Why do so many people NOT use their snack credits?

[MScott1851]

I see post after post on here about how people are frantically buying fifteen snacks on the morning of checkout trying to get 'their money's worth' out of the DDP.

I guess what I don't get is how they have so many left over...We've done the DDP the past three years, and have never had any to spare. The daily snack credit per person usually gets used for a breakfast item, or in the afternoon, DH will use his for a drink and I'll get a food item with mine, and we share.

For those of you who always have tons of snack credits left over, how do you do it? Too bad you can't transfer them to me! I'd love an extra bottled water or funnel cake or Dole Whip!!

 

[faindrops27]

Why, I have extras @ checkout. I get thirsty in the park. I want to buy waters. I take out my card to the world, and charge the waters to the room. Because. I do have every intention on getting back over to fantasyland for my dole whip float that I saved my snack credit for, instead of "wasting" it on the water. I just charged to the room. But, uhh, now it is lunch time, and I get a drink with my lunch. Now, its dinner time, and I just had dessert, now I am tired so I leave. To repeat the same thing all over again. That is how I wind up with extra credits.

Can you understand this scenario?
I wonder if this happens to others who have left over credits.

 

[momof2mouseketeers]

We always have snack credits left over because we just aren't snackers. We'll get a few like a Dole Whip and a Frozen banana but that's it. We usually bring a case of water with us when we come down, since I can get a case for about $3 so we don't need to use our snack credits for water and my children are older so they usually don't like to stop to wait in line to eat much. That's why we do mostly table service because they like that atmosphere better and it gives us a break in the day. My husband is deployed so we usually use most of the snack credits to make a Disney box to send over to him. If he was with us, we'd probably use all of the snack credits during the trip because he's a snacker l

 

[beroh2253]

With all of the Bakerys in the parks we have no problem (especially Norway's Kringla Bakeri). And if you use them for something at breakfast I think we could use twice as many SC.
Also we are usually there the last week in Sept. and the start of the Food and Wine Fest. many of the items at the different countries are included with the SC.
And you can always use them for a water or soda in the parks which we do OOP cause we don't have enough SC.

 

[DISNEYmooner2008]

We used all of ours during our 1st trip in January and we got 2 snacks per person per day (DxDDP). We used them for drinks, mickey bars, bakery items for breakfast, bottled water, dole whip floats, crepes in france, ect... We didn't have ANY left over - maybe we are just pigs

 

[Minnie & Me]

I agree with Faindrop27. In addition, we have a resort mugs which allows us to save all our bottled drinks from the resort CS meals to bring with us to the park. We also have a rental car and venture offsite one or 2 days and only come back for dinner which again gave us extra snack credits. Between CS desserts and TS desserts, there is no time in between to have room in the tummy for another dessert except late at night; at which point most of us were too tired and opted to go back and sleep. Another major reason why we never used up our snacks was that the icecream lines at the parks and resorts were alway a mile long. Not worth the wait!

 

[christa112]

On our first trip using DDP we would buy a bottle of water or a soda instead of using it as a snack. I guess we were afraid of using them all up and then finding out on the last day we still had tons of snacks left.

Our 2nd trip we were wiser and used snacks as sodas and water. We still had some left over, but no where near as many as the 1st time around.

 

[frannn]

I give DH the evil eye when he wants to get a soda (doesn't quench your thirst for very long with all that sugar, right), so he pays OOP. When we step off the plane in Orlando, I have my trusty DIS list with all the great, allowable stuff. Problem is, we are always running to something, never near the Dole Whip stand when I could stomach one, never in DTD long enough to get the make your own stuff (very upset we missed that- I love chocolate covered anything). This year, we are on the DXDDP. I vow to you all here and now, I will not give DH any lip when he wants a drink (just as long as he keeps away from DD's and my snack credits, LOL), and I will burn a few of my own on those frozen slushie drinks wherever I can find one. The coffee one is ymmmmm in MGM!

 

[Pirate's Princess]

I agree with the snack hoarding. It makes me nervous to use my snack so early, so instead I get an early lunch (not a big breakfast person at disney) then I'm full until dinner, and dinner fills me up until I go to bed. I plan snacks but am never quite in the mood. When I'm thirsty, I run to a place that has fountain soda and get a FREE glass of ice water than comes from the fountain. I highly recommend it as I drink lots of water and there is a lot of hooha with bottled waters, there basically is no difference.

I did use the remainder of my credits to run to DTD and do MYO at Goofys. Definately am going to always plan a short run to DTD on the last day for those remainders. The problem is I plan too much food and then don't need it.

 

[MScott1851]

I can understand that... And in a way, I do it too. When we are ready for a snack, I always think, "Where can I get the most bang for my buck, instead of a box of popcorn?" And if I'm not hungry enough for a 'big' snack, I'll pay OOP for a bottled water thinking I'll save the snack credit for the next time. But I've never had any left over at the end of a trip. We always managed to use them all plus pay for some OOP.

I just guess I'm never NOT ready for a snack, hahaha! We try to eat lunch as soon as CS places open at 11am, and usually don't eat TS dinner til 6:45 or 7pm.

Now, we did have one CS credit left over one time, we got in late one afternoon and split a footlong chili dog and fries. The morning we left, I used it to pay for the person behind me.

 

[LuminationsFan]

Not really sure how it happens, but there are always a few left over. I agree with the others who say they are looking for the perfect "bang" for DDP buck. On our last foray into the World, we used those elusive credits and loaded up on the the Mickey shaped rice krispy treats - brought them home and, VOILA!, souvenier/thank yous for all those we forgot (ie, the kid next door who got our mail everyday!!).

 

[stagemomx3]

We were on the dxddp on our trip and we had a ton of snack credits left over. Here's how that happened-

1. Small amount of snack hording at beginning of trip, got over that quickly.

2. Cashiers automatically charging back to the room, even after being told we wanted to use snack credits. This happened several times, or their machines weren't working so we just paid with cash.

3. Waterparks kiosks don't take snack credits.

4. We were so full from our meals we didn't often desire snacks.

 

[Allison]

I always wonder about that too. We ran out of ours a couple of days early. My 3 kids would use them to get muffins for breakfast or we would have ice cream in the park or frozen lemonades. They went quickly.

 

[Aurora's Mommy]

We've never been on DDP before (but will be in 19 DAYS ) and I already can tell you that I will be a combo (a) hoarder and (b) looking for the best bang for the buck (what can I say, it's taken me 40+ years, but I'm fairly self aware). However, I am also determined that Disney will not get one more cent from me than they deserve. Therefore, if have to buy every grape at the food court on our last day there, by golly, I will .

 

[patsal]

1.Not really snackers--we never normally order a dessert with CS, but got it since it was on the plan and that was a snack type item--didn't really need another one. Always full and always felt like we were eating meals just to keep up. Couldn't come close to keeping up with the snacks.
2. Last year you couldn't use snack credits at the pastry shop in France so we paid OOP.
3. Didn't need breakfast since we're DVC and always have breakfast in the villa before heading out.
4. It's July and it's hot--we dont' need to eat that much
Over the course of a two week vacation we normally only have the following snacks:
Dole whip floats once X 4
pastries in France once X4
one raspberry pretzel pastry in Norway X 1
one kaki gori in Japan X 1
one giant soft pretzel on germany X1
Slushies from Peevey's once X4
one snack each from the villians sweet shop X4
Mickey ice cream bars once X 2
Itsakadozie once X1
Minnie frozen strawberry bar once X1


So, over 14 days you could see we'd have a lot of snack credits left over. We'd get 56 credits and only use 23.

 

[TDC Nala]

I was known to use them for Diet Cokes (I refuse to pay money for water in any form)

 

[beroh2253]

I wish we could use 1 SC or even maybe 2 now to buy an appetizer at the TS. Or trade the dessert along with 1 SC to get the appetizer. I much prefer the app. over dessert.

 

[mickeysgirl17]

In 2006, we took a 8 night/9 day trip and had the DP. On our last day, we had 2 snack credits left over which I wanted to use at the Mainstreet bakeshop. We were walking down mainstreet for the last time on our way out and when we got to the train station, DH remembered that we had 2 snacks left but we were too lazy to walk back not to mention, I didn't want to walk down mainstreet for the last time twice so we just left and went to our car for the drive home! Oh well.............

 

[Nienor]

I always assume the people with extra snacks go in the cooler seasons. Because we can easily "spend" our snack credit each day on a drink. I know it's not the best value for a credit, but in September you get incredibly thirsty.

In my family my DH and DS always want some sort of sweet drink. I can get by with free ice water at the parks. Thereby saving my snack credit for umm.. I'd like to say a snack for me, but generally it became an extra icecream for DS in addition to his lemonade.

I'm going to guess alot of people feel the drink is a bad value for the credit and hoard them for food. But I'd rather not have to pay for a drink than take home boxes of cookies which may or may not get eaten later.

 

[disneyfav4ever]

On my next trip I "know" I'll use one snack credit on Figaro fries, one on a Dole whip, and one on onion rings. That leaves 21 credits for me to use. Though I'll use a bunch at the Food and Wine festival if it's allowed, I know I'll have extra, I just can't eat two TS meals a day, and then all those snacks too, so a lot of my credits will probably be used for bottled water.