Another week, another episode of The Case For with Chris Cox.
This week they discuss Snack Credits under the Disney Dining Plan.
Open-ended follow-up question:
How do you maximize the value of your Snack Credits?
Wow - so far 5 votes and all are “I don’t ever use the DDP.” 
When we’ve used DDP in past the snack crd were wasted. Unless there were food kiosks at EC
This is old news but - you asked.
When we first used the dining plan - like in the '90s (picture this) we had 3 sit down meals and some activities (water skiing 
) and I think we blew off the snacks.
By our 2001 trip there was no dining plan.
Eventually there was another one. I particularly recall 2010 when we bought a bunch of sandwiches from Pizzafari to eat on the way home to Missouri by way of Texas. Big ice storm in northern Arkansas.
Along about that time we started doing water and other beverages for snacks because we were visiting more in summer months and needing more hydration. Also in the '00s I discovered the value of a snack or two with a meal to help fill up a teen. Eggrolls at Yak n Yeti qs particularly.
By '13 we had quit the dining plan altogether because of all the business with appetizers and desserts. That structure didn’t fit with how we were beginning to eat. With a growing family, especially with kids beginning to eat more, it might be worthwhile.
I never bought the plan without looking at menus of restaurants we were wanting to eat at. I knew what each person was likely to order so my estimates were close. In 2001, over 8 days, 8 people, 3 meals a day, I was over by $100.
There was a lot of talk about not getting your money’s worth unless you were doing 2 credit meals. Our money’s worth went up with teens and snacks.
I will say, Jeff, that this is only about cost of food. Same stuff with compared to without dining plan and with. It does not address worth, which I didn’t at WDW anyway.
Makes sense to compare apples to apples – DDP vs. cash for the same food.
Although there is an entirely separate debate about whether the DDP encourages you to eat more food than you normally would, in which case it could be a doubly bad value (especially for me since I try to avoid unnecessary caloric intake).
Which speaks to worth.
And discipline.
Quit eating when you’re full.
Portion sizes are a difficulty at WDW regardless.
In the before times, we really loved the DeDP, and we definitely maximized it. The new DDP doesn’t help us at all because it’s not worth it to us.
Other: when my kids were younger, we would take short trips (2-3 nights) and could often do really well with the DDP, especially when we went to character meals and/or had the “free dining” as opposed to a percentage off our room. For short trips, it’s easy to use up all of your credits of whatever category, including snacks. I think it would be tougher to do over longer trips.
If I use the DDP I end up wasting snack credits. But I rarely if ever use the plan anymore
Before the changes I would at times get the dining plan. I always used to be able to look at my dining plans and then easily see if I wanted the regular of deluxe (usually as part of a split stay) dining plan. Snack credits were always part of those plans. At that time, festival booths, and eating as much as we wanted using snack credits 1 or 2 times a trip was great. Of course, at that time, we could also trade one QS credit for 3 food booth items.
Now, I will not buy the Disney dining plan.
Why would I use something that costs more money than I can ever eat and if I were to try to beat the system I would have to work really hard at it?!?! It would actually stress me out more to try and use credits in a system versus eating whatever the heck I want and paying less. I’d prefer to just set a dining budget ahead of time based on the places I want to eat and the things on the menu that sound good to me (and for family predictions I usually pick the most expensive thing to be on the safe side). I have done this for numerous family vacations outside of Disney too so I can tell parents, mother in law, etc. how much to expect to spend on food on the high end. But I also like doing math (but not so much when I’m on vacation and living in a moment).
Second thought, if you really want to make sure you stick to that budget, put it on a Disney gift card you buy for a discount at Costco or Sams or wherever I saw you can do that. And don’t let yourself use your CC. This seems a better guaranteed deal.
This is essentially what I do. In a few cases, I can get a 10% discount on food by using my Disney Visa card versus a credit card…but I then try to use my Disney Rewards card instead, since you still get the 10% discount that way. For our recent 9-night Disney trip, I only used my CC twice…and for insignificant amounts more because it was a habit to pull it out to pay. But I generally have the ENTIRETY of a Disney trip pre-paid well before we ever leave for the trip between Gift Cards purchased at a discount and my Disney Rewards card.
There is little incentive for Disney to actually provide any kind of discounted dining plan. They seem to have no trouble filling rooms.
(It has been pointed out that if you drink alcohol at every meal, the DDP might work in your favor…but we only get alcohol very rarely.)
Agreed! This is what we did for food in October. Plus we often shared meals.
2 snack credits added a lot of value to the DDP. When you use the right, you have almost all of your dining paid for with the plan. With only one, I can’t find a way to not spend $$ on breakfast or extra snacks.
Snack credits are great for the expensive snacks and food booths!
DDP doesn’t make sense anymore for our eating habits. But I have never wasted or not gotten good value out of the snack credits when we have done the dining plan.
I too have always used every single credit when I used the dining plan in the past. I would still pool my credits together for festival booths but one snack a day is not enough.
Yes, this too. I have this card and also buy the merchandise too with it for the discount.
I was a slow bloomer to figuring out how to use the dining plan well. Only actually used it for two trips in 2019, first with free dining with my 3 teenage boys who put it to good use. Second trip with one kid/one under-3 and had extra credits because the other adult was only there part of the time. We hit lots of character meals. Also did well there. Snacks were well used for a third small meal per day and we actually used a couple of QS meals for additional snacks back when it was allowed. But sadly once I had figured it out, Covid hit and DDP will never be the same. Unlikely I’ll get dining plan again unless it’s a free dining promo.
I’m totally amazed how much a Snack Credit can purchase in World Showcase vs other locations/resorts. On another point, this was my first use of DDP where I could only purchase 1TS per day and discovered that if you only have 1 credit you cannot use it at a Signature (2TS) restaurant and makeup the difference with cash, leaving 1 TS stranded.