DDP is making me nuts - DDP experts please help

[squirrel922]

IF SOMEONE CAN HELP ME FIGURE THIS OUT IT WOULD BE MUCH APPRECIATED

I am going down in Feb with 2A and 2C (7 and 4) for 7 nights.

My 4 yo doesn't eat so great but my 7 yo does. If I went to a restaurant knowing that we were getting all that food, I would order meals for us and then get 1 adult meal and split it between the kids. Together with our meals that would be MORE than enough.

I want to have a stress free vacation, not have to worry about what credit's I have left or could I have done this or should I do that. However, I've been reading all the posts as to how to get the most from your DDP.

My first approach was to just use it as it was intended and not try to get more out of it in regards to sharing. BUT there are nights I have open without any dining ressies because I didn't have any TS or CS left.

Here's what I have so far:

Day 1 - Dinner (open)
Day 2 - B (OOP?); L: Tangerine Cafe (4 CS); D: LeCellier (4 TS)
Day 3 - B (OOP?); L: use (4 CS); D: Boma (4 TS)
Day 4 - B (OOP?); L: Tusker House (4 CS); D: Ohana (4 TS)
Day 5 - B (OOP?); L: Cosmic Rays (4 CS); D: Liberty Tree (4TS)
Day 6 - B (OOP?); L: use (4 CS); D: Hoop de Doo (8TS)
Day 7 - B: Chef Mickeys (4TS), L: Pecos Bills (4 CS), D: OOP?
Day 8 - B (OOP?)

So I'm all confused with the kids menu vs. adult menu thing. Are our DDP cards (or whatever you get) specifed as KIDS VS ADULTS? Could I order 1 ADULT meal and have my kids split it?

I'm mostly worried about my kids having the same choices off the kids meals every night. I'd like them to eat "regular" food, not just Hamburger, Hot Dog, Chicken Nuggets.

Also I'm confused as to if there are any meals I should pay for OOP instead of using a TS or CS on, esp for my kids.

Thank you so much if you read this far and you are able to figure this out. I'm so confused. I could use CS or TS at other times but it seems I have run out of them??

 

[Dori's Twin]

Hi Squirrel!

I'm going in Feb also and trying to decide the same thing.

Just my 2cts here, but I use to worry about that too when my kids were young. They had chicken fingers practically every night.
Then I decided if they're happy why should I care. If they don't eat salads then find some nice fruit for them to snack on. I read somewhere that choclate covered strawberries were covered as a snack item on DDP. I don't know if they give you many, but there's lots of things like that the kids might like. There is a sticky listing confirmed snacks included in DDP.

Don't stress about it. My kids survived. Visit Allears.net and look for the kids menus. You may find a place that has something other than the typical
burger and fry's to help round out the diet.

Good Luck in your decision.
Terri

 

[bicker]

The Dining Plan includes so much food that we won't be worrying about breakfast much. We'll probably just have something light (maybe just a muffin and coffee).

Regarding use of credits, the Dining Plan does not allow use of child meal entitlements for adult meals. The moderators have prohibited discussions of this in the forums. If you have further questions about it, they ask that you address those questions to Disney Dining directly.

 

[thunderbird1]

Your card will say 2A/2C, and you cannot order more adult meals than are stated on your card at any one time. But you did a great job picking TS meals, so it doesn't look to me like you'll have any problems there. Boma is a buffet (as is Chef Mickey's), and Ohana, LTT and HDDR are all family style, so your kids will have plenty of adult food to choose from. That leaves only Le Cellier, which offers a steak as well as grilled chicken or pasta with tomato sauce (in addition to the regular kids fare).

Some people choose to share and save credits for extra meals, but we found that to be too confusing ("how many credits do we have left? Which meals do we have to share?") and stressful ("will this restaurant let us share? Will we be able to agree on something to share?"). Not to mention, most of your TS's are buffets/family style, and therefore cannot be shared. If I were you, I'd just use 4 TS credits per meal until they were gone, and then pay OOP, if necessary. You may just find that last night that you've had so much food, you'll be grateful not to have to sit down to another 3 course TS meal!

As for CS meals, we always shared these. I would be surprised if your family could eat 4 CS meals for lunch every single day. Like yours, my kids (3 yo who lives on air and a 9 yo who eats like a horse) often wanted something other than the kids' meal choices (ie, pizza). Several times, mainly at our resort's food court, I did order them an adult meal to split. I then either had the kids' meal, or a snack and shared some of my dh's. Since they don't split the credits up between adult and child meals, I really didn't track how many of each we ordered. We probably ended up with a few more adult meals than we should have, but we never tried to order more than what was on the card at any one time. And we still had leftover CS (1) and snack credits (10) the last day. It was just too much food for our family to order 4 CS meals at one time.

Oh yeah--breakfast. My kids and I were perfectly happy to eat a breakfast bar and/or yogurt (bought at the grocery store OOP--gardengrocer.com delivers!) so we could get a jump on the parks. Then we'd grab a snack or break for an early lunch. Like others have said, you could also use snack credits for a whole box of 12 donuts or something similar from your resort's store. You could also share 1 or 2 CS breakfasts between the 4 of you, then share the other 2 or 3 for lunch. You may need to supplement a little OOP, but probably not too much.

Good luck, and have fun!

 

[NeverBeen2DW]

The Dining Plan includes so much food that we won't be worrying about breakfast much. We'll probably just have something light (maybe just a muffin and coffee).

Regarding use of credits, the Dining Plan does not allow use of child meal entitlements for adult meals. The moderators have prohibited discussions of this in the forums. If you have further questions about it, they ask that you address those questions to Disney Dining directly.

Not to get off subject here but I read your webpage. Congrats on the weight loss that is amazing! I may have to start doing yoga. Just curious do you read all the post every day on DIS? You have posted practically 20,000 post.

 

[NeverBeen2DW]

So if a meal for example Ohana's is family style you can not share you will be charged 2 TS credits regardless? We have ADR's there and I did not realize it was family style. I need to hit the menu section and read up on every place.

 

[bicker]

'Ohana is indeed served family-style, and TS credits are charged per person, regardless of any sharing.

Also: Sent you a PM.

 

[LizinSTL]

IF SOMEONE CAN HELP ME FIGURE THIS OUT IT WOULD BE MUCH APPRECIATED

I am going down in Feb with 2A and 2C (7 and 4) for 7 nights.

My 4 yo doesn't eat so great but my 7 yo does. If I went to a restaurant knowing that we were getting all that food, I would order meals for us and then get 1 adult meal and split it between the kids. Together with our meals that would be MORE than enough.

I want to have a stress free vacation, not have to worry about what credit's I have left or could I have done this or should I do that. However, I've been reading all the posts as to how to get the most from your DDP.

My first approach was to just use it as it was intended and not try to get more out of it in regards to sharing. BUT there are nights I have open without any dining ressies because I didn't have any TS or CS left.

Here's what I have so far:

Day 1 - Dinner (open)
Day 2 - B (OOP?); L: Tangerine Cafe (4 CS); D: LeCellier (4 TS)
Day 3 - B (OOP?); L: use (4 CS); D: Boma (4 TS)
Day 4 - B (OOP?); L: Tusker House (4 CS); D: Ohana (4 TS)
Day 5 - B (OOP?); L: Cosmic Rays (4 CS); D: Liberty Tree (4TS)
Day 6 - B (OOP?); L: use (4 CS); D: Hoop de Doo (8TS)
Day 7 - B: Chef Mickeys (4TS), L: Pecos Bills (4 CS), D: OOP?
Day 8 - B (OOP?)

So I'm all confused with the kids menu vs. adult menu thing. Are our DDP cards (or whatever you get) specifed as KIDS VS ADULTS? Could I order 1 ADULT meal and have my kids split it?

I'm mostly worried about my kids having the same choices off the kids meals every night. I'd like them to eat "regular" food, not just Hamburger, Hot Dog, Chicken Nuggets.

Also I'm confused as to if there are any meals I should pay for OOP instead of using a TS or CS on, esp for my kids.

Thank you so much if you read this far and you are able to figure this out. I'm so confused. I could use CS or TS at other times but it seems I have run out of them??

I'd suggest sharing counter service lunches- specifically at Tusker House, Cosmic Rays, Pecos Bills and Tangerine Cafe. 2 meals very well be more than enough for your whole family. Then use those "saved" meals for breakfasts a few times.

We shared often. The kid's waffle breakfast platter had MORE food than the adult waffle breakfast platter and was very easy to share (as were the pancake breakfasts) at our hotel's food court.

We used snack credits for boxes of donuts, pastries, bowls of fruit, etc to supplement the breakfasts we shared.

Depending on your ADR times, you can skip lunch on your chef mickey day and eat another "larger" meal late afternoon. You can do a snack for breakfast and then an early lunch before your big evening meal days (unless they are very late ADRs).

Plan to use your TS credits for each of you at each meal you have planned. You could probably share at le Cellier but why? What would you do with your left over TS credit(s)? Most of your TS are fixed price/buffet/family style so you'll each need to use a credit for those anyway.

Focus, instead, on stretching out your CS allotments. Grab a box of granola bars for your suitcase- add a snack credit for a box of donuts and a couple refillable mugs and you won't need to "buy" breakfast OOP all week unless you want to. If you tend to be big breakfast eaters, then consider using your CS credits for breakfast a few times. You may find that you aren't hungry at lunch time and can split a meal or two as a "snack". You don't need to use "4" CS credits every time you get a meal. You can order 1, 2 or 3 meals and share them. If your kids would rather have a soft pretzel than tangerine cafe- let 'em. You'll use a snack credit or two for them and 2 CS credits for the adults and everyone will be happy.

The beauty of the plan is the flexibility. I'd encourage you to relax and enjoy yourself and not worry about making it to certain CS places at certain times. Eat what you want, when you want and just let everyone enjoy themselves.

Have fun!

 

[NeverBeen2DW]

I agree I would rather relax then worry about this. It does help though to have a plan and to research where you want to go and what you want to eat. I plan to pay for my son at some meals rather than use his TS because I would rather pay money for his meal and use his TS another day. When we go I think we have one more TS then we have paid for. So I am paying for his meal one time and using his TS at Chef Mickey another day.

 

[bicker]

Focus, instead, on stretching out your CS allotments. <snip>

This is a brilliant strategy!

 

[Hound 109]

I'd suggest sharing counter service lunches- specifically at Tusker House, Cosmic Rays, Pecos Bills and Tangerine Cafe. 2 meals very well be more than enough for your whole family. Then use those "saved" meals for breakfasts a few times.

We shared often. The kid's waffle breakfast platter had MORE food than the adult waffle breakfast platter and was very easy to share (as were the pancake breakfasts) at our hotel's food court.

We used snack credits for boxes of donuts, pastries, bowls of fruit, etc to supplement the breakfasts we shared.

Depending on your ADR times, you can skip lunch on your chef mickey day and eat another "larger" meal late afternoon. You can do a snack for breakfast and then an early lunch before your big evening meal days (unless they are very late ADRs).

Plan to use your TS credits for each of you at each meal you have planned. You could probably share at le Cellier but why? What would you do with your left over TS credit(s)? Most of your TS are fixed price/buffet/family style so you'll each need to use a credit for those anyway.

Focus, instead, on stretching out your CS allotments. Grab a box of granola bars for your suitcase- add a snack credit for a box of donuts and a couple refillable mugs and you won't need to "buy" breakfast OOP all week unless you want to. If you tend to be big breakfast eaters, then consider using your CS credits for breakfast a few times. You may find that you aren't hungry at lunch time and can split a meal or two as a "snack". You don't need to use "4" CS credits every time you get a meal. You can order 1, 2 or 3 meals and share them. If your kids would rather have a soft pretzel than tangerine cafe- let 'em. You'll use a snack credit or two for them and 2 CS credits for the adults and everyone will be happy.

The beauty of the plan is the flexibility. I'd encourage you to relax and enjoy yourself and not worry about making it to certain CS places at certain times. Eat what you want, when you want and just let everyone enjoy themselves.

Have fun!

I agree with this poster. Many of counter service restaurants are good for sharing. (Say 2 adult meals for the 4 of you...or 2 A & 1 kid meal for the 4 of you). Try it the first day and see how it goes.

The folks who say don't worry about it , do not understand the way i think. I ENJOY figuring out how to work things. (I liked story problems as a kid, & doing my taxes - weird, huh? )

Anyway, alot of us want really understand the DDP prior to hitting the world..at least i did.

On the Dining Review board there are several threads that DESCRIBE how the posters used the DDP credits. I think that would be VERY helpful for someone who hasn't used them.

KAYLIE&LAURENSMOM (in particular) wrote a wonderful thread, with great reviews & great pictures & took alot of time to break out how she managed the DDP. It's a good read, check it out.

hound

 

[squirrel922]

Thank you all for all your wonderful advice on this subject. I appreciate not only your reading that long post but offering really great suggestions!