Best use of dining plan snack credits About This Page:

[Her Dotness]

Tom Bricker's blog says not to use snack credits to stock up for goodies to go home. Since he's talking best value for your credits, I see why he'd say that, I think. See link about halfway down.
2014 Disney Dining Plan Costs, Info & Tips - Disney Tourist Blog

I suppose he's thinking you could make a light meal on the QSDDP and DDP with your snack credits if you save some for that purpose.

However, on the Deluxe, you're getting all TS meals unless you just want to use some dining credits for QS, not a good value if done more than once or twice. At 2 snack creds per person per day, we find we are too stuffed from meals ever to use more than a few snack credits for drinks during our stay.

I took home FOUR krispie treats and a bunch of other stuff from our last stay because we had a dozen unused snack creds to spend or lose. I'm tellin' ya that six or more krispie treats are going home with us this next trip!

So, I'm wondering if anyone else feels using snack credits for stocking up before leaving is unwise and why. Granted, most people aren't doing Deluxe. We'd probably do Deluxe anyway even if DH's disability weren't the main reason since we're thorough foodies packing as many signatures into our stay as we can.

I'm tellin' ya, for us saving snack credits for a last-minute shopping spree works great! (Nothing like a terribly nutritious Mickey treat for breakfast. Oh, YEAH!)

[HiddenMickey]

We've never done deluxe dining. We only do the DDP if it's free. We do a few things with our snack credits. We use them for breakfast muffin/Danish and juice. We use them for an actual snack like a dole whip, or we use them to buy a small gift for someone at home. Usually all three in a trip.

[HollyH]

Since he mentioned it in the savings category, my guess is that he meant that if you end up using a large number of snack credits for treats to take home just as a way to use those credits (i.e. you would not have spent that money unless you were on the dining plan and had already spent it), the dining plan may not represent the savings that you may think it does. Just as he makes the point that if you would normally order steak at every meal then you will likely see savings on the dining plan, but if you are ordering the steak just because the steak will maximize the value of the plan when really you would rather have the pasta, the plan might not be a savings for you. I think this quote sums it up best, "If you don’t normally eat as much food as the Disney Dining Plan provides, you aren’t actually saving money–the savings are illusory. You’re over-consuming in the name of (false) savings."

It was a good article, one on the best I've read on the Disney Dining Plans.

[HollyH]

Oh, and to answer the question you posed, "Do I think it's unwise to use snack credits to stock up before heading home?" Well, I don't buy a dining plan. I do agree with the premise that buying what you wouldn't normally buy just to get value out of the plan (and avoid leaving credits) might make the dining plan an unwise choice for your family. But heck, if I bought a dining plan then I paid for those snack credits. If I had some left, you bet I would use them!

[EastYorkDisneyFan]

I've never done the deluxe dining plan. I usually do the regular. Most of the time I use the sank credits to grab something like a danish for breakfast in the food court and get some coffee in a refillable mug. The others got used on dole whips.

[Coop]

While we liked the Deluxe DP, we agree that it is a lot of food! One year, we had 10, yes TEN! left over meals AND 10 snacks as well! (poor planning on my part). The Contempo Cafe allowed us to substitute 3 snacks for 1 meal - so we left there with 30 snacks. Then we went to Goofy's Candy Co and got 10 snacks with our left over snack credits. We had a total of 40 snacks in a big brown grocery sack to take home. Luckily ,we drove that year. Great travel food!

Last year, we did the TIW and that seemed to work better for us.

[Her Dotness]

Thing is, the DxDDP is oddly the most economical for us. We indulge when on vacation, and since we both have food issues, TS works better for us in terms of meeting our food needs easily. We rarely eat fast food; I'd guess we each ate no more than maybe a dozen fast food meals all year last year. So, quick service is just not at all how we prefer to eat.

And, we're serious foodies. We calculate carefully how many credits we'll have to apply on signatures by staying CL and using the lounge breakfast most mornings. So, we're actually only eating two 3-course meals per day most days.

We calculated what it would have cost us OOP to eat where we did for a couple of days of our last trip and discovered we'd easily each have spent more per day than we paid per person for the DxDDP.

So, it really isn't false economy for us to need a spending spree to use up snack credits. We fill up at meals as we do at home, almost never eating between meals and thus could easily do without the snack credits altogether--except our shopping spree gets us fresh fruit, dried fruit to add to our morning oatmeal and for me more krispie treats than I need as a brief vacation extension. One of those and some coffee were breakfast a few mornings after we returned home.

We're peculiar. Not much more explains why the Deluxe really is a great plan for our vacation style although I'm sure it isn't for most people. It enables us to indulge and feel really pampered which is what a vacation should do we think.

[mouseketeer1]

I think your plan sounds great. Good bang for your buck. . If I hadleftover snack credits to burn, I don't think I would put much thought into using those. Anything with Mickey ears to perk up snacking outside the World would be a bonus. I might have issue with using them, say, for an apple or an orange whenId rather get a nice cream treat for the value; however, I could see wanting to do so if we needed groceries to get us home. (I could subsist on rice Krispy treats, but that's beside the point). However, since we do use up our snack credits, it's not an issue. As for us, the snack credit makes me feel like I don't have to say "That cupcake/Dole whip/ice cream/Krispy treat is too expensive." I'm concerned less with cost and feel more at ease to splurge at least once a day. It's just a great feeling, as you said, to be on vacation and not worry about it. Now, pacing myself so I actually have snack credits to use [I]throughout[I] the trip is my biggest challenge

[Her Dotness]

Yep, I buy a few pieces of fresh fruit and the dried fruit snack packs with about a third of our leftover snack credits, enough healthy stuff to offset my guilt about the chips, krispie treats and chocolate bars I load up on with the rest.

One thing I learned from last fall's trip is buy lots more krispie treats. DH doesn't like and shouldn't eat them anyway, but I'm likely to get at least a half dozen after finding out they're so loaded with preservatives that the ones I bought last Nov. had a sell-by date of February. Yup, lots more of those babies following us home this next trip for sure!

[steph steph]

for me, the DDP works! I live it's convenience and I don't want to end up like feeling like a spendthrift on vacation. without the plan, I probably wouldn't order steak and desert because I don't want to pay for both. it would bd either or. with the DDP, I can have both. would I eat popcorn and Mickey bars? absolutely! with the plan, or without it, it's a bargain for me

[HakunaMatata]

Lately our older kids' favorite use of snack credits is for venti double chocolate chip Frappuccino (no coffee in this in case some don't know) I enjoy the hummus at Mara (I believe this is still a snack credit though we weren't there on our last trip).

I would love to try the Deluxe Dining Plan, but will not do it until our younger DS (6) is older because I don't think he would have the patience for 2 TS meals in a day. But I really like the idea of getting appetizers, as we love those and rarely order them when we are on the basic DDDP as I feel we shouldn't pay OOP for anything Though I suppose ordering some appetizers here an there would be more economical than the deluxe DDP

[Her Dotness]

Originally Posted by HakunaMatata

I would love to try the Deluxe Dining Plan, but will not do it until our younger DS (6) is older because I don't think he would have the patience for 2 TS meals in a day.

Unless you stay CL and take advantage of the lounge breakfast as we like to do, use snack credits for it or eat breakfast in your room, you'd be eating 3 TS meals per day to get good value from the DxDDP, are you aware?

Though I suppose ordering some appetizers here an there would be more economical than the deluxe DDP

I have a funny feeling you'll agree that four people at the current $104.94 each for the Deluxe vs. $58.66 each Regular wouldn't be worth the cost when you could pay OOP for some appetizers occasionally.

The main reason the Deluxe works for us is that we could easily pay close to $200 per person per day without tips for how we like to eat. Can we say "Signatures! Signatures!"?

[dolphin041599]

We've never done the deluxe plan - but have done both QS and the regular DDP. Unless we were planning on eating at a lot of signatures/shows, the DDP is just too much food for us. However, we use our snack credits for treats like Dole Whips and Mickey Bars. We don't usually have any snack or meal credits left over at the end.

[MelissaL]

"Best use" is very subjective. The "best use" of the dining plan is to get what you want to eat when you want to eat it (or when you want to buy it to take home). Once you have purchased a dining plan, the cost of whatever you get with it becomes irrelevant.

So, if what you want is food to bring home, and you don't want a snack while walking through a park, then getting food to bring home is the best use of your snack credits.

The "actual cost" is relevant only if you don't have enough credits for what you want, and have to choose when to use the DDP plan and when to pay out of pocket. So, if you want a Dole Whip but you also want a lasts-for-years crispy Mickey head and you have only one credit left, the best use of your credit is whichever is less expensive.

When I used the dining plan, I would frequently end up with extra credits at the end of the trip because I'd pay out of pocket for snacks at the beginning of the trip in case I found something more expensive that I wanted later. I eventually realized that I'd be better off using a credit when I wanted something, and paying out of pocket later in the trip only if I ran out of credits. That might cost a few extra dollars if I really did find more items I wanted later, but it wouldn't force to buy something I didn't really want just to use up credits.

Similarly, the cost of a meal at a restaurant doesn't matter if you're using the dining plan anyhow. If you want a pasta instead of prime rib, there's no need to get the prime rib just because you can. If what you want is to have a counter-service lunch then go do more rides, even though you could use dining plan credits on a table-service lunch that would take up more time, then the counter-service lunch is the best use of your credits. You've spent the money already no matter which restaurant you eat at or what you order.

If you find, after the trip, that you ate more than you wanted to just because it didn't cost "extra," then the dining plan may not be the best choice on your next trip even if you paid less for the dining plan than you would have paid out-of-pocket for everything you ordered. Some people can see this in advance, and some people have trouble picturing what they'd order until they are actually in the restaurant. For the first type, crunching numbers before deciding whether to get a dining plan is useful. For the second type, getting the dining plan once, ordering whatever you want on the plan without regard for costs, and seeing afterwards if it was "worth it" may be the best option.

The key issue, which is what Tom Bricker's article emphasizes, is that a dining plan makes sense for you if what's covered on the plan matches what you want to order and the dining plan costs less than you would pay for those things on your own. A dining plan doesn't make sense for you if being on the plan would cause you to order things you don't really want just to feel as if you're saving money, or if the total cost of what you order while using the dining plan is less than the cost of the plan.

Of course, determining what you "want" often involves a consideration of the cost. I may enjoy salmon more than I enjoy pasta, but know that pasta is less expensive. So I order salmon if I'm using a dining plan but order pasta if I'm paying for the meal myself. The trick is to figure out whether I'm happier getting salmon and spending more money, or happier getting pasta and saving money for something else.

It became clear to me that with my family's eating preferences (getting desserts occasionally but not every meal, my daughter sometimes ordering an appetizer instead of an entree, eating mostly counter-service lunches and table-service dinners with signature dinners and buffet lunches once or twice per trip) the dining plans wouldn't save us money compared to paying out of pocket. Others may have different preferences and find that the dining plans do cost less (or create less stress, which may be important enough to justify a higher cost).

Melissa