I am trying to recall if, when I was on the DDP in previous visits, I received a receipt for the meal. Of course, under the old plan everything was taken care of (exc. alcoholic drinks) and I didn't have to worry about figuring the tip.

Now, during my next trip I will be using the Deluxe DDP but will still be liable for the gratuity. I know that the FL tax is 6 1/2 %. Back here in CT, the tax is 6% which makes it simple to figure out the tip (just multiply the tax by 3---assuming the service warrants a tip).

Can someone tell me if a bill is given to the diner for what the dining plan paid for which includes the tip? If I know what the tip is, it would be easy to figure out the gratuity. However, if no bill is presented, can I ask the server what the tax was?

How have others solved this problem?

If you let them know you're on the DP before you order, the receipt will come all zeroed out. Then again my last trip was in Sep, and I was on the "old" DP, where the tip was included.

I usually just do the math in my head (which is odd considering I hate math), but you could always use the calculator on your cell phone I suppose. Whatever works for you.

But yeah, to answer your question, the tax was not shown on the receipt for my DP meals.

To make things even more difficult Chuck, the sales tax changes depending on where on property you are. While Florida as a whole has a sales tax of 6%, each county adds a different sales surtax effectively raising the sales tax. So you can be in one park and pay six and half percent on lunch and pay seven percent in another park at dinner. (WDW sits in two different counties.) I'm not sure which parks or resorts are in which counties, but you pay 7% in Osceola and 6.5% in Orange.

I almost think that even if it doesn't include the tax, it will include 'numbers' because they can NOT expect people to add up all their meal components (for everyone at the table) and then compute the tip off of that from memory.

I grew up in Oregon, so never learned the 'do something to tax' method of tip calculation. So for 15%, I move the decimal place one - 'store' that number - half it, and add the half to the 'stored' number. For 20%, move the decimal place one and double. Then tip around those numbers.

When we were in WDW in October we received the zeroed out bill and the real bill with the total it would have been for each sit down resturant.

Can someone tell me if a bill is given to the diner for what the dining plan paid for which includes the tip? If I know what the tip is, it would be easy to figure out the gratuity. However, if no bill is presented, can I ask the server what the tax was?

How have others solved this problem?

Of course, I meant tax when I said tip.:p

I know this has been covered elsewhere, but I just gotta say that this new situation of having to handle the tip on a pre-paid dinner really cheeses me off! It's such a negative at the end of a paid meal to have to sit and calculate how much to pay. It was hard enough under the old system if you also had alcoholic bevereges with your meal. Now you just about need to use a calculator to balance it all out. I understand the whys of it, but a pre-paid package should be a pre-paid package, paying for all charges including tip (minus alcohol, of course). I was borderline before on the package, and now there's now question that I won't be using it anytime soon.

Okay just gotta chime in here. We were at the World Jan 1-8 on the new plan and you do receive a 0'd out bill but also receive a itemized bill with tax noted. Most of the bills we received also had a little note telling us that the tip is not included in the plan and it gave the "suggested tips" after that. It only offered 18% and 20% given to the penny. This was true even at buffets and I always thought that the suggested tip at a buffet was less than at a table service meal. If you had an app or alcohol that total alone was at the bottom of the receipt with the space for the tip you decide to give beneath it and a space for your total. I will say there were a lot of kinks in the system. Not one person could ring us up on the new plan, they couldn't find TS credits on our account although CS and snack credits were never any problem. We waited no less than 30 minutes every night for the manager to find a way to ring us up. At Crystal Palace we waited almost an hour during extra magic hours to be able to leave. I never let it upset me because I knew we checked in the very first day of the new plan but I can't say the same for the wait staff that we encountered. They seemed very frustrated with the new plan. All that being said I did keep every reciept and calculated for our family of 5 we saved about $240 so I will use the plan again. I just hope it will all be ironed out before our next trip.

Sorry to be an ignorant englishwoman, but what does the tax have to do with the tip? I thought it was just the tip that isn't included in the dining plan any more?

Sorry again - i've booked the dining plan for the trip in august and want to know what else i'll have to pay!

Thanks for help :)

The tax in this situation is used to figure out the tip. If the tax is 6% then you can multiply the tax by 3 to come up with the 18% tip.

I was kinda confused by that too, as I never use the tax to figure the tip. I travel a lot, and the tax is significantly different from state to state or even county to county. I just look at the total (45.90), move the decimal point to the left (4.59), double it (9.18), and then round it up or down depending on service. I might even bump it up or down a buck or 2 depending on the service. It doesn't have to be an exact science.

The tax in this situation is used to figure out the tip. If the tax is 6% then you can multiply the tax by 3 to come up with the 18% tip.

As I wrote above, that is the system I use. One other advantage is that by using the tax to figure the tip and not using the total cost (moving the decimal, etc.) you avoid giving a tip on the tax and you are tipping the service alone.:geek:

But most places in Texas the tax is around 8%. Kinda screws up that way of figuring, doesn't it?

I figure tip the same way you do Dan. It seems much easier to me to move the decimal point and go from there. Although I am quite the generous tipper and usually will round up the figure ($45.90) to $46 to come up with a tip of $9.20 and then round the that to $9 or $10 depending on the service. I don't deal with pocket change and it usually works in their favor.
Oh and Chuck I knew what you were saying, I was just clarifying it for witch91.

On the new Disney Dining Plan is the tip not automatically 18%? I thought i read in the t&c's this was so.

On the new Disney Dining Plan is the tip not automatically 18%? I thought i read in the t&c's this was so.

No, on the 2008 plan the tip is not included. Except, I'm not sure if the UK plan is the same. (Since you say mum in your sig, that was my clue that you might be from the UK!)

To add to that, if you use the Disney Dining Experience (DDE), a discount card that gives annual passholders and local residents 20% off of all dining, the 18% is now automatically added to those tickets. So as a DDE user, I now have to calculate not just the tip, but the tip on the NON-discounted total, if they ever give that to you. Sigh. . . Just too complicated for vacation!

...We were at the World Jan 1-8 on the new plan ...


I had a question on the new DDP for 2008. We are booking our 2008 package and I was wondering if the child and adult Counter Service (CS) meals are still pooled together and undistinguishable in 2008 or are the adult and kid CS meals separated out on. I know there was talk of having the CS adult and kid meals separated out like the table service meals have always been; however, as of last summer during our trip that was still not the case and all CS meals were pooled together.

I had a question on the new DDP for 2008. We are booking our 2008 package and I was wondering if the child and adult Counter Service (CS) meals are still pooled together and undistinguishable in 2008 or are the adult and kid CS meals separated out on. I know there was talk of having the CS adult and kid meals separated out like the table service meals have always been; however, as of last summer during our trip that was still not the case and all CS meals were pooled together.

I don't know exactly what the official rule on this is but we (3 Adults, 2 children) were at Typhoon Lagoon and it was the only time where we wanted to order 4 adult meals and 1 child meal because my son, 9, really wanted a bacon cheese burger which was only on the adult menu. The CM that was ringing us up said on the new plan the computer does not distinguish between adult and child credits, however, the computer only lets you order the number of adult meals that are on your room reservation. We had 3 adults and 2 children so they would only let us order 3 adult meals. We had quite a few adult CS credits left and I know they say that you can spend them in any order that you want until you run out of credits so I really put up a fight, then asked for a manager before they finally did it for me. As far as I was concerned I paid for all of those adult credits and if I want to give one to my son I should be able to. Now I don't know if this is only a problem when you are ordering more than your reservation amount of adults at one time. I wonder if I had just sent my husband over to the next lane if he would have had a problem using one adult CS credit all by itself or if the computers are keeping track of all your orders throughout the day. That would go against the stated rules of being able to spend as many credits in whatever order you like until you run out. Maybe someone else has experienced this on the 2008 plan and can jump in here. I think that they are really trying to control kids ordering from the adult menu in a really strange and unorganized way.

I wonder if I had just sent my husband over to the next lane if he would have had a problem using one adult CS credit all by itself or if the computers are keeping track of all your orders throughout the day. ..... I think that they are really trying to control kids ordering from the adult menu in a really strange and unorganized way.
Based on what you said, I think the solution of getting in two lines would have worked. And yes, it sure seems like an awkward way of making kids order off the kids counter service menus!

Sorry but if you ask me this whole thing sounds to complicated for my pea size brain. I would rather have it the old way. I have never recieved bad service but on the chance I did I do not think I should be forced to tip 18 percent, so far I haven't read anything that positive about it. Don't mean to sound negative just trying to look at the whole picture.I have read countless questions about this plan ,so I know I am not the only one confused . Looks like Disney would have come up with somthing a little less complicated.