Disney Dining Plan

[MarkyMouse]

I read somewhere that DVC'ers must purchase the plan for everyone in their party. I have a question. We are staying in a two bedroom villa with my Aunt and her family. They may not want to do the dining plan. Would this knock us out of being able to do it? We will be eating some meals together but not all.

Also, I am very concerned about exclusions. Will we get to a restaurant and several things will be unavailable under the plan?

 

[disneynutz]

I read somewhere that DVC'ers must purchase the plan for everyone in their party. I have a question. We are staying in a two bedroom villa with my Aunt and her family. They may not want to do the dining plan. Would this knock us out of being able to do it? We will be eating some meals together but not all.

Also, I am very concerned about exclusions. Will we get to a restaurant and several things will be unavailable under the plan?

Just like non DVC accommodations, everyone on the reservation must participate in the plan. You do not have to eat your meals together. Not all restaurants participate in the DDP. Of the ones that do, there are very few exclusions.

 

[DavidRoss]

My wife and I have used the plan. We also have been annual passholders and purchased the DDE. In our opinion, this really is one of the best deals we as DVC members can take advantage of. We did a little planning to get the most out of our plan. That wasn't difficult at all. My wife and I really enjoy fine dining. So for us, it was a no brainer. One thing I did want to do is to see how much the plan benefited us after we returned home. Basically, by using the plan as we did, we saved over $350.00 versus if we had purchased all meals, snacks and beverages seperately. Also, for kids, the price is $10.99 a day. That is a steel! I highly recommend it. Also, since you pay for the plan up front, you don't have to worry about the "sticker shock" for some meals in a restaurant. You can truly enjoy your vacation without worrying about spending the extra $$ for desert or prime rib you may not get otherwise.

 

[PEANUT1]

You could do a split stay and not do the plan for the whole time if your relatives don't want to do it but you want to try it. You could make 2 reservations but still stay in one room.. Does that make sense? Or perhaps maybe your aunt will want to participate.

 

[MarkyMouse]

Thanks for the response guys. We are going to try and talk my aunt and her family in to doing it. In the future we will have to make separate reservations.

 

[whithouston]

I read somewhere that DVC'ers must purchase the plan for everyone in their party. I have a question. We are staying in a two bedroom villa with my Aunt and her family. They may not want to do the dining plan. Would this knock us out of being able to do it? We will be eating some meals together but not all.

We are in a similar boat. We have some friends that will be going down at the same time and wanted to add them to our reservation so they could go with us to the Extra Magic Hours, but we found out that they had to do the DDP also, and that meant we couldn't add them! Good luck!

Scott

 

[hematite153]

The other thing to consider is that your dining credits become pooled for the party in the same room. (Yes, they have fixed the bug that let people get around the system and use child credits for adults, but they still say that the credits are yours to use as you wish.)

So, why doesn't your Aunt want the dining plan? If they'd rather do more CS meals than you, then you could trade your CS and TS credits.

You could use the extra TS credits to do signature restaurants every couple of days.

Perhaps you could formalize this upfront so that everyone knows what they will have to use.

So, say your Aunt's family thinks they would use one days worth of credits every two days. You could agree to split the cost of the plan and split the credits.

Etc.

 

[rdblanton]

There is one other possibility. Each person in the group must have the same thing. The trick however, is that you dont have to have it for the entire time. If you are going for 7 days, everyone in the group could get the dinning plan for 3-4 days and you can use all the credits for yourself. You have until midnight of the night you check out to use all of the credits and your other visitors may be able to try it for one day. It may take a little effort to fiqure out but this would work and it is definitly worth it!

 

[CarolAnnC]

DVC Dining Plan does require it be purchased for all those listed on the reservation for the entire length of stay. The only way to have it for half the trip, would be to cancel the ressie and make two separate ones.

 

[whithouston]

DVC Dining Plan does require it be purchased for all those listed on the reservation for the entire length of stay. The only way to have it for half the trip, would be to cancel the ressie and make two separate ones.

That is what I was thinking....

 

[JimMIA]

The trick however, is that you dont have to have it for the entire time. If you are going for 7 days, everyone in the group could get the dinning plan for 3-4 days and you can use all the credits for yourself.

To the OP: Here's a link to the DIS Disney Dining Plan board.http://www.disboards.com/forumdisplay.php?f=116

At the top of this page, you will see two threads: one is the excellent FAQ on the dining plan. The other is entitled "Please read before you post," or something like that. That thread has links to the official DDP brochures which give all the official scoop, plus the restaurants included, etc.

You'll find a ton of good information on that board.