How do you utilize your basic dining plan?

[Picabo]

This will be our 1st time using the dining plan...we'll have 2 adults and 2 toddlers. (Age 2 and 3...so only one actually on the dining plan with us.) I'm curious to see what people typically do to stretch out their credits or make the most of them? I've read alot of people share CS meals - I can't really imagine my husband sharing his meal with me and not being hungry an hour later. People "say" the servings are huge but in the pix, they seem relatively normal. We're not huge people, by the way....but we do enjoy food. I just can't imagine 2 adults ordering a burger and fries (for example), splitting it, and being content for the next 4-5hrs till dinner.

So if anyone cares to share how you use your points on a daily basis, I think it'd be interesting to see the various ways people make use of it!

THANKS, in advance!!

 

[Ted in Halifax]

Traveling with grandmother, 2 adults and 2 little kids

What we do is this.

Use the Counter Service for a good breakfast (9am), often in the Park that we plan to spend the morning in. Eating in the Park allows the little ones to get wide awake and get more hungry before the meal. Use the Snack in the early afternoon (i.e 1pm) . Then do the table service at 5pm (4 to 6pm range).

My family are not big eaters ....

 

[Picabo]

Traveling with grandmother, 2 adults and 2 little kids

What we do is this.

Use the Counter Service for a good breakfast (9am), often in the Park that we plan to spend the morning in. Eating in the Park allows the little ones to get wide awake and get more hungry before the meal. Use the Snack in the early afternoon (i.e 1pm) . Then do the table service at 5pm (4 to 6pm range).

My family are not big eaters ....

Hmm that sounds like a good plan! So you eat as soon as you get to the park or do you hit a few rides first? What places in the parks offer decent CS Bkfst? THANKS!

 

[VacationKicks]

One CS tip is to order a double cheeseburger with fries on the DDP then pay for a bun (around $1.50). We found the fry portion large and easy to split. So if you do need to buy lunch remember even if it's not listed on the menu you can order just the nuggets or hamburger (cheaper than the meal) and split the sides.

Another thing that is great for the kids to split is the pizza. Since the 2 yr old won't be on the plan you have to split with her or buy her own food. We found a pizza big enough for 2 kids. Depending on how much they eat maybe your whole family could split 2 pizzas? Even thought the pizzas only would not be enough don't forget at pizza planet that will also include 2 salads and 2 desserts. Then a couple of hours later you get snacks.

Also we packed a box of cereal in our luggage to eat in the room for breakfast a couple of mornings, used some snack credits or refillable mugs for breakfast drinks. That saved time and money! Then we went to a late buffet (last breakfast seating usually 11am). That would hold us all till a counter service dinner.

 

[imthatgirl]

on our first trip with the ddp we used the counter for lunch and the table for dinner. for breakfast we went off site to a buffet.

this past trip in august we found that we liked using the counter for breakfast and the table for a 5:00 dinner to work out well. then for lunch we would just grab a snack.

i know there are all kinds of sharing startegies. ive never found that to be an ideal way to eat there. we do a lot of walking and really need food to keep us going.

 

[Girly_Qs]

We tend to grab something quick in the room for breakfast early, as we like to get an early start. Dry cereal, muffins, granola bars, etc. We also usually plan a quick swing by a grocery on our way in to grab yogurt smoothies (my girls morning staple).

We plan to hit Parks by rope drop. Ride what we can early. Grab an 'early' lunch around 11, using a CS credit, usually each getting our own, just sharing with the littlest one (we also have a 2yo, not on the plan). But, there are some meals that can easily be shared - double cheeseburgers, and the 1/2 Chicken and Ribs combo at Cosmic Ray's in MK come to mind.

We then usually take an afternoon break back at the hotel (swim, shower, nap, etc), so we can grab something in the room again if we're really hungry. Usually we're not hungry, so much as thristy and we cover that by buying a refillable resort mug on day 1 and fully utilizing it for the entirety of our stay.

We head back to Park/Resort for our TS dinner, usually pretty early (5'ish). IME last year, we *never* walked away from a TS hungry in any way. This year, I'm sure that won't happen because we've booked a lot of character buffets (for the girls, and us too!). We have no one to blame but ourselves if we leave hungry, and the little one can eat as much of whatever she wants at the buffets.

We use our snack credits throughout the day - most days it's for a late evening snack (say, pastries from France while we watch the IllumiNations fireworks at Epcot, etc). But, some days it's for an afternoon snack (depending on the timing of lunch/rest/dinner) - we do often split snacks too though, the pretzels in Germany were a hit with all last year and they were HUGE.

Doing this last year also helped us avoid some crowds/waits - lunch usually picks up by 11:45 and restaurants tend to be busiest around 6-6:30. We were done by those times and back out in the Parks riding/doing while others ate/waited in line. HTH!

 

[OneBadApple]

Last year I packed the little one serving boxes of cereal and instant oatmeal and we ate those for breakfast most mornings. We would then use our CS for lunch (most days) and have a nice sit down dinner. A lot of times, we couldn't eat the desserts that came with the CS meals so we just saved those for later and ended up using a lot of our snack credits on water or soda.

We did use our CS one morning for breakfast and since the adult ones came with 2 beverages, we (DH, DD and me) each got a water for use later on at the parks.

We never shared our CS meals and we hardly paid anything out of pocket. We were 3 adults and 1 child, so we didn't have a little to purchase food for. But I would think that your 2 and 3 year olds would probably do well sharing at each meal.

 

[Island_Girl]

We found several meals very easy to share at CS restaurants (traveling with 2 three year olds so both on the plan)

At AK we ate at Yak & Yedi and got one order of (orange?) chicken and then used 2 snack credit for some egg rolls and fried rice. Considering it came with a dessert and drink, it was MORE than enough to feed our family of 4. (We had brought juice boxes in for the kids).

At MK we ate at Cosmic Rays and split the ribs & chicken. We ordered 2 kids meals and the didn't even finish one between the two of them.

At our resort we got a pizza one night - in the food court, not delivered, and also got 2 salads as snacks - way more food than our family could eat!

At Downtown Disney we ordered one pizza and one order of the crusted chicken w/ mashed potatoes. About half of the pizza was not eaten.

Our approach was to start with 2 orders (and not order a kid's meal) for our family and then if we were hungry, we could always go back for more. We were never left hungry. We ended up spreading out our meals this way - even left without using all of our CS meals!

 

[ajk912]

For us we are hungry at 12-1 for lunch whether we have a big breakfast or a light breakfast. Not sure why.

So, we would have a light breakfast in the room before we leave. Fiber One bars from home or muffins we pick up in the food court with our snack credits mostly! Then, we would either do a sit down lunch or CS lunch at 12-1, and either a sit down dinner or CS dinner 5-6ish. Then, if need be, we will get a snack with our snack credits at 8-9.

 

[hill6]

The quick service at Catina de San Angel at the Mexican pavillion in Epoct has a combo where you get three items for lunch as a combo plus a drink and churro. The cost was about $10.75 if we bought it out of pocket.

I usually save my CS for lunch. Breakfast for us is usually a smaller meal or grabbed on the go to the parks or at a bakery in the parks so that would not be cost effective.

We figure out what we want for snacks and say well if I spend $2.50 for water etc that really isn't worth it but if I am in Magic Kingdom I get the Dole Whip which is more expensive and I can say I got the most bang for the buck.

The first day we actually didn't use any credits and saved the snacks for the next day. We actually had used 2 table sevice credits for HDDR and I paid $60 out of pocket one night for dinner which allowed me to apply basically $25 of dinner credit to HDDR (half the price of the ticket).

 

[Evan&Kimberly]

Well we just came back from our first WDW trip myself and 2yr old son and we had a blast so much that we bounced back for next year,we had the free dinning and it was nore than enough food,I ended up paying out of pocket for breakfast at Crystal Palace since it was the cheapest and I used my $15 Planet Hollywood Voucher for a Turkey Club and a smoothie the difference was like 3.00 not including the tip well for the whole trip I ended up paying 23.00 for food OOP and had 4 snack credits left(which I used for Goofy Cotton Candy 2 bring home for my family) I was there for 6 nights and 7 days this gave me a total of 6 TS,6 CS and 6 SC

Day 1 Tangerine Cafe(L,cs) 1900 Park Fare(D)
Day 2 Cosmic Rays(L,cs) Biergertain (D)
Day 3 PSB(B,ts) LeCelliar(D)
Day4 WPE(L,cs) Ohana(D)
Day 5 Flame Tree(EarlyLunch,cs) Planet Hollywood(LateL,free)
Pop (D,cs)

Day6 Crystal Palace(B) BOMA(D)
Day 7 Coral Reef(L) Sunshine Season grab a sandwich,cookie& water for the airport

And when I checked out I got a print out sayin that I had 1 TS I didnt look at it untill I left I was going to pay OOP for Coral Reef so I asked the server to check my KEY2THEWorld and I got some disney magic because he said I had 1 TS left so I enjoyed my steak, well anyway the basic dinnig plan is great and you can even pay for some less expensive places to eat OOP and it still is a great deal,but next year we will do the Deluxe,and simply we will try to do on 1TS credit and a 2TS credit a day that way we will only be tied up twice a day but some days we will do 3 TS,and will not always eat the appy or the desserts this will be more less for the experince of CRT,and Narcooses things like that well I hope this helps! Oh I did bring organic crackers, yougart bars,popcorn,cereal bars,organic milk boxes,and bottled water for my son from home and he ate them in the morning.This can save a ton of money as well as time!

 

[ReneeA]

I pack pop tarts, granola bars, and oatmeal bars for quick, easy breakfasts to eat at the bus stops each morning. Then we grab 2 snacks and split them between the 4 of us mid morning. Eat an early lunch (around 11) at CS and then an early dinner (around 5). Normally, we would grab snacks around 7-8 or so.

We had credits left over to use on our last day, so nobody went hungry.

 

[Think Pink Tink]

My girls (5,7) NEVER eat alot. I always end up splitting CS meals for them, so at breakfast and lunch they will split a meal and we all use TS for dinner. Dh and I can use the extra CS if we want a snack or even the 4 of us will split a CS meal for a late day snack. None of us are big eaters so we find that there is PLENTY of food. We have used the DP for our last 2 trips and wouldn't do Disney without it

 

[fortheboys]

We do breakfast in the room - instant oatmeal, muffins, etc and arrive at the parks for rope drop. We eat lunch before noon to avoid the rush, then use a snack credit around 2 on the way back to the hotel (naps and such) all of my ADR's are 5:30 or earlier, so we end up using another snack credit in the evening before fireworks. We pretty much use each persons daily "allotment" each day, so on our last day (staying 7 nts,8days) we will pay for whatever OOP or use up snack credits if they are left...We also start the day with water from our rooms - I'd hate to waste a snack credit on water when there are so many more delectable choices!

We are a family of 4, with only 3 of us on the DDP (the 2y/o can share plates in all resturants) and I figured I would throw a few of those lunchables or something like that in my diaper bag just in case he won't eat what we select for ourselves, esp at the CS lunches...My other son is 4, and will eat the entire childs meal, so there is no sharing that!

 

[asmit4]

We share CS meals- not b/c of expense or b/c we are 'cheap' but b/c it's just so much food. We found a pastry breakfast (snack) plus OOP drink, a CS shared for lunch and a TS for dinner was plenty for us.

 

[CarlisleMom]

During our trip with a DD6, we used snack credits for breakfast : 1 box of donuts (aty 6/8) lasted us 2 days and 1 milk. W did have the refillable mugs and we do not eat a big breakfast at home. CS for lunch - usually saved the dessert as an afternoon snack. TS for dinner. Also picked up pretzels at resort using a snack credit - laste multiple days. We only paid Out of pocket once, for popcorn.

We were never hungry. The meals are bigger than what we would eat at home

 

[aheape1979]

We got back last night from 6 days/ 5 nights on Free Dining. Here is what we did:
There were 5 of us:
-3 adults
-1 (3yo) child
-1 (1yo) infant
Of course, the infant was free and therefore not getting her own entree. We took a small collapsible cooler (6-pack size). We put 4-5 Minute Maid juice boxes from our resort room fridge into the cooler, along with snack size graham crackers, cranberries, cookies, etc. When the kids were hungry mid-morning we would open up and give them a snack. We also made sure that we had a juice box break every 1 1/2 hours or so because of the heat.
Our first night there, the CM told us that our daughter's CS credits could be used for any meal, adult or child. Since the adult meals are so much larger, and she doesn't eat very much. . . she and I split an adult CS meal at all the locations. The baby ate of daddy or grandma's plate. Our kids don't eat a huge amount, so it worked for us and allowed us to get some CS breakfasts too. The CS breakfast came with milk and a juice, so we would spend 1 snack credit for an extra bakery item and it would feed 2 of us. We ended up paying for 1 meal out of pocket, and ate 3 good meals per day!

 

[mi*vida*loca]

We haven't done the DDP yet but our plan is going to be BF at the hotel room. Cereal, oatmeal, muffins, juice. Something quick for my non morning people DH and DS. Let's them sleep in a bit, eat quickly and then get off to the park for rope drop or AM EMH. I will book ONE TS BF and that's just to get into MK before it opens.

Lunch will be CS and dinner TS. This is basically what we do when we stay offsite except I do TS for lunch because it's cheaper when you pay OOP.

It will be me, DH, DS and DD all on the DDP on our next trip.

Snacks will be whenever my little heart desires!

 

[anne0866]

Our first trip we were so concerned about the most "value" out of the plan. We payed out of pocket for a couple of snacks (in order to save the credits for more expensive items). we shared a couple of CS. But in the process, we wound up with several CS and snacks left over at the end of the trip.

Now we just go along and use the CS and snack credits when needed and if we run out - then we pay OOP. That we we use everything up. We drove ourselves nuts the 1st trip - actually spent too much time thinking about the DDP. Just my two cents.


Have a gret trip!

 

[Picabo]

We got back last night from 6 days/ 5 nights on Free Dining. Here is what we did:
There were 5 of us:
-3 adults
-1 (3yo) child
-1 (1yo) infant
Of course, the infant was free and therefore not getting her own entree. We took a small collapsible cooler (6-pack size). We put 4-5 Minute Maid juice boxes from our resort room fridge into the cooler, along with snack size graham crackers, cranberries, cookies, etc. When the kids were hungry mid-morning we would open up and give them a snack. We also made sure that we had a juice box break every 1 1/2 hours or so because of the heat.
Our first night there, the CM told us that our daughter's CS credits could be used for any meal, adult or child. Since the adult meals are so much larger, and she doesn't eat very much. . . she and I split an adult CS meal at all the locations. The baby ate of daddy or grandma's plate. Our kids don't eat a huge amount, so it worked for us and allowed us to get some CS breakfasts too. The CS breakfast came with milk and a juice, so we would spend 1 snack credit for an extra bakery item and it would feed 2 of us. We ended up paying for 1 meal out of pocket, and ate 3 good meals per day!

Thanks for the info! (I didn't know you could bring a cooler in there...so that's great to know! Did you have to conceal it inside a diaper bag or something or is it OK to bring your own drinks in for the kids??)

Thanks again!
Melanie