Buffet/family style reservations with a non-eating guest

[rjthkids]

When making reservations for character dining and other dining experiences that are family-style eating experiences.... Does anyone know how Disney wants you to account for a person in your party that doesn't eat/won't be eating? Do just count them and have them pay full rate on the bill since they are enjoying the other aspects of the meal (seeing the characters, watching the show etc etc)?

previous trips our non-eater was under 3 so we never needed to figure it out. She will be 4 for our next trip and we always do O'hana's for dinner and usually 1-2 other family style meals.

 

[ptlohmysoul]

You will be charged for every member of your party (except qualifying infants).

 

[dashofsunshine]

Yep. Everyone has to pay. Doesn't matter if you don't eat at all, eat a little, or eat 40 plates of food. If you're taking up a chair, it's full price.

 

[rjthkids]

Perfect, thanks!

 

[redberyl]

Perfect, thanks!

At character meals, you're paying for entertainment. At other meals you can explain the situation and you *might* be given a discount.

 

[oynk]

I would include everyone on the reservation, but explain when you get there. We have had some success at character meals even.

Even when my other child was younger and just a very picky eater, I would just state, "He's not eating." Really, there were places the rest of the family liked and I couldn't see paying $20 for him to eat a cookie.

For the picky child, sometimes they would ask what he did like, and make it for him and that was fine. For my other child, I just explained the situation.

Of course that meant no one tried to sneak something. And I always tip on the whole party.

Thankfully my child's issues are much better so this was several years ago, so YMMV.

 

[ButterflyEffect]

We were at DW a couple weeks ago and were not charged for my daughter at any of the character meals except one. We were on the dining plan too. We had a great experience, the only one we were charged for was at 1900 and that waitress was our least attentive of our whole trip.

We never asked for her not to be charged so it was not an expectation, but it was nice each time when we weren't having to pay for our non-diner. We went to Crystal Palace, 1900, Tusker House, Holly Wood and Vine and Biergarten and Sci Fi for our TS meals. She was only charged at 1900 and we didn't say anything to try to not pay for her.

I am wondering if the previous posters have experience with being charged for a non- diner or if you are assuming they will be charged. It seems to be becoming the norm on another special needs forum I am on that non-diners are not charged for meals at DW.

 

[SueM in MN]

The only question is for character meals and buffets. For restaurantsera where each person orders individually, it doesn't matter if meals are shared or one person doesn't order.

Whether or not you are charged for buffets and character meals is up to the discretion of the server and/or manager. They won't make exceptions ahead of time (the main reason is that some people lie), but the server is generally aware of who at the table is eating or not.

There have been many posts over the years where people reported they were charged. This is especially common for character meals. In some cases, people were charged a much lower 'entertainment' fee for those.

Expect that you will be charged and you will be prepared in case you are. If you receive pixie dust and are not charged, that's great. I'd rather be expecting to be charged and be pleasantly surprised than the opposite.