Food funds for kid’s friend

[jpkkld]

We’re heading down mid-May and so excited to be back in our happy place!! This trip, we’re bringing my D’s friend. The girls are finishing their Junior year of high school and we expect they’ll break off on their own a few times over our 3 park days.

I would like to set them up to be able to buy snacks and butterbeer when we’re not together, but I’m having an oddly tough time with this! My D goes through at least 3 butterbeers a day.

We did set up reservations for all dinners and lunches. So I don’t think buying them a meal plan each would be a good idea - can you use the QS meal plan at Confisco or Mythos?

Plus, you can’t use the meal plan with mobile ordering, but I think they would use mobile ordering if they could.

I would be fine with applying our credit card to my D’s app and room key, so she could pay for both girls. But what if they split up for food - one goes for fries and the other for sushi. I don’t want them to waste 2 hours on the long QS lines for a quick snack because only one of them can pay.

I’m not sure how I feel about putting my CC on the friends app or room key. And if she wants to buy souvenirs, she may prefer having her own CC on her own app. Can you even use the app to pay in gift shops?

A recent thread brought up gift cards - maybe we should buy one for each kid and whatever’s left over, we save for the next trip? Where do you buy the gift cards?

I also don’t want to give them too much $ - what if we really don’t split up and DH and I end up paying for everything anyway. $200 locked up in GC’s is $200 worth of college applications, after all. Not that we would go with $200 in GC’s, but I would have to give the value of the cards some serious thought.

I know the friend’s parents wouldn’t object to footing her own food bill, but they have included my D on their summer vacations for the past 2 years, and we want to reciprocate. The friend bought her own ticket and plane fare, and we offered to cover the rest. We’re also going to the beach afterwards.

Any suggestions are very welcome!

 

[Darrah]

What about a Visa gift card for each? I think most of the time they're reloadable so if you want to give them a daily budget you could and just add more money each day. That way they each can be responsible for their own purchases but you're not necessarily giving them carte blanche to go on a spending spree. (Not saying they would anyway.) The beauty of a Visa GC is that it can be used anywhere, so if there's money leftover you're not locked into spending them at UO.

ETA: I don't know if prepaid Visa cards can be loaded into the app.

 

[MomOTwins]

Are you staying onsite and could give them charging privileges on their room keys?

Otherwise I think your plan to let your daughter mobile order for both girls on the app is a solid one. Odds are they will just stay together for most snacks.

 

[AJA]

We just returned yesterday from a 7 day trip and as far as food goes, eat early (we got in the simpsons food court lunch line around 11:15) or be prepared to wait an hour or so, even the slice pizza cart had at least a 30 min line mid day.

My daughter is 16 and would be ok with the corndog or pretzel carts at lunch so she didn’t have to give up an hour or more of ride time. I guess its Covid restrictions and crowds coming back that are creating a perfect storm at the quick service restaurants.

You may want to just do gift cards so they can snack instead of getting in the lunch lines. We were fortunate enough that the Mardi Gras carts were still open last week, we snacked from those or made table service reservations all but one day.

We have been visiting 1-2 times per year since 2010 (at non peak times) and I have never seen peopled lined down the street to order at Richter Burger!

 

[dawnball]

I'd go for a hybrid model. Your daughter gets your credit card in the app for mobile order. Both kids get room charge (DD on your card, friend on theirs) for snack carts/restaurants that don't do mobile order. You can drop by the front desk and ask to pay off specific charges/amounts before they run the card on file. It should be pretty easy to tell meals/snacks from shopping. Then I usually give my teenagers each an emergency $10-20. Bring me back the change and receipts/explanations and I'll replace it for the next day.

 

[jpkkld]

@dawnball Really liking that hybrid plan and the pay-as-you-go model! Thank you -that's perfect!