Last week, Disney announced a number of big changes coming to Walt Disney World in 2024. One of those changes that is getting the most attention is the return of the Disney Dining Plan. This is a pre-pandemic feature where guests staying at a WDW hotel could pre-pay for their on-property meals prior to their trip. The popularity stemmed from the fact that you could budget for dining in advance and, if you took full advantage of the plan, you might actually save money. In addition, Disney sometimes offered “free dining”. This is where you could get a dining plan added to your vacation for free if you booked a non-discounted WDW vacation package and travelled at certain times of the year. This was probably one of their most popular incentives!
Now that the Disney Dining Plan is back, we’ll dive into some of the details of what the plan consists of and whether or not it is worth it.
What Is the Disney Dining Plan?
Essentially, each person in your party gets different types of meal credits that you can use during your trip. The number and type of credits depends upon the length of stay and the type of plan you choose.
Disney will be offering two types of plans.
Quick Service Dining Plan
With this plan, each person gets the following credits per night of stay
- Two quick service dining credits
- One snack credits
- One refillable resort mug that can be used for unlimited drinks at select resort locations
Although details of the current iteration of the Quick Service Dining Plan are still coming out, in the past a quick service credit included your entree and drink, while a snack was anything that was marked with a special icon on the menu.
In addition, certain alcoholic and specialty drinks had qualified as your “drink” on the dining plan, but we will see if the same feature applies to the new plan.
Finally, for guests between the ages of 3-9, your meal must be purchased from the children’s menu. However, the cost of a child’s plan is less, so this makes up for that restriction.
Disney Dining Plan
With this plan, each person gets the following credits per night of stay
- One table service credit
- One quick service credit
- One snack credit
- One refillable mug
Essentially, this plan upgrades one of your daily quick service credits for a table service credit.
Table service credits are good at most sit-down style WDW restaurant. Again, details of the new version of the plan are limited, but in the past each credit entitles you to an entree, a dessert, and drink (including many alcoholic or specialty drinks)
Other Important Details
- Everybody staying on your reservation MUST have the same dining plan. You can’t have one person on a Quick Service Plan, one person on the regular Disney Dining Plan, one person on no plan.
- You must purchase the plan for every night of your stay. If you are staying, say, for five nights, you cannot purchase the plan just for three nights. You need to purchase it for all five nights.
- Certain signature restaurants (think character meals or fine dining restaurants) require that you use TWO table service credits per person.
- You don’t have to use your daily allotment of credits all in one day. For instance, if you are on the Disney Dining Plan, you might decide that you want to have two quick service meals on one day, and then two table service meals the next day. Feel free to allocate them as you see fit.
- Children ages 3-9 generally have to use their credits on the children’s menu. However, note that their plan costs less as a result.
- In the past, you were able to “trade” a table service credit for a quick service credit. While this does allow for some additional flexibility, it does not offer good value for obvious reasons.
- In the past, you were able to “trade” a quick service credit for three snack credits. This was useful if you were visiting Epcot during a festival, as many festival foods counted as snacks. Also, if you had dining credits left over at the end of your trip, you could redeem them for, say, a bunch of Mickey Rice Krispy Treats of other pre-packaged snack. Not the most economical use of your credits, but better than letting them expire.
Since not all of the details of the current iteration of the plan are out, some of the above may be subject to change.
Is It Worth It?
It is hard to answer that question at this point, since we don’t yet know the pricing of the plans. Since dining prices have gone up since 2020 when the plan was last offered, I would expect that the prices of the dining plans are going to raised as well.
However, based upon past experience with the plan, here is what I see as the pros and cons
Reasons To Purchase the Plan
You Commit To Taking Full Advantage of the Plan
If you would normally purchase the meals that the plan provides, then there is a good chance that you will at least break even on the plan.
You Like the Convenience of Pre-paying For Food
This commonly is cited as a reason why people buy the plan. They like paying for their food up front so when they go on vacation, they can just relax and enjoy without having to worry about regulating their spending on meals
You Think the Cost of Food Will Go Up
When you purchase the Dining Plan, you essentially are locking in the cost of your meals. If between the time you purchase the plan and your trip, the cost of food rises, you don’t have to worry since you have already paid. This could be a bigger advantage the further out from your vacation you are.
You Order Alcohol With Meals
Because alcoholic drinks are presumably also included, you can get good value if you are a drinker, since alcohol is more expensive than soft drinks. This, of course, assumes that the plan will continue to offer this as an option.
Reasons To Skip the Plan
You Don’t Think You Will Be Able To Use All Your Credits
The regular Disney Dining Plan commits you to one table service meal per day. For a lot of people, this is a big time commitment. If you are on the go, you might not have time for a sit down meal. Or you might not have the desire or ability to get dining reservations at your preferred locations to use your table service credits. Or you might be spending part of your trip doing off-property activities.
Yes, you can do things like trade a table service credit for a quick service credit so they aren’t totally wasted, but you are not getting full value out of the plan if you do that.
You Have Children
There are two scenarios where children might not be able to get good value from the dining plan
- Children Under 10: Kids in this age group MUST order off the kid’s menu when you use the plan. However, if your child prefers something on the adult menu, then their credits will be wasted.
- Children 10 and Older: On the flip side, if you have an older child who is considered a “Disney Adult” who maybe isn’t ready for an adult meal (either because of portion size or selection), then their credits will be under-utilized.
Light Eaters
If you have someone in your party who is going to order the smallest, least expensive items, or skip desserts, or skip meals altogether, obviously, you aren’t going to get good value when this person uses their credits.
You Value Flexibility
If you are going to commit to a table service meal everyday, that means that you are going to have to lock in your dining reservations in advance, most likely. If you want to change your plans, you are now faced with how to deal with those reservations. In many cases, there is a penalty for not cancelling far enough in advance, so you might have to eat that cost. And even if you can cancel without penalty, you now need to find a new place to dine. Or you might just have to forgo that table service credit altogether.
Another scenario: let’s say you go to an Epcot festival and you just want to snack around the world all day. That likely means that you won’t be wanting any sort of table service, as you will be too full from your snacking foray.
Bottom line is that the dining plan can be a commitment which could reduce your ability to be spontaneous or adventurous.
Conclusion
Overall, I am happy that the dining plan is back. Anything that gives people more options is a good thing. However, it does add another decision to your list of decisions when planning your next trip. Do I get it? Do I skip it?
While we still need to see the pricing to be sure, there definitely are times when it might be worthwhile and other times when it isn’t. Weigh the pros and cons for yourself and decide what you think will work best for you!
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