Newbie here: Can I pick an ADR to pay out of pocket and save the TS credit?

[murrr23]

Hi,

First time posting here and trying to find an answer to this. I am going Feb for 7 nights, using the Stay, Play and Dine package. I've made 7 ADR's, but two of them are Signatures. So I will run out of TS credits before the trip is over. I am wondering if I can choose to pay the Lunch or Breakfast ADR's out of pocket or do I have to use credits until they run out and pay the last two ADR's out of pocket? Sorry if this doesn't make sense, it's kinda hard to explain.

It will be myself, husband, DD4 and DS2. We enjoy going out when we can and are looking forward to eating some good meals! It's our first family trip to Disney and have no experience w/dining plans. These are our ADR's:

Day 1- arrival at night, no ADR
Day 2- CRT- dinner
Day 3- Hollywood & Vine- lunch
Day 4- O'Hana- dinner
Day 5- Le'Cellier- dinner
Day 6- Tusker House- lunch
Day 7- Crystal Palace- Breakfast
Be Our Guest- Dinner

I was able to get a BOG dinner reserv out of the blue the other day, so I 'm not sure if I should cancel the Crystal Palace breakfast.
Thanks for any input!

 

[GaBelle]

You can absolutely pay OOP for any meal while you are on the DDP. If your server asks if you're on the dining plan, just tell them if you want to use your credits or not.

I'm going to give some unsolicited advice here : we also do DxDDP and sometimes do a light breakfast using our snack credits. This "saves" an extra TS credit if we go to a sig dinner.

 

[danceintherain]

You definitely can. You just have to make sure they charge you correctly for the meal you choose should you be using your room charging privileges on your KTTW card.

Usually, you pick the one that will be the least expensive for paying out of pocket. Instead of canceling you Crystal Palace ADR, you could always just plan to eat light at the Be Our Guest dinner.

Alternatively, depending on what you're planning on ordering at Le Cellier, it may be a good choice for paying out of pocket, since it's two credits. For example, even if you plan on ordering the New York Strip, which at $44 is the most expensive thing on the menu, if you order water as your drink, and no dessert, then your 2 credits would only be worth $22 each, which is less than any of your buffet options.

Basically, it depends on which experience you value most and what is in your budget.

 

[Donald Fan 2005]

Yes you can pay out of pocket. When your waiter first greets you they ask if you are on the dining plan. You can just tell them no and you will get billed at the end of your meal. They use your resort card as means of deducting the DP credits so if you don't give them the card then the points wont be used. Hopefully, that made sense?!

I've never been to Crystal Palace so I cannot comment on if that ADR should be cancelled.

 

[figment_jii]

Also, you can mix OOP and credits at the same meal. Just tell the server who is using a credit and who is not and they'll split the bill for you. I've done this several times throughout WDW.

 

[thornton0511]

Also, you can mix OOP and credits at the same meal. Just tell the server who is using a credit and who is not and they'll split the bill for you. I've done this several times throughout WDW.

I had heard that with restaurants not directly owned by Disney, like Rainforest Cafe, T-Rex, etc that they had a rule against splitting up credits and oop. So if two adults want to use 2TS credits but pay OOP for the children and save their credits this was not allowed. Does anyone know if there is any truth to this? Sorry to ask a new question in this post, just reading and was curious.

 

[teesott]

We always pay one or two OOP since we have specific places we want to go and usually go over a sit down credit or two. I go through the menus and guestimate the cost of each and then pay OOP for the cheaper ones.