Dining Plan and TS meal questions

We have had the QS dining plan twice now, but this will be our first trip on the standing dining plan and I have a few questions.

I have heard that it can very from restaurant to restaurant and even among CMs, but what have your experiences been…is it common that they would allow you to order an appetizer in place of your dessert? It would be ideal if we could order a couple of appetizers to share and then a couple of desserts rather than all 4 desserts.

And how flexible are they with sides generally? When my daughter wants the steak but would rather have fries or onion rings rather than the asparagus it comes with, are those type requests generally accommodated without issue?

In my (limited) experience, no problem ordering what ever sides they offer, however no swapping of desserts/apps.

I would regularly take the dessert wrapped up for later.