Disney Dining plan explained

As an incentive to stay at a Disney hotel in Disney World the company offer Disney Dining plan.

The idea is a little bit like an all inclusive holiday - by having already paid for your food.

There is three levels to the Disney dining plan:

1) Quick-service Dining plan.

2) Disney Dining plan.

3) Deluxe Dining plan.

The way that the different plans are organised is based on the type of meal you have.

There is two types of meals you can have a self service or a waiter service.

A self service is when you approach a till and order and then find a place to sit and eat (Think like a subway or a McDonalds), where as the waiter service is being sat down and the waiter takes your order from your table (Think like Frankie and Bennys or a TGI Fridays).

Each restaurant has their own particular food items or style. For example there is a hot dog self service restaurant in Magic Kingdom.

The different plans work on a credit type system.

1 night stay = 2 meal credit and 2 snack credits.

At the start of your stay you have all of your credits for all your meals and snacks. For example a 14 night stay on the Quick Service plan will be 28 meals and 28 snacks (2 meals and 2 snacks per night) on your first day before you have eaten. As you 'spend' your credits the total will go down.

One thing I noticed in 2018 was that the dining plan totaled for everyone in the same room. So as a party of 4 over 2 rooms we had 56 meal credits for each room on our first day (It did get a little confusing trying to remember who had used certain snack credits)

All plans do include:

2 snacks

These can be redeemed at a lot of places around Disney World not just in the parks, but at the hotels and Disney Springs. The snacks that are included in the Disney Dining plan are shown by a little purple icon (see image below). The snacks include drinks, food items and sometimes includes starters or sides at some self service restaurants (look out for Flame Tree Barbecue in Animal Kingdom because when I went in 2018 they had french fries with pulled pork and cheese as a snack). The snack credits can even be used in gift shops with their food items such as lollies and popcorn. During my last visit, part the party did not use all their snack credits by the last day, so they used them to get food items as presents for friends.

A refillable mug

These are very useful and you will be given a receipt when you check in to get one. The one problem with the refillable mug is that they are restricted. Firstly, you can only use them in the hotels self serve areas. The other restriction is a time limit between your drinks, it is only five minutes, but when I have seen people refilling their mugs and they were not aware that there was a time limit between drinks so thought the machine had stopped working. You get to keep your mug as a souvenir.

1 drink with your meal

At most self service places there is not a free refill service, but with the waiter service the soft drinks have free refills included.

Recently Disney have included alcoholic drinks to be included in the dining plans.

The different plans:

Quick-service plan:

For this you will get 2 meals at self service restaurants and 2 snacks for each night that you stay.

Not every self service place is burgers or pizzas, as I've already written about there is a barbecue restaurant in Animal Kingdom. One of the best places is The Land pavilion in EPCOT (I will go though all the options as part of the service I offer).

How you have the meal is up to you, most breakfasts are self service and then you can have another meal any other point during the day. Again the choice is not restricted to the parks there is a range of self service places at Disney Springs (Earl of Sandwich) and in the hotels (Everything POP! - Pop Century Resort).

If you do want a waiter service meal you can pay out of pocket for them.

Disney Dining plan

This plan has a mixture between self serve and waiter service meals. Each night you stay for you get 1 self serve, 1 waiter service and 2 snacks.

In the past, I have had the majority of my breakfasts as self service meals but there is a wide range of choice from cooked breakfasts to cereals. Then in the afternoon/evening having a waiter service meal. Again it's your choice what you do.

With having waiter service meals you can use 2 meal credits in one meal for an experience meal such as meeting characters. These experiences take place throughout the day and can actually be a great memory.

Depending on the restaurant/ experience depends on how many credits each meal is worth but majority of waiter service meals are worth 1 credit. (This would also be a part of the service explaining the different restaurants and all the choices you have in the parks and hotels).

The Deluxe Dining Plan

The difference for this plan is that you have 3 meals a day and you can choose what you have either self or waiter service. This plan is useful you if plan on doing a lot of character meals and meal experiences, because, as stated before, they take up 2 meal credits.

There is more option for your money with this option, but if I'm being honest I've not used this plan because the Dining plan itself is just right for what I need.

Some examples of meals which is worth 2 credits is Le Cellier at EPCOT because it is a top end steakhouse with a wide range of different cuts of meat. Meanwhile Cinderella's Royal table is a 2 credit meal because there is characters who visit the tables while you are eating.

Le Cellier Steakhouse Entrance way

This is the logo to show which snacks are included in the Disney Dining plan