DL Meal Plan ?? About This Page:

[maggie101]

We are getting ready to book Disneyland for 12/5 through 12/9. Four adults, a 3 year old, a 2 year old and a 6 month old. I remember reading that the meal plan was not worth the $ at DL, that it wasn't the same as the ones we have gotten at DW. What I connot remember is why...can anyone enlighten me before we book our trip?

[Kynna]

It is a voucher system and you get an $ amount to spend on meals rather than a set meal at a savings with the exception of the character meals. We had used the meal plan once and it wasn't worth the hassle trying to make sure we spent the set amount at each location because you don't get change back. Go with out of pocket and see if you can get any discounts from D23, Disney visa, ect. Although food tends to be more expensive in California, there are a lot of great quick service options.

[TeddiBarra]

It is not entirely true that you can't save $ with the meal plan at DL, BUT it really isn't designed to save $. They trialed a key based system like the DDP in WDW but nothing has moved forward with that and that was at least a year and a half ago (maybe longer). I did the meal plan on a family trip once, I actually DO think it can be nice in a few situations. These are my thoughts on when it's a good idea for your family.

A) You want to pre-pay and stick to a budget. If you are booking and paying for your trip via WDTC and you are say using your Disney Visa- you can get nearly all of your meal costs paid ahead of time with that 6 month no interest payment fee. That works really good for some families.

B) Disney Visa, AAA, AP discounts can be used to pay for the food and still get the discounts. The vouchers are paper booklets with dollar amount values (except for the character dining vouchers which CAP at a certain $ but are otherwise good for most of the character dining options). So if any of the above were discounts you could use, you can still save a *little* bit and then count on paying with some cash/change to cover the difference.

C) I think we did the 4 day meal plan (it's been a long while, like 2006 since we did this) knowing there would be probably 1 or so meals not covered. I never "underspent" and lost $ that wasn't given back in change.

That said, I would really love to see the plan go to non paper vouchers. I was constantly scared of losing those things! What DOES happen if they get lost/stolen or destroyed (some water spilled on some of ours but they were still ok after they dried out). Having mild anxiety over losing hundreds of $$$ in these silly paper vouchers was the biggest drawback to me. Even if you don't save alot or any $ there still can be convenience in pre-paying (for my family it helps us NOT overspend, for example) PLUS if you have a Disney Visa or other credit card rewards program, you can put the earnings on the $400-$800 or however much, meal plan toward your other spending on your trip.

However, unlike the DDP there are not "participating vs NOT participating" restaurants. Everyone is participating (except the small non-permanent rolling snack carts and/or walking vendors, I THINK) so in that way, you can use them wherever you want (Maybe not Carthay? Not sure since that is new).

[w-steele]

Originally Posted by maggie101

We are getting ready to book Disneyland for 12/5 through 12/9. Four adults, a 3 year old, a 2 year old and a 6 month old. I remember reading that the meal plan was not worth the $ at DL, that it wasn't the same as the ones we have gotten at DW. What I connot remember is why...can anyone enlighten me before we book our trip?

You 'buy' coupons with set amounts on them, like $5.00, $10.00, etc. If you have a meal tab totalling $4.50, you would give them a $5.00 coupon and they would KEEP the difference. A $40.00 meal would require $45.00 minium in coupons, again, Disney would keep the difference. They DO NOT give change back. I think this is they wayof ensuring that tips would be made. As a long time Disneyland guest, I would say NOT to get involved with this system as it sucks. Besides, unlike the WDW plan, there is NO restraunt in the Anaheim Downtown Disney that takes these coupons, only those in both parks and all three hotels will take them. Again, NOT WORTH IT !

[PixieMichele]

I agree with all the posts above and want to echo the fact that the quick service dining options are much better in DL than WDW (in my opinion) and there is a lot of variety so you won't find yourself being stuck with chicken fingers every meal.
We just received our Disney Premier Visa info booklet in the mail today and there is a 10% discount on DL food for cardholders.