More meals than nights....

[la79al]

On our June trip we are going to be using the DDP. We are only staying for 5 nights however but will be spending 7 days in the parks. One of our TS is already CRT so that cuts our meals by even more. So help me figure out how I am going to make 5 days worth of food last for 7 days. We are most likely driving so we will have some groceries in our room but they will probably only be used before we go into the parks and really late at night when we get back from the parks. (I carried snacks into the parks on our last trip...what a joke!)

 

[kaytieeldr]

I'm confused how you're staying for five nights but seven days. Those five nights allow you a maximum of six days of Dining Plan (assuming you arrive first thing in the morning on the day you check in and stay really really late on the day you check out.

At any rate, you could pay out of pocket for one or more meals; portion out your counter service meals carefully; yes, eat some groceries you bring yourself.

 

[la79al]

Okay, so it is only 6 days (I can't count). But I thought dining plan was based on number of nights (ex. 5 nights = 5 CS, 5 TS, 5 snacks)

 

[MaeDaisy]

You'll have to pay for some OOP, that's all.

 

[SlightlyGoofy]

When we were there we often shared counter serve meals as it was just too much food and if you do that along with eating a table serve meal and a snack everyday you could stretch your meals a bit further. It is possible to share TS meals too, as long as they are not buffets, but I would leave an extra tip because it is more work for the server without the extra tip.

The amount of meals you get are tied to how many nights you are booked in for not the days.

Slightly Goofy

 

[kdglaggie]

I think you could stretch 5 days of meals over 6 days pretty easily if you plan well. Even some of the counter service meals are a lot of food and can be shared by two people. You could use multiple snacks to create a breakfast (ex: fruit and danish).

 

[pezpam]

It usually works out, simply because most people won't be needing more than one credit on the first and last days. Those two days are often half-days for people traveling in - they might want dinner on arrival day and breakfast on departure day.

Using 2 credits for CRT does cut into it, though. Share some CS meals and use Snack credits wisely and you should be fine.

 

[KNEIPPK]

unless it has changed from last year- the coronado springs food court is an awesome place to turn a cs into a full meal- great food and cool place- way more than a lunch

 

[RACHELSMOM1]

CS meals can be for dinner,we just do this sometimes and stretch out our plan this way.

 

[MEK]

Now that the children's credits are seperate from the adults it may be a little tricky. My question is - how much does your 10 year old eat. When my kids were 10 and 11 we did the DDP for the first time. AT our first meal we ordered 4 CS for lunch. It was way too much food. We found it much easier to split 3 CS between four people. Generally my 10 year old and I split a CS lunch since we have the smaller appetites and we don't mind sharing. We all split the 3 desserts.

For dinner - we each did our own TS meal. We had CS for lunch left over on our last day.

I have done the DDP a total of 3 times. It is always easy to spread 5 days of food into 6 with the exception of dinner on the last day. It is a huge amount of food. I think you get the most out of it when you do use the TS for dinner, but if your family are breakfast fans then you may need to sneak a character breakfast in there.

Another tip - use your credits up first. Don't start paying OOP early for things. It seems that many people who do this are left with extra credits at the end of the trip.

Another tip - there are a lot of good breakfast pastries that are included as a snack. I usually skip my snack so my kids can get a pastry and still get ice cream in the park. On our last trip we still had 7 snacks left over and took a huge bag full of snacks on the plan.