[RICH1967]

A friend of mine is booking a trip through Scott at Mouseketrips and he mentioned a dining package which for $35 per adult and $10 per childs includes one sit-down meal, one counter-service meal, and one snack (soda,
> popcorn, ice cream, etc.) per person, per day. This seems like a really good deal. Can anyone tell me more about this? Does it include character meals? Are all restraunts included? Any other info would be helpful.

Thanks

[lisalovesmickey]

http://www.disneycentral.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=14569

This thread should be able to help you out.

In general, The plan includes one counter service meal, one restraunt meal (excluding a small few but including most character meals) and one snack per day/per person of your trip.

Hope this helps.

Lisa

[mickey]

My thinking on this has changed a little bit. Disney had an initial list of restaurants involed in the plan, and many of those have now been removed. What was once a slam dunk deal is now not so much. I think it would work for some families, and not for others. I have an official brochure that you can download for more information here. It does have a list of restaurants, rules and regulations.

Disney dining guide

Just a warning. It is large, 1.5Mb, so it might take a while.

[Captgoodguy]

Thanks Mickey, your guide looks different from the one I found on the Disney website.

The CM I spoke to earlier this week also suggested this. However, I agree with Mickey that it isn't an easy decision. Certain restaurants require you to use two tickets for one meal. We were considering it for our niece, but it seems like it takes too much effort to determine which place will take what tickets for what could be little or no savings. I think we are just going to pay as we go.

[lisalovesmickey]

My thinking on this has changed a little bit. Disney had an initial list of restaurants involed in the plan, and many of those have now been removed. What was once a slam dunk deal is now not so much. I think it would work for some families, and not for others. I have an official brochure that you can download for more information here. It does have a list of restaurants, rules and regulations.

Exactly which restaurants have been removed?

Do you think this is b/c of my initial reservation about this plan, that Disney is gonna lose money?

Lisa

[mickey]

Originally Posted by lisalovesmickey

Exactly which restaurants have been removed?

Do you think this is b/c of my initial reservation about this plan, that Disney is gonna lose money?

Lisa

Lisa

Initially, just about every restaurant was included, with the exception of the really expensive ones like Jiko, California Grill, Artist's Point, etc. Now, if you download the file, you can see that in EPCOT, there are only four sit down meals available, Biergarten, Akershus, Garden Grill and Rose and Crown. So, restaurants like Le Cellier, Chefs de France, San Angel Inn, etc are not even a choice any more. Same goes for the other parks.

Yes, I think Disney realized after the put out the inital list that many of the restaurants on the list could be very expensive. My guess is that the list will continue to be modified until the figure out the right mix. With only four sit down restaurants in EPCOT on the plan, those restaurants are going to be crowded.

[ccorbet]

Mickey,
Do you know if the meals are interchangable?? IE if I am not going to use a sit down , can I use it for a counter service?
Thanks,
Cliff

[lisalovesmickey]

Yeah I printed out this list and compared it to the old one and you are right. I guess if you do a lot of character meals it would still be worth it.

Lisa

[mickey]

Do you know if the meals are interchangable?? IE if I am not going to use a sit down , can I use it for a counter service?

I don't think so, but I can't find anywhere that says you can't do that. If I had to guess, I would say that they weren't interchangeable.

[mickaholic4077]

Forget it then. If I can'y use it at Marakesh or the Mexican place,I won't bother with the plan.

[Soundgod]

So far this isn't good news. Many of you have seen my posts about my dining preferences and the fact that we'd booked Gold and Grand plans in the past and were hoping that the new options would work out. At this rate, we'll have to book the MYW version of the Gold plan in order to eat where we usually do. I'm beginning to think I'll do better buying an annual pass and the Disney Dining Card, which saves 20% on every meal, or buy 4 get one free. Let's face it, for the wife and I, we aren't going to waste time with snacks, and really don't care for counter service type food when I'm on vacation. Unless Disney comes up with some sort of intermediate dining option, and not the coupon garbage they use at Disneyland(why did I bite one that again?)

[dznygrl]

Soundgod, I think I am heading the same route as you. I'm getting very frustrated and disappointed with the overall "value" of these new plans. I think I'd be better off investing in APs and the Disney Dining Card.

[bali]

Sounds like there will be a LOT of planning and frustruation involved to make good use of this dining plan. Mind you, I have no problem with planning -- I'll make the biggest spreadsheet in the world to figure out how to save the most money on my vacation -- but it's the frustration I don't want to deal with. That I'm-hungry-but-I'm-not-sure-if-this-restaurant-is-on-my-dining-plan frustration, or the I-want-to-get-the-best-deal-but-I'm-tired-of-planning-my-whole-day-around-my-meals frustration. I can just see the parents now, screaming at their kids to "eat the darn Mickey bar!! We paid for it!!" Yikes. I'll stick with the pay as you go option -- may not be the absolute cheapest, but it's certainly the most relaxing. Besides, I can't imagine the difference in cost between what I usually pay and what I'd pay on the dining plan to be over $100 or so.

[Soundgod]

I'd have to go through my final version of the planner from our last trip, but our meals (dinners and lunches) came in at a minimum of $84. Those were mostly at signature restaurants on Gold plan. That's an appetizer, an entree, a desert, and a beverage. We always also got espresso and cappuccino in addition to our iced teas. In 5 days we ate 4 character breakfasts and 12 early supper and late supper meals. If we had paid we would have had to pay $1500 for our food. But if we weren't eating heavy like that, we surely would have been on the minus side of what we paid Disney. Instead we were about $800 under what we would have paid ala carte for the same stuff. I just don't see this plan being close to that one's equal.

[Storm59]

Originally Posted by Soundgod

I'd have to go through my final version of the planner from our last trip, but our meals (dinners and lunches) came in at a minimum of $84. Those were mostly at signature restaurants on Gold plan. That's an appetizer, an entree, a desert, and a beverage. We always also got espresso and cappuccino in addition to our iced teas. In 5 days we ate 4 character breakfasts and 12 early supper and late supper meals. If we had paid we would have had to pay $1500 for our food. But if we weren't eating heavy like that, we surely would have been on the minus side of what we paid Disney. Instead we were about $800 under what we would have paid ala carte for the same stuff. I just don't see this plan being close to that one's equal.

Have they totally gotten rid of the Gold plan?

We used it once, and though I wouldn't recommend to anyone with children, as it's a bit wasted, I would snag it in a minute for just myself, or me and DH. The extras were so nice, and the meals were so worth it!!