Dining plan advice.... About This Page:

[disneyprincess]

Just wanted to share with you some tips/info that future travlers may find helpful. We had the basic dining plan. 1snack, 1 ts, 1 cs per person per day. CHECK EVERYDAY ON THIS!!! We got ours messed up right off the bat and I ended up canceling (or so I thought I would have to) 2 ts dinners. in the end I ended up not using 1 ts meal! We also left with 4 cs meals being unused.

The first night we arrived I had a resie for Mamma Melrose. We have 4 kids, when I booked the vacation our youngest DS was 9yrs old. He turned 10 a month later. Apparently they (Disney) changed the age for the rates. Used to be 9 its now 10. Well Mamma Melrose charged him as a child, then the next night at dinner (I forget where we were) they charged him as an adult. This put everything off for the rest of the trip. DH and I continually tried to figure this out. Went to the desk at our resort (POP) and they were somewhat helpful but found out that they didn't know what they were doing or didn't understand what I was trying to explain. I told them that the first night we were charged as a child, (which it should have been) then the second night as a adult. They told me I needed to cancel at least 2 dinners as not to be over the dining plan limit and have to pay out of pocket. So I canceled two meals. Well two days later DH went to the desk and spoke with them, they did in fact mess things up. DS should have been charged as a child because of his age at the time of booking the trip NOT booking the dining reservation. So as I stated before we ended up with 1 table service not used because by this time it was the day before we were leaving so there wasn't anything I could do.

Moral of the story......check your dinging credits and if you are unsure of something you can just go to the desk and ask for a print out of what you have used and what you have left. Hope this saves someone else this stress and I think I may be writing Disney a letter if I can locate an address....Anyone have a name and address???

[HollyH]

Sorry for your trouble. I'm confused, though, as to how they knew he was 10? Did he order off of the adult menu? If this is the case, then that's where your trouble might have come from. Children 9 and under have a reduced rate for the DDP, but they also must order off of the children's menu. If he ordered off of the regular menu at that second restaurant, they would have charged you with an adult credit. Did you think he had the adult DP to begin with? I am a little confused by your post. But good point, make sure that you understand what you have and be sure to check your credit balance after each meal.

[disneyprincess]

I'm actually confused as well and not sure how they had him as 10. The only thing I can think of is that when we checked in they go over everyone's ages and dob and perhaps at the time they changed it because he was 10 (this was just last week) and of course I didn't think to check that. As for him ordering from the adult menu no he didn't.

[MBUS]

I booked a trip two years ago before DS2 turned 10, but he turned 10 before we left for the trip. They let us add him to the DDP as a child (he was 9 when I booked it) and eat off the children's menu at WDW, even though he would turn 10 before the trip. I'm not sure if this is standard, but they told me it would be ok as long as he ate off the children's menu which I knew he'd prefer. Sorry you had such a tough time with it, I know it can be confusing. For us, since I knew I added him as a child on the DDP we never mentioned his age at the restaurants, we simply asked for 2 children's menus (DS2 & 3) and were charged the child's credit.

Beth

[LuvMinnie]

So sorry for the trouble. Hopefully Disney will make this up to your family in some way.

[Caldercup]

What counts is the age a child is at check-in -- and they know that because you are required to give the birth date of every person in your party when you book a Disney resort.

The ages are 3 thru 9 for a "child" and 10+ for "adult." This is the age for tickets and for dining.

What I find the most useful is to carefully plan out the use of my credits. I have an Excel spreadsheet I use to determine each day's meal. It calculates for me the number and type of credits used and I can play and rejigger and replan until I get it all worked out that I've used up my credits. (Although, I *have* left some snack credits until the last day, when I use them up by buying snacks for the plane.)

If it helps, here's a link to my Excel spreadsheet:
http://www.remleml.com/mouse/downloa...-DDP_v_DDE.xls

Eileen

PS - if a child is 9 when you check-in, but turns 10 during the trip, Disney considers that child a "child" for the duration of the trip.

[disneyprincess]

Thanks Eileen for the link. I saved it, maybe if we book a trip in the near future I will use it! DH has talked about "if" we do another trip we would do all counter service meals since the kids wasted a lot of food this time. I feel like we really didn't get good use of the dining plan.

[SARH7]

I'm so shocked that you feel you didn't get good use of the plan, especially for the kids!! $10 a day...a character meal all by itself is usually at least $12.99. That is more than the cost of the plan..so lunch and snack are free for that day!

Only once did we have a glitch with dining credits and it was in our favor. One of our ts meals never came off...so we had an extra meal our last day.

[MMMD]

Sorry you had such confusion.

[HollyH]

Originally Posted by SARH7

I'm so shocked that you feel you didn't get good use of the plan, especially for the kids!! $10 a day...a character meal all by itself is usually at least $12.99. That is more than the cost of the plan..so lunch and snack are free for that day!
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I think that the OP had at least 1 child over the age of 10 (for whom she had to pay adult price). And she did state that they had left over credits for both CS and TS. The DP really doesn't save everyone $. It depends on your family's dining habits and preferences.

[Starla4436]

Wow what a headache...I am sorry you had so much trouble.

[CinderAbby]

What counts is the age a child is at check-in -- and they know that because you are required to give the birth date of every person in your party when you book a Disney resort.

I've never been asked for Abby's DOB - not when booking and not when checking in. The trips I've taken with her were all booked before her birthday and when we showed up, they always had her listed as a year younger because I was only asked her age when I booked. Even this year - I called last week and they still have her as 8 even though her birthday was in May. For us though, I don't bother correcting them because she's still considered a child.

[Caldercup]

Darlene, my guess is that they are pulling up your account when you go to book, which will pull up the DOB of your party from the very first time you gave that information (which created the account.)

So, they are seeing her as being in the general "child" category and they don't question it further. When she's in that in-between point at the cusp of the age cut-off, they will probably be more up-to-date with her age. (Disney was much more aware of my son's age when he went from "9" to "10.")
Eileen

[boBºoº]

Man what a mess. Good luck next time if you use it.

[chezp]

What a nightmare. Sorry you had so many problems.