Mistakes you made the 1st time you did DDP.

[Camping Cat]

Absolutely true. Here is the description from http://www.dreamsunlimitedtravel.com/packages/2009-packages.htm#mypqsd:

NEW FOR 2009 - The Magic Your Way Package Plus Quick Service Dining
This package includes:

Stay 1 -10 nights at a Disney Resort
Magic Your Way Base Ticket
This package includes everything listed in the starter Disney package
Includes the Disney Quick Service Dining Package:

Choose from participating Quick Service Restaurants

Two Quick Service Meals per person, per night
Two snacks per person, per night
One Resort Refillable Mug per person, per package

Ah. That's why I didn't know about all the extras. I'm purchasing the QSDP as a DVC member, not with a package. Thanks for the info.

 

[veraletta]

inkedupmomma and lisalonglash.
Thanks I knew I was reading it right and that I was in deed getting
The QSDP is 2 meals and 2 snacks. It's the regular plan that has only one snack, I didn't think that reservation confirmation would be wrong, as when we booked he also told us we would get 2 -qsdp and 2 snacks.
Thanks

 

[delmar411]

After just returning from WDW with the QS plan, I have to say, it is still too much food.

On our last day at Disney we had 7 snacks and 9 CS meals left. I knew I could use the snack credits for things to take home but I did not know what to do with the CS credits. I asked guest services about them and they advised me to just get whatever I could to go. I ordered 4 sandwiches and 1 salad at Earl of Sandwich and ordered 2 kids pizzas and two mac & cheese meals at WPE. I had no problem ordering this despite the fact that only four people were on the dining plan. We were staying in Orlando for two more days and did not need to buy any food for those days because we had all those to-go meals to eat. Still threw food away.

The plan is still worth the money, I just need to plan better. I thought we would be OK because we only paid for one TS meal at T-Rex. I just don't know how we got so far behind in using our CS meals???

We also had many meals leftover at the end of our stay. I got 23 snacks at Goofy's Candy Shop the night before we left plus lots of snacks during our last day plus still had 6 snacks to get at the resort plus 14 counter services. For the record I got all 14 CS's meals on one single ticket and paid for them with the remains of our meal plan. They were really accommodating about packing it all down into as few boxes as possible as well as subbing out the adult sides for the kids bagged grapes and carrots (easier to transport).

And had no issues ordering whatever we wanted to in any combo w/ the plan. At Pepper Market we had 4 adult meals and 2 kids meals (our setup was 3A/3C) as we took home some pizza for later and one kid slept through the meal. No issue checking out at all.

It's setup that you can eat whatever you want whenever you want and there is no day by day separation on credits. We checked in and immediately had 108 counter services and 108 snacks. If I had for some strange reason felt the need to use them all in one day, I would be allowed.


Anyway even with the quick service dining plan I felt that all we did was eat. Esp when we were faced with so many meals and snacks in the final 24hrs. We didn't deny the kids any snacks at all either. Nor ourselves. The only snacks I paid OOP for was at Club Cool in Epcot. I paid for slushy refills (snack credit elsewhere though ) as well as a diet coke at Club Cool. So close to $20 'wasted' on things that should have been using snack credits.

 

[Tink3Bell]

We horded our snack credits and had lots left at the end. We got lots of rice crispy treats to take home as souvenirs but should have used some.

 

[threeboysmom]

I've done the dining plan a few times now, and I don't think I have any mistakes, LOL. But I have to say, I'm AMAZED at the number of people that have snack credits left over! WOW! We never have enough! But then, I do tend to use my snack credits for a bottle of water, and I easily go through 3-4 bottles a day in the FL heat.

I'll take all your leftover snack credits!

 

[dd50]

August will be our first time staying at a Disney resort and buying the DDP. My daughter and two grandchildren are meeting us up there. We are going the week before the free plan. We usually only do one TS when we go and she thought the plan would be good because she wanted to go to some of the character places. We started stressing if we could eat all that food and then decided to not do the food and pay OOP for every thing, but we had already picked the restaurants that we wanted and didn't want to give any up so on the plan again. It will be a good deal for her but don't know about me and my 3 teens because we don't usually eat all that. We decided to stay with it and hopefully the clothes I buy the kids for school will fit the following week. We are not going to stress about getting our monies worth and just have a good time.

 

[Planning fanatic mom]

Thank you for all of the tips. First time on the DDP here. I'm subbing in case someone else comes up with a new tip.

 

[neatokimmo]

Our mistakes...

1. Eating at Hollywood and vine - yuck! Eating at ABC commissary - YUCK!
2. Not sharing lunches. A couple were really big, and nothing is worse than being stuffed and walking around a hot theme park all day. I think it would of been better to share a lunch and get a second one later on if needed.
3. We didn't horde snack credits, we just weren't hungry. Back in 2006 they allowed full boxes of doughnuts, big bags of chips and dips for snack credits. Since we were driving, we grabbed like a dozen of those and took them home.
4. Not using two TS credits at Epcot for lunch and dinner. They have great variety and the best TS meals IMO.

Things we did right...
1. We didn't hop around and waste a lot of time going to our meals. A MK day would include a meal at a monorail resort. It was quick and nice to sit in air conditioning for the ride.
2. Not eating snacks just because they were there to eat. If we had eaten snacks plus all the food, I would of hurled.
3. Getting juice with our meals instead of coke.

We are going for 14 days this time - yippeee!!

 

[EthansMom]

We didn't make too many mistakes... We didn't realize we could get a juice AND another beverage at breakfast (CS and TS). This year, we'll make sure to get a juice and a bottle of water to take with us every day. Also, I think we ate too many desserts that just weren't very tasty... This year, I'm really going to make an effort to not finish eating food just because "it's free".

Something we did that work well for us... many days, we used our snack credits to purchase a "light breakfast" (cinnamon roll or piece of fruit). That worked well on many days. Basically, we used snack credits for our breakfast, counter service for lunch, and table service for dinner.

For our upcoming trip, I've booked half our TS credits as late lunches. On those days, we'll likely have a large breakfast using our counter service credits, use our table service credits for a late lunch and use our snack credits when we feel peckish during the day.

 

[lizandjason]

Trying to get the most $$$ out of the plan by getting the most expensive meals and only having TS for supper.

Use your credits the way that you want. I know that a TS breakfast is not as expensive as a dinner but our family loves to go out for breakfast a couple of times on our vacation. We do not always like running around trying to get to that next ADR every night. Sometimes we schedule two ADRs in one day(breakfast/dinner) and have none the next day.

Get the food you like and don't worry about maximizing the most money out of it. It is not a value if you don't like what you are eating or you are not having a great time.

I think this is the best advice I've ever seen on these boards re: dining. Thank you, I'm going to keep this in mind when making my ADRs!

 

[lampshadehead]

inkedupmomma and lisalonglash.
Thanks I knew I was reading it right and that I was in deed getting
The QSDP is 2 meals and 2 snacks. It's the regular plan that has only one snack, I didn't think that reservation confirmation would be wrong, as when we booked he also told us we would get 2 -qsdp and 2 snacks.
Thanks

I stand corrected!

 

[Karpkg]

Okay, here are my 1st impressions after reading tips about what I am generally going to do after reading up to this point...

Since it's going to be a free dining for us in September, I'm not going to worry about getting the most expensive stuff on the menu, etc. because that would stress me out trying to calculate to be ahead of the game. I'm already ahead because it's free! I will, however, remember to check my receipts after meals to make sure we will be charged correctly.

I will probably get park hoppers since I'm hearing how hard it is to get ADRs (trying to coordinate when & where); but I won't make that final decision until I run thru the ADR gauntlet come June.

I think we'll buy snacks early to keep on hand and for breakfasts, schedule meals far apart but not too late a dinner.

DH loves bottled water- contrary to what I'm reading I'll use snack credits for that; I'd rather use up snacks than be left with unused credits...at the same time my kids and I don't eat a lot of food so we'll probably be sharing CS credits; I read somewhere 1 CS is 4 snack credits? I like that point of breakfast drinking a juice and taking a water to go.

I'll probably re-evaluate what I have left 1-2 days before we leave to see where we are at that point...

Finally, I'll try not to let this overtake the priority of letting the kids enjoy the parks for their first time!!!

 

[squirrel]

1 CS is not the same as 4 snack credits.

Main Street Bakery and some other places will allow you to get a drink, a savoury item and a sweet during breakfast.

At the resort you can get a CS meal with two drinks during breakfast.

 

[Mommy2Jameson]

I was going to add to get the most out of our plan, this is what we did:

- We booked our TS meals for either the last breakfast or an early lunch(11-1:30). We mostly chose character buffets. This way we filled up with a nice brunch that kept us going most of the day/
-Then we used our CS meals for a dinner later in the evening, and it was easier to work this around the various firework shows that we wanted to see

(Note that we are NOT morning people. We usually headed to the parks about 9:30. And we stayed late until 11 or midnight every night.)

-We had some poptarts/granola bars in the room that we had packed for the kids to get a quick bite to eat before heading out.

-We then had our snack credits to use whenever! We usually got the lemonade ices to drink during the afternoon parades!

Also, the last day we had 5 CS meals left due to a flight delay coming in and sharing meals, and the girl working a ASMovies let us use them as 5 snack credits instead. Sure we weren't getting their full potential, but we were about to get on a plane home, so Mickey Rice Crispies were more convenient than say a pizza!

 

[mmmbop]

My mistake was apparently not checking with the other person with whom I was traveling with (grandmother). (I swear, she OK'd everything before I made any reservations!)

I pretty much had it planned out: two days per park. We're getting ready to go one morning and she asks, "Where are we going?" I can't remember what I had planned for the day (maybe DHS?), but she said "ICK! NO WAY! We haven't been to Epcot yet, let's go to Epcot!" Luckily, I was able to cancel my ADR and get one for Le Chefs de France. It was so good, my grandmother didn't want to go to AK the next day - she wanted to go back to Le Chefs de France! Luckily, I somehow was able to get an ADR for both days, the day of. We went to Epcot again the next day, but she didn't make me switch ADRs that day

 

[ExtinctDino]

Okay, here are my 1st impressions after reading tips about what I am generally going to do after reading up to this point...

Since it's going to be a free dining for us in September, I'm not going to worry about getting the most expensive stuff on the menu, etc. because that would stress me out trying to calculate to be ahead of the game. I'm already ahead because it's free! I will, however, remember to check my receipts after meals to make sure we will be charged correctly.

I will probably get park hoppers since I'm hearing how hard it is to get ADRs (trying to coordinate when & where); but I won't make that final decision until I run thru the ADR gauntlet come June.

I think we'll buy snacks early to keep on hand and for breakfasts, schedule meals far apart but not too late a dinner.

DH loves bottled water- contrary to what I'm reading I'll use snack credits for that; I'd rather use up snacks than be left with unused credits...at the same time my kids and I don't eat a lot of food so we'll probably be sharing CS credits; I read somewhere 1 CS is 4 snack credits? I like that point of breakfast drinking a juice and taking a water to go.

I'll probably re-evaluate what I have left 1-2 days before we leave to see where we are at that point...

Finally, I'll try not to let this overtake the priority of letting the kids enjoy the parks for their first time!!!

That all sounds very sensible, especially the last point. With kids 6 and 4, I'd try to get ADRs mostly for character buffets in or near the parks: Crystal Palace, Chef Mickey's, etc. That maximizes park time, because you don't have extra traveling, and with buffets you're not waiting around for your food so it doesn't take as long. Young kids tend to be picky eaters too, and they're more likely to find something they like at a buffet. Character buffets also save on time you'd otherwise have to spend in line elsewhere in the parks waiting to meet characters.

 

[poohmickey]

1 CS is not the same as 4 snack credits.

Main Street Bakery and some other places will allow you to get a drink, a savoury item and a sweet during breakfast.

At the resort you can get a CS meal with two drinks during breakfast.

When we were there in March 2009, our resort let us do something called a "continental breakfast" where we could pick out 4 snack items and use 1 CS credit for them. One day they let us get 4 rice crispy treats for 1 CS credit - she had to ask the manager about that one so it might depend on who's helping you. They even had a button on the cash register for the "continental breakfast".

 

[qohweddings]

We've done DDP since before it was called that....

We're both planners and two grown men w/o kids... so our experience might not work for everyone..

Here are some things we've done right:

1) Don't be afraid to have an ice cream cookie sandwich at Main Street Bakery in MK for breakfast - great way to use a snack credit!

2) We like to get to the parks early and rarely do a big breakfast - so we use a snack credit for muffins and fruit to take on the road for breakfast.

3) We pack a few large zipper bags in our camera case - we like getting cookies, fruit or brownies as dessert and saving them for late night snacks back in our room.

4) We often share a CS meal mid morning and then another mid afternoon - plenty to share and we get to try a variety of our favorite foods. (especially EPCOT)

5) We absolutely plan our week with EMH, looking at park hours as well as fireworks or parades and then make ADR's according to where we'll be.

6) As AK often closes earlier than the other parks-we like to get in a full morning and afternooon- taking a break back at the hotel to enjoy the quiet of the pool and do dinner in a resort restaurant (easier to get ADR's too)... and then head back to another park for EMH, and fireworks...

6 days till we head back for the third time since October....

My name is Mark and I'm a Disney-holic!

 

[NorweJenNY]

When we were there in March 2009, our resort let us do something called a "continental breakfast" where we could pick out 4 snack items and use 1 CS credit for them. One day they let us get 4 rice crispy treats for 1 CS credit - she had to ask the manager about that one so it might depend on who's helping you. They even had a button on the cash register for the "continental breakfast".

Hmmm... that's interesting. I wonder if anyone else has "continental breakfast" stories to tell...

I also wonder if that would work at POFQ to get a bunch of beignets with some fruit and/or drinks...

 

[ExtinctDino]

I haven't heard of this, but it's great if a manager will let you package 4 snack items as a CS.

Without having to consult any managers, I've been able to package something like a bagel and muffin as a CS instead of a breakfast entree with no problem. Since I got the 2 drinks also, I didn't try to get more than 2 food items. And as far as I know it wasn't rung up as a "continental breakfast." I had not heard that term used before at WDW.