Ultimate Disney Dining Plan Guide
Using the Disney Dining Plan for your Walt Disney World vacation or wondering, “is the meal plan worth the money?” We have a ton of resources for evaluating the pros & cons of the divisive Disney Dining Plan; if you do determine it’s right for you, there are tips & tricks here for getting the most out of it!
This collection of posts is our Ultimate Guide to the Disney Dining Plan. We’ve used the Dining Plan over a dozen times and have also opted not to use it a ton of other times (we pay out of pocket far more often than we use the DDP). We’re neither blind fans of the Disney Dining Plan nor are we opponents of it, and we bring this balanced perspective to our articles covering the Disney Dining Plan.
The Disney Dining Plan can be a good or poor value depending upon how you will use it, and these articles will give you an idea of the best and worst ways to use the Disney Dining Plan from a value perspective, so you’ll know whether it’s for you (if you’ve yet to pull the trigger), or how you should plan on using the Dining Plan if you’ve already booked your Walt Disney World vacation!
Click each link for comprehensive information you’ll want to know for each stage of planning your trip to Walt Disney World on the Disney Dining Plan!
Top Disney Dining Plan Posts
Disney Dining Plan Overview and Pros & Cons – Here’s all the information you need to know about the various versions of the Disney Dining Plan, including prices and what the various plans include. We also share our review of the Disney Dining Plan, and whether we think it’s worth the money. (It certainly isn’t for everyone–not even when it’s “free.”)
Disney Dining Plan Now Includes Alcohol! – If you’ve used the Disney Dining Plan before and just want a quick post highlighting the changes for this year, this post is it. Of course there’s the annual price increase, but the biggest change is the addition of booze to the Disney Dining Plan. Read about what value this adds (or doesn’t) to the value of this year’s DDP.
Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews – Not all Disney restaurants were created equal. While none are so bad that they have rodents in the kitchen (well…as long as you don’t count Chef Mickey’s!), some Disney restaurants are surprisingly bad…and some are surprisingly good! Read our thoughts and opinions on each restaurant, as we give you some ideas as to our favorite restaurants and least favorite restaurants, and why we like or dislike particular restaurants. Just don’t read these on an empty stomach, as there are lots of mouth-watering photos in the reviews!
Top 10 Table Service Credit Uses on the Disney Dining Plan – The alternate name for this article is “Best Value=Order STEAK!” And really, that title would be all you need. Actually, it’s a bit more nuanced than that. This article ranks the top 10 table service restaurants at Walt Disney World in terms of objective value on the Disney Dining Plan. In other words, we examined the menus of all Walt Disney World table service restaurants and listed the 10 that are the most expensive (and thereby offer the most “bang for your buck” on the Disney Dining Plan, objectively speaking).
Best Counter Service Credit Uses on the Disney Dining Plan – Thanks to some high priced combos (like the chicken and ribs combo at Cosmic Ray’s or Fairfax Fare) and restaurants that serve expensive desserts, there are a lot of ways to maximize your counter service credit on the Disney Dining Plan, too. Some of these more expensive meals are even big enough to split, meaning that you can do breakfast, lunch, and dinner on the Disney Dining Plan if you use credits effectively!
Best Uses of Snack Credit on the Disney Dining Plan – That bottle of water or that banana you might spontaneously want? Bad uses of snack credits if you care about bang for your buck. Find out what items are a good use of snack credits. (Most of them are not nearly as healthy as that water or the banana…but they sure do taste better!)
Worst Uses of Snack Credits on the Disney Dining Plan – Same idea as above, but with the tips for avoiding common pitfalls in terms of snack usage. (Seriously, it’s easy to “misuse” snack credits, scramble at the end of your vacation, and totally waste snack credits–when you could’ve been using them wisely all along!)
Best Character Meals on the Disney Dining Plan – Just like the “Maximizing” articles listed above, except for character meals. Although this list is objective, in our experience, these are some of the better quality character meals at Walt Disney World, too. It does stand to reason that restaurants costing more would serve better food, so this shouldn’t be too surprising.
Disney Dining Plan v. Paying Out of Pocket – Here we breakdown our dining costs from one trip where we paid out of pocket and compared that to what we would have paid on the Disney Dining Plan. This post also includes a comparison of paying out of pocket to Free Dining, and explains why Free Dining isn’t really “free.”
How We Saved 50% on the Deluxe Dining Plan – The Deluxe Disney Dining Plan is a huge splurge, and way more food than most people will be able to eat. Disney counts on this, and offers the Deluxe Dining Plan at a relatively reasonable price point given what you can get on it, because Disney assumes you’ll skip some meals and not be able to “maximize” the Deluxe plan. We “beat the system” with the Deluxe Disney Dining Plan, and ended up saving a lot of money. Here’s where we ate, how much we saved, and how you can do the same (YMMV).
All Things Free Dining…
“Free Dining” Dates – Not currently available for the general public to book this year, Free Dining will likely have a ‘second wave’ release in the late spring or early summer. This post tracks rumors about Free Dining’s release date and other info about this incredibly popular promotion that offers the Free Disney Dining Plan for Walt Disney World vacation packages for eligible guests.
Free Dining Bounceback Offer – Bounceback offers are only available for current hotel guests at Walt Disney World, and not the general public. For those who are eligible, the bounce-back offer is far and away the easiest and best way to book Free Dining, and we highly recommend taking advantage if you can.
Free Dining for UK Residents – Also not available to the general public, but despite the name, this is available to all residents of the European Union. We’re guessing most people reading this aren’t residents of the EU, so that doesn’t do you much good.
“Is Free Dining Worth It?” – When it comes to Free Dining, doing the math is incredibly important–and we break things down here. Other discounts (such as a room-only discount) might be better for your family. Remember, there is no such thing as a free lunch; you have forfeit an alternate discount to qualify for Free Dining.
Best Walt Disney World Hotels for Free Dining – Our hotel recommendations for each resort tier that participates in Free Dining. This is based upon our preferred resorts at Walt Disney World, plus the options that will save you the most money.
Top 10 Restaurants for Free Dining – A combination of the best and most popular Walt Disney World restaurants that you’ll want to book as early as possible during Free Dining “season.”
If you need personalized help with planning any aspect of your vacation including the Disney Dining Plan, or want someone to watch for the Free Dining promotion for you and book it once it’s available—we recommend contacting a no fee “Authorized Disney Vacation Planner” (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.
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
Your Thoughts
Is the Disney Dining Plan a good value for your family? If you use the Disney Dining Plan, how do you maximize your savings and enjoyment of eating at Disney while on the Dining Plan? Do you agree or disagree with our advice? 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!
We are planning a trip to wdw in feb or march. Do they usually offer free dining plans during that timeframe? Thanks for any help you can give!
Helpful information. Lucky me personally I ran across your internet-site out of the blue, and i am gob smacked the reason why this kind of coincidence decided not to transpired previous! We saved the item.
We are going to disneyworld in the middle of August for 9 days. Because my son is a very picky eater, we have decided not to do the dining plan this year and use our tables in wonderland discount card. We used it in october when we were stuck at the park because of sandy, and we have recouped our 75 dollar purchase price then. We also upgrad our tickets to annual at that time so this trip won’t cost us anything for admission.
In doing our budget, we think using the tables card, we will end up spending less than if we purchased the dining plan and alot if we purchased the deluxe dining plan. 9 days on the dining plan is too much food, antowardsthe middle and end of our trip we will nofbe able to eat asmuch, thus not maximizing the plan and justifying ppurchasing the plan. With tables we have more flexibility toeat what we want and not over eat and still save 20 %.
Do you think by August they might offer free dining. I noticed on the Disney site that free dining is offer to the UK already
for the rest of the year. Any chance the US? We really need this. We plan to come in late November. Any word on when the
candlelight processional dinner packages will open up?
First time in disneyworld, If I book my trip to stay in the disney resort from 8/10/13 thru 8/20/2013 with meals and park ticket ? I wonder if Disney offer a free dinner plan can i get my money back ?
Or should i wait to book it in august ? They may run out of room in the resort we’re planing to stay.
Can you or someone give me some advise ? Love my kid otherwise i would used the money to travel to aruba or costa rica, better value and better place.
That’s still summer vacation season, so you’re VERY unlikely to see it added for those dates (especially at this late point). I’d book a different discount instead. Good luck!
Our family is planning to visit Nov.28-Dec.5 but we the dining options are so overwhelming. Do you expect the free dining plan to be available during this time? Also, If we book our trip now but we don’t select a dining plan, will we be able to add the free dining later if it should become available? Thanks in advance for your help!
We have reservations to come to wdw on Nov. 28th-Dec. 5th. We usually come around Nov. 16th for our anniversary. But this year we are planning these dates so we can go to the Candlelight Processional. Any word on dates for the dinner packages reservations? We hope to get the free dining also. Any word on this? Someone said maybe in July. Any rumors?
My partner and I just returned home from our stay at the Walt Disney Resort (WDW) and we utilized a 5-day standard dining plan that was recommended to us by the WDW reservation-booking agent. We were quoted a price by the agent (as the prices are not published on the WDW Web site) to be roughly $34 per person per day, which works out to be roughly $340 for the both of us for the 5 days.
During our stay, I kept track of the value of every table-service, quick service and snack that we consumed as part of the plan and we utilized the plan to its full extent. The end value was roughly $500. My partner and I were astounded by how much we saved; however, upon checkout we received an itemized bill that stated our dining plan was actually $556.
You can imagine our surprise that not only were we severely under-quoted on the plan by the WDW booking agent, but upon review of our initial confirmation sent to us via e-mail it does not actually list the cost of the dining plan, only the entire cost of our hotel stay and a note that the dining plan was discounted 50%. In addition, when we got our itemized bill at the front desk and it stated $556 for the dining plan and I questioned it, the concierge informed me that the plan was not $556 but that was the initial cost and that according to the notes it was 50% off the cost of the plan and we charged as such. Upon review and calculation of the itemized bill, that was untrue. The cost of the dining plan was indeed $556.
We then called the WDW booking and reservations to discuss the error and were informed that there was no such discount on any dining plan and that the 50% discount notated in conjunction with the dining plan was actually a discount on our hotel stay and not the dining plan. We were already aware of this discount because the cost of the room was discounted to us in the initial quote from the booking agent. We were then told that WDW does not honor any verbal agreements and that unfortunately there was nothing that could or would be done. We requested to speak with a supervisor and were put on hold for 15 minutes and then the agent returned to get our contact information and to have a supervisor contact us back; however, no supervisor has contacted us as of yet.
The thing that bothers me the most and that I hope people take away from this is that the value of the plan is over $550 and the value of what we ordered as part of the plan was about $500 — and we ordered some of the most expensive menu items at the table-service restaurants we visited, only frequented quick-service locations that offered extensive combo plates (entree, side dish, dessert and beverage), and did not trade our “snacks” for beverages or fruit — only the $4-$5 snacks offered. Thus we paid an additional $50 just to have the convenience of the plan, but it should be noted that we normally would not have eaten this much and where they get you at the table-service locations is the cost of appetizers, alcohol and gratuity on the whole check not just the items you paid for that were not included in the plan.
It is my recommendation that you do not use the WDW dining plan at its normal price because you will not save any money. You are better off just paying out-of-pocket then being tied to a plan to eat a set amount that is actually more expensive than what the restaurants actually charge.
Definitely a bait-and-switch that has left not a very magical taste in our mouths!
Yes, I believe you…I made my reservation and then the free dining came out, I was checking in one day too early, was going to drop one day and go in the next, if I did that then the cost of my room would go up and it was going to cost me more for a 6 day vaca with “free dining” than for the 7th and paying for my dining. This is sad that Disney has to have such practices. Sounds like a con game to me because ppl think they are saving and in all reality they aren’t. I understand that there is a cutoff period of free dining, but it was closed out for Sept 26, 27, & 28th, normal checkin dates so you miss out on it if you already have a reservation. Disney has burned me, but I won’t fall for it again. Once burned you always remember it.
hi we are staying at the wilderness lodge in November.we have got a Disney dining plan,please could you tell me if we want a breakfast does that count for a meal off our planner or is it included in our hotel??
thank you for your help,
the Scotties x x x
any idea if free dining will be available for uk we are flying out on 25 sept 2013 and are holding out to book hotel
Hello there. I’ve booked my trip for Sep/22 – Oct/06. But I’ve already paid for dining plan 🙁
What can I do about it??? Cry is not a good answer, ok?! (LOL)
Call Disney and take advantage of the offer!
We just booked our reservations for Nov. 1st-9th. Do you think it’s a possibility for Free Dining to be offered during this time? Or do you possibly know when they might release something about it if they offer it? Thanks! 🙂
We are booked 11/2 to 11/13 at Coronado Springs. Looking for a thought on “Free dining” offered in that time frame. I’m hearing of people recieving PIN #s through December for Free Dining
My family and I are going for 9 days, can you suggest places to dine at? We have two kids (10 and 12) and are looking for some fun places. Thank you!
Hi, so disappointed free dining is not offered the end of Aug like the last two years. Whats the chance free dining will be offered in late Nov?
Thanks,
Michelle
I am going to Disney World September 7- Sept. 14, what are the chances of free dining?
FREE Disney Dining Plan when you book a full price Magic Your Way package and check in between 9/2/13 — 9/25/13
Coming Fri Oct 4 for one week. A Disney Castmember told me just last week not to expect an announcement on ANY fall discounts until around August 15th. Do you think this is valid?? I was on wdw.com & was asking a ? related to resort res & happened to ask about discounts & asked specifically about free dining and/or resort discounts. I thought Aug 15 was VERY late to offer a discount.
I have booked a trip for Late November early December 2013. I am still hopeful for free dining. Any hint as to when we can look for the anouncement.
Hello Tom, I was getting a little worried, its mid April now and by now they have come out with the free dinning for the fall months of Aug. and September, we were in on the free dinning for September last year and had to re-sch. that trip to this year, and now I am getting a little panicked due to some people saying they did not think they would offer the free dinning this year for fall or any times, so do you know if they will ??
I don’t know with 100% certainty either way–no one who is not bound by a NDA with Disney does, so don’t trust anyone claiming to be “certain” on this subject. That said, I’d be surprised if it isn’t announced. It’s entirely likely that Disney is waiting until the last minute to book as many full price packages as possible and then using the promo to convince those “on the fence.”
Thank You, I have had these reservations since the beginning of last year for September and had the free dinning added on it and then had to move it out till this year, been 3 years since a trip and me and hubby and kids so excited to finally be able to make it this year, but only can we afford it if the free dinning is offered, so I am keeping my fingers crossed to see it soon…
I’m trying to decide whether to book our trip for October, now or wait. If I add dining and then they do “free dining”- would I get a discount? If I book and don’t add dining, could I add it at a later point?? Thank you for your helpful blog.
Hi, I am planning on going January 2014. Do you know or think there will be free dining or any type of discount then?