Ten Reasons Why the Disney Dining Plan May Be Right For You
Beginning January 9, 2024, Dining Plan options returned to Walt Disney World after a long hiatus following the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. Guests were excited to see it return but may not have been as excited to see the cost. This slimmed-down version of the dining plan seemed to cost more and offer less. But, if you’re going to Walt Disney World, dining plan options may be a great option for you. Here, let’s lay out ten benefits of the dining plan options for a Walt Disney World trip.
2 Plans for Every Appetite
There are two dining plan options. First, is the Quick Service Dining Plan option. This plan gives each member of your party 2 quick service (think fast casual or fast-food) meals per night of stay plus 1 snack. In addition, each member of your party will receive a souvenir rapid refillable mug that gives unlimited refills on tea, soda, coffee, and other drinks at your Disney resort hotel for the duration of your stay. This plan costs less than the more “deluxe” option called the Disney Dining Plan. This plan includes 1 table-service meal (sit down meal including character meals and most signature meals), 1 quick-service meal, and 1 snack per night of stay for each member of your party. You also receive a refillable mug.
Free Souvenir Rapid Refill Mug
So, what exactly is this rapid refill mug? This has become a Disney staple for many Disney guests who have returned to Walt Disney World again and again. This RFID-enabled mug works with the soda machines to determine a 14-day period that you can get unlimited refills on soda, tea, coffee, hot cocoa, and more while at your resort. It’s perfect for families that don’t want to have to purchase $4 and $5 cups of soda at every meal per person. It can be individually purchased, usually for around $27 per person. So, if you do the math, the savings in this little mug add up. For a family of four, with 6 nights at the resort, and 2 cups of soda each day at $4 apiece, you’re looking at $32 per day or $192 in soda costs for the duration of your trip.
“All-Inclusive” Vacation
One of the biggest reasons guests love the dining plan is that it creates an “all-inclusive” vacation vibe. Instead of having to plan how much you’ll spend on food while there, the cost of food is already factored into the cost of your vacation, so you can sit back and enjoy. When your authorized travel agent, like Magical Memories by Casey with Main Street and More Travel, quotes you your vacation price, you know that this is your all-in price other than souvenirs. You don’t have to save more, giving you peace of mind that everything is locked.
Simple Credits vs. Cash or Credit Card
In that same line of thinking, because it’s already locked in, Disney does a great job of creating a simple credit system that is used during the duration of your trip. Disney will drop the total allotted credits into your account for all members of your party for each night of your trip. So, for example, let’s say you’re a family of four traveling and you’re staying 6 nights and you’re on the quick service dining plan. You’d receive a total of 24 quick service credits and 24 snack credits and 4 refillable mugs. You can choose to use these however you wish. Maybe someone in your party is a breakfast person, but nobody else is, they can use that in the morning for breakfast. Or perhaps somebody isn’t hungry at lunch and skips, that credit remains. You control how much the credits are used and when they are used. A quick note – some sit-down table-service restaurants may require more than one table-service credit. For example, Cinderella’s Royal Table is a 2-table service per person meal. Work with your travel planner to know exactly which restaurants take which credits so you can allot them correctly.
Sharable Among All Members of Your Party
Because the credits are allotted in your Disney account, they are also shared among all members of your party too. This means if your partner doesn’t use one of her quick service options, but you’re extra hungry, you can use it to buy a meal for yourself. Or perhaps one of your children decides they don’t want to use their snack credit today; it can be saved until tomorrow and used for someone else in the party. Making them sharable gives you complete flexibility, allows you to vacation how you want, no matter how you choose to do so.
Better Value for Foodies
If you are a foodie, the Disney dining plan options are GREAT for you. It gives you the biggest opportunity to sample and expand your pallet. Disney dining is not cheap. Regular table service meals can run $35 or more, while buffets can set you back $55 or more and of course character meals can run as high as $70 or more depending on what type of meal you are attending. The more signature dining experiences can be even more expensive. With the dining plan, most restaurants work only in credits, so the same credit at Mama Melrose in Disney’s Hollywood Studios will work at Jungle Skipper Canteen in Magic Kingdom – both with wildly different food tastes and experiences. I always tell my clients that if you do not plan to use the dining plan, you should plan to spend on average $80 or more on food per day per adult and $40 per day per child. My recommendation is that if you plan to dine at restaurants that are going to exceed this value, then the dining plan’s cost is worth it to you. An authorized travel planner like Magical Memories by Casey with Main Street and More Travel can help you figure all that out!
Order Anything from the Menu
Beyond the restaurant selection, a dining plan is a great option for you because the choices are unlimited. What I mean is that you are not capped by price by what is on the menu. With your dining plan at table service restaurants, you can order the most expensive thing on the menu and it is still just the credit. Moreover, the credit also covers the cost of the non-alcoholic, non-specialty drink, and includes the dessert. Quick service is just as generous – you receive your entrée, your non-alcoholic, non-specialty drink, and a small dessert.
Character Meals
Character interactions are some of the #1 experiences at Walt Disney World. Crowd levels can make them difficult to get to though with some character interactions commanding longer than hour wait times or more on busier days. This is what makes character meals some of the best values! Character meals are table-service meals where 3 to 5 of your favorite characters (depending on location and theme) will visit each table and post for pictures, sign autographs, and interact in some of the most memorable ways. Character meals are scattered across the property, both in the theme parks but also in the resort hotels. Whether it’s meeting Stitch, Hawaii Mickey and the gang at Ohana at the Polynesian, or a variety of princesses at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall in Epcot or Cinderella’s Royal Table in the Magic Kingdom, or Jungle Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, and Donald at Tusker House in Animal Kingdom, or the Disney Junior Favorites at Hollywood and Vine at Hollywood Studios, you’re sure to have an amazing time and amazing memories with these loveable characters.
But they do not come cheap. Character breakfasts for adults can run as high as $45 and for kids about $30. And lunches can be even higher, topping the bill for adults at $69 per adult and $42 per child. If you plan your vacation to be filled with a lot of character meals, a Disney dining plan, whose current value as of 2024 is around $92 for adults can be valuable in saving you money. Work with your travel agent like Magical Memories by Casey with Main Street and More Travel, to figure out whether this is the best option for you.
Buffets and All You Can Eat
I have always felt that buffets at Walt Disney World offer some of the greatest value, especially midday after several hours of adventures in the parks. You can find buffets or “all you can eat” options scattered all around the property. From Tusker House African cuisine in Animal Kingdom, to Hollywood and Vine at Hollywood Studios which features more of an American flavor, to Garden Grill in Epcot which offers “all you can eat” family style American food in Epcot, or the Crystal Palace in Magic Kingdom with Pooh and Friends, you truly have a wealth of choices at your fingertips. Moreover, many buffets have character meals, which give you double bang for your buck. With the dining plan, you can fill up for food for the day without breaking the bank.
Free Dining!
An absolute staple of the dining plans pre-Covid was the ability to get them for free during certain periods of the year. When the dining plan was away, so was free dining. But in 2024, Disney brought back free dining plan for Disney+ subscribers. Free dining provides guests staying on property and who meet specific requirements, a free dining plan option. For value and moderate guests, it’s typically the Quick Service Dining Plan and for deluxe guests it’s the Disney Dining Plan. In addition, guests with the quick service option can pay the additional amount to “upgrade.” This promotion is always one of the biggest hits and promotions that Disney offers and typically inventory sells very fast.
Conclusion
So, as you can see, the dining plan options at Disney are very popular and can offer amazing value for you. If you’re not sure if the dining plan options are right for, talk with Magical Memories by Casey with Main Street and More Travel and let’s work through what type of trip you want to take. Remember it costs you nothing extra, but you gain my years of expertise!
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