JUST BACK - NEW DDP changes in action (Photo added)

[bicker]

I know it should not be this way, but at this time, I would advise everyone do not ask a CM at Disney any questions about dining, unless they work in dining.

Absolutely. Asking a Disney hotel reservationist about details of the Dining Plan would be a bit like asking one of our contract administrators how to query our databases to generate reports.

That's not a good idea "at this time" or anytime!

 

[wdwdreamin2]

So...instead of answering a question that is not in "your" department direct me to someone who can!

I think the changes to DDP are for the better, but the transition may be confusing to CMs and guests alike.

I love DDP and will continue to use it for as long as it is offered.

 

[KristinU]

Just confirming what has been said recently - we're just back from a 1/10 - 1/13 trip and the TS was seperated onto two receipts each time, but CS was not. It sounds like it has been changing by the minute recently, but that's what we observed this trip. Cheers!

 

[bicker]

So...instead of answering a question that is not in "your" department direct me to someone who can!

Does anyone know the telephone number for Disney Dining (not the reservationists, but the folks that wdwdreamin2 is referring to -- the folks who actually are involved in Dining operations at WDW itself)? I'm not sure that Disney wants to provide public access to those folks, but if they do, then it would be a good addition to the FAQ. If they don't, then we guests will have to continue to fall back on "it depends" -- we will just have to wait until we're at WDW before we can find out some things pertaining to our trip.

 

[jmpellet]

I agree that it appears that CS still remain the same. We returned on 1/8 and although we had no kids with us this time, our recipts were different than in October. The counter service receipts were the same (4 CTR Ser remain...) but on the TS receipts, it specified 2 AD TS remain.

 

[jensen]

Any more recent updates on the CS situation? Are they separated, yet?

 

[DisneyJo]

Subbing to hear any updates, although I don't go until August, I like to keep up to date.

 

[janets]

We arrive on 2/3 and I'm interested in hearing whether there have been any changes with CS also. I have no problem with TS, since my kids will be fine with the choices (and I'm happy to swap some items with them if they desire), but I'm concerned about the CS situation. I have an almost 9 yo who likes burgers, pizza, chicken fingers, etc and neither of my boys will eat PB&J in any form. The younger one will eat the nuggets and m&c but the older one needs more than 4 small nuggets to eat.

Our plan (if they do separate CS credits) is to most likely order 2A and 1C CS meal for lunch (my mom is coming so we'll have 3A 2C on our cards) and use the remaining CS credits for breakfast and/or save them for our last day, since we're leaving after lunch.

Anyone coming back in the next two weeks...please update on CS situation.

 

[deelam]

I have a question, the dining plan is allot of food. We have done the plan before. There are 2 adults & 2 kids in my party. I plan to stay 4 nights. Can I get the dining plan for just 1 adult & 1 kid? That would be 4 table sevice dinners X 2 people (8 credits)We were thinking of only scheduling 2 big dinners and using four dinner credits for each dinner. The other 2 days we could do counter service. Would like allow this?

 

[Ilovemyprincesses]

No, everyone in your room must be the same. If 1 is on the plan everyone has to be on the plan.

 

[bicker]

I have a question, the dining plan is allot of food. We have done the plan before. There are 2 adults & 2 kids in my party. I plan to stay 4 nights. Can I get the dining plan for just 1 adult & 1 kid?

Sorry, no.

 

[bigskyernurse]

And they were not seperating adult and child credits on CS. They were on TS (you got 2 seperate receipts to sign) but CS were all combined. Didn't make sense to me as I would think CS would be where the abuse was. At TS, they would be able to look at your card and see who was sitting at the table so you couldn't order adult meals for kids but at CS you could just go up seperately. They were looking at what was listed on the cards, though.

 

[mom2dzb]

It's been a few days since the last update. Is it still the same . . . TS credits separated by Adult credits and Child credits but CS pooled together?

Only a few days until my trip and I'm curious how I'm going to handle the sharing of my 3 A and 1 C credits between my family of 2 AD, 10 year old, 8 year old and 2.5 year old.

 

[thunderbird1]

And they were not seperating adult and child credits on CS. They were on TS (you got 2 seperate receipts to sign) but CS were all combined. Didn't make sense to me as I would think CS would be where the abuse was. At TS, they would be able to look at your card and see who was sitting at the table so you couldn't order adult meals for kids but at CS you could just go up seperately. They were looking at what was listed on the cards, though.

I think the biggest abuse was adults paying OOP for kids' TS meals and using their (kid) credits for (much) more expensive adult TS meals. The difference in price between adult and child CS meals is quite a bit less, which is probably why it was a lower priority fix than the TS meals. I'm sure eventually they'll convert all the CS restaurants as well. Thanks for the update!

 

[klynn]

We are here right now! We have been on the DDP all week and the CS meals have not been separated.

 

[Katiebell]

OK...just to further muddy the waters...

I made ADR's for our trip in May. Just 2 A, DH and me, no kids. We don't have any friends or family in FL, so we aren't treating anyone. A couple of our ADR's are for buffets or CB's, so obviously, we have to use 1 TS credit each at those meals. However, for 2 meals we planned to share: lunch one day at Marrakesh, and dinner one night at Raglan Rd. We thought we might order an additional beverage (beer at Raglan Road!) and maybe an extra appetizer or dessert if we felt especially hungry.

Just to recap:
We aren't using TS credits we haven't paid for
We aren't using child's meal credits
We aren't letting someone not on the plan eat the food

The CM who took our reservations said, "No problem". Our TA said, "No problem". Then I started reading Disney Vacation boards. Holy cow, I had no idea there was such a controversy! I've read some really heated debates on both sides of the issue. But some folks were adamant there is NO SHARING of any kind, so I wrote to Disney Guest Relations -- and got a cut and paste reply that I've seen others post:

"Thank you for contacting the Walt Disney World Resort.
The Disney Dining Plan on your MAGIC YOUR WAY Package Plus Dining
includes One (1) Counter Service Meal, One (1) Snack, and One (1) Table
Service Meal per person, per night for everyone in your vacation plan
party, ages 3+. Meals are nontransferable and sharing is not permitted.
If you have questions or need further assistance, feel free to contact
us."

So I wrote back for clarification, making my letter so outrageously tongue-in-cheek that I knew I would get a personalized reply.

I had to change one of my ADR's, and the CM told me, no problem if my husband and I wish to share a meal -- just let the server know when we order. Oooookay...then I got this "personalized" response from Disney Guest Services:

"Thank you for contacting the Walt Disney World Resort.
Please know meals are nontransferable and sharing is not permitted.
Meal entitlements can not be shared.
Guests may use their Meals and Snacks in any order and any amount
throughout their stay until the total is depleted.
Guests on the dining plan and sitting at a table in a table service
restaurant are not required to use their dining credits for the meal.
Guests may pay for the meal at the time of dining.
If one Guest wishes to use a dining credit and the other Guest in the
party wishes to order food and beverage and pay for it instead of using
their dining credit, that is permitted. However, ordering one meal and
sharing is not permitted with the dining plan.
We hope this information is helpful and we look forward to your visit."



So. DH will order a meal and tell the server it is on the DDP. I will order a luscious pine float, ie: a toothpick in a glass of water. I will look wistfully at my DH, tummy rumbling, and drool on the table, while he gorges himself on and appetizer, entree, dessert, and beverage.

 

[bicker]

I understand that people are unhappy about having to follow rules they don't like, but that's part of being an upstanding member of society. When you purchase the Dining Plan, you're purchasing what's described in the brochure. That means not taking advantage of the fact that they've not gotten draconian in their enforcement with regard to CS meals. If you have purchased some child meals and some adult meals, then are entitled some child meals and some adult meals. You're not entitled to all adult meals. Having said that, it is clear that Disney is much less concerned about that kind of abuse than they were about the TS meals abuse. There is surely a lot less at stake.

The bit about no sharing is strange, I'll grant, because there is nothing in the Dining Plan brochure about it. If you don't like the answer from guest services, call Disney and ask to speak to someone at the director level at Disney Dining. To be honest, given how much people are still looking to exploit the program, I can imagine them resorting to rules like that, though I really hope it doesn't come to that.

 

[DisneyJo]

Surely there is no way they can inforce no sharing at CS meals only at TS and also if you are only eating the same amount of food at a TS does it matter if it gets eaten by 2 instead of 1? We intend to share CS meals (only with each other and we're all on the DP) just because there is too much food and we don't want to get stuffed or waste food!

 

[Lewisc]

We'll agree an entire party can't sit down and order complimentary pine float swith complimentary bread and butter then leave after finishing.

Restaurants have to decide how they want to handle patrons that don't want to order a full meal. Some restaurants have per person minimums, some require every patron order a meal and some just require everyone at the table order the special price fixed meal (such as DDP) if anyone at the table orders it.

I will order a luscious pine float, ie: a toothpick in a glass of water. I will look wistfully at my DH, tummy rumbling, and drool on the table, while he gorges himself on and appetizer, entree, dessert, and beverage.

 

[bicker]

Surely there is no way they can inforce no sharing at CS meals

I wouldn't want to speculate about what they could or couldn't enforce. Practically speaking, they really could do many things. They could, for example, provide credits differently, i.e., if there are two adults and two children in your party, you could get just one CS credit per night, but that CS credit is good for up to two adult meals and two child meals (in other words, they could make you all order at once, and each time you order you would have to order meals for everyone registered on your reservation, or lose their credits). They could to that if the way people were using CS credits became a big enough concern, but I just don't think they will.

I remember when the first big hubub blew up over how people were abusing the system to get extra adult meals (TS and CS). Another DIS member and I had a PM discussion about it, and came to agreement that it was clearly not what Disney intended, represented another example of Entitlement Mentality that has been sweeping the country for a decade, and was clearly going to eventually result in Disney taking steps to compensate for the abuse, and those steps would invariably have some collateral damage, i.e., cause some inconvenience or dissatisfaction for some guests who were always using the Dining Plan appropriately. Lo and behold, that did happen. Indeed, there was recently a thread where we listed a few such side-effects of the new TS enforcement. I don't think the CS situation will result in as significant of a change in enforcement as the TS situation did, because the differential in value isn't as high. Indeed, I think there will be even worse collateral damage from the CS situation: I think they'll simply recognize that some people are getting a greater value from the Dining Plan than intended, and reflect that by increasing the price to compensate, perhaps even just increasing the child price. Time will tell. Surely, given how much less value differential there is with CS credits, it'll probably take longer, and whatever reaction there is will probably be more subtle, than that for the TS situation.