How does the Disney Dining Plan work?

Question

Going to Disney World! Yippee!!! Got the Dining Plan, but not sure how it works. It includes a snack, a quick-service meal, and a table-service meal per day. What about beverages? What about breakfast? Are we on our own for these? If restaurants are in parks, we have to have a ticket to get in, but what about restaurants at resorts? Is it OK to go to a restaurant at a resort you are not actually staying in? Any tips on getting the most of the Dining Plan?

Thanks so much for all the great info and tips. I'm using tips from each post, and I really appreciate the time each of you put into your responses. Since it's hard for me to pick the best answer, I'm going to leave it up to the voters. Thanks again!!!!!!!

Answer 1

Here is how it works. For every night your package is for each person gets the following, one snack, one table meal, and one counter meal. The table meal includes appetizer, entree, dessert and all non-alcoholic beverages. The meals can be used for breakfast, lunch, or dinner and can be used whenever you want. For example, you can use all your table meals in one day if you would like (though I wouldn't recommend).

Please not that all glowing ice cubes, pictures and other novelty items are not included unless specified.

To have a meal in a park you do need tickets to the park. You can also eat at resorts. Please be aware that signature dining experiences require 2 table meals/person, so plan carefully. Yes you can go to any restaurant in any resort.

Also tax and gratuity are included in the dining plan so you don't need to tip if you don't want to. Please see the adobe file. It explains everything very well and tells you what restaurants you can use it at and what kind of meals they have!

One tip is go to as many of the expensive restaurants as possible, that way you really get your money's worth. If you can, make reservations at Cinderella's Castle for breakfast, lunch or dinner (dinner is my fav). You get a lot, but it is a signature expierence. Also, I would spend more of your table and counters mals on lunch and dinner as opposed to breakfast. You can always bring cereal or pop tarts or something like that for breakfast. Lunch and dinner are traditionally more expensive so they are more worth your money. My best advice is to bring or provide or buy your own breakfast, use the counter meal for lunch and the table meal for dinner. Have one special breakfast that you can use your table meal for. (I like the Akershus Princess Breakfast in Norway if you have little girls or are a princess at heart. You also get into Epcot slightly early if you do this one)

Please e-mail with any other questions!

Answer 2

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Answer 3

The other answers explain the plan very well. One thing we did when we went was my daughter (10 - so considered an adult on the plan) and I would sometimes split a counter-service meal. There was usually plenty in a meal for both of us. We could then use the other counter-service meal for breakfast and split that too. Neither of us usually eat much for breakfast but if we ate something for breakfast we weren't as hungry at lunch. We then saved our table service credits for dinner and did a lot of character buffets.

Also, your snack credits are good for fruit so if you aren't someone who eats a big breakfast like us, we would sometimes just have fruit for breakfast.

You can eat at other resorts with no problem, we stayed at the Allstar Music resort, but had breakfast w/Lilo & Stitch at the Polynesian one morning and also ate at Whispering Canyon in the Wilderness Lodge (this turned out to be one of our favorites!)

Also, if you do a breakfast character meal, at Crystal Palace (in Magic Kingdom) get an early reservation, you can go in the park before it is open to the public. Try to be the first to sign in for the day - my daughter got to be chef of the day when we were there. She "decorated" a waffle with Eeyore and got a chefs hat, certificate, and pictures with all the characters. Characters normally go around while you are eating and aren't in groups, so you can't get a group picture like she did.

Answer 4

Disney Meal Plan Options

Answer 5

I use the Disney packages all the day, once you use them, they are very easy to understand. The dining plan is great, saves you around 40% and tip is included, you can't beat it, and you get some nice options of where to eat.

My first suggestion, if you haven't already done so, I would try to get some reservations for any restaurants you want to get. The dining at Disney has always been popular, but now with this plan, more people can afford to eat at the restaurants, so many of the really good options sell out quickly.

With your points you can use them anyway you like. If you want you can use 3 table-servce in one day and none on another, or any way you like. You just have to use them all before the parks close on your checkout day, otherwise they expire.

Drinks: Any non-alcoholic drinks are includes in your plan. Alcohol is sperate. Also, at O'hana's you get a really good virgin drink as well. Just an example of some of what you get.

Breakfast: You can use your table-service for breakfast if you like. However, if you want to get the best value for the plan, you should use it for dinner. If you want to do a character meal, you can usually choose breakfast, lunch or dinner. Lunc and dinner is going to be expensive and give you a better value than if you just go to breakfast. What a lot of people do is use their snack point for something like donuts in your resort or bring a long some pop-tarts or something. If you look around a little, you can find a lot of different options for the snacks and some may work better for you than others. So, you can tie yourself over until lunch with a snack and maybe a breakfast item. Then, go to a nice quick-service restaurant for your lunch. Some of the options, like Wolfgang Puck's in Downtown Disney offer different options than just the hamburgers and are really good. Then, you can use your sit-down meal for a nice dinner. This gets you an early start on the day since you don't have to stop for breakfast and gets you a better value on the dining plan.


Since the ticket prices are only a few dollars for each person after 4 days, check to see how much it would be to get extra days on your pass if you don't already have the length of stay. It may only be about 5 dollars and would open up a lot of more options of where you can eat. Otherwise, you can't get in, plus, if you have more days in the park you can go at a more relaxed pace.

You can go to the resorts to dine as well, that is no problem, they like you experiencing their differnet options. If you will be driving you just tell security that you have dinner reservations and they will let you in. If you are taking Disney's transportation it can be a little more difficult. You will need to go to a park, Downtown Disney or a water park and then take transporation to the resort you want to dine at, depending on where you go, you can taken bus, boat or monorail. Then you will need to go back to a park or whatever to get back to your resort.


As far as getting the most out of the plan. Again, try to do more lunch and dinner than breakfast. You will get a nicer meal usually for dinner and it is also more value. Try to do as few character meals as possible. The plan does save you money on them, but not nearly as much as some of the nicer restaurants. Remember tip is included, so you don't have to add on a tip unless you feel they did really good and deserve more (they will get 18% of whatever you spent) Be sure to order everything you are allowed, appertizer, entree, dessert, etc. If you can't eat it all, you can take it back with you. Be sure to reserve some dining reservations to avoid not getting to eat at the nicer places. And, be sure you know if they will charge you if you don't show up so you know what you need to cancel. If you want to have meals for all your days at Disney, try to avoid the signature restaurants. While most of the options are more than worth it, they take two of your sit-down points and if you need to have a meal for every day, you will want to avoid them. And, be sure that it will be worth it for you to use your points that way, for example Cinderella's Royal Table is 2 points (really think about this one if you plan to go, many better options in my opinion) and it figures out to be a little more on the dining plan since you use 2 points. Finally, be sure to ask your waiter for help, they will tell you if anything has a surcharge and what you all get. That way you avoid paying any fees or not getting everything you paid for.


I've included a few links that I think will help you out. If you have any other questions, feel free to e-mail me, I go to Disney all the time!

Answer 6

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Answer 7

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Answer 8

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