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How to Eat Where to Eat The Dining Plan Guide to Disney Dining
OVERVIEW: HOW TO EAT AT WALT DISNEY WORLD
When you make your Walt Disney World hotel and ticket reservations, also sign up for the package “Magic Your Way Plus Dining,” and request a refrigerator for your room.*
Assuming you eat where this site’s itineraries suggest you do (see Where to Eat), this will save you a lot of money.
If you can’t, see What if You Can’t do the Dining Plan?
THE DINING PACKAGE
The “Magic Your Way Plus Dining” package, usually called the “Dining Plan” or “Dining Package” for simplicity, gives you 3 credits per person per night of your stay, to be used any day of your trip.
- One credit can be used for a snack (think bottled water or an ice cream cone),
- One credit for a meal at a “counter service” restaurant (think cafeteria), and
- One credit for a meal at a “table service” restaurant (think waiters).
The plan costs during most of the year ~$45 per day per person 10 and older (including tax; add another $6/day for tips), and ~$13 per day including tax for people younger than ten (add $3 per day for tips). Prices are slightly higher during the busy seasons–see this for more on Dining Plan price seasons.
Only hotel guests of Walt Disney World Resorts can buy the dining plan–so the Swan, Dolphin, Shades of Green, etc, are all excluded.
If you analyze the menus of the restaurants this site recommends, you will discover that taking this approach saves hundreds of dollars. The budget (see What to Budget) assumes you sign up for this dining plan.
COMPLEXITIES SOLVED FOR YOU
There are a couple of complexities to this, all reflected in the budget and the To-Do List.
- One is that two of the table service meals on the basic and many other itineraries actually take two table service credits each, as they are high-demand, expensive, signature events
- Second, partly as a result, you won’t have enough table service credits to cover all your table service meals
- Third, some of your meals are outside the Disney parks and resorts system and not eligible for credits
Your To-Do List, budget, and itineraries assume that you will use your credits for your most expensive eligible meals, that you will pay cash for the remainder, and instruct you on which meal is which.
Note that when you make your advance reservations (on your To-Do List), some special meals for which demand is high will require a credit card to make the reservation, even though you intend ultimately to use table service credits to pay.
This is simply Disney’s way of making sure that you attend the event you have reserved. You will be able to use your table service credit on actual arrival–just make sure you tell your waiter!
For more on the Disney Dining Plan at Walt Disney World, see this.
*The refrigerator is free at Disney’s Polynesian Resort, and $10/day at Disney’s Pop Century Resort, which is reflected in the Pop Century budget.
It permits you to keep milk, water, OJ, fruits, vodka, etc., in your room to use on the days when you will be eating breakfast in your room. Each resort has such items available for purchase in its gift shop and/or counter service restaurant.
You are eating breakfast in your room these days for two reasons: first, these are the days you need an early start (see your itinerary), and eating in your room speeds things up–letting you sleep later!
Second, because the dining plan only gives you two full meals a day, you don’t have enough credits to cover all of your meals. An in-room breakfast is the least expensive meal to pay cash for.
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
- 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
27 comments
I didn’t agree with you at first, but the last paragraph makes sense to me…
can you explain which tickets to buy,i was thinking of water park and base also my friends birthday is may 2nd, is it safe to go from apr 29 to may 5? or should i change it to may 1 to 7. thnks your site is great
Mary the 29th to May 5 will be great. No need to move to May 1.
Here’s my advice on tickets. Buy the base tix, with no add-ons. If you later want an add-on, like water parks or park hopper, you can add it when you know you need it.
For more on Disney World tickets, see this: http://yourfirstvisit.net/2010/02/14/walt-disney-world-admission-ticket-prices-2010/
Dave – We are staying at the Polynesian (family of 5, our first trip with the kids) this September. Why don’t you recommend Disney’s Spirit of Aloha Show? Seems convenient for us. Thanks!
Hi Jennifer! Compared to Hoop Dee Doo, Spirt of Aloha is dull and not fun. If you can do just one, do Hoop. It’s easy to get to from the Poly–monorail to MK, boat to Fort Wilderness. And it’s not worth doing two dinner shows…there’s lots of more family fun dining options than Spirt of Aloha…
we are booked for November and I know my daughter will want to do a character princess breakfast (is it only breakfast or do they do lunch or dinner?) how do I reserve this and how far in advance do I reserve the princess meal?
Hi Vanessa, there’s breakfast, lunch and dinner. Dinner used to be a different set of charatcers, but is now princesses as well.
You book 180 days ahead. If you are staying at a WDW resort, you can book ten days out starting the date of your arrival. Eg, if you arrive 11/10, 180 days befroe 11/10 you can book out to 11/20, even tho 11/20 is 190 days ahead…
For hoe to book, see any of the To-Do Lists you can find here: http://yourfirstvisit.net/planning-your-first-family-trip/to-do-list/to-do-lists-for-alternative-itineraries/
I enjoy the Deluxe Dining Plan. I came home from a 7 day 6 night trip, this Deluxe Dining Plan allows for us to eat at: Cinderella’s Royal Table, The Brown Derby twice, Sci-Fi Drive In, Le Cellier, The Garden Grill, and the California Grill. Plus still have plenty of entitlements for use of dining in our room for one night, along with all other meals. For breakfast we brought breakfast bars with us to get us until lunch. We only had 1 entitlement left at the end, tons of food, the top places.
Travis that sounds great!
To me the best thing about the deluxe dining plan is you don’t have to fuss so much in your planning…if you can book it, you probably have credits for it!
I don’t recommend it to first time visitors who may never return partly because of cost but mostly because I try to limit the number of sit down meals to give more time in the parks…see for example the meals in the image on this page: http://yourfirstvisit.net/planning-your-first-family-trip/basic-itinerary/alternative-itineraries/itineraries-for-the-rest-of-the-year/v2-of-2009-autumn-winter-spring-itinerary/
Hi,
Your site is invaluable for me right now as I plan our march 3-10th trip. I am still a little overwhelmed as some restaurants have been removed from the dining plan for 2012. We are staying at the Polynesian, and have two kids, our son is 9, our daughter is 6.
So, here’s a few questions, based on your 7 night autumn-winter-spring itinerary.
1) We are arriving very early on Saturday morning. To start our trip, would you suggest having late Breakfast at Ohana and keep the Akershus for an earlier dinner (we’ve been awake since 4am, so I worry about my daughter not able to truly enjoy the dinner with travel fatigue). Or do quick service lunch when we arrive, have dinner at Ohana on our first Saturday, and move Akershus to Friday dinner when we’re at Epcot again. (San Angel is no longer on the meal plan)
2) In order to see a princess earlier in the week if we do Akershus on Friday, I was thinking of switching Cinderella’s Royal Table to Tuesday. Is there a particular reason to go on a Wednesday instead of Tuesday?
Thank you so much in advance…this site is a miracle for me!
Hi again Carol–I had not heard that San Angel is not on the DP next year. Thanks for the heads up!! It’s one of the Epcot restaurants owned by non-Disney folk, and such often negotiate wiith Disney til the last minute before agreeing to sign on. So they may well come back to the plan by 1/1/2012…
That said I like your plan to go easy Saturday and do Akershus on Friday. No problem doing Cindy on Tuesday either!
We are planning on staying at the value movie resort and not having a car for our upcoming week-long trip. Any recommendations for a best way to get to a real grocery store for a few bags of snacks, drinks, and sandwich fixings? I love to walk, but have no idea what kind of distances we might be talking about. Thanks.
Hi Karen, nothing is within walking distsance. For delivery to your room options, plus others, see this: http://yourfirstvisit.net/2010/08/30/the-tightwads-guide-to-how-to-eat-at-walt-disney-world/
Dave, we just returned from our family’s first visit and we followed most of your advice regarding meals (but skipped all the princess themed dinners bc we have boys) and made some changes that may be useful to other parents:
1. I ordered groceries from Garden Grocer which were delivered to our resort before we arrived and stored for us (in fridge) by Bell Services until we were ready for them to be delivered to our room. I highly recommend this service because our resort gift shop did not carry any breakfast or healthy snack foods (milk, bagels, bag of apples, bottles of water, etc). We ate 7 out of 8 breakfasts in our room and that enabled us to start our day in the parks MUCH earlier than other families who were stuck in breakfast buffets.
2. Do bring bowls & utensils because again, our resort store didn’t carry much in that department.
3. If you have a child under age 10, they qualify as a “child” on the Disney Dining Plan and we found the meal choices on the Kids Menu to be universally the following: cheeseburger, hamburger, processed chicken nuggets & “other” – usually a limp turkey sandwich or something specific to that restaurant/park like Tacos in Epcot’s Mexico. Our son ate more bad chicken nuggets last week than he’s had in five years: every lunch and dinner. By Day 3, he was so upset with his food choices, he revolted and stopped eating. So I gave him my meal and ate his and I can report that the majority of Kids Meals are terrible. Sure, they include apple sauce and carrot sticks but the main entree is just really bad fast food. I’ve even written a letter to Disney complaining about this it was that bad. We ended up having to plan carefully so we would end up in a park/resort that had decent meals for our son. Not magical at all.
4. Counter Service: we found that most counter service meals in the parks, with the exception of the World Showcase in Epcot, were all bad fast food. The best counter service meals we ate: at Morocco and Coronado Springs Resort.
5. For families watching their waistlines: be aware that your meal plan include desert for every counter service and table service – of course you can decline these deserts (as we did most of the time) but it caused a major argument with our kids every meal – NOT magical. I’ve written Disney to ask why they don’t give eaters the choice of a desert or a side salad where available.
6. Refillable Mug: we did not buy this because our family doesn’t drink soda. We do drink coffee but not enough to want mugs of it daily. I am disappointed that Disney doesn’t offer bottled/filtered water at these dispensers. Yes there are water bubblers at the parks but our kids balked at the taste of Florida tap water so I was glad I had bought a case of bottled water for us.
Overall, we found the Disney Dining Plan to be a good value but it required us to be creative about using our counter service credits as it was hard to find good food at counters. Overall, Disney needs to work harder to offer healthier choices for it’s diners.
One last recommendation: Dave, you don’t include this but this was our family’s favorite meal after the Hoop: Whispering Canyon Cafe in the Wilderness Lodge – outstanding!
Katie, lots of good “food for thought” here.
As the dining plan has become less of a bargain over the years I’ve struggled with whether or not to include it for many of the reasons you note. All in, are you glad you went with it, or would a la carte have made for a better trip, even if it cost a couple of hundred more?
And re Whispering Canyon–I’m with you, it’s a hoot. I used to have it in, but retired it from the itinerary in 2009 as I was trying to reduce scheduling and costs–it used to be Tuesday or Thursday lunch, I don’t recall which…would adding it back as another scheduled meal and trip lead to schedule overload, or would you suggest replacing one of the meals in the itnerary with it?
Thanks again for the thoughtful feedback! Dave
Hi Dave,
I am planning my family’s first trip to Disney. Sadly, I feel very naive and ignorant when it comes to this planning! I am overwhelmed already and I have just finished planning 2 weddings (one a destination and one an all out bells and whistles wedding) and the stress seems to not compare to this at all! I was reading the comments on your site and reading your information (wonderful by the way but for some reason still leaves me feeling very uncertain and my insides in a knot). I’ll just get to my concerns, questions, and points of confusion in hopes that you can help.
1. I plan to hopefully go the around Oct. 18th. Does that shake?
2. What do we do!? I know we want to do MK, Epcot, Sea World, and Universal, Cirque du Soliel for the adults, but what about other recommendations?
3. What extra shows, firework displays, parades do you recommend for the kids?
4. Are there lunch/dinner shows we should try to see?
5. Breakfast with characters?
6. Eating at Cinderella’s Castle?
7. What is Akershuhs?
8. The meal plans thoroughly confuse me….
Thank you for all your help. Please help!
Hi Sheena! First, your date is great, see this: http://yourfirstvisit.net/2010/10/20/2012-weeks-to-visit-walt-disney-world-ranked-in-order/
For what to do what to see etc (your questions 3-7), see one of my itineraries. The October ones won’t be out until Disney releases its October calendar in late March, but for an example see this: http://yourfirstvisit.net/planning-your-first-family-trip/basic-itinerary/alternative-itineraries/itineraries-for-the-rest-of-the-year/v2-of-2009-autumn-winter-spring-itinerary/ You can’t use it as is–I’ll post revisions to it in late March–but it gives you an idea.
In general…start with my home page http://yourfirstvisit.net and work your way down its topics…
Hope this helps! Dave
The dining plan is a way to pre-pay for meals. It makes sense if you would have spent more in cash for dining otherwise. Given what you are considering–breakfast, Cinderalla–it likely will for you.
Dave,
This is a good and thoughtful site. You do, however, need to update the dining plan prices and tips, and refrigerator rental prices. (Probably other pirces I haven’t gotten to reading yet, too.)
Thanks Julia, and you are right!
I am sharing something I learned from my recent planning…we are heading to the World 9/22-9/29, normally not a high traffic time but made plans before free dining was announced. I was surprised to easily get ADR for CRT but was not prepared to have no chance at lunch at Le Cellier for that week. Please let folks know that since it is a signature restaurant for DINNER but not lunch it seems to be pretty popular, especially since it is close to FOOD & WINE festival held at Epcot. I am hoping for a cancellation at 45 days or will risk going in as a walk-up. All the other advise I found on various websites, including this one, were SUPER helpful. I think I amazed the castmember with my plans since I was a first time visitor and hit all the best places on the right days (Fantasmic Dining, California Grill to watch Wishes, etc.). Enjoy the magic!
Thanks Joanne!
Strangely enough at 170 days 9/27 opened up for reservations for lunch at Le Cellier. Actually the whole week was pretty much blocked out up until that day and then, voila! reservations were available…very odd but WONDERFUL! If you did something to facilitate this magic – THANK YOU so much! Can’t wait for the first trip to begin…but then again I am having a great time planning thanks to your site and a couple others (allears!).
That’s great, Joanne! And I had nothing to do with it! The only entities that think I’m important are my dogs…
I promise, Dave, this is my last question (maybe)! I am booking my room at the GF and buying tickets separately. I am getting a better deal this way, through a family friend, than if I booked through the website and bundled it all together. So, I’m paying for our dining out of pocket. Should a free dining plan come available for my week (12/15-12/20), can I take advantage of that? Or is it only for those who go through WDW package deals? Or can I purchase a dining plan separately to add on to our room? Does that make sense? I really like the idea of the dining plan, because I feel like we’d budget better.
Hi Sarah! Ask as many questions as you like! Most of the “free dining” deals that I can recall had a minimum ticket buy associated with them–with exceptions for passholders. See, e.g., this http://bookwdw.reservations.disney.go.com/ibcwdw/en_US/specialOfferDetails?name=Promo&promotionCode=fy12q3dine&market=fy12q3dine If a deal comes out for your dates, and GF is eligible, you may have to buy tix to get in to it… Is your “other” way of getting tix refundable?
Well, I was just planning on buying tickets through Undercover Tourist. I haven’t bought them yet. So, if I understand you correctly, I can buy tickets through WDW and still be eligible for the dining plan (free or not) since we’re staying at the GF?
Sarah–since you are at GF, you can do unfree dining and still do undercover tourist, but you may have to buy tix from WDW to get the free dining. My advice is to book GF room only. You can then convert to a WDW package with tix if free dining comes out, or get your tix from UT later once it becomes clear it isn’t…and add unfree dining then if you want. Waiting, however will cost another 3-5% on the tix, as WDW will increase ticket prices sometime this summer…
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