Glad we stuck with the quick service dining plan!

[2Pirates2Princesses]

We recently returned from our wonderful WDW vacation and I had to share that we were pleased with the quick service plan. For months I went back and forth over whether to upgrade to the regular dining plan since we wanted to do several character meals. My gut instinct told me that for our family it wouldn't be practical to commit to more than a couple ADRs, so we stuck with the QSDP and only had two ADRs during our trip (Chef Mickey's breakfast and Crystal Palace breakfast). It worked out for us because we changed our plans around a few times (in terms of which parks we went to on certain days) and the flexibility was great. There was a lot of variety in terms of the food offered at various counterservice locations. I think we only ate burgers twice during the 8 days we were there and my kids only had chicken nuggets twice. Another thing we found was that we were scrambling to use up our snack credits. Midweek, we realized that we only used 1/4 of our snack credits! So we made sure to start using them for stuff like ice cream and got several bags of treats that we gave out as souvenirs to friends back home. I think the reason why we didn't go through our snack credits quickly was because with counterservice lunches and dinners (which is what we primarily used the meal credits for) adults get a drink and a dessert and children get two sides and a drink. We typically saved our desserts for snacks and our kids had about a dozen of those grape pouches by the end of the week We placed an order with Garden Grocer and ordered milk, cereal, bagels, juice boxes, coffee, and cases of water for our hotel room. We also packed snacks from home in our suitcases that our kids like such as fruit snacks and goldfish crackers. Had we known that you get so much food with these meals, we would have ordered less stuff. We also used our free refillable mugs more than we thought we would back at the resort, so we ended up having a lot of bottled drinks in our fridge from meals we got from our food court. I think that if you do your research on the different places you can eat and use your snack credits the QSDP is a great choice. If it wasn't for the DISboards, I wouldn't have known about getting those yummy Dole Whip floats from Aloha Isle with my snack credits Also, we got two cinnamon rolls from Main Street bakery and it was hard to believe that each roll was only one snack credit! They are huge. Me, DH, and my two DDs shared two of the rolls and could barely finish them! I know that Disney is eliminating one snack credit from the QSDP in 2012; but I don't think my family would be affected by that change if we were to ever do the QSDP again because we found it hard to use all of them up and you get so much food with the counterservice meals. We found that with our family and our kids' eating habits and temperaments that QSDP worked well for us

 

[ReneeA]

Glad it worked for you! We enjoy the DDP, but I really think we could make a great trip out of the QSP as well. I know I have a huge list of things I would like to try, and not enough CS credits to get it all. It's great to read the dining reviews and see the great things you can get at a "fast food" meal.

 

[wishicouldgomoreofte]

We recently returned from our wonderful WDW vacation and I had to share that we were pleased with the quick service plan. For months I went back and forth over whether to upgrade to the regular dining plan since we wanted to do several character meals. My gut instinct told me that for our family it wouldn't be practical to commit to more than a couple ADRs, so we stuck with the QSDP and only had two ADRs during our trip (Chef Mickey's breakfast and Crystal Palace breakfast). It worked out for us because we changed our plans around a few times (in terms of which parks we went to on certain days) and the flexibility was great. There was a lot of variety in terms of the food offered at various counterservice locations. I think we only ate burgers twice during the 8 days we were there and my kids only had chicken nuggets twice. Another thing we found was that we were scrambling to use up our snack credits. Midweek, we realized that we only used 1/4 of our snack credits! So we made sure to start using them for stuff like ice cream and got several bags of treats that we gave out as souvenirs to friends back home. I think the reason why we didn't go through our snack credits quickly was because with counterservice lunches and dinners (which is what we primarily used the meal credits for) adults get a drink and a dessert and children get two sides and a drink. We typically saved our desserts for snacks and our kids had about a dozen of those grape pouches by the end of the week We placed an order with Garden Grocer and ordered milk, cereal, bagels, juice boxes, coffee, and cases of water for our hotel room. We also packed snacks from home in our suitcases that our kids like such as fruit snacks and goldfish crackers. Had we known that you get so much food with these meals, we would have ordered less stuff. We also used our free refillable mugs more than we thought we would back at the resort, so we ended up having a lot of bottled drinks in our fridge from meals we got from our food court. I think that if you do your research on the different places you can eat and use your snack credits the QSDP is a great choice. If it wasn't for the DISboards, I wouldn't have known about getting those yummy Dole Whip floats from Aloha Isle with my snack credits Also, we got two cinnamon rolls from Main Street bakery and it was hard to believe that each roll was only one snack credit! They are huge. Me, DH, and my two DDs shared two of the rolls and could barely finish them! I know that Disney is eliminating one snack credit from the QSDP in 2012; but I don't think my family would be affected by that change if we were to ever do the QSDP again because we found it hard to use all of them up and you get so much food with the counterservice meals. We found that with our family and our kids' eating habits and temperaments that QSDP worked well for us

Thanks for the report. Hope you get to go again next year, and put all your new-found knowledge to use again. I'm sure the recipients of your gifts enjoyed them. Yes, the QSDP really works well for many families.

 

[2disneyboys]

we are another family that finds the QSDP meets our needs better than the regular DDP or DxDP. We dont like to take long breaks for meals and found there is such a variety @ the QS counters that we rarely find we are eating the same thing more than once unless we choose to. On the rare occasion that we want a nicer meal inside of disney or a character meal, we just pay oop.. but most times that we want a nice meal, we are heading somewhere outside of disney & therefore would not be able to use the dining credit anyway.

I totally agree with you on the tips I picked up the first time we did the dining plan (any of them) tips I learned on the dis truly helped me utilizie my credits in a postive way that works for our family.

 

[mousiemom]

i think that everytime we do the QS we learn something and the one tip is use your snack credits daily. i started getting me an egg roll to snack on during the flights of wonder show @ AK, we love the jalapeno stuffed cheese pretzels and we know every park that has them. we also try to use our snacks for our breakfast.

 

[Amy&Dan]

There really is something to be said for the QSDP. It can get old doing a full serve meal each day. We have done it the past three trips. I am very sad they have done away with that second snack for the 2012 plan, with two teenagers and travelling during the hot summer monnths when we like to get a water bottle with that second snack, it was a good thing to have two.

In any case, there is so much variety at WDW cs locations its not a hot dog/burger plan but a true meal plan.

Glad you had a wonderful trip!

 

[SPOERLX3]

i think that everytime we do the QS we learn something and the one tip is use your snack credits daily. i started getting me an egg roll to snack on during the flights of wonder show @ AK, we love the jalapeno stuffed cheese pretzels and we know every park that has them. we also try to use our snacks for our breakfast.

I am soooo looking forward to trying the jalapeno stuffed cheese pretzel It sounds yummy! Can you share with me which parks have them and where? I believe I have read Fife & Drum in Epcot America and Safari Pretzel in AK Africa. Do you know where or if they have them anywhere in MK or HS?

 

[SPOERLX3]

We recently returned from our wonderful WDW vacation and I had to share that we were pleased with the quick service plan. For months I went back and forth over whether to upgrade to the regular dining plan since we wanted to do several character meals. My gut instinct told me that for our family it wouldn't be practical to commit to more than a couple ADRs, so we stuck with the QSDP and only had two ADRs during our trip (Chef Mickey's breakfast and Crystal Palace breakfast). It worked out for us because we changed our plans around a few times (in terms of which parks we went to on certain days) and the flexibility was great. There was a lot of variety in terms of the food offered at various counterservice locations. I think we only ate burgers twice during the 8 days we were there and my kids only had chicken nuggets twice. Another thing we found was that we were scrambling to use up our snack credits. Midweek, we realized that we only used 1/4 of our snack credits! So we made sure to start using them for stuff like ice cream and got several bags of treats that we gave out as souvenirs to friends back home. I think the reason why we didn't go through our snack credits quickly was because with counterservice lunches and dinners (which is what we primarily used the meal credits for) adults get a drink and a dessert and children get two sides and a drink. We typically saved our desserts for snacks and our kids had about a dozen of those grape pouches by the end of the week We placed an order with Garden Grocer and ordered milk, cereal, bagels, juice boxes, coffee, and cases of water for our hotel room. We also packed snacks from home in our suitcases that our kids like such as fruit snacks and goldfish crackers. Had we known that you get so much food with these meals, we would have ordered less stuff. We also used our free refillable mugs more than we thought we would back at the resort, so we ended up having a lot of bottled drinks in our fridge from meals we got from our food court. I think that if you do your research on the different places you can eat and use your snack credits the QSDP is a great choice. If it wasn't for the DISboards, I wouldn't have known about getting those yummy Dole Whip floats from Aloha Isle with my snack credits Also, we got two cinnamon rolls from Main Street bakery and it was hard to believe that each roll was only one snack credit! They are huge. Me, DH, and my two DDs shared two of the rolls and could barely finish them! I know that Disney is eliminating one snack credit from the QSDP in 2012; but I don't think my family would be affected by that change if we were to ever do the QSDP again because we found it hard to use all of them up and you get so much food with the counterservice meals. We found that with our family and our kids' eating habits and temperaments that QSDP worked well for us

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for this post.
We have done the DDP the past 3 trips and really enjoyed it but this year we are bringing 3 of our grandkids with us (all 11 yrs old) and with the cost of the trip and airfair alone (and then my DD22 gets engaged so now we have a wedding we are planning), our pocketbook was feeling the pinch so we booked POP with the QSDP (love that all the food will be paid for). Then the free dining came out and it saved us $972 (praise God!). We really debated on upgrading to the DDP but after weighing all our options and realizing that to upgrade we would have to pay $462 for the upgrade plus another $250+ in tips and additional $90 for our refillable mugs, we would have just about spent the $972 we just saved. Eventhough we will miss some of our favorite restraunts (especially LeCellier and O'hana), we feel that this year the QSDP will work best for us. Not having to corral 6 people once a day to stop what they are doing to get to a ressie and saving the money for the wedding sounds like the best deal for us. I am soooo glad to see other families that LOVED the QSDP!
I would love to hear about some of the places that ya'll ate.
I am doing my homework and like you, hope to eat burgers and chicken nuggets minimally during our trip.

Thank you again and thank you for any tips on where you LOVED to eat on the QSDP.

 

[Cin]

We had the QSDP on our last trip and booked and paid for a sit down OOP and it worked out great for us. So well in fact that I was going to get it again this trip except we got upgraded to free regular dining with our moderate resort. I am both excited to get to try new places and new experiences, but also noticing that my trip plans seem to revolve around our dining reservations, so there is a loss of flexibility. I tried to plan my park days first so I could schedule in ADR's but I am already missing the QSDP's flexibility and timing on my schedule. Now I can only hope we are ready to eat when I have meals scheduled and hope our taste buds are hungry for the type food chosen that day. We a lot of snacks left on our last day as well and I took home a lot of Mickey Rice Krispy treats and Disney gummy bears. We even had several desserts left and don't know why but we brought those home too, on the plane. I loved the QSDP when we used it too.

 

[Caitriona]

Oh, thanks for posting that. I've been going back and forth for so long between QSDP, DDP and with paying OOP and I really think that the QSDP would work best for our family (3 kids ages 7, 3 & 1). I was going to go OOP and share, but since I like salads & DH likes heartier options, it looks like our best best. The flexibility is also another bonus point...oh, and not having to try to get enough value out of it, like on the DDP, which only raises the amount we'd need to tip.

Thanks, I love reading positive QSDP reports

 

[2Pirates2Princesses]

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for this post.
We have done the DDP the past 3 trips and really enjoyed it but this year we are bringing 3 of our grandkids with us (all 11 yrs old) and with the cost of the trip and airfair alone (and then my DD22 gets engaged so now we have a wedding we are planning), our pocketbook was feeling the pinch so we booked POP with the QSDP (love that all the food will be paid for). Then the free dining came out and it saved us $972 (praise God!). We really debated on upgrading to the DDP but after weighing all our options and realizing that to upgrade we would have to pay $462 for the upgrade plus another $250+ in tips and additional $90 for our refillable mugs, we would have just about spent the $972 we just saved. Eventhough we will miss some of our favorite restraunts (especially LeCellier and O'hana), we feel that this year the QSDP will work best for us. Not having to corral 6 people once a day to stop what they are doing to get to a ressie and saving the money for the wedding sounds like the best deal for us. I am soooo glad to see other families that LOVED the QSDP!
I would love to hear about some of the places that ya'll ate.
I am doing my homework and like you, hope to eat burgers and chicken nuggets minimally during our trip.

Thank you again and thank you for any tips on where you LOVED to eat on the QSDP.

You're welcome. We really enjoyed the quick service plan. We only did two ADRs OOP for our entire trip and felt those were more than enough for our family. We did character breakfasts at both Crystal Palace and Chef Mickey's and enjoyed them both. Some of the counterservice places we enjoyed in the parks (we spent two days in each park) were: Sunshine Seasons (Epcot), Pinnochio Village Haus & Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe (MK), Flame Tree Barbecue & Pizzafari (AK), and Studio Catering Co. in HS (ate there on both of our HS days). We also ate a lot in our resort's food court (AS Music). Unfortunately, we didn't eat at any of the Downtown Disney restaurants because on the evening we went to DTD our two youngest children started getting fussy and cranky right when we decided to go into Earl of Sandwich because I wanted to order something to go to eat back at the hotel. It was a long day and we made the bad decision to not bring our strollers with us that night because we thought we wouldn't need them in DTD . We already ate an early dinner back at the resort prior to heading out to DTD so I know they weren't hungry, just being fussy and tired from the day. So just as I got a spot in line to order at Earl of Sandwich my DH motioned to me for us to leave as things were starting to go downhill with our little ones. I really wanted to try either Earl of Sandwich or Wolfgang Puck Express because I read so many good things about both of them here on the boards since they both take the QSDP. I guess we will have to save those for our next trip. Lastly, the snack credits are so wonderful to have. It was so nice to be able to get ice creams and other treats for our kids without having to dip into our other spending money. The snacks we loved the most were at MK: Dole Whip floats from Aloha Isle and cinnamon rolls from Main Street Bakery

 

[Amerangel89]

From the standpoint of two petite females, the Regular DDP was a LOT of food that we couldn't always finish...but we were determined to do CRT, so that worked out best. I'm initrigued with just doing the QSDP next time...b/c it was so nice to not have to feel GUILTY for getting food you wanted while in the parks. Prepaid=the best.

 

[Princesca]

I was so glad to read this, too! I've been kind of going back and forth... we're going with my niece, who will be 4.5 years old, and I know we'll want to do a character breakfast with her, so I had run the numbers to see if it would make sense to upgrade IF we were offered free QSDP. But other than that one meal, I think it would work better for us to NOT be tied down to reservations.

As I was saying in another thread, being a frugal person, I know that if I DON'T have a dining plan, I won't do the snacks and things that make going to WDW even more fun. And every time I DO think about a snack, I'll be asking myself, "Do I really want to pay $4 for a pretzel" or something like that, and that's a very grownup way to think, and dangit, I don't want to be a grownup at WDW!

 

[mamatobbg]

Thanks for this post. I'm currently trying to decide whether or not to do the DDP or pay out of pocket. We like to do one sit down meal a day, but I don't like to feel tied to reservations (with the exception of a character meal.) I hadn't considered doing the QS option. Then paying some out of pocket. Hmmm. I'm going to take a peek at that!

 

[SAtella]

I couldn't agree more. The last few times my family and I went, we had the same quick service plan. It's nice to not always be on a schedule, feel you have to plan your day around your meal. Having the quick service plan allows you to do whatever you want, go where you want. So many times I feel we are tied to one park because of an early or late dinning reservation. I usually add in Chef Mickey as a treat one day but that's all we need.

 

[Disneyof3]

Glad to hear about how good the QSDP is again. Our next trip will QS too because of the time it takes to eat and booking reservations 180 days out. I do believe too that there is too much food on the DDP. We on the other hand didn't have any food delivered to our room and used SC for our breakfast. So next time missing the extra snack credit per person will be missed. I'm thinking next time I might have to go and get breakfast food for the hotel so we can use the SC for disney snack.

 

[mommykds]

I agree with everything in your post. We had the free QSDP this summer & it worked so well for my family of 5. Glad you had a good experience with it.

 

[Busymom85]

Thanks for posting. I'm trying to decide what to do about dinning. Glad you liked the QSDP.

 

[GrumpyDad1974]

We have done both plans and they both have there good points. QSDP gives us the ability to be flexible which is important if you don't do park hoppers in the summer we bring a case of water from home just to make sure we have plenty of snack credits and we always do... in the winter we didn't bring water and had plenty of extra snack credits. The down side is you do not get to go to the nicer resturants or character meals but then again you do not need to pick where you want to eat 6 months in advance... What we decide has a lot to do with if anyone else is going with our family. Last Christmas we had a grand gathering and the vote was to go with QSDP with some Disney newbies and then they regreted it once we were there and then it was way too late to even get a reservation... lol

 

[Dizneydaz]

OP-glad it worked so well for you. Last year we had QSDP for the first time (after having reg. DDP for 6 times) and we loved it! I liked having the TS meals but making, and keeping, ADRs can be a pain. While I do miss some of our fav. TS locations, I'm sure we will be back to them at some point.

I don't think we had one burger last year on QSDP. Not sure if DD had any nuggets either. We have a car so we like to eat at DTD and some of the other resorts as well as in the parks. And yes, you do end up with a lot of SC towards the end of your trip. I think we used 14 on our last day-took home a lot of candy from Goofy's (DD12 wants to get some more of their fudge).

We will also be there during F&WF so we can use SC for those tastes too!