While everyone has an opinion on if the dining plan is a good value, it can be beneficial if you take advantage of certain aspects of it. Here are 5 Reasons You Should Get The Dining Plan at Walt Disney World:
1. You can pre-pay for your dining costs ahead of time – The cost of the dining plan is bundled in with the cost of your room and tickets. Before you arrive, you will have paid for the majority of your dining. The only thing you are responsible for is breakfast and tips. You can use dining credits on breakfast, but it is not a good use of quick service credits. I would use a table service credit on a breakfast reservation if it was at one of the character buffets, otherwise it is usually cheaper to pay for breakfast out of pocket and use your credits for lunch and dinner. The most cost effective way to cover breakfast is to pack food to eat in the room or on the go.
2. You don’t have to look for low menu prices – All of the entrees on the menu are included in the dining plan. So instead of looking at prices, you can look at what you want to eat. However, you need to use your table service credits wisely. Disney would not offer the dining plan if it was not lucrative for them. Plan on choosing an entree that runs you around $25 or more.
3. You know where you can eat – Almost every restaurant on Disney property is part of the Disney Dining Plan. There are a handful of Signature Restaurants that require 2 Table Service credits, but most restaurants just require one. When you have the dining plan, you likely have already mapped out where you want to eat and won’t find yourself scratching your head trying to figure out where to go for your next meal.
4. You get to indulge – The dining plan comes with a lot of food. You’ll get an entree, drink and dessert with every meal, both at the table and quick service locations. Do you usually have dessert with every meal? If not, you are in for a real treat!
5. You’ll save money if you love characters – Every character meal is a buffet or is served family style. If you don’t have the dining plan, these meals can get expensive very quickly! If most of your meals will be character meals, I would definitely plan on using the dining plan.
You might be interested in reading Is The Dining Plan Worth It?
Learn more about Walt Disney World Dining and get suggestions for where to eat, how to use the Disney Dining Plan and more.
We love the freedom of the Deluxe Dining Plan. Not having to worry about how much to spend at meals is a huge plus for us.
As Kristen says, everyone has their own opinion about the Disney Dining Plan! We’ve used both the quick service and table service plans a few times each, and at least in my family, we prefer the quick service dining plan. We feel so much more free not having to rush to make restaurant reservations twice a day. We take a couple gift cards and use them to pay for 1 or 2 more upscale restaurants that we decide we want to visit (such as T Rex Café and the Les Chefs du France on our most recent visit), and the rest of the time enjoy the challenge of finding awesome quick service meals like the salmon dinner with broccoli at the Harbor House in MK or the veggie plate at the quick service restaurant in Morocco or pastries in Norway at Epcot. You can get some terrific meals on the Quick Service Plan, especially if you stay at Art of Animation or Pop Century value resorts which have amazing and vast quick service menus.