DDP questions

[pavil]

Still trying to figure out is the DDP is worth it to our family
DH, DW DS's (9,7,6) . Most of them are light eaters, I will eat my fill

1.) Can we eat dinners and just use for instance just one adult and 2 kids meals at a Table service place and pay for the others. I can't see all of us eating full meals with appetizer and dessert. Perhaps we can spread it out by splitting the TS credits on lunch and breakfast sometimes. Is this even possible? I'd hate to order and eat food just cause it was included on the plan.

 

[hastrobb]

It is my understanding that everyone in the same room has to be on the dining plan.

 

[pavil]

Thanks I understand that, but can it work to stretch out our CS over two meals ie use one adult and one kids at one meal (breakfast) and 1 adult and 2 kids vouchers at another (lunch)

I understand with TS it might be harder to do, could we order a meal to go from TS?

 

[bicker]

I think if you need to start crafting a strategy like that, you may actually be better off paying in cash. You may find yourself spending a lot less money that way, and indeed wasting less, since a lot of folks report that they'd rather buy adult meals for some of their older young children (9 year olds, for example) than buy child meals for them which they may not appreciate.

 

[mcco5543]

I would agree, The DDP was created to make things simple and easy for a family. It sounds like it's getting complicated for yours. '


1. way around the light eater/heavy eater quandry is to go to a lot of Buffets. (Breakfast and Dinner Buffets abound at Disney). If you end up doing a lot of Buffets the DDP could be good for your family.

2. You didn't mention what type of eaters your family is in terms of picky vs. will eat anything. The Children's DDP menu is VERY limited to the traditional foods kids will usually eat (plain pasta, chicken tenders, mac n' cheese). If this doesn't sound like your kids then maybe the DDP is a bad idea. (you can also get around the limited children's menu on the DDP by doing the buffets).

We all try and fin-agel(sp?) around and get the most out of our budget and the DDP but If the DDP is complicating things, I say leave it alone.

Good luck!

 

[extremesoccermom]

DD13 and I are hoping to do exactly this when we go in August with the Free DDP. We are planing on splitting meals at San Angel and Mama Melrose or Tony's in order to have Breakfast at Crystal Palace.
DD is a grazer. She eats all day long but will only eat small amounts at each meal. CS is easy as we will just order one meal for lunch and one for late evening snack or breakfast. At TS we will just ask. Most of the time she is happy with just the appitizer for her meal.

 

[amee]

We didn't do any splitting of meals on our last trip. However, what we did do occasionally is use 2 credits each for the adults in our party, and pay $ for the kids meals............at Jiko in particular, this worked well.

amee

 

[pavil]

We ended up with the dining plan and it worked out very well. The only thing we did end up splitting were some of the adult CS for lunch, really too much food for one person, especially if you have an early (before 8:00) TS Dinner comming up. Ended up using one Adult CS for Breakfast and one for Lunch somedays. Worked out really good that way. I'm a big eater and my DW is a smaller eater, so it was just right.

Splitting TS just didn't make logistical sense for us.

 

[LizinSTL]

We ended up with the dining plan and it worked out very well. The only thing we did end up splitting were some of the adult CS for lunch, really too much food for one person, especially if you have an early (before 8:00) TS Dinner comming up. Ended up using one Adult CS for Breakfast and one for Lunch somedays. Worked out really good that way. I'm a big eater and my DW is a smaller eater, so it was just right.

Splitting TS just didn't make logistical sense for us.

I'm glad that you checked back in on this.

I agree that it's a great idea to share your CS credits at breakfasts and lunches when using your TS for your dinner meals. It seems to work out very well, IMO. Doing this and combining it with the snacks- we paid for very few food items out of pocket.

 

[ballarinamom]

We did some splitting because it was so much food and we had two table service meals planned on the same day. This is what we did-
DH, myself and DD5

Breakfast-
Shared 2 adult breakfast platter

Lunch at 50's Prime Time-
With DDP- ordered kids salad, meatloaf/fries and sundae &milkshale
ordered fired cheese appetizer, fried chicken, strawberry shortcake & milkshake (The adult milkshake came with the tumbler with the extra shake so I drank that)
We ordered and extra soda and a shrimp cocktail appetizer OOP because DD likes shrimp and she ate that as her entree with the fries.

We put all of the food out and there was more than enough. We even had leftovers

Snack was Soft pretzel, popcorn and a churro

Dinner at SciFi-
We ordered DD meal OOP
DDP- DH and I split the artichoke dip, rueben/ fries and dessert with Milkshake as a drink. We upgraded DD drink to the pirates punch with glow in the dark tinkerbell. Dh had a glowtini We still had leftovers.

OOP we paid for an extra drink, shrimp cocktail, kid's meal and 2 glow drinks.

They gave us a separate bill for the items that were OOP and a receipt for the dinning plan meals.
I didn't feel like we were doing anythingwrong as the waiters never blinked and knew how to handle it. We also spent money out of pocket and used DDP meerly as a supplement to our spending

We still had one kid's CS left and still had lots of left over food

Waiter

 

[pavil]

We did some splitting because it was so much food and we had two table service meals planned on the same day. This is what we did-
DH, myself and DD5

Nice way of using the plan. As I am now a little more comfortable with portion sizes of the meals I will tweak things better with the dining plan. For example at Maya Grill the kids menu gives 5 mozzerella sticks as the app, good portion of chicken or beef tips and ice cream. The Adult dinners are huge as well. You could very easily split dinners there if you wanted to but I wouldn't as the food is so good. Wolfgang puck express was another place where 2 adults or 2 younger kids could share their CS meal.

Adding on a snack or a small side OOP and splitting a CS or TS dinner is a very valid and smart way of maximizing your dining plan pleasure. Had to see it firsthand though.

 

[ladylee]

We just returned and used the DDp. I have to say yes it was a great value, but way too much food. We did end up sharing some of the meals because I felt so wasteful. Even at a TS meal two of my kids shared.

Not sure I would use the plan the next time we go. I think we would be better off eating in the room during our breaks. But trying out the different resturants was a lot of fun.