Disney Dining Plan

We do not drink soda either but still found great value in the dining plan. As for desert, well there are healthier options to choose as well..There was always a fresh fruit or veggie option at each meal we attended.

We did NOT do the dining plan, but we definitely will next time. After we had hamburgers or grilled cheese, shared fries, and drinks for 2 kids' meals and 4 adults at a cost of $80+ that first day, we realized what a mistake we'd made in not buying the meal plan. People who were on the meal plans ordered the same things we did plus got more, and they were able to take the extra food (fresh fruit, etc) along for later snacks. I'd recommend it.

YES!! The drinks cover any non-alcoholic drink. The snacks cover any one item, a drink, an ice cream, a banana. The meal plan is totally worth it. Especially if you use the Table Service for dinner.

Keep in mind that tips are NOT covered by the plan.

One trick we learned was to have the snack option cover the one most expensive item you are purchasing and then pay cash for the lesser. A $1 banana and a $4 water both count as 1 snack.

Hi Tia,

The dining plan is absolutely necessary unless you plan on making sandwiches and taking that into the park every day that you are there. Without knowing how many in your family are going, I am going to make assumptions. My family and I went and it was two adults and two children. Any place you go to eat will run you $20 dollars for snacks and $100 for a meal (sit down restaurants) for a party of four but because we had our dining plan that we paid in advance, it was no extra cost to us. You can choose different levels in the dining plan. The plan we had included a snack, quick meal and then dinner. We could choose where we wanted to go-most places had buffets to choose from. I would not recommend going to disney world without a meal plan because it will easily cost you a few hundred dollars a day to eat and snack. You may need to call disney and ask them if you can substitute your desserts for something else or exchange it for a credit towards something else. We never used the refill drink option because in order to use that, you had to buy the big jug container and that was about $20 each. We purchased a lot of waters because we decided to go in the middle of the summer and it was extremely hot. I would highly recommend the meal plan. Having the meal plan allowed me to spend more of my cash on other nick nacks that I wanted.

When the four of us went for a week we used the Dining Plan. It takes a bit of getting used to...It will save you money. And you can pre-pay for it in a pkg, so you don't need to carry extra cash or keep charging extra food !

Call the Disney # and ask about the plan. Most restaurants and counter service restaurants do honor it. Make reservations for your evening meals !

There are a couple of different plans. If you would like to visit some of the nice sit down resturants it is worth it. We went with the plan that gives you one snack, one counter service meal and one sit down meal each day.

If you do not want the desert you can use that credit for an extra bottle of water or perhaps something else, you'll need to ask. Your drink can of course be a bottle of water as well.

We love O'Hana, in the Polynisian and the Sci Fi Cafe. There are lots of great resturants and the really nice thing is you make reservations, so no fighting for a table like at the counter service resturants. (Make reservations ASAP).

Have Fun!

M

One more hint: if you have left over snack credits at the end of your stay you can use them in the gift shop of your hotel for snack items to take home. You'll have to ask what items you can use the credits for.

We did the snack, quick meal and dinner option too-same as Michelle. The snack can be anything less than $3.50 or something like that so it could cover popcorn, an ice cream or anything edible for that price anywhere. We stayed on the ground and learned quickly that depending where you eat can really make the difference for the quick meal and the nice thing about the quick meal is there is really no difference between the kids and the adults at certain places. This was convenient for my 9 yr old who eats like an adult.

The dinner can be used at nicer places and should be scheduled ahead.

I would not do Disney without it. It is worth every penny. For the non soda drinkers, get bottled water instead. For folks that say no dessert, heck you are on vacation. Live a little lol. Food at Disney is expensive. Menus are
not limited. We could always get what we wanted.
A must if you ask me.

Which dining plan. If you want some sit down meals and you would like to do lots of character dining then it is totally worth it. All depends on how you want to eat there....

Do it. You'd be nuts not to. Way too expensive without it.

BUT. Do your research ahead of time on where you want your main one meal a day. Some require reservations. We were also able to get one breakfast with charachters by reserving ahead of time.

Pre-planning (not really my style) is key to managing Disey and really enjoying it. My desire to just wing it doesn't work there very well with the kids. Fine if it is just two adults. Kids, not so much.

Have fun!

We just did a week at Disney and 7 days on the Dining Plan...I absolutely loved it and highly recommend it. For me it eliminatedly the tendency to buy meals based on the cost. You can get most any thing on the menu without taking cost into consideration and I was very pleased with the selections for meals, snacks and drinks. We prepaid for the dining plan in our package and it was great to have the reservations already made. Wouldn't do Disney without it!!!

We've been to Disney numerous times and we never did the plan. I jsut don't think it is worth it.

I don't like going to a restaurant, seeing a full menu and the thought of being told, "oh you can have 1 of these 3 things for your plan". When we go out to eat, we expect to have access to a full menu, not be limited on choices, etc.

There are things that are added into the plans that we would not use... Example; we don't eat desserts. None of us, ever...so that is a waste of money. We don't drink many sodas, we like a lot of water and we do have afternoon cocktails which I know are not included.

I think personal planning is the way to go. You don't overbuy, you plan your options for restaurants,etc.

Have fun!

where you get your money back is table service and character dining. Just because you are not a dessert person does that mean you don't want to indulge on vacation? Quick service desserts can include fresh fruit or even a brownie or cookie you can toss in your bag for later. The mug you get to fill at your hotel can be used for more soft drinks than just soda. There are juices, coffee, tea, hot chocolate and so on. Whenever we dine at the hotel we use our mug for our beverage for our meal (even if we fill up with water) and for the quick service drink that is included we get a bottled beverage we can take with us later or put in the fridge of our room for when we want something to drink there. My favorite thing to do with snack credits is to use them to "snack around the world" at EPCOT. At each country we find a snack (to share or not). Think snow cone in Japan, baklava in Morocco, Crossiant in Paris, gelato in italy, funnel cake in US, Churro in Mexico, etc. I have more of a sweet tooth but there are non sweet snacks in each country took. Personally I love the dining plan and always get it. For the calorie thing you will be doing a lot of walking so it can be easy to burn. But if you think you wont want to use extra calories then dont do it.

Go to the Disney Divas website and look at the dining plan advice there. She has pros and cons. If you go to dinners as your full service/character meal then you will come out ahead . If you go to allears website you can view the meals and the prices . If you choose not to get the dining plan it is about the same amount of money but it is easier to pay ahead. Some tips when you don't have the plan are to order from the kids menu for quick service meals . They include grapes,carrots,and a drink. If you do get the dining plan , take advantage of the more expensive dinners like Coral Reef, Cape may Cafe,etc
Have a Magical Day !

FYI there is a free dining plan offer going on now ;0)