs to be on the same "package".....now the way my uncle buys his tickets when he goes every year is he gets them separate from his room or vacation package, i believe he buys them from a third party place.....would it not be possible to buy the room for one guest, thus only having to purchase one dining plan and then purchase two park tickets from this outside source.....when you do this disney essentially has no idea who's park ticket is attatched to what room. and with it only being the two of us we could easily make due with just the one room key......i mean there arent spot checks at night to ensure you are staying in a room yourself? haha

Well, that really wouldn't work either because you must buy a minimum of a one day park ticket in order to purchase the dining plan. So that would defeat the purpose of buying your tickets from an outside source. Also, the person who was not on the reservation wouldn't be a registered guest, which means no Magical Express, no Extra Magic Hours (because you must show your room key prior to entering each attraction, and that person wouldn't have one), etc.

We stayed on DVC points and everyone in our room *had* to be on the dining plan. So I don't think DVC is exempt from this. Or we got raked.

I didn't mean to imply that DVC was exempt from the everyone in the room must be on the DDP rule, just that the OP had to have a package in order to buy the DDP. The only ones who can buy the DDP independent of a package are DVC members. Even AP holders, who can buy the DDP without having to buy park tickets, still must purchase a room and dining package. Sorry for the confusion.

 

[TURKEY]

What I would try to do is:
Say your going to stay 6 days, ask for the quick service dp for only 3 days out of the 6. That gives you 6 total qs meals, if you plan on sharing 1 qs meal a day that is. Just say you are planning on dining with friends offsite those 3 other days. If you think you need more than 6 meals, do 4 days, which would give you 8 meals for your 6 days. You don't have to eat only one per day because they charge the total number of meals to your room. So you can use all of you credits in 1 day if you really want to. Hope this helps...

Even if you split your reservation, the dining credits must be used by midnight on the day you check out of the reservation with the dining plan.

 

[cblodg]

What I would try to do is:
Say your going to stay 6 days, ask for the quick service dp for only 3 days out of the 6. That gives you 6 total qs meals, if you plan on sharing 1 qs meal a day that is. Just say you are planning on dining with friends offsite those 3 other days. If you think you need more than 6 meals, do 4 days, which would give you 8 meals for your 6 days. You don't have to eat only one per day because they charge the total number of meals to your room. So you can use all of you credits in 1 day if you really want to. Hope this helps...

You can't do it. The only way they could is if there reservation is for three days only. If you want the DDP, you have to have it for all the days of your reservation. It's an all-or-nothing deal.

 

[drtbmx]

well....i guess we will be having LOTS of food then on our next trip......they really should be making the dining plans more flexible......like allowing trading up two quick service meals for a full service meal/ etc. Also the way alot of it is explained is not very user friendly....when i went in january we found a bunch of places on propperty that didnt even accept the plan. Also it seemed different places almost had different rules, when we were at the lounge at the boardwalk we were able to get bagles or muffins as snacks, where other places it would be considered quick meals....and we had to ask the person working in order to figure out what almost everything was

 

[cblodg]

well....i guess we will be having LOTS of food then on our next trip......they really should be making the dining plans more flexible......like allowing trading up two quick service meals for a full service meal/ etc. Also the way alot of it is explained is not very user friendly....when i went in january we found a bunch of places on propperty that didnt even accept the plan. Also it seemed different places almost had different rules, when we were at the lounge at the boardwalk we were able to get bagles or muffins as snacks, where other places it would be considered quick meals....and we had to ask the person working in order to figure out what almost everything was

It is user friendly as long as you know the ins and outs of the plans. And you can 'trade up' (I believe) by using two couterservice meals for one sit down meal. Again, knowing the ins and outs. Most places will have the DDP symbol for a snack, quick service or table service. Have a looke here:

http://onlywdworlddiningplan.blogspot.com/

 

[dreamfinder]

disney now has the "Magic Your Way Package Plus Quick-Service Dining" plan which gives each person two quick meals, two snacks, a a refillable resort mug. We found that unless we spent our sit down meal points at "two point" restaurants we werent overly impressed over what we found taking our time seeking out good counter service meals.....sooo long story short, we are contemplating simply buying one of the new "Quick service dining" plans and sharing all our foods.....if we can that is. And simply paying for dinner one night during our stay at a "two point" counter service place.

This may be your best bet if you want to have a dining plan. CS usually has no problem with you splitting a meal as you do it after you have paid for it. So one of you buys breakfast, the other lunch (split both), and then you each do dinner. Use your snack credits to supplement.
However, look at some menus for CS locations and see if it is really worth it for you to do the dining plan. Remember that kids meals are usually half the cost of an adult meal which may be enough food for one of you. Also, if you don't usually eat desert with your CS meal, or drink soda, you may be better off just buying the meal (burger plate, salad, whatever) and splitting that, and getting ice water to drink (should be free at all CS). I have never been able to justify the dining plan costs in any shape or form as my DW and I split meals, don't do deserts, drink fountain water, need certain snacks, etc. The dining plan only makes sense financially if you come out ahead, unless WDW gives it to you for free.

 

[happymom52003]

I agree with the previous poster. Do the math to see if the dining plan will save you money...there is a chance that ya'll just might not eat enough food to make it worthwhile. For my family and the way we eat, the savings were minimal to none. It was not worth it to me to participate, and honestly I like the flexibility of NOT being on the plan. There have been times on our trips where a family member had to skip a meal because they were not feeling well, or we had to cancel a table service dinner because the kids were too tired, etc....and if you are on the dining plan, you don't get money back for unused credits.

 

[drtbmx]

And you can 'trade up' (I believe) by using two couterservice meals for one sit down meal.

is this true? does anyone know? I have never heard or read this anywhere, if it is true it may very well be ok with us to purchase two "quick service plans" as we can just split all our QS meals and go out to dinner once or twice at a counter service!!! i really hope this is true

 

[drtbmx]

so no one can confirm this?

 

[balletgirl2]

is this true? does anyone know? I have never heard or read this anywhere, if it is true it may very well be ok with us to purchase two "quick service plans" as we can just split all our QS meals and go out to dinner once or twice at a counter service!!! i really hope this is true

That is not true at all. There is definately no trading up CS for TS. It is clearly stated on the brochure. If you want TS credits you have to pay for the DDP or the DxDDP.