First time on dining plan. Words of advice?

[Pumbaa_]

Especially watch snack credit use. The first stay credits must be used before midnight of checkout
Check your receipts! The bottom always lists out how many of each type left. Don't leave anything on the table

 

[2manyprincesses]

Wow! This will be my third time on the dining plan and I did not know this. Thank you for sharing!

Remember the QS meal credits are not separated into child/adult. You can get adult meals with all of them. Many, many Disney meals are shareable, especially with young kids. Then, you can use those extra credits on a breakfast or maybe dinner in the resort food court.
My kids are were 16, 13, and 10 on our last trip and there were several meals where we got 3 meals for the 5 of us, and still couldn't finish.

 

[MrsIncredible1974]

I know many will say it's a waste to use snack credits on drinks, but if you really want one, use it. We ended up with a bunch of extra snack credits that I wish we had just used on lemonades or other things!

this!
We stuck to our resort mugs, water fountains and drinks with meals last trip and left with tons of snack credits left over, albeit it was in the days when QS included dessert and only one snack per day. But, as we pretty much always saved the dessert for later, maybe it won't be so different this time. Who knows.

 

[persimmondeb]

Lots and lots of small "edible souvenirs" you can use up snack credits on. If we've got credits to spare we usually do fudge or those Mickey Krispie treats to eat on the way home.