The Walt Disney World Resort (WDW) offers a mind-boggling number of food options for families. They also offer the Disney Dining Plan – or, rather, five different dining plans. In a nutshell, the Disney Dining Plans (DDP) provide an opportunity for WDW Resort guests to prepay for meals and snacks during their stay. For example, the plan referred to as “The Dining Plan” provides one quick service meal, one table service meal, and one snack, per person older than 3, per day, for the length of the WDW Resort reservation. In addition, each person on the reservation receives a refillable cup good for the length of the stay. On occasion, Disney offers this plan for free, as an incentive for guests to book reservations at a Walt Disney World resort.
This week we asked our Parenting Panel: Do you use the Disney Dining Plan when you travel to Walt Disney World? Why? Or why not?
MousePlanet columnist Chris Barry, his wife, Diane, Samantha (15), and twins Casey and Alex (12), live on Long Island and are all major Disney and Walt Disney World fans. Chris writes:
We’ve only used the Disney Dining Plan (DDP) once since its inception many years ago. We were fortunate enough to have a 10-day trip to Walt Disney World in the works for late August when the free dining promotion was announced. The plan was about a year old at the time and we hadn’t heard a whole lot of opinions on the matter yet. All we knew was that for 10 days, my family of five and my Mom and Dad, who were joining us half way through the trip, would eat for free. What a savings that would be. So we hopped on it. I never tried to figure out how much we exactly saved, but given the trip was 10 full-days, I’m sure it was plenty.
However, despite the big savings, we couldn’t stand being on the DDP. Suddenly our trip was all about one thing – food! When were we going to eat next? Where was our next reservation and when? How many snacks do we have left? Does this count as a snack or not? We never ate so much on a Disney trip. Food, food, food! We hated it. Plus, everyone’s dinners came with dessert and not all of us were big dessert eaters. You wouldn’t believe me if I told you how many carrot cakes were stashed in our Port Orleans Resort fridge by the end of the week. They were free, so we figured we better take them. We ate way too much and vowed never to get the DDP again, even if it were free. I certainly wouldn’t pay for it.
Why not take the DDP free and just cancel reservations or leave desserts behind? After all, it’s free. We could just eat what we want and not care if we used up all of our meals or not by the end of the trip. Seems like a good way to save some money, don’t you think? Only partially true. If you opt for the free DDP offer, you cannot use any other discount, like for instance the 30 percent-40 percent room-only rate that Disney typically offers around the same time each year as the free dining offer. I’d take a discounted room rate any day over free meals. We’ve gotten a room looking at the lagoon at Disney's Polynesian Resort for around $280 a night with the room-only discounts and, this past fall, we scored $250 a night at Disney's Yacht Club. To me, that’s much more worth it than being tied to the DDP.
Don’t get me wrong. The restaurants at Walt Disney World are definitely part of the experience. We have our favorites and we’ve had some fantastic and memorable meals all over property. The dining and the restaurants are something…but they’re not everything. Being on the plan doesn’t give you any advantage as far as getting into a restaurant, we ate more than we ever wanted to when we were on it, and I’d have to pay more for my room just to get the plan, so for this family, there’s just no good reason to sign up for it.
To us, the DDP held us back and tied us to our meals. Some of our best times down there were when we cancelled a dining reservation and ordered a pizza by the pool or decided to keep the momentum going at a park and grab a quick bite instead of stopping for a reservation. Being on the DDP might have prevented those moments. This is just our opinion as seasoned Disney vets, but we feel that the DDP takes away some of the last vestiges of spontaneity that exist on a Disney trip and they are getting hard to come by. You can still have spontaneous fun at Walt Disney World. We do it all the time. The total loss of that isn’t worth it, at least to us. We have no interest in signing up for the DDP and I don’t think we’ve been missing out on anything all these years.
Parenting in the Parks columnist Adrienne Krock's three boys are now 16, 13, and 10. They've been visiting the Disneyland Resort since they were each just weeks old and Annual Passholders since their 3rd birthdays. Adrienne writes:
For our first trip to Walt Disney World, our family had the Disney Dining Plan. In fact, we had it for free—well, almost free. After we made our initial reservation, our wonderful travel agent let us know that if we rebooked our trip, we could get the Dining Plan for free, but rebooking would cost us $800. Considering that we were staying for 11 nights, we rebooked our vacation.
For that trip, we engaged in a love-hate relationship with the DDP. I loved the bargain we secured with all that free food. We had one table service meal, one counter service meal and one snack, per person, per day. We made reservations at almost every single table service restaurant I wanted to try. For years I had accumulated a list of where I wanted to eat: Boma, Biergarten, Whispering Canyon, Kona Café, Le Cellier, and many more. We selected a character dining meal that we felt our sons would enjoy. We ate snacks without worrying about our bottom line.
That said, throughout that entire trip, we frequently found our daily plans driven by our dining reservations. Where we went, what rides we went on, we had to determine based on where we would eat and when. We certainly got a good value for our investment. But we had a very structured and rather directed experience. At times it felt hectic.
Last month, my husband and I returned to Walt Disney World for Marathon weekend, with no dining plan. And we enjoyed our trip so much more. Before our trip, we did make a few important to us reservations. In particular, we planned one very special celebration dinner at Jiko and breakfast at Kona Café. We also joined friends at Boma and ‘Ohana. Even with these reservations, we felt far less pressure to eat all the time. One day, we shared a sandwich for lunch, figuring we would eat again later when were hungry. We never were hungry again for more lunch that day, but we did share a pastry in the French pavilion of Epcot’s World Showcase. Because we did not have the DDP, when we ate smaller meals we never felt we were missing out on some part of our deal. We never felt somehow cheated out of our package. We ate less food but definitely felt satisfied.
Surprisingly, while we paid out-of-pocket for our meals, we spent far less money than we had budgeted! We planned this trip for quite a while. We planned a specific budget and, literally, saved our pennies. Essentially, I saved the same amount of money that the DDP would have saved us, had we purchased the plan. The week before our trip, we lived up to the model Dave Ramsey students: We withdrew our trip budget, in cash, from our special savings account. I divided the cash into envelopes, including a set of special envelopes for our meals. I had one envelope for our Advanced Dining Reservation meals and two more, each for half of our counter-service and snack budget. The envelope I meant to last for the first three days of our trip, lasted until day six. We only opened the last envelope at the end of our vacation! We came home with almost half of our food budget unspent. We never walked away wishing we had eaten more food. In fact, Doc ran in the Goofy Challenge and I ran the Half Marathon, so we felt entitled to eat anything we wanted. We exercised out a lot of calories on our trip and drank cocktails several nights.
Not having the DDP gave us flexibility. We still enjoyed many of our favorite Walt Disney World treats, but we felt a lot more relaxed about our trip. I might consider the DDP again – wait a minute! No. I would not.
Chris Salata, also known as GusMan, is a Disney-inspired author and photographer, and loves to help people get the most out of their Disney vacation. Chris writes:
Dining at Disney is an experience in of itself. Being a self-declared foodie, I can tell you that the first several trips focused on where I ate as much as which attractions I tried to enjoy while at the parks. Even today, I still try to eat at new places or revisit restaurants that I have not tried in a long time. However, the thing that still catches my eye when it comes to dining at Disney is the cost. While I think there are very few establishments that I refuse to try again, I can also say that it is not the worst value in the world.
A very common question regarding dining at Disney is in regards to the DDP.The questions on the topic usually pertain to if it is a good value. I see people answer in definitive yes or no answers. However, this is not a cut-and-dry answer and I tend to answer the question with a question:
Is the Disney Dining Plan worth it for you?
The question is very important because you are, in essence, pre-paying for most of your meals and this is a case where an educated guest is going to best answer the question as it pertains to their specific traveling party.
Using round numbers for the sake of conversation, the DDP is about $60 per adult. That breaks down to about $4 for a snack credit, $14 for a counter-server credit and about $32 for a table-service credit. I'm not counting the refillable mug, in those numbers but it adds a variance of about $4 per day or less in value overall.
The key is – if you think that you can easily hit those values for the way that you and your family dines and snacks, and you plan on using every single credit during your stay, there is a good chance that you will save money, or at least break even with the plan.
The mistake people make is that they do not realize that the DDP is also a commitment to dining. It takes away some flexibility in your plans because it becomes a “use it or lose it” situation. It also means that to get the best dining reservations, you have to do your best to book all your meals as close to 180 days out, or you might not be able to get your preferred dining selections.
For me, the following considerations are favorable towards the DDP:
- If you are planning on multiple character meals, especially dinners.
- Each family member tends to order larger, or more expensive meals.
- You do not have kids ages 10-16 who may have smaller appetites or are more selective in their dining choices.
- You don't plan on sharing meals with kids or other adults. (Portions can be large!)
- You consider dining a big part of your vacation and don't mind spend 60-90 minutes for a table service meal.
- You are considering vacationing during a time of free dining and you believe you will get the most out of the offer.
This is where the planning and homework comes into play. Talk with your family about where they would like to dine and what they might like to eat. Consider estimated prices for those meals and see if they add up to what you are paying for the plan. Sometimes the math works… sometimes it shows that paying out of pocket is best.
I know this is a lot to consider for a single offering, but experience tells me that the DDP should be considered more of an option than a must-do. It may take a bit of time to crunch the numbers between what you would normally spend out of pocket and the costs of the DDP, but only then you can see if it would really be worth it for you.
Nancy is an enthusiastic Disney Parks fan. She has been married for 12 years and has two little ones: a 5-year-old son and a 2-year-old daughter. A Disneyland local, she first visited Walt Disney World in 2006 and has returned several times since. Nancy writes:
I first experienced the dining plan in 2006 on my very first trip to Walt Disney World. My husband and I loved it. In 2007 I returned to the WDW and enjoyed the Free Disney Dining Plan promotion. It was great. Back in 2006 the dining plan cost $37.99 per adult per night. Speed up to current day and the DDP will set you back $60.64 per adult per night. Somewhere along the line they also discontinued appetizers and gratuity.
Will I use the DDP again? I probably will not, at least not for the foreseeable future. I admit it. I became disgruntled when they removed the appetizer and gratuity from the plan yet continue to increase the price. Do I really need an appetizer with every table service meal? No. Admittedly I don’t. But. My perceived value of the plan decreased and it will be hard to go back if I ever go back at all.
I have discovered that my family with two small children can do better financially by scoring a great deal on a room at Walt Disney World (WDW) and then carefully budgeting out our dining dollars. We now know our favorite places, our favorite foods, the large meals we like to split, the large meals and we don’t dare split because we want to enjoy every last bite, the small meals that might require a snack soon after, the meals that are worth spending a little extra on, the desserts that are really worth it… you get the picture.
While on our first and second trip to WDW, the dining plan allowed us to easily explore our dining options while not feeling the financial sting of ordering an appetizer and entrée and dessert per person at every meal. The food was either already paid for upfront or free. We ordered as much as we could and didn’t fear spending too much money for something we didn’t like. In fact, it was my first meal at WDW where I discovered I like crab.
Now as we age, and our appetites decrease a little, and we are keener on watching our waistlines, we are more likely to split certain appetizers, entrees, and/or desserts. We know where we want to splurge or where we can save some by splitting a large plate. I feel that we have better control over our money while not using the dining plan, and, for now, that works for us. We also have found we tend to enjoy the parks more when we’re not overstuffed after trying to fit in every last DDP bite.
In the past, Walt Disney World has offered a “Free Dining Promotion.” One must stay at a Walt Disney World owned hotel room and pay full price during a specified promotional time period and they receive the DDP at no extra charge for each person in the room. I possibly would consider trying to take advantage of this promotion if my children were starving teenagers and needed to eat a lot while on vacation. Or possibly if there were four adults sharing a room. If we have the opportunity to go to WDW again, we’ll assess our vacation budget and maybe one day the dining plan will make sense for us again.
Lisa is a married, stay-at-home mom of Joey (5) and Matthew (2). She has been a Disneyland annual passholder since 2002, and has made several trips to Walt Disney World, as well. Lisa writes:
Last year we upgraded our DLR passes to Premier passes, and made two trips to WDW. For our first trip, I priced out our dining plan options and considered getting a Deluxe Plan, but here is why we decided not to:
- My youngest is 2, and doesn’t need a park entry ticket yet. When I called to ask about the DDP prices, I was told that he would not be included in our plan. There was no way to add him, since he wasn’t ticketed. But, he often eats his own meals, unless his 5-year-old brother decides he wants to share. So, we would still be purchasing food at most meals anyway.
- It didn’t seem cost effective with two young kids. We couldn’t eat at a sit-down restaurant at every meal, or even every day. We did a few during our week there, but I knew my kids would get tired of it. We budgeted about $100 a day for the four of us to eat, and the dining plan didn’t seem worth it, especially since there was no passholder discounts. Instead, we opted to get the Tables in Wonderland card to save with our pass.
- I have seen several families over our past few trips who, on their last day, go to their hotel’s food court and load up on all of the snacks and desserts they have left on their plans…sodas, chips, pretzels, cookies…whatever they could fit in a backpack to take with them on the plane. We aren’t snackers, really, and don’t drink much soda, so I knew that would be us on the last day of our trip, trying to get our money’s worth. It seems like a waste to have paid for all of the snacks and desserts we most likely wouldn’t use.
I know the dining plan is a good option for some people, but not for us. Maybe as my kids get older and are more interested in sitting down to eat, it may be more reasonable for us.
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