Disney Dining Plan Plus Now Available! (+Price Increases)
The Disney Dining Plan Plus, Walt Disney World’s new tier of the Dining Plan, has officially debuted and can be booked for new reservations or added to existing ones. In this post, we’ll cover pricing info, how the DDP+ compares to other DDPs, what’s included, value for money, and other commentary.
Much of this replaces the speculative elements in our recent New 2020 Disney Dining Plan Plus Coming Soon post. At that point, we had preliminary details, but not cost or some specifics. Namely, we knew that the plan would offer two meals each day in any combination of either table service or quick service restaurants.
In addition to the two flexible meal credits, we now know that the Disney Dining Plan Plus can be used for Signature Dining, Dinner Shows, or Private In-Room Dining (redeeming two credits for each, as with the normal DDP). As previously advertised, each meal credit can also be redeemed for character meals, which are among the best uses of credits. We now have additional details, which are somewhat of a mixed bag…
First, the Disney Dining Plan Plus uses the same term definitions for quick service meal, table service meal, and snack as the standard Disney Dining Plan. We’re not going to rehash all of that here (see our 2020 Disney Dining Plan Review, Info & Tips post for that).
The important thing to know or takeaway is that table service meals do not include an appetizer with the Disney Dining Plan Plus. There was some question about this, as table service meals do offer an appetizer under the Deluxe Disney Dining Plan. As the name suggests, this is more of an enhancement (or “plussing” if you will) of the standard Disney Dining Plan than a “Deluxe Disney Dining Plan Lite.”
The other major thing about which there were some questions was pricing. We predicted a $98 price point for adults, with anything between $90 and $100 being within the realm of what’s reasonable. The actual pricing of the Disney Dining Plan Plus is $94.61 per adult and $35 per child.
Note that if you’re trying to add the Disney Dining Plan Plus to a vacation package, the pricing you’ll see is $88.84 per adult or $32.86 per child. However, that’s pre-tax pricing. We actually added the DDP+ to an upcoming Disney Vacation Club reservation, and saw the actual post-tax totals at the confirmation screen.
Unsurprisingly, we’ve had all sorts of troubles with DisneyWorld.com this morning, but DVCMember.com worked smoothly for us. Expect long waits on the phone and errors with DisneyWorld.com throughout the day–especially once Walt Disney World issues an official press release.
Unless your trip starts tomorrow, there’s really no reason to fight the masses to add the Disney Dining Plan Plus today. It’s not like this is some limited edition collectible that Walt Disney World will sell out of. You’ll be able to add it much easier tomorrow or any future date once the initial rush subsides.
On a related note, this is the price we paid for our existing Disney Vacation Club reservation–the price could be different for new bookings. There are scattered reports of the DDP+ costing ~$97 for new reservations. I have the option of adding all tiers of the DDP plan for their “old” prices, but it’s also possible that prices have increased across the board.
New pricing might apply to new reservations…but I can’t get that to work on DisneyWorld.com and don’t hate myself enough (or like you all quite that much) to call and deal with being on hold. I’ll update accordingly if/when I find out more later today. (If you can confirm any price increase based on firsthand experience or knowledge, please share in the comments.)
UPDATE: By my reverse-engineered calculations, prices have increased on the other Disney Dining Plan tiers. Here are the prices I received when booking a new reservation for Saratoga Springs Resort in May 2020:
- Quick Service Disney Dining Plan: $56.41
- Standard Disney Dining Plan: $79.42
- Deluxe Disney Dining Plan: $120.41
These are across the board increases of under $2 per night, so not exactly stop the presses news. Walt Disney World does a pretty “good” job of obfuscating the cost of individual components during the booking process, so I’m guessing most guests won’t even notice these nominal increases in the cost of the other Disney Dining Plan tiers.
I cannot confirm the price of the Disney Dining Plan Plus for new reservations, as it’s not even an option to book online. (And again, I’m not willing to call and deal with that mess.)
Unfortunately, we do not have a 2020 Free Dining reservation booked, so we cannot offer confirmation as to whether it’s an upgrade option. We assume so (why wouldn’t it be?!), but we’ll have to await word from those who actually have success in making this upgrade.
Another unknown is how the Disney Dining Plan Plus will work with future promotional offers and discounts. As indicated in our 2020 Free Disney Dining Plan Dates & Tips post, we’re anticipating a second wave of the popular promo for fall and holiday travel dates. We’d love to see the DDP+ offered for Deluxe and Deluxe Villa Resort stays, but we are highly doubting that happens–unless occupancy plummets for some reason and WDW needs to offer more to incentivize bookings. Don’t hold your breath.
We plan on testing the Disney Dining Plan Plus over the weekend and having a review up sometime next week. While it appears to be a ‘what you see is what you get’ type of thing, you never know if there will be any surprises. (Plus, we have a few character meals we need to review or revisit, so it’s a two birds with one stone sort of scenario for us.)
While I wasn’t necessarily expecting it, I was really hopeful that either appetizers would be included or the price would be a tad lower. For our purposes, either of those scenarios would’ve been ideal. Value for money-wise, the best use case for the Disney Dining Plan Plus will probably be those who want to do multiple character dining experiences per day.
It will also present a good value for those opting to do lunch and dinner (especially with alcohol) at the options on our Top 10 Disney Dining Plan Table Service Credit Uses List. It should go without saying, but you should not purchase the Disney Dining Plan Plus if you plan on using many (any, really) credits at counter service restaurants.
Nevertheless, we ultimately see the Disney Dining Plan Plus is a savvy addition to the existing tiers that fills the considerable gap between the standard DDP and the DxDDP. The former isn’t enough for many parties that like to enjoy table service meals or character dining, whereas the latter is extreme overkill for most normal guests.
We aren’t normal guests, as we normally hack the Deluxe Disney Dining Plan with split stays and strategic use of those (superior) table service credits on the DxDDP. Accordingly, that remains the much better option for us…but most Walt Disney World guests are not bloggers, nor are they even people willing to jump through some hoops to strategically leveraging their credits. For normal guests, the Disney Dining Plan Plus is a good option to have available.
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Your Thoughts
What do you think about the Disney Dining Plan Plus? Will this work well for your family’s eating habits? Do you think the DDP+ pricing is fair, or would you rather just upgrade to the DxDDP at this pricepoint? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions we can help you answer? 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!
I have free Disney Dining Plans for trips June/July and September. When I try to change my dining plan on the website, I’m not given DDP+ as an option, only the 3 traditional dining plan choices.
I have no idea why, but i am not understanding this new Dining plus plan. Are we paying more just for the convenience of how we use our credits daily? Can i use all TS credits the whole time on my trip? Or is there still where you have to use QS credits at some point?
Yes you can use them all as TS credits if you want. (And honestly, if you don’t plan to do this, the plan is kinda pointless for you.)
You’re paying more for the flexibility to use your credits how you want. But if you’re a family that does QS more than TS it won’t be beneficial to you. If you’ll only do TS (or character/signature) but don’t want to fork out the $ for Deluxe, this is for you.
Thanks for clearing that up for me!
@Dave, aren’t all your credits pooled so even if you use 2 TS credits for one meal, that would just mean you have more QS left? When reading up on this I saw that most people don’t have the time to do a bunch of TS meals in a trip so the regular plan works and the plus is not necessary. But I get the convenience though, even though you are paying extra for it (which you often do for convenience!) You’re also going for 14 days so maybe you’ll have the time! I’m a newbie so just mulling around the pros and cons myself.
Look before you leap or call about changing your dining plan. Passholders and Florida residents need not apply if you take advantage of your Florida resident or Annual Passholder discount; you are not eligible for this dining plan. In other words, you must have a “rack rate” room to qualify for this Dining Plan Plus. Note Disney has not placed this restriction on their website or any of the plan’s features as a statement or inference. The practice also violates FTC unlawful advertising, many state and local ordinances. I found this out, waiting for 30 minutes on hold to speak to a representative who then apologized for my frustration.
What is a rack rate?
We booked in August for the Free Dining And upgraded to the TS. I Just called to see how much it would cost to upgrade to the DDP+ and we were quoted $960.00 for two adults during our 6 night stay. I was told free dining did not qualify and I would have to forfeit to add. Seems all over the place. Guess it’s a reason to head back in a year or two.
We are arriving in September 2020 during the free dining and booked our reservation in January. I called yesterday about adding the Disney Dining Plan Plus. The Plus plan was not included in the free dining, you have to upgrade your meal plan and pay the difference. They can add it to our package for $97 for adults and $37 for children. They said this is a difference of $17 per adult and $5 for children, putting the total add to upgrade at $280 for our 5 night trip during the free dining. You mentioned the cost of the new plan would be $94.61 for adults and $35 for children with tax. That is not what I was quoted yesterday on the phone to upgrade during the free dining. Why is there a difference in the prices?
I just did a mock booking and it works out to what Tom said. Hotel with park tix was $1773.82 (2 nights) then with the DDP+, $2411.47. Difference came out to $637.65 for the plan which is what I had jotted down after reading his post yesterday for 3 adults ($94.61) and 1 child ($35).
Honestly, I have no idea what’s going on with the price differences. We ended up adding it to another reservation today and the cost was $97. When I attempt to add it to an existing DVC reservation right now, it’s still $94.61.
Something odd is up.
When I added dining to my 6 night package yesterday, it came out to $175 more than it should have. Turns out they raised room rates (maybe why they were down in the morning online). By adding dining i was changing my ressie therefore the new room rate applied.
When I confirmed the addition to the DDP+ today it came to $271.69. This is for 3 adults and 1 child for 5 nights and upgrading from DDP to DDP+. I am not sure what that breaks out to per person per day for the upgrade, but it is slightly less than what I was quoted yesterday on the phone.
Spoke to a Disney Rep and she explained this more clearly to me! Because I booked in 2019 our hotel rates are lower then 2020 and in order to get the new dining plan plus, we would have to update to the new 2020 rates. Ugh! So hypothetically speaking if there is a $20/night price hike x 7 nights = $140, then add the new dining plan @ $400 increase = we’re potentially looking at $540-$600 added on! Perhaps we just stick to what we have…
We experienced the same scenario that Heather references. We are Passholders and booked our upcoming trip in December 2019. We were unable to upgrade the Dining Plan
due to the “Passholders package” we had booked which was a room discount package. To upgrade the dining for a party of 2 adults would have been an increase of approximately $576 for 6 nights. Staying with what we have for this package.
LOVE my travel agent! She got a hold of someone who knew what she was doing and voila I get this text tonight, “Diff is $319.10. Want me to change it?”
No increase to the hotel pricing! I’m ecstatic!
I don’t see that the original dining plan prices have increased. I randomly picked a date and hotel and looking at prices on Disney’s website. August 1 – 4, 2020 with 3 nights in a studio at Saratoga Springs for a single adult with a 4 day base ticket:
Without dining $1918.05
With Quick Dining $2083.04 – $1918.05 = $164.99/3 = $55.00
With Standard Dining $2152.06 – $1918.05 = $234.01/3 = $78.00
With Plus Dining $2201.87 – $1918.05 = $283.82 = $94.60
With Deluxe Dining $2275.03 – $1918.05 = $356.98/3 = $119.00
Try the same with a ticketless package.
I’ve done the math a couple of times now, and it keeps coming up the same for me. Not sure what I could possibly be doing wrong to get the same results repeatedly. My only guess is that prices increased for the ticketless DDP, but perhaps not for the DDP in vacation packages?
They really need to be careful to distinguish this offering from the “Disney+ Dining Plan” which is basically just having a microwaved burrito and a can of Diet Coke as you binge watch the Mandalorian for the third time.
Hahaaaa!!
Briliant!
Well, I did it Tom, I waited on hold…twice…for 30 minutes. First time the lady couldn’t hear me… uggh so frustrating. Anyway, apparently some reservations aren’t available to upgrade to the Disney Dining plus package…mine being one of them. they would have had to remove my room discount to do it, which by the time they did that and added the + package, I could just upgrade my current plan to the Deluxe plan.
As I suspected, I’m seeing a lot of forum comments that this is making people realize the value of the DxDP — Now for just about $26 more, you add a 3rd meal PLUS appetizers. Of course, that’s way tooooo much food for most people.
But… another way of looking at it, keeping about the same amount of food:
For $26, you eat dinner at the California Grill instead of the Wave, or at Yachtsmen Steakhouse instead of Ale and Compass. And you get the appetizers.
Switching from a 1-credit restaurant to signature is probably break even at $26… but that makes the appetizers a bonus.
Like you I was really hoping this would have an appetizer option. I definitely would have added it for our upcoming trip as we do table service breakfast and dinner each day and snack in between. This option would’ve been perfect except we’re not really dessert people. Bummer.
This isn’t dining related, but I didn’t know where else to comment. Did Disney also increase resort prices? I was messing around last night price checking. I decided to do it again today, and I would swear the price per night has increased??
Yes I noticed the same. I went to make a new booking to see the prices for the ddp+ using the same dates and resort as my actual trip and all room rates were $20/nt higher.
Further, when I tried to add it to my existing reservation, my price went up in line with a $20/ nt increase on top of the dining plan.
That’s exactly what I noticed. I was checking prices for dates I was already going because I was thinking about switching hotels. They thought they could sneak that one in on us. lol
All hotels have price increases. The earlier you book the cheaper, etc. Was it the same promo and room type? I know the promo I booked ours under ended on the 26th…
It was for October dates so no discounts available yet. It was overnight that the price changed. I just happened to price check both days otherwise I never would have noticed the difference.
Ooooh, so now that’s different :O
Are dining plans available if you have a room only reservation or do you need to have a package?
You can call Disney to add one if you have a room-only booking at a WDW resort. They call it “Ticketless”.
I tried to add the ddp+ to my existing reservation this morning, but it wasn’t an option yet. Oh well, I have time. I’m excited for this plan. It’ll work way better at least for our upcoming trip. The price difference makes up for what I already paid for CRT, and the new structure will allow us to use credits for that meal, as well as add another TS to our HS day, as HS is terrible for finding a place to sit for a QS meal.
I also already paid for CRT…I was going to look up how that would work if you have a DDP. Will you be able to use credits towards it and be reimbursed what you paid? Also thanks for that tip about QS at HS!!
I’ve eaten at CRT once, but did not have a dining plan that time. I do remember they asked us if we were using a plan. I assume they would scan your magic bands to ensure everyone had credits, then they’d run the card you used for booking to create the refund.
I think there’s a few QS places in HS that have a lot of seating, but I think after our last adventure, we’d prefer sitting down, then ordering. You’re on your feet a lot at the parks. It’s nice to relax a bit when you eat.
We’ve done this several times. Tell the server you pre-paid but want to use dining credits and they will use the credits and issue a refund for the amount you pre-paid.
IF there is still availability for CRT you can rebook CRT without having to pre-pay if a dining plan is linked to your account. Then you can cancel your original ADR if you want your refund before you go on your trip.
Thanks to both of you. Newbie here! Still looking into if the DP is even for us. I feel like it will force us to eat more than we actually would and out of pocket would cost less.
“don’t hate myself enough (or like you all quite that much) to call and deal with being on hold.”
Too funny. Well, now we know monitoring bus wait times for a day is less painful than being on hold with Disney.
While I’m a curmudgeonly old man in spirit, I’m much like “the youth” when it comes to talking on the phone. I just don’t do it.
I would spend 12 hours standing at a bus stop before I spent a single hour on the phone–and I’m not even kidding about that.
Me too. When my phone rings I look at it with bewilderment, “Who’s doing this?” Lol!
How do you hack the DxDDP? I tried to do that over a split stay and I was told the credits needed to be used by the end of the stay the dining plan was linked to. Teach me wise one!
Wondering if prices increased on the other Dining Plans?
I can’t seem to find any pricing on WDW website.
Tom mentioned in his post that they went up by less than $2 pp on the other plans when he did a mock booking.
I also have never seen any DP pricing on the WDW website! Just a bunch of descriptions. I’ve always gotten the cost from blogs. I’ve seen that people do mock bookings, maybe that’s how, or if your an annual pass member or vacation club person?
Oops *you’re
I’m glad you addressed the free dining in the article. I was wondering if that would come into play with the new dining plan. I guess we will have to wait and see if Disney uses it for moderate or deluxe stays. THAT would be interesting. But I’m not about to make adjustments to my vacation with free dining in Sept. I will await your review. Thanks
I have a previously booked trip which includes free dining. I just got off the phone with a representative and was informed that the plus option is not available to upgrade to. Big bummer, hope they change their mind
Give it another day or two and try again.
There are all sorts of glitches, errors, and misinformation this morning…so about par for the course for a normal WDW release day.
My travel agent waited almost 2 hours to speak with Guest Services and they said upgrading to the Dining PLUS from our current Dining Plan isn’t an option! I would have to re-book our reservations to select it. Our selected resort has no rooms available for our dates so that’s not even an option! I’m so discouraged by this! Why can’t I change my dining plan? Doesn’t Disney want more $$$?? It’s absurd
@Heather I’ve read that it’s for new dining plan add-ons. But like Tom said, your agent probably should have waited a bit for the dust to settle. Maybe they can try again. I know of people who have added it to their current room-only booking though.
I’m personally trying to figure out if a dining plan is even beneficial to us. I feel like it will just encourage us to eat more than we need to or would. (Sorry Tom, I couldn’t quote Heather since she replied to you!)
Tom,
Just got off the phone with a guest service member. I was able to upgrade my existing trip from reg dining plan to the plus plan for 697.00 (14 night 15 day for 3 people) I was told the only additional price was the difference between the 2 plans. No more worrying about using 2 nights worth of dinners while booking the 2 credit meals