Strategies for Dining plan

[Disneyfan71]

Well we're planning our trip in June and doing the dining plan..where you get one table and counter service per day. We looked at the deluxe and that's way too much food. My question is, what are your strategies for the Plus dining? Reason why I ask is b/c my wife and I are diabetic and obviously need food esp. if we're doing a lot of walking. My thoughts were to purchase granola bars and stuff in my carry on luggage to have during the day, which would help.

I guess what I'm asking then is--if you go w/ Plus dining can you share food or what? What are some of your strategies? Thanks a million

 

[SunnieRN]

I am diabetic also. Our last trip we only ate counter service. Some of the meals are huge and can be shared.
This time we are doing basic dining. We may share a couple of meals at lunchtime and then use extra credits for breakfasts.
I know many places have fresh fruit and sugar free options for dessert which make the meals a bit lighter also.
I figure if I need something else to ear I will buy it. We are also having some breakfast foods delivered from one of the grocery delivery companies.
I know I am not used to earing desserts at all my meals so I will try to get portable desserts I can save for later.
Have fun. I agree that DxDP seems like too much food!

 

[Disneyfan71]

Thanks Sunnie...You're right. I figured if we want to eat lunch at a counter service, chalk up and pay--some of the food is no worse than going to say McDonald's..and MUCH better in my honest opinion. And like you said, we could always save up our credits for later. My ONLY problem is if we want to go to Cinderella's Royal Table--that takes two credits, correct? So would that take two table service credits each or total? Again, I don't mind so much paying for counter service and sharing

 

[septbaby]

Sharing the CS meals worked well for us. Share breakfast, which comes with two beverages anyway, then share lunch or a late dinner if you have a TS lunch.

You also get snack credits and those can be used for a wide range of items from whole fruit, drinks, popcorn, ice cream novlety item including the frozen fruit/juice treats, bakery items, sliced fresh fruit cups, pretzels, yogurt, etc.

Enjoy the plan!

 

[PictureJumpr]

I am type-I diabetic and almost always use the ddp.

To answer your last question, the CRT meals will take 2 TS credits per person.

Like the pp mentioned, sugar-free or NSA desserts are available at most places, and where they aren't or they aren't to your liking, it is usually easy to get them to sub a fruit plate or something similar as your dessert option.

For snack credits that do not contain large amounts of sugar, I have gotten:
Whole fruit or fruit cups
Pretzel
Chili or soup
Carrot sticks with ranch
Yogurt
NSA ice cream
popcorn
pickle
chips
NSA frozen fruitsicles (like those dole frozen-fruit bars from the grocery store)
funnel cake without the powdered sugar

Of course, as you mentioned before, with all of the walking and activity sometimes I actually need a sugar snack - those are very easy to find. For TS meals where there is a dessert I just have to try, I order a salad or eat low-carb something for dinner.

As for sharing, we do it a lot - there are many 'large meal' CS options out there where it is more than enough food to share. For example, at Cosmic Ray's in MK they serve a meal that is half of a roasted chicken with mashed potatoes and green beans - with the large diet coke and dessert (the SF brownies are not bad, although we usually get a 'regular' dessert for my travelmate to enjoy as I am not a chocolate liking person) and that is 1 CS credit. Sunshine Seasons at Epcot and Flame Tree BBQ at Animal Kingdom offer similar shareable (read: large) options for CS. We generally book our 'big' (TS) meals for late afternoon, kind of a late lunch/early dinner deal. We'll share a CS lunch a little before 'normal' lunchtime (10:30-11) and have the TS meal between 4 and 5, then if we're still going late at night we'll split another CS around 9-930. I do carry granola or cheese crackers in my bag, along with the glucose tabs, just in case - but rarely if ever actually eat them. There are just too many things to spend snack credits on

 

[Disneyfan71]

I am type-I diabetic and almost always use the ddp.

To answer your last question, the CRT meals will take 2 TS credits per person.

Like the pp mentioned, sugar-free or NSA desserts are available at most places, and where they aren't or they aren't to your liking, it is usually easy to get them to sub a fruit plate or something similar as your dessert option.

For snack credits that do not contain large amounts of sugar, I have gotten:
Whole fruit or fruit cups
Pretzel
Chili or soup
Carrot sticks with ranch
Yogurt
NSA ice cream
popcorn
pickle
chips
NSA frozen fruitsicles (like those dole frozen-fruit bars from the grocery store)
funnel cake without the powdered sugar

Of course, as you mentioned before, with all of the walking and activity sometimes I actually need a sugar snack - those are very easy to find. For TS meals where there is a dessert I just have to try, I order a salad or eat low-carb something for dinner.

As for sharing, we do it a lot - there are many 'large meal' CS options out there where it is more than enough food to share. For example, at Cosmic Ray's in MK they serve a meal that is half of a roasted chicken with mashed potatoes and green beans - with the large diet coke and dessert (the SF brownies are not bad, although we usually get a 'regular' dessert for my travelmate to enjoy as I am not a chocolate liking person) and that is 1 CS credit. Sunshine Seasons at Epcot and Flame Tree BBQ at Animal Kingdom offer similar shareable (read: large) options for CS. We generally book our 'big' (TS) meals for late afternoon, kind of a late lunch/early dinner deal. We'll share a CS lunch a little before 'normal' lunchtime (10:30-11) and have the TS meal between 4 and 5, then if we're still going late at night we'll split another CS around 9-930. I do carry granola or cheese crackers in my bag, along with the glucose tabs, just in case - but rarely if ever actually eat them. There are just too many things to spend snack credits on

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you so much. I think we'll go with the dining plus instead of deluxe..I'm not a big breakfast eater and not so sure it's worth the extra money.

 

[PictureJumpr]

Yeah, there is no way in the world I could do deluxe - waaaaay too much food and time spent eating it, since to make the cost work a person would have to spend the majority of those credits as TS.

We tend to leave a couple CS credits on the table at the end of each trip, as it is.

I just buy my own mug with cash and stick to the basic




Another side tip, that hopefully you will not need: If you have an 'emergency' situation with a low blood sugar, snack-cart type locations offering sodas are your best bet - we've had experience trying to get a regular soda from TS restaurants we are waiting to be seated at (no? seriously? we are sitting here waiting to be seated for a full meal at one of your tables?) and at QS places (it's just a pain, since you have to wait to get up to the cashier and then wait for the people behind the counter to fill the order - tick tick tick), and find that the little soda-selling cart people can help fastest. I've even gotten a few 'no charge' sodas over the years, not that we haven't expected to pay for them every time. One young lady even motioned my travelmate ahead of the other people in line, handed him the coke, and told him he could come back later to pay for it (turns out her brother is diabetic and she correctly assumed what was happening).

 

[Disneyfan71]

Thank you sooo very much for the help. Everyone on here has been so helpful. The last time I went to WDW, there wasn't a dining plan. So again this is new to me.

 

[Silvrezs]

We shared meals and some of them were really huge. I also used my snack to buy fruit. We carried bars in our backpack and I only needed it one day! There is just so much food and we ate breakfast in the room.