Content on blogs?

A recent chat post has me falling down a rabbit hole…a liner posted that they could not use dining credits to pay for meals for anyone not included on their resort reservation. While looking at this I found the following:

A Mom’s Panel post saying you can use credits for others:

https://disneyparksmomspanel.disney.go.com/question/disney-dining-plan-credits-used-registered-guest-meeting-334186/

A Touring Plan Post from May 2015 when it was included changes in the dining plan:

https://blog.touringplans.com/2015/05/29/changes-coming-to-the-disney-dining-plan-beginning-may-31/

A DFB Post from the same time with the same info:

During an exchange with the wdw tweeter account I received this comment:

We apologize for your continued disappointment and appreciate the additional information. While we understand these websites may be visited by many of our Guests, please know they are not affiliated with the Walt Disney World Resort. Although we are unable to control the information they provide, we do want to ensure all of our Cast Members are on the same page and providing accurate information. Once again, please be assured your concerns are being shared with the appropriate areas.

It seems as if they are inferring that Disney has no connection to the information included in these blog posts, although they all have the same information in them.

All of this leads to a question… where does the information come from? Does Disney release it as “press releases”.? Are any of the bloggers here? @len? @derekburgan, can you help?

Oh yeah, I am reading their response as, “we have no idea why Touring Plans printed that…”

What did they say about the Mom’s Panel answer?

I’m wondering if they didn’t perhaps announce that, and then somewhere along the line after their announcement they removed it? I mean, they don’t have to keep things on their website if they don’t want it there.

I still don’t think that is a loophole. I mean, you can buy all you want at a QS and then give the food to whomever, right? I don’t see what the issue is.

This was the first response:

Thank you for the additional information. We sincerely apologize for any frustration this has caused. Disney dining plan meals and snacks may not be redeemed for cash in whole or in part, sold separately, transferred or refunded. Regrettably, this includes transferring credits to cover a Table Service meal for an individual who is not listed on your Resort reservation. We apologize for the misinformation found on the Disney Parks Moms Panel, and want to assure you that we are taking steps to correct the information. We truly appreciate you bringing this to our attention.

I think they are incorrectly using the word “transferring” here.

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That is NOT transferring credits. Do you think they may have changed this internally when all their prices went up, but didn’t want to announce it?

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If it’s really true and they are not themselves misinformed (after all it’s just another cast member at the helm of the twitter account), I wonder if it’s related to the DDP loophole discussed often by BoM and similar?

Related: they did not reply to my tweet about disappearing FPP

I am curious if the liner said she was splitting the credits between two rooms, but then I realized they were trying to say that although every single blog had the same info regarding the three changes to the dining plan- it did not come from them…I think that position is what is really throwing me right now.

Perhaps BoM needs to stop talking about loopholes? I still maintain that buying meals for friends with your dining credits is NOT a loophole. It’s using your money to purchase a gift for someone else. It’s no different than using gift cards to purchase a Christmas present for someone.

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BoM learned about this from everyone that emailed them after they did a show about dining.

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In the response above, Dis twitter CM specifically said TS meals. I guess you can do what you want for QS.

This is particularly important to us for our next trip. Wonder how many people use such a loophole, anyway. Seems like too small of a number to care–to use this, you’d need to get DDDP, have more meals than you want to use, and have extra people not in your room to use them on to get a financial advantage. Seems like a very small problem. Guess I will follow this into 2019

We want that too! In a different dining related incident, this past Valentine’s Day at Jiko we were told that Tables in Wonderland was blocked out that day. Several other diners were told the same thing. They paid their non-discounted bills and left. I pulled out my cell phone and showed them the TiW website which showed that Valentine’s Day was very clearly not blocked out. I wound up being referred up the chain to the senior manager, who stuck to his guns and insisted that he had received a memo from corporate advising that the day was blocked out. So I told him that’s fine, please give me a copy of that memo because I’m going to find out why Disney advertises one thing to the public while advising cast members to do the opposite. About a half an hour later he returned behaving very sheepishly, apologizing and stating that there had apparently been a mistake. Great for me, but I didn’t see anybody scrambling to track down the diners they had already screwed over.

I’d bookmark the link to that post and show it to a manager if they give you any crap. And I would never settle for the word of just one or two sources. I’ve dealt with too many cast members who turned out to have no idea what they were talking about regarding a variety of different topics.

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In June we were able to use our DDP for everyone at our table. I don’t know if it has changed but at that time we were able.

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Just to further update, the OP on chat was later told by HS guest services that the CM at H&V was incorrect and they would be reminded that credits could be used to pay for other people’s meals.

So it’s as clear as mud…

I still want to know how they can say that reports of information they obviously released is not connected to them in any way?

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Simple if I tell you “blue” and you print “blue” fine but if you print “black” I can’t control your mistake. So if Disney says one thing and an outside source prints anything Disney is not responsible if they make a mistake.

The problem here is that the 20 sites and the TAs did not make a mistake. It is exactly the same info- everywhere. You will notice: sometimes the Parks Blog will make an announcement and all the media outlets report that info. But sometimes the info only goes to the outlets and TAs (like this time). Disney is claiming it is NOT their info.

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Whatever Disney’s stance on the policy (whether stated and/or what happens in practice), what’s to stop me from buying 2 meals for myself at a single sitting?

Also, looking at this 2015 plan PDF from Disney, it says:

You can redeem more than your allotted meals or snacks per night, as you wish, until your total number of meal snack entitlements is depleted

I don’t really see how they can police the more restrictive policy without causing themselves more headaches.

Also, this 2018 PDF doesn’t seem to have any info on such limitations:
dp2018

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I agree, but I am suspecting if when servers are scanning bands it is telling them how many people on the reservation, there may be something changing soon? I have a gut feeling someone tried to implement too soon?

I agree. But then they need to change their wording. I read transferring as between accounts, not paying for others at your table with your own account.

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Exactly. I think that is the problem. What if you get three for yourself and share? They do not prohibit sharing meals except at buffets or AYCTE settings. Will be challenging to stop without additional verbiage I would think? Also seems like they cannot change policies after you purchase something, although they are sure to put “experiences may change at any time without warning” on everything.

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