Disney dining plan

[angelover02740]

So we plan on purchasing the Disney Dining plan where you get 1 quick service and 1 table service, 1 snack and 1 drink per day. so it looks like we will have to pay for 1 meal a day if we do 3 meals. What is everyones suggestions on which i the cheapest meal breakfast/lunch or dinner and how do you go around it so your not really paying

 

[goldwest]

We always use the snack credit for breakfast - we usually buy some fruit and pastry at the resort and split it. The amount of food we ate for lunch and dinner meant we found this to be more than enough for breakfast. One day we did a character breakfast then planned to have a snack before dinner. We were all so full we forgot to even eat the snack! Hope this helps.

 

[ibela]

Breakfast is easily the cheapest to pay for out of pocket. We bring a sealed bag of cereal (without the box) in our luggage in between all the clothes, this way the kids have their fave without me looking high and low for it. Then I buy a gallon of milk at the resort store and we have cereal in the room some days. Pop tarts and granola bars work as well. You can also use snack credits for breakfast foods - you can go healthy (oatmeal, yogurt parfait, bagel with cream cheese) or not healthy (crossaint, muffin, bakery pastry). There are also platters at resort QS that come with scrambled eggs, biscuit, meat, french toast - it's quite large and I easily split that with a kid, costs about $9 or 1 QS credit with a bottled beverage (ex. smart water that you can take with you to the park or a large chocolate milk for a kid). You can use the mugs that come with the plan for coffee/hot chocolate.

 

[angelover02740]

I was thinking breakfast was the cheapest to. we will probably lose 1 quick service credit the day we arrive since we probably will be arriving for dinner time.. Do you get credit the day you leave?

 

[figment_jii]

So we plan on purchasing the Disney Dining plan where you get 1 quick service and 1 table service, 1 snack and 1 drink per day. so it looks like we will have to pay for 1 meal a day if we do 3 meals. What is everyones suggestions on which i the cheapest meal breakfast/lunch or dinner and how do you go around it so your not really paying

In general, breakfast is likely to the least expensive meal of the day, but it does depend on where you plan to eat. I wouldn't necessarily say that I'll always pay OOP for breakfast and use my TS credits for dinner regardless of where I am eating. For example, if you opt to go to Akershus for breakfast ($41 per adult) and Garden Grill for dinner ($38 per adult), it makes more sense to use the DDP credit at Akershus and pay OOP for Garden Grill. Basically, if you're doing at (character) buffet breakfasts, those might be more expensive than a non-character/non-buffet meal.

Some of the TS locations have fairly inexpensive menus (for Disney), so you just have to keep an eye on the prices. In general, the a la carte TS breakfast locations are not a good use of credits (no dessert), but the breakfast buffets can be an okay use. So if you're planning on an a la carte TS breakfast, then I would probably pay OOP for that and use the DDP credits on lunch or dinner.

 

[disney world dreamer]

breakfast is always the cheapest meal to do OOP.
personally my family does not like to eat too much at breakfast time so we bring little things from home like pop tarts or fruit and grain bars or we buy OOP from the hotel food court.

if we want to do a table service breakfast then we make the res for as late as possible so its more like brunch/lunch.

but if you want 3 square meals a day i def recommend buying breakfast OOP.

 

[serene56]

1 drink per day. g

you get ONE refillable mug that is good for unlimited drinks during your stay

we p[ack breakfast foods for eating while getting ready for the park

 

[ibela]

I was thinking breakfast was the cheapest to. we will probably lose 1 quick service credit the day we arrive since we probably will be arriving for dinner time.. Do you get credit the day you leave?

You don't "lose" or "get" credits later, it's all pooled together and made available to you when you check-in. Ex, we're a party of 2 adults and 2 children staying for 8 nights so we will have a total of 16 TS meals per group and 32 QS meals per group. We arrive late and are planning a QS dinner so now I have an "extra" TS credit not used that day. On a different day we're having TS breakfast (character meal so $) and a TS dinner that day. Now we have the "extra" QS which we may or may not use for lunch (probably not since both meals that day are AYCE) so we may use 2 credits and share lunch or just use some snack credits and use the QS credits for another day or for breakfast or something.

In general, breakfast is likely to the least expensive meal of the day, but it does depend on where you plan to eat. I wouldn't necessarily say that I'll always pay OOP for breakfast and use my TS credits for dinner regardless of where I am eating. For example, if you opt to go to Akershus for breakfast ($41 per adult) and Garden Grill for dinner ($38 per adult), it makes more sense to use the DDP credit at Akershus and pay OOP for Garden Grill. Basically, if you're doing at (character) buffet breakfasts, those might be more expensive than a non-character/non-buffet meal.

Some of the TS locations have fairly inexpensive menus (for Disney), so you just have to keep an eye on the prices. In general, the a la carte TS breakfast locations are not a good use of credits (no dessert), but the breakfast buffets can be an okay use. So if you're planning on an a la carte TS breakfast, then I would probably pay OOP for that and use the DDP credits on lunch or dinner.

Yes, breakfast is usually cheaper to pay OOP but there are exceptions. Character and fixed price meals are pricey, even at breakfast. There are some a la carte restaurants that are inexpensive, even at dinner (ex. the Plaza, Sci-Fi). If you're trying to both save $ while maximizing the value of the plan - general rule is pay OOP or snack for bkfst, QS for lunch, TS for dinner. And remember credits are pooled so if you have 7 nights of credits and 8 ADRs for TS, you'll have to look at the menus to see which is better to pay OOP for. And also, you can mix and match. Ex. if your 8th ADR is say T-Rex and you may only want an app for your meal, you can pay for your app OOP while everyone else uses a credit. Enjoy!