(What if You Can’t Do the Dining Plan?)

YOU CAN’T GET ON THE MAGIC YOUR WAY PLUS DINING PLAN

When I first started this site, the Disney Dining Plan was a big money saver.

Nowadays, with price increases and and reductions in what it covers, not so much.

Families with many 3 to 9 year olds who are planning on a lot of character buffets can still save some money on the dining plan–but not nearly a much as five years ago. This because many of these meals exceed the entire ~$20 daily Dining Plan costs for kids this age.

But for families not aimed at these buffets, or not with younger kids, the dining plan commonly costs more than you would pay in cash for the same meals.

There is a comfort to it, though–by pre-paying, you remove anxiety about the cost of what it covers.

For this reasons, and becasue my itineraries are aimed at families  with kids at the lower price points and include lots of character buffets, I still recommend it. But just barely, and every year I get a little closer to not recommending it.

In other words, if you can’t get the dining plan–becasue you are staying off site, already have tickets, etc–don’t worry about it.

For more on the economics of the dining plan, see the second half of this post.

MORE ON WALT DISNEY WORLD DINING

• How to Eat
• The Disney Dining Plan
• What if You Can’t do the Dining Plan?
• Where to Eat
• Dining Alternatives
• The Comprehensive Guide to Walt Disney World Dining
  • The Comprehensive Guide to Magic Kingdom-Area Dining
  • The Comprehensive Guide to Epcot-Area Dining
• Character Meals and Dinner Shows Ranked in Order
• Table Service Meals at the Parks Ranked in Order
• Table Service Meals at the Resorts Ranked in Order

LINKS FOR WHAT TO BUDGET FOR WALT DISNEY WORLD

For the basic December trip recommended by this site

• See this for what to budget during the basic December trip
• See this if you are on particularly tight budget, for (difficult) ideas to reduce the December trip budget by more than $1,000

For help getting to much lower budget numbers,

• See this for links to current Walt Disney World deals and discounts
• For basic Disney World budgeting concepts, see Planning Your Walt Disney World Budget
• To design a trip around a specific budget target–e.g., what you can do for $2,500–see this
• For reducing your lodging costs,
  • See The Tightwad’s Guide to Where to Stay at Walt Disney World
  • See this for links to current Walt Disney World deals and discounts
• For reducing your dining costs,
  • For ideas on cutting your dining costs compared to what this site recommends, see this
  • For a period during which dining is sometimes free, see The Tightwad’s Guide to When to Go to Walt Disney World
• For reducing your transportation costs, see this

For Walt Disney World price seasons,

• See this for resort price seasons
• See this for Disney Dining Plan price seasons
• See this for Walt Disney World theme park admission tickets

For the Tightwad’s Guide to Walt Disney World, see this

For the Comfortable Guide to Walt Disney World, see this

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If you can’t go the week this site recommends, see Estimating Budgets for Different Trips