Is this too much food?

[ybeshsm77]

We are getting the dinning plan for free in January. But I am starting to think this is way too much food. I've read that even the counter service food can be too much to eat in one sitting. I'm am trying to plan what restuarants to eat at and what times but I do not know how we will eat all this food. I was thinking we eat breakfast as a counter service in the morning then we don't need to get the desert that would come with a lunch counter service. Then have snacks at the park and eat an early sit down dinner. Or split morning meals and lunch. Example I just get breakfast. Then share some of my daughters lunch as an example. She is four and wont eat all her food. Or we go to a sitdown that is 2 meal credits so we have one less sitdown meal during the week. Is this too much food?

Family's eating habits-

1. Me- 5'1" petite and 100 pounds- skip lunch most days. Always eat breakfast and dinner. Eat less than half what my husband eats.

2. My husband 5' 11" and 160 pounds. Eats way more than me. Skips breakfast a lot. Is slim.

3. Son is 8 years old. He eats as much and sometimes way more than me. I'll eat one piece of pizza. He eats 3 pieces. Slim kid.

4. 4 year old daughter. Sometimes eats well and other times picky. Is slim

I try to feed the kids healthy. No soda. Lots of fresh fruit snacks during the day. I do not want them to have junk food all the time as their snacks.

Thanks

-C

 

[kerri0616]

My boys are 15 and 12 now, so it's been a while since we had the kids' meal plan. From what I read on here, the kids meals at CS are lacking the quality of the adult meals. For instance, the chicken nuggets for the adults are quite a bit different than the kids' nuggets. Many CS meals come with fries, but you can substitute apples or grapes usually. So, if you are a light eater, you might share your adult meals with the kids and then everyone is happy. It is weird for us to have desserts after every meal. But, we manage to make it work . I'm not a big breakfast eater, but I often save a dessert or snack and eat that before going to the parks.

The DDP is quite a bit of food...especially for those of us who don't eat 3 sit downs each day at home. But we really enjoy "pre-paying" for our meals and then ordering anything we want for a week of our lives. We're always so careful with our budget the other 51 weeks each year.

Good luck!

Kerri

 

[laceemouse]

First of all, if it is free then who cares if you eat it all or not?
Second, let's say you split meals, eat off your daughter's plate for lunch, etc. Then, at the end of your trip you have unused meal credits. Again, it is free, but what have you gained by not using those credits?
My suggestion is to plan the meals for the experiences they will provide. Have some character meals, some food from around the world at Epcot, etc. Let everyone order what they feel like eating. If no one cleans their plate so what

Also, I think it is wrong to feel that all your kids are going to get at Disney is junk food. They have gotten a lot better in recent years offering fruit with the counter service options, etc. You could also book several buffets, that way she can eat what they offer adults.....salads, fruits, veggies, breads, etc. You can get milk or water instead of soda. Look at the menus and see what sounds good to you. Snacks can be fruits or popcorn or even a bottle of water.

My favorite snack is the frozen banana, you can get what you want!

 

[laceemouse]

Also, I am pretty sure NO ONE eats a dessert with both lunch and dinner at home. When our family goes out to eat at home we will often get one or two desserts to share, if we even get any dessert at all.

At Disney, with the free food, we just each order a different entree and a different dessert and then we share. That way we get to try lots of things. However, if you don't want dessert you don't have to order one.

The food quantities are a lot, just like any other restaurant. If you were paying for the dining plan then maybe you would have to crunch the numbers and see if it is worth it. But free is a good deal for most families.

Yes, you can eat some 2 credit meals. Most of them are excellent.

 

[sharonabe]

Is there a room discount offered during your stay? You might want to see what that discount would be and then decide if you can all eat where and what you want to eat for that amount of money. If not, then the "free" DDP would still be the way to go and just enjoy!

 

[WantToGoNow]

Trust me the kids CS meals would never feed any adult and a child in my family. Unless you guys eat practically nothing, it can't be done. Also you said your ds8 eats more than you - be advised that the kids CS meal probably won't be enough for him either. You could order your CS meal for him and buy a kids meal for yourself with his credit.

As for desserts, we never have them at home. At Disney we do - usually twice a day and throw in a snack too.

 

[havoc315]

"Too much food" is all in how you use it. It certainly can be too much food, and there are plenty of fattening unhealthy options.
If you did the Cosmic Rays chicken and ribs combo for lunch, then a big buffet dinner, with all the desserts and snacks, you would need to be rolled out of Disney World.
For someone like you, I would not recommend buying the dining plan --but as long as its free, it's possible to still eat well, somewhat nutritiously, without stuffing yourself.
Some basic strategies --
Just because it comes with dessert, you can still skip it. Or get fruit as the dessert. At cs locations, you can get a bottle of water as a dessert.
You could share plates - allowing you to do more table meals, or signature restaurants.
You can sometimes simply pay oop for yourself for just a salad or appetizer, and then using the credits more efficiently.
Skip the buffets and look at the menus. For example, the Wave is known for more organic and sustainable meals.
For example, if you did change your mind about lunch and use a cs credit, you could get salmon at Columbia Harbor House. Pecos Bill has a Caesar salad (not that healthy, I know), as well as a veggie burger and a chicken wrap.
Dinner, ts --The Wave has items like sustainable fish of the day, vegetable stew, and oven roasted chicken.
If 2 adults wanted to share at California Grill -- there are several fish options. Can always add a salad or appetizer oop. Or you could just get salad oop for yourself, and let your husband and kids share the entree. (plus kids meals, which you can also eat some of)

Having too much food is really only a problem if you can't walk away from it.

 

[brymolmom]

It is a lot of food - but we make the most of it.

There are 4 of us(me, dh, ds9 and dd8) and we rarely order 4 cs meals at a time. We split 3 of them and then get CS breakfasts a few days while we're there with the 'extra' credits.

We sometimes also use snacks as a 'meal' - again to use up snack credits and utilize some CS's for breakfasts. We'll do a muffin or other pastry from Main St bakery plus a fruit plus a drink as a meal.

We almost always do one or two 2 credit meals during our trip - so that we don't have a HUGE sit-down every single day. This past trip in August, we stayed 9 nights, had 2 two credit meals, and still had about 4 credits leftover on our last day.

We ended up getting a few bags of chips for the plane ride home with our last credits. Not a great use of them - but I'd rather that than to throw out a ton of food at each meal because no one finishes theirs or to overstuff ourselves.

 

[PrincessTiffany]

It is not too much food, if we are talking about the Basic/Plus DDP. In fact, we have done the Basic Plan numerous times and never, not one time, have any of the six of us said, "that was too much food."

We did do the Deluxe DDP one time and my husband and kids all said it was too much food.

 

[Cinderella2006]

I don't think it matters about size, i am 160 pounds but i cant eat big portions, more so in the heat. I did find the DDP too much food but we used the left over cs credits for sandwiches to take to the airport and left over snacks to buy gifts to take home.
My eldest son is going to be 8 on our next trip and he does a lot of exercise and works up a good appetite, he eats more than me so does my husband so i know someone will finish my meal
I also cannot eat too many desserts but you do get the option of fruit or water instead of dessert at most cs places.

Hope this has helped

 

[sukhakuli]

I think it's more about how often you eat, vs how much you eat. If you can't finish a meal, then don't finish it. but when will you need to eat again? I have kids, and they need 3 meals and 2 snacks a day. They eat very little during these meals and snacks, but they have to eat often. Do you eat once a day, or more than once a day?

 

[amym2]

We were on DDP with our 7 and 9 year olds last month and what we found worked best for us was to have the 9yo share our CS meals and use his credit for breakfast. One time DH and I shared a CS meal and used one of our credits for breakfast (one adult breakfast was plenty for the 4 of us). As others have said, CS dessert does not have to be dessert food- we were told that anything considered a snack could be used for dessert. So we'd get a muffin or fruit and eat it the next day for breakfast. Or we'd get a bottle of OJ to all share (I always carried little Dixie cups or you can ask for empty cups).

We typically did use all of our TS credits, because the kids meals were much better and the portions at places like Coral Reef and Tony's weren't huge. Even then the kids meals weren't large, so sometimes one of our kids would end up eating some of our food. The kids meal desserts usually include something like a yogurt parfait or even apples if you ask for it. We very rarely order dessert out at home, but for vacation we enjoyed splurging. Trust me, you'll walk it off!

 

[AmberHeartsDisney]

We had free 1QS 1TS and 1 snack per day and we thought it was a TON of food.

 

[chocovrdmicears]

A few things to consider.

1. You do a ton of walking at Disney and need to consume more food than you do at home. I NEVER eat breakfast at home...but on vacation I am always looking forward to breakfast. So even if you think you won't consume that much food, you might be surprised.

2. There are lots of healthy options for the kiddos on the Dining Plan - it will take a little planning but it most definately can be done. I recommend checking out the menus at Allearsnet.com to give you an idea of the specific offerings. We often use our snack credits for fresh fruit, pretzels, popcorn, veggies and dip..etc. As far as the meals go, all kids menus offer milk, juice or water and grapes, carrots or applesauce as a side.

We have done the Regular Dining Plan many times and have never found it to be too much food. We typically use a snack credit for breakfast (bagel, muffin, pastry or cereal) or pay OOP for breakfast at our resort, use our QS for lunch, then have a nice sit down dinner.

 

[Jen12573]

If you aren't really dessert people (I am, DH is not) most table service restaurants will give you a bowl of fresh fruit if you ask. 50s PTC gave us a beautiful fruit platter for two, to go as our dessert and we had it for breakfast the following morning (saving a meal credit by not having to get breakfast that morning.) DH has also had fresh berries and whipped cream at a few other TS places. At Cosmic Rays, instead of a dessert with our lunch we asked for yogurt, that cup of Yoplait was my lunch while DH had a burger. It's all what you choose. And personally for a light lunch I have been fine with paying OOP for a kids sandwich with carrots as my side. But you will eat more in WDW. For an idea how much you may walk daily, the trip report in my signature logged our walking on my pedometer. Anywhere from 4-7.5 miles per day.

 

[TwoAtDisney]

Perfect Solution - use your TS credits for lots of Signature dining! Then the CS credits should be about right for your group - 2 CS for breakfast; 2 CS for lunch.

Use the snack credits for boxed items to take home as souveniers, gifts, or to slowly eat at home as a fun reminder of your great trip!

Stay away from buffets.

Substitute fruit for dessert; juices or bottled water for drink.

Re: desserts - Many of them are very, very small - not difficult at all to eat, especially if 2 of you share one.

Make very good use of your room fridge - store the fruit, juices, desserts.

Also, take a look at some of the entrees in many of the Disney TS photos on this board. There are a whole lot of them that only cover the very center of the plate. In other words, you may not find many of the meals too filling.

As when dining at home, if a restaurant serves an entree that feeds a small nation, eat what you want/or what you think is best(!), & walk away. You are not responsible for eating it all just because of the restaurant's decision on quantity.

Enjoy your DDP.

 

[lcznc]

It was entirely too much food for our family. Even on vacation, we just don't eat like that. We never finished a meal and didn't feel good about the amount of food that was wasted. For us, we will skip free dining promotions in the future and stick with a room only discount. Just works better for our family. Hope you are able to find a balance that works for you all! Good luck!

 

[serene56]

I was thinking we eat breakfast as a counter service in the morning with a lunch counter service. Then have snacks at the park and eat an early sit down dinner. Thanks-C

Now I am a bit confuddled.

I thought the dining plan gives you ONE counter service and ONE sit down and ONE snack. (I guess it depends on where you stay too for the free dining)

 

[havoc315]

Now I am a bit confuddled.

I thought the dining plan gives you ONE counter service and ONE sit down and ONE snack. (I guess it depends on where you stay too for the free dining)

Not sure what OP meant, possibly sharing credits, possibly paying OOP.
But I think sometimes we don't just realize, it's easy and cheap enough to pay OOP for a CS breakfast. So often I see people saying/thinking, "should I upgrade to deluxe so that I can have breakfast?" Why pay $30+ for an upgrade, when a CS breakfasts costs about $6-9. (There are other reasons to upgrade to deluxe, but adding a CS breakfast wouldn't be the reason).

 

[Infamousmare]

We always upgrade to the DxDDP because we love some of the signature dining (2 TS credits) restaurants. Artist Point and the Brown Derby are must-haves on our ressie list. Now that Le Cellier is 2 TS credits for dinner, we have to add that in as a 2 credit meal possibility, too.

Of course, the kids love Cinderella's Castle for dinner, another 2 TS option (can't get a ressie this time, though). We always just grabbed cereal or oatmeal from the QS station at our hotel and used our snack credits to fill in the gaps between meals.

Next month, we're going to stay in a villa and instead of doing any b'fasts, I've placed an order through Disney's grocery delivery service for basic items (bananas, oatmeal/cereal, coffee, etc.) so that we can just eat before we hit the park and save those TS credits for lunches/dinners.

As for the amount of food, we've always done okay. We are active, fit people and tend to get up early to work out, go-go-go through the parks all morning, then splash around all afternoon in the pool, which makes us hungry when mealtimes roll around. We get our money's worth at each meal without totally going nuts - soup or salad for appetizer, entree and fruit or sorbet for dessert. Paying OOP gets expensive even this way, so for us it makes sense. We skip the buffets as much as possible, except for 1900 Park Fare so that we can see Mary Poppins.

The point is that the meal plan is not for everyone; however, for people who enjoy making ADRs and eating in nicer establishments at WDW, it's nice to just be able to have everything (except gratuity) covered ahead of time.