Did you use all of your DDP credits?

[tx2tn]

I'm just curious about this. For those of you who have used the DDP, did you NOT use any of your food credits?

We actually left WDW and still had 2 snacks credits.

I was just wondering how ofter this happens. I was told once that the reason retail stores love gift cards is because on average only 85% of the gift card is ever redeemed. That means there is a extra 15% profit in that exchange.

 

[molly213]

We didn't use all our credits. We left with 13 snack credits and 8 counter service credits. This was at the end of a 10 night stay with my DH, DS 17 and DS 15. There was just too much food. We shared meals and ate several extra TS meals at lunch and dinner as a result. Even with the extra credits, we are going to use it again. My husband loved not having to worry about cost and ordering whatever he wanted.

 

[Clang]

We were out of snack credits by day 4. My DH would "buy" oranges 2 at a time, then there were the waters at the parks and of course, Mickey bars!!!

We did eat a TS breakfast the day we checked out to use it up.

 

[JimMIA]

As we neared the end of our 5-night stay, we had 3 snack and 3 CS credits left...mostly due to DW's unfortunate cold/flu thing just after arrival.

We went to Earl of Sandwich and got three take-out sandwich meals and three snacks and brought them home. I finished the last sandwich today, and have to take a break now to go hunt down the chocolate-chip cookies!

We drive from Miami, but a similar strategy would probably work just as well for people flying out. A good 'ole Beef 'n Bleu would drive them nuts on a plane...especially if you ask the flight attendant to pop it in the microwave to heat it up!

Eat well and prosper!

 

[DisneyArk]

Yes we used all our credits - but we had to work hard to do that. We just left WDW yesterday!! We stayed 8 nights and our family consisted of myself, DH, DS8 and DS6.

We had to stop and eat CS breakfast yesterday and then soon after eat CS lunch in order to use up our last 8 CS credits.

I had read a lot about the dining plan and how much food it was, but didn't really understand how much food it was until we experienced it for ourselves.

We used most of our snack credits on water and ice cream bars. I wanted to try other things, but our family is not hungry at breakfast and we were too full to eat much between meals!

 

[kellyg403]

We ended our 7 night stay with 30 snacks left on the last day. We went in Dec so the weather wasn't that warm so we didn't stop and get water or snacks very often. So on our way back to NC we stopped at the food court and loaded up on snacks for the 10 hour trip. DDP is an incredible amount of food. After the first day I can't remember a day when I actually felt hungry, starved or even wanting food. We normally don't eat alot here at home but we sure made up for it in Disney. Funny thing was even though we could have probably not eaten every TS we did anyway! The kids thought it was great I never said a word about eating everything on their plate if they wanted dessert. For them the DDP was worth it JUST for that! LOL

Kelly

 

[pedro2112]

We had one TS credit leftover (don't ask) and 4 or 6 CS credits left over.

 

[lady_hlh]

We used all of our credits for our 5 night stay during last years free dining. It was very hot the last week of September so we had no problem using up the snack credits on Mickey bars and bottles of water.

 

[kcashner]

We used it up, but only by purchasing a CS "to go" for the airport. Also got extra 20 oz sodas as snack credits.

 

[dabute]

We had 1 TS 2 CS and five snacks left over. This was for three adults on a seven night trip.

 

[zookeeper]

We had 8 CS and 11 snacks (8 people) left to use as we were getting ready to go to the airport on our last day of a 5 night stay last Sept. for the free dining. We used as much as we could on the last day (and we had to rush to even try to eat that) and brought home a bag full of chocolate mickey rice krispies (It was nice to have the rice krispies treats at home for a few days!) We found that because most of our TS were in the middle of the day we would share CS early in the day and we'd be so full for the rest of the day we hardly ever used CS in the evening. If we had had ADR's that were later in the day we probably would have used up more CS's. IT IS SOOOOOO MUCH FOOD!!!!! I didn't truly believe everything I had read until we went. IMO, it's also worth it because you never once have to look at prices and think about how much the bill's going to be and, as another poster said, you don't get on your kid'd case about not eating their meal. ENJOY!!

 

[Disneyfan63]

Hi,

I just came back May 16, 2006 from a six-night solo stay at Pop Century with two counter service credits remaining. The Disney Dining Plan is so much food that I found that I was pleasantly--or sometimes movement-is-possible-but-not-a-good-idea full for hours after my first meal of the day (often breakfast).

I like table service restaurants, booked too many TS ADRs on DDP (seven; but was entitled to only six--for six nights) and actually paid out of pocket to eat a late breakfast at Trail's End Restaurant (at nearly 11:00 am) at Fort Wilderness on Saturday, May 13, 2006. This prevented me from being able to eat all of my bread pudding dessert at Raglan Road that night. I also paid for my breakfast at Spoodles at the Boardwalk on May 11, 2006 before using a TS credit for lunch that day with prairiegekko at LeCellier.

To use the dining plan completely requires a larger appetite than mine; which is saying something, because anyone who has eaten with me knows that I clean my plates.

Jim

 

[Dizneydaz]

We've done DDP twice now and are doing it again in Sept. On the last day of both trips we had unused CS and snack credits. Both times we used all our CS up by buying food for the rest of the day and for the plane ride. We also treated strangers to some ice creams, and bought bottled sodas for the trip home (boy those bottles sure got heavy later in the day ) the last time. The first time we did leave some unused snack credits.

This time with the changes to the snack plan I'm sure we'll use them all plus I think we'll get our airplane food at Earl of Sandwich-their food sounds so much better than the sandwiches at the food courts.

Like previous posters have said-it's plenty of food, you won't go hungry, and not having to tell my DD6 to eat her meal because it cost $$ will be great! She's a small eater and some times I just share a meal with her.

Happy Dining!

 

[Sleeping Jedi Beauty]

We had people get sick and/or not leave their room until 5:00pm, so we had extra CS credits, but I was able to wipe them out at Earl of Sandwich on the departure day by explaining that I was flying that day and needed the sandwiches for the flight, so they didn't warm them up. We also had some extra snack credits, but were able to use those up at Pop food court on the last day as well by loading up on the assorted options there.

 

[ratfam]

We used 'em all on our 8 night stay, although it helped that our last day was full instead of a shortened travel day because we were staying at the airport that night. Also we didn't share meals because we all like different things. Snack credits were a little harder to use for us, if we hadn't realized we had so many accumulating and started using them to buy extra waters and fruit on days we didn't want an ice cream we would have ended up with some of these leftover.

 

[Redwitch]

We used all our credits in January. But, we sort of planned it out based on TS. Sometimes we shared a CS other times we each got one. When we shared, we would get a snack CS at a bakery (two pastries and a beverage) either in the middle of the afternoon for a late dinner or late at night after an early dinner. Also, we ate at two signiture places, which made for all CS days. It was not that hot, so we cheerfully used snack credits the last day for mickey rice crispies to bring home. We still came out ahead of the game with cost, without trying to maximize the plan.

Try and generally plan your CS as well as your TS. Also, the snack options are better know.