Tell me your experience with the dining discounts

[kniquy]

We will be traveling with my in laws so will have a party of 7. Below i copied from the 2017 DVC discounts PDF - Both myself and my husband are members. So say i am paying for the meal will they really only give me the discount on 4 other members in my party. Does it matter that my husband is a member too but he wouldn't be paying?

Member dining discounts: Discount is off the regular price of food and non-alcoholic beverages, excluding tax and gratuity, and are valid for the Member and up to four Guests, unless otherwise noted.

I am trying to factor my options to see if it would make sense to get the DxDD for only one room (sharing credits with the entire group) of our trip an trying to figure if the AP and DVC discounts would be a better route


I have an AP too -- Does that have any limit on the number in your party for the discount?

 

[BillPA]

If they will not allow all 7, and I have never had a problem with our group typically 8 or 9. Just ask for 2 checks, 1 for you and 1 for your husband. I would NOT get any Dining plan as I don't see the cost savings, but it's you money. Have a great trip.

 

[Cyberc1978]

Remember that for 6 or more people gratuity of 18% is automatically added to the bill.

You could do the deluxe plan just for one room and share the credits. I would definitely do the math before adding the plan but it could be worth it as you get 3 credits pr person pr day and normally it’s way too much food but if you share it could be worthwhile.

 

[Matty B13]

The dinning plan makes since if you have a lot of kids as well, you can use the snack credits for some really nice things other than bottles of water and bananas.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

As mentioned, if nothing else, they could split the check and your husband pay for the other. They don't always require the one who present the card to be the one to pay though and they probably wouldn't restrict the number of people on it but if a CM did apply the criteria just split the check.

 

[Deb & Bill]

I know with TIW you only get up to ten guests. We had a total of eleven of us. One of our meals wasn't discounted.

 

[jmkjr72]

We never had issues with large groups never had to split the tab.
Now that it has been adult only trips we have been doing the deluxe plan
But you have to do the math to see if it works for you
2 trips ago we were ahead about 150 pp
The last trip was an even as my wife and I were ahead but my dad was behind (he has cancer issues and didn't make every meal and getting him to remember all his meals were paid was hard)

 

[YoSteph]

Our big family dinner (9 of us) was at T-Rex Cafe (DS). They offer a DVC discount and applied it to our entire bill. We were also able to pay with McCormick and Schmick gift cards we purchased at Costco.

 

[ScubaCat]

I know with TIW you only get up to ten guests. We had a total of eleven of us. One of our meals wasn't discounted.

You can get another TIW card for spouse/domestic partner for $50 that'll cover another 10 people. (not sure that's worth it for 11 total, obviously, but if you had 12 or 13+, probably....)

 

[IrishEye]

Always ask your server if the Annual Pass or DVC is a larger discount. This past week we had several restaurants offering 20% annual pass while DVC was 10%.