Hi Michelle,
Thank you for bringing this question to the Disney Parks Moms Panel! It sounds like you have already done some fantastic planning!
The Crystal Palace is one of my family's favorite
Character Dining Experiences.
Dining credits are non-transferable so you would not be able to use them to purchase meals for your friends. I must say, however, that my family has never had dining plan credits leftover at the end of a stay. This could be because we love to eat!
Remember that dining plan credits are calculated per night of stay for each guest 3-years old and over in your party. If you have a five-night stay, you would receive two meal credits per night of stay on the Disney
Dining Plan. One of those would be a Table-Service meal and the other would be a Quick-Service meal. For a five-night stay, therefore, each guest on the dining plan would receive 10 meal credits, five Quick-Service and five Table-Service. Although the Deluxe Plan provides three meals per night, my family typically eats at two signature restaurants that each require two Table-Service credits per person. So we use all of our dining credits by the last day of our stay. We normally use the dining plan to eat one meal on the day we arrive and then save enough meal credits so that we can eat breakfast or lunch on our last day.
No matter what you decide, I trust that you will have a magical time dining with your friends before you leave. Be sure to dance with Winnie the Pooh at the Crystal Palace!
-Donyell