DVC- Polynesian resort

[Divaofdisney]

So I am staying with family in March 2020. Was wondering how the dining plan works as well as adding park tickets. Are we entitled to any discounts for either? If not I totally understand was just wondering. We are renting from a dear friend of ours who graciously offered their points to us. We are super excited.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Are we entitled to any discounts for either?

No. First, DVC members don't get either at a discount, but even if they did, renters do not get DVC perks even if staying on points.

 

[Brett Wyman]

If you do want the dining plan your friend has to purchase it for you as well as take care of any other member services items. So make sure you decide that in advance. You literally cant speak to DVC Member Services about your rental.

 

[SG131]

Tickets can be bought either directly through disney or through one of the reputable third party sites that sell tickets for a few dollars off. The dining plan is very complicated and a lot of times it's cheaper to pay out of pocket. Times its worth it is if you are planning mostly character meals, if you will have alcohol at every meal, if you will order steak at every meal anyway, or possibly if your kids are all 9 or under yet. You really have to price it out to see if it makes sense for your family based on how you would usually eat.

 

[Divaofdisney]

Okay thank you everyone! I just was not sure how it all worked. I appreciate the help. We are planning to do the dining plan because it just works well for our family and is so much less of a hassle than trying to figure out how much to budget for food. We can get tickets separate.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Okay thank you everyone! I just was not sure how it all worked. I appreciate the help. We are planning to do the dining plan because it just works well for our family and is so much less of a hassle than trying to figure out how much to budget for food. We can get tickets separate.

What some people have done to get themselves off the dining plan (so to speak) is to go ahead and budget the same amount and place it on gift cards that they use to pay for their food on the trip. I don't think I've ever seen someone come back and report they didn't have funds left on the gift cards although I guess it could happen. Usually they don't feel like their spending all their time trying to get the best value out of the dining plan either.

For tickets Undercovertourist.com is an authorized Disney ticket broker and there are others. You can go to mousesavers.com and sign up for their newsletter which will have a link to undercovertourist that will get you a couple more dollars off.

 

[Yinn]

We've gone several times and tracked our "carefree eating" while on the dining plan. After totaling all the receipts, the reality is that we JUST broke even. It was less than a $20 difference between what we paid for the dining plan and what we managed to eat. We could have spent more, but it would have required eating things off the menu that we didn't necessarily want but was priced high.

With that said, we still get the dining plan. What we also found was that we tried restaurants and snacks that we wouldn't have otherwise tried - especially during food & wine festival. $7 for ramen? No thank you. A snack credit? Sure. $28 per person for breakfast?!? No thanks, but a single credit - well it's Beauty and the Beast or Bounty Platter downstairs same "price" Be Our Guest it is! We'll spend 20 snack credits during our tour of food & wine (which also helps tremendously to break even). But once we finish all the restaurants, we'll probably stop getting the plan. There's definitely some good ones, and some that aren't worth it.