Do you use your snacks or quick service for breakfast?

[KellyHonos]

A common issue I have run into each time I've been to the parks on the DDP is choosing how to use my credits each day. I have looked extensively through the food options offered at all parks (snack counters, quick service counters and table service restaurants) and we have already made all our dining reservations, which just leaves breakfast and lunch up for determination when we get there. I made a list of quick services that interest me in each park, but I always struggle with wanting to use my quick service for breakfast because I wake up starving!!!!

What do you guys do for breakfast with your credits? I know some people bring food or have a grocery delivery service deliver some groceries to their room--I really have no interest in doing this. I'm paying for 2 snacks, a table service and a quick service for everyday--I intend on using each and everyone of them. I have paid enough $ as it is, I don't want to have to buy more food. I know there MUST be a way to work the system in my favor, so come on guys, share me some of your secrets!

Last time I went, I recall paying for breakfast a couple times simply because I woke up so hungry and couldn't imagine a banana and a cup of cereal (2 snack credits) tiding me over until lunch. We usually wake up fairly early to make it to the parks by opening, or at least within the first 30 min of opening, so by the time lunch rolls around, we have already been up for a few hours and worked up an appetite.

Can you guys recommend snacks that are large enough for breakfast? Am I missing something when I visit my resort's cafeteria and only see fruit and various small items as snacks? Or, conversely, if you have no large snack recommendations, do you have large snacks in mind worthy of lunch? I'm realllly not trying to step too far out of bounds of my DDP. I'm already going to be paying for a table service or two due to us having ressies at Cinderella's Royal Table and Hoop De Do Revue. I really want to try and make my snacks and counter service credits work in my favor to get my money's worth.

 

[sharonabe]

To me, this is definitely one of the drawbacks of DDP use. Since you're paying for some extra TS meals, you'll have QS meals to use for breakfast. Unfortunately, there aren't many places to use them at the parks. So you get up early enough to go to your resort QS and have breakfast (you might be able to share a bounty platter with a snack or two thrown in), try to get a PPO at BoG and use credits there, or use precious first hour of park time at Sunshine Seasons at EP and Yak n Yeti at AK.

If you look through the sticky of confirmed snack credits (yes, it's old, but the snacks on it should still be available), that might give you some ideas for what you could get for lunch, but depending on how early you breakfast and when your dinner is, there isn't a whole lot that will fill you up.

Hope others come along with some ideas for you.

 

[smiths02]

How many people are you and what is your make up in terms of age/appetite?

When we had DDP last (granted it was 2011, so using a breakfast credit wasn't as big of a deal)...we used counter service credits for breakfast, but we split and/or supplemented with snacks in the room or snack credits.

Anyhow, if you had 2 people...for breakfast, you could split a resort bounty platter and something for a snack credit (use refillable mug for drinks)? At lunch, do the same...get a platter and maybe an extra side with a snack credit. That would still leave you with a snack credit each to have a Dole Whip or something, and your table service?

 

[KellyHonos]

To me, this is definitely one of the drawbacks of DDP use. Since you're paying for some extra TS meals, you'll have QS meals to use for breakfast. Unfortunately, there aren't many places to use them at the parks. So you get up early enough to go to your resort QS and have breakfast (you might be able to share a bounty platter with a snack or two thrown in), try to get a PPO at BoG and use credits there, or use precious first hour of park time at Sunshine Seasons at EP and Yak n Yeti at AK.

If you look through the sticky of confirmed snack credits (yes, it's old, but the snacks on it should still be available), that might give you some ideas for what you could get for lunch, but depending on how early you breakfast and when your dinner is, there isn't a whole lot that will fill you up.

Hope others come along with some ideas for you.

Sharing a quick service for breakfast and each of us grabbing a snack may actually work. I will look into this. My sister and I have slightly different restrictions, but they're close enough to where they could possibly work. I will look into this, Good thinking. I usually like to use my quick service credit for lunch because the parks have so many cool QS options, whereas breakfast, for the most part, I'm not saying always, tends to be pretty much the same options. When I went in 2013, I tried using my snacks for breakfast and within a couple hours my stomach was growling Maybe sharing would be best.

 

[Elizabeth Smith]

We used snacks for breakfast almost everyday on our last trip, except when we had BOG breakfast, and then on that day we were having an early dinner at 'Ohana, so we didn't really eat lunch.

We stayed at POFQ most recently, so we could get beignets and croissants for breakfast there. At Epcot, the bakery in France has really really good breakfast options that are snack credits. You can get a ham and cheese sandwich or a cheddar bacon roll. Both are pretty satisfying breakfasts and only 1 snack credit. Animal Kingdom has those giant mickey-head shaped cinnamon rolls that serve 2 but are only 1 snack credit. I could go on. I find using a snack for breakfast is more than enough to keep me going. But unlike, you, OP, I don't typically wake up that hungry.

 

[KellyHonos]

How many people are you and what is your make up in terms of age/appetite?

When we had DDP last (granted it was 2011, so using a breakfast credit wasn't as big of a deal)...we used counter service credits for breakfast, but we split and/or supplemented with snacks in the room or snack credits.

Anyhow, if you had 2 people...for breakfast, you could split a resort bounty platter and something for a snack credit (use refillable mug for drinks)? At lunch, do the same...get a platter and maybe an extra side with a snack credit. That would still leave you with a snack credit each to have a Dole Whip or something, and your table service?

Honestly, I'm kind of embarassed I hadn't considered the option of sharing before, LOL. I guess I consider myself to be a breakfast person that the thought of sharing kind of seems odd, but with some of the breakfasts in resort cafeterias being so large, we may be able to swing it. I'm going to look up my resorts menu for breakfast and see what the options are and what could ideally be shared between my sister and I. I definitly have a larger appetite than her (I'm 12 years older and have a wider palette) but it could be that something on the breakfast menu could easily be shared.

 

[KellyHonos]

We used snacks for breakfast almost everyday on our last trip, except when we had BOG breakfast, and then on that day we were having an early dinner at 'Ohana, so we didn't really eat lunch.

We stayed at POFQ most recently, so we could get beignets and croissants for breakfast there. At Epcot, the bakery in France has really really good breakfast options that are snack credits. You can get a ham and cheese sandwich or a cheddar bacon roll. Both are pretty satisfying breakfasts and only 1 snack credit. Animal Kingdom has those giant mickey-head shaped cinnamon rolls that serve 2 but are only 1 snack credit. I could go on. I find using a snack for breakfast is more than enough to keep me going. But unlike, you, OP, I don't typically wake up that hungry.

I have honestly heard that a lot, actually. Some people really don't wake up that hungry. I, on the other hand, would say my hunger at breakfast can be rooted in the fact I get to bed so early so I eat an early dinner. In my everyday life, I eat dinner at about 5 and then go to bed by 9 and wake up at 5, so by the time breakfast comes, I haven't eaten my last meal in 12 hours. I have friends and family members that can go without breakfast and be fine. I think it's all about the routine you have at home and making it work while you're in WDW, because that appeteite and that sleep schedule doesn't just disappear when you're on vacation, even though sometimes it would be nice if it did.

 

[samsteele]

I use my snack credits at Food & Wine as that's when I usually visit and with a number of offerings well over $6, it's a great use of those credits. I pack cereal, instant oatmeal and granola bars and have a quick light breakfast in my room. Even if I wanted to grab something at the resort cafeteria, I can't deal with the crowds that early. I enjoy an extra 20 mins of sleep & have my healthy little breakfast before heading out to the bus. I eat early lunch at 11:30am in the parks so I don't miss a huge filling breakfast. It really is about what works for you. I know others on the Boards try to bring back a snack for next morning's breakfast (Epcot's Kringla Bakery is a big fav) while others indulge their wild cupcake & frosting cravings And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. It's vacation. Treat yourself.

 

[quandrea]

I think you can’t be afraid of using those snack credits for beverages like milk (high protein, filling) and fruit (healthy, filling). Some people may think it’s a waste of a snack credit, but so often people have extra snack credits at the end, so use them for breakfast.

I used to grab fruit, milk, cereal and yogurt the night before for breakfast. Day of, I’d grab fresh pastries and coffee. Saved time. We always had healthful, filling breakfasts before park opening.

Like you, I wasn’t going to spend one penny extra on food. We easily ate three meals a day by using snack credits. We didn’t have much desire to snack between meals as we were full, so those snack credits went to good use.

 

[KellyHonos]

I actually just looked up our resort's cafeteria, and I'm sure across the board the breakfast options are generally the same, but I see that there are options for Omelettes, which i think may easily sharable if they're large enough. I haven't seen any pics, so it is possible they're small omelettes, but I think it may work for us. I think we may use one person's QS for breakfast, then another person's for lunch, so long as we can agree on something.

 

[cassie58]

We have always ordered some groceries to the room - used Garden Grocer in the past, but their prices went up, so used Amazon Prime Now last trip. We also fly SW, so bring an extra suitcase with some snacks that travel well and paper products, with space for souvineers on way home. This way we have mini muffins, Pop tarts, etc that we can eat while waiting for bus, and cereal assortment and milk if we want to eat beforehand. This allows us to make rope drop, and then depending on ADRs, we may have a late brft scheduled to take advantage of early touring(Crystal Palace/Tusker House) or grab late brft at QS(Sunshine Seasons) if having later dinner, but not many places for that. We also throw granola bars, Combos, etc in bag for later in between meals. We like to use our snack credits for Dole Whip, Mickey bar, etc during heat of the day, or Sleepy Hollow, French Bakery, Mickey Pretzel when holding our spot for fireworks/show. We use our QS for dinner if having brft ADR or late brft/early lunch if dinner ADR - occasionally have QS brft at resort on sleep in/departure day.

 

[Moliphino]

I just get a snack in the park (Dole whip float, funnel cake, etc.) if I'm hungry in the morning and eat lunch on the early side. I'm not a breakfast person, though. Most work days I only have a breakfast bar in the morning to tide me over until lunch.

 

[Queen of the WDW Scene]

The way you describe how you use your credits I feel like the DxDP may actually be worth while for you.
3 meal credits per day plus snacks.

Personally I bring breakfast from home (This past trip I brought chocolate milk, peanut butter crackers, and Gerber fruit pouches) then I have an early lunch (around 11:30am), then a snack or two between lunch and dinner, and then a semi late dinner (around 7pm).
Works for me and I'm not paying OOP for anything while there just the small amount I built into my weekly groceries for breakfast.

 

[KellyHonos]

The way you describe how you use your credits I feel like the DxDP may actually be worth while for you.
3 meal credits per day plus snacks.

Personally I bring breakfast from home (This past trip I brought chocolate milk, peanut butter crackers, and Gerber fruit pouches) then I have an early lunch (around 11:30am), then a snack or two between lunch and dinner, and then a semi late dinner (around 7pm).
Works for me and I'm not paying OOP for anything while there just the small amount I built into my weekly groceries for breakfast.

While the thought of doing the DxDP sounds amazing, I know fully well my sister and I would never blow through that much food. If only there was 2 quick service options and one Ts option. THAT would be ideal for us! Til then, we make do with what's offered

 

[Queen of the WDW Scene]

While the thought of doing the DxDP sounds amazing, I know fully well my sister and I would never blow through that much food. If only there was 2 quick service options and one Ts option. THAT would be ideal for us! Til then, we make do with what's offered

With the DxDP you can use your credits at TS or QS so basically that is exactly what you are looking for.
Of course to use the credits to their full potential you'd want to use them all at TS locations but they don't have to be used in that way.
It would likely help you to not pay OOP for anything which seems to be the bigger concern you have which is that you paid X amount ahead of time to avoid having to pay more during the trip.

 

[KellyHonos]

With the DxDP you can use your credits at TS or QS so basically that is exactly what you are looking for.
Of course to use the credits to their full potential you'd want to use them all at TS locations but they don't have to be used in that way.
It would likely help you to not pay OOP for anything which seems to be the bigger concern you have which is that you paid X amount ahead of time to avoid having to pay more during the trip.

I see what you're saying. Avoiding paying out of pocket, yes the DxDP would make sense. But in terms of using the DxDP to it's fullest potential, I agree that it would really only be worth it to use it for TS, and to do 3 of those a day would be far too time consuming. As I said up in previous posts, I think the idea of sharing on some days may be best. Hopefully the breakfasts offered at our resort are hefty enough for 2 people.

 

[Queen of the WDW Scene]

I see what you're saying. Avoiding paying out of pocket, yes the DxDP would make sense.
Another But in terms of using the DxDP to it's fullest potential, I agree that it would really only be worth it to use it for TS, and to do 3 of those a day would be far too time consuming. As I said up in previous posts, I think the idea of sharing on some days may be best. Hopefully the breakfasts offered at our resort are hefty enough for 2 people.

Another thought that came to me is try to go during FD because then you could upgrade to a more expensive dining plan by just paying the difference.
My sister and I love going during FD and upgrade from QSDP to DDp and it only costs about $17 per person per night to do so. (So basically its like we are paying $17 per person per night for a dining plan. I mean you can easily spend $17 on just one QS meal OOP and we are getting the whole DDP for that same price)
To upgrade from the FD QSDP to the DxDP it would be about $63 per person per night Again you'd be saving a lot of money vs not going during FD and buying the DxDP at full price.

 

[blue oranda]

Most recently we have been using our snack credits to each get something like a danish, cheesecake, or fruit tart for breakfast, and maybe using an extra snack credit to share a fruit cup among the three of us some mornings. We get breakfast around 8 and usually have lunch at 11:30-12.

 

[Lovetherodent]

We have trouble using up the snack credits. A yogurt parfait for breakfast (much less sweet for Greek yogurt) is a great use of a snack credit. Sometimes, we also use a QS credit for a breakfast platter, split it, and then split a QS for lunch. On split meal days, you can supplement with snack credits. No matter which method we"re going with, we don’t stop to eat in the park, always in the resort before we take off for the day.

 

[tnolan]

What we usually do is use 1 quick service meal credit + 1 snack credit for breakfast (snack credit goes for fruit cup), then lunch is room charge, then 1 quick service meal credit for dinner.