Do the DP Credits HAVE to be Pooled?

[Wendy31]

This may be a silly question...

DH & I are considering the idea of taking our church youth group (DH is the youth group director) to WDW for "Night of Joy" in September.

I was thinking it would be just as inexpensive for us all to stay in one of the All Star resorts & get the dining plan.

Here are my "wouldn't it be neat if we could" plans - -

Friday - Drive to WDW, check-in to All Star resort around 11:00 pm

Sat - Eat breakfast at All Star food court (1 CS meal), tour MK, eat CS for lunch (2 CS meal), eat at LTT for dinner (1 TS meal), & then stay for Night of Joy

Sun - Eat breakfast at Chef Mickey's (2 TS meal)

However, if all the credits are pooled, then, theoretically, each teenager on his/her "key to the world" card would have access to all the dining credits. As an example, if we had 20 total people in our group, then each teenager would have 40 CS meals, 40 TS meals, & 40 snacks on his/her card, right?

And I see problems w/ that - especially the snack credits - unless we all stay together as a group all day long so I can monitor the use of the credits.

And I'm not saying that our kids would intentionally misuse the credits, but, since they're not familiar w/ how the dining plan works, I see instances of Joe trying to order something at lunch or for a snack & the CM telling him that he'd have to use two credits for that (like a bag of popcorn & coke), and Joe saying, "Oh, okay". And, then, Sally, later in the day, not having enough credits. Or worst case scenario, we're at dinner at LTT, and, suddenly, we don't have enough TS credits for the meal.

So, is there a way for each person to only have on his/her card, the amount of credits for him/her - Each person would only have 2 TS, 2 CS, 2 snack credits?

This would be a nightmare for the CM's at TS meals, wouldn't it - having to run 20 cards through for one meal...

Has anyone taken a group of kids to WDW & used the dining plan? How did it work?

Thanks!!

 

[Lewisc]

I'm not even sure you can buy MYW Dining when you get a group rate for your hotel rooms. Disney has other meal options available for groups, call.

 

[dworbust]

I am not sure of the answer to your original question.....since I am also new myself. But I am planning our upcoming family trip (23 of us) in April. We have the dining plan. The points are tied to the room ( I think). So, if 4 people are in a room they wouldn't have access to all of the points, just the room they are in. Does that make sense? In our case we have 6 rooms. I don't want the smaller kids to have access to everyones points. I figure that with some coaching the older kids will understand how it works. ~Susan

 

[Letsbgoofy]

I think you have to have a 3 night stay for the package?? Or was that just the free dining I'm thinking about?

Either way, they do have special meal plans for large groups that include vouchers for meals. We didn't get a discount on the rooms, but we did get discounted park passes and the meal vouchers were a great way to make sure all the kids ate every day and didn't spend their money on other things. (trip to WDW with HS band)

 

[HaleyB]

The DP credits are pooled by room. So if there are four people in a room their credits would get pooled together. You must have an adult in each room. The keys do not have to have access to the DP credits (or room charge ability) so you could have the adult from each room in charge of thet groups credits and not allow any sort of chargeing (cash or DP credits) on the other cards.

However you may be better off with group rates and meal vouchers. Less expensive and much easier to control.

 

[jloz]

DDP credits can be divided however you like. We had a group of 4 adults and 2 children in Feb. My husband and I requested the credits for 2A and 2C on our cards (kids didn't have dining plan or charging priviledges on theirs). My mom had her credits on her key to world and same with my SIL. When making reservations, make arrangements for the group as you need them. They can also handle distribution at check-in. The DDP credits are linked to each name and can be divided as such.

FYI, Chef Mickeys is not signature dining. It is only 1 credit.