DDP - How much extra food/snacks do you need?

[cygal]

My DH and I are debating about extra food/snacks. We're trying to decide whether to just pack some snacks in our suitcases for the flight down or whether to order from Garden Grocer. This is our first time on the dining plan. We have 3 kids (6 mo, 3 and 5) so we'll definitely have to take or buy baby food. My question is, will we also need many snacks and breakfast items or is the DDP sufficient. Thanks in advance for all advice!

 

[la79al]

We have gone with and without DDP. When I went with my DH and stepkids, we had DDP and took a few bags of chips/crackers for downtime in the room and some poptarts/pastries. The kids were old enough that they could wait for meals or snacks. This trip I will have 19 month old DD with us and we will have DDP. We will still be taking a few things for breakfast and lots of snacks and a few meals for DD. I don't know when she might sleep through meals or decide to be too interested in other things to eat enough. It is not always convenient or cheap to just stop and grab her something to eat.
You will most likely need to have something for the 3rd meal. Even if you share CS meals, with 2 ordering off the kids menu, it probably won't be enough food. As far as snacks, you will get a lot of snack credits with DDP. I would just take a few snacks, in case of emergency (to prevent meltdowns).

 

[mom2faith]

Last year we planned for several meals and snacks - we brought lots of snacks!! We ate at at least 4 restaurants OOP thinking we "had" to.

In the end, we passed on a lot of our snacks to a DISer and we left behind 6 CS credits!! We could not eat that much!!!

I thought that with only 2 meals per day we would need to "top up"... boy was I wrong!! The portions are HUGE!!! We often shared two meals between the 3 of us and sometimes even 1 meal for 3 of us.

Part of this was also the heat. It was so hot, you just di dnot want big meals.

This year, we are not planning any OOP meals, but if it happens it happens. We have a small budget for it. We have also cut down on the snacks a lot!! Very few for late nights in the hotel room.

You will want to buy lots of water for sure though. We drank a lot of water!!

Have fun!!

Amy

 

[badblackpug]

I think it depends on appetites. We usually order from www.gardengrocer.com. We order baby food, formula, diapers so we don't have to pack them. I would definitely order breakfast foods. Your kids are small, and should start the day with something on their stomach. We always got a fridge and ordered milk and cereal, bagels and cream cheese and peanut butter, and juice. My kids have great appetites so I also ordered some snacks to have in the room.

 

[MouseKTeer]

Can't help you too much with the baby, but we did have a 3 year old and an 8 year old with us last month. They didn't mind eating "portable" breakfasts, like bagel, cereal bar, baggie of cheerios, etc., so we could head out for a park and eat breakfast on the go. This helped us get to the parks early, which worked for us to see so much before the crowds got huge. Then we used our CS at lunch in whatever park we were in, and the TS for dinner wherever. I agree that the DDP provides quite a lot of food, so we would save grapes, carrots and desserts from the kids' meals so they could snack later. You might also carry a couple baggies with you for the same reason. When you get your CS meal, you can also ask for a cup of ice or water, and take that with you for walking around.

 

[ehrn]

While the DDP is a lot of food, I'm not the kind of person who can fill up 3 times a day and be done, I'm more of a grazer and it's not like you can easily schlep the leftovers to snack on an hour or two later. Yes, you can take the grapes/apples and dessert. I will be bringing some snacks, though not as many as I would off the DDP--small packs of almonds, goldfish crackers and maybe some vacation treats like small lollipops and those tiny bags of swedish fish. Small snacks like that are good for kids as they sit and wait for shows or wait in lines. We will have a car and will get some breakfast items--yogurt, fruit and the like.
Have fun.
PS--there is a minimum for gargengrocer so you might be better off ordering most of what you'll need including the baby stuff unless you have lots of room in the suitcase.

 

[VAN]

If you are ordering from GreenGrocer anyway for the baby items, I would order some of your other children's favorite snacks.

If you were not doing this, I'd say just to pack a few; however, it really depends upon your kids and their habits. There is more than enough food provided with the dining plan; however, some kids don't like to eat much at a sitting - instead choosing to graze and eat/snack throughout the day.

We especially liked to have something in the backpack for the longer lines when our children were small.

I wouldn't go overboard though, because you will have plenty of snack credits to draw from.

 

[luvsJack]

When dd was 4 we carried snack crackers all over disney in a back pack, brought them home and threw them away . That time we weren't on the ddp. She just doesn't think about eating when we are at disney world.

We took breakfast foods for the days we didn't do character breakfast and dd did eat cereal in the room on a couple of mornings. Our first time of ddp, we took all kinds of drinks, breakfast foods and snacks. And then I lugged 98% of it back home along with snacks we got before leaving to use up the snack credits. I didn't do that the next time. Just took a few drinks to have in the room and a couple of dd's favorite snacks just in case she wanted something when we got back to the room--and that was it.

 

[Wendybird55]

Last year we were on DXDP with DS (almost 2) and we're going again this year on DXDP. Even with all the extra snacks and food, I make sure to take snacks and such for DS. The main reason - he can be picky at times and prefers to eat his "usual" snacks. PLus you never know when your child wants a snack. I always had a zip lock bag with goldfish in my purse. It came in handy while waiting on lines or waiting for a show to start. Plus when were were in our room we always had something for him just in case.

We ordered from gardengrocer.com. This year in addition to water and juice bags I ordered a goldfish, pringles, pretzels and some graduate meals for DS. DS can be pickey and last year the grdauate meals were a life saver when he didn't want to share food with us.

This year DS has gotten a taste for ice cream and some candy so we will use our snack credits for that. But I don't want him all sugared up so I'll have the goldfish and pringles as well.

 

[mjkacmom]

We had GG deliver breakfast foods and snacks, and we ended up with lots of snack credits on the last day (I sent DH to the food court for bagels, trying to use them up, and he came back with an 8 pack of lenders bagels, for 1 credit, and I could've killed him). Definitely used GG for water, but the DDP does provide a lot of food.

 

[4winks]

We had the ddp last Sept. I brought a bunch of snacks and we had breakfast in the room. We had kids that were 4, 7, 10, & 12 at the time. We brought most of the snack food that I brought with us home. We also had a bunch of snack credits left at the end of the trip too. THere is so much food with the ddp that we didn't need extra snacks. We saved desserts and other things from the cs meals to nibble on later cause we couldn't eat it all at that meal.

 

[kehlyrsmom]

We have had the DDP the last three years once in Aug and the last 3 in Sept and we always have a lot of extra snacks left. We end up sharing lunch and using a Quick Service for breakfast most days and splitting that as well. With the heat we really don't want that much to eat plus the portions are huge. My kids also share as well ages 9 & 8.