Anyone pay OOP for character breakfasts?

[Melissa and Makenna]

I'm trying to get organized and do all my reservations and I had a quick question. Is it stupid to pay OOP for character breakfasts? I really want to do two or three, but it seems silly to "waste" our ts credits for these meals since they are relatively inexpensive when compared to other things on the plan.

I know I want to take Makenna to the Rainforest Cafe which isn't in the DDP, so I know I'll be paying out of pocket for that. We don't have one near us, but I visited one while at a conference and the whole time thought how much Makenna would enjoy it. I'm really excited to take her. So I thought we could do the princess Norway breakfast one morning for our TS credit and then pay out of pocket for Rainforest Cafe that night. Maybe skip the CS and save it for our last day as our plane doesn't leave until 5:30.

BUT...i want to do at least one other character breakfast, and honestly would love to do two. If you are on the dining plan, is it possible to tell them you don't want it applied as a credit, but you want to pay for it? And if I do that, am I being wasteful? Is that just way too much food?

OK...I just realized I could switch to chracter DINNERS. Would anyone recommend the following dinners? Are they as good as the breakfasts?

Chef Mickeys
1900 Park Faire (looked at the menu and not sure my picky DH would enjoy it)
Crystal Palace

 

[Terk-1]

I did the Crystal Palace for an early breakfast one morning. It was great to see the park empty. For $20, I decided just to pay OOP, rather than use a TS credit. Those I saved for dinners, to get more bang for the buck. Am planning to do this again on my next trip.

As far as for dinner:
Chef Mickeys - Tried this once for dinner and won't go back again. It was the worst meal I've ever had at Disney! The service was awful too.

1900 Park Faire (looked at the menu and not sure my picky DH would enjoy it) - Tried this once for dinner and thought it was just ok. As a picky eater, there was not much on the menu that I ate and found the selections smaller than at other buffets.

Crystal Palace - This is my favorite place to dine at WDW!! It is a must dine at least once during the course of the trip. Dinner is great and there is alot to choose from.

 

[Cinderumbrella]

Last trip we used all our TS credits on the dinners and paid OOP for 4 character breakfasts. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but the bill was always about $60 for the 3 of us. DH really felt it was a waste since we never eat to much at those things anyway. This trip we are paying OOP for a WCC breakfast, Sci Fi lunch and dinner at Big River Grille.

 

[Katiebell]

DH and I have 6 nights, so 6 TS credits. We are going to Boma (dinner), Akershus (breakfast), Mama Melrose's (dinner - Fantasmic Package), 'Ohana (breakfast), GF Cafe (dinner), WP Cafe (dinner), Rose and Crown (dinner). Of all of those, the least expensive is likely to be 'Ohana (breakfast is 18.99 per adult, vs Akershus it's $22.99), so that's the one we are paying for OOP. I really, really wanted breakfast at 1900 Park Fare to eat with Mary Poppins and Alice, but just couldn't work it in the schedule this time -- next time though!

 

[WETWHISTLE]

We are doing breakfast at the Crystal Palace and we're paying OOP for that since my DF wants to go to the Sci Fi Drive In at MGM for lunch one day. I figured we'd get more for our TS at Sci Fi than at Crystal Palace.

 

[DisneyGirl4188]

We will be paying OOP for Donald's Breakfastosaurus. It's the least expensive meal we will be having, so it only makes sense.

Last time we paid OOP for The Plaza.

 

[bigbabyblues]

We're paying OOP for Crystal Palace, 'Ohana breakfast, and Donald's Breakfastsaurus. Too many other, more expensive meals planned.

 

[DebbieB]

I paid OOP for Cinderella's breakfast. Not worth 2 credits.

 

[Mousermom]

I paid OOP for Chef Mickey's Character Breakfast and it cost just as much for dinner at O'Hana the night before! Do the DDP! You'll save in money in the long run!

 

[LurrrvtheDuck]

Oh thank goodness I'm not alone about the same situation!

I was really beating myself up about having the DDP and wanting to pay OOP to do more Character meals (breakfasts mostly) since I've only ever met 3 characters at any of the Disney parks and I really wanted this trip to be chock full of them without having to hunt them down or wait in lines in the parks to meet them.

I had trimmed my ADRs to only paying OOP for 1 character breakfast, but just added Raglan Road to my ressies for a birthday dinner so going to end up paying for 2 character breakfasts since they're the cheapest ADR's we have.
Not feeling too bad now though!

 

[jpolak]

Our trip this past Feb. we did the DDP for the first time. It was difficult to narrow down the number of TS meals we would be doing. We ended up with one extra TS. So after comparing the cost of all of the TS meals we paid oop for the cheapest which turned out to be Crystal Palace.