knowing when to "plan" vs. "oop"

[squirrel922]

So we're leaving in a few weeks and I'm trying to plan these meals. I downloaded that planner which counts your TS meals and your CS meals. It's good but I'm still confused. Here are the things I'm thinking about that are stressing me out about this plan

• sometimes I'll just need to order 2 adult CS meals because there'll be enough food to share with my kids (who don't eat much). Then I'll have extra CS to use somewhere else. But where because it'll be a kids CS?
• should I use my (adult or kids) CS for breakfast or lunches. I'm a bigger breakfast eater than lunch eater?
• since I don't have enough TS to last for all the TS we made, which should I pay OOP for?
• should I pay OOP for 1 adult lunch for my 2 kids rather than use their 2 kids CS for 2 lunches that they may not eat and that the variety isn't very good anyway now that they changed the menus? Is 1 CS kids meal enough food for 2 kids that eat moderately?
• what else should I pay OOP for that would be better to use elsewhere on the plan?
• we're there for 7 dinners so we will need to pay OOP for dinner twice, maybe one TS and one CS, which takes away a CS for lunch one day
• is there a better way than another to use the snacks credit?

I know, I'm cracking up and stressing out about this meal plan. I know I probably shouldn't but I am. Just trying to make it work and get the most out of what I'm paying for.

We're there for 8 days (Sat-Sat)/7 nights so I believe if I understand this right, we get 14 adult TS, 14 kids TS, 14 adult CS, 14 kids CS. Here's where we're eating:

TS: (7 TS p/p and we have 8 TS restaurants so we have to pay OOP one night at either Le Cellier or 50's Prime Time since they are not buffet.)
Le Cellier (Sun. dinner)
Boma (Mon. dinner)
Ohana (Tues. dinner)
Liberty Tree (Wed. dinner)
Hoop De Doo (2 TS) (Thurs. dinner)
Chef Mickeys (Fri. breakfast)
50's Prime Time (Fri. dinner)

CS: (I'm figuring this for 7 lunches and 1 dinner which we would need 8 places - with 7 credits)
Columbia Harbor House (Sat. dinner)
Cosmic Rays (Sun. lunch)
Sunshine Seasons (Mon. lunch)
Tusker House or FlameTree BBQ (Tues. lunch)
Pecos Bills (Wed. lunch)
? CS (Thurs. lunch)
Pizza Planet or Backlot Express (Fri. lunch)
? CS (Sat. lunch)

Thank you if you've read this far. I swear I'm not crazy.
If anyone can look at this and help me destress that would be great. I've been looking at this and thinking about this for so long that maybe a fresh pair of eyes would help

 

[bicker]

Ack! I think you're trying too hard!

This is supposed to be vacation; I would try to make it so you don't have to work so hard. The essential question you need answered is which TS to pay OOP. I believe the correct answer is Chef Mickey's for breakfast. Just pay OOP for that and you'll be set.

I suggest you just use your CS credits until they're all gone. I think it would be overly annoying to have to keep track of the CS credits to avoid this, so my recommendation is just bite the bullet and order child meals as you wish, just keeping in mind that any you "store up" might end up unused in the end.

 

[squirrel922]

Ack! I think you're trying too hard!

LOL....YA THINK???

I know... I just overly think things through and I've never done the DDP before.

Just curious, why would you pay OOP for Chef Mickeys? 50's Prime Time seems a bit cheaper.

 

[thunderbird1]

I initially started doing the same kind of over-obsessive planning on our last trip, until it began to suck all the fun out of the vacation planning. I went through menus and tried to calculate what we'd order at each TS restaurant to figure out which one to pay for OOP. When I started showing my family menus and grilling them about what they would order, the look on their faces was the reality check I needed.

But my dh still drove the point home by saying "let's just use our credits until they're gone, and then we'll pay OOP for anything that's left. So what if costs us a few dollars more?" And he was right. So that's what we did. We had the same family makeup as yours--2A/2C--and we ordered whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted. By the last day of the trip, we had one CS credit left (after using all 4 for breakfast and 4 for lunch that day--ugh) and something like 9 snack credits (which was particularly amusing since I freaked out the first night when my dh got 3 snacks and a bottled water--"4 snack credits?!? We've only been here 6 hours?!?" Maybe that's why we had so many left--everyone was afraid to use them after that!).

We also had 12 ADR's for 10 days, and ended up cancelling 3 and booking one new one. If we hadn't cancelled, we would have just paid for those last 2 meals OOP. But at least, if we'd had to cancel one of our ADR's for any reason, we wouldn't have had leftover TS credits because we paid OOP for an earlier (and expected to be cheaper) meal. I think that would upset me more than paying OOP for a slightly more expensive meal.

I guess my point is I would recommend that you just use your credits as you go and pay OOP at the end if you run out. Chances are, you'll end up spending less than if you "pay as you go" and tried to save up credits for later (that you may end up not using). And if you're not wild about the kids' CS meal choices at lunch, then I would use their CS meal credits for breakfasts. There doesn't seem to be as much of a difference between A and C breakfasts as there is between A and C lunches.

 

[susieq76]

I guess it depends on what you eat at 50s Prime Time I guess it would be cheaper if you drank water, had no dessert & shared an appy. Chef Mickey's for BF is 18.99 ea for ad & 10.99 for kids & includes all your food & drink. At 50's Fried Chicken is 14.99, Pot Roast is 15.79, for example. Now if you share an appy- thats between 6-10 bucks. If you have a soda thats 2 bucks each. If you have dessert thats like 5 bucks each. It adds up, IMHO.

 

[jjohnson]

Definitely do not pay OOP for LeCellier. It will probably be your most expensive meal of the trip.

 

[Sammie]

I agree with Thunderbird, I think you are over planning this. I would also use my credits as you go, and if you run out, which you might not, pay OOP at the end of the stay.

Also good recommendation to use CS for breakfast as there truly is not that much difference.

 

[squirrel922]

Thanks. Ok.... I will try not to stress out and over think it.

Something that may help is that I now found out about garden grocer. Maybe I'll pick some things up for breakfast from them and eat something quick in the room before we go to the parks. That'll probably save time as well.

 

[jjohnson]

I'm curious where you are staying. What I did was pack a bunch of individual cereal boxes and purchased milk at the resort. At SSR I used a bunch of snack credits for fruit salads, muffins, & bagels. Combined with the cereal it was plenty for breakfast.

 

[disneybride96]

We always plan to pay oop for the buffet/family style meals with a set price. What I love most about the dining plan is not being concerned with drinking water, ordering the special or skipping dessert just to save a buck. If I pay for the set price meals...vacation goes on without a hitch!

 

[Sammie]

Thanks. Ok.... I will try not to stress out and over think it.

Something that may help is that I now found out about garden grocer. Maybe I'll pick some things up for breakfast from them and eat something quick in the room before we go to the parks. That'll probably save time as well.

We found we got tired on desserts with TS and CS very quickly. We use our dessert from CS to get a muffin or pastry and saved them for breakfast.

 

[bicker]

Just curious, why would you pay OOP for Chef Mickeys? 50's Prime Time seems a bit cheaper.

We'd spend more at 50s Prime Time for dinner than at Chef Mickey's for breakfast.

 

[squirrel922]

I'm staying at the POFQ and thanks everyone.

I think I'm just going to do what thunderbird1 said and just keep going until I run out and then pay oop for whatever is left.

Bicker - That definitely is a better idea to pay for a fixed price at Chef Mickey's rather than 50's Prime Time where I may pay more. Problem is, we orginally planned to do a CS for the night we were going to do the 50's Prime Time. So that may be something I cancel while we're there depending on timing. And since it's the last dinner, I'd hate to have a TS left over because we didn't use it at Chef Mickeys and held on to it for 50s Prime Time and then never used it.

 

[twinkletoesmom]

I had the same problem and it's easier once you ar their. Please no opinions on this but I'm just telling you so you know. They did not care or seperate child and adult points on our card. Many times I ordered adult cs for my kids (only if there was nothing on the kids menu they would eat) alot of the times my dh and I would go in different lines because of ordering diff things and get 2 adult cs (and the other get 1 adult cs cause the kids would share). Other times we just asked if it was okay and they said that was fine. Also at TS they do not seperate kid and adult points My kids always ordered a kids Ts but alot of the time they shared, it gave us an oppurtunity to get one extra Ts meal. Like I said no opinions please these are just my facts from my trip we went in the begining of dec. Also i know for us we had a few extra ADRS and we only did one extra and cancelled the others we felt in was to much time spent eating when there were so many other things to do. Good luck and I hope you have fun.

 

[bicker]

Luckily, that's not even permitted anymore, so there's no need to express opinions about it!

 

[LizinSTL]

LOL....YA THINK???

I know... I just overly think things through and I've never done the DDP before.

Just curious, why would you pay OOP for Chef Mickeys? 50's Prime Time seems a bit cheaper.

We had lunch at 50s PT and breakfast at Chef Mickeys- 2A/2C...our bill at Chef mickey's was slightly cheaper than lunch at PT. Yours would vary based on what you order, but that was our experience.

MY suggestion is to share lunches when you feel like it. Order breakfasts when you feel like it and go from there. When you run out of credits, pay OOP. If you have child CS credits left, then, obviously, you pay for your adult meals- if you have Adult CS credits left then pay to feed your kids.

In our experience, we could share adult lunches at burger places and use the child's credits for breakfasts. On more than one occassion at POP, the kid's breakfast had more food on the plate than the adult meal. (pancakes). The kid's breakfast there was MORE than enough to share for 2 kids with average appetites.

 

[twinkletoesmom]

sorry I didn't relize that they made new rules for 2007 (I'm guessing). I did not relize but I guessing that they now seperate child and adult points on the card, is this true? I guess since we just did our disney trip and won't be back for a while I'm not paying as much attention to all the buzz.

 

[squirrel922]

Now you all got me thinking whether I should be paying for my "fixed price" meals oop and save the TS credits.

For example: We're doing the Hoop de Doo

We're paying for 2A/2C - $99.96 per day for 2 meals and a snack

Hoop de Doo is 2 TS each so we are using: $199.92 (which STILL isn't even correct because we are using just a portion of it.... not sure what the exact breakdown would be so lets use the whole thing.)

Because we're on the dining plan (and we're also going with a large group), I believe they put us in Category 2. Our total OOP would be $163.96.

Seems like we're wasting $35 PLUS (because I shouldn't be counting the entire day) to do the Hoop de Doo and using 2 TS where we may be able to get 2 TS elsewhere on the trip.

Anyone following me here? Maybe I should be using those 2 TS somewhere else.

I know....... take a breath....... it's ok....... I know...... I'm just a very "rational" person.

 

[thunderbird1]

squirrel--2A/2C at one of the more expensive (1 credit) TS restaurants (I'm thinking, Spoodles, Le Cellier, maybe Coral Reef?) will easily put you over $99.96, and much closer to the $163.96 OOP cost to you of HDDR (2 credits). So you could defnitely get more out of paying OOP for HDDR and using your TS credits for 2 other meals.

But that's only a good deal if you would actually use those credits for dinners at those other, more expensive restaurants, or at least one of them. If you instead replaced them with a character breakfast at Chef Mickey's ($59.96 + tax and tip) and a character lunch at the Crystal Palace or Garden Grill ($65.96 + tax and tip), then you're better off using the credits on HDDR and paying OOP for the the other meals.

If you want a TS meal every night of your stay, and would book one of the more expensive restaurants with half your HDDR credits, then you should pay OOP for HDDR (even if you just use the remaining half for less expensive breakfast). Just remember that you'll either have to do 2 TS meals on another day or book TS meals both on your arrival day and on your departure day to use up the credits.

 

[KatGarcia]

If it helps any, i was the same way when I first started planning our last trip! What I learned from using the DDP for the first time was this: When you have a buffet breakfast it isn't alwaysa smart idea to plan a TS dinner. You never know when you will get hungry again and having the option of CS whenever you do , to me, seems the better route. We stayed for 10 days and by mid trip i cancelled a breakfast buffet we had for later in the week. It is really more food than you can imagine esp. when doing buffets! Don't let the food rule your trip, let it be a perk! Good luck!