Today we have a genius hack to create your own dining plan for Disney World. Taking the leap and adding the dining plan means paying upfront for your dining costs, then getting snack and meal credits as you please. However with each increase in the Dining Plan prices, some guests are skipping the thought of adding a dining plan. This leaves one problem then, how to budget dining for Disney World. Conquer a big expense at Disney by putting yourself on a dining plan.
1. Know The Cost of Disney Dining Plans
The current (as of June 2020) cost of Disney Dining Plans are below. Plus learn what you would get with each one.
- Quick Service Dining Plan $55 Adults (10+), $26 Child (age 3-9) gets you 2 Quick Service meal, 2 snacks and a Refillable Resort mug per person, per package.
- Disney Dining Plan $78 Adults (10+), $30.50 Child (age 3-9) gets you 1 Quick Service meal, 1 Table service meal, 2 snacks and a Refillable Resort mug per person, per package.
- Disney Dining Plan Plus $93 Adults (10+), $34 Child (age 3-9) gets you 2 meals (QS or Table), 2 snacks and a Refillable Resort mug per person, per package.
- Disney Deluxe Dining Plan $119 Adults (10+), $47.50 Child (age 3-9) gets you 3 meal credits (QS or Table), 2 snacks and a Refillable Resort mug per person.
For a family of 4 (2 Adults and 2 Children) on the Disney Dining Plan, they will pay $254/day + tax upfront for snacks and meals per day.
2. Look Up Menu Prices
Now that you know the Disney Dining Plan prices, compare Disney menu prices. If you are anything like me you already know which Disney restaurants you want to go to. With those restaurants in mind, look up prices on the My Disney Experience app or website. From there you can get a rough idea of what you expect to spend per day on food. With this knowledge, come up with an amount to budget for food per day. See if you can beat the cost of a Disney dining plan!
3. Put yourself on a Budget with Disney Gift Cards
Take your budgeted amount for food and put the amount on a Disney gift card! This way you are creating your own dining budget for your Disney vacation. Even better, if you come under budget and have money left over on a Disney gift card it can be used towards the purchase of merchandise. Treat yourself if you come under budget!
Even better if you have a Target Red card save 5% on your purchase of Disney gift cards. That equals $50 FREE per $1,000 spent.
Learn more about Walt Disney World Dining and get suggestions for where to eat, how to use the Disney Dining Plan and more.
Tiffany Pilon says
My only caution to this is to use something besides a gift card to budget since I heard mobile ordering doesn’t take gift cards (yet.)