We have used the Disney Dining Plan more times than we can count. My husband loves the idea of an all-inclusive vacation. Through the years, we’ve discovered that we haven’t used our snack credits to their full potential. Read on to avoid the same mistakes we’ve made.
Mouseterplanner Mistakes To Avoid!
- Have Leftover Credits At The End Of Your Vacation – Each time you receive a receipt, the amount of meal and snack credits are listed at the bottom. Pay attention to this. Sounds obvious, right? But with the amount of food you’ll eat at a meal, sometimes you just aren’t hungry. This makes for leftover snack credits. Which makes for wasted money. One year, we had 22 leftover snack credits that we “left” at Disney World. That’s like throwing $100 at the Disney gate as we were leaving. How to use those leftover credits? Read on.
- Waste Credits On Food You Take One Bite Of And Then Throw Away. Simply because you’re not that hungry, but you don’t want to “waste” your snack credits, you buy that Mickey Bar and after two bites you can’t take another. If you have extra snack credits at the end of your stay, go to the gift shop and purchase Mickey Chocolates, bagged Mickey Pretzels or Mickey Lollipops. Any of these purchases qualify and they make great gifts for the person who picked up your mail or watched the dog while you were away.
- Use Your Snack Credits For Bottled Water – If you drive to Walt Disney World, by all means, bring your own bottled water. Even if you fly, you can have water delivered from an online/local delivery service. Save those valuable snack credits for Dole Whips, French pastries and Mickey Bars.
- Reserve Your Credits Only For “Snacks” – When I think of snack, I think of a treat mid-afternoon. But many breakfast items qualify as snack credits. If you’re still hungry after the tiny cup of yogurt you scarfed down in the room because you were anxious to get to the parks, go ahead and pick up some fruit, a muffin or a bagel or a Frappuccino at Starbucks. All snack credits!
- Forget That You Don’t Have To Eat Big For Lunch – After eating at Chef Mickey’s for our big breakfast of the trip we sauntered up to the counter service at Ray’s Cosmic Café. No one was hungry yet. But it was lunchtime. So we ordered, and sat there, stuffed. We picked at our food and then threw most of it away. (Oh, my grandfather is rolling in his grave right now at the mere mention of this.) Little did we know, we could have used snack credits for soup or salad at Pinocchio’s Village Haus or hummus and chips at Gaston’s Tavern or an egg roll at the Adventureland kiosk. Then we could have saved those counter service credits for dinner. Silly us!
- Waste Your Snack Credits On Disney Typical Snacks During Wine And Food Festival – We did this one year, having no idea that many of the items sold at the special kiosks during EPCOT’s Food And Wine Festival qualified as snack credits. We’re talking $5-$7 items! On our last day, with our typical stash of leftover snack credits, a friendly Cast Member noticed and informed up that our lunch was fully covered by our snack credits. Thank you, Angie!
- Use All Your Snack Credits On Typical Snack Fare And Never Venture Out – At home, I think snack and I think popcorn or a piece of fruit. On occasion, some chocolate or ice cream. At Disney World? Think BIG! Goofy’s Candy Company has a build your own snack format that includes caramel covered apples, cookies, and Rice Krispy treats that you embellish yourself. Or, have a large (my daughter and I often share) Sundae at The Plaza Ice Cream Parlor at Magic Kingdom.
When searching for the ultimate snack, be sure and look for the distinctive purple Ddp symbol on the menu. Find something that appeals, and enjoy!
But never go home with leftover snack credits!
