DDP is giving me anxiety

[squirrel922]

Went to Disney in 2005 with my entire family (family reunion). We made our reservations at the restaurants we wanted and grabbed lunch wherever we were in the parks. The DDP wasn't popular so we didn't do it.

Now we're going in Feb. 2007 with the dining plan and I am totally confused. I'm not so confused with the Table Service because I am just going about that like I did before, going to a different restaurant each night.

What is confusing me is the Counter Service........ the snacks are another story all together.

Do you plan your Counter Service meals or do you just grab lunch wherever you are in the park? I see a lot of recommendations for CS restaurants. I am the kind of anal person who needs a plan. I would like to get the most out of the DDP that we could. Last time we just winged lunch which was fine but now I feel like I have to plan out my meals. Do you need to make reservations for a CS meal?

I'm going to assume that CS is also your breakfast? Last time (as well as this time) we are staying at the POFQ. We usually ate a little breakfast there before we headed out. I am assuming that is also a CS credit?

Help please

 

[tmli]

You do not need ressies for CS meals. They can be used for any meal of the day....lunch/dinner is a better deal than breakfast. I wouldn't stress about the CS just eat wherever you happen to be that day.

We just returned from free dining. I think DDP is an excellent value if daily TS is your normal "style". My family actually found that it didn't fit with our normal touringvacation styles and wouldn't pay for it.

Relax and enjoy your vacation...it seemed this last trip we spent more time worrying about ADR's, planning our day around where we were eating that day....that caused me anxiety!!

 

[skater]

Sometimes we used snack credits for light breakfasts at the resort (danish, muffin, croissant) and sometimes we used them in the parks (smoothies, dole whips, etc.).
For CS, we sometimes had a plan (esp. for places we really wanted to try or retry) and sometimes we ate where we ended up.
And for TS we did much better this year not stressing out. Last year our trip was way too much wrapped around where our ADR was made. This year we canceled some at the last minute and luckily were able to add some at the last minute. We really tried to make it work for us instead of being a slave to it.
Our biggest struggle this year was not being hungry with the large amounts of food at each meal. One night we actually skipped dinner because we were tired of going into a nice restaurant with no appetite! We learned to sometimes skip lunch or eat a very early lunch and late dinner. And by the way, we are all big eaters - we did use all of our credits - its just that each meal includes a LOT of food.