We've written many articles about how much Disney World has changed since the start of the pandemic. Luckily, most of Disney's recent changes are swinging toward making upcoming trips feel like they did before the park temporarily closed in 2020.
In fact, a recent trip had me feeling like "for the first time in forever," things at Disney World felt really normal again.
One offering has been very slow to return, and some frequent Disney World visitors have been not-so-patiently waiting for it: the Disney Dining Plans.
The wait is finally over. As of Jan. 9, Disney dining plans are available for guests booking vacation packages, including a hotel stay and theme park tickets or resort-only reservations. This means you can have snacks, quick-service meals and even sit-down character meals all included in one price.
Related: The best restaurants at Disney World in 2024
The idea of bundling the cost of meals into your Disney World vacation is certainly enticing, but is it convenient — and filling — enough to justify the cost? It's been a few years since Disney dining plans were available, so we put on our stretchy pants and tried it out.
Here's everything you need to know about Disney Dining Plans before you decide to buy one for your 2024 trip.
What is the Disney Dining Plan?
With a Disney Dining Plan, you can prepay for a specified number of meals and snacks for your Disney World vacation and receive an allotment of meal and snack "credits" to use during your stay. The total number of credits you'll receive depends on the length of your trip. For example, if you stay for three nights and buy the Dining Plan, you'll get three days' worth of meals and snacks to redeem.
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In addition to the convenience of prepaying for your meals, the Disney dining plan is somewhat flexible. You aren't required to redeem a set number of meals and snacks each day; you can use them anytime during your stay.
If there is a day when you don't use all of your credits, you'll have even more meals and snacks to use the next day. If you have leftover snack credits at the end of your trip, you can stock up on prepackaged treats to take home and fend off the post-Disney blues.
What is included in a Disney Dining Plan?
There are currently two Disney Dining Plans that you can purchase for your 2024 vacations.
Each person in your party will receive two meals and one snack per day, along with a mug that you can use for unlimited soda, water and coffee refills at your Disney hotel (though not inside the parks).
The Disney Quick-Service Dining Plan focuses on quick-service meals. The Disney Dining Plan includes options for daily table-service meals. Here is what you'll get with each Disney dining package:
Disney Quick-Service Dining Plan
- Two quick-service meals per night stayed
- A snack or nonalcoholic drink per night stayed
- One refillable drink mug with unlimited refills at your resort
Disney Dining Plan
- One table-service meal per night stayed
- One quick-service meal per night stayed
- A snack or nonalcoholic drink per night stayed
- One refillable drink mug with unlimited refills at your resort
A quick-service meal includes an entree and beverage (alcoholic or nonalcoholic) at any eligible quick-service dining location, such as Woody's Lunch Box in Hollywood Studios, Columbia Harbour House in the Magic Kingdom or Capt. Cook's at Disney's Polynesian Village Resort.
These are essentially the spots where a waiter doesn't come to your table. Instead, you pick your food up from the counter.
For breakfast, a table-service meal includes an entree, buffet or family-style meal and a beverage (alcoholic or nonalcoholic) at any participating table-service restaurant. For brunch, lunch or dinner, you can also order a dessert with your entree at table-service restaurants.
Related: Tips for visiting Disney World: 18 ways to save money and have more fun
If you want to add the Disney Dining Plan to your vacation, you are required to purchase it for your entire party (with the exception of children under age 3), and only guests listed on your reservation are eligible to use dining plan credits. If you purchase a Disney Dining Plan for a child age 3 to 9, you must order from the children's menu at any restaurant that offers one.
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Snacks on both plans include single-serve items like popsicles, ice cream bars (including the iconic Mickey ice cream bar), a box of popcorn, a 20-ounce soda, a Dole Whip soft serve, a specialty coffee, a pastry, a piece of whole fruit and more.
Menu items that are eligible for the Disney Dining Plan will be notated with a special icon. You can also use your snack credits to purchase bags of snacks at your hotel gift shop or other retail locations.
Participating dining locations should have details on their website regarding which dining plans are accepted and how many credits you'll need to redeem to dine there, as it could be one or two credits.
Some fine dining restaurants, such as Takumi-Tei in Epcot and , do not accept the dining plan at all.
Keeping track of your credits is also relatively simple. You should see your remaining credits printed on the receipt each time you redeem a credit (or on your emailed receipt if you use a mobile order).
You can also check on your remaining balance in the My Disney Experience app. Under the "Resort Hotel" section, click "Check Dining Plan" to see your remaining balance.
Related: These are the best credit cards to use at Disney
How much does a Disney Dining Plan cost?
The cost of a Disney dining plan depends on your chosen plan and the length of your stay. Pricing starts at $57 per night for adults and $23 for kids.
Here is a more detailed nightly breakdown of each plan:
Disney Quick-Service Dining Plan
- Adults: $57.01
- Children age 3 to 9: $23.83
Disney Dining Plan
- Adults: $94.28
- Children age 3 to 9: $26.69
Tax is already included when you redeem a credit for a meal or snack, but you will still have to pay out of pocket for tips at table-service restaurants. That will add to the plan's overall cost, so factor that in if you're considering purchasing the table-service Disney Dining Plan.
How do you purchase a Disney Dining Plan?
There are two ways to purchase a Disney Dining Plan. You can include a dining plan when you purchase your Disney World vacation package online, over the phone or through an authorized Disney vacation planner. Or, you can add it anytime after you purchase your vacation package until the day before your arrival.
Is a Disney Dining Plan worth it?
Now for the fun part — eating. I visited Disney World on the day Disney Dining Plans returned to determine how much food you get and whether the plan provides more value than if you paid for your meals out of pocket.
For the purposes of this very delicious test, I purchased the table-service Disney Dining Plan as part of a two-night stay at Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort. My plan came with one quick-service meal, one table-service meal and one snack per day, along with the refillable mug. The total cost of my two-night Disney dining plan was $188.56.
Here's a breakdown of how I redeemed my credits for meals and snacks during my stay, along with the pretax cash prices for each.
| Restaurant | Items ordered | Cash price | Credits redeemed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chefs de France at Epcot | Menu Francais (prix fixe): Goat cheese salad, beef bourguignon, creme brulee and a glass of chardonnay | $65.95 | 1 Table-Service credit |
| Flame Tree Barbecue at Animal Kingdom | Ribs, chicken and pulled pork sampler with coleslaw, Rotten Apple co*cktail | $31.99 | 1 Quick-Service credit |
| Tamu Tamu at Animal Kingdom | Dole Whip pineapple juice float | $6.49 | 1 Snack credit |
| Hollywood and Vine at Hollywood Studios | Lunch buffet with Fantasmic Dining Package, Celebrity Margarita | $91 | 1 Table-Service credit |
| La Cantina de San Angel at Epcot | Guacamole with totopos, frozen margarita | $24.50 | 1 Quick-Service credit |
| Le Petit Cafe at Disney's Riviera Resort | Iced Americano | $4.29 | 1 Snack credit |
| TOTAL | $224.22 |
I ordered $224.22 worth of food if I had paid the listed cash prices, but instead, I only paid $188.56 using the Disney Dining Plan. This means that I came out ahead by using the dining plan versus paying out of pocket as I went along. These totals don't include gratuities, which are not included in the cost of a Disney Dining Plan. Because you would pay gratuities regardless, I didn't include them in these calculations.
If you are a coffee or soda drinker, you could also factor in the cost of unlimited refills at your resort if that is something you would have paid money for otherwise.
Making the most of my Disney Dining Plan took a decent amount of research and planning before my trip and doing things that I might not have done otherwise, like ordering certain menu items to squeeze as much value out of the dining plan as possible, so factor that in, too.
Here are some tips for determining whether a Disney dining plan is right for you.
Tips for making the most of the Disney Dining Plan
Approximate value of each credit
As you can see, it is possible to come out ahead with a Disney Dining Plan if you maximize the value of your credits by choosing more expensive restaurants and pricier menu items on that trip. As a rule of thumb, you will not get your money's worth on the dining plan if you order menu items that are less expensive than the following approximations:
- Table-service meal: $63
- Quick-service meal: $25
- Snack: $6
For example, I ordered a few water bottles during my visit, but I paid cash instead of using a snack credit. A bottle of water is only about $3.75, so I saved my snack credits for more expensive items like a Dole Whip float ($6.49).
This also goes for entrees, desserts and drinks. Ordering alcohol (for adults) or a milkshake (for kids) with your meal will get you more value than ordering a soda; ordering a steak or seafood will probably be better than ordering a chicken or vegetable dish.
If you have your heart set on a character breakfast at Cinderella's Royal Table ($69 for adults, $42 for children ages 3-9), know that select restaurants require two table-service credits. Speaking strictly from a budgetary standpoint, using two credits worth $63 each ($126 total) for one meal worth $69 is not a good value, but it is an option if you know you won't use up your table-service credits otherwise. Also, note that not all character meals require two credits, so be strategic.
Maximizing the value of the Disney Dining Plan
- Limit meal credits for breakfast: There are certain types of meals that offer more value than others. In general, lunch and dinner are more expensive than breakfast, so you'll almost always get more value by using meal credits for those meals. Instead, purchase a pastry or other snack for breakfast and fill up your refillable mug for something to drink. If you do use a table-service meal for breakfast, go for a character meal like Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary Resort.
- Reserve special meals: You can use your table-service credits for special meals like the Fantasmic Dining Package. For one table-service credit, I dined at Hollywood and Vine, met my favorite Disney characters and received priority seating for the Fantasmic nighttime show at Hollywood Studios. This felt like a great value.
- Use snack credits for festival foods: If you are visiting during one of Epcot's annual festivals, you can save up your snack credits to "eat around the world" in the World Showcase. You can use a snack credit to purchase many of the items at the festival booths. The prices start at around $7, so you get a good value and a culinary world tour.
- Menu substitutions: You can sometimes substitute a side salad or soup for the included dessert at table-service restaurants. If you don't have a sweet tooth, this can help you get something you'll actually eat instead of losing out on your budget.
- Share meals: You can't split a family-style, buffet or prix fixe meal, but most restaurants will allow you to split an entree. If you aren't super hungry, you can use one meal credit and split the meal among your party and save your credits. This is especially helpful if you are saving up for one of those two-credit meals.
- Wait for a free dining promotion: Disney regularly releases special offers and discounts on hotel stays and vacation packages. You can sometimes get a free Disney Dining Plan as part of one of these promotions.
Should you buy a Disney Dining Plan?
Consider a few things when choosing whether a Disney Dining Plan is right for you.
You first have to consider whether or not you want that much to eat and drink in a day. If you don't use all of your credits, you are essentially leaving money on the table.
If you are interested in a Disney Dining Plan, I recommend scouting out some menus. Not only will this help you do the math to determine how much value you would get out of it, but you can also get a better idea of how much food is included and whether you actually want to eat that much.
Of course, for some people, the opportunity to not worry about food costs while enjoying time in the park is worth the price of the plan regardless of whether you "break even." Others love the "game" aspect of it. I actually found it quite fun to try and make my money back on the dining plan (I even made a spreadsheet).
This was a solo trip, so it was easy to keep track of my meals. I might have found it more stressful if I had been traveling with my family of five and had taken the same approach.
Bottom line
Whether or not the Disney Dining Plan is a good value for you depends on your budget, vacation style, and eating and drinking preferences. The "right answer" is going to be different for everyone.
Fans of this "all-inclusive-vibe" option love that you can truly leave the real world behind and live in the "Disney bubble." However, Disney Dining Plans are only worth the cost if you maximize your credits and ensure no Mickey ice cream bar, pretzel or beverage is left behind.
Related reading:
- Are the Disney Visa credit cards worth it?
- The best Disney World hotels for your next magical stay
- How you can save hundreds of dollars by renting Disney Vacation Club points
- How to use points to buy Disney tickets
- Is Disney Genie+ worth it?
Editorial disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airline or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.
