DDP Strategy Question - and dining/snacking advice requested

We are a party of six (DH, DW, DS13, DS13, DD12, and DS5) staying five nights with six pretty full days in the parks (morning arrival first day, evening departure our last day). We have one ADR planned each of our six travel days, and plan to come eat QS in the parks every day (maybe one exception).

The kids are generally picky and are not especially big eaters. For example, DS13 is already expecting to eat chicken fingers every meal (and would be thrilled to do so). In short: I’m not sure that the kids will often want to order from the adult menu unless they can get a plain hamburger or something similar.

That said, I didn’t initially realize DDP days are pegged to nights in hotel, not park tickets. So, I know now I have to pay out of pocket for at least one TS meal.

My question is: if I have a Disney adult (DS13) ordering from the kids menu, will they “supersize” the entree for him, or should I just pay out of pocket for that meal? Our last TS is Crystal Palace so I know I want TS credits for that, but it seems like it would behoove me to pay OOP for kid meals that are going to adults at least until I “bank” enough credits. And if I bank enough, I could conceivably fit in another TS meal instead of QS - which would at least make my wife and I happy.

Does anyone have experience with this kind of approach?

We were last at WDW eight years ago, and are looking to our first F&W experience. I’ve looked at the venues there and have a good idea of what we’ll try to sample (perhaps converting QS credits to 3x Snack credits) - but does anyone have QS and/or snack recommendations for the other parks? We were thinking Pecos Bills at MK and Yak and Yeti Cafe at AK. I’ve heard that Woody’s at HS is the best of generally bad QS options.

I can see my kids getting most of their sustenance from snacks and skimping at meal time.

Thanks in advance!

When our Disney adult 10 year old wanted an entree from the kids menu at San Angel Inn, they did supersize it for her, so that can usually be done. That said, I am pretty confident that if you wanted to pay out of pocket for kids meals and bank the credits to use later that would not be a problem.

If your kids are going to be ordering off the kids menu you may want to reevaluate the value of DDP.

2 Likes

When we first stayed onsite we got the “free” UK dining plan. And I thought I was being ever-so-clever in working out which meals we would use the TS credits for.

So I duly saved 4 credits to be used for our last day for a Cape May breakfast. We were staying at BC and had booked it for one day mid-stay, but in those days it was possible to walk up to the podium, get a pager and get a table within 30 minutes.

Come the last day and DH and eldest decided they wanted to sleep in a bit longer and get breakfast at the counter. Result: two wasted credits, which I used to pay for another family that morning.

We rarely use the dining plan now, but it’s a cautionary tale of how the most carefully laid plans can go awry.

1 Like