An explanation thread? Some questions about how it works pls

Anabelletoronto

Mouseketeer
Joined
Nov 25, 2016
I didn't see a pinned thread that kind of explains the rules of Disney dining and I find the Disney site isn't very forthcoming on ways to maximize your dining.
We have the dining package for November where you get 1Ts, 1 QS and 1 snack per day.
We will likely just charge everything to or magic bands. Can you ask at certain restaurants to not charge to the DDp? We have one more table service meal than credits but I want the cheapest meal to be on me - not the last place that I go to.
Same for snacks. If I buy a $2 drink, I might just like to pay out of pocket and save my snack credit for a $4 snack or even better, $6 snack.
Or just point me to an easy rundown of how the whole things works for dummies.
 
I didn't see a pinned thread that kind of explains the rules of Disney dining and I find the Disney site isn't very forthcoming on ways to maximize your dining.
We have the dining package for November where you get 1Ts, 1 QS and 1 snack per day.
We will likely just charge everything to or magic bands. Can you ask at certain restaurants to not charge to the DDp? We have one more table service meal than credits but I want the cheapest meal to be on me - not the last place that I go to.
Same for snacks. If I buy a $2 drink, I might just like to pay out of pocket and save my snack credit for a $4 snack or even better, $6 snack.
Or just point me to an easy rundown of how the whole things works for dummies.

There's not a thread, but your question is pretty simple. Most CMs will ask if you're using a dining plan, and you can answer accordingly. If they don't ask, just tell them you don't want to use a DDP/snack credit and to charge your room. It should be seamless. If you're concerned, you can stop by the front desk in the evening and ask for a print out of what has been used. They've also added a tracker to MDE, so you can check it on your phone as well. If there is a mistake, be sure to take care of it that day.

ONE NOTE: you actually have 2 snacks, not 1 and all counts are per NIGHT of stay, so make sure you've calculated correctly. You may also want to make a loose plan for all those snacks. Personally, I'd rather get the $2 drink than have multiple snack credits left over that I'm scrambling to use on the last day.
 
If it helps, think of the dining plan as simply another payment method, like cash, credit, or room charge. You can always split up any check with multiple payment methods (as long as you're willing to deal with that hassle), so there's no problem being in control of when to use credits and when to not use credits.

As noted above, be sure you're calculating your credit allotment correctly, it's tied to your resort stay nights, not your park tickets or anything else.
 
Here is a little clarification.

As stated by PPs, the number of credits is based on the number of nights in your package. So, if you are a party of 2 staying 4 nights, you will get a total of 8 TS credits, 8 QS credits, and 16 snack credits that you can use at any time between checking in and midnight of the day you checkout. You can use as many or as few of them each day as you choose until they run out.

Just let the cashier know if you want to use the dining plan credits or charge to your room for each transaction. Check your printed receipt to be sure it was entered as you wanted. No need to wait until you are back at your resort to get a printout.

You are welcome to pay out of pocket for any meals or snacks that you choose to save the credits for a higher value use later. However, you should also know that most people end up with extra meal and/or snack credits at the end of their stay. These are either lost by not being used or used on the last day to round up meals to go and snacks for the road, not usually a great value.

Just keep asking any other questions you have on this thread. Folks here are great at explaining the rules and tips for real-world use. It seems confusing before you go but the cashiers are used to walking newbies through the transactions.
 


You can also pay for different people using credits for some and another payment method for others during one meal.

For example, my DD10 is vegetarian and eats very lightly. Some meals, we simply told our server that my DH, my DS and I would use DDP credits, but we would charge DDs meals to our room. She usually only had an appetizer instead of an entree. Since the credits are pooled by room, we used her TS credits on other meals.
 
I didn't see a pinned thread that kind of explains the rules of Disney dining and I find the Disney site isn't very forthcoming on ways to maximize your dining.
We have the dining package for November where you get 1Ts, 1 QS and 1 snack per day.
We will likely just charge everything to or magic bands. Can you ask at certain restaurants to not charge to the DDp? We have one more table service meal than credits but I want the cheapest meal to be on me - not the last place that I go to.
Same for snacks. If I buy a $2 drink, I might just like to pay out of pocket and save my snack credit for a $4 snack or even better, $6 snack.
Or just point me to an easy rundown of how the whole things works for dummies.

I just went through this with a friend helping them navigate the DDP waters...

With the DDP - I think that you get 1 TS, 1QS, and 2 snacks per night, per person... (someone correct me if I am wrong) I just checked on the web site and that's how it read's. Instead of 1 snack credit... So this will add to your overall entitlements.

The DDP entitlements are connected to your room, and can be used in any order you want, They activate upon check in and they are good until midnight on departure day, not when you check out. So if you plan right you can grab breakfast or if you are leaving later, you can check out, store your luggage and hit the parks, or pool, head to Disney Springs for last minute shopping and get something to eat before saying goodbye. This takes some planning but you can make it work.

To get the most of your entitlements you will have to some homework. Its a little extra work and is well worth it to make the most out of your entitlements. This way you know ahead of time on how to spend your credits and which ones you want to pay OOP for. This also gives you a opportunity to look at the menus to see what your family will eat...nothing worse than heading into a restaurant with a hungry family in tow and there is nothing that they would want...


You can also share meals TS and QS... Not Character meals no sharing of the credits, except with the 3 and under crowd. We find that the portions are large and can easily be shared. Depending on your families make-up this is a good way to use your credits, and not waste food. Here's pretty good tip - you can always pay out of pocket for something extra like a side item, if you might need a little more food to get everyone full and fueled up. Example Cosmic Rays at MK - They have a 1/2 of rotisserie chicken meal that comes with mashed potatoes and green beans, With our family (4) when our DD's were in Elementary school, easily share 2 orders... once they got a older, we would order 1 or 2 sides of mashed potatoes or one a side of fries which they would rather have. So we would pay for the full meals with the Entitlements and cash for the sides around 3.50 each. We would share the drinks that come with the meal and ask for ice water or a couple of cups of ice when ordering. Breakfast platters are another easily sharable meal for QS and you can always grab a side of meat if needed.

Depending on your family DH and I always would divide and conquer, meaning, one of us would order using the entitlements and then the other would order the extra sides paying with cash or whatever, we found it confusing to the cast member when trying to order all at once.

If you are going to share at the Table service, tell the server up front most of the times they will split it in the kitchen some though will bring you a extra plate to divide yourself. But please tip like you are ordering meals for everyone. You can always pay OOP for a appetizer if your unsure if your choices will fill everyone up, and then everyone shares the desserts.

If you want to pay OOP for a meal when the server ask are you on the DDP just say no, and they move on...


Snack Credits - can be used to create a meal, a pastry/ muffin/ fruit cup and coffee in room for a quick meal out the door for breakfast - Get the pastry's or muffins the night before, use your in coffee room or if up to it have someone go get coffee at the food court with your mugs that come with you DDP.

I strongly suggest ordering water to keep in the room Staples is a fan favorite... Also its not worth the snack credit. We use our snack credits mainly for food, once in a while on the last day if we have extras credits for Starbucks. Also bring some travel snacks from home... breakfast bars, cereal cups, crackers, can easily be thrown in a suitcase, we use one of our carry on's to bring chips, and candy or whatever... we do this when every we travel...

I hope this helps, really doing a lot of homework will help you once you arrive, plus it will cut down on the stress of not knowing...
 
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I just went through this with a friend helping them navigate the DDP waters...

With the DDP - I think that you get 1 TS, 1QS, and 2 snacks per day per person... (someone correct me if I am wrong) I just checked on the web site and that's how it read's. Instead of 1 snack credit... So this will add to your overall entitlements.

The DDP entitlements are connected to your room, and can be used in any order you want, They activate upon check in and they are good until midnight on departure day, not when you check out. So if you plan right you can grab breakfast or if you are leaving later, you can check out, store your luggage and hit the parks, or pool, head to Disney Springs for last minute shopping and get something to eat before saying goodbye. This takes some planning but you can make it work.

To get the most of your entitlements you will have to some homework. Its a little extra work and is well worth it to make the most out of your entitlements. This way you know ahead of time on how to spend your credits and which ones you want to pay OOP for. This also gives you a opportunity to look at the menus to see what your family will eat...nothing worse than heading into a restaurant with a hungry family in tow and there is nothing that they would want...


You can also share meals TS and QS... Not Character meals no sharing of the credits, except with the 3 and under crowd. We find that the portions are large and can easily be shared. Depending on your families make-up this is a good way to use your credits, and not waste food. Here's pretty good tip - you can always pay out of pocket for something extra like a side item, if you might need a little more food to get everyone full and fueled up. Example Cosmic Rays at MK - They have a 1/2 of rotisserie chicken meal that comes with mashed potatoes and green beans, With our family (4) when our DD's were in Elementary school, easily share 2 orders... once they got a older, we would order 1 or 2 sides of mashed potatoes or one a side of fries which they would rather have. So we would pay for the full meals with the Entitlements and cash for the sides around 3.50 each. We would share the drinks that come with the meal and ask for ice water or a couple of cups of ice when ordering. Breakfast platters are another easily sharable meal for QS and you can always grab a side of meat if needed.

Depending on your family DH and I always would divide and conquer, meaning, one of us would order using the entitlements and then the other would order the extra sides paying with cash or whatever, we found it confusing to the cast member when trying to order all at once.

If you are going to share at the Table service, tell the server up front most of the times they will split it in the kitchen some though will bring you a extra plate to divide yourself. But please tip like you are ordering meals for everyone. You can always pay OOP for a appetizer if your unsure if your choices will fill everyone up, and then everyone shares the desserts.

If you want to pay OOP for a meal when the server ask are you on the DDP just say no, and they move on...


Snack Credits - can be used to create a meal, a pastry/ muffin/ fruit cup and coffee in room for a quick meal out the door for breakfast - Get the pastry's or muffins the night before, use your in coffee room or if up to it have someone go get coffee at the food court with your mugs that come with you DDP.

I strongly suggest ordering water to keep in the room Staples is a fan favorite... Also its not worth the snack credit. We use our snack credits mainly for food, once in a while on the last day if we have extras credits for Starbucks. Also bring some travel snacks from home... breakfast bars, cereal cups, crackers, can easily be thrown in a suitcase, we use one of our carry on's to bring chips, and candy or whatever... we do this when every we travel...

I hope this helps, really doing a lot of homework will help you once you arrive, plus it will cut down on the stress of not knowing...
Only mistake I found is you put day instead of night for the credits in the first sentence. Otherwise this is an excellent post with great information.
 
Also, you can use snack credits for side items. If you want extra fries, extra green beans, a bowl of soup or whatever to round off a QS meal - those are typically snack credits. With 2 snacks per person per day, you should have plenty to use for extra sides unless every single person wants a dessert at every single meal plus a mid-day treat.
 
Only mistake I found is you put day instead of night for the credits in the first sentence. Otherwise this is an excellent post with great information.

Thanks...all corrected now....That's what I get for not re-reading my post... I am in the middle of packing and trying to get ready to move... and I just had to have a break...
 

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