Idiot’s Guide to the Dining Plans, please?

[Elodie]

I’m sure this has been asked before, but I’ve looked through the board and can’t find anything. (So perhaps it hasn’t been asked before, and I really am the only one who doesn’t get it!)

I can see that there are 3 plans - Quick Service, ‘normal’ (?not sure what the middle one is called) and Deluxe, but I can’t for the life of me figure out how they work. The official site has a How It Works section, but it just explains how to pay, and doesn’t seem to explain how / where each plan can actually be used. I saw something about using either one or two vouchers for one meal, but I can’t remember where I saw it, so I’ve no idea what that’s about.

In DLP, we like to have a hotel breakfast, take small snacks with us, and have one main meal a day. We like character meals for a special trip, either waiter service or buffet. In DLP, we’d get premium half board - breakfast and one main meal per day including character dining. Does that mean we’d need the Deluxe plan for WDW? But then it says three meals a day - would that be too much? Can you get the normal plan with two meals and somehow have character dining? That’s not mentioned in the Disney Dining Plan, so I assume not.

Any advice / explanations for a complete novice would be great, thank you!

[Elodie]

p.s. Just found the pages for each individual dining plan, but I’m still not quite getting it!

[sha9]

I wouldn’t say this was an idiots guide but have a read of this thread and then let us know if you have any questions
https://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/sho... php?t=1011133

[sha9]

And no, no you don’t need the deluxe plan to have character meals, just Disney Dining Plan which is the middle one.

[Zellotape]

Hello!
The QS dining plan, only includes quick service restaurants, you do get 2 a day + 2 snacks! The portions are huge which is great but I don't believe there to be any character QS experiences!

The middle DDP, sounds more suited to what you want. you get one QS (could be used for any meal during the day, however may be appropriate for your breakfast) and also a TS (table service) credit. This would be the character buffets/ waiter service meals. You then also get 2 snacks!

The DXDDP, is even more food! Personally i've not researched into it too much, but I think its 3 credits that can be used in QS or TS restaurants PLUS 2 snacks

All of the above also get a resort mug that can be refilled for the length of your stay in all of the disney resorts, not the parks though.

I think that makes sense? took me a while to get it too!

[Guest]

The QSDP provides two snack and two QS meals per day (although you don’t have to use them up each day, they can be carried forward). You can use these at any QS restaurant and can be for any meal, but you won’t get character QS meals.

The middle one is just called the Disney dining plan. It provides two snack, a QS meal and a TS meal. Most of the character meals will require 1 TS credit, but a couple need two credits.

The deluxe dining plan includes three TS credits and two snacks per day. Some of the fine dining restaurants require 2 TS credits so this plan can make sense if somebody wants to have quite a few fine / signature dining experiences.

There are no vouchers, it is a paperless system.

[kellsbells]

The dining plans are much more flexible than at DLP. I've had both the QS and DDP but never the Deluxe DDP as it would be way too much food (we've never come close to using all our credits anyway!)

Most character meals are 1TS credit so you will be fine with the DDP. Credits are pooled for your room so you can use as many as you wish one day and none on another day or whatever suits you best.

2TS places are either signature restaurants or dinner shows and CRT. but the majority of TS restaurants are 1 credit.

It's difficult to tell how much food there is before doing it but trust me when I say it's a lot!

It'll probably help you to read a few dining reports on here to give you some ideas on how people use their credits

[Elodie]

Originally Posted by sha9

I wouldn’t say this was an idiots guide but have a read of this thread and then let us know if you have any questions
https://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/sho... php?t=1011133

See more...

Haha, definitely not an idiot’s guide! I’m even more confused now! It looks handy with lots of information though, so I’ll bookmark it and read through it again when I’ve got a better rough idea of how it all works. Thank you!

[Elodie]

Originally Posted by sha9

And no, no you don’t need the deluxe plan to have character meals, just Disney Dining Plan which is the middle one.

See more...

That’s good to know, thank you. I’m trying to price up exactly what we’d want to include in our holiday to get a couple of character meals, so it’s handy to know we’d be ok without the deluxe plan.

[Elodie]

Originally Posted by Zellotape

Hello!
The QS dining plan, only includes quick service restaurants, you do get 2 a day + 2 snacks! The portions are huge which is great but I don't believe there to be any character QS experiences!

The middle DDP, sounds more suited to what you want. you get one QS (could be used for any meal during the day, however may be appropriate for your breakfast) and also a TS (table service) credit. This would be the character buffets/ waiter service meals. You then also get 2 snacks!

The DXDDP, is even more food! Personally i've not researched into it too much, but I think its 3 credits that can be used in QS or TS restaurants PLUS 2 snacks

All of the above also get a resort mug that can be refilled for the length of your stay in all of the disney resorts, not the parks though.

I think that makes sense? took me a while to get it too!

See more...

That’s really handy - so I can definitely say that we’ll want the middle DDP and not QS or DXDDP when I’m pricing up options. It’s starting to make a bit more sense now too - I think it’s just getting my head around a different way of doing dining plans when I’m used to DLP.