Any suggestions on how to maximize meals while on the disney meal plan?

[beth&boys]

We are heading to Disney 8/16 and we will be on the meal plan. I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions for maximizing the amount of food we can get. We are paying for my husbands whole family (15 people) and they LOVE to eat. I am so afraid of anyone or everyone being hungry and having to pay for meals or even snacks for everyone, it can be a small fortune. Anyone have any ideas on how to keep everyone full?

Thanks,
Beth

 

[Luv Bunnies]

If you are on the Dining Plan, no one is going to go hungry! I'm assuming you already have your ADRs made if you're going next month. Remember that everyone gets an appetizer, entree and dessert at a TS meal. That ends up being a lot of food. Buffets are basically a free-for-all! No one should go away hungry from a buffet!

On several days, we had a CS breakfast at the Pop Foodcourt. We would get pancakes, bacon, breakfast pizza, etc. along with juice (you can get a big bottle as part of your CS meal). Then we would sometimes get a snack in the middle of the day using a snack credit (ice cream, pretzels, popcorn, etc). Then we would have a fairly early TS meal at a park or DTD. Everyone would be stuffed by the end of the day. If you're not big breakfast eaters, then pay OOP for bagels or cereal or something small. Then you can use your CS credits for lunch or dinner.

If you get refillable mugs and are eating a CS meal at your resort, remember that a drink still comes with your meal. You can fill up your mug as your beverage and still get a bottle of water, soda, lemonade, etc. to drink later. We ended up with a collection of water bottles in our room that we finally finished before leaving.

Don't use snack credits for drinks if you can help it. Pay OOP for drinks at the parks and use the snack credits for something you can eat.

I think once you see the amount of food you'll be getting, you won't worry about anyone being hungry. Have a great trip!

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

Oh my, I don't really know how you could ever be hungry on the dining plan!! We tried it on our most recent trip and a lot of times we were even uncomfortably full! With each meal having an appetizer, entree, and dessert we always had plenty of food. Also, we did buffets for 4 out of our 6 table service meals, then you can stay and eat as much as you'd like! Plus my kids never ate their appetizers or finished their meals, so there was always extra food on their plates! Even the counter service meals come with so much food. We hardly had to use our snack credits because we always had a dessert with our meals. In fact, on our last night at WDW we had 12 snack credits left between the 4 of us and we had just finished our last meal at Chef Mickeys and were completely full, not wanting our credits to go to waste, we went to DTD to Goofy's Candy Co. and used them all up and brought the stuff home!

Have fun at WDW and enjoy the dining plan!

 

[2poohbears]

We usually eat something on the run for breakfast (we bring dry cereal, pop tarts, granola bars) and then eat late buffet breakfast (TS)- around 10:30 am, or early lunch (CS) around 11:00 am. There is PLENTY of food for everyone. This eliminates the need for 3 full meals a day, so we don't spend extra money on food. It also gets us to the parks early - we just bring the breakfast snacks with us and eat them when we arrive at the gate, while waiting for the park to open.

Snacks - at All Star Movies souveneir shop we can use a snack credit on most food items below $4. So, I generally buy the big boxes of cookies or doughnuts for us to share. This saves up the snack credits by not each buying snacks individually. I often end up getting boxes of cookies to bring to friends with left-over snack credits at the end of the trip! Also - I don't waste my snack credits on drinks - I just go to a CS restaurant and ask for ice water in a cup---it's free---and I can get popcorn, ice cream, cookies, etc to go with that.

Another tip: bring little ziplock baggies and you can pick up a few cookies to go from the buffet or take your dessert to go at restaurants.

Make sure you have your TS ADR's made before you go. We just went in May and several times saw people turned away at the door because they were too crowded to take any more "walk-ins". Also, I've found eating early is less crowded, so you won't take as long in lines, waiting for a table, etc. We usually eat lunch around 11am and dinner around 5pm.

 

[flipflop]

The one thing I have never been while on DDP is hungry. You get sooo much food! We did wind up paying OOP for bottles of water/soda/beer/wine. A few tips - we use CS for lunch or dinner not breakfast. You get dessert with lunch/dinner and some places will allow you to subsitute other items for dessert (an extra bottle of water or a side salad, for example). You can also share a CS meal. I know you said the people you are travelling with are big eaters...but if you have dinner scheduled for 5 pm - and you are eating lunch at 1 - I would consider sharing. A snack credit can be used to buy a whole box of donuts at your resort....that will feed a few people breakfast. Snack credits are also good for things like the handmade ice cream sandwiches from Main Street Bakery - if you ate a TS breakfast (like a character meal) and had one of those as a snack and then a CS dinner - I doubt you'd be hungry. Keep in mind that the occupants of each room will have all of the meals for that room on each of their keys so you aren't going to be able to control everyone's meals (unless you are staying a GV at DVC). Since you are travelling with such a large group, I wouldn't even try to control everyone's meals.

It is very generous of you to take 15 people to WDW. Since the dining plan truly offers enough food to be full every day (unless you plan on using a lot of 2 TS dining options), may I suggest that you make everyone responsible for their own "incidentals" (which I assume you are probably already doing with souveniers?) which would include the random bottle of water, alcohol and any food outside the DDP? B/c you are right, it is going to get pretty pricey if people aren't using the DDP and paying for a lot of things OOP.

Have you made ADRS yet? If not, you should do that as soon as possible.

 

[5fordisney]

I agree, you won't go hungry on the dining plan! It's great!
We used our CS for lunch and TS for dinner and then used the snacks whenever we wanted something. For breakfast, I ordered stuff from thegardengrocer.com like poptarts, donuts, apples, oatmeal bars, etc. as well as water bottles and had it delivered to the room. We would each pick something from the bag and eat it on our way to the buses each morning. That was enough for us until lunch (we aren't huge breakfast eaters). It cost me around $40 including delivery and was more than enough food for the 5 of us. We never had to buy anything else out of pocket all week with the exception of alcoholic beverages.
What a nice family you are to pay for 15 people! Have a great trip!

 

[2poohbears]

Have you made ADRS yet? If not, you should do that as soon as possible.

I agree. Especially if you are all planning to eat together. That is a LARGE group of people and it will be difficult to get ADR's all together if you wait. I would really think about eating early or late so that you avoid the most crowded times, too.

 

[all4fun]

Definitely agree with the pp's tip about ADR's. This is the only way you *may* go hungry - if you didn't plan ahead and make some reservations! Sometimes the table service restaurants do fill up and especially since you'll be with a large group if you all want to eat together then you should make ressies in advance.

We have used the DDP a few times now and we have never been hungry. Actually there was one trip we were there for 2 weeks and I was quite upset when we came home to find I had gained 5 whole pounds!!! And we really wore ourselves out walking as much as possible on that trip too. I would not worry about anyone going hungry.

 

[trekker93]

We've never used the plan but after eading about it here I'm now seriously considering it. It would be fun!

 

[Tinkergirl]

If you are really getting concerned about it, I would make up a care package and bring it with you to the resort. I've even heard of some people mailing them to the resort so that they are there when you arrive (I'm sure someone could tell you their experiences). I would pack granola bars, fruitsnacks, fruit, cereal... At least that way it's politely clear to your family members that if the DP is not enough, they can help themselves to the snacks, but that is all that you are responsible for.

By the way, what a nice thing you are doing!! Can I be apart of your family? I promise I won't ask for more food!!

 

[Liberty Belle]

Wow! You're paying for 15 people? My goodness, that's generous of you!

I've never done the dining plan, but we will our next trip, so I'm interested in seeing the responses you get.

 

[Harmoniebreeze]

We had too much food last year with the DDP. I had snacks and stuff delivered to the hotel and we ended up throwing what we couldn'ttake home in the garbage!! I felt so bad! I figured we were going to need it, but with the DDP you have more than enough.

We used all of our TS for character meals so we didn'thave to wait in any of those crazy autograph lines. It was all done easily while we ate and this was great when we would walk by and see the line for one of the characters.

At the end of it all..we ended up taking two full meals with us to the airport becuase we still had two left. This worked out great since our plan was delayed 2.5 hours! We just sat down before we went through security . It worked out great. I even took home some of the rice crispy Mickey treats home to give to my neices and nephews since we were too full to eat them!

 

[daisyduck123]

Anyone have any ideas on how to keep everyone full?

Thanks,
Beth

No need to worry...if you're on Disney's meal plan, you'll be well-fed!

Our trips are always 9 or 10 days, and we NEVER even pack one snack to bring....I mean, NOTHING.
There's just too much food to bother with bringing any from home.

 

[MSSANDRA]

When we did the dining plan in Jan. We brought no food from home and spent 0$ OP for food.

We however NEVER got hungry but we did manipulate our food credits to make them work for us. We needed a little something to get us started in the AM so what we did was to share two breakfast meals with our CS credits, or one credit and one or two SC (two adults and one teen). We almost always got two lunches with CS credtis to share as well. We all got our own dinners as we chose not to do any signature meals this trip and we did not want more than one sit down a day. We never finished any meal and sometimes brought our desert back to the resort for a snack.

Now i could see you ending up paying OP if everyone thinks they need to get a CS for breakfast and lunch plus your sit downs, BUT they will waste a LOT of food. Maybe a little education to all on ways to maximize the plan would be a good idea.

 

[thepeach80]

Thanks so much for the helpful hints! We will have 6 adults and my 3 kids (my boys are going to be sharing food) and I keep thinking too hard about this. I have all our ADRs? made (reservations, right) so that's good. We're using 2 credits for the Luau so we will have maybe one night we go out, but I know we were hoping to hit Chevy's there in town, yum. We're also planning on bringing some cereal and stuff for breakfast b/c that's what the boys like and we drink rice milk so we're making sure we have that.

 

[#1 Pocahontas]

We also never were hungry on the Dining plan. We did a lot of buffets, mostly because they were character meals. If we had a late breakfast, like 10am then we weren't ready to eat until dinner. We had to force ourselves to use some the CS credits.

I remember once we had a CRT breakfast at 8am and then dinner at the Crystal Palace at 6pm. I think we only used a snack credit in-between because we just weren't hungry.

I started the trip paying out of pocket for drinks because I didn't want to waste my snack credits but towards the end of the trip I realized that they were building up. So I started using them for water, and we still had a few to use up on our last day.

Besides my drinks at first, the only thing we paid out of pocket for food wise was maybe a few pieces of fruit.

 

[tadamom]

We did the DDP too and we were always full after each meal. We at breakfast in our room each morning. My MIL & SIL both have blood sugar problems so I figured we would be eating all the time but we weren't. For TS, the buffets are the way to go b/c it is definitely a free for all.

I'm not sure if you have any kids going that are too young for the dining plan but my DD is 2 and didn't qualify. I hardly ever bought her anything to eat b/c we always had a ton of food (there was 7 adults). The best place that we found to eat CS was at Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe in Magic Kingdom. My DH would get the rib/chicken combo and share with our DD or I would get the hotdog (it was nearly a foot long hotdog) and split it with her. We shared our desserts with her and the only thing we ever had to buy her was a drink.

We only used a few snack credits during the week too -- just too full! I think we had close to 16 left and my BIL checked us out of the room without telling anyone that we had those left, so no one used them.

 

[Cindy's Mom]

I agree with everyone else - we split CS's for lunch and one TS per day, usually a buffet.

There are so many snack credits and they are such a great value. After we leave WDW we always head on down to S. Florida for a week of relaxation and with my left over snack credits - I use them to buy the full size bags of chips, Entermans (sp), and anything else that I'll need for the next hotel room. Mind you, I am not stockpiling these snack credits, there is just so much food available on the DDP, sometimes we just can't eat anymore.

We should probably stop this thread in case Disney in monitoring it.....they may make some serious adjustments to the Plan.

 

[CharmedLife]

We did the DDP last December because we were traveling with my parents and didn't want that whole awkward "who's picking up the checK" situation. For convenience and the bill-paying situation alone, the plan was worthwhile. It was also fun to try restaurants (like Le Cellier) that we would never pay out of pocket for.

All that said, at the end of the week we had 4 CS credits left and tons of snack credits left. We wound up getting sandwiches from Earl of Sandwich to take to the airport with us (they went through Security fine, it's just the liquids you can't take through), and tons of snack bags from Goofy's Candy Co. I also gained 5 pounds in one week. And this was with me "thinking" I wasn't overdoing it, often ordering salad as my "appetizer", selecting seafood frequently, etc.

At the end of the day, we decided DDP wasn't for us - mainly, because it's TOO MUCH FOOD. So, al in all, I can't imagine that you're going to have any problems with people feeling like they're still hungry. Trust me, you'll be just fine without buying anything extra.

As previous posters have mentioned, I think the MOST important thing right now is to be sure you have ADR's for your sit-down meals. Or you won't be eating anywhere... and if you're really still unsure after reading all of these posts, make your ADR's for places that have buffets or family-style restaurants, that way you can eat until you explode....

Have a great time! It was fun to do once, I definitely don't regret it, but on our upcoming trip we're only making 3 ADR's (character meals) and doing the rest as CS or eating in our villa.

 

[Lesley Mahler]

We had too much food last year with the DDP. I had snacks and stuff delivered to the hotel and we ended up throwing what we couldn'ttake home in the garbage!! I felt so bad! I figured we were going to need it, but with the DDP you have more than enough.

We used all of our TS for character meals so we didn'thave to wait in any of those crazy autograph lines. It was all done easily while we ate and this was great when we would walk by and see the line for one of the characters.

At the end of it all..we ended up taking two full meals with us to the airport becuase we still had two left. This worked out great since our plan was delayed 2.5 hours! We just sat down before we went through security . It worked out great. I even took home some of the rice crispy Mickey treats home to give to my neices and nephews since we were too full to eat them!

Can you please tell me where to get the rice crispy Mickey treats?? We LOVE rice crispy treats!!!
TIA,
Lesley