Disney Dining Plans: Part 1

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By Travel Time Agent Melissa
Melissa@traveltimetravel.com 

Ever heard people talking about the Disney Dining Plans and wondered what they were, what they include, or whether or not they are worth it? Disney Dining Plans are offered at both parks, Walt Disney World in Florida, and Disneyland in California. Even though both parks offer a dining plan, the two work very differently, and come with their own unique advantages and disadvantages, and deciding if you should add a dining plan to your package depends on a number of things. Some things to talk about with your travel agent include which park you are going to, what kind of dining you are planning on doing, how you like to budget for your vacation, among a number of other things that will be broken down throughout this blog series on the Disney Dining Plans. 

So now that we have started thinking about the Disney Dining plans, let us take a closer look at the Walt Disney World Dining plan. Though Disney World is a much larger park, I find that the dining plan here is much easier to understand and to make a decision on then the dining plan in California. For the Florida dining plan, we are going to look at customization, pricing, disadvantages and advantages.

The dining plan in Florida in my opinion is a little less customizable. When you decide you want to add a dining plan to your Magic Your Way package you are deciding to have the dining plan for each night of your stay, this is important to keep in mind and consider. Say you are flying in early in the morning and flying out late in the day 6 nights later, you would then have 6 days of dining plan and 7 days in the park, so you have to remember to budget for that one days meals. On the other side of that consider the possibility that you are staying at Disney for 8 nights but spending 2 days at Universal and 6 days at Disney, you would have 8 days of dining to use in 6 days at the park, there are ways to use all of your dining experiences but it is important to plan for this. The customizations that are available for the dining package is what level of dining package you want. Disney World has 3 different levels of dining packages, Quick Service, Full Service, and Deluxe Dining.

The quick service-dining plan includes 2 quick service meals, 1 snack per person per night of stay and 1 resort refillable mug per person for length of stay. The Full service-dining plan includes 1 full service meal, 1 quick service meal per person per night of stay and 1 resort refillable mug per person for length of stay. The deluxe dining plan includes 3 meals and 2 snacks per person per night of stay and 1 resort refillable mug per person for length of stay. So now, what is each of these? A snack can be anything from the ice cream novelties, individual sized popcorn, a bottled beverage or 22oz fountain drink, most things that are sold at the carts throughout the parks and can be eaten while strolling through the park or in line. A quick service meal is anything from those more fast food type restaurants, both in the hotels and in the parks. For breakfast, it includes 1 entrée or 1 combo meal and 1 drink. This could be a waffle and chocolate milk at the hotel before hitting the parks, or for lunch and dinner, it includes 1 entrée or 1 combo meal, 1 dessert and 1 drink, so this could be burger and fries with a soda and a cookie for dessert in the park for lunch, or a number of other options. And a full service meal is a meal at the sit down restaurants, it includes either 1 full buffet or 1 appetizer, 1 entrée, 1 dessert and 1 drink per person for lunch and dinner or 1 entrée and 1 drink per person for breakfast (no alcoholic beverages are included with any of the dining plan options. The resort refillable mug is a travel mug that is designed to hold hot or cold drinks that can be refilled free of charge at the hotel quick service restaurant for the entire length of stay. We will look at some meal options at the end.

	Quick Service	Full Service	Deluxe
Quick Meal	2/ night	1/ night	3/ night, choice of either option for all
Full Meal	0/ night	1/ night
Snacks	1/ night	1/ night	1/ night
Resort Refillable Mug	1	1	1

So, now that we know what the dining plan includes, the next thing to consider is what does it cost? This also depends on a number of things, which dining plan option you choose, the length of your trip, and the time of you are traveling all contribute to the cost per day of the dining plan. In the last couple of years, Disneyworld has offered a number of different specials for booking vacation packages that include dining, this could be anything from a selected dollar amount off your entire vacation package, to free dining included with the purchase of a package. Let us look at an example of comparing the price, for this Christmas to book a 6-night 7-day package for 2 adults staying at the Caribbean Beach Resort with a base ticket for all 7 days (December 24-30, 2013).

	No Dining Plan	Quick Service Dining Plan	Full Service Dining Plan	Deluxe Dining Plan
Price per person	$1184.41	$1422.25	$1536.37	$1814.05
Price per day for meal plan	Pay throughout vacation	$39.64	$58.66	$104.94

For pricing, it is important to remember that if your dates are flexible there may be special offers around the same travel dates, and a travel agent may be able to help you pick travel dates with these special offers or may know what times of year tend to have special offers offered.

With the Disney World dining plan, I do not find that there are many disadvantages to purchasing it. It does require that payment for food is completed upon your vacation package payment deadline, dining options are more set with a dining package then without, and as noted above the number of nights you are staying may not match up with the number of days in the park.

For each of the above disadvantages there is another side. You do have to prepay for your dining plan however, this alleviates the need to budget for food while you are on vacation, and your spending money is truly just spending money. Most of the full service restaurants require a reservation to eat at them, especially at peak times. By purchasing a dining plan, you already know how many sit down meals you are going to have so you do not have to stress about how many reservations you are committing to or what the final bill will come to, you already know all of that. If you are staying for say, a 6 night 7 day package you only have 6 days’ worth of dining pre-paid for, but this means that for the equivalent of 1 day you can eat at places that do not accept the dining plan, though most restaurants on property do accept the dining plan there are exceptions each year. On the flip side if you have more than enough dining included for your trip, say you are visiting other attractions of property for some of your days, there are ways you can still use all of your meal allotments. You can have breakfast at your resort before going off property, or a late night pizza at your room when you can get back. There are also some dining experiences that use two full service dining allotments for one meal, Cinderella’s Royal Table, so on one day if you want a reservation here you could use two full service allotments. Eating off property at Disney World during days that you are in the park is difficult to say the least, if you are staying on property, and spending the day on property you will most likely also be eating on property, either at the park, or at the hotel. This leads to what is possibly the biggest advantage, and biggest deciding factor, is though it may seem like a large extra expense upfront to begin with purchasing a dining plan, and especially the right dining plan for you could save a lot of money in the long run. 

Check back for more information on Disney Dining Plans: Part 2- Disneyland. 

 Contact Melissa

Melissa@traveltimetravel.com

1-855-468-8896 Ext 128

 

History of Club 33

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Club 33

For those of you who are familiar with Disneyland you undoubtedly are aware of Club 33. For those who are not acquainted, allow me to tell you a but about it.

For years, Walt had imagined a place where he could entertain visiting dignitaries and other VIP's away from the hustle and bustle of the park. A place with an impeccable menu and a uniquely eclectic decor. Walt and his wife, Lillian, traveled frequently to New Orleans, Louisiana and had selected many of the antiques that are still on display today.

On June 15, 1967, Club 33 became a reality. Sadly, Walt would not see his dream come to fruition to his untimely passing six months earlier. Club 33, so names because of the address, 33 Royal Street, is a very exclusive, members only spot nestled about New Orleans

Carnival Cruise Line Faster to the Fun…the Good, the Bad, and the Mediocre

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Carnival Cruise Line Faster to the Fun…the Good, the Bad, and the Mediocre
By Lucy Wolfe, Travel Time Travel

I love reading cruise forums, and before purchasing the Faster to the Fun option, I did my homework. For $49.95, everyone in your cabin gets to enjoy priority boarding, priority tendering in ports that have tenders, priority access to guest services and a special phone number, and priority debarkation. Your cabin is supposed to be ready upon your embarkation, and your luggage will be delivered earlier. Since I am a planner and crowd phobic to boot, Faster to the Fun seemed like a wonderful choice for me, even though we just booked a last minute short three day cruise. I was happy to see the option was still available for my cruise, as they sell very limited numbers of the perk.

Theoretically, boarding went: wedding parties first, then Platinum/Diamond cruisers, then Faster to the Fun.

For the second time, I was going to cruise the Inspiration out of Long Beach, California on its three day, one stop to Ensenada itinerary. The first time, debarkation was what I will describe was hell on earth, so I was especially excited to try out that perk. Before departure, I printed out our boarding pass, and there was a little symbol representing the Faster to the Fun option on the boarding pass.
      
The morning of embarkation, we were early checking in (around 10 AM) since we stayed at the Queen Mary hotel the evening prior and it is right next door to the port. Although there was no line, a Carnival employee physically opened one of the ropes and let us in quickly after seeing our Faster to the Fun mark. Check in was smooth, and the three of us each received cute little round stickers on the back of our Sail and Sign cards that clearly marked us as Faster to the Fun participants. We were handed a Priority Boarding card.

We then walked to where the luggage drop off was marked…and we made sure to inform the porter that we had Faster to the Fun. As we tipped him, he assured us it would go in the priority area and get to our room quickly.

We had some time to kill so we explored the Queen Mary shops. We returned to the boarding area and sat down in the Priority area. At this port, there was no distinguishing between Faster to the Fun participants and Platinum/Diamond cruisers…at some ports, there is. There were a few wedding parties that boarded…then we sat for a while…then they let Priority in, all together. Once inside the dome though, before you reach the “welcome onboard” photography area, we were stopped…and boy did we stop. We stopped for a while. They apologized and handed us letters stating a crane was in operation. I was wondering why they even let us in the dome…to just stand there. Then they started filling up the rope lines next to us. I asked an employee about the order of boarding…she stated they were Zone 1 and would go after us. Okay…at this point, I was not certain Faster to the Fun was a benefit…we’ll see.

We finally were let through after 12 PM, and they did indeed let our line go first. My Mom and daughter (age 19) went to the buffet while I took our items to our cabin; I wanted to see if it was ready. I went towards the elevator and the employee directing people told me cabins weren’t ready until after 1. I said I had Faster to the Fun…he repeated his statement…I said, “But I have Faster to the Fun!” He then said okay and let me on the elevator. The big dark doors were closed to our hallway, but I opened them and walked to our cabin. Room stewards were smiling at me and no one stopped me. The doors were open on either side of my cabin, but mine was closed and ready. No sign of luggage yet. There was a Faster to the Fun welcome letter identifying our benefits on the bed.
After the buffet, we returned to the cabin…no luggage. Disappointing, as we wanted to swim. Back up to the Lido, we partook in a plethora of drinks, then headed back to our cabin. Our luggage was outside our door…but so was everyone else’s. Not exactly faster to the pool time for us.
Later, we had to add money to our Sail and Sign cards. My mom used a kiosk and pointed me in that direction, but I wanted to try out my special line benefit, and boy was that fun…there was a long line. I sailed right up to the “special” Platinum/Diamond and Faster to the Fun line, and immediately an employee left the regular desk and came to me. Okay, so that was awesome.

Ensenada is not a tender port, so we did not experience that perk, but we walked right off the ship anyway. I would imagine that is a HUGE benefit, so I’m going to give that a thumbs up even though I didn’t try it out myself.
A few more times I used the guest services line, and it was wonderful. Once I called the “special” phone number and that was pretty useless, they just told us to come to the desk anyway. My mom made a special trip there to compliment our dining room service team, and while she was there a staff member quizzed her about how she liked Faster to the Fun. She said it was okay…that our luggage wasn’t early so she wasn’t sure if it was that big of a benefit. The reply was it was a new program and they were working out the quirks.

Interestingly, the next day we got a phone call in the cabin from the same woman, asking me about Faster to the Fun and whether or now our luggage had orange tags on them, because she was trying to find out why they were “late”. I told her yes, and we clearly identified them to the porter…she apologized and I told her we were not upset, and thanked her for calling.
We received a letter describing Faster to the Fun debarkation options.

Self assist (carrying off your own luggage) was to meet in the Paris lounge at 7 AM, while normal debarkation was to meet at 8:30 in the same place. There were only about 25 people in that lounge, and it was a mix of Platinum/Diamond and Faster to the Fun.

When the employee came in and told us the process, he did reiterate that we all had to belong to one of those groups, and to follow him. At 7:12, we headed out, walked the Atrium staircase down…and I saw the hell that I participated in back in March on my last Inspiration cruise. Self assist debarkers wound all through the 7th deck. They were already starting to be let off, through one check out station. We were led to a second one. As we lined up they started letting us off immediately. One man stepped out of the other line and stepped in front of me, trying to hand his card to a crew member…the crew member firmly told him that line was not “open” and he needed to go back to the other one. We walked off…short wait through customs, and at 7:19, I was outside. My mom and my daughter reported easy debarkation at their later time.

My final judgment is that it is indeed worth it. Despite not getting our luggage early, and despite not experiencing priority tender, Faster to the Fun is something I will definitely purchase in the future.