General Information About The Disney Dining Plan

Enjoy Delicious Pre-Paid Meals, Mobile Ordering and Specialty Beverages Too! Here is General Information About The Disney Dining Plan, types of dining plans and whether it is worth the money.

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With Walt Disney World vacation planning comes a lot of responsibility. As you build your itinerary and the cost escalates, value becomes more important. You can shape your experience based on budget with hotel choice and find ways to reduce food costs. In doing the latter, you may consider trying out the Disney Dining Plan to save money. However, that’s not really what the plan is designed to do, so that might not even be worth it. Here is some general information about the Disney Dining Plan, how it works and how much value it actually holds.

What do You Get with the Disney Dining Plan?

Essentially, the Disney Dining Plan converts money you have pre-paid into a fixed amount of Meal and Snack Credits. The number of credits you get is based on the number of nights you stay. However, there are two important things to remember about this. First of all, notice we said “nights” Your stay involves one less night than the number of days, so keep that in mind when you factor in additional meals that are not covered with the plan. Another thing to be aware of is that you receive all of your credits at once rather than a day by day allotment. This brings freedom but also makes it tricky to ration credits. If you are not careful your party can go through multiple nights worth of meal or snack credits in one day.

Not all restaurants accept the dining plan. There are some quick-service locations and some restaurants at Disney Springs that are not participants in the Disney Dining Plan package. There are also some restaurants that cost you more than just a meal credit. When you dine at one of these signature restaurants you are using up two meals, so it’s important to keep that in mind, especially if you are hoping to stretch the dining plan to cover your entire food costs.

Types of Disney Dining Plans

There are three versions of the Disney Dining Plan that coincide with the tiers of hotel you can stay at. The Value dining plan includes two quick service meals per day. Value resorts have no table service restaurants. The regular plan allots one quick service credit and one table service credit per night. The table service credit can also be used for quick service if you like, but you risk looking value from what you’ve paid. Deluxe plans give two table service credits for each night of your stay. Each night also gets two snack credits and a refillable mug is included for the duration of your stay at the hotel.

Free Disney Dining Plan

Every Year Disney runs promotions during non peak times to keep the guests pouring into Walt Disney World. One such promotion is the very popular Free Dining Plan. It helps to know the cost of the Disney Dining Plan in order to make an informed decision. Other promotions may offer discounts at a greater value, so the free dining plan is not always worth it.

Prepaid Dining Plan

Generally, when you get the Disney Dining Plan of your choice, you will prepay for it and get credits in return to use as you like. The appeal of the dining plans is that you don’t have to consider cost, while dining, because your meals are already paid for. That doesn’t necessarily mean you are getting a good deal

Is it Worth the Money?

The best way to determine if it is worth the money to purchase the dining plan is to plan your meals and come up with an approximate budget. Right away you can compare your budget with the cost of the plan and know if it’s worth it. Usually, you have to order the most expensive menu items at every meal and never use a snack credit on anything less than $5. It’s important to note that all table service credits automatically include dessert and that counter service restaurants only include an entree and a drink. If these parameters don’t fit your dining style, the Disney Dining Plan may not be worth it to you.