i am totally confused with the dining plan

[grumpy&princess]

We will be coming to Disney in July and I am totally cofused as to how the dining plan works. We will be staying 7/13-7/18 but only going to disney on a 5 day pass. How many snacks, CS and sit down services will we get. I havent been to Disney since 1990 and that was with our marching band in high school. So to me this will actually be my first time coming as we didnt get to do what we wanted when I can last. We will have 5 of us in our party 2 children both with autism and my parents both will be using ecv's. I would really love for someone to explain to me how this works. I have read stuff about it but am still confused about it. Thank you.

 

[Tricia1972]

If you are staying five nights, and doing the standard DDP, you will have for each person:

5 CS credits
5 Snack Credits
5 TS Credits.

It sounds like you're three adults and two children, so grand total you will have

15 Adult CS Credits
10 Child CS Credits
25 Snack Credits
15 Adult TS Credits
10 Child CS Credits

At this time the CS Credits are still pooled, meaning they do not differentiate on your receipts how many adult and how many child credits there are. You are on your honor to use those credits as they were purchased.

The TS Credits differentiate right on your receipts how many are allotted to adults and how many are allotted for children.

Snack credits are all equal - there aren't special "children" snacks.

 

[grumpy&princess]

ok how ever many nights we stay is what determines how many credits we get.

Is the meal plan really worth it? I have two very picky children and one picky dad. I was also wondering if you really need to make reservations since with kids you cant always tell when they are gonna get hunger and I dont want to have reservations for 6pm and have 2 starving kids at 4pm. Sorry for all the questions its been so long since I have been there and never before planned a trip.

 

[grumpy&princess]

ok how ever many nights we stay is what determines how many credits we get.

Is the meal plan really worth it? I have two very picky children and one picky dad. I was also wondering if you really need to make reservations since with kids you cant always tell when they are gonna get hunger and I dont want to have reservations for 6pm and have 2 starving kids at 4pm. Sorry for all the questions its been so long since I have been there and never before planned a trip.

 

[Maraena]

I don't know that anyone can really tell you if it'll be worth it for you and your family, particularly considering the picky eater piece.

I would suggest you sit down, take a look at the restaurants where you believe everyone will find something to eat, and figure out the cost for your family. If you go to http://allearsnet.com/ and look at their dining section and menus, you may get a better idea. Personally, I'd probably try to plan numerous buffets so that everyone can find something to eat. However, depending on the severity of your children's autism, this may not be conducive to their needs. Only you can really tell what will and won't work for your family. If your kids like to graze frequently then counter services might be better suited and wouldn't be the best value under the plan. If they really need the structure of some sit-down meals, then the dining plan may be better.

What I did for our upcoming vacation (given it's only two of us) is made a list of the restaurants where we want to eat. Then I pulled the prices from the menu and added them all up (including tax). Once I did that, I figured out where we'd probably eat CS and considered that we typically split our CS meals since there was both an entree and a dessert. I built some estimated CS costs as well as an average snack cost (I figured $3.50 per snack). We still ended up saving a bit of money even after I accounted for the cost of tipping.

As for reservations, I would strongly encourage you to go ahead and get reservations at the table service restaurants where you want to dine, particularly since you are going in one of the busier seasons. You 'might' be able to show up a bit early and get seated if your children get really hungry. The other thing you might be able to do is to buy them a snack (using the numerous snack credits) to tide them over until your reservation.

 

[grumpy&princess]

thank you. will definetly go to allearsnet.com and check that out. never thought to do that. Does anyone know of some good buffets there that are on the plan? Does the menu change from what is on there now to what will be on the menu come summer?
Has anyone ever done mideval times down there? My son is so into knights that we thought it would be great for him. Neither of the kids autism is to severe.

 

[beroh2253]

thank you. will definetly go to allearsnet.com and check that out. never thought to do that. Does anyone know of some good buffets there that are on the plan? Does the menu change from what is on there now to what will be on the menu come summer?
Has anyone ever done mideval times down there? My son is so into knights that we thought it would be great for him. Neither of the kids autism is to severe.

Allears pretty much hits the menue on the nose, we usually know what we may be ordering before we even sit down and get the restaurant menu.
If you want do do mostly buffets if may pay not to be on the DDP cause the buffets are not that expensive. When my daughter was younger she was a pickey eater and we ended up looking for a lot of counter places with chicken strips and the DDP would not have paid off then.