How Many TS Meals???

[Mate]

We are on the free dining DXDP in Sept. I am trying to decide how many TS meals to plan for each day 2 adults one 7 yr. old girl. I do not really care if we use all our credits or not. I want a good balance between park time and sit down eating (I thought character dining would give us entertainment and getting the meet and greet part in, relief from heat, and something other than fast foot).

Thanks for any suggestions. My ADR date is in a week.
Mate

 

[Disneyfan1977]

We are on the free dining DXDP in Sept. I am trying to decide how many TS meals to plan for each day 2 adults one 7 yr. old girl. I do not really care if we use all our credits or not. I want a good balance between park time and sit down eating (I thought character dining would give us entertainment and getting the meet and greet part in, relief from heat, and something other than fast foot).

Thanks for any suggestions. My ADR date is in a week.
Mate

Personally, I wouldn't give up any credits. There are so many great TS restaurants. My kids are 6 and 9 and their favorite places Tepon Edo in Epcot, and Chef Mickey's.

 

[mom2aredhead]

First of all, kudos to you for not getting caught up in using all your credits and getting the "best value". Using all of those credits is a pretty big time commitment, and if you look at that as the goal, you'll be doing nothing but eating all trip

Hoop Dee Doo, the Luau, Mickey's BBQ, and the signature restaurants are 2TS credits, so I'd think about booking a few of those...maybe do a character buffet for breakfast, a snack for lunch, then one of those at night for dinner.
Another day, have a TS breakfast and CS lunch and a TS dinner. I can't see doing 3 TS in one day - although I'm sure lots of people do it. And if your 7 yo is anything like my 5yo, eating is not really high on the priority list for them and you don't want to have to fight with them to stop what they're doing, skip a ride or leave a park just too eat.

 

[Mate]

Hi,
So you are in favor 2 to 3 TS meals a day for that age group child. I just don't want to have her wish later that we did not spend so much time eating as I hear that it is very time consuming, but we have never done it before so we are trying to find the right balance. We mostly got the DXDP as the regular plan did not seem to have enough TS and DX has too much.
Thanks for your response.

 

[Mate]

I posted on another forum board. And boy they did not like the TS 2x a day concept at all!! Many thought it was way to much for a 7 year old, but I look at it as a great way to start the day (seeing characters), getting to the park pretty early, taking a break at midday and enjoying a TS a dinner (heat relief also). Many thought I was trying to do way too much. So I am so confused as to how others use their dining plan and how many meals. We are not fast food people.

 

[mom2aredhead]

I posted on another forum board. And boy they did not like the TS 2x a day concept at all!! Many thought it was way to much for a 7 year old, but I look at it as a great way to start the day (seeing characters), getting to the park pretty early, taking a break at midday and enjoying a TS a dinner (heat relief also). Many thought I was trying to do way too much. So I am so confused as to how others use their dining plan and how many meals. We are not fast food people.

I would say that, planned right, 2TS/day is not too much as long as you are eating at times that allow you to have a good stretch of park time in between and you are not having to travel far to get to/from the restaurants.
Look at the park hours for the time you will be there, and decide which parks you will be in on which days. Then plan your meals around you being in those parks.

MK Day:
Chef Mickey's for an early breakfast at the Contemporary, walk over to MK, spend the day there, grab a CS lunch if you're hungry, then TS dinner at the Plaza, Tony's or Kona so you don't have to travel far.

Epcot Day:
Breakfast at Cape May Cafe, spend the day in the park, Dinner somewhere in World Showcase.

AK Day:
Breakfast at Tusker house, Dinner at Yak and Yeti or Boma at AKL (which I highly recommend)

HS Day:
CS Breakfast at your resort, dinner at Brown Derby (2TS Credits)

We are more "eat to live" people than "live to eat" people, so we get DDP and make it work for us, but our ADR's are primarily out of convenience to what our activity will be for that day. As long as you try not to do too much traveling just to eat, I think it would be OK. Maybe not 2TS every day, but if you do it say 4 out of the 7 days and you schedule in some of the 2TS credit things (like the shows) you won't feel like you are "wasting" credits or running around just to eat.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

How about just the regular DDP. We do the basic one and it works perfect for us.

 

[SignMeUp]

We had the DxDDP on our recent trip and for me, dh and our 2 boys (7 & 5) it was great. We did get tired of dessert with every meal by the end, but you can just choose not to order it.

Most days we did a breakfast or early lunch and then dinner at a signature restaurant. We took into account which parks/activities we were going to do each day and planned our ADRs for nearby restaurants.