Beginning on May 31st 2015, the Disney Dining Plans saw many changes that were welcomed with open arms. These changes allowed guests to have more choices and healthier alternatives. Simple changes like substituting a snack or a bottled drink in place of a dessert is what makes taking advantage of the Disney Dining Plans more flexible and guest friendly. These changes should not go unnoticed and Disney should be applauded for enhancing the guest experience. But like all things there is room for improvement, and with so many positive changes I wanted to touch on a few problems that still remain with the Disney Dining Plans.
1) Entire hotel rooms shouldn’t all have to be on the Disney Dining Plan
When adding the Disney Dining Plan to a hotel reservation everyone on the reservation either has to have the Disney Dining Plan or nobody on the hotel reservation can have the Disney Dining Plan. This is not a problem for families who plan on eating with each other the entire vacation together, but for some guests visiting Walt Disney World this rule can cause complications.
If friends all plan on going to Walt Disney World together, splitting a room together can be a fun trip, but if even one person cannot afford the additional cost of the Disney Dining Plan that can prevent everyone else in the group from taking advantage. This limitation seems to lack a logical explanation. Just because one person decides to skip on the Dining Plan means Disney will lose everyone on that reservation. Even if there is a economical reason behind this rule it creates a bad guest experience, which Disney typically prides themselves on.
2) Allowing Non-Consecutive Dining Plan Days
If you are planning a multiple day vacation, but you are not planning on being in the parks every day, you might run into having to pay for extra meals. Unfortunately with the Dining Plan you have to pay for all consecutive days or none at all. This means if you planned a beach day or a day at Universal you will have to pay for your credits on those days even though you won’t be in the Disney parks. Yes, the credits do roll over, but why pay or 2 or more extra days of the Dining Plan. The way Disney has this priced certainly benefits them by keeping you on Disney property, but it also hurts the guest experience. Guest shouldn’t feel guilty for not staying on property when there is so much to enjoy in central Florida besides the Disney parks.
3) Eliminating the hassle of adding the Disney Dining Plan to an existing reservation
When booking a Disney hotel reservation be prepared to decide whether or not you and your party want the Disney Dining Plan. I say this because adding the Disney Dining Plan after you already have a reservation can be a huge pain.
Calling Disney to add the Disney Dining Plan means they have to book the entire reservation all over again. In my experience this caused problems with the MagicBands, and even worst of all it can take Disney up to 7 days to reimburse your bank with the original reservation. The problem with the MagicBands is that by changing our reservations our original MagicBands with fun colors were substituted for plain grey Magic Bands. Causing hassles is not the Disney way. I simply don’t understand why their system cannot have a non-hassle way of adding something to a reservation that will give them more money.
