Another way to get discounts on Walt Disney World Dining is with Tables in Wonderland Card. This card gives you 20% off most of your food and beverage purchases at participating Disney restaurants. You do have to be either a Florida Resident or an Annual Passholder to purchase the card.
The Rates:
- Annual Passholder or Seasonal Passholder- $150
- Florida Resident who is not an Annual or Seasonal Passholder – $175
The Benefits:
- 20% off most food and beverage (including alcohol) purchases at table service restaurants for up to 10 people in your party.
- Complimentary resort parking (including valet parking) when dining at that resort
- Invitations to special member only events
The Restaurants:
Here is the list of participating table service restaurants:
- Animal Kingdom: Flame Tree Barbeque, Pizzafari, Restaurantosaurus, Tusker House
- Disney’s Hollywood Studios: 50s Prime Time Café, Hollywood & Vine, Hollywood Brown Derby, Mama Melrose’s, Sci-Fi Dine-in, Tune-In Lounge
- Epcot: Akershus, Biergarten, Coral Reef, Le Cellier, Les Chefs de France (lunch), Garden Grill, Marrakesh, Nine Dragons, Rose & Crown, San Angel Inn, Spice Road Table, Tokyo Dining, Tutto Italia, Via Napoli
- Magic Kingdom: Cinderella’s Royal Table, Crystal Palace, Liberty Tree Tavern, Plaza Restaurant, Tony’s Town Square, Be Our Guest (dinner)
You will also receive a discount at the resort table service restaurants. If your resort doesn’t have a table service restaurant, like Pop Century, you will receive a discount at the food court.
The Verdict:
The Tables in Wonderland Card is a good deal if you have a larger party and plan to eat at a lot of table service restaurants during your trip. It’s also a good deal if you don’t eat the same foods the dining plan pays for (the example families each had an entree, beverage and dessert at lunch and each person had one snack during our mock day) and if you live close and just come up for a day or two at a time.
The best thing to do when you are undecided is to pull up the menus for each of the restaurants you plan to eat at, create your own mock days and see what you would end up paying with either the dining plan or the Tables in Wonderland card.
Keep in mind that you do have to pay 18% gratuity on your table service meals and it is automatically added to your bill for you when you use the Tables in Wonderland Card.
If you have this card or have debated purchasing it, I’d love to hear your opinion!
Learn more about Walt Disney World Dining and get suggestions for where to eat, how to use the Disney Dining Plan and more.
We bought TIW at the passholder rate and I have loved it so far. We only have 3 members that still attend Disney in our family, but we usually meet up with others at some point in our trip, so we have saved with it so far. We hit the cost of the card during our first visit (we go 4 times a year). It is supposed to have limitations, such as number of guests on one transaction, but restaurants will usually waive this. For example, my son’s cub scout troop was there for a camping trip and a large party of us (over 20) went to Trails End at Fort Wilderness. They told us the rule but still let me use my card for everyone. Even when I have run into a restaurant that doesn’t usually take it, if I show it, they will give me the discount some other way. I have done this a couple of times. I also noticed that the expiration date for my card was over the year point, which adds an extra bonus.
thank you so much for a timely article – we have free dining on our sept/oct trip – we are arriving on 9/24, the last day for free dining, but disney extended it out for the entire length of our trip for us (i was thrilled). We get one sit down, one quick serve and one snack, so i am using it to the fullest. We have all our adr’s made, some require 2 sit down meals per meal, so i have been contemplating getting the tiw card to help offset the other meal costs. We are also treating 8 relatives to lunch at the crystal palace one day so i figure that will save about 60. just that one meal using the tiw card and i see we can use it at our resort pofq so i think its a definite go for us. We bought annual passes on our March trip since we knew we were going again this year. For the free dining, we had two purchase 2 one day park tickets, but they dont have to be used by us. We can either let our relatives use them and reimburse us the price of the one day tickets, or we can extend that money out to next years annual pass purchase. Thank you all again for the comments…helped me make my decision. we are going to be using both the dining plan and the tiw!!!
Our family loves using Tables in Wonderland. It gives us much more freedom then the dining plan. If we want to just order appetizers and dessert, we can. If we’re full, we don’t feel obligated to get dessert because it’s included. Also, we’ve learned that we can eat at many more TS restaurants this way. Often, we share meals, get the discount, still have plenty of food, and paid the same that we would have for two separate CS burgers and fries.
We’ve also learned to use it at the CS restaurants at the value resorts, as well as Port Orleans – French Quarter (our favorite food court!). It’s even accepted at several CS restaurants in Animal Kingdom. The savings really starts adding up, even at these CS restaurants!
We went to Disney 4 years ago in Sept. and when we booked we got a great deal where the dining plan was FREE for each day of our trip. They were doing this promotion I assume because Sept. is a slow month. It saved us a TON of money! So I would always look for this deal coming out if you are flexible on the dates you go to Disney. The meal plan we got was the one with a sit down meal, quick service, and snack per day. It was plenty for us! Just a little tip I hadn’t seen anyone mention.
Has anyone tried using their dessert as an appetizer instead? I thought I remembered doing this once and them allowing it.
@Nicole….I would consider using the TIW for your table dining, and getting the quick service dining plan for all quick service/snacks. I know during food/wine festival there are so many yummy things to try, you could use lots of snack options in one day at the food tasting carts! If you used your TIW card, you wouldn’t have to do 8 table services, unless you are doing something that would take 2 dining options.
We have done both the Dining plan and the Tables in Wonderland card. For us, it is hands down a better deal to use the TiW card. I should clarify a little bit…we did the Dining plan back when the appetizer and tip were included. Back then it was a way better deal than it is now. But now they only include the entree and dessert, which is not how we would normally eat. We typically like a starter before dinner, either soup, salad or some other type of appetizer. In most cases we wouldn’t order dessert. Also, we tend to like beverages other than what is included in the DDP…a glass of wine with dinner, or my daughter likes a milkshake or smoothie. The TiW card does apply to those while they would be extra on the DDP. The other thing to consider is that with the DDP, except for buffets, children must order off the children’s menu. With the TiW card they can order anything they want at any restaurant. Also, if you have a 3 yr. old child who eats very little, if you are doing the DDP you would also have to pay for the DDP for that child because every ticket holding person in your room has to do the same thing. Seems like that would be a huge waste of money for a 3 yr. old. As you mentioned…it is going to work out differently for every family…but for us, the TiW card is the best deal. Thanks for the great comparison…very helpful!
I am so glad you posted this. We have TIW and are staying for 8 days in Oct/Nov for Food & Wine. We are still hashing out whether to use TIW or Dining Plan for our stay. We have 2 adults, 1 child and 1 infant but also have table service restaurants planned once a day. We already have the mugs ;) because we stay several times a year (also DVC members), so we wouldn’t have to buy those if we didn’t do dining plan. But I was thinking about the convenience of having the dining plan and not having a separate bill every meal…Also considering using TIW for our table service meals and getting the Quick Service plan for the rest of our day and to cover snacks – which we plan to use some during our Food & Wine days at Epcot. Would also love to hear someone’s opinions on this.
P.S. TIW is accepted at many of the resorts’ quick service restaurants, so if you are grabbing breakfast before you go or getting dinner on your way back to your room, this is a GREAT way to save money. You get the 20% off without the automatic 18% gratuity!
We have the TIW card and love it. As DVC members we can also purchase this card. We can add the dining plan to our DVC resort stays, but we normally do not do that. We do not like eating big meals every day, so the TIW card gives us a small discount if we decide on a big meal. We do take advantage of going over to Pop Century and using the 20% discount on the quick service.
My parents used their Tables in Wonderland card on our last trip in March, and the gratuity was covered by the card (not owed out of pocket) in addition to the 20% general discount.
I’m guessing that might have been at Cinderella’s Royal Table or another restaurant where the price of the meal includes the gratuity. But at the majority of the restaurants you would have the 18% gratuity automatically added on to the bill.