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Disney Dining Plans Explained

With Walt Disney World offering their popular Free Dining Promotion, many of my clients have been asking questions about Disney Dining Plans. Below is the good, the bad, and the delicious when it comes to Disney Dining Plans!

What Does the Dining Plan Include?

Walt Disney World offers two dining plans:

Disney Dining Plan:
- 1 table service meal credit
- 1 quick-service meal credit
- 1 snack credit
  Per person, per NIGHT of your reservation.
Disney Quick-Service Dining Plan:
- 2 quick-service meal credits
- 1 snack credit
  Per person, per NIGHT of your reservation.

With both dining plans, each guest also receives a resort refillable mug. This mug must be picked up at your resort quick-service restaurant. Make sure you grab it early so you can use it throughout your stay for free refills of soft drinks, coffee, tea, etc. at your resort quick-service restaurant. IMPORTANT! The mug is ONLY refillable at your resort quick-service restaurant, not in the parks. You can bring the mug with you to the parks, but they will NOT refill it for free.

What Does “Per Night” Mean?

Disney calculates your credits based on how many nights you stay, not how many days or how many days you purchase tickets for. So for example, if you check in to your resort on June 12 and check out on June 18, that’s a 6-night stay, so you would be entitled to 6 table service credits, 6 quick-service credits, and 6 snacks per person on your reservation with the Disney Dining Plan. There is no specific way you need to use those credits. They are loaded to your account the day you check-in and you have until midnight the night you check-out to use them. You do not need to use one table service credit and one quick service credit per day, either. You can use them in any way that you’d like – two table service credits one day, two quick-service credits the next day, etc.. Once they’re gone, they’re gone though so make sure you budget them out throughout your stay.

What is a Table-Service Credit?

A table service credit can be used at most sit-down restaurants where you are seated at a table and a service comes around to take your order. Buffets are also included as table service restaurants. With your table service credit you are able to order an entree, a dessert, and a beverage of your choice from the menu. Beverages do include beer, wine, and cocktails if they are offered at that particular restaurant, as well as juice, soda, and other non-alcoholic beverages as offered at that particular restaurant. Reservations are highly recommended and a lot of times required to eat at any of Walt Disney World’s table service restaurants.

Exceptions to Table-Service Credits:

Signature Dining: Fine/signature dining restaurants require two table-service credits per meal.
Dinner Shows & Some Character Meals: These also require two table-service credits.

What About Quick-Service Credits?

Quick-service restaurants are counter-service types of restaurants where no reservations are required. You simply walk up to the counter when you’re hungry, order whatever you would like, they had you your food on a tray, and you go find a table to sit down at to enjoy your meal. Think more like fast food. Walt Disney World has A LOT of quick service options, and they aren’t all burgers and chicken fingers (although you’ll find plenty of options for those throughout the parks). Your quick-service meal credit entitles you to one meal at a quick-service location, one dessert and one drink per person. And yes, if the location services alcoholic beverages, you can get one of those as your choice of beverage.

And Snacks . . . What Counts as a Snack?

There are so many snacks to choose from!

Mickey ice cream bar? yes!
Mickey pretzel? yes!
Popcorn? yes!
Bottle of water or soda? yes!
Starbucks Frappuccino? yes!
Dole whip? yes!
Churro? yes!

This list could go on and on. There are so many options that count as “snacks.” Just look for the symbol on any kiosk or menu and if you see it, it’s a snack!

Is Two Meals and One Snack Enough Food Per Day?

My answer and the answer from most all of my clients is YES! Even if you’re used to three meals on a regular day at home, most people, including my family, find that the dining plans provide plenty of food for the day. Disney portions are large, and a lot of character meals specifically are served either family style or buffet style (AKA: all you can eat) so you will never walk away from a Disney meal still hungry. That coupled with the excitement, warmer weather, and snacks keeps you pretty full throughout the day. You can always purchase additional meals or snacks out of pocket if you find you need them, but most of my clients don’t find they need to do that. If you do want to supplement a bit, I recommend ordering some easy breakfast foods from Amazon Prime or a local grocery delivery service to get your family through the morning, and then the dining plan credits will be plenty for the remainder of the day.

Is the Dining Plan Worth It?

This is the million dollar question and the answer is . . . it depends on how you use it. A lot of my clients love it just because it means they can prepay for their meals with their resort and ticket package, making it more like an all-inclusive vacation with no surprise costs at the end. But it CAN save you money if you choose the right restaurants and meals. Since you can order anything off the menu, if you typically order more expensive items such as steak or seafood, you’re going to get more bang for the buck. If you typically always order a salad, you’d probably be better off paying out of pocket. Another game changer – character meals. A typical character meal out of pocket is about $50 per person. That means an average family of 4 is going to pay around $200 out of pocket for one character meal. The awesome thing about the Disney Dining Plan is you can use all of your table service credits for different character meals. If you have six table service credits, and do six character meals, out of pocket that would cost you around $1,200 for a family of 4. Just for those 6 meals – not counting the quick-service meals, snacks, and refillable mug you also get with the dining plan. Plus the amount of time you save having the characters come to you while you dine for those pictures and autographs rather than standing in line after line in the parks to see them is a huge benefit!