Spliting Meals on the Disney Dining Plan

We have never got one entree and split it at a TS restaurant. IMO that would be frowned upon, but I do know people that have said they have done this to save credits. With the new restrictions on reservations and cancellations, I don't know what Disney's thoughts are about two people getting one entree and sharing it on the dining plan. When you are on the deluxe dining plan, it is a lot of food so I can understand why you would want to do this. That's also why we have tables in wonderland now rather then the DDP. Anyone else ?

I would guess that it is frowned upon using DDP, but to the best of my knowledge it is not against the "rules". My guess is that most servers would comply with your request because it's in their best interest to make you happy and it probably greases the wheels if you pay cash for an appetizer. Obviously it would be impossible to split at a buffet restaurant. We only got DDP one time and it was free. I wanted to ask about splitting a meal on credits, but I lost my nerve...and I wanted to eat the delicious food.

Your welcome Allie. People do do it, so I'm not saying it's out of the question. Did you try that link that someone put on here recently, its a site you can put in dining preferences and it pretty much tells you if its worth for you to do the dining plan or not, depending on your eating habits. Its pretty good.

Last time we were there, some places allowed it but there was an "extra plate charge" that was not taken off your DP.d
We really love having the DP since it frees us up to choose what we want to eat, not the cheapest on the menu. If you pick up the QM Plan, you can split portions at the table and no one seems to care. That might be a savings and again you can try more expensive things. I don't remember what month you are going, but if it's in Sept, there is a good chance you will get Free Dining with a resort menu, so it's worth a think.

Allie we looked into QS meal plans for us to get without the magic your way ticket or the resort stay. We could get it but opted not to because it would cost more than what we would pay out of pocket. For example, the newest price for the QS is $41.99/per person. You get one entree or combo meal, a drink and if it's lunch or dinnertime you get dessert. Then you get one snack a day.
All info I found on the QS DP says you get a refillable resort mug too but I don't think that we would have because we were buying it w/o a resort stay. Even if we did get one, we weren't going to go to any resorts just to fill up soda. If you are someone who will use the refillable resort mug, then it might be worth the money. Also, most of the places in the parks that participate in the QS meal plan don't serve dessert too. A few do, but not many. Some are just kiosks. I don't know anything about any of the resort QS so I can't speak to the resorts.
I used Cosmic Rays as an example restaurant when I was running the numbers for myself. It is one of the better and more expensive QS restaurants in MK.
Cosmic Rays is one of the few places in the QS plan that has several desserts to choose. They are also one of the restaurants that you would get the most bang for your buck out of a QS credit at MK.
If you chose Cosmic Rays an entree or combo meal, most are $10, a drink $3 and dessert $4=$17 This is one of the more expensive out of pocket meals because you are getting dessert too. If you got 2 $17 QS meals a day you'd have to find an $8 snack just to break even.
We eat QS almost exclusively and we still pay less and eat more than the $42 a day QS plan gives you. It may be worth it for you if you only choose the most expensive QS meals and use the refillable mug.

I just reread this post where you said the QS dining plan WOULDN'T be beneficial to you! I read it as WOULD the first time that's why I went on my mini rant about it probably not being beneficial for you

My friend, who is a WDW certified travel agent, goes three times per year and splits meals all the time whether she is on the dining plan or not. She said they've never given her any issues...

Yes we started doing the TIW last trip ad found it to be so much better for our dinning needs. We tend not to eat as much during every meal, but may e a few more beverages so the 20% on the total bill works out great

We have split a meal just because we weren't really hungry but needed to eat something. The CM's we've encountered neve care. As stated before a Buffett is a different rule.

Um, the Quick service meal plan comes with TWO meals, not one and then an additional snack. Of course it's not saving anything with one meal. You can also split a CS meal, so only one of the couple has to have the plan as well, so it might actually be cheaper.

I meant two meals total for the day, as you can see in my hypothetical scenario at Cosmic Rays. I said "If you got 2 $17 QS meals a day, you'd have to find an $8 snack to break even."
If a couple was going to split a QS meal, it would be the price of one meal. So being on the dining plan wouldn't save any money. If you pay out of pocket for two QS meals a day, two drinks, two desserts(only if they aren't already included in a combo meal or entree and must be purchased at the same time/place as your two Lunch or dinner combo meals or entrees) and one snack(this is the current QS dining plan) you would pay less than $41.99 for all that food at almost every QS option available.
We go to WDW all the time and eat QS exclusively. It is hard to find a QS combo meal or entree, including a drink and dessert, that costs $17-$20. It is also hard to find many QS combos that include a dessert, or many QS restaurants don't have a dessert on the menu at all. Most snacks in WDW, that are included in the QS dining plan are $2.50-$5 dollars. The QS dining plan priced at $41.99 per person, with the restaurants that currently participate, is not a good value.

As I stated in my earlier post, I cannot speak to whether or not it is a good price for resort restaurants. But we have eaten at almost every QS restaurant/snack option, that participates in the QS dining plan and it is considerably cheaper to pay out of pocket for the same amount of food that is included in the plan.

LOL We always think it will be too much food (we get DDP), but if there is extra, we haul it back to the room and snack later. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot that we didn't consume at some point.

Your family must have much smaller appetites than my DH because he always eats and drinks the equivalent of the DDP and then some. That's another reason why it's not a good value for us. My "big Yeti" needs more to eat than what the DDP provides

I think you two are thinking of different dinning plans. I believe Annie is talking about Disney's Dinning Plan while I believe oldtink is talking about the Deluxe Dinning Plan. They are two completely different plans with a big difference in the amount of food that you get with each one.

I'm referring to the Quick service DP, that is $41.99 that we were discussing in the earlier posts. I just assumed oldtink was also still referring to the QS. There's not a lot of food in the QS so maybe she isn't still referring to the QS???

They should be listed as:

QSDP - Quick Service Dining Plan - Number of Meals During Your Package Stay
The Disney Quick-Service Dining Plan includes two:
(2) Quick-Service Meals
(1) Snack per person, per night of your package stay for everyone in the party ages 3 and over.
(1) Rapild Fill Resort refillable drink mug per person, that is valid for the length of your stay (eligible for refills at self-service beverage islands at quick service locations at any Disney Resort Hotel).

DP - Basic Dining Plan - Number of Meals During Your Package Stay
The Disney Dining Plan includes:
(1) One Quick-Service Meal
(1) One Snack
(1) One Table-Service Meal per person, per night of your package stay for everyone in the party ages 3 and over. The plan also includes one (1) Rapid Fill Resort refillable drink mug per person, that is valid for the length of your stay (eligible for refills at self-service beverage islands at Quick-Service locations at any Disney Resort Hotel).

DDP - Deluxe Dining Plan - Number of Meals During Your Package Stay
The Disney Deluxe Dining Plan includes:
(3) Three Meals
(2) Two Snacks per person, per night of your package stay for everyone in
the party ages 3 and over.
(1) One Rapid Fill Resort refillable drink mug per person, that is valid for the length of your stay (eligible for refills at self-service beverage islands at Quick-Service locations at any Disney Resort Hotel).

Here is the link to Disney Dining plan page:
https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/planning-guides/in-depth-advice/disney-dining-plan/

I wish they would just call them Plan 1, 2, 3, or 4. My mistake. WE have PLAN 2 (1 TS, 1CS/QM and 1 snack per day) but we have plenty of friends who swear they love PLAN 1 and then pay for one nice sit down out of pocket. We never went that way because feeding one of our sons on two counter meals/quick meals a day would translate to missing livestock at AK.

Actually, we have eaten at counter service/quick meals where there was so much food that we took some of it back to the resort with us, so it depends on where you spend the credit. Places that I notice are more plentiful are Cosmic Rays at MK, Flame Tree BBQ or the Picnic at AK for starters. Others here I am sure can add more.