Do you find it too much?

[excited4dis]

Food for thought:
I'm pretty much a pig.
Flame tree qs meal - no chance in hell I could finish one by myself. Wife and I couldn't even finish one. We shared some with our 7 yr old who got a kid's meal, and we still had leftovers.

Pecos Bill's qs fajita platter. The wife and I came pretty close to finishing it all. I thought it was horrible, but still, it was a LOT of food.

Mama Melrose F! Dinner. I ordered the steak, assuming it would be a smaller portion. I was thanksgiving full, and couldn't even touch the dessert. I actually almost didn't even want them to put my dessert on the table.

Now, listen - I'm a total pig, and I always tend to over order food when planning parties or gatherings. For my family, the DDP is way too much food. Maybe I think I'm a pig, but I'm really not? That wouldn't explain my waist size, tho. I wonder if some of the ppl who are proponents of the ddp are throwing a lot of the food away? I have no idea at all. I could "make" the ddp work for us monetarily, but I know we'd be throwing food away so, really, we're not saving money. We'd be paying for the food that is not eaten. Some of those QS meals are huge - especially for possible high temps and lots of walking.

Just food for thought for the OP. I'd never say that the dining plans are not good for everyone. I'm just offering a data point. I was VERY surprised at how much food some of the meals are. I was kind of expecting overpriced theme park portions for most places. The kid's meals are also pretty generous for the price.

Chris, I have to admit I laughed out loud at your post! I honestly see my kids and I sharing a lot of the QS meals, especially the one I plan on getting at Flame Tree BBQ. I was thinking if we shared some of our QS meals for lunch, then we can use some of our leftover QS credits for breakfast. I heard the steak at Mama Melrose is really good! However, I know we will be eating plenty of steak on our trip, so I think we will try and just stick to the Italian dishes when we go there. As for the desserts that come with the TS meals, I might exchange many of them for a salad or fruit dish beforehand. 5 of the 9 meals I plan on going to are a set price anyway, so not matter what I eat, the price won't be any different.

I keep going back and forth though on this DP. My youngest son is not a big eater at all, but he will be 14 by the time we go next year, so that might change. Thankfully, I have time to decide. I will plan like I am going to do the DP, but if I change my mind as our trip gets closer, I will cancel the DP and a few of the reservations.

 

[excited4dis]

One counter service and one table service. Not too much food for us! Eat our quick service earlier in the day, then a later sit down dinner. If you have enough time between meals, you should be fine.

I always find we are hungry for dinner. The year we didn't do very many sit downs, we found we missed it a lot. I need that bit of relaxation, to be served food, have some wine, just be calm for a bit.

Do we finish everything? Not all the time, but we never do at home either. I eat until I'm full and I don't feel guilty if I don't finish. Sometimes I clean my plate.

Snacks - we will use for food/wine, breakfast, maybe Starbucks, late night treats, who knows!

Thanks for your input! My older son and I are always hungry at dinner time, but my younger son, 13, has always been a nibbler at dinner. He will be 14 next year, so after a growth spurt, that might change. I do like the idea of just sitting down at night for a sit down meal. My kids and I always have great dinner conversations, so it would be a great time to sit and chat about our day and plans. BTW, can you use a snack credit for wine? If so, I love that idea!

 

[MrsIncredible1974]

Standard dining plan works great for us. And as UK visitors it's usually free which is a huge bonus

We'll tend to either have the TS for breakfast or dinner - if it's breakfast then we certainly don't need lunch and will maybe have a snack early afternoon and the QS for dinner. If we're doing TS for dinner then we'll have a snack credit (bagel, cereal or cinnamon roll) and resort mug drink or QS (omelette or waffles or similar for breakfast) or mix and match between the four of us. Then we're certainly ready for TS dinner around 6ish. But I can also see why a TS at lunch would be a good way to get out of the heat and chaos of the day.

I like having a TS to look forward to later in the day, we use the time to recap our favourite bits from the day, cool down, enjoy a glass of wine. Some days it's a recharge before hitting the parks or shows for the evening.

We find that we don't always use every credit but can usually squeeze in a trip to a store for candy to use up our snack credits!

 

[Farro]

Thanks for your input! My older son and I are always hungry at dinner time, but my younger son, 13, has always been a nibbler at dinner. He will be 14 next year, so after a growth spurt, that might change. I do like the idea of just sitting down at night for a sit down meal. My kids and I always have great dinner conversations, so it would be a great time to sit and chat about our day and plans. BTW, can you use a snack credit for wine? If so, I love that idea!

Oh how I wish I could use a snack credit for wine!!! Sadly, no. You can use it for the food in the food/wine.

Have fun whatever you choose!

 

[CynBeth]

I have never understood why one TS meal or even two is too much food. At home we eat three meals a day, so why would we skip meals on vacation? We do manage our meals so we are not having buffet at two meals in any given day.

WE look forward to a dinner that is relaxing, and we just make sure that we do not overeat just because. In Summer months we will often book a TS lunch in EPcot because that park is so darn hot. Having a scheduled air conditioned break makes sense for us.

I have a few family members with food allergies so we eat all 3 meals every day at TS. We space things out and have a lighter lunch and even have a snack and don't feel too stuffed. We find that lunch and dinner is our time to relax and recharge. We pay OOP as we find we spend less than a DP would cost.

 

[Nancyg56]

I have a few family members with food allergies so we eat all 3 meals every day at TS. We space things out and have a lighter lunch and even have a snack and don't feel too stuffed. We find that lunch and dinner is our time to relax and recharge. We pay OOP as we find we spend less than a DP would cost.

We generally have three meals too, and will often split a meal between two of us. If we share a breakfast and a lunch, we are not over full, manage to make CS credits go further, and can still have a snack during the day.

At times, two of us will share dinner as well. We may add an appetizer or two for the family, share that, and then we are able to finish our meal. I really do not like throwing food away, and it send my poor husband over the edge. This man has raised food all his life and feels it is disrespectful to take more than you can eat.

 

[Roobear77]

Another thing to consider is using a snack credit for breakfast. Most of the resot QS will have a smoothie or yoghurt parfait that is a snack credit, as well as single serving cereal, muffins/pastries etc

 

[Jadyreen1282]

Changing restaurants never gets boring.

 

[disneyvoice]

For us, we get really excited about all the food at WDW but find that it doesn't take much food to make us uncomfortable as we tour the parks. Unless we have a special breakfast meal planned we typically don't eat breakfast. 1 TS meal a day is generally not too much for us but we don't order appetizers and dessert in addition to entrees. Often instead of an entree we will split two appetizers or split one entree and a small appetizer. If we eat a special TS breakfast we generally only want a small QS meal for dinner. If we do a TS lunch I usually don't need anything else the rest of the day but my husband sometimes wants a small snack. So for us the dining plan doesn't make good financial sense. I will say in general to just be careful of how much greasy, heavy food you are eating regardless of whether it is TS or QS. I ALWAYS end up with heartburn at WDW within a few days so I actually take a daily heartburn pill as a preventative measure starring about 2 days before we arrive at WDW. The goal for us is to stop eating before we even remotely feel "full" - otherwise I am very uncomfortable and unhappy walking all over the place and climbing in and out of ride vehicles.

 

[jsternad]

One TS is definitely not too much food, IMO. We did the regular the last two times we went and I loved it. I love eating a big bfast that fuels me throughout the day. And using the TS to take a nice long break in the heat is always welcome and then we feel refreshed and ready for more fun. To be perfectly honest, there is so much walking involved (with our party at least) that I'm ALWAYS starving when the next meal time arrives. The average person walks 11 MILES at Disney in a day. In the FL heat, that's quite a lot. I could easily eat two TS a day and be very happy, but I'm also one of those people that's somewhat conscience of my calorie intake on a day to day basis and when I'm on vacation ALL BETS ARE OFF FOOD IS MY BEST FRIEND. I think it also matters where you're eating and what you order. I think two heavy pasta meals a day might do me in, but so many places offer things that aren't too heavy so you can plan accordingly. We don't schedule more than one buffet per day, and try to just do one TS a day. I also LOVE salads, and could eat my weight in it, so something light like a salad is always okay for me! With as much as I like to eat, I ordered things like the stuffed pork chop from 50's PT, chicken enchiladas from San Angel, the goat cheese salad from Raglan Road (so I had room for the bread pudding which I still only made a tiny dent in!), pan roasted chicken from CRT (YUM!), so none of it was super heavy, but filling and delicious. I'm rambling, I just love eating at Disney a lot lol.

 

[JadeDarkstar]

What I have found works great for the DP is a quick breakfast in the room (granola bars we packed or a quick out of pocket breakfast treat and coffee or juice in our refillable mugs)(We will do this as well)

Then lunch early, around 11, beat the crowds too (We try to do this too. I am thinking of doing brunch instead of PPO for a few meals)

Then a snack credit sometime before dinner

I like to do our dinner ressie around 5 so you beat the crazy dinner time and leave plenty of time to get to any firework or night time show. (Same here 4-5 is our perfect time to eat)

Then maybe use the 2nd snack credit at night if you want another treat!