So I still have to buy 1 meal a day?

[Mickey89]

I got the dining plan for free and have read many reviews praising it. But do i still have to buy 1 meal a day?

 

[mom2my3kids]

Depends really..You could use your snack credits for a danish for breakfast, then use your CS for lunch and TS for dinner. But I am sure you would still need to purchase some drinks during the day unless you bring your own.

 

[Mickey89]

that's a good point. You don't really need a big breakfast, just a snack when it's hot weather. Does anyone know how much buffet-style breakfast is at pop century?

 

[iluvepcot]

This August will be our third free dining trip. Here are several options that have worked for us.

1. We have brought down with us snack boxes of breakfast cold and Hot cereals. I usually wake before everyone else and go to the food court to get milk, coffee and Juice. Everyone eats breakfast in the room while getting ready.

2. We just go to the parks and eat breakfast bars, also brought from home.

3. The counter service meals are so filling that we share one for lunch and share one for breakfast between two people.

4. You can buy an entire box of donuts from the store at some of the deluxe or moderates and use the entire box for almost everyone to have something. the donuts are using only 1 snack credit.

5. You can use all snack credits when you get to the park to buy pasteries.

 

[LizinSTL]

that's a good point. You don't really need a big breakfast, just a snack when it's hot weather. Does anyone know how much buffet-style breakfast is at pop century?

There's no such thing as a buffet-style breakfast at Pop. It has a food court only (no table service option.)

My suggestion is to get a box of donuts with a single snack credit and invest in a couple refillable mugs. That'll feed your whole party for breakfast. You can also share a breakfast platter (around $6 or 1 CS credit) and then share a lunch combo meal later in the day. That's how we were able to stretch our meal credits out to no require much in the way of out of pocket meal purchases.

BTW- the chocolate croissant at Pop is DELICIOUS! And it's just a snack credit!

 

[pooch]

We split a breakfast platter and a lunch between 2 of us each day. Breakfast had 2 eggs, homefries, 2 pancakes, bacon and a biscuit, more than enough for 2. Lunches were also enormous!! It's hot and you won't be outrageously hungry during the day. We also did the box of donuts & 1/2 gal of juice (1 sc each) and the previous night's leftover dessert for breakfast. A donut and a glass of juice each was plenty on many mornings so this lasted probably 3 days. (Family of 4, all adults) Then we got whatever we wanted for our TS dinner. It really was plenty of food and we had 1 TS, 5 CS and 11 SC left at the end of the ten days!!! Only food $ we spent was for drinks (alcoholic type) and some extra tipping for great service.

For us, sharing was the way to go. Didn't get too filled up and got to try a lot of different things!! Have a great trip!!!

 

[tonga]

We're going in September, and find that we don't need to eat too much when it's hot. We usually have a big breakfast, either CS at the All Stars food court or sometimes a TS breakfast. For lunch we can get by with a snack. In 2005 we were on free DDP and at that time you could get a pastry as "dessert" with breakfast so that would be lunch, but I understand you can't do that anymore so we'll just use snack credits and the occasional CS lunch (have to have Pecos Bill's and Flame Tree BBQ for lunch at least once per trip). Then we have a big TS dinner. We'll be there for 14 nights, and we do plan to pay for 3 or 4 of our cheaper meals OOP, but for the most part we find that there is enough food on DDP that we don't have to supplement much.

 

[Mickey89]

Well thank you for giving me a couple of ideas, I might try each of them on a different day and see which works best for our group. I've been to the World 7 times but have always stayed off-site. However, this september is the first time i'm going to be on-site and with the free dining plan, it looks to be the best trip yet.

Just out of interest, even though this question doesn't belong on this forum, what is the weather generally like in September, is it sunny with blue sky or is it quite cloudy and wet? I appreciate it's hurricane season and the humidity is very high but I just wanted people's opinions on visiting this time of year.

 

[bicker]

Note that there is a package that includes three meals per day (but it is a lot more expensive -- the Disney Dining Plan is especially affordable -- that's one of its most remarkable attributes).

 

[Ishy]

We buy a box of donuts or pop-tarts...
For a quick snack on the mornings we want to just get going.

I am pretty sure the kid breakfast from the POP and most other food courts is only 1.99. A scrambled egg, biscut, and a slice of bacon.

I made a rule last year, use your CS/TS/snacks FIRST - and pay out of pocket last. Too many people that worry they wont have enough credits end up leaving and wasting credits.

In 2005 I used 2 counter services the last day at the POP --- for a total stranger! Figured it was better then just letting them expire. I used all my snack credits for rice krispie treats and water - to bring over to my daughter before we left (she was cp). My brother had 18 leftover snack credits~! and 2 table servies.

In 2006 I was burning snack credits and counter services right out of the gate! My brother thought that using a snack credit for a bottle of water was stupid. Well I went home with 2 rice krispie treats. He went home with 8! He also had paid for a few breakfast CS out of pocket and went home with 2 unused. (He is not like me, wont go up to a stranger and say - hey - let me pay for that!)

So use them! Before you pay out of pocket. Use all your credits - even for water!

Enjoy.

 

[TN_DISNEY]

The DDP provides only 2 meals per day and 1 snack.

This wasn't an issue with us. We rarely eat a big breakfast anyway, so we just brought a box of cereal and some breakfast bars. As noted earlier, you can also use your snack credit for a simple breakfast item.

We like to hit the parks when they open each morning, so a quick breakfast in our room works best for us anyway.

 

[calypso*a*go-go]

We never had to pay for any additional meals while using DDP as we were always stuffed! Plus we ended up with 12 snack credits to use on the last day (a party of four, staying a week).

 

[Summer-Caitlin]

Hmmm, I never even thought abour splitting a CS, over breakfast or lunch, to be honest I didn't think that it would be enough food, but now that I know what is on a breakfast platter, well that's more than enough for 2. Cool, it looks like I won't have to pay OOP for some things!

 

[TN_DISNEY]

You can probably split a number of the counter service meals (especially if you're also getting a snack that day).

At MGM's ABC commissary, they have a large Cuban sandwich & fries along with dessert. We found that this sandwich could have easily been shared. There is also a pizza place that offers a pizza & salad which can be easily shared among 2 people.

MKs Peco's Bill offers a bacon, double cheeseburger platter. That's plenty of calories for most folks to share on a hot Florida day.

 

[dreamn_Disney]

We went last year and didn't pay OOP for anything but an occasional drink. We even fed my ds who was 2 off of our plates and still had plenty of food. I did bring grapes and cheese crackers from home for him to snack on but that was it. I gained 10 lbs while there and I am a big eater. We sometimes split cs meals or we eat a late breakfast and early dinner and save dessert for a late night snack.

 

[ajdeen]

you can easily split a counter service breakfast or dinner. The pizza at The Whispering Lodge was delicious......and huge. It was 4 regular size pieces and only counted as one counter service on the DDP.

 

[rigs32]

If you use TS credits for dinner, you're not hungry yet by morning! We found that we'd split CS meals for breakfast and lunch, or just eat brunch and supplement with snacks. We still cashed in a few leftover credits for food to take on the plane home.

Also, don't pay cash for things early on. It's how a lot of people end up with extra credits - they think there won't be enough food. The TSs catch up to you as the time goes on, so we used snacks less and less and shared CS more and more.

 

[MikeyJCanada]

ypu dont have to have anything on anyday....you just have to use everything before your last day.....When we left on on last day we went back to our hotel and bought everything left we could...to take with us

 

[pavil]

We just bring breakfast with us. We buy Pop Tarts for the kids and a tray of Costco's big variety pack of Muffins. Add some coffee and Juice and you snacking on breakfast till the bus comes. No need to eat a big breakfast down there IMO, and that is from someone who LOVES his Meat, eggs and potatoes for breakfast. Sugar and Caffeine is all we need to get up ready for the MK.