Saving some credits

[ToyStory3]

I've seen a lot of people give this advice and heard it on a podcast today too. For instance if a 10 year old is on the DDP and wants a kids meal some people say to pay OOP and save the credit. What do you do with 1 or 2 table service credits, for a family of 4, at the end of your vacation? It doesn't make any sense to me. You'd have to have enough for everyone in your party to be worthwhile and don't most people have all of their ADRs before they go? Seems like they'd easily get wasted that way. Am I missing something?

 

[supersnoop]

I've seen a lot of people give this advice and heard it on a podcast today too. For instance if a 10 year old is on the DDP and wants a kids meal some people say to pay OOP and save the credit. What do you do with 1 or 2 table service credits, for a family of 4, at the end of your vacation? It doesn't make any sense to me. You'd have to have enough for everyone in your party to be worthwhile and don't most people have all of their ADRs before they go? Seems like they'd easily get wasted that way. Am I missing something?

Some meals take more than one credit, and some people want more than one table service meal per day. You get credits based on the number of nights you stay, but if you arrive early on your first day and stay late on your last, you'll need some extra meals.

 

[purple figment]

If you book meals that take 2 credits per person (e.g. The dinner shows - Hoop De Doo, Spirit of Aloha luau, Mickey's Backyard Barbecue) or 2 credit signature meals, the saved credits can be used towards these meals. Others have more TS meals booked than they have credits so saved credits can be used for these.

 

[sharonabe]

Assuming your party of 4 consists of 3 Disney adults and 1 child, if you have two restaurants where the 10 yr old wants a kid's meal, that gives you 2 extra adult TS credits. So you can eat at one more TS, but you'll need to buy both kids a meal OOP. So you end up paying for four kid's meals OOP (around $40 total) and get an extra meal for the adults.

You would have to know ahead of time that this was your plan in order to plan that one extra TS.

 

[ToyStory3]

Yes I know that some restaurants take 2 credits. But if you only pay for one person in your party out of pocket you only have one more credit. Not 4 which is what you'd need to go to another restaurant with your whole family. I'm just not sure how saving one credit works out for you. In our case I know we would just have one credit left over if we did that. Just curious if I was missing something.

 

[purple figment]

There are many threads where people have more TS restaurants booked than they have TS credits. For example, if a family has 7 TS credits per person, but they book 8 TS restaurants, they would have to pay OOP at one of the restaurants. However, if they have one credit saved (because someone paid OOP at another restaurant) when they go to the 8th restaurant at least one person could use the saved credit. The others would have to pay OOP, but at least they are not paying OOP for everyone.

In the example of a 2 credit meal, if there are 3 adults in the family and they have 1 extra credit saved, then for the 2 credit meal they have 4 credits to use (1 each for the 3 adults + the saved credit). With the 4 credits they could use them for 2 of the adults and only have to pay OOP for 1 adult.

 

[sharonabe]

Yes I know that some restaurants take 2 credits. But if you only pay for one person in your party out of pocket you only have one more credit. Not 4 which is what you'd need to go to another restaurant with your whole family. I'm just not sure how saving one credit works out for you. In our case I know we would just have one credit left over if we did that. Just curious if I was missing something.

Since it looks like you've done your planning and only see ONE restaurant where your 10 yr old will want a kid's meal, you could do one of these two:

1. Ask if your 10 yr old can have an adult portion of what they want on the kid's menu. Many of the Disney owned restaurants will do this.

2. Pay OOP for the kid's meal. You now have one extra credit. Take your family to one more TS meal, but an inexpensive one. The Plaza at MK, Sci-Fi at HS for lunch are very affordable and not much more than QS. Three of you will pay OOP, but one of you gets the most expensive entree there is and a dessert to share with the table. OR go to a TS for breakfast...Kona Cafe at Poly, Grand Floridian Cafe, The Wave at Contemporary. Again, three of you will pay OOP, but one of you doesn't.

 

[supersnoop]

Yes I know that some restaurants take 2 credits. But if you only pay for one person in your party out of pocket you only have one more credit. Not 4 which is what you'd need to go to another restaurant with your whole family. I'm just not sure how saving one credit works out for you. In our case I know we would just have one credit left over if we did that. Just curious if I was missing something.

True, if you only do it once. But if you do it three or four times, you'll have that many more credits.

 

[GillianP1301]

For me, "saving" credits only makes sense to me if you have more meals/credits planned then you have available on your dining plan. Then it would make sense to pay OOP for the cheapest meals and "save" the credits for the more expensive meals. But, if your meal plans for duration of vacation works out to your meal plan credit allotment, then it makes no sense to "save" because there is nothing to apply that savings against.

 

[ToyStory3]

I understand now - makes sense. I don't think that would apply to us since we have 7 ADRs planned when we go and we stick to that. But makes sense.

 

[elaine amj]

I agree - for shorter trips , it would be harder to do.

It took a lot of juggling on our last 12 day vacation. You can see my report in my signature. I had 12 nights of regular DDP and we got 14 meals, including two signature meals (CRT and Narcoossee)

We ended up having ALL our breakfasts, lunches and dinners covered (except when we had a Kitchen Sink for "lunch" and paid OOP and $30 in gift certs that we used at Planet Hollywood) and even brought home 3 CS credits worth of meals and a bunch of snacks as takeout. We ate like kings. It was awesome

We did do stuff like DH and I ate sushi at a CS in Japan for lunch and then took the kids to Chefs de France for a TS lunch with their 2 child credits. At Whispering Canyon Cafe, we ordered skillets for both kids and DH and I split a TS meal. We did always tip as if all 4 of us ordered.

I used a spreadsheet as it was easy to get confused and I updated it every night so I could keep track of remaining credits as we changed our plans a bit on the fly.

 

[bdoyledimou]

in the 4 times I have used the DDP -- I have ALWAYS had credits left over at the end of the trip --- no matter how hard I try to plane -- we always have enough for at least a full families lunch and/or dinner.

 

[shoney]

Yes I know that some restaurants take 2 credits. But if you only pay for one person in your party out of pocket you only have one more credit. Not 4 which is what you'd need to go to another restaurant with your whole family. I'm just not sure how saving one credit works out for you. In our case I know we would just have one credit left over if we did that. Just curious if I was missing something.

well you don't need 4, you could go with only 1 or 2 credits and then pay OOP for the other 2 or 3 meals.

As someone who has done this, I refuse to redeem an adult credit for a kids meal. We'd rather eat additional TS meals and incur an additional cost if we didn't have enough to cover it.

We also did a few without ADR's.

My DH and I have also split an entrée at lunch and had an additional credit left from that.

 

[TDC Nala]

Your party can use credits for some meals, and pay for some, at any individual restaurant. I know it's the preference of many DDP users to use only credits for meals, but if someone saves 2 adult credits this way, the parents can have an extra meal on credits (at a 1-credit restaurant of course) and they only need to purchase meals for the kids.

 

[JeninTexas]

I agree - for shorter trips , it would be harder to do.

It took a lot of juggling on our last 12 day vacation. You can see my report in my signature. I had 12 nights of regular DDP and we got 14 meals, including two signature meals (CRT and Narcoossee)

We ended up having ALL our breakfasts, lunches and dinners covered (except when we had a Kitchen Sink for "lunch" and paid OOP and $30 in gift certs that we used at Planet Hollywood) and even brought home 3 CS credits worth of meals and a bunch of snacks as takeout. We ate like kings. It was awesome

We did do stuff like DH and I ate sushi at a CS in Japan for lunch and then took the kids to Chefs de France for a TS lunch with their 2 child credits. At Whispering Canyon Cafe, we ordered skillets for both kids and DH and I split a TS meal. We did always tip as if all 4 of us ordered.

I used a spreadsheet as it was easy to get confused and I updated it every night so I could keep track of remaining credits as we changed our plans a bit on the fly.

I just looked at your detailed dining review. It is so helpful! Thanks for taking the time to post it. We are not big eaters and plan to share some too. I'm glad to have some insight on what to expect.

 

[Polish Hammer]

True, if you only do it once. But if you do it three or four times, you'll have that many more credits.

Exactly! We went with a very picky DD that is considered an adult for DDP purposes. An adult meal for her is a huge waste. We paid OOP for her at our ADRs and the left over credits enabled up to splurge on ourselves with some signatures. Worked out very well for us.

 

[elaine amj]

I just looked at your detailed dining review. It is so helpful! Thanks for taking the time to post it. We are not big eaters and plan to share some too. I'm glad to have some insight on what to expect.

You're welcome. We're into squeezing every penny but were in an indulgent mood that trip. I had planned not to share as much and to supplement a bunch with OOP. But during the trip, we ended up eating like kings anyway. We ended up with enough credits to switch a planned 1 TS meal to a 2TS meal at Narcoossee. And after that meal, REALLY regretted spending 8TS credits when we should have split 3 meals. My DD was so full from all the food she ate we had nausea issues. A lesson in overindulgence on all our parts LOL!