[tonyksl]

The Disney Dining Card for passholders only costs $65 a year. It's a 20% discount for all dining type meals except for V&As. In a weekend, the discount pays for itself. It basically covers all of the tips on the meal. I think this might be how most people use it as well.

Now, here are a few questions that may attribute to one person's dining experience vs. another person's:

With the Dining Card, the CMs seem to actually get happier when they hear we are using it and not using the DDP. Have any of you Dining Card holders noticed the same type of reactions?

In the DDP, the tip is included in the price. Does anybody know what percentage of the meal price is given as a tip to the CM?

This would explain the DDP complaints. I am not saying the DDP folks get treated bad, but, I know that the CMs/servers really do try hard to get me the table I want and to make sure my meal is just what I expect. I have never had a bad dining experience in all of my trips to Disney. Even the food, if not great at times, has been better than some of the reviews I have read from other folks.

If the CMs/servers are getting a flat rate and then getting burned tip wise for anything above and beyond that (such as alcohol), would this perhaps change your plan knowing that it might affect how you are treated?

[DisneyTeacher]

I'm not sure if this is what you are looking for but I'll give it a try.

I have read the CMs are tipped 18% but I have never asked one ot be sure. We have used the DDE card, the dining plan and no discount nad have seen no difference in how we are treated. I read reports where guests thought they got less service with the dining plan so I looked for differences last May and couldn't see any, in fact we had awesome service in all but one restaurant that trip. Even with the dining plan we got any request we made from the table we wanted to special meals for my picky son.

[tonyksl]

Originally Posted by DisneyTeacher

I'm not sure if this is what you are looking for but I'll give it a try.

I have read the CMs are tipped 18% but I have never asked one ot be sure. We have used the DDE card, the dining plan and no discount nad have seen no difference in how we are treated. I read reports where guests thought they got less service with the dining plan so I looked for differences last May and couldn't see any, in fact we had awesome service in all but one restaurant that trip. Even with the dining plan we got any request we made from the table we wanted to special meals for my picky son.

This is exactly what I am looking for.

[DisneyTeacher]

Originally Posted by tonyksl

This is exactly what I am looking for.

Good!

I liked our DDE card because we got a discount on the food we wanted and ordered. It basically took care of the tip at all our sit down meals. We were with another family that trip and paid for the card in two meals so the rest of the trip was all discount.

I also liked the dining plan because we got to eat food we woudn't have tried because we don't normally order both appetizers and dessert. Honestly, I don't know how much money the dining plan saves us (I've compared and it's pretty equal between what we would normally order and the cost of the dining plan) but we got a lot more food when we used the plan.

[iluvwdw]

I agree with Stephanie. I NEVER noticed a difference in the way we were treated while we were on the Dining Plan! It seemed the servers went above and beyond to make the kids happy with their meals.