The Disney World Dining Plans are Disney’s way of saving you money on your dining costs. You prepay for the plan of your choice before you arrive and receive credits based on how many nights you are staying at a Walt Disney World resort. When you dine at a participating Walt Disney World restaurant, a credit per each meal is deducted from your balance.
Who is eligible to purchase the dining plan?Â
In order to purchase the dining plan, you must be staying at a Walt Disney World resort and you must purchase a Magic Your Way package (these packages are the bundle of room, tickets and dining plan; if you do a room only stay without tickets, you aren’t eligible to purchase the dining plan).
If you are an Annual Passholder or a DVC Member, you are also eligible to purchase the dining plan.
Walt Disney World offers 4 different dining plans to suit your needs:
- Quick-Service Plan – Each person receives 2 Quick-Service meal credits and 2 snack credits per person per night of resort stay. Plus each person receives one Resort refillable drink mug.
- Disney Dining Plan – Each person receives 1 Table-Service meal credit, 1 Quick-Service meal credit and 2 snack credits per night of resort stay. Plus each person receives one Resort refillable drink mug.
- Disney Dining Plan Plus – Each person receives 2 meals of your choice…can be used on Table-Service or Quick-Service and 2 snack credits per night of resort stay. Plus each person receives one Resort refillable drink mug.
- Deluxe Dining Plan – Each person receives 3 Table-Service meal credits and 2 snack credits per night of resort stay. Plus each person receives one Resort refillable drink mug.
There are 2 different types of restaurants at Walt Disney World:
Table-Service restaurants – also referred to as sit down restaurants, are meals where you sit down, order your food from a waitress and enjoy a relaxing hour or so away from the hustle and bustle of the park. They are often themed or offer an additional perk like characters. It is recommended that you make a reservation for these meals ahead of time. You must have Table-Service credits to use the dining plan here.
Quick-Service restaurants – also referred to as counter service restaurants, are restaurants where you walk up to the counter and order your food. You then sit at one of their nearby tables and dine. It can be compared to fast food restaurants, but the food is a lot better. You must have Quick-Service credits to use the dining plan here.
The Dining Plans:
Disney’s Quick-Service Dining Plan
$55 per night ages 10 and up
$26 per night age 3 to 9
No cost for kids under 3
What you get per person per night of resort stay:
Two Quick-Service Meals (These are also called Counter Service meals)
Two Snacks
One Resort Refillable Drink Mug good for unlimited drink refills at your resort for the duration of your stay.
Additional Costs:
None
The Standard Disney Dining Plan (most popular)
Cost:
$78.01 per day for Adults (10 and up)
$30.51 per day for Children (3-9 yrs old)
What you get per person per night of resort stay:
1 Table-Service meal
1 Quick-Service meal
2 Snacks
One Resort Refillable Drink Mug good for unlimited drink refills at your resort for the duration of your stay.
Additional costs:
You must pay gratuity on your Table-Service meal. This can range from 18% and up.
The Disney Dining Plan Plus
Cost:
$94.61 per day for Adults (10 and up)
$35 per day for Children (3-9 yrs old)
What you get per person per night of resort stay:
2 Table-Service meals that can also be used at Quick-Service locations
2 Snacks
One Resort Refillable Drink Mug good for unlimited drink refills at your resort for the duration of your stay.
Additional costs:
You must pay gratuity on your Table-Service meal. This can range from 18% and up.
The Deluxe Dining Plan
Cost:
$119 per night ages 10 and up
$47.50 per night ages 3 to 9
What you get per person per night of resort stay:
3 Table-Service or Quick-Service Credits (this is the only plan that allows you to redeem your Table-Service credit at a Quick-Service location)
2 Snacks
One Resort Refillable Drink Mug good for unlimited drink refills at your resort for the duration of your stay.
Additional costs:
You must pay gratuity on your Table-Service meal(s). This can range from 18% and up.
How does the dining plan work?
When you book your package, you select which dining plan you would like. The most popular choice is the Magic Your Way plus Dining which gives you 1 Table-Service, 1 Quick-Service and 2 snacks per night of your stay. So if you stay 7 nights you will receive 7 Table-Service credits, 7 Quick-Service credits and 14 snacks at check-in. These credits are good through midnight on your departure date.
When you check in, the credits are issued to you at once. You can use them in any combination you choose. If you wanted to use 3 Table-Service credits in one day, you could. If you wanted to go to a snack stand and use all14 snack credits at once, you could. It’s up to you how you use them and in what order.
When you dine at a restaurant, you will be able to use your credits to pay. It will cover the cost of your meal in full no matter how expensive the entree was. It will also cover the cost of your beverage and your dessert (plus Deluxe dining plan allows each person an appetizer as well). If you have any questions or concerns before ordering, be sure to ask the waitress. They are happy to help! Just remember you will need to pay for the tip out of your own pocket. It is not included with the dining plan at most restaurants. (We usually bring cash to pay for the tip but you can charge it back to your room.)
What we have done
On our first trip we got the Magic Your Way + Dining. We spent it on 7 character meals. We really enjoyed the dining plan and the peace of mind it gave us knowing everything was paid for and we didn’t have to worry.
On our second trip, we did the Quick-Service dining plan. It was nice to not be a slave to sit down meals and be able to eat when we wanted to and not when our reservation was. We felt like we got a good value for our money (we got a discount on the dining plan as part of the package we booked).
On our third trip we did not have a dining plan at all and we were just as content. We ate less (we didn’t need a dessert with every meal) and the kids split adult entrees (better chicken nuggets and food choices) and we bought kids beverages a la carte. We didn’t regret not having the dining plan and it worked out great for us.
On our fourth trip (our adults only trip), we did the deluxe dining plan since it was just us. We had 7 sit down meals (2 of our meals cost 2 table service credits) and we saved $150 on the food by using the plan. It was a ton of food though and I am glad we were only there for 3 nights. I wouldn’t have done it if our trip had been longer trip. It takes a lot of valuable park time to dine in restaurants 3 times a day. But we enjoyed it.
I’d love to hear your opinion on the dining plan and what has worked best for your family!
Learn more about Walt Disney World Dining and get suggestions for where to eat, how to use the Disney Dining Plan and more.
Hi there
Just looking at booking, we have been told you can exchange 2 quick service meals for a waiter service. Is this correct?? Many thanks
Thanks so much for posting the dining plan prices….maybe it was just me, but I couldn’t find the prices listed on the website for the life of me! This blog is so helpful in planning my vacation…thanks again! :)
I have a question about dining plans – my husband and I are planning on going with our 2 year old for 4 days, so we will have the plan with 1 table; 1 quick service and 1 snack for just us adults. As a result, I’m wondering if we schedule a table service meal with my parents for one day at the park (they are coming just for ONE day of our trip), can I use my table credits for my husband, my parents and myself eventhough the credits are really just for my husband and I??
Maggie unfortunately you can’t. I book dining and get that question a lot. The dine plan can only be used for the persons listed as having the dine plan. In this case, you and your husband. Have a magical trip!!
@ Jessica: Chef Mickey’s is a 1-table service credit. Special events like ‘Cinderella’s Royal Table’, ‘Spirit of Aloha’, ‘Hoop-de-Doo Musical Review’ and ‘Mickey’s Backyard BBQ’ are 2-table service credit events. We typically go through our Birnbaum’s book (or allears.net) to review restaurant options, come up with a list, narrow it down to the number of table service credits we have available to us, then look at the park hours on the Disney site. They post the park hours 6 months in advance so that I can see which parks are going to open early or stay open late because I get to take advantage of this as a Disney resort guest. Based on the Extra Magic Hours for each park, we chose our park for that day (we don’t purchase the Hopper as there is plenty to do in each park to spend a full day without travel time between parks, in my opinion) and then choose which meal lines up with that park or the area we will be in. For instance we are spending the day at Magic Kingdom, we would likely plan a close-by meal like Chef Mickey’s where we can leave Magic Kingdom, hop on the monorail, and arrive for dinner in no time. Just my method of planning out meals for our yearly trips! Good Luck!!
So does it take two quick service meals to equal a table meal, does it only take one table service meal for cinderella palace breakfast and chef mickeys? we will be buying the dining plan for the first time next may
We went to Disney 3 years ago and got the Quick Service plan thinking that we’d use the 2 quick service meals for breakfast and lunch and pay out of pocket for dinner. However, by the end of the trip we figured out that we could easily use 2 snacks, like a muffin and fruit, for breakfast. Drinks are free when using the refillable mug at the resort. I wish we figured it out sooner because we didn’t eat the snacks in the park like we expected and ended up with a huge # of snacks left on our plan. (But I made sure we got all the snacks we paid for and had a bag of Disney snacks we took on the plane with us) If I were to do it again, I would stock the room fridge with breakfast type snacks and have breakfast in the room most days and use Quick service meals for most lunch and dinners. Also, if I remember right, 3 snacks = 1 Quick service meal. That gives you even more flexibility. So you’ll need to be aware of how the cashier is deducting the snacks you buy or tell them how you want it deducted from your plan. Otherwise you may think they are deducting your 3 snacks as snacks but they may actually be deducting it as a meal, or vice versa.
We are taking our 1st trip so we are newbies! lol :) We purchased the Deluxe dining plan we want to do a few character breakfast/dinners will that cost us more credits or does it just count as a meal? Thanks so much!!!!
We’re heading to DIsney in September. One kid is free and one is not. The free plan for the value resort is the quick service one so we’re upgrading to the one where you get 1 of each per day. Hopefully it will work out well since we can share with our little one if we get everything we can at each meal.
We’ve always done the standard DDP, mostly because our first visit included FREE dining which was what is now the standard DDP. Back then, it included your appetizer and gratuity and that was a steal, for us. I have to point out that for our family, food is a very important part of a vacation! We used all of our table credits on characters meals to help keep our little kiddos amused. Last year, we got a little wild and a little crazy and decided to try the Deluxe DDP because there were some dinner shows and things of that sort that we really wanted to do, but they cost 2 credits and so we did it. I will advise against it, if you plan to do anything in addition to eating while you’re vacationing there. Holy Cow! We all left WDW after a week feeling as though we’d put on 20 lbs. each from all of the eating we had done! We had a great time, enjoyed the dinner shows (Hoop-De-Doo, Spirit of Aloha and Mickey’s Backyard BBQ) and even breakfast at Cinderella’s Royal Table- but this is not the dining plan we will be repeating! We’re going back to ‘Old Faithful’, the standard DDP for the next trip!
We did the Deluxe Dining Plan last trip and I wouldn’t go any other way! We had some amazing meals at the Signature Restaurants, lots of character meals, and a quick meal here and there if we weren’t into it. The snacks were no big deal to us but were nice for bringing home some treats for friends (like mickey ear rice krispy treats!!) Yes it is a TON of food but no one says you have to eat EVERYTHING on your plate. We had our 2 year old with us and since she wasn’t on a plan we were able to let her eat off of ours and share around the table! Plus, when on vacation, I like to order whatever I want and be able to explore new food choices…on the delux I am able to do that because if I get something exotic that I don’t enjoy, I know I have a lot of other food to fill up on just in case :)
Deluxe dining plan – you also get the refillable mug
we did the deluxe dining plan in Sept and LOVED it. We did it a little differently though, so we weren’t over eating. We stayed for 8 days, so we had dining credits for 7 nights. Each morning we booked a character breakfast, (including Cinderella’s royal table) we also booked a few 2 credit table service: Narcoosee’s, Cinderella’s royal table (dinner) and flying fish (awesome, by the way!!) So we weren’t eating a full lunch every day. ( we did though every other day) On the days we ate lunch, we chose light lunches at table service. On the days we didn’t, we used snack credits for a muffin or something like that to tie us over.
Having the 2 snack credits / per person was fantastic. We did use them alot in the parks for diet coke / water. So we didn’t have to keep pulling out our wallet. It might not have been the best use of the credits, but it was for us.
Since I made our ADR’s in advance, I went out to AllEars and looked at the menus to get a general idea of prices. I figured the most expensive items then what the tip would be. I added all this up and we had a separate tip envelope, with cash, so that was all done and accounted for. We actually wound up having about $50 extra from the tip money because we didn’t order all three courses all the time, or the most expensive items. So that was a bonus! But a little pre-planning helps alot.
If you’re considering doing at least 2 sit down meals a day, the deluxe dining plan will benefit you. We chose to do it because we knew we were going to do a character breakfast each morning. If we did the regular plan, that would have been our table service for the day, and we’d be done. We also knew we wanted to sit down for dinner and have a little break.
We actually did do 2 counter service meals for lunches and we still saved $ 670.00 when all was said and done. (and that’s taking tips into account). Overall, we LOVED the deluxe plan and will do it again. It gave the trip a more “all-inclusive ” feel. Next time, we’ll make better use of our snack credits. At the end, we had 6 credits left over…. guess what came home? The Mickey rice krispy treats. (and they’re STILL in the freezer!!) Next time, more snack credits might go to cupcakes at Starring Rolls !! :)
We did the quick service plan in Dec ’10 and it worked well for us. We liked not being tied to ADRs. What we would have paid out of pocket for the meals was often more than the cost of the plan, so our snacks were Lfree”
We have used the Deluxe Dining Plan for the past 4 trips and we love it. My youngest son has Sensory Processing Disorder and being able to take a break during the day and have a quiet less stressed meal is great. Last year I figured that we saved over $1500.00 on what we would have paid and what we paid for the plan. We like to eat at a lot the Signature Restaurants (those that are 2 pts) yes you get a lot of food, but I only eat what I want and we don’t always eat dessert and we still save a huge amout over what we paid before the dining plan.
We have used the dining plan many times. the regular, deluxe and quick.
here are some tips that I learned on our last visit:) If you have children with you that are on the plan you can order their meal from the adult or children’s menu. It does not matter which, as a meal credit is a meal credit as far as the computer is concerned. This is great if your kids are older. We have younger kids that could split one adult meal with another left over to snack on. Or you can buy just one adult meal split it between your smaller kids and save the extra meal credit to use at breakfast!Also make sure to ask the cashier for large sized drinks. Again the computer doesnt acknowledge what size drink you get.hope these tips are helpful.Huh….when we were there last in February (I can’t recall the trips before that), when it came to TS meals we were required to stick to the specific type of meal…we couldn’t get an adult meal with a kids credit. Now, quick service meals were different, they didn’t matter. But Table service did.
Everything I see now says that if the restaurant has a kids menu, the kid MUST order off that menu. You can’t get an adult item for a kid if they paid for the kid price of the meal plan. Maybe it’s new but that’s what all the info says.
Mike that is correct. I book reservations for Disney Dining and you are required to order off the kids menu for children 3-9 and then 10 and up may order off the adult menu.
We used the Quick Dining Plan on our last trip and it was wonderful! We will definitely be doing it again on our next trip.
Our last trip in 9/2010 we got the qs dining free with our package and upgraded to the regular dining plan for $10 more. It was worth it, we were planning on going to atleast character meals it basically paid for it self, all we paid was the tip. I would say we got most of our money worth at the quick services resturants, I can’t believe for 2 entrees/dessert it was around $30 without the plan!
I have done the dining plan a couple times (back when gratuity and an appetizer were included on the regular dining plan). I have loved just showing my hotel/pass and signing the bill. The DOWNSIDE: I am always stuffed. I just heard someone talking about trying to order a dessert that is muffin-like…something that could be substituted for part of breakfast the next day. That way, you eat less and save on breakfasts. The BONUS: I have usually gotten the dining package for FREE by booking at particular times of the year. On our upcoming trip, we are getting the Regular Dining Plan for free the entire week. My 2 year old isn’t old enough for the plan, so she will either eat off my plate or child’s menu.
We’ve used the DDP every year for the past 6 years and have never had a different menu to order off of that I know of. We get the Standard Plan with one quick service, one table service, and one snack credit. It’s always plenty of food. We typically eat cereal bars for breakfast and then the rest of the meals are accounted for the rest of the day. At first we were hesitant to waste precious time in the parks dining at a table service restaurant but it turned out that we welcomed the break during the day to escape the heat and crowds. Now it is something that we all look forward to; almost as much as the attractions!
Just a heads up I think I read somewhere that they made a couple changes recently but I can’t remember when they go into effect (maybe 2012???)
1. quick service dining plan – will only have 1 snack
2. regular dining plan – will now get the refillable mug
Yes that starts the beginning of 2012. I thought it might confuse new visitors too much if I added that to this post. I’ll change it when the time comes though. :)
Kind of off topic but was that picture taken at San Angel Inn? We are going to eat there for the first time in September….I hope it is yummy!
Every trip we have taken since 2005, we have had the regular dining plan and we have never had to order off a different menu. The ONLY time we had a special menu was when we did a Fantasmic dinner at Mama Melrose’s. We haven’t been since 2008 so things could have changed in the last 2 years…..
Yep! It was really good and well worth it!
*we could NOT order exactly what we wanted
We went in December of last year and used the standard dining plan. At some of the table service restaurants we were given a menu specifically for the dining plan which was more limited than the standard menu. Food was obviously still very good but a little disappointed that we could order exactly what we wanted.
Hmmmm. I thought it was all entrees. I will do some digging around and see what I can find out. :)
We’ve only ever done the basic dining plan since it started (didn’t before, obviously), but we wouldn’t go without it now. We’ve gone through the menu’s individually before the trip and priced out things we’d like to eat and the table service meals alone have made the dining plan well worth what we pay! Sure, we could eat hamburgers and chicken strips all vacation, or bring our own PB&J’s, but being able to sit down and eat and try new things is part of the vacation for us so we really LOVE the dining plan!! :) We’d generally take our desserts with us as snacks later in the day, and that helped up save up our actual snack credits for later (we always like having some at the end to get stuff to take on the plane ride home with us).
What if you are not staying at a resort? Is there a way to do a plan without it?
Thanks!
No you have to be staying on Disney property. :-/