Meal Planning on DDP

[nquart]

Originally Posted by loves2plan

Before our first trip I did a lot of research about QS places. I basically looked at every single menu, and when I found one I liked the look of, or that had more interesting options, then I copied and pasted it in to a Word document. So, I then had a few pages for each park with the best QS places, menus and I'd also highlighted meals that I thought we'd all like. It worked out to be a couple of sheets per park, which I just folded up and took with me, so it didn't really take up any room. Then when we were hungry, I referred to that and we went to one of them. It meant that we didn't end up at burger/hot dog places constantly, which is what I was trying to avoid. Now, I know the parks and restaurants much better, but I found that really helped me for our first trip

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We sound like kindred spirits, except I use Excel instead of Word

I'm glad I'm not the only one who has been known to do "extreme planning".

Roll on August

[loves2plan]

Originally Posted by nquart

We sound like kindred spirits, except I use Excel instead of Word

I'm glad I'm not the only one who has been known to do "extreme planning".

Roll on August

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I use Excel for my planning spreadsheets (all of which have multiple tabs), but found Word easier for the menus

[RachelE]

I have a column in my itinerary tab on my spreadsheet with possible ideas for quick service for the place we are in - nothing set in stone, just a few places I like the sound of/have heard good things about. Hoping that might save us a bit of time, picking from one of those each day, rather than being faced with a huge selection of possibilities.

[klr15]

We stayed onsite for a week last year (my partner and myself) and when we checked out we had 2 snacks and 8 quick service credits left to use, which was surprising considering my partner is 6”4, big built and has a never ending appetite usually! We headed to Disney Springs and used our last two snack credits on chocolate and one quick service on breakfast for my partner at Earl of Sandwich. The other 7 quick service went on treats for the family (goody candy and chocolate).

During the week there were a couple of occasions when we shared a meal because we couldn’t face anything big and most of the time paid oop for a muffin or croissant for breakfast as I’m not a big fan of breakfast. I think next time if we go then we will plan our credits more wisely to ensure they are all used!

The snack credits we found the easiest to use up, we didn’t waste them on things like bottled water or muffins either. They all went on treats in World Showcase at Epcot, Starbucks drinks around the parks, rice Krispy treats, frozen fantas/colas, big cupcakes like the butterfinger one and Mickey sugar cookies. In all honestly we ate like pigs when it came to the snacks, but that’s just because we enjoyed the treats so much as we don’t have sugary treats much at home, we were like kids let lose in a giant candy store!

I wrote up how many snack credits/meal credits we used in a day and what we used them on on in my trip report if you fancy a read. It’s “the graduation celebration May 2017”.

[Lucyjane45xxx]

You will definitely not run out of credits, I wouldn't worry about that. My partner has a HUGE appetite and we didnt run out - in fact we had LOADS left (QS and Snack)

We didn't plan our QS meals but I did have a spreadsheet of what our plans were (my OH specifically requested one) and we made a note of QS restaurants in the relevant park that we liked the sound of to save us wandering aimlessly. It was never set in stone thoughand often we had a few options. I had a list of snacks to try but again, I didnt't plan when I was going to have them.
I actually didnt get around to a lot of them as I was always too full haha

[sha9]

Have a read of my dining report for 2017 where we spent money on additional food to see how easily it can happen. There’s 2 of us and we rarely share as we don’t always want to eat the same meal. We also don’t find the heat reduces our appetite and tend to eat as we would at home. Timing is everything too, we found ourselves in AK paying for breakfast at Tusker House despite having planned to use snack credits all day because Kusafiri Bakery has run out of what we wanted.

We love having free DDP and do and try and make the most of it but we do like TS more than QS and like to have a few signature. That really does affect your credit use.

[nquart]

Originally Posted by klr15

We stayed onsite for a week last year (my partner and myself) and when we checked out we had 2 snacks and 8 quick service credits left to use, which was surprising considering my partner is 6”4, big built and has a never ending appetite usually! We headed to Disney Springs and used our last two snack credits on chocolate and one quick service on breakfast for my partner at Earl of Sandwich. The other 7 quick service went on treats for the family (goody candy and chocolate).

During the week there were a couple of occasions when we shared a meal because we couldn’t face anything big and most of the time paid oop for a muffin or croissant for breakfast as I’m not a big fan of breakfast. I think next time if we go then we will plan our credits more wisely to ensure they are all used!

The snack credits we found the easiest to use up, we didn’t waste them on things like bottled water or muffins either. They all went on treats in World Showcase at Epcot, Starbucks drinks around the parks, rice Krispy treats, frozen fantas/colas, big cupcakes like the butterfinger one and Mickey sugar cookies. In all honestly we ate like pigs when it came to the snacks, but that’s just because we enjoyed the treats so much as we don’t have sugary treats much at home, we were like kids let lose in a giant candy store!

I wrote up how many snack credits/meal credits we used in a day and what we used them on on in my trip report if you fancy a read. It’s “the graduation celebration May 2017”.

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Sounds like us! DD is most excited about us letting her have whatever cakes/sweets/treats she wants when she wants.

I'll have a read of your trip report, thanks.

[POFQfan]

Originally Posted by Niki Mouse

We had our ADRs and didn’t plan QS or snacks.

I didn’t use snack credits for getting cheaper items such as water etc as figured it was a waste... when we checked out, we had 26 snack credits left (this was when you only got one a day and was converted QS meals too). We ended up with a ton of sweets to bring home.

I really wouldn’t worry, dining plan is a LOT of food, you won’t go hungry

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I do make a rough plan of credits and this is why. I don't want to spend money on water and drinks at the start of the holiday to then have loads of credits left at the end. I like to then know if we are 'ahead' of the plan for credits and then I can buy more Stabucks frappucinos!

[loldis]

I plan our QS as well but that is mostly because DH is coeliac and somewhat of a fussy eater on top of that (although better at trying "weird" things since being diagnosed due to lack of options!) so I need to know where we can go that will have something he can and will eat. Although sometimes it's a pre-planned choice, e.g. our QS at DS is planned for either Blaze or D-Luxe depending which we feel like at the time. But there's no way I could leave it to the day and hope to just wander around to find something.

Have "planned" snack credits too although that's just one line in the spreadsheet - Starbucks.