In light of the free dining offer for 2020 arriving shorty to UK bookings I thought I would write a little post about the Disney dining plan.
Background Info
We booked our September 2018 trip way back in September 2017 just as the free Disney dining promotion was coming to an end. Despite holidaying in Walt Disney World twice before we had never taken advantage of the dining plan option. After some research on the different dining plan options we decided we wanted to take advantage of the Disney Dining Plan tier. For those unaware there are three dining plan options: Quick Service Dining Plan, Disney Dining Plan and the Deluxe Dining Plan. Each plan includes a different selection of dining options and is available only to on-site resort guests. When it comes to the free dining promotion each hotel tier has a dining plan “attached” to it. However there is the option to upgrade your dining plan for an addition fee.
So let’s discuss the free dining options within the UK promotion.
Free Breakfast/Quick-Service Credit
If you stay at one of Disney’s value resorts (like Art of Animation or Pop Century) you get a free breakfast for each night of your stay. However despite it being a breakfast voucher I believe in the past you have been able to redeem this as a quick-service credit.
The Quick Service Dining Plan
This plan includes a refillable resort mug for the duration of your stay, two quick-service credits and two snacks per person per night of your stay. This option is available if you stay in one of Disney’s moderate resorts (like Caribbean Beach or Port Orleans Riverside).
The Disney Dining Plan
This option is available when you book to stay at one of Disney’s Deluxe resorts (like the Grand Flo or Beach Club). The plan includes a refillable resort mug for the duration of your stay, one quick-service credit, one table service credit and two snacks per person per night of your stay.
Deluxe Dining Plan
There is also an additional dining plan option: the Deluxe Dining plan which includes a refillable resort mug for the duration of your stay, three quick-service or table service credits and two snacks per person per night of your stay. [Wow that’s a lot of food]
Quick service, table service, snack credit, what are those?
All these yummy food terms but what do they mean? A quick service meal (sometimes known as counter or self-service) is where you order at a counter, receive you food fairly quickly and then take it to your table yourself. One quick service credit is usually an entree and a drink or a combo meal – for example chicken nuggets and chips.
A table service credit is a sit down meal. It can be a buffet or a meal where a waiter takes your order and brings your food to you. Most sit down restaurants at Walt Disney World are generally one credit however there are some (typically fancier) restaurants that are “Signature Dining” and so are two credit. These include Cinderella’s Royal Table, Hoop De Doo and Yachtsman Steakhouse. So make sure to check how many credits the restaurant you want to book is worth.
A table service credit includes one entree, one dessert and one drink or one full buffet. The drink in both the quick service and table service credits includes specialty drinks (like milkshakes, hot chocolates and smoothies) and alcoholic beverages if you are over the age of 21.
A snack credit is all of the fun stuff throughout the day like mickey bars, popcorn or bottle drinks. They are typically smaller single servings however some of the snack credits could be enough for a meal; like the chicken friend rice from Yak & Yeti in Animal Kingdom. It’s also important to note that the majority of the items from the food booths at Epcot’s festivals are included as a snack credit. To find out what qualifies for a snack you need to look for the purple and white DDP (Disney Dining Plan) logo.
If you do have leftover credits towards the end of your stay you can redeem them in other forms. For example you can swap one quick service credit for three snacks provided you purchase them all in one transaction. There are snacks that you can take home like rice krispie treats, Goofy Candy Co sweets and Ghiradelli’s chocolates. I’d recommend trying to eat at least one snack per day or using them for drinks to stay hydrated as these tend to pile up pretty easily. Before we went I wasn’t too worried about having remaining credits becasue I’d heard that there were so many “bring home” options but I will admit I was a little underwhelmed with the choices. If we went back again I’d try really hard to use snack credits to try some different snacks and for more ice creams.
How does it all work?
Honestly it’s all really simple, the hardest part is probably getting your dining reservations in the first place. If you want some advice on booking your dining reservations check out my 180 days to go post here. All of your dining credits are loaded onto your magicband at the beginning of your stay so you can use as many of them as you wish at any given time. If you’re using a quick service credit you will touch Mickey to Mickey like a contactless payment after you’ve ordered. If you’re using a table service credit your waiter/host will scan a magicband from your party at the beginning of your reservation. You can check the number of remaining credits either at the end of your receipts or using the My Disney Experience app under the resort hotel section.
How do I know which dining plan to choose?
Simple, it comes down to what kind of food you want to eat. If you’re happy enough just eat quick service meals for most of your holiday but want to go to the Hundred Acre woods one night the best option is the Quick Service Dining plan and pay out of pocket for your meal in Crystal Palace. If you’re interested in trying lots of different restaurants or you want to do a lot of signature dining the Disney Dining Plan is probably the best option. If I’m honest I can’t imagine a world where the deluxe dining plan would be required unless your plan was to eat at two credit restaurants every day.
If you’re going for the free dining promotion remember your hotel dictates which free dining you receive. However it is possible to upgrade your free dining plan if required. For example, when we booked in 2018 we stayed at Port Orleans French Quarter which came with the quick service dining plan as it’s a moderate resort. We knew that this trip we wanted to try lots of new table service restaurants so we priced the upgrade options and compared these to booking a stay in a deluxe resort. For us it worked out cheaper to upgrade the dining plans that to stay in the deluxe resort for the same duration. This could be due to the fact we booked almost at the end of the free dining promotion (some dates were sold out by this stage) so just keep it in mind if you want to upgrade your dining plan.
All in all the dining plan is a fantastic option for trying new foods. It was also nice to go on holiday knowing the majority of your food was paid for in advanced. I’m still not entirely sure if I would pay for the dining plan out of pocket as it is slightly pricey but I would definitely take advantage of free dining on our next Disney trip if possible. Any other questions about the dining plan just pop them in the comments below, I’d be happy to help. Until next time…
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[…] I’ve briefly covered this in my post about Disney Dining Plans here, but let’s recap. A table service restaurant is any restaurant where a waiter seats you/takes […]
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