Disney Dining Plan while staying DVC

This is an issue for the kids too. It feels like a waste getting so much food for a 4 year old. Some days she was hungry enough to eat it, but most days she would have been fine with a pack of peanut butter crackers and a glass of milk (knowing a big dinner was coming).

We ran into this same scenario just on the Quick Service plan. It was convenient not to worry about paying for food or snacks, but with my kids, we wasted a ton of food at each meal. It was just too much even for the adults with a dessert with every meal as well. We really didn't use the free re-fill cups either since we spent most of our time at the parks or Disney Springs. At the end of the trip we ended up trading in snack credits for Candy, Cookies and drinks we would have otherwise not purchased.

For our trip this year, we are doing it all cash out of pocket and see if we hit the Quick Service cost (1K for a week for 5 people, 3 kids under 10). I have a feeling we will not, and still be overly full.
 
It was just too much even for the adults with a dessert with every meal as well. We really didn't use the free re-fill cups either since we spent most of our time at the parks or Disney Springs. At the end of the trip we ended up trading in snack credits for Candy, Cookies and drinks we would have otherwise not purchased.

I almost always ask for the kids' chocolate chip cookie as the dessert for my adult QS meal. That way I can eat something much smaller now. Or it's much smaller to save for sometime later. I have a weakness for chocolate chip cookies...

As far as snack credits go, I generally use them in three ways.
  1. On a Vitamin Water in the park (really did feel better then drinking just water) or a soda.
  2. On a Mickey Bar (I need at least one during the week).
  3. On snacks available back at the resort or somewhere with all the nice chocolatier/bakery snacks. My wife is pretty fond of the big chocolate peanut butter cups so I'll load up on them and take some home.
 
Thats all we do is stay in our DVC and get the meal plan...when we do parks we eat breakfast in the rooms thats it
 


I have heard that the cup will work for around week. I'll be trying that out Saturday when we have the ddp for the first night.

I believe the mug is good for 14 days from the day of activation. Someone will chime in here if I'm wrong :)

Do you have a split stay?
 
I believe the mug is good for 14 days from the day of activation. Someone will chime in here if I'm wrong :)

Do you have a split stay?

Little bird once told me the RFID chip is activated for 2 weeks regardless of your length of stay...

I know this after talking with cashiers during my split days. One thing I have to do is use the last of my snack credits before we can get new mugs for the second stay. The cashiers adore me because I already know this and plan the two transactions to accommodate Mickey's computer issues.
 


We get the dining plan. I have thought about paying OOP but after crunching the numbers I came out even. We look forward to getting the mugs and they get alot of use.
 
I believe the mug is good for 14 days from the day of activation. Someone will chime in here if I'm wrong :)

Yes, they are good for 14 days. I specifically stayed one night at SSR to get the dining plan mug and a signature meal before attending a conference at the Swan. for the weekend. After that day I switched to cheap Wyndham points to stay and used the mug to walk from the Swan to the Boardwalk for a refill. Worked all weekend even though I was not staying on property.
 
We were offered some type of Dining discount one year and strongly considered before just saying - can't justify it! Our situation may be different in that we take our College age kid's and some of their friends. Last year, my wife and I spent a few hours creating a detailed menu plan and fed 9 of us for a week for $200.

We always tell the kids that we will have food for Lunch or Dinner and that is on us. But - if you decide to grab something - it is on your dime.
 
We have done the Dining Plan for the last 5 years or so. Sometime we do the DDP, sometimes we do QS. Sometimes if we do a split stay, we will do the DDP for 1 have and the QS for the 2nd. Sometimes we don't do it at all for part of the split. For us, it is more about not having to worry about the cost of food because it is already paid for in advance. It probably does not really save us much money because, we end up ordering stuff that we would normally be too cheap to order without the plan.

This. We always purchase the dining plan. Does it same us money? Probably not. Does it save us a lot of aggravation knowing that everything has already been paid for and there's no 'sticker shock' at the end of the meal? Absolutely.
 
We get the dining plan. I have thought about paying OOP but after crunching the numbers I came out even. We look forward to getting the mugs and they get alot of use.

I came to the same conclusion that it was a break even proposition, and that is only if you would have actually ordered that much food. I felt like every meal my kids (4,5,7) were throwing away half the food, and I was struggling to finish dessert. It is just too much for my family and our level of consumption. When my kids hit high school it may be a different story.

If you eat at restaurants with DVC/TIW/AP/Chase discounts it would probably swing the results the other way from break even to a loss.

If you are on the fence, I would recommend just paying out of pocket based on your families normal eating needs (not the amount of food the plan provides) and see where you land for this trip and then re-evaluate if it would have been worth it for your next visit.
 
The DDP was worth it for me when my kids were 9 and under. Now that they're 11, 12 & 15 it's not worth it. We also do less buffets and AYCE places now that they're considered adults. My 11 & 12 yo hardly eat.

Plus the price has skyrocketed over they years. The first time I used to the DDP it was $39 for adults and $11 for kids. And that included appetizer and tip.
 

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