Separating adult/child credits

[123SA]

I just booked a MYW package with dining on Monday. I was told that each ticket would be coded with its own dining info -- that is, no pooling of credits. I would have to hand over all four tickets at each meal. I could not use my child's ticket to purchse an adult meal. Has anyone else heard this?

Just to be clear, I did not ask if I was allowed to purchase an adult meal for a child. Last year we booked 2 rooms for me DH DD & DS with the dining plan 10 nights. They put 30 credits on my card that could be accessed with the children's cards also. They put 10 credits on my husband's card. This caused problems. More than once I forgot to give him my ticket or we had split up and he had to use cash because his card had run out of credits. I tried to get the front desk to take care of this but they said they couldn't .. it had to be taken care of at the time of the reservation. When I brought this up during my reservation for 2006, I was told that wach card would be coded with 10 credits and that this was so that children's credits would not be used on adult meals.

 

[gigi1313]

never heard such a thing... but anything's possible... they could very well be cracking down on the abuse that has taken place... if so, can't say i blame them...

we had issues also 'cause ds/dh were booked in one room w/their credits and dd/i were in another w/ours and some cms took one card (mine) and subtracted for the four of us, and others would not use dh's for the four of us (dd is an "adult" and dh's card said 1A/1C) which really screwed up our cards 'cause dh had credits that cms would not let him use to pay for dd/i... had to hash it out and from then on insisted that the cm take BOTH cards at every meal...

it's never easy!

 

[Sammie]

Well all I can say if it is true, then it does not surprise me at all due to the abuse of the previous system.

 

[BBGirl]

I was told the same thing when going down in November 2005 and they were still pooled when we got there. I really believe the CM's are not educated on the dining plan. I had one CM tell me I couldn't share at a regular TS meal or Pay out of pocket for just an entree for me I would have to pay out of pocket for the appy and dessert too even if I didn't order them
HTH

 

[Sammie]

I was told the same thing when going down on November and they were still pooled when we got there. I really believe the CM's are not educated on the dining plan. I had one tell I couldn't share at a regular TS meal.
HTH

I guess we will have to see what happens at check in.

 

[Pedler]

I have to admit that I do find this one inconceivable. It would be a logistics nightmare to have to swipe one card per dinner. Having to gather 4 cards each time a family of 4 eats dinner would slow things down a bit.

If they were going to make the change it would be much easier to simply flag credits as adult vs. kids and train the staff on how to use them for payment.

There have been so many rumors for so long about these type of changes that I will believe it when we start to see actual first hand reports of the changes.

 

[mickman1962]

Well all I can say if it is true, then it does not surprise me at all due to the abuse of the previous system.

ditto

 

[Palendat]

We heard a rumor that this was happening before our Oct '05 trip. This was also supposedly from a CM at Disney Dining. It was just that, a rumor. That is not to say that it can't happen!

 

[Tinker*Shell*Bell]

If they tell people that the credits are split most will not try to use them "incorrectly." The threat of the change may be enough to save Disney from the headache of doing each card at the register or trying to keep track of the credits. The threat may be an attempt to change the problem without a ton of work.

 

[Lewisc]

That would be a way to have child and adult credits without actually having to program the computer system. Flagging the system might involve major re-programming issues.

At time of use it might be possible to to debit multiple meals from one card as long as a card belonging to an adult was being used for adult meals.

Is it any harder having to gather 4 cards for a meal than having to gather 4 cards every time you enter a park?

This rumor goes back to the end of last summer. Credits will be divided into adult and child credits when more guests take advantage of Disney's generosity than Disney is comfortable with.

I have to admit that I do find this one inconceivable. It would be a logistics nightmare to have to swipe one card per dinner. Having to gather 4 cards each time a family of 4 eats dinner would slow things down a bit.

If they were going to make the change it would be much easier to simply flag credits as adult vs. kids and train the staff on how to use them for payment.

There have been so many rumors for so long about these type of changes that I will believe it when we start to see actual first hand reports of the changes.

 

[NMW]

I don't see how it would be that hard to hand over 4 or 5 cards instead of one when paying for your meal. You have to use all the cards when going through the turnstiles, geting fastpasses..not really a big deal to me.

 

[Maude4Disney]

 

[Pedler]

Is it any harder having to gather 4 cards for a meal than having to gather 4 cards every time you enter a park?

Its not so hard for the dinners to gather up the cards as it for the servers. They would have to gather up the cards, be sure to charge them properly, i.e. swipe each card to get the appropriate credit, and then get them back. And in some cases they would process multiple tables. As it stands now most of the folders (or whatever they are called) the present the bill in have a spot to put your card. Just imagine having 4 cards fit in there. Another issue is that the current implentation requires that all non dinning plan charges are on a separate bill. When they apply the credits to the bill it is all inclusive. One swipe of the card from one account covers all items on the bill. Now they would have to swipe 4 cards from 4 accounts or create 4 separate bills. Either way is more of a burden for the CM to deal with.

Another potential issue that happens to those of us with fidigity kids is that often times DW will take the boys outside or back to the room while I am waiting to pay. This happened to us more than once at Disney. In particular at CRT where it took over a half hour to get the bill and pay for it. If I had all the cards DW wouldn't be able to leave early and take the kids back to the hotel. In essence everyone would have to wait around for the bill to be paid. I could see this as a drawback for families with older kids that want to leave and go do thier own thing. They would have to wait to leave to get thier cards.

I am not saying that it can't be done but it would put a burden on the server and would still require reprogramming the system so that each card could only access limited numbers of credits while still keeping track of them as a group for reporting purposes. If they were to go the whole child / adult credit thing it would be less of a burden to actually separate them out and still keep it so that every card can access the credits. Of course this presents another issue for the server in that they would have to enter in how many adult vs. kids credits were being used.

 

[Lewisc]

I am not saying that it can't be done but it would put a burden on the server and would still require reprogramming the system so that each card could only access limited numbers of credits while still keeping track of them as a group for reporting purposes. If they were to go the whole child / adult credit thing it would be less of a burden to actually separate them out and still keep it so that every card can access the credits. Of course this presents another issue for the server in that they would have to enter in how many adult vs. kids credits were being used.

I don't think they'd have to keep track of the group. If Disney goes this route each person would have 1 TS per night and the credits would no longer be aggregated so the system would just indicate how many credits were remaining for this guest.

 

[Pedler]

I don't think they'd have to keep track of the group. If Disney goes this route each person would have 1 TS per night and the credits would no longer be aggregated so the system would just indicate how many credits were remaining for this guest.

Don't you think that approach would make the plan even more restrictive than separating child / adult credits put still keeping them pooled? If the credits are totally separate there would be no easy way to share credits among family members. Parents with older children couldn't use thier credits one night to go out to a signature place and pay for the kids to get CS somewhere else.

 

[Pedler]

I don't think they'd have to keep track of the group. If Disney goes this route each person would have 1 TS per night and the credits would no longer be aggregated so the system would just indicate how many credits were remaining for this guest.

One reason to track the group would be to get reporting on the use of credits. I did this a few times during our trip at the front desk just to make sure things were being tracked properly. Under a separate credit situation I would have to get 4 separate reports. Not a big deal but just one more change in procedure that has to be made.

One other thought on swiping multiple cards is at the snack and CS places. Once again not a big deal but you would have the snack stand folk have to swipe 4 cards in our case and they struggled at times just dealing with one. In particular at places that couldn't swipe the cards but had enter the number into the system. If I had 4 of those I think there would be a riot at the ice cream cart. At the CS places I think it would also signifigantly slow down the check out process. I can just see it now where someone gets up to pay and realizes they don't have all the cards. They would either have to back out the transaction on the register or have some way to park the transaction while the person went and got the cards or just have the line wait while the person went and got the cards.


Not that it can't be done but it does seem to put an additional burden on things to close a loophole that so far Disney doesn't seem to considre a loophole. I still think that the pooled credits but separate child / adult would be the simplest change to make if Disney were to decide that this is a problem that needs to be corrected.

 

[Lewisc]

Not that it can't be done but it does seem to put an additional burden on things to close a loophole that so far Disney doesn't seem to considre a loophole. I still think that the pooled credits but separate child / adult would be the simplest change to make if Disney were to decide that this is a problem that needs to be corrected.

I have no idea if Disney really wants to close this so-called loophole. I guess if too many guests start planning their meals around paying cash for their kids meals and using those credits to purchase adult meals Disney may have to consider it.

We don't know from a computer stand point which is the simpliest way to make a change. Having child and adult credits require going from 3 type of dining credits (TS, CS, snack) to 5 types (adult TS, child TS, adult CS, child CS and snack). Stopping the aggregation of credits might be the simpliest way to do it.

 

[Pedler]

I have no idea if Disney really wants to close this so-called loophole. I guess if too many guests start planning their meals around paying cash for their kids meals and using those credits to purchase adult meals Disney may have to consider it.

We don't know from a computer stand point which is the simpliest way to make a change. Having child and adult credits require going from 3 type of dining credits (TS, CS, snack) to 5 types (adult TS, child TS, adult CS, child CS and snack). Stopping the aggregation of credits might be the simpliest way to do it.

Thats true, it would create more credit types. Of course they could also create a whole other snack credit. Just imagine the possibilites of having child vs. adult snack credits. I can see the conversation now:

Sorry junior but Mickey Bars require an adult snack credit. However there are these great Mickey carrot sticks you can get as a kids snack credit.

Now that would make the use of dinning credits interesting!

 

[BBGirl]

I think Disney may be trying to find what I'll call a "happy medium". There are many times that credits being on separate cards would not have worked for my family not because we were using child credits for adult meals but because we use other timesaving means (i.e. DH and DS(7) going to get fastpasses for a ride while DD(2) and I went to stand line to order food for all of us). That and all four of us at TS having sign our receipts. DH or I would stay behind to take care of this while the other went and changed a diaper or got the kids going to where they wanted to be. I know it's not alot of timesavings but for us it made us feel like we were saving time and getting more done and there were times it meant the kids got to ride an extra ride as they were just getting off by the time I(DH) caught up.

 

[new_mouser]

Out of curiosity, why can't Disney just pool the credits on one card, but code them in a way so that there is no way to use a child's credit on anything other than a child menu?