Tips for Maximizing Basic DDP

[FallDisney]

We've never used the dining plan before so I'm curious what tips you all might have for maximizing our experience. I have ADR's done so that takes care of my sit-down meals, but what of counter service and snacks?

We're breakfast people, but I wonder if it wouldn't be better to use a CS on a lunch instead of breakfast.

 

[JimMIA]

One tip I would offer is that some of the CS venues have meals which can easily be used for your "big meal" of the day. Our favorite is Cosmic Ray's in MK, which offers (among many other items) a rib platter, chicken platter, or combo chicken and rib platter. Any of those could be your big meal, if you want to save a TS for a Signature Dining meal.

There are a couple of other CS venues which have large meals and hopefully someone will give you info on those as well.

 

[Tricia1972]

Generally breakfast isn't the best use of your CS credit financially, and you'll get a better bang for your buck for lunch.

My tip would be to enjoy a snack credit for breakfast. I believe the French Toast Loaf at MK is still a snack credit, it's pretty large and a nice breakfast for most. Also most places still offer muffins or a single bagel as snack credits so you could have a muffin or bagel for breakfast.

If you're into sharing, the breakfast platters at most resort CS's are very large too. You and another adult could split one of those for breakfast, split a large CS lunch (such as Jim mentioned) and maximize your credits that way. If there are children in your party - they can use snacks for breakfast and then use their CS for lunch.

 

[DaisyD]

We are considering the DDP also. I think it depends on whether you are big breakfast eaters. We are not. We always grab bagels and pastries for breakfast then eat a counter service lunch. We then have a TS dinner. We are definitely going with not using our CS for breakfast.

 

[IWISHFORDISNEY]

We ate at Tangerine Cafe last year for a CS meal and it was wonderful and large portions. We got the chicken and lamb platter. With this knowlege this year we are dong a signature dining meal and useing a CS at Tangerine Cafe for dinner one night. There are a few CS places that have a large meal or platter that you could use for dinner and try out a signature meal. We usually eat at buffets because they have characters, are pricey at times and include the appy which was removed from the plan. We also used some snack credits for larger boxes of cookies the kids could share in the parks. I love the plan and still find it a deal for us even with the changes.

 

[The Brain]

As another breakfast person myself, I'd almost recommend you changing some of your TS for Breakfast buffets. Some of them are VERY good, and they'll last you till an evening meal where you can use a CS.

 

[poeticdiabetic]

For us, we are going on regular DDP and we use these rules of thumb:

1. We eat a light breakfast. We normally eat a breakfast bar and some juice that we get from Walmart prior to arrival. That saves us from using any credits for breakfast.

2. At least one day out of our trip, we would eat a snack for lunch and have an early TS dinner. That would leave us with a CS meal for our last day, which is normally not covered on a meal plan.

3. We always try to eat our $37.99 worth. That's a rule. If at the end of our trip we ate more than $37.99 per day's worth of food at the end of our credit expiration, we have at least broken even. If we ate more than that amount, we have realized some savings.

 

[susieq76]

There are 5 of us- so our use may be different that yours.

What I usually do is for breakfast- I use snacks and get pastries, fruit, bagel, cereal- whatever is available at the hotel CS.

For lunch we usually share food-

in MK we like Cosmic Rays- DH and I share the rib and chicken combo and the three kids share 2 kids meals. That leaves us with an extra adult & kid CS.

At Pizza Planet in MGM we'll share three pizza meals- its a lot, especially with dessert.

In Epcot we like to do Sunshine Seasons or the WS CS. If at Sunshine we share- at the WS CS' we do not- tooooo yummy to share

Of course next trip we're trying out deluxe dining so, I'm not sure that we'll do any of that

 

[TDC Nala]

I haven't done it myself, but Pepper Market (Coronado Springs) is a CS and they offer steak and carved roast.

 

[DCDisney]

After a few DDP trips we have realized the best way for us to "maximize" our use of the plan is not trying to squeeze out every possible penny but to do things enjoyably. Meaning we don't hike across a park to get to a more expensive CS place if we are near something cheap but we like we go for it. In the end we have always come out ahead financially even eating a breakfast TS at CP (which we all love), even eating $2 snack of Kaki Gori, even eating a $5 pizza at Pizza Planet. This year we did a lot of sharing and that really made all of the credits go farther and we were able to taste lots of things at Epcot, share a huge funnel cake at MK, and share some breakfast platters at our resort rather than pop tarts in the room One thing we always do though is a CS meal at Wolfgang Puck--it is pricey so you work out well financially but we've always had a great meal there.

 

[coachyo]

The Pepper Market Grill is fantastic especially for CS credit!
The link below from allearsnet shows the lunch/dinner menu. It is very worth the trip to go there for a CS credit. We tend to go when the weather turns on us and spend the time there & sit out the storm. The fajitas where great last time I had them.

http://www.allearsnet.com/menu/menu_pm.htm

Enjoy,

YO

 

[septbaby]

Generally breakfast isn't the best use of your CS credit financially, and you'll get a better bang for your buck for lunch.
QUOTE]

I actually completely disagree with this, especially for self proclaimed "Breakfast people".

The Breakfast platters served at the resort CS places are HUGE with eggs, potatoes biscuit/toast and 1 or often 2 meats (bacon and sausage usually). There is plenty to share and you can also grab a bottled or fountain beverage to wash it all down. You used to be able to get 2 drinks, but the new DP language leads me to believe if you order this meal you'll only get one beverage. If ordering something that's not considered a combo meal you still get two beverages. I would take two beverages if you want them and let the CM correct you and make the decision to pay OOP or just go with one. We found the sharing a bottle of juice/milk was plenty for us. We usually grabbed a bottled water as a second drink and took that to the park (ie. saved a snack credit for a real snack).

Since you shared this CS credit you still have the second CS credit to share for lunch.

 

[septbaby]

Personally, I think the CS credits are the hidden gem in the plan. They offer the most flexibility. You may have read my harange about breakfast above, so ... As others have mentioned it is so easy to share CS meals and that seems to work in vacation or theme park mode at Disney. You also have the flexibility to use a CS credit as sort of a Snack credit on steroids You can use a CS to get various combinations: multiple drinks and a grab 'n go item like a sandwich or fruit and cheese plate; fruit, drink and bakery item and many others; even at MSB you could get a drink, pastry and another item for a CS credit as opposed to 3 or 4 snack credits for the same thing. I also read that so many people seem to have left over CS credits. I think if more people understood the fleixibility of these credits this would happen less often.

The CMs at our resort (CBR) were absolutely awesome at coaching us (ie. me) as using the credits: don't get a pizza meal, get the pizza combo meal for the same CS credit (having the salad added ensured that we only used one CS credit for that meal). The Grab 'n Go CM patiently ran through (pointing things out, etc.) the various combinations we could get to use some CS credits (6yo nephew got Uncrustable PB&J, milk and apple slices with caramel, he was in heaven). When we ate at the resort we were able to grab our entree and drink and pick up desert later. We selected frozen ice cream treats (ie. Mickey bars) and "paid" for them at check out, but grabbed them once we finished our meal.

Using the CS credits to our advantage we used just a few snack credits for drinks. I also often drank courtesy water with meals (saving my sugar and calories for those really good sweets) to stay hydrated and sometimes share a drink.

Finally on the TS side:
- Mix in some buffets for volume eating and major variety and to get those "appetizers" added back to your plan.
- Think about the timing/spacing out of your meals, we utilized a late breakfast buffet as brunch, it lasted me well past dinner time

Keep in mind its already paid for, so don't sweat "how much are we saving". Eat and drink when your hungry or when that Dole Whip starts to lead you around by the nose...lol

If you want tips on maximizing snack credits, I'll have to get my Mom to answer. She "maximized" by using any and everyone's credits. But how do you reign in Mom? Right, you learn to get snacks out of your CS meals...lol Funny things you learn out of necessity!

 

[IHEARTNY]

Top 3 in Red

MK:
Cosmic Rays
Pecos Bills
The Plaza

EP:
Tangeirine Cafe
Cantina San Angel
Sunshine Seasons

AK:
Flame Tree BBQ
Yak & Yeti QS

HS:
Flatbread Studio Company

Resorts:
The Mara-AKL
Captian Cook's- Poly
Pepper Market- CSR

DTD:
Earl of Sandwich
Wolfgang Puck Express

 

[Tricia1972]

Generally breakfast isn't the best use of your CS credit financially, and you'll get a better bang for your buck for lunch.
QUOTE]

I actually completely disagree with this, especially for self proclaimed "Breakfast people".

The Breakfast platters served at the resort CS places are HUGE with eggs, potatoes biscuit/toast and 1 or often 2 meats (bacon and sausage usually). There is plenty to share and you can also grab a bottled or fountain beverage to wash it all down. You used to be able to get 2 drinks, but the new DP language leads me to believe if you order this meal you'll only get one beverage. If ordering something that's not considered a combo meal you still get two beverages. I would take two beverages if you want them and let the CM correct you and make the decision to pay OOP or just go with one. We found the sharing a bottle of juice/milk was plenty for us. We usually grabbed a bottled water as a second drink and took that to the park (ie. saved a snack credit for a real snack).

Since you shared this CS credit you still have the second CS credit to share for lunch.

I suggested sharing a breakfast platter and splitting the CS lunch too. I was saying that ordering two breakfast platters isn't the best bang for your buck.

My whole original post...

Generally breakfast isn't the best use of your CS credit financially, and you'll get a better bang for your buck for lunch.

My tip would be to enjoy a snack credit for breakfast. I believe the French Toast Loaf at MK is still a snack credit, it's pretty large and a nice breakfast for most. Also most places still offer muffins or a single bagel as snack credits so you could have a muffin or bagel for breakfast.

If you're into sharing, the breakfast platters at most resort CS's are very large too. You and another adult could split one of those for breakfast, split a large CS lunch (such as Jim mentioned) and maximize your credits that way. If there are children in your party - they can use snacks for breakfast and then use their CS for lunch.

 

[mykidsrock76]

At Pizza Planet in MGM we'll share three pizza meals- its a lot, especially with dessert.

In Epcot we like to do Sunshine Seasons or the WS CS. If at Sunshine we share- at the WS CS' we do not- tooooo yummy to share

Okay.. 3 questions:

1. You can get a whole pizza with a table service credit?

2. What is WS CS? Sorry, but I do not know that one

3. Pepper Market at CS is considered a counter service?

 

[JeffZ]

While we have done breakfast buffets for our TS it is more cost effective to save it for Dinner. But do what you like.
The riverside mill at POR is great for Breakfast--nice made to order omlettes and platters. And it is great for dinner as well--hand carved turkey ,beef platters w/sides.Also made to order pasta plates w/fixins . A really good CS credit use.
The pepper market @Coronado is great for dinner CS too! Had the Steak--pretty good for a CS credit--not Le Cellier quality, but good. DW had the fajita platter and said it was good--would definitely return.
If you are going to a Breakfast Buffet --go to 1900 Park Fare @GF--excellent Breakfast TS credit.