Disneyland Dining Meal Plans

[MickeyEars]

Hi!
After at least 30 trips to Disney World we have decided it's time to plan our first ever trip to Disneyland! I'm very excited!! We're probably going to go May 31- June 8, 2007. I have been reading all the Disneyland posts here on the DIS. While reading I ran across the "Disney Dining Meal Plans" listed in the dining section. Have any of you purchased the plans? If so, is it a "good deal"? I would love to hear your thoughts and opinions.
Also, does anyone know if you can you add the meal plans to a package? I'll probably book our trip thru AAA so I was just wondering if you can add the dining plan like you can at Disney World.
Thank you so much for any info you might have.

Carla

 

[hlbtimes2]

It is NOTHING like the WDW plan. It does not save you any money at all. It is more of a budgeting tool so that you can prepay and not worry about that out of pocket expense while you are there. If you want more details, please feel free to ask. I've used it on two trips, because prepaying works for us.

 

[MickeyEars]

Thanks for your reply!!! I was hoping it saved at least a little money. I am the type that likes to have everything paid for in advance so I suppose that would be a nice plus. Do you know if you can add it to a package? Anyone else have any thoughts?

Carla

 

[hlbtimes2]

Do you have a package through Disney travel or AAA? If so, yes, you can add it on. We like to have as much paid for as possible as well. We pay for the trip when we have money, usually after a bonus. So, we pay for a 3 day package and know we have at least that much food taken care off. It usually works well for us. Many people are turned off by the lack of savings and some of the rules- like no cash back.

 

[MickeyEars]

We will be booking our package thru AAA so it's good to know we can add it. Thank you so much for helping me.

Carla

 

[hlbtimes2]

When you get the vouchers be sure to read the fine print. Some of them (the snack ones I think) can only be used in the park, not at the hotel restaruants. I'm not sure why. So you'll want to watch where you use them. Oddly, those one also include tax, so the actual value of the $5 voucher is more like $5.34 (or what ever the tax rate is). The character meal vouchers include tax and tip- so that might actually save a couple dollars- can't remember exactly how the math works out on them.

 

[MickeyEars]

Thanks so much for your help!!!

Carla

 

[SteffM]

We got our dining package today. We have the four day plan.

The childs vouchers have:

One breakfast in the park-$8.61
One character breakfast-$14.86
One lunch or dinner at a table-service location-$17.34
Three snack vouchers-$6 each
One $5 voucher
Three $10 vouchers

Adults have:

One breakfast in the park-$8.61
One character breakfast-$27.25
One lunch or dinner at a table-service location-$27.25
Three snack vouchers-$6 each
Two $10 vouchers
Two $15 vouchers

It seems that they do have limitations on where they can be used but there are still a ton of places listed to eat at.

HTH!

If I am not allowed to list this, just let me know and I will take it down !

 

[MickeyEars]

That does help thanks so much!!! Anyone else have any info? Keep it coming because I need all the help I can get!

Carla

 

[Crazy4Disney72]

I used the 3 day Disney Dine in the Magic plan for my trip with my 8yr old DS last month. The major appeal to me was being able to prepay for much of the dining ahead of time, but really, it's not much of a money saver, not at all like the Disney Dining Plan at WDW. The only thing I think saved any bit of money was the character breakfast option, because the vouchers included tax & tip. In contrast, the Breakfast in the Park vouchers did not even cover the full amount for breakfast, I think I had to pay about $3. We did not order anything extra, just a child breakfast pancake and an adult breakfast meal, and two orange juices, a child size and adult small. I guess it works out to cover breakfast if you order the absolute cheapest thing on the menu. This was at the Riverbelle Terrace in DL. I think I ended up losing a couple dollars because some of the snacks we bought didn't come up to the full voucher amount, but for that trip, the convenience of having it prepaid was worth a couple dollars. Go on DL's site and see exactly what you get for vouchers, as I did end up having to spend money over the vouchers. We each got 3 snack vouchers, that's $18 of snacks each. Ordinarily we don't buy a lot of snacks, so I found myself buying things just to use the vouchers to feel I got my money's worth. We were able to use the snack vouchers for muffins and milk for breakfast at the bakery on Main Street, that was worthwhile.

Overall it's not really much of a savings, but somewhat of a convenience to have things prepaid. My next trip to DL will be in 6/07 and it will be dh, me, and all three kids, and I don't think we will do the DL meal plan for that trip.

 

[MissKIA]

Does anyone know if you can use the breakfast in the park vouchers just for it's dollar value and use it for lunch or snacks? Or does it absolutely HAVE to be used only for breakfast?

 

[SteffM]

Does anyone know if you can use the breakfast in the park vouchers just for it's dollar value and use it for lunch or snacks? Or does it absolutely HAVE to be used only for breakfast?

I called and asked last night. They told me that I could use it at anyplace that serves breakfast.