2024 Disney Dining Plan Info & Tips
The 2024 Disney Dining Plan comes in tiers, with prices starting at $57 per night for adults and $23 for kids. This guide to Walt Disney World’s meal package covers costs, money saving tips, what’s included, whether it’s worth getting, participating restaurants, and likely Free Dining dates. (Updated January 9, 2024.)
Let’s start with the current status of the Disney Dining Plan. For the first time in 4 years, the Quick-Service Disney Dining Plan (QSDDP) and standard or regular Disney Dining Plan (DDP) both now available to both book and use at Walt Disney World. The Deluxe Disney Dining Plan (DxDDP) and Disney Dining Plan Plus (DDP+) are still unavailable (for now), but the two most popular tiers (by far) have made their triumphant return.
But wait, there’s more! When it comes to the Disney Dining Plan, the next question is inevitably: “When is Free Dining available?” The answer to that is also right now. Free Dining is also back for 2024, available to book now for trips later this summer and fall. As discussed in our Guide to 2024 Free Dining at Walt Disney World, we’re expecting a second wave of dates to be released covering more travel dates. If you’d like to be notified if/when it’s released again or we have more details, sign up here for our FREE Disney newsletter here.
Prior to the return of the Disney Dining Plan in 2024, the DDP had evolved over time before disappearing for over 3 years. The most significant change that’s still relevant for the 2024 Disney Dining Plan is the inclusion of alcoholic beverages on all tiers of the Disney Dining Plans. This is a nice perk for drinkers, but has downsides–particularly for families, as kids obviously cannot order alcohol.
As a result of the addition of alcohol coupled with menu price increases, the Disney Dining Plan had actually become a better value in the last two years prior to being suspended. The return of the DDP has actually thrown us more value-for-money curveballs, as 2024 Disney Dining Plan prices for kids have decreased while adult prices have increased.
With that said, the 2024 Disney Dining Plan does cost more money…one way or another. Even with prices decreasing for kids, there’s also the big asterisk that Walt Disney World is reducing the number of snacks available on the Disney Dining Plans from 2 to 1 per night. So that alone achieves cost-savings for the company and reduces the per night value by $5-6. (More than offsetting that sticker price decrease.)
For another thing, Walt Disney World has already engaged in aggressive culinary cost-cutting, especially at counter service restaurants. They’ve substituted suppliers, changed ingredients, and reduced portion sizes. All of this means that even at the same prices, the 2024 Disney Dining Plan will offer less than before–or you’ll have to spend more to get as much.
Here’s everything else you need to know about the Disney Dining Plan…
We’ve used each tier of the Disney Dining Plan numerous times, usually multiple times per year. Our tips and opinions are based on our first-hand experience with the Dining Plan every year (minus the 3 it hasn’t been available) since 2007. Equally as important, we have not used the Disney Dining Plan many, many more times than we have used it.
That may not seem important, but it is. In researching Walt Disney World, you’ll learn that there are diehard Dining Plan fans, and others who hate it with the fiery passion of one thousand suns. Both groups have their biases, and often make sweeping generalizations about the Disney Dining Plan based on how well it works–or doesn’t–for them.
Seriously, Walt Disney World fans have a lot of surprisingly strong opinions about things that might seem silly to the average person. But few subjects are as irrationally polarizing as the Disney Dining Plan. Even ~15 years after its debut, we still don’t totally “get” that. We see the DDP’s pros and cons, and recognize that it’s great for some families and awful for others. In short, the Disney Dining Plan is very much not one-size-fits-all, and this post reflects that reality!
Before we get to dollars and cents, let’s cover some basics. The DDP is a prepaid meal plan offered at Walt Disney World so guests can budget their dining costs in advance and (potentially) save money. It provides guests with credits that can be redeemed for snacks, counter service meals, table service meals, or fine dining meals.
Gratuity is not included on the Disney Dining Plan, meaning guests need to pay that out of pocket. This is one way that the Disney Dining Plan actually catches people by surprise–even during Free Dining or when paid for in advance, tips can add up and be a considerable and sometimes unanticipated expense at the end of the trip. Otherwise, it’s a fairly all-inclusive meal plan, albeit with some limitations.
Disney Dining Plan credits are stored on the guest’s MagicBand or Key to the World card, with the receipt provided after redeeming the credits indicating how many credits remain. That’s the old school way of knowing how many credits you have remaining.
We recommend monitoring your 2024 Disney Dining Plan usage–including credits issued and redeemed–via the My Disney Experience app. Within the app, you’ll want to navigate to “Resort Hotel” (either from the home screen or the tiles) and then “Check Dining Plan.” That’ll take you to the screen above, showing you how many credits issued and remaining.
For counter service restaurants, we highly recommend using the Mobile Order feature in the My Disney Experience app to redeem your credits, too. This is because the process is even more streamlined for 2024, with a little pop-up ‘reminder’ indicating when you’re not fully utilizing the DDP and would be letting credits go to waste.
You can still use the Disney Dining Plan at counter service cash registers, and it’s often helpful to go this route if you have questions that a Cast Member can answer. And they also can help make sure you’re taking full advantage of your DDP credits. Of course, this is how you’ll also do things at table service restaurants–tell your server you have the Disney Dining Plan before ordering, and they’ll make sure you’re using your entitlements properly.
Walt Disney World has released the Full List of Restaurants on 2024 Disney Dining Plans, and there are currently 230 participating locations along with a handful of conspicuous omissions. That list is now pretty close to final, but will likely see a few changes throughout the year as new restaurants open and are added.
The big restaurants that are missing from the 2024 Disney Dining Plan are Space 220 and California Grill. The commonality is that both locations are immensely popular and both serve prix fixe menus. If either of those things change (popularity or menu types), we’d expect to see them added. Both would likely be 2-credit Signature Restaurants, making them poor uses of credits. There are also a handful of third party restaurants that don’t accept the 2024 Disney Dining Plan.
In addition to this, many menus at Walt Disney World (especially counter service restaurants) are still scaled-back, but we’ve already seen a few receive refreshes in the last couple of months. Even so, not everything on every menu is eligible for the DDP. You’ll need to look for the symbol (see below).
Walt Disney World guests purchasing a vacation package with a room and tickets through Disney are eligible to buy the Disney Dining Plan. This means that if you want the DDP, you cannot save money by staying in off-site hotel or by purchasing discount Walt Disney World tickets through a Disney-authorized ticket seller.
Disney Vacation Club members staying on points are also eligible to add-on the Disney Dining Plan, without the purchase of park tickets through Disney (as many of them either have Annual Passes or prefer purchasing discounted tickets through authorized third parties). You can also add-on the Disney Dining Plan when renting DVC points, which is a great way to save money on accommodations.
Let’s get more into the nitty-gritty of the Disney Dining Plan, starting with the basics: prices and what each plan includes…
Disney Dining Plan Overview
For the purposes of the Disney Dining Plan, a “counter service meal” consists of a combo meal (entree plus side) and beverage, including alcoholic beverages for adults (where available). It no longer includes a dessert. Also as of this date, a counter service meal may also consist of 3 snack items (defined below) in a single transaction.
A “table service meal” consists of an entree, dessert, and beverage, including alcoholic beverages for adults. For those guests on the Deluxe Disney Dining Plan (unavailable for 2024), this also includes an appetizer.
As part of Walt Disney World’s healthy living initiative, the dessert in the table service meal may also be substituted for a side salad, cup of soup, or fruit plate.
A “snack” includes items sold at snack carts around the park or in quick service restaurants. The definition of a snack has been expanded to include any single serving side item, which means more items will now be considered snacks (snacks were previously determined on a case-by-case basis with the DDP symbol (the purple thing above) denoting what was a snack). A snack now includes every side item, hand-scooped ice cream, and many other items that previously did not qualify as snacks.
Tax is always included, but guests pay for tips out of pocket. Children under 3 eat free from an adult’s plate.
Two-Credit Table Service Restaurants – Some dining experiences at Walt Disney World require 2 credits rather than just a single credit. By and large, these are premium offerings, such as Signature Restaurants, Dinner Shows, Pizza Delivery, or Room Service Meal.
In terms of value for money (or credit), there is not a single 2-credit premium experience that’s worth it from an objective perspective on the regular Disney Dining Plan. None of them–not one–offers per-credit value that’s on par with the ‘average’ redemption of a single table service credit. These are, across the board, a waste of DDP credits. Nevertheless, here are the options:
Character Dining – Certain ‘fancier’ character meals require two credits instead of one. These are Fairytale Dining at Cinderella’s Royal Table in Magic Kingdom, Princess Storybook Dining at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall (at lunch and dinner only) in EPCOT, and Story Book Dining at Artist Point with Snow White in Wilderness Lodge.
Fine Dining or Signature Restaurants – Experience an elegant Table-Service option with a wide selection of cuisines ranging from traditional African, Indian and Mediterranean to premium steaks and fresh seafood in Signature Restaurants, which are mostly the fine dining restaurants in Deluxe Resorts. There are about a dozen of these, and it’ll specify ‘Signature Dining’ in the restaurant description.
Dinner at Be Our Guest Restaurant– Be Our Guest Restaurant in Magic Kingdom requires 2 Table-Service meal credits to be exchanged for a single dining experience.
Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue Dinner Show – Enjoy family-style dining with live entertainment at a themed dinner show. All dinner shows require advance reservations. Two Table-Service meals will be redeemed from the dining plan for each person dining at a dinner show experience.
Private In-Room Dining or Pizza Pickup – When staying at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, indulge in the comfort and convenience of dining in your room. At the other end of the spectrum, grab a mediocre (but large!) pizza to eat in your room from one of the Value Resorts. Neither option is as good as it sounds.
Dining Packages – Packages that include reserved seating for a show, such as Fantasmic or the EPCOT festival concerts and Candlelight Processional, are typically included in the Disney Dining Plan. Thus far, Walt Disney World has only confirmed that this will be true for Fantasmic, but we’d expect the same for EPCOT, as well (those will likely be 2-credits each, whereas it varies for Fantasmic). Here are the official details about using the DDP for Fantasmic Dining Packages:
1 Table-Service meal will be redeemed from the dining plan for each person dining at:
- 50’s Prime Time Café
- Hollywood & Vine
- Mama Melrose’s Ristorante Italiano
- Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater Restaurant
2 Table-Service meals will be redeemed from the dining plan for each person dining at the Hollywood Brown Derby.
Each Fantasmic Dining Package includes:
- An entrée and appetizer or dessert at select full-service restaurants or one full buffet (where applicable), along with a non-alcoholic beverage
- One voucher for guaranteed seating at Fantasmic! in a reserved area
Quick Service Disney Dining Plan (AVAILABLE FOR 2024)
The Quick-Service Disney Dining Plan is the lowest tier of the DDP. This is the tier that is typically included with Free Dining at the Value and Moderate Resorts.
For each person on the room reservation, the Quick Service Disney Dining Plan includes:
- two counter-service meals (per night)
- one snack (per night)
- a refillable drink mug (per stay)
For 2024, the per night price of the Quick Service Disney Dining Plan is $57.01 per adult and $23.83 per child. (Previously, it was $55 per adult and $26 per child ages 3-9.) That amounts to an increase of a couple dollars for adults and a decrease of a couple dollars for kids over the course of 3 years.
However, it’s again worth emphasizing that both of the 2024 Disney Dining Plans only offer one snack each, whereas their counterparts previously offered two snacks per night. (That’s a difference in value of $5-6.)
Standard Disney Dining Plan (AVAILABLE FOR 2024)
This is the standard tier of the Disney Dining Plan, and what’s typically included with “Free” Dining at the Deluxe and Deluxe Villa Resorts. For the price difference between the plans, you can upgrade from the Free Quick Service Dining Plan to this plan at the Value Resorts.
For each person on the room reservation, the Standard DDP includes:
- one counter-service meal (per night)
- one sit-down meal (per night)
- one snack (per night)
- a refillable drink mug (per stay)
For 2024, the per night price of the standard or regular Disney Dining Plan is $94.28 per adult and $29.69 per child. (Previously, it was $78.01 per adult and $30.51 per child.) As you can see, that’s a huge increase for adults (+$16 per night!) and a slight decrease for kids in 2024.
Disney Dining Plan Plus (UNAVAILABLE FOR 2024)
This is the upgraded tier of the Disney Dining Plan, which is best for guests who want to do table service lunch and dinners, or breakfast breakfast and dinners every day of their vacation. For the extra cost, you receive a second table service meal in place of a counter service meal–but you have the option (or “flexibility” as Disney calls it) of simply using those credits at quick service restaurants.
For each person on the room reservation, the DDP+ includes:
- two meals at your choice of table service or counter service restaurants (per night)
- two snacks (per night)
- a refillable drink mug (per stay)
The per night price of the Disney Dining Plan Plus was $94.61 per adult and $35 per child when it was last available. If it returns later in 2024 or 2025, expect it to cost over $100 per night for adults, and around the same price for kids.
Deluxe Disney Dining Plan (UNAVAILABLE FOR 2024)
This is the upper echelon of Disney Dining Plans, and the closest thing Walt Disney World offers to an all-inclusive meal package (albeit not covering tips and other things you may want to order/purchase). By default, no resort tier receives this for Free Dining, but you can pay the difference to upgrade to it.
Those on the Deluxe Plan may officially mix their adult and child credits, meaning that child credits may be used for adult entrees. This has long been an unofficial loophole (and remains one) for the lower tiers of the plans, but it’s officially allowed on the Deluxe Plan.
For each person on the room reservation, the DxDDP includes:
- three meals at your choice of counter service restaurants or table service restaurants (per night)
- two snacks (per night)
- one refillable drink mug (per stay)
The per-night price of the Deluxe Disney Dining Plan was $119 per adult and $47.50 per child during regular season, and more during peak season, when it was last available. If it returns for 2025, don’t be surprised if it costs over $130 for adults (maybe even $140!) and $50 for kids.
DDP credits don’t have a set dollar value, and how much they are “worth” widely varies based upon your dining preferences. For example, a table service credit may be redeemed at an inexpensive restaurant for a water, sandwich, and ice cream dessert that would normally cost $37 total. Alternatively, it can be redeemed at a nicer restaurant for a glass of wine, swordfish steak, and Copetta Sotto Bosco that would normally cost $73 total.
These are actual examples from Walt Disney World restaurants, demonstrating the big difference in value a credit may have depending upon at which restaurant and for which menu items it’s redeemed. You could get even less or even more value out of the Dining Plan, depending upon what you order.
By analyzing pricing, we can reverse engineer an approximate value that Disney places on each meal type within the various DDPs. Based upon our calculations, a table service meal is worth approximately $63, a counter service meal on the DDP is worth approximately $25, and a snack is worth approximately $6. (For the purposes of these calculations, we view the refillable mug as a throw-in, since its value could fluctuate widely depending upon length of stay.)
Those numbers are updated to account for price increases and decreases on the 2024 Disney Dining Plan. Honestly, it’s difficult to contort the numbers to make the math work, but the above values are pretty much the only way for the discrepancy between the two tiers to make sense. The result is a slight increase in the value ascribed to snack and counter service credits, and a massive increase for table service credits.
By comparing those dollar amounts to online menus available for Walt Disney World, you can get a pretty good idea of whether the Disney Dining Plan is right for your family. We write a long review below and also have resources for getting more value out of the Dining Plan, but ultimately it’s a personal thing. With those rough numbers, you can do the math for yourself and make an informed decision as to whether the DDP is right for you.
Spoiler: unless you drink alcohol at almost every meal and order expensive entrees at nice restaurants (but not 2-credit ones!) or do a lot of character dinners (but not breakfasts!), it’s going to be very difficult to make the regular Disney Dining Plan work out in your favor. That’s especially true if your party skews towards adults, rather than kids.
If you want to read more about most common circumstances when the DDP does or does not make sense, see When You Should Buy & Skip the 2024 Disney Dining Plan! That’s a long read, but it provides a breakdown of different demographics that likely will–and will not–benefit from buying the DDP. Or you can simply follow the above rule of thumb, which is all ~90% of guests need to know.
If you’re on the fence as it’s a close call as to whether the Disney Dining Plan is right for you, it is possible to plan ahead to squeeze more bang for your buck out of the DDP. For this, see our popular ‘Value Maximization’ series of posts:
- Top 10 Restaurants for Maximizing Table Service Credit Value
- Top 10 Restaurants for Maximizing Counter Service Credit Value
- Best Ways to Maximize Snack Credit Value
Frequent users of the Disney Dining Plan become pretty adept at getting more bang for their buck, as they know these strategies are the difference between saving hundreds of dollars with the Disney Dining Plan and losing hundreds of dollars with it. With these posts, quick menu review, and some advance planning, first-time visitors to Walt Disney World can also make the most of the Dining Plan!
As noted at the top of the post, the Disney Dining Plan is offered throughout the year for “free” to Walt Disney World guests who purchase a vacation package (this is not offered to Disney Vacation Club members staying on points). Typically, Free Dining is offered for select dates in August through December.
The Free Dining promotion is incredibly popular with Disney fans. However, you need to remember that there’s no such thing as a free lunch. When Free Dining is available, you forfeit another discount that might be offered–like a room-only discount. You’re also locked-in to buying tickets directly from Disney, which means no discount tickets. Suffice to say, you need to do the math and compare the “Free” Dining Plan to other discounts.
Before even booking the Disney Dining Plan, you should determine where you want to eat and secure Advance Dining Reservations (ADRs). It should be easy to see which Disney Dining Plan best suits your needs, or if the Dining Plan is even necessary.
Even for many on-site Walt Disney World guests, the Dining Plan is not the best option. For example, if you want to splurge and stay Club Level (read our Guide to Club Level & Concierge Lounges at Walt Disney World for more info), it’s not a good fit for you. If you primarily want to indulge in Signature Restaurants or fine dining, the Disney Dining Plan isn’t a good choice. Vegans and vegetarians also will not be well-suited by the Disney Dining Plan. (The list goes on…)
For a simple system, it’s surprisingly complex, so don’t feel bad if it takes some reading before you fully understand how the Disney Dining Plan works and whether it is a good fit for your party. If you only anticipate eating inexpensive meals or want to stay on a tight budget, the Dining Plan probably won’t make a lot of sense. But we’ll get to that…
Is the Disney Dining Plan Worth It? – Pros & Cons
Savings – You can save on the Disney Dining Plan, but you have to be a certain type of eater and not waste any credits. If you are a big eater who likes steak and would like to order it at every meal, you can save money with the Disney Dining Plan. This requires that everyone in your party is a big eater, and that all of you use all of your counter service and snack credits wisely. (See our Worst Snack Credit Uses on the Disney Dining Plan list for more on that.)
If your teens are human garbage disposals and the adults in your party love steak, the Dining Plan can offer some savings. As soon as anyone in your party starts ordering chicken or pasta, those savings disappear to the point that you start losing money on the Disney Dining Plan. No matter what they order, a vegetarian will lose money by using the Disney Dining Plan–without exception.
With the addition of alcohol to the Disney Dining Plan, anyone who enjoys a drink or two per day will also come out ahead. The cost of drinks at Walt Disney World restaurants average around $8-14, which is larger than the price increase of the Dining Plans this year. If you get two glasses of wine per day, you’re looking at around $20-25/person more in value every day.
Conversely, if you’re non-drinkers or using the Quick Service Disney Dining Plan and spend most of your time in Magic Kingdom (where alcohol isn’t served at counter service restaurants), you come out behind. Alcohol is the huge new wildcard to the Disney Dining Plan, and can really swing the pendulum of value. Whether that’s in your favor or out of your favor depends almost entirely upon how many alcoholic drinks you enjoy per day.
Speaking of which, the Disney Dining Plan is potentially very valuable for those who visit during Epcot’s International Food & Wine Festival or any other Epcot festival (basically, any month except summer). The good news is that taking advantage of this value does not require drinking–this is all about snacking!
Some of the best snacks at the Epcot festivals can cost as much as $10 and can be purchased using snack credits. We highly recommend stockpiling snack credits and using them during your Epcot days, as not only are these festival snacks a great use of credits, but the Epcot festivals are a ton of fun, and this is a way to avoid the sticker shock of paying out of pocket.
The Deluxe Dining Plan can be utilized well if you follow the strategy of eating breakfast (or an early lunch) at a Table Service restaurant (character breakfasts are great for this) and dinner at a Signature Table Service Restaurant, plus snacks whenever. Read How We Saved 50% on the Deluxe Disney Dining Plan for a specific example of how we’ve leveraged the DxDDP for maximum value!
It’s worth noting that prices have risen dramatically for the Disney Dining Plan since it was introduced, meaning that just because you used it on your last trip ~5 years ago and found it to be a good value, does not mean it’s still a good value. The appetizer and tip were cut ages ago, and prices have increased.
However, the biggest of the price increases occurred a few years ago, and prices have not climbed much since then. It would seem that Walt Disney World has reached its price ceiling (or close to it) with the Disney Dining Plan. Prices are only up slightly, and that has been true of previous years, too. Prior to that, there were some double-digit price spikes.
By contrast, table service menu prices have steadily increased since the introduction of the Disney Dining Plan, and at a higher rate (~15%) than the Disney Dining Plan pricing. This means that the relative value of the Dining Plan versus paying out of pocket actually has improved of late.
Effort – If value is your main concern and you aren’t a steak-addict, it can take a lot of pre-planning to save money by using the Disney Dining Plan. Because the margin of savings can be so low, in many cases the Dining Plan causes guests to order the most expensive item on the menu to get “value” out of the plan.
Same goes for choosing more expensive restaurants. There have times on the Dining Plan when a cheaper menu item sounded good, but there was that lingering thought in the back of my mind that if I didn’t order something more expensive, the Dining Plan would actually cost us more than paying out of pocket.
This blog alone has at least 10 articles about the Disney Dining Plan, and we could probably have another couple dozen and still have people asking us questions. Saving money on the Disney Dining Plan requires a good amount of pre-planning or knowledge of how to work the system if you’re just a normal eater.
It’s good to pre-plan where you want to eat at Walt Disney World regardless of whether you’re on the plan (not all restaurants are equal and you’ll need ADRs for some), so that’s not necessarily a bad thing, but using the Dining Plan increases the amount of pre-planning that’s necessary–if you care about saving money. We’ve found that we normally save more with the Tables in Wonderland card than the Dining Plan, and the former requires no pre-planning maximization effort.
Amount of Food – One common complaint is that the Disney Dining Plan often “forces” guests to eat more than they want. While Sarah and I are both big eaters, at times, the Dining Plan is just too much food. There have been occasions when we otherwise would have eaten small counter service meals, but because we had the credits to use, we have eaten at Table Service restaurants. Not only did this result in over-consumption, but it also burned valuable vacation time.
If you have a short trip and want to experience as many attractions as possible, this is something to keep in mind. While you can get value out of the Disney Dining Plan, that savings requires sitting down for longer meals and eating a lot of food. If you don’t normally eat as much food as the DDP provides, you aren’t actually saving money–the savings are illusory. You’re over-consuming in the name of (false) savings.
Convenience – Many visitors argue that the Disney Dining Plan is about convenience. We contend that it is not convenient. In terms of convenience, look at it this way: you’re reading an in-depth article about using the Disney Dining Plan, and you’ll probably read other such articles.
How many articles have you read titled “Paying for Meals with Cash Info & Tips”? Hopefully none. A convoluted credit system cannot possibly be more convenient than the universal standard of paying money for a billed amount. It just can’t.
Budgeting – This is probably the most contentious point. In addition to supposedly being convenient, a lot of its fans advocate the Disney Dining Plan because it helps them stay on a budget and avoid thinking about money on vacation. Again, this doesn’t pass the smell test.
In most cases, when people try to stay on a vacation budget, it’s because there is a need for that budget. Overspending might cause financial strain. Viewed in that light, the Disney Dining Plan doesn’t help with a budget, it helps with predictability. Meals cost the same amount every night, regardless of what’s consumed.
If you’re on a tight budget and you’d normally spend $35 per person per night on food if you paid out of pocket, but you end up spending ~$60+ per person per night on food with the DDP, isn’t that predictability doing you more harm than good?
The Disney Dining Plan allows you to fall back on this predictability and ‘turn off’ your brain with regard to how much dining costs on vacation. If you don’t want to worry about money, purchase (discounted!) Disney Gift Cards before the trip. While we don’t advocate making that psychological disconnect between actual and “fake” money, if you really don’t want to think about money, go that route.
We will be blunt: if you are too lazy to make a dining budget before your trip, chances are you’re too lazy to figure out where to dine to maximize your value. Given that, you’ll probably end up saving more money with the gift card method.
Sticker Shock – Even if you’re not on a tight budget, menu prices at Walt Disney World can be a bit…shocking. The psychological disconnect we mentioned above isn’t always a bad thing, particularly if you want to splurge or have financial means, but can’t bring yourself to order certain items when directly paying menu prices.
The Disney Dining Plan won’t scare you away from expensive menu items. If you love filet mignon, but would shy away from ordering it upon seeing the menu price, the Disney Dining Plan might be for you. However, you might have some sticker shock when you see the nightly prices of the Dining Plan, in the first place…
Conclusion
Overall, whether the Disney Dining Plan is right for you is a personal decision based on a lot of variables. We estimate that for the majority of guests, it is not a good value. This doesn’t mean it’s not a good product, as it will offer monetary savings for some families, and psychological comfort for plenty of others. I can’t say whether the DDP is right for your particular circumstances, but hopefully the considerations above can help with your decision. If you use the Disney Dining Plan for your vacation, make sure you do your homework and plan accordingly!
If you are still unsure of whether the Disney Dining Plan might be right for you—or need personalized help with any aspect of your trip from hotels to the DDP and more—we recommend contacting a no fee “Authorized Disney Vacation Planner” (basically, Disney’s term for a travel agent) to get a quote and to help you plan. They get their commission from Disney, so none of the authorized (key word) planners will charge you for booking their trip and helping. Here’s one such recommended Authorized Disney Vacation Planner.
With regard to the Disney Dining Plan and restaurants in general, this article is just a jumping off point. First-time Walt Disney World visitors often underestimate the importance of planning (especially for restaurants, many of which are booked solid months in advance) and have a bad time because they didn’t plan enough. Want more dining recommendations? Check out our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. For info on whether the DDP is right for you, read our Ultimate Guide to the Disney Dining Plan. For comprehensive vacation advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
Your Thoughts
What is your experience with the Disney Dining Plan? Thinking about buying the 2024 Disney Dining Plan once it becomes available? Does the DDP work for you? Is it a bad fit for your family? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
We like the convenience when we travel with multiple families in separate rooms…it makes it much easier than having to split the check!
I don’t know what room Karen (above) booked, but we have also been able to book dining plan with room only, but only when we did the military discount room option. I thought they only allowed it to be added to room-only for the military discount or the Disney Vacation Club bookings.
What I want to do is get the Deluxe Dining plan. Me and my boyfriend are staying in one room and my two friends in a different room. I figured, since I won’t really be eating 3 full meals every single day, I can use some of my credits for my friend and my boyfriend can use some of his credits for my other friend. We will obviously all be paying a quarter of the total each. The rest we will all have charged to our own rooms. Good idea?
Just going through this, and the quick service meal plan (I’m looking at booking right now) in 2017 is slightly different than your webpage states. It includes 2 quick service meals, 2 snacks and the refillable hotel drink mug per night stay. The meals appear to no longer include a dessert, only the entree and a drink.
My family is going in November. We wanted to go to chef mickeys, O’hana, Cinderella royal table, to name a few. I budgeted in the Disney dining plan. With so many table service meals we plan to get, seven total, would it be best to get the dining plan or pay cash. Most of us are meat eaters.
We are in the same boat. Going to all the character meals made the DDP worth it for us. If we did not then I would definitely just pay OOP because it would be cheaper. We have used the DDP for the past two years and will have dined at all the character lunches and dinners (except HW and Vine) so this is it for us.
Just be aware that Cinderella Royal Table is worth 2 table credits therefore not making the DDP money saving at all. That is what I found crunching my own particular numbers for this trip
So is Ohana
‘Ohana is 1 TS credit, not 2.
Great article, however…You absolutely CAN purchase the Dining Plan with a room only reservation. We did it in December and we booked again for 2017. Room only, dining plan, tickets from an outiside vendor.
I am pretty sure (or at least hoping) that you can get the dining plan with just a room reservation. We made our room reservation, added the dining plan, and then bought our tickets through Undercover Tourist. Our dining plan still shows up on the My Disney Experience. I have not linked the tickets yet, but I believe it should be possible.
Love your blog, by the way! Great info and great sense of humor! Thanks for all your research!
We’re in the process of planning our second Disney World trip. We’re going Thanksgiving week in 2017. 10 days, 9 nights. We aren’t sure if we’re going to be able to get free dining and we’re seriously on a budget. 2 adults, our 20 year old son and 10 year old daughter will be going. I’m not a big eater and neither is my daughter. Wondering if we’re not better of skipping the $2700 in additional dining plan costs. We were toying with the ts plan because we like character dining. Sigh……. It’s hard to decide! Any advice?
Great website and great article! I have been to Disney World over 20 times, and my husband and I are returning this October. We have done the Standard Disney Dining Plan before and it worked out really well. We did that when we went with my parents and stayed on property with them. This trip was originally going to be just my husband and I and so we bought our room at Caribbean Beach and went for the Deluxe Dining Plan, as we really wanted to focus on food this trip. Turns out, my parents wanted to come too! So they are staying on property, but at a different resort. They do not want to do the Dining Plan this trip, and we are not doing all meals together, but we are doing some. How will the meals where we eat together work? Can we pay separately? My husband and I would use credits and they would pay with their credit card/bands. Thanks for any insight you can give!
Great resource! Thank you (and Sarah) for putting in all the work (not to mention expense)!
As a regular user of the DxDDP, I wanted to add/”correct” a couple things to this topic. For starters, I look at the money spent on the meal plan the same way I view money budgeted for gambling if I was going to Vegas- it’s gone. Now if things happen to go my way, and I come out ahead, Whoo-hoo!!, but I don’t base the expense on that happening. (full disclosure, I have never not ended up saving money using a dining plan- including the one on the premium plan, which involved several rounds of golf, backstage tours, and the Cirque show)
Also, the Dining Plans are NOT for every- as you point out, there are a lot of variables that are very family dependent, so anyone claiming that there is a right or wrong answer on using them should frankly be ignored.
1) It’s surprising the number of people that don’t realize that while your credits are based on the number of nights you are staying in the hotel, the DP runs through midnight of the night of your departure. For example, my upcoming trip, I’ll arrive first thing in the morning on 7/31, and depart in the evening of 8/4- giving me 5 days to use the 12 credits- 2 meals per day, plus a couple character breakfasts or signature restaurant dinners. As a side note, to “break even”, after accounting for the snacks and refillable mug, your meals need to average $33. On this trip, I’d estimate a savings of $100-150, depending on what I end up ordering.
2) The amount of pre-planning time depends on your WDW experience- for me, just making a list of restaurants/character meals/dinner shows I want to do this trip, and then checking for availability- including time on the phone booking the 2 dinner shows, less than an hour. For first timers, or relatively inexperienced visitors, it will obviously be longer if only to decide on where you’d like to eat.
3) “Correction” of sorts to your Budgeting section (or maybe just a disagreement). I would suggest that it does in fact help with budgeting for your trip- especially if you are taking advantage of the ability to spread your payments out from the time of booking until the cut-off for your particular trip- is it easier to spread the cost of the meal plans for your family over several months, or making sure you’ve got the cash for food saved right before you go? While you’re on the trip, (even using your gift card suggestion- which is a good idea BTW), you can ether not worry about what things cost, or have to keep track of what you’re spending to make sure you have enough money for the entire trip. For me, I’m happier not worry about the budget if I see a Disney souvenir item I really want.
quick question regarding the DDP
We’ve done Disney multiple times as DVC/AP members. This will be our first time attempting DDP, and wondering if we can purchase the deal that doesn’t fill up the entire duration of our trip (Sat-Sat). If we wanted to do a four day deal, is that even remotely possible, so we can just eat using the DDP Sat-Tues, and do whatever we want the rest of the trip? Thanks in advance!
First time visitors. Wow!!! I just returned from a 4 night – 3 days in parks with 2 adults/2 teens the first week of June. We stayed at Coronado Springs and did the Standard Dining plan. (1 table, 1 Quick, 1 snack) – Using the 63.70 pp per day, that’s roughtly $255 per day/$1020 for trip that gave us 16 credits of each meal type.
We quickly used our table service (TS) and ended up paying for 7 extra TS out of pocket, which tacked on an extra $260
Reason 1: You can’t cancel the day of reservation. On arrival day – since we got up very early for our flight, by the time we got to our resort, we were super hungry and ate QuickService (QS) at Pepper Cafe. (which was pretty good) around 1PM. But we had TS reservations at Las Ventatas at 5PM. We could have totally skipped that meal and opted for later evening QS again. We only used 3 TS meals that night though, since my daughter was too stuffed so we at least got to keep one TS credit.
Reason 2: Ultra Prime places count double: On Park Day 1 @ Magic Kingdom, we did the Cinderalla Princess Royal Breakfast at the Castle, which counted as 2 TS credits/8 TS total. I think the price was $60 pp/$250 total. That made for a very expensive breakfast – however, the experience was AMAZING and it was worth every penny! So basically, by the time we had finished dinner that night at Tony’s Cafe (Italian – YUM), we already used 15 TS credits and had 1 left for 2 more nights. Oops – but we knew that Princess was gonna be pricey!
Park Day 2: Epcot Biergarten Restaurant – We used our last TS credit and paid for 3. With 20% tip, we paid $150, so PP buffet was I think $45. That was totally worth it – the food was fantastic, so many desserts, and the entertainment was really fun! You want to eat here! So, if you used all TS credits, you would have worked ahead $ because if dinner clocked in at almost $200, you are close to your per day cost.
Park Day 3 – Our last table meal reservation was 50s prime time cafe at Disney Hollywood Studio. We paid for the meal (magic band charge to room) – Cost plus 20% tip was $125 – That was 4 entree, 2 soda, 1 dessert. I found that to be very reasonable – BTW the food was great, large portions, the place was totally awesome fun – you really want to eat here!
OVERALL:
Looking at the meals, we are normally appetizer people and rarely get dessert because we are usually too full. Since each meal came with a dessert, you felt obliged to get it. Now at dinner, that’s not a problem as the dessert choices are excellent. However, a dessert for lunch at a quick service meal doesnt really work, so we usually got extra water bottles.
Since everything is charged on your Magic Band, if you didnt do the meal plan, then it’s going right to your room account – it made it really easy.
If I kept track of everything, we could have probably come out a little less $$ skipping the meal plan. With that said, we had never been to Disney World and wanted to make it easy/enjoy the entire experience. It was nice to know up front what the rough food costs were going to be, knowing that we would go over. If I were to go again, I would do the Standard Dining plan again and just plan it out better – I would have probably come out using the right amount of credits.
Hi Tom,
Congrats for your great work!
Quick question: since FastPass + on line reservations changed to 7h00 AM, should I be sure to also be logged in, 180 days ahead, by 7h00 AM for ADR ? Or can I do it by midnight (FL time zone)?
Thanks!
I may have missed the continuation of this piece: “If you only anticipate eating inexpensive meals or want to stay on a tight budget, the Dining Plan probably won’t make a lot of sense. But we’ll get to that…”
We are going to D World for 3 days, 2 adults and 3 kids (7, 5, 3). We are not big breakfast eaters and will probably bring snacky stuff from the grocery store. Meals in the park were going to be fast food lunch, and most likely fast food dinner with 1 night potential for a character meal.
Do you have an estimate on how much we might should budget if we were to not use a meal plan? None of us are big eaters.
Here’s a link to ALL the menus for Disney
HTH
I went through and actually added it all up based on what I figured we would eat at each location each day of our trip. Then I added in our expected grocery budget and have come to the conclusion that the dining plan may well be worth it for convenience as it’s only about $30 more than cash for my family
http://allears.net/dining/menu
Just got back from Disney on tbe regular dining plan for 2 adults and 2 kids plans. I can say that it is almost impossible to get your value out of the dining plan unless you utilize the buffets as they are expensive othereise. We did Chef Mickeys and O’hana We felt obligated to order the most expensive thing on the menu just to break even. Personally at most dinners , i ordered a beer, so i never used my drink. We are not soda/pop drinkers and wouldn’t have ordered dessert at every meal. For quick service , we usually substituted our dessert for an extra side. Also if we weren’t on a dining plan, our kids likely would have shared 1 meal. We saw a lot go to waste as they are pretty young. If you do the dining plan, it is good to know that Disney does not distunguish between adult and child quick service meals.
I added the free dining plan to my families fall trip. I had to upgrade to the park hopper. However it broke down to be $18 per person per day for my family of four. To me it seemed like a good deal. At that cost I don’t have to worry about if i am getting the most for my dollar. One meal and I am covered.
I’ve purchased a meal playing in the past but wasn’t sure if I should get it for my upcoming trip. I did want to know,however do the cups colors change? In the past it seems like I keep getting the same color cups. (I know. Silly question. I have a 12 year old who is determined to get every color magic band AND cup.)
Hello there, You have done a great job.
I’ll definitely digg it and personally suggest to my friends.
I am sure they will be benefited from this site.
My question about is: we’re planning on going staying for 10 nights but only in the park 6 days. Do I get credits for the 10 nights or just the amount of days I’m paying for in the park? Sorry confused here.
PS I love your blog. Such great advice and insight. You both make such a cute couple!!!
All 10 nights.
Where can I find the “official” information that children under 10 can use their children’s credits for adult entrees on the Deluxe DDP? Do I need to call on that? Is it a regular sized meal or do we ask for an adult entree in a kid-sized portion? We purchased the Deluxe DDP and I’ve made reservations at restaurants that seem to have better options for kids than mac n’ cheese or corndogs, but my 9 yo still likes to order adults entrees at times. I don’t want to find out when I get there that my child cannot use a credit for an adult meal.
Can you tell me what menu items are pictured in this article and where I can find them? Thanks!
Planning our 1st trip to Disney World in January 2017 for our daughters 6th birthday. We will be a family of 5 – 2 parents, 6 year old, 2 year old, 3 month old. I’ve been doing a ton of research and love your site. Thank you guys for sharing all your Disney wisdom.
One thing no one (on any site) has mentioned is the “free kid” age. Our 2 year old certainly could eat off our plate, but generally gets her own kids meal when we go out. We still have to add in the cost of her getting her own meals and snacks. Not to mention, she is not the kid to take to sit down meals for 90 minuets. Toddlers love to move. So for us the none of the dining plans make sense. We can’t have every one on it and that would be very inconvenient for staff to try and figure out. Also, with such a wide range of ages we will have to be flexible and certainly will lose money when the baby is melting down and we miss our reservation times, or the birthday girl decides we HAVE to ride something again.
For us with young kids, the flexibility of cash is more convenient.
Hi Kate,
According to the Disney website, your 2 year old and baby are both considered infants, even if the 2 year old has their birthday during your trip. What this means is that at table service restaurants that are served by a waiter they eat off your plate and you pay out of pocket for their drink. The best deal (IMHO) is the buffets. They get their own plate and drink and it’s no charge! They also don’t have to pay for theme park tickets (Free again!) and look into the rider switch program. This means if your DD6 wants to go on a ride and the DD2 and baby can’t because of a height restriction, you all go up and when you get to front of line ask for rider-switch then you stay with young kids (great use of snack credits at this time) and DH and DD6 go on ride. When they come out you and DD6 go on ride and DH gets a snack with the younger kids. Yes, DD6 got to go on the ride twice! You can also wait a bit and it acts like a fast pass for the ride but you have to use it the same day as you got it. We went last year with Me, DH, DD8, DS5 and DS2 and this worked really well for us.
We really liked the character buffets as we could eat right away and the characters came to our table so we didn’t have to wait in line for them. Also it only usually used 1TS credit, both daughters can pick the food they like and they have to get up to get the meal