Deluxe dining plan question

[Ladyandthepuppies]

I am thinking about a trip this December with my husband and 2 little ones. By then my daughter will be age 5 and my son will be 2.5 which means he will still be free to get into parks and buffets

But let me tell you... the boy can eat! I have been doing a lot of thinking about what makes the most sense financially for us, and whether to get dining plan or not. I am trying to research whether this craxy idea would work: what if I paid for a deluxe dining plan- could my under 3 year old child order his own meal at each restaurant and use one of the credits?

So i.e. if we got the deluxe dining plan we would receive 36 credits. Could we use 4 at one time for a meal so my son could have his own meal? I am imagining it would all be available when we arrive as a balance of 24 adult qs/ts credits and 12 child qs/ts credits. If I ordered a meal for him off the adult menu then we could use 3 adult credits and 1 child credit in one meal even though there's only 3 on the meal plan... right? I feel like in theory it would work although I also am questioning if there's guardrails in place to prevent people from using the meal plan in this way.

If we could use it that way, given the table service / signature table service restaurants that I want to go to which don't offer a buffet so I'd be paying for him to eat out of pocket... I think we would use all 36 credits easily and it could be a good value. Thoughts?

Here's more details on my plan if anyone is interested-

4 nights deluxe meal plan 2 adults 1 child = 24 adult credits and 12 child credits to be used as qs/ts

Day 1: fly in, qs lunch 4 credits, ts buffet dinner 3 credits

Day 2: ts lunch 4 credits, ts dinner 4 credits

Day 3: qs lunch 4 credits, ts signature dinner 6* credits *he would eat off our plates at the signature restaurant and I would supplement with snacks if needed

Day 4: ts buffet breakfast 3 credits, qs lunch 4 credits, use remainder of snacks for dinner

Day 5 (meal plan credits are good until midnight the day you check out) QS breakfast 4 credits, fly out

 

[momto4obkids]

I am thinking about a trip this December with my husband and 2 little ones. By then my daughter will be age 5 and my son will be 2.5 which means he will still be free to get into parks and buffets

But let me tell you... the boy can eat! I have been doing a lot of thinking about what makes the most sense financially for us, and whether to get dining plan or not. I am trying to research whether this craxy idea would work: what if I paid for a deluxe dining plan- could my under 3 year old child order his own meal at each restaurant and use one of the credits?

So i.e. if we got the deluxe dining plan we would receive 36 credits. Could we use 4 at one time for a meal so my son could have his own meal? I am imagining it would all be available when we arrive as a balance of 24 adult qs/ts credits and 12 child qs/ts credits. If I ordered a meal for him off the adult menu then we could use 3 adult credits and 1 child credit in one meal even though there's only 3 on the meal plan... right? I feel like in theory it would work although I also am questioning if there's guardrails in place to prevent people from using the meal plan in this way.

If we could use it that way, given the table service / signature table service restaurants that I want to go to which don't offer a buffet so I'd be paying for him to eat out of pocket... I think we would use all 36 credits easily and it could be a good value. Thoughts?

Here's more details on my plan if anyone is interested-

4 nights deluxe meal plan 2 adults 1 child = 24 adult credits and 12 child credits to be used as qs/ts

Day 1: fly in, qs lunch 4 credits, ts buffet dinner 3 credits

Day 2: ts lunch 4 credits, ts dinner 4 credits

Day 3: qs lunch 4 credits, ts signature dinner 6* credits *he would eat off our plates at the signature restaurant and I would supplement with snacks if needed

Day 4: ts buffet breakfast 3 credits, qs lunch 4 credits, use remainder of snacks for dinner

Day 5 (meal plan credits are good until midnight the day you check out) QS breakfast 4 credits, fly out

On the deluxe plan the credits aren't separated into adult and child. We went in November with the deluxe plan and used all credits for the adults in our party and paid for our kid out of pocket because he doesn't eat well.

 

[Judique]

Have you looked at the menus on allears.net?

You may be better off paying out of pocket and not doing the dining plan, since you are using about 12 of the credits for quick service.

 

[Alesia]

If only 3 of you have the dining plan, you cannot use the dining plan for 4 meals. If you want everyone to have their own entree, you'll have to pay for one of them out of pocket.

 

[tvguy]

I don't know the economics of it, but when we made our first ever trip to WDW last year, the servers at every restaurant were VERY relieved when they asked and found out we did not have a dining plan. As one server put it "you have no restrictions, you can order whatever you want". One night I listed to the table over trying to negotiate which items they could get with the points they had.

 

[ziggystardust]

Following along. We are planning on going next year with our 2 1/2 year old twins. I was thinking that this may be the only time that this meal plan is worth it for us.

 

[momto4obkids]

If only 3 of you have the dining plan, you cannot use the dining plan for 4 meals. If you want everyone to have their own entree, you'll have to pay for one of them out of pocket.

That's not true. We had two rooms booked last year. One had the deluxe dining plan with only 4 people in it and we used the dining credits for all 9 of our party to eat.

 

[cvjw]

If only 3 of you have the dining plan, you cannot use the dining plan for 4 meals. If you want everyone to have their own entree, you'll have to pay for one of them out of pocket.

This used to be the rule, but is not any longer. Disney changed the rules about a year ago so that now you can use your dining credits any way you wish. You could pay for 50 random strangers meals at once if you had 50 dining credits.

Op, with the deluxe dining plan, you only get table service credits which can be used for table service or quick service meals. They are also only adult credits, no kid credits. You can use the credits any way you wish.

.

 

[Kudmani]

I agree that you might find that it would be better financially for your family to pay oop or even to purchase the standard dining plan. Have you tried a Disney dining calculator to give you a better idea of what your above plan might actually cost?

 

[powellrj]

If you are using quick service meals, you maybe better off using the regular plan. I would run the numbers and see which if any plan is useful for your family.

 

[Dakota731]

We used the regular plan in December with our 2 1/2 year old. No servers had an issue with it in the least and there were no restrictions at all! We did a lot of character meals and our little guy could eat anything he wanted there for free. It proved to be a money saver for us (I did all the math) because of the expensive places we chose.

 

[Ladyandthepuppies]

This used to be the rule, but is not any longer. Disney changed the rules about a year ago so that now you can use your dining credits any way you wish. You could pay for 50 random strangers meals at once if you had 50 dining credits.

Op, with the deluxe dining plan, you only get table service credits which can be used for table service or quick service meals. They are also only adult credits, no kid credits. You can use the credits any way you wish.

.

I thought that might be the case! Last year when we were there we bumped into a woman in the little mart and she had an insane number of snacks left and offered to spend them all on my kids. She purchased like 20 snacks for them all at once. So I know you can do it with snacks at least!

 

[Ladyandthepuppies]

I agree that you might find that it would be better financially for your family to pay oop or even to purchase the standard dining plan. Have you tried a Disney dining calculator to give you a better idea of what your above plan might actually cost?

I ran the numbers! We would be staying at the Contemporary and our dates probably will fall into free dining territory Since we already were planning to get park hoppers, IF we got free dining we could pay to upgrade to the deluxe and there would be value there, even including the QS.

However, the calorie-conscious/truly budget friendly thing to do is probably not get the dining plan at all. I was thinking about it and if we didn't get the dining plan we would probably do one TS meal per day out of pocket and then bring food from home for breakfast and buy a snack/light QS for the other meal. Last year they offered 30% off room-only and that would be a better bottom line overall.

 

[sk!mom]

I'll point out a different "flaw" (to me) in your plan...

I love the Dining Plan but I wouldn't do two TS on the same day unless it was an early (before park opening) breakfast and dinner. A lunch and dinner wastes too much touring time.

 

[imbatman]

I don't know the economics of it, but when we made our first ever trip to WDW last year, the servers at every restaurant were VERY relieved when they asked and found out we did not have a dining plan. As one server put it "you have no restrictions, you can order whatever you want". One night I listed to the table over trying to negotiate which items they could get with the points they had.

Indulge me. And maybe it's because I read the rules before we've gone, but are you saying that these are people ordering more than an entree, dessert, and drink (at lunch or dinner)? I can see some confusion after the appetizer was taken off, but the DP seems pretty straightforward, to me.

 

[imbatman]

I am thinking about a trip this December with my husband and 2 little ones. By then my daughter will be age 5 and my son will be 2.5 which means he will still be free to get into parks and buffets

*snip*

If we could use it that way, given the table service / signature table service restaurants that I want to go to which don't offer a buffet so I'd be paying for him to eat out of pocket... I think we would use all 36 credits easily and it could be a good value. Thoughts?

Our first trip ever included a 5 year old and a 2.5 year old, so I can only tell you from our experience, the regular DP was more than enough. We even planned for a character meal (2 TS) and still ended the trip with extra snack credits. Now I know YMMV, but even when we went 3 years later, the regular DP ended up as a flush. We just used breakfast bars most mornings and had one OOP meal for a lunch.

 

[tvguy]

Indulge me. And maybe it's because I read the rules before we've gone, but are you saying that these are people ordering more than an entree, dessert, and drink (at lunch or dinner)? I can see some confusion after the appetizer was taken off, but the DP seems pretty straightforward, to me.

I don't know specifics but I gather some entrees are not included.

 

[LMA712014]

Granted my 2 year old was a minimal eater, but there’s no way we’d do the dining plan again.

We had just the regular Dining Plan and still left with a couple QS meals left and some snack credits. We weren’t ridiculously hungry thanks to the heat, and likely couldn’t eaten less TS and be more than happy.

 

[ajwolfe]

I don't know specifics but I gather some entrees are not included.

We always do the DDP and we've only encountered a couple entrees you couldn't get without paying an upcharge. It's really not that complicated at all.

 

[tvguy]

We always do the DDP and we've only encountered a couple entrees you couldn't get without paying an upcharge. It's really not that complicated at all.

I suspect it isn't. But I was struck by the great relief from wait staff that we weren't on a DDP.