Everything you need to know about snacks on the Disney Dining Plan. Disney Refillable Mugs. For more Disney dining information, including details on dining discounts, restaurants, menus, and more, visit our Disney Dining Reference Page.
You can order it or live stream it right now. I do it every year :-D You can find out more about the free planning video here! Update: In the past, Disneyland offered pre-paid dining plans and meal vouchers. At present, these are not available. Disney has also introduced Disneyland Dining Plans , which work on a pretty straightforward voucher system. Click here for more information. Their agents compare current offers to find the best deal for you -- they've literally saved their guests millions of dollars since They're DFB's recommended travel agency, and you can see why here!
Next time you find yourself in a crowded Disney World theme park, keep these lesser-known Still wondering what's up with Mears Connect, the replacement bus service at Disney World?
And we'll tell you Looking for a stocking stuffer for a Haunted Mansion fan? Weve got the list for In todays DFB Video, we're looking at some of the cheapest options for eating on Disney's CFO has commented about inflation and potential changes under consideration.
See more details here. But how I have always seen the Dining Plan as a huge waste of money. I understand people that see table service dining as a big part of their vacation experience.
Frankly, for our family we come to WDW for the attractions and spending time in a restaurant takes away from that. We usually pay out of pocket for 2 character meals per 9 or 10 day stay one chosen by our daughter, one by our son. You make an excellent point, Jennifer! Stacey, again thanks for another great post. I also felt like a ADR slave that had to plan everything around dining. This was my experience and boy did I learn the hard way.
No one likes a good sit down meal more than me, but when you have a family I hated being the time keeper and pulling everyone away from the parks just to travel to the restaurant, wait for our names to be called,etc. Next trip, we will do what we want, when we want, and will grab food wherever we are. I have never, not once, spent as much out of pocket on what we want, where we want it as the appropriate dining plan would have cost.
There may be a segment out there for whom the plan would actually save money vs. The house always wins. We paid for it in and and have gotten free dining for every other trip since In fact, free dining is the reason that we have not purchased DVC. Eventually, the price of the Disney Dining Plan will shoot up so high that no one will be saving money on it. If Disney ever put an end to the free dining promo we would probably only go every other year, instead of once or twice per year, and would stay off-site and pay out-of-pocket for our food.
I enjoy using the Deluxe Dining Plan which still includes the appetizer. We then of course, abuse it buy eating at all the finest TS restaurants throwing in a show or two. I liked the old system where you purchased meal tickets better. But WDW likes this system because the credit expire when your room key does. The old system tickets kept showing up on eBay. Basically skip the dining plan and put that money on a disney gift card available at disney stores and other places like the parks and maybe online somewhere.
Purchase food as if you were using real money. But it does allow non-savers to pre-commit spending money to their vacation. We used the gift-card method on our recent 11 night visit.
It worked at most, but we had enought trouble at vendor carts and even some quick service places that it was annoying.
My husband and two teenage sons like the moderate resorts because they now have Queen sized beds. We visit during the off season, when the free dining promotion is offered. My husband and I like to unwind after a day in the parks with a nice dinner. I look at the package as an all-inclusive vacation and enjoy every perk and it works for our particular situation.
How do I best pay for that? Under a true analysis and examination, that thinking sucks people into spending the money. It does suck a lot of people into the table service restaurants. I have considered doing a dining plan one day to force myself to sit down at some of the nicer restaurants and eat for exactly this reason. If you do it right, it can be cheaper than out of pocket, and I think that I have missed out on a lot of good food and ambience at WDW because I usually only eat counter service and I often skip snacks.
The thing is, even dieters need to eat snacks at WDW due to the number of calories they burn it is always better to eat a healthy snack than to allow yourself to get so hungry that you overindulge at a meal , and also many of the healthier food options are only available at table service restaurants although there are exceptions, such as The Land in Epcot. I agree that if you take the time to plan and optimize every meal for value, a meal plan may be worth it on a spreadsheet.
But the meal plan is nowhere close to our eating habits — way too much food. Also, a recent discovery for me is trying to combine a room discount with a meal plan is nearly impossible. That needs to added to the calculation. We too love the convenience of the Dining Plan. I noticed that for the Free Dining this round it was already less than days when it was posted. Anyone who did not act on it almost immediately did not have a chance for the most popular dining spots.
We are going in October and have got free dining and a discount. So have I been swizzed? I feel like I got a good deal… How much would the deal be with no dining? Hi, Rach! If a room discount is or was available during the days of your vacation, you very well might be losing out. How did you get a discount? Sounds like a great deal — how do I get it? I booked in the UK via the official Disney site.
The choice of hotels is usually massively limited but I live in hope I will one day find a deal for the Polynesian or Wilderness Lodge! Your savings is going to depend on your family make-up and the ages and number of children you have. Had a great time, and 1br was loads of space for four of us. It meant we did character meals that I would have felt a bit ripped off by if we had to pay cash.
I would question whether we needed Dining Plan as we had a full kitchen in the room and one big meal a day out would have been enough. Also portions are really big in the US compared to UK, and we could have got by sharing three meals amongst four of us. At the end we had used everything except the snacks up. We first used the dining plan in when everything was included and it was during a free dining promotion. We purchased the dining plan for our family trip in and then tried deluxe dining in We now do our own dining plan using gift cards or cash, and find we can still choose our favorite places and save money over the cost of the dining plan.
We rarely eat dinner, choosing instead to take the latest lunch seating as we normally have dinner around 4pm to accomodate evening activities.
We have traveled to Disney numerous times and always choose one or two new places to try as well. I choose lunches over dinners and I can still allow myself to pick anything off of the menu since I never order an appetizer or dessert. Thanks for writing in your tips! I have always used a comparison spreadsheet to determine if the dining plan is good value or not. The spreadsheet is posted in the MouseOwners.
Using this spreadsheet has shed new light on the dining plan vs out of pocket debate vs TIW debate. Hey, Keith! Make sure to report back how it all works out for you. A lot of these comments are justifications as to why their estimation of whether or not it is a good deal. We use the free dining for our fall break trip.
For us, it is simply a wonderful way to not have to worry about a huge expense on vacation: food. We choose the value season so that we can afford a moderate hotel POR and enjoy lighter attendance short lines!
Free dining is a treat because we have done everything we can to make our park experience cheaper and less stressful. We bring breakfast from home. We bring snacks and waters from home. We eat an early counter lunch to avoid crowds, enjoy an afternoon snack or drink, and then eat a delicious table service meal in the evening as a family.
For us free dining during the value season is a budget friendly choice that allows us to enjoy the World without racking up debt! Amen, Lynn! We love DDP! I forget what it was called back then, but we had a similar dining package on our 1st visit WAY back in Each person in the party was given a certain dollar amount per day to spend on food. This of course was all done with the Key to the Kingdom card.
Our receipts always showed a balance of what we had remaining, in dollar amounts for the length of our stay.
This is when we got hooked on DDP and have loved it since. We would have paid a lot more on the dining plan! My wife and I used the free dining for our honeymoon back in The only reason we did that is because my parents paid for our room and park passes as a wedding gift. So, we figured we had nothing to lose by getting the free dining. So for our follow-up trip in , we decided to pay out of pocket. We found that because the portions of most counter service meals are gigantic, we were able to split most of our lunches.
That saved us even more money. We realized how much we tried to stuff ourselves on our honeymoon just so we could maximize the value of the DDP. For a family that actually gives some thought to food budget, the DDP is a huge waste of money.
If you want to do something extra, get a rewards credit card any will work and use that to pay for your meals or put it as the charge card for your room and you will earn rewards points or cash back on all of your meals. We have 4 kids, teens and pre-teens, who are active and can EAT. The OP was talking about their Free Dining trip and we only go during Free Dining promos, so we did not lessen our savings — as all of our meals were free.
I think the dining plan only works well for families with children under age 10 who plan to do a lot of character meals or buffets and who are willing to book a split stay. With a split stay, you can fit all of your character meals into just days on the dining plan and then have until midnight the day you switch to stretch out your counter service and snack credits. We now avoid the wildly expensive buffets.
I was really debating getting the dining plan or not. Sci-Fi Diner. My daughter will be 9 when we go, so still a child, but she got tired last year at Disney World of the child menu items. Even she can handle only so many chicken nuggets and pizzas. One can only eat so many steaks as the most expensive item. It was nice however not to have to worry about ordering the most expensive item.
Now I know that it will be cheaper to pay OOP a couple of times for the priciest menu item and sometimes have something that I would enjoy for less without worrying about wasting my credits.
If on the dining plan, I would probably have more table dinners rather than lunches. On the other-hand having a break at lunch when the parks are crazy is kind of nice too; especially when it is hot out.
It gives us time to relax before touring the park again. We can grab some fast-passes right before lunch and be ready to ride when we are done eating. Getting the TIW card for me is now a way better value. Way to think about it, Charlene!
Not every family eats the same way and you definitely determined what will work best for you. Using the dining plan cost not withstanding forces us to eat much healthier and gives us some great opportunities for family time while planning and eating the meals. The dining plan is just one more way for the company to ensure that they have your money before you leave. If paying a bit more than out if pocket gives us some great memories and some well prepared food than so be it.
We try to budget things so we can enjoy it more often and justify multiple trips. The DVC is a rip off compared to staying at a value resort for each trip but again, we are forced to go because we have purchased it. For my planning purposes a loss of a hundred dollars when talking about a multi thousand dollar vacation is worth the fun and family time we get from the planning and enjoying of the meal.
I enjoy the freedom it gives and one of the comments mentioned that while the prices are going up for the dining plan so are the menu prices. My family of 4 2A and 2C under 10yo is a bunch of foodies!
Dining out is always a big part of our vacations wherever we go. We go to the OBX and there are a lot of great restaurants to enjoy! Going to our old favorites and trying some new places is part of the fun of vacation for us. We have gone to Disney twice and done the Deluxe meal plan both times. We really enjoyed getting a guaranteed air-conditioned sit-down break in the middle of the day and not having to wait in long lines at the CS restaurants.
We also have young kids so doing those breakfast buffets is a great way to save time standing in line to get the character meetings crossed off the list. So, now the Great Price Hike of has taken place. I did the math again. Using what we did last year, we come out basically even on the DxDP not counting any snacks at all and assuming no menu price increases over last year , so once you roll snacks in, we would come about ahead. But just barely. With less wiggle room.
We will probably still go ahead and do DxDP this next trip just because we do enjoy the convenience of having everything paid in advance and not having to think about the costs of anything on the menu. I feel the primary reason we can still save is because we do a lot of the character buffets.
We initially booked free dining but switched over to the room discount when it was offered. But in a couple years when my unders are suddenly being charged the adult price for the meal plan? Free dining will definitely be a much bigger savings for us, even at a deluxe. The Deluxe Dining Plan is a whole other ball field in my eyes.
On top of that, I like to put my money elsewhere, like tours or hard ticket events. Great job in making the Disney Dining Plan work for you! Well, like I said, we would eat that way whether we were on the dining plan or not. One thing to add to my above post is that typically we go for only nights and have a lot of favorite TS restaurants that we want to revisit — so we are generally using most of our meals to try to get to all our favorite TS restaurants!
If we were doing a longer stay like days as many people do, I think we would be more amenable to using a plan with more CS credits. Or just 2TS credits per day. I think Kristen makes an important point: do the math. We are going to Disney World next month there are 5 of us , and I sat down with a piece of paper, decided which restaurants we were going to eat at, and estimated how much we would spend each day at these restaurants as well as any snacks we would eat throughout the day.
We ended up deciding to go with the DDP because we feel that, since we are basically breaking even, the convenience is worth it. We do a lot of character meals, so this works for us. But you have to do the math. My friend and I are going in early September and staying at a Value resort. You said it! You really have to do the math based on your family makeup and the value of the various offers available for your travel dates.
We do the free Quick Service dining plan in late August. We could probably do it for less but I have to admit it is part of the magic for me. However, the free dining that we receive during the end of August at a value resort is totally worth it. Even if I got 30 percent off a room, I would only be saving about 30 dollars per day. Our family of four cannot eat for cheaper then that per day at the parks.
I agree! I think this can still be a good discount for people if you do your homework. That was my inspiration for writing this article. I hate imagining guests not crunching numbers and just accepting whatever is thrown at them without really thinking about it logically.
A few notes on fairness… Yes the dining plan is not as good of a deal as it used to be. But that does not mean that it is still not a good deal. Yes you have to crunch the numbers, but comparing it to days gone by is not particularly helpful. Second, you are comparing the dining plan to menu prices. It is a bit of apples to oranges.
Again, you have to crunch the numbers. Adults generally come out even, kids generally come out ahead. If you choose steak and seafood over pasta and sandwiches, you will come out ahead.
If you prefer Ohana over the Plaza you will come out ahead. The plan can absolultley work if you work it. We know the history of the plan. While menu prices gradually rise, they do not rise nearly as fast as the Dining plan prices. Character meals tend to go up dramatically. Adults: For character dinners, save money. For adults at regular TS restaurants — Lose money, unless ordering the most expensive items on the menu.
Signature restaurants — almost always lose money, except for a few super expensive entrees at a couple of restaurants. Disney does not increase every menus price every year. Menus can and do change at any time of the year without any warning.
Adam, you stated my point exactly. Disney will increase the price of the Disney Dining Plan significantly while many of the menus increase at a much slower rate.
The menus that do get raised in price are often buffets that guests choose when on the Dining Plan. I think there is some value to the dining plan for families with young children under In December at Ohana, he ate 2 chicken wings.
Not exactly an adult appetite. So for this trip we used a Tables in Wonderland card. This was an great option and really saved us money.
Our days of the meal plan are probably over. This is always a heated topic. While I long for the FD of , the recent offers generally still save us a few bucks, though less savings each year. If we were not doing the buffets, I think we would opt for the room discounts. I do wish that we could agree on shades of gray. Each of us is different in tolerance and percetion of value, but I think we all agree that the value has diminished over the years.
Because of this article I sat down to figure it out. So you are better off with children doing the Quick Service Plan and paying out-of-your pocket for any Table Service. I know that to PAY for the Dining plan would never be a good idea for us. And even with the QS plan…we rarely order dessert with meals. Whether we had done free dining or not, we would have been paying the exact same amount for our room…so we figured, why not?
But it was kind of a annoying to have to think more about what to order. Normally I just like to order whatever sounds good and not really think much about the price. With the plan, I did feel like I needed to use my credits on more expensive things and pay out of pocket for the cheap stuff.
It made vacation slightly less relaxing but it did help us save a few hundred dollars. I would definitely do the plan again if my trip was during free dining.
But paying for it would be pointless for us. There was also huge varitions in menus from restaurant to restaurant back then. Weve got the list for In todays DFB Video, we're looking at some of the cheapest options for eating on Disney's CFO has commented about inflation and potential changes under consideration. See more details here.
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