When can you use your first dining-plan meal?

[Mendelson]

Does it have to be after your first park admission? For instance, if you check in on Wed. but don't go to the parks until Thursday, can you use a dining plan meal Wed. night?

Likewise, how does it work for any given day? I thought I had read that it was tied to actual admission into a park (which makes sense, given that part of the design of tying it to length-of-stay is to keep you on property) but then I thought that that would preclude you from having breakfast at your resort (or any resort) with the plan, which didn't seem to make sense.

Thanks!

[mdhiggin]

We checked in at about 10:30 PM and headed straight to the food court with our KTTW and used a CS for dinner before we even unloaded the van. No park admission required, and it is based on per night stay. If you stay 9 nights, you get 9 of everything per person. We did a TS every day and two on one day since we were only there 8 days but in the room 9 nights. We check in at bedtime and the day we leave, we go without going to the parks.

[Polynesian Dweller]

You can start using it as soon as you check in. You get your credits based on the number of nights and you can use them anywhere that is on the plan. You are not limited to a number you can use per day. If you have 4 CS in a day then your total number will be reduced by 4. Once you use your total number of credits, then that's it.

They are not linked to park admission. The only thing about dining that is linked is if you have a reservation for a restaurant in a park you must also have a valid admission for that park for that day. In other words, an ADR does not get you into the park without a park ticket.

[Mendelson]

Thanks for the info!

I was worried that since we had five nights worth of plan but are only spending four days at the parks that we'd have to eat one of the days (pun intended). We'll just use a TS upon check in the first night, double up a TS for signature dining another night, and on our last day there use two CS meals. That will work out perfectly.