New 2020 Disney Dining Plan Plus Coming Soon!
For 2020, Walt Disney World is introducing a fourth tier of its popular prepaid meal deals with the Disney Dining Plan Plus. In this post, we’ll cover info, where this slots in amongst the existing DDPs. We’ll also offer speculation and commentary about whether it’ll be a Free Dining option, pricing of the Disney Dining Plan Plus, and our preliminary review.
It’s worth prefacing this news with a note that some of this is speculative. Walt Disney World just internally released preliminary details of the Disney Dining Plan Plus. When we called this morning to confirm additional details, the phone representative was caught off-guard and unable to provide any info. (This is not at all uncommon–frequently Disney does not provide Cast Members with details about new offerings, even once they’re available.)
As such, we’ll start with official info about the Disney Dining Plan Plus and then offer our speculation about it after that. Booking of the Disney Dining Plan Plus will begin on February 27, 2020 for stays as soon as the following day. Its “rules” will work exactly like the existing tiers of the DDP, with credits rolling over, gratuity not being included, etc. Only guests booking a Walt Disney World resort stay being eligible–meaning that off-site guests can’t purchase Dining Plan “day passes.” Here’s what else we know…
Per Walt Disney World, the Disney Dining Plan Plus package will allow guests to redeem their two meals each day in any combination of either table service or quick service restaurants. This means you could do a character breakfast and character dinner one day, two counter service meals the next day, counter service lunch followed by a table service dinner the next day, and so forth.
Essentially, you’re receiving two table service credits per day with the flexibility to instead downgrade those credits to a single counter service meal, if you so desire (although this 1:1 trade would obviously offer poor value). Since almost every character dining experience is also a 1-credit table service meal, you could do those.
Additionally, the Disney Dining Plan Plus includes two snacks per night and one length-of-stay refillable drink mug (See our Refillable Mug FAQ for details about how this works and the upgrade options). At each meal, guests will have the option of choosing unlimited fountain drink refills, single-service teas and brewed coffee, or one specialty non-alcoholic beverage. Adults 21 years of age and older can instead order an alcoholic drink.
As noted above, all other rules apply. We assume this also includes the ability to upgrade via the Free Disney Dining Plan Discount by paying the price difference between the version of the plan included with your resort tier and the cost of the DDP Plus. We highly doubt the Disney Dining Plan Plus will be the included version of the DDP with any resort tier. (Although it’d be awesome if Deluxe Resorts received this, Moderates went back to the standard DDP, and Values received the Quick Service Disney Dining Plan!) All of that is speculation, though.
There are a couple of other unknowns. First, whether the Disney Dining Plan Plus will include appetizers at table service meals like the Deluxe Disney Dining Plan (DxDDP)–we would guess that it will not. Second, whether you can combine these table service credits for Signature Dining–we assume so.
As should be clear from our many posts about the Disney Dining Plan, we are fairly mixed on it. We aren’t diehard devotees of the Disney Dining Plan, nor are vehemently opposed to it. Given how divisive the DDP is, with most Walt Disney World fans either loving it or hating it, we think this uniquely situates us to offer a less-biased perspective on the new Disney Dining Plan Plus.
Right now, we use the Disney Dining Plan strategically on occasion, and for our narrow purposes, it works pretty well. Almost all of our current usage is at the Deluxe Disney Dining Plan tier, but we anticipate some of that moving to the new Disney Dining Plan Plus option.
Generally speaking, we view the Disney Dining Plan Plus as a good addition to the DDP lineup, and one that’ll slot nicely between the standard Disney Dining Plan and the Deluxe Disney Dining Plan. Previously, there was a colossal gap between the two offerings. The standard DDP offered “only” one table service meal per day, whereas the DxDDP offered up to three table service meals per day.
The idea behind the standard Disney Dining Plan is that it’d appeal to the meal habits of the average Walt Disney World visitors. Some combination of two counter service and table service meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Plus, two snacks in between to “bridge the gap” so to speak. Even without three full meals, the standard DDP provides enough (usually more than enough) food for the average person.
By contrast, the Deluxe Disney Dining Plan is better viewed as something of an all-inclusive splurge for guests who really like to eat and don’t want to be constrained with their restaurant choices.
For the vast majority of Walt Disney World tourists, the Deluxe Disney Dining Plan is serious overkill and more about providing peace of mind than actual value.
However, 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. For most people, the easiest route to successfully doing this is coupling the Deluxe Dining Plan with one reservation of a split stay (which we covered recently in our How to Do a Split Stay at Walt Disney World post).
The Disney Dining Plan Plus will likely fall somewhere in between: targeting both guests who have bigger appetites and those who want more peace of mind, but not quite as much as the overzealous DxDDP offers. It’ll also be perfect for families who want to do character breakfasts in the morning and character dinners in the evenings (with snacks in between for “lunch”).
While Walt Disney World has not yet released a price point for the Disney Dining Plan Plus, we can likewise speculate that it’ll fall somewhere between the standard Disney Dining Plan and the Deluxe Disney Dining Plan. If you’re interested, we can go a step further a reverse-engineer what might be a “fair” price based upon our valuations of DDP credits.
As we break down in our 2020 Disney Dining Plan Review, Tips & Info post, a table service credit is worth approximately $45, a counter service meal on the DDP is worth approximately $21, and a snack is worth approximately $5. (Note that these are our approximations–reasonable minds may differ slightly on each.)
Adding up those totals (and throwing in the refillable mug), the total nightly cost of the Disney Dining Plan Plus would be $100 per adult. However, that assumes redeeming all credits for table service meals, which is probably not going to happen as a practical reality.
With the Deluxe Disney Dining Plan, WDW discounts for this inevitability. If we used the above numbers to approximate the cost of the DxDDP, it would be $145 per night (or more if you count the fact that it offers appetizers and the other tiers don’t). In reality, it costs $119 per night.
This price disparity is part of why the Deluxe Disney Dining Plan can be leveraged for greater savings. However, since most guests aren’t going to jump through those hoops or strategically bifurcate their hotel stays, the actual value most tourists will obtain from the DxDDP is well below its maximum. (In fact, it’s probably closer to the standard Disney Dining Plan–the whole “eyes bigger than your stomach” thing comes into play when booking.)
To what degree the Disney Dining Plan Plus will be discounted to account for how guests will actually utilize it remains to be seen. Unlike the Deluxe DDP, which almost requires utilizing hacks or wasting credits, the Disney Dining Plan Plus actually will appeal to the eating habits of some guests–particularly those wanting to do character dining for breakfast and dinner.
As such, we anticipate there to be minimal price discounting with the Disney Dining Plan Plus. This is a total guess and should not be treated as rumor as it’s based upon zero inside info, but I’d bet that ~$98 per night will be the adult cost of the Disney Dining Plan Plus. That offers an ever-so-slight discount and puts it directly between the two upper tiers price-wise.
Ultimately, we view the Disney Dining Plan Plus is a savvy addition to the existing tiers. It’ll fill the considerable gap between the standard DDP, which is not enough for some guests, and the DxDDP, which is extreme overkill for all but those who hack it. So long as the price is somewhere between $90 and $100 per night, this will make sense for a good number of visitors to Walt Disney World. We’ll keep inquiring/monitoring for official pricing and other details, and will update you when we know more. Either way, we look forward to using the Disney Dining Plan Plus in the near future and reporting back on our results!
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
What do you think about the Disney Dining Plan Plus? Will this work well for your family’s eating habits? What would be your limit in terms of “fair pricing” for the DDPP? 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!
Great idea, except would probably kill most DxDP purchases. Still, will have to see the full details to know what we’re actually dealing with here.
This new DDPP has me confused on it’s benefits. I thought on the current DDP the table and quick service credits were pooled and you could use them however you wanted (i.e. two table service meals one day, two quick service meals the next day, etc.). Even on the WDW website it states: You can redeem your meals and snacks in any order during your stay, until the number of meals and snacks associated with your package has been depleted. Am I misunderstanding that?
the difference is being able to do table service for every meal for your entire stay instead of having wasted/unused quick service or going to a quick service when you really wanted table service. You can still use them whichever day you like.
Two table service meals per night would be perfection! We usually do a table service breakfast and dinner. So, we usually do deluxe dining but always have credits leftover (even when I try to book several two credit meals). The option of two table service credits would be great!
Anyone think WDW will offer a free dining discount plan prior to June? Leveraging waiting for the release of new free dining and taking the existing hotel discounts? Don’t want to pass up the hotel discounts if free dining isn’t going to be offered for a summer visit losing both chances of either.
It may be best to book a room with a discount now. If free dining becomes available you can switch your current reservation to the free dining promo (if FD is available for your dates, resort and room type) or just cancel your existing room and book a new reservation with FD. Just be sure to confirm your “no penalty” cancellation date on your origional reservation so you dont miss it should you need to cancel. That way even if FD is not released, at least you will have a room discount.
Current room only discount ends on February 26th, so I would expect some sort of package discount when this rolls out the next day.
i’m curious about this new plan in conjunction with the free dining promos. when we go, we always try and go for free dining and we always stay value and book the free dining plan offered then pay the upcharge for the basic dining instead of qs dining. i wonder if it will be an option to upgrade to this new plan in the same way. we would use this happily if available, as we have a host of places we enjoy eating. but we also have some QS we can’t miss either, so this is like the best of everything.
I’m really excited about this. We like to eat meals twice a day, both at table service restaurants, so this would fit our style perfectly in a way that none of the current plans does. We often use snack credits for breakfast on the go, or to fill the gap between a late breakfast and early dinner. Seems like the Goldilocks plan for us! Curious to hear if you can redeem 2 TS for signature dining, but that’s my only hesitation. If that is confirmed, I can’t see any negatives with this for our family!
This is pretty awesome. We like to be able to do Table Service lunch and dinner, so on the DDP it always feels like we are “forced” to eat quick service one meal. We also always use snack credits for breakfast. So this plan seems tailor made for us. I also like than an extra credit from arrival day for example could be used toward a signature. Seems like a great middle ground between Dining and Deluxe.
Will be interested in seeing what the price is.
We always use DxDDP.
Beast: Snack credits or Character Meal
Lunch: 1 T credit unless fast was Character Meal
DInner: 2 T credits Signature
Or
During the winter Arts Festival (our favorite) the food kiosks (in World Showcase) are a great use of snack credits. Really good choices and no need to use a table credit until signature dining that evening. Premium use of snack credits. We had enough table credits leftover to enjoy a lovely lunch after we already checked. Credits do not expire upon checkout.
This terrifies me. I’ve noticed consistently that, while entrees are upmarked in price and often suffer from quality issues, this doesn’t apply to appetisers which are priced to sell. My theory is that this is because appetisers are not included on most dining plans.
As a result, as someone who never uses the DDP, I’ve found a great sweet spot of ordering 3-4 appetisers per person which, combined with my TiW discount, is good value and high quality. Selfishly crossing fingers and toes that DDP+ doesn’t include appetisers.
We use the regular DDP on longer trips. I don’t think this new one will make sense for us as we definitely do quick service meals almost daily.
I use our TS credits for the more expensive restaurants and pay cash (or disney gift cards) for the less expensive TS meals if we don’t have enough TS credits.
Is it OK to dine with friends at the same table who don’t have the dining plan? Can we share our meals/apps/desserts with them?
Do you think we may see a new wave of free dining released for fall soon?
The question I’m curious is about if you can use 2 TS credits for a signature meal with the Plus program.
If that’s the case, I could see people doing more Signatures and paying OOP for CS meals.
If so, I like the option.
My concern is that the wording in the article I read says TS and character dining. Will the regular dining plan now only include TS meals and you will have to upgrade to the new dining plus plan to do character meals? This makes the regular dining plan more difficult to get the value out of it.
I think that’s just the angle they’re going to use to market the DDPP. For most guests, character dining is the most sensible way to use the DDPP, so why not highlight that right in the marketing verbiage?
It’s unlikely we’ll see an actual distinction between character dining and other standard table service restaurants in terms of DDP credits.
Good to hear!
How does this compare price wise for the Quick Service plan?
As you basically correctly point out:
The DXDP has the potential for huge savings. And even without maximizing it, even wasting some entitlements, it’s still easy to come out ahead.
The DDP has far less wiggle room. You can use every entitlement and still come out behind. If you waste any entitlements, you’ll come out behind with near certainty.
In planning our next trip – for my Disney adult kids, since they don’t get alcohol, it’s almost impossible for them to come out ahead without character buffets. At regular TS, their meals average $35-45, CS average $15-20… add $10 for snacks, that’s only $60 to $75 per day, with the DDP costing almost $80.
Which is a long set-up for my anticipated problem with the DDP+.
I agree it’s likely to be priced at $95-100ish….
But it’s going to make it even harder to break even.
Yes, you have the flexibility to use credits for CS. But if you do it much at all, you’ll quickly be behind the cost of the plan.
If you do 2 TS meals per day – 1 will likely be cheaper than the other. You probably don’t get the steak twice per day every day. If you are 21+, many won’t get a drink at every meal. And many won’t want 2 desserts per day, plus 2 snacks.
So even if you are averaging $40-45 per TS credit… plus 2 snacks, that’s still just $90-100 per day. No savings on DDP+. If you actually switched to a CS, huge loss.
On the other hand, it makes the DXDP even more appealing.
For $20 more than DDP, the DDP transforms a CS into a TS–- probably a $20-25 increase in value.
But if the DXDP is just another $20– add on an entire TS credit ($40-$45 value increase) and add appetizers to most meals ($15-25 value per day)
In other words… DDP+ may cost $20 more, and add $20-25 in value. (Potentially more for buffet users)
The DXDP may cost $20 more than the DDP+, and offer $55 to $80 more value. (Even more if you do lots of character buffets or lots of alcohol).
Good points. I agree with everything you’re saying, but the only problem I see with what you’re proposing is sustainability.
For many or most people, doing the DxDDP for more than a couple of days just isn’t possible. Either it takes up too much time, is too filling, or both. Hence the “need” to hack it and use the credits over the course of a split stay in order to maximize value.
…Hacking the plan will also be possible with the DDPP (are we going to call it that or DDP+?), which should ultimately be a way for even more people to leverage the value of this DDP tier.
But the DXDP is sustainable for a long trip – since you can get good value even if you don’t maximize it.
Yes, the biggest benefit is a short or split stay, maximize a couple huge meals.
But even a long stay:
A signature almost every night as your “big meal”– with appetizer: easily $75 to $100 per night. 2 snacks – $10.
And as a second meal, either CS or TS, for a range of $20 to $65.
So that’s basically the same amount of food as the DDP+, with the addition of 1-2 appetizers. But mostly higher quality – signature every night.
Value: $105-175 per night.
So over a 7 night stay… you could have 3 of those $105 days, 4 of the $175 days… and that’s without even maximizing the credits. You still come out about $180 ahead. And it’s just as sustainable as the DDP+.
Put another way – is 2 TS per day sustainable for a long trip?
If yes, the DDP+ makes sense. But the DDXD can make even more sense if you care about quality more than you care about character meals.
Take each day of the DDP+.
Now take the dinner at… The Wave… and instead of the Wave, eat dinner at California grill + add appetizer. Is switching the Wave to the California grill AND getting an appetizer worth $20?
This might be great… depending on the final price.
My partner and I don’t have big appetites, but we do a lot of one night split stays which makes me tempted to hack the DxDDP. Though we eat at mostly signature and sit down restaurants, we often share dishes and rarely order more than one appetizer or dessert which is why we’ve never utilized the DxDDP. But we do drink wine with dinner and coffee daily. I think this might work If we can spread four table credits and four snacks for the two of us over two days, particularly during an Epcot festival. The final price will decide by a potentially slim margin if it makes sense, but I think it will still cut it close. That being said, it could almost certainly make sense for us if we really want to do a character meal even though we know we won’t fully utilize all you can eat.
Thanks for keeping us informed. I’m hopeful they go back to the way it should be as Tom mentioned for free dining: value gets QS, moderate standard and deluxe the plus. Disney, make us whole again!
It’s really the logical thing to do and could help convince some (many?) guests to splurge on a Deluxe Resort.
However, it’d also mean WDW would be giving away more for both the Moderate & Deluxe Resort tiers, and I just don’t see that happening.
I think if they were ever going to do the plus plan free, it’d be at much more expensive deluxe hotels like the Grand Floridian to entice people to pay rack rate for really expensive rooms or they may offer it as a perk for those at club level on top of free dining.
The only reason I can think for Disney to offer this is if people are not purchasing the deluxe plan in high enough numbers and they’re trying to increase the average holiday cost. As someone who tried the deluxe plan for 14 nights last year and hit the wall with food this is ideal, especially as we go to Universal some days and one day we like to go to Busch Gardens. It’s so easy to end up on the backfoot with deluxe dining that it becomes stressful. (I still remember sending half a steak back at California Grill because I just was too full, the guy offered to wrap it up and I said don’t bother we have to start all over again tomorrow, which made me feel like an absolute sinner!)
The use of the extra meal credit vs the standard DDP would allow counter and signature rsvp per day, If, and only If you can rsvp your signature when this takes effect, as greater demand will have a negative outcome on availability! Good Luck With That! I think this is just a ploy to manipulate over crowding by supplying more people into longer signature dining reservations in an attempt to thin the heard out somewhat! The net effect is still pushing toward dimmished guest Satisfaction. The fifth gate at WDW is overdue and the near billion spent on GE, and other renovations is finally catching up with corporate money grubbing CEO’s. Critical Mass is Aproaching, A year or two will tale the tale!
This might help sell the deluxe dining plan. If someone is going to spend about $100 for this plan for 2 meal credits, they will then reason to themselves that it’s less than $20 more to get an extra credit.
That’s a great point. Having a smaller gap between the tiers will probably make upselling much easier.
The more I think about this, the more I’m surprised that they didn’t offer this earlier. It complicates things a bit, but really not that much. Seems like a win-win offering.
We do the deluxe and love it! Mostly for the convenience of ordering anything we want in the nicer restaurants.
We do 1 credit for sit down lunches and
2 credits on signature dining Restaurants
Snack credits for breakfasts
Is this the best use of the plan? probably not.
We also have alcohol with our meals .
Ultimately it takes the focus out of dining costs and feeling nickel and dimed at meals.
Actually, that’s pretty close to the best use of the DxDDP.
Even without knowing the specific restaurants at which you’re dining or what you’re ordering (unless you’re just doing salad or non-meat options), it’s safe to say you’re using the DxDDP pretty well!