Dining at Walt Disney World is on one level a visual delight due to the variations, themes, and characters that live within each dining location around the parks and resorts. It can also be a financial nightmare if not planned (remember I'm a planner) and thought through on some level.
Disney Dining Plans are, to me, actually more of a way to add a bit of convenience to your dining experience while at WDW. Unfortunately with 5 plans to chose from it can be a bit overwhelming and confusing for a person deciding on a plan for the first time. This is our first trip where we're considering a Dining Plan so I've been doing a bit of research.
What I did was read what Disney themselves say.......you can find that at Disney's site. I always look to go beyond what the company line is so another site I used during my research is the Disney Food Blog. The last site I've used is DisDining.com. There are other sites where you can get information but these 3 have been my primary source of basic information.
Dining plans - Quick definitions
To start, each plan is based on the length of stay at a Disney Resort. Second, pricing is based on "Guests over age 10" and "Guests age 3 to 9. Note, those guests under 3 are not included, but can share an adult dinner or a meal can be purchased at an added price. The 5 plans (as taken from the Disney Food Blog - Note cost info was taken from DIS Boards are:
Quick-Service Dining Plan (2014 A-39.64/per night C-15.75/per night)
Includes Per Person, Per Night: This plan includes counter service (e.g. fast food) meals and snacks at most quick service dining locations in the Walt Disney World Resort.
Two quick service meals (entrée or combo meal, dessert at lunch and dinner and a non-alcoholic beverage)
One snack
One Resort refillable drink mug per person, per package
Standard Dining Plan (2014 A-58.66/per night C-18.88/per night)
Includes: Each person on the meal plan will receive credits for the following, per day
One table service or buffet meal, including appetizer (for kids 3-9 ONLY, at lunch & dinner), entrée, dessert, OR full buffet, plus non-alcoholic beverage
One quick service meal, including entrée, dessert, plus non-alcoholic beverage, OR combo meal plus non-alcoholic beverage, dessert
One snack from a wide variety of options
One Resort refillable drink mug per person, per package
Deluxe Dining Plan (2014 A-104.94/per night C-29.51/per night)
Includes: Each member of your party receives the following, per night:
Three table service or quick service meals:
table service includes entrée, appetizer and dessert, OR full buffet, plus non-alcoholic beverage
quick service includes entrée, dessert, plus non-alcoholic beverage, OR combo meal plus plus non-alcoholic beverage OR combo meal plus dessert and non-alcoholic beverage
Two snacks from a wide variety of options
One resort refillable mug per person, per package
Premium Dining Plan (2014 A-194.00/per night C-135.00/per night)
Includes: Each member of your party receives the following, per night:
Three table service or quick service meals:
table service includes entrée, appetizer and dessert, OR full buffet, plus non-alcoholic beverage
quick service includes entrée, dessert, plus non-alcoholic beverage, OR combo meal plus plus non-alcoholic beverage OR combo meal plus dessert and non-alcoholic beverage
Two snacks from a wide variety of options
One resort refillable mug per person, per package
plus unlimited use of select recreation including golf, tickets to the Cirque du Soleil show, La Nouba and more!
Platinum Dining Plan (2014 A-254.00/per night C-175.00/per night)
Includes: Each member of your party receives the following, per night:
Three table service or quick service meals:
table service includes entrée, appetizer and dessert, OR full buffet, plus non-alcoholic beverage
quick service includes entrée, dessert, plus non-alcoholic beverage, OR combo meal plus plus non-alcoholic beverage OR combo meal plus dessert and non-alcoholic beverage
Two snacks from a wide variety of options
One resort refillable mug per person, per package
plus: pre-arrival planning services, a dazzling fireworks cruise, reserved seating at Fantasmic!, a select spa treatment, turndown service and more!
Understand your dining credits
Before we decide what plan to choose we need to understand how the plan rules fit in with our dining choices.
As explained above each restaurant is given a Dining Plan credit value. Donna and I prefer table service restaurants during our visits, and we plan each of our meals to be at this style of restaurant (buffets included). What this means is that some of our selections may be more than the Standard 1 credit meals. You can find a breakdown of Restaurant versus Dining Plan credit at this link from the Disney food blog.
Below is a table of our ADR's for the week and the Dining Plan Credits for each
Date | Location | Meal | Priority | Name | Best Time | Dining Credits/person |
15-Sep | HS | D | 7 | Mama Melrose/Fantasmic package | 6:30pm | 1 |
16-Sep | CR | B | 4 | Chef Mickey's - character breakfast | 7:00am | 1 |
16-Sep | WL | L | 10 | Whispering Canyon | 12:30pm | 1 |
16-Sep | MK | D | 1 | Be Our Guest | 6:00pm | 1 |
17-Sep | BC | B | 5 | Cape May Café - character breakfast | 8:15am | 1 |
17-Sep | EP | L | 11 | Coral Reef | 12:00pm | 1 |
17-Sep | EP | D | 3 | Rose & Crown Pub | 7:45pm | 1 |
18-Sep | WL | B | 9 | Whispering Canyon | 8:00am | 1 |
18-Sep | HS | L | 8 | Sci-Fi Restaurant | 12:45pm | 1 |
18-Sep | CR | D | 2 | California Grill | 8:15pm | 2 |
19-Sep | AK | B | 6 | TuskerHouse - character breakfast | 8:00am | 1 |
12 |
Notice the only restaurant that requires more than 1 credit is our dinner at the California Grill. Based on this chart Donna and I will need 24 credits to have all of our meals covered by the Dining plan.
Which Plan works for us (or you)?
Choosing a Dining Plan like everything I've discussed on this blog is a personal decision, based on several factors. In no particular order that decision is be made based on the number of folks in your party.......including little ones as previously defined above. How your family eats, do you prefer simple foods (Hamburgers/HotDogs) or do you like fine dining. How each of your ADR choices fit into the Dining plan with regards to "credits" as explained above. And of course, COST.
Breaking down the costs
When looking at the cost of going with the Dining Plan I did a cost comparison for each restaurant on our ADR list. What I looked at was an estimate of what we'd most like have for the meal and that cost has taken from the most current menu cost I could find ( this info is available on multiple sites ). One huge caveat here is that the DDP's do not include the cost of alcohol or tips so I didn't include it in my comparison, I figure that's coming out of my pocket no matter what.
What I found is that for the 11 meals we have on our list the total estimated cost is $879.52. What that includes is some of the more expensive entries at many of the restaurants on the list. This is realistic since both Donna and I love steak, and Donna also likes seafood. It's impossible to not include those entree's. It's an estimate but I'm ok with using it to make my decision.
So..........what do we choose?
Now Donna and I are just a party of 2 so the cost is somewhat muted, however we do prefer more complex meals (a euphemism for steak and seafood. ) which cancels that. Based on this information I easily removed the Quick Service and Standard plans, since they didn't satisfy the number of meals we want to use or our complex criteria. The cost of the Platinum plan and the relatively short length of our stay is what had me removing that plan from the discussion.
That left us with the Deluxe and Premium Plans. The Premium Plan includes "access to recreation activities, tickets to Cirque du Soleil, and other things and it costs roughly $80/day per person "more" than the Deluxe plan. Since Donna and I aren't into unlimited miniature golf and don't have a night to spend at Downtown Disney this choice was easy. When I look at the Deluxe plan it meets all of our requirements. What was really good was when comparing the cost of this plan for the time of our trip which is $839.52, to the estimated cost of our ADR's (sans tip and alcohol.....) $879.52, we are saving $40. Now that doesn't sound like a lot, but when you put all "our" criteria the only plan that met it all AND saved us money..........was the Deluxe plan. We chose the "Deluxe Disney Dining Plan",
...............or should I say IF we do this we'll choose the Deluxe Plan.
After all of this analysis, and believe me this blog post really doesn't get into all the work I did looking into this, we have not added the dining plan to our package..............yet. We have time but there are always considerations. Again, like everything in planning a Disney vacation your choices are very personal and your reasoning is totally yours. So we're holding on to this and not making any commitments at this time because we don't have to yet.
However, the money will be spent.........that is inevitable so it's just a matter of when we make it available. And remember this too..............it can always change.......................
Final thoughts
Please understand in no way does this post get into the detail of what the Disney Dining Plan is. What I've written here is a summary of my approach to choosing a plan for our vacation. If it helps you.........cool! If it doesn't or if you feel you need more............. can I suggest you use the links I've included in the post and get into the detail. Yes it may give you a headache, as it did me, but it will definitely help in your assumptions about dining at WDW and make your plan better.
NEXT up is ADR Day results and thoughts