Disneyland
We are going to now look at the dining plan
at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. This dining plan is new and
not as well-known as the dining plan in Florida is. Along with being less well
known, it also works quite differently
than the Florida plan. To start it is important to understand the layout of
Disneyland, and the neighboring area.
Disneyland Resort consists of three hotels:
The Disneyland Hotel, Disney Grand Californian, and Paradise Pier Hotel, two
theme parks (Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure Park) and Downtown
Disney. Outside of the resort there are numerous hotels and restaurants. Many
of the hotels in the neighboring area are considered good neighbor hotels,
and though their onsite restaurants are not included in the dining plan, if you
book your hotel stay as part of a package through Disney you can add the
Disneyland Dining plan to your package.
So basically with the layout of Disney it
is definitely a feasible option to eat outside of the park if you so choose,
this is not to say you should never eat in the park, but it is something that
you need to consider more carefully as both options have pros and cons to them.
With this in mind let us start looking at the options. Below there is a table
showing the different dining plans you can choose from (prices are for 2013 and
are subject to change every year).
|
Donald’s 2-Day
|
Goofy’s 3-Day
|
Minnie’s 4-Day
|
Mickey’s 5-Day
|
Snacks ($5.00)
|
2($10.00)
|
3($15.00)
|
4($20.00)
|
5($25.00)
|
$15.00 voucher
|
2($30.00)
|
3($45.00)
|
4($60.00)
|
5($75.00)
|
Character Dining($33.00/$17.00)
|
2($66.00/$34.00)
|
3($99.00/$51.00)
|
3($99.00/$51.00)
|
4($132.00/$68.00)
|
Premium Character Dining ($43.00/$22.00)
|
0
|
0
|
1($43.00/$22.00)
|
1($43.00/$22.00)
|
Adult Price
|
$106.00
|
$159.00
|
$222.00
|
$275.00
|
Child Price (3-9)
|
$64.00
|
$96.00
|
$133.00
|
$165.00
|
So say you have a 5-night trip to Anaheim,
5 days in the parks, but you know there are some restaurants outside of the
park you are set on going to (Sunday Gospel Brunch at House of Blues, Rainforest
Café etc.) you could choose to take a shorter 3-day dining plan. That is right
you can choose how many days of dining plan you want to have, it is not based
on the number of nights you are staying. To purchase the dining plan you must
book a package staying at either a Disney Hotel or a Good Neighbor Hotel
booking through Disney (Travel Time Agent can do this for you).
If you purchase a dining plan you will
receive a book of vouchers that can be used for up to the value associated with
the voucher at any participating carts or restaurants. I will give some
specific examples of this in a moment but first let us look at what counts as a
snack, a character dining meal, and a premium character dining meal. Snacks are
bottled beverages, individual popcorn, frozen novelties, corn on the cob, or
other similarly priced items available at carts throughout the parks and
hotels. Character Dining is valid for the following character breakfasts:
Minnie and Friends Breakfast at Plaza Inn on Main Street USA in Disneyland,
Surfs Up with Mickey at PCH Grill in Paradise Pier Hotel, and Chip ‘n’ Dale’s
Critter Breakfast at the Storytellers Café in Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel.
The two Premium Character Dining experiences are Goofy’s Kitchen buffet at the
Disneyland Hotel, and Ariel’s Disney Princess Celebration at Ariel’s Grotto
restaurant in Disney’s California Adventure Park. So one theme that you may have noticed, these
locations are all in the hotels or the parks, the dining plan is currently not
accepted at any restaurants in Downtown Disney or off property (including at
Good Neighbor Hotels).
So
if you are a family of four (2 adults and 2 children ages 7 and 5) and have a
five day package including a four day dining plan, your first day you could
have breakfast at your hotels free continental breakfast (hotel dependent), an
ice cream (snack voucher 1) in the middle of the day and then use your premium
character dining for an early dinner at Goofy’s Kitchen before heading back to
the park.. For your second day you could go for buffet breakfast at Surfs Up at
Paradise Pier hotel before entering the park, purchase a snack for lunch, and
have a burger and fries using (1)$15.00
voucher for dinner. The next day you have breakfast at your hotel before
leaving for the park again, and for lunch you use one of your character dining
experiences(1)and (2) 1 snack voucher towards lunch at Carthay Circle, and have
pizza and a drink for dinner using $15.00 voucher( 2). For your fourth day you
could have a pastry from the bakery on Main Street for breakfast using your
snack voucher (3) then use your character-dining voucher (2) towards lunch at
Blue Bayou, and have dinner off property later in the evening. For your final
day you could have breakfast with Minnie and Friends in the Park using your
final character dining experience, have a salad lunch using $15.00 voucher (3)
have a cob of chilli lime corn in the afternoon as a snack (last snack voucher)
then use your final $15.00 voucher towards dinner at Wine Country Trattoria.
The above example of dining is not the best
use of all your dining vouchers but it shows the different ways that the
vouchers can be used. If you do not want a character breakfast every day (buffets
every morning) you can apply the allocated dollar value towards a meal at
another restaurant. If you do not need a snack every day you can combine two
vouchers towards a more expensive sit down meal. The important thing to
remember if you are doing this is you cannot get change back from vouchers,
whether you are using one voucher or combining them. Also, the character and
premium character vouchers include tax and gratuity when used at the designated
locations, but if you use them at another restaurant they do not go towards the
gratuity.
If you work out the value of
each voucher included in each dining plan individually it totals the amount
that you are paying for your dining plan. Therefore, you are not necessarily
saving money by purchasing the dining plans, though you still could be. The
value of the character and premium character dining experiences is the cost of
the meal you would be getting, not including the tax and gratuity, but if used
for the designated dining it also includes these costs. Therefore, for a single
person for one meal that can be up to about $10.00 savings. Now if you use your
snack vouchers worth $5.00 for an ice cream worth like $4.00 you are not
getting money back so you are losing money there. This is one of the disadvantages, you have to
be so careful about your planning to make sure you are not losing money more
often then you are saving money. Another disadvantage is they are vouchers not
just a card, if a voucher gets lost or misplaced that voucher is gone; the
vouchers do say not to tear out before paying and they have the right to not
accept a voucher that is not still attached to the book so unless you lose the
book you shouldn’t have problems losing vouchers. Another disadvantage to some
people is that at some meals you will have to pay additional money, the $15.00
voucher does not cover a whole quick service meal as is defined in the Walt
Disney World Dining plan (entrée, drink, and dessert), so therefore if you want
a quick service meal including all of these items you would most likely have to
use some cash or a second voucher towards it. I personally had a soup in a
bread bowl and a fountain drink in a souvenir cup, it came out to like $18.50
or so, if I got my drink in a regular cup it would be far under the $15.00
value, but by taking the souvenir cup I had to use $3.50 cash towards the cost.
The last kind of disadvantage is that you are kind of committing yourself to
eating a certain number of meals (or at least spending a certain amount of
money on meals) either in the parks or at the hotels. The dining plan is not
accepted in Downtown Disney, and cannot be used towards World of Color or
Fantasmic Dining packages.
There are also a number of advantages to purchasing a dining plan.
You can buy options ranging from individual meals to a 5 day plans regardless
of how long you are staying. Many of the sit down restaurants on Disney
property require or recommend having priority seating, so committing to meals
at the time of purchasing a package encourages you to make all your necessary
dining reservations (or have your Travel Time Agent make reservations on your
behalf). Your meals are mainly paid for in advance, minimal budgeting for meals
is required during your vacation. Though eating off property is a feasible
option, and sometimes nice to get away from park food, chances are you will
still want some meals in the park, it is convenient, and there is a certain
magic to dining in the magic. Buying the dining plan should not cost you more
than you would spend on dining, in fact if you plan well it should still save
you some money, even if it is just $20-$30 a person, that is money you can
spend on souvenirs or on your next trip.
Knowing your family is a key to making the most of your Disneyland
dining package, knowing if they are picky or up to trying different things, if
they are light eaters that snack a lot, or like large infrequent meals, knowing
if your family likes to try different meals or if they are okay with repetition
all help make the best decision. Along with this, it is important to have
someone that knows Disney Dining, knows the restaurants in the parks and
surrounding the parks, and can help you to make the most of your dining plan,
whether that is using the dining vouchers or planning meals outside of the
parks.
Contact Melissa
Melissa@traveltimetravel.com
1-855-468-8896 Ext 128
