Please help me with this deluxe dining question!!

[stephyamber]

So I've tried asking before and I cannot seem to find or get an answer so I thought I'd try here.

We are contemplating upgrading our free dining to deluxe. When I add up our credits used for where we want to go we have 12 adult credits and 6 child credits left.

Can I use those remaining credits left for my 2 year old to eat? I'm figuring at counter service this won't be a problem, but what about table service? Disney says they are your credits and if you want to use them all in one day you may, so is there anything stopping us from ordering an extra meal for our dd at table service and giving it to our son who is 2?

If it's not possible we are just going to stick to disney dining plan and pay OOP for him, but we'd end up spending the same amount and getting less food.

Thanks so much!

 

[kbonner]

"The Disney Dining Plan is unavailable for Guests under the age of 3,
but they may share from an adult plate at no charge, or a meal may
be purchased from the menu. The price of the meal will be added to
your bill."

There isn't anything that should prevent you from doing what you want to do. You should be able to tell the waiter/waitress/cashier that you want to use 2 credits when ordering the other meal. Caveat: I don't know 100% this can be done since I have never tried.

 

[ibela]

What would you do with the remaining adult credits? That's a lot of leftover. If it was 1 or 2, I think it'd be worth it but with an extra 6 meals, if you're not going to use them then IMO it's a waste of $ to upgrade. You're probably better off paying for the extra 1-2 credits OOP. As for the 2yr old, any buffets or character experiences, they eat for free anyway. You can always order either an extra kid meal a la carte, side dish or appetizer, and/or have the 2yr old share with everyone else.

ETA: I'd reevaluate my calculations if I were you, I don't see how it'd be possible for the upgrade to = the cost for a 2yr old. If you have no buffet/character meals lined up and are paying OOP for a TS and CS meal for the 2yr old every day, it'd cost $25 tops, most kids CS meals are ~$6 and TS meals ~$20. Upgrading from DDP to Deluxe would cost over $100 per day.

 

[hgeisler]

I don't understand why you have so many credits left over. We did deluxe last trip, and it was a lot of food, but we had tons of snacks left over, so I just bought some things for my dds class. Maybe you should eat at a few signature meals, that way you use two credits. As for the food for your 2 year old, pretty sure you can use your ddp credits

 

[danceintherain]

From my understanding, I've never tried it myself, but I've been told you can only use the limit of your credits per meal. So if you're entitled to 2 adult, and 1 child credit, you can only order 2 adult and 1 child meal per transaction. I may have heard wrong...

If it's going to cost you the same amount...then I'd say you just go ahead and upgrade, and work out the other details later.
That said, our 2 year old was a pretty good eater, and we hardly ever found the need to order an entire extra meal for him. He had plenty to eat off our plates. I budgeted enough to order him something every time, but we only actually did it a handful of times.

 

[stephyamber]

The reason it will cost us the same is because we were planning on paying about 1000 OOP for signature restaurants while at disney. So when I thought about it, upgrading to deluxe would cost us roughly $10 less and we'd get more food such as appetizers and snacks. We are happy with our ADRs and are already doing 4 signature meals,

We could also use the left overs for QS breakfasts some days, but I'm not sure we'll need 3 full meals everyday.

 

[stephyamber]

From my understanding, I've never tried it myself, but I've been told you can only use the limit of your credits per meal. So if you're entitled to 2 adult, and 1 child credit, you can only order 2 adult and 1 child meal per transaction. I may have heard wrong... If it's going to cost you the same amount...then I'd say you just go ahead and upgrade, and work out the other details later. That said, our 2 year old was a pretty good eater, and we hardly ever found the need to order an entire extra meal for him. He had plenty to eat off our plates. I budgeted enough to order him something every time, but we only actually did it a handful of times.

It would only be the same if my son could eat as well, otherwise I've budgeted about $250 for him to eat our entire trip. So I included the $250 when saying it would cost the same

 

[danceintherain]

It would only be the same if my son could eat as well, otherwise I've budgeted about $250 for him to eat our entire trip. So I included the $250 when saying it would cost the same

That's a tough one then...
If what I posted above is true, then you could split the check, so the extra meals are charged in a different transaction.

 

[nalajms]

We could also use the left overs for QS breakfasts some days, but I'm not sure we'll need 3 full meals everyday.

Unless you prefer the QS breakfast, why not just book a TS breakfast or character breakfast? You don't to eat all of it, though it's hard for DH not to overeat at a buffet...even if he knows we will have lunch 3hrs later.

We've had times where grandma joins us for meals and the waiter charged us an extra adult credit for her even though she was not on the DDP. It really varies. And if they give you a hard time, just tell them to split the bill. There really shouldn't be an issue with using more than the allotted credits. Maybe you were extra hungry

 

[MakiraMarlena]

From my understanding, I've never tried it myself, but I've been told you can only use the limit of your credits per meal. So if you're entitled to 2 adult, and 1 child credit, you can only order 2 adult and 1 child meal per transaction. I may have heard wrong...

This is correct. However you can TRY explaining the situation to your server and tell them you want to use the credits for food for your younger child. There's no guarantee they will allow you to do it though, as it's against the rules Disney built into the system for the use of the dining plan. You're not supposed to be able to order extra meals in one transaction. You will have to be lucky enough to get a server who is willing to override the rules that THEY are supposed to follow, for you. As to whether you are willing to do that, it is up to you. They might be more inclined to give you a break seeing as you want to feed an infant with the extra credits but you never know.

 

[SouthJersey]

I don't understand why you have so many credits left over. We did deluxe last trip, and it was a lot of food, but we had tons of snacks left over, so I just bought some things for my dds class. Maybe you should eat at a few signature meals, that way you use two credits. As for the food for your 2 year old, pretty sure you can use your ddp credits

x2.

How come you're upgrading to deluxe if there's that many points left over?
We use 1TS for breakfast or a noon lunch and then 2TS for a signature dinner later in the evening and we use all of our 3 points a day. It sounds like the regular free dining would work for your dining choices and maybe take up a room offer discount instead?

 

[jenjersnap]

We have done DxDDP a couple times with an under-3. We never had to purchase extra meals for him. We do the character meal for breakfast or lunch/signature for dinner routine too. My DS ate free at the buffets/family-style places (and every kind server at every meal we ate at gave him a free drink, YMMV). Then, he ate some of our appetizers (my kids are adventurous eaters and loved the flatbreads, calamari, pasta, arancini, etc. available on the appetizer menu) and grazed otherwise. It was plenty for all of us. This might not work if your kids won't eat stuff like that, I just wanted to share our experience.

Disney is not supposed to allow you to order more than you have on your DDP. Exceptions may be made, the problem is you can't plan the exceptions. I would probably upgrade if it were me, look over the menus to see if there were restaurants where he would eat your food to limit the OOP expense and also ask upon ordering if it is possible to use an extra credit for the toddler too.