cs credits for adults and children

[Disneynut4ever]

Okay, I am totally confused -- and maybe it's because it's late -- but would someone tell me what you are all talking about -- pooling tickets? keeping them separate? I don't understand.

We will be on the DDP, and even though there are two adults and three children, two of my children are considered "adults." So what does this all mean for me?

 

[FayeW]

Then came the DDP, and now we have no reason to ever leave Disney property. Oh sure, I'd still like to visit IOA one of these days, but when it costs $50/person or so to get into a different park, but only $2/person to add on an extra day at WDW, AND all your food at WDW is already paid for, I can't justify it. The whole ME/DDP marketing plan really is brilliant.

That was my argument with my husband a couple of years ago. I said that when we could add 3 extra days for our entire family for only $13. how could we justify spending $400 to go to US/IOA for 3 days. He said "Very easy, 'cause I'm going to Universal!". Then they made it really easy for us because they offered the free 5 day kid's ticket with the purchase of an adult ticket, so it only cost an extra $200.

Keep in mind that we are huge fans of Universal parks, so it really wasn't a hard sell. We were going anyway, but I didn't want hubby to gripe about the extra cost. You know how men are, you have to let them think it's their own idea!

 

[thunderbird1]

Okay, I am totally confused -- and maybe it's because it's late -- but would someone tell me what you are all talking about -- pooling tickets? keeping them separate? I don't understand.

We will be on the DDP, and even though there are two adults and three children, two of my children are considered "adults." So what does this all mean for me?

Sorry--I know those of us that have been analyzing this forever have a tendency to assume everyone else knows what we're talking about. So how does this affect you? I don't know how long you're going for, but let's say 10 days to make the math easier on my flu-addled brain. With 4 "adults" and 1 "child," you'll have 50 TS, CS and snack credits. WDW has recently separated the TS credits into 2 different categories, so you'll have 40 adult and 10 child credits. The CS credits are still "pooled" (for now), so you'll simply have 50 CS credits, and it's up to you to remember to use 40 of them for adult meals and 10 of them for child meals. And snack credits are pooled, too, since there's no differentiation between adult and child snacks. Does that make more sense?

And FayeW-- about it having to be the hubby's idea, because it's too true. Universal's latest offer, the 7 days for $85, is almost good enough to get us back over there. I just get so spoiled not having to drive (or even worse, navigate ) for the whole vacation. I'm also afraid once we went, we'd be hooked and we'd have to add even more days to every vacation.

 

[Katiebell]

The DDP is pure marketing genius on Disney's part. As thunderbird pointed out, the "bargain" DDP and the "convenient" ME keep guests at the parks, spending $$$. And Disney KNOWS that appetizer, entree, dessert, and beverage for every single adult at a table is too much food; couples or families not on the plan often share appetizers and/or desserts or just don't order them, so I think they are counting on people ordering less than the total amount of food they were entitled to, particularly at those extravagant TS restaurants. And how many folks have mentioned their leftover credits t the end of their trip?

Disney sells you a Dining Plan that everyone staying in your hotel room must sign up for, at a bargain price of just less than $40 a day per adult and $11 a day per child. Except everyone over 10 is considered an "adult" -- and I can't imagine many tweens ordering and eating appetizer, entree, dessert, and beverage, but they pay the full adult daily price, regardless. And lots of little ones under 10 (especially under 6) normally wouldn't even order their own meals anyway -- they'd share with mom and dad, particularly if there is a lot of food.

If you go to the most upscale 1 TS credit restaurants everyday, and order the most expensive appetizer, entree, and dessert on the menu, the dining plan is a real bargain. But not everyone wants to do that -- or can get the ADR's! And if you spend those credits at a 2 TS credit restaurant or show, or even at a buffet, each TS credit isn't worth as much, and you don't get as much bang for your buck.

There is an excellent calculator/spreadsheet on Intercot to figure out if the DDP would be a good deal for your family, based on where you will eat, how many total A and C credits you spend there, and how much your family typically eats. I found out that it will save DH and I a little bit -- on vacation we usually spend $40-$65 per person per day for meals and snacks. We could definitely spend less, if we wanted to only eat only counter service, or bought groceries to eat breakfast in our rooms and snacks to the parks -- and we've certainly done it before when our budget was tight. But we want to enjoy our vacation, try fun new restaurants, something different than we'd get at home, have at least one nice sit down meal a day, and another smaller meal to keep us going with all that walking So the DDP should work very well for our eating habits and we can relax and have fun and not stress about our dining budget.

 

[thunderbird1]

If you go to the most upscale 1 TS credit restaurants everyday, and order the most expensive appetizer, entree, and dessert on the menu, the dining plan is a real bargain. But not everyone wants to do that -- or can get the ADR's! And if you spend those credits at a 2 TS credit restaurant or show, or even at a buffet, each TS credit isn't worth as much, and you don't get as much bang for your buck.

You got it Katiebell--in addition to counting on people ordering less than the entire 3 course meal every time, they also count on most people eating a variety of meals, including the less expensive character meals, buffets and family-style restaurants. I'm sure there are a few people who base all their restaurant choices on the bottom line, but the vast majority will eat at their favorites, even if they're not "maximizing" the plan at every meal.

 

[bicker]

Clearly the intend is for folks who purchase regular and child Dining Plan credits order both regular and child meals with them. It is clear that using all your CS credits for adult meals is less of a concern to Disney that using all your TS meals for adult meals, but that doesn't really get around the fact that you're not using the plan the way it was presented to you. I don't see a rational basis for deliberately aiming to do so. I find it strange that people object to when Disney puts draconian enforcement in place yet people still look for even the most minor exploits available.

 

[trspohr]

I don't think most people are deliberately trying to explot anything. When you have 6 plus people on the dining plan, the whole idea of keeping track of your credits goes out the window.

 

[thunderbird1]

I don't think most people are deliberately trying to explot anything. When you have 6 plus people on the dining plan, the whole idea of keeping track of your credits goes out the window.

Most people--no. But then, I could not believe it when I read about people who invented imaginary children to get more credits on the DDP. And now everyone in your party is required to be present at check-in, so there must be more of those devious minds out there than I thought.

You're right, though--with a large group it is difficult to keep track of all the A and C credits, especially at CS meals. I didn't worry about it much either way (we had 2A/2C last trip), and I know we ended up with a few more A CS meals in the end. Frankly, I'll be glad once they separate the CS credits so I don't have to try to track them, and so I don't look like I'm trying to cheat the system every time I order less than 2A/2C meals at any one time. I guess it's the fear of that whole "appearance of impropriety" thing (especially in front of my kids) that keeps me from a successful career as a Disney DDP cheat (or "maximizer," if you prefer).

 

[Nancyg56]

One thing I will say is that the CS meals really are large enough to share. We were 4 adults, a 6 year old, a 4 year old and a 1 year old. At most we would get 3 adult CS meals for a meal for all of us to share (and generally had food we were throwing away). The breakfast offerings for kids are much more "normal" so if you use child CS for breakfast (plus maybe a snack credit or two) and adult CS for lunch and split everything, you should be just fine on food.

That is what we did. We tended to share CS meals a lot because there was plenty and we are not good at portion control. Splitting one meal helped because we would have tried to finish the food because it was there. We ordered my DGD an adult CS meal a few time because there was way more than we could use. She liked a Mickey waffle for breakfast so we ordered her the CS meal and I had a muffin using a snack and DH ,a big eater, finished her meal. We still left with leftover CS.