The Disney Dining Plan(DDP) is one of the least understood add-ons to a reservation by people who have never used it before. The DDP is often offered “free” with vacation packages booked between certain dates. Many of those dates occur later in the summer, around August. This is a great time to take advantage of this offer, as free dining can make your trip quite a bit more enjoyable. There is no need to get a room equipped with a kitchenette, drive off property to find a restaurant, go shopping for food, etc. As stated above, Disney will run many “free dining plan” specials if you stay between certain dates and book a Disney resort room package for a certain number of nights. The DDP is only available to those staying in a Disney owned resort. You must book a “Magic Your Way” package at the time you make your reservation to get the DDP. This means you have to book a room, the DDP for the same amount of nights that you book the room, and at least 1 day of theme park tickets. All guests staying in your room must be on the same DDP. Children under age 3 are not charged for the DDP but will also not be given a meal, sharing is recommended in this case. Disney considers kids over age 10 to be adults.
Unfortunately, it is not possible to reserve rooms at two different Disney resorts during the same trip and get one low price on everything. This is called resort hopping. Disney will consider this as two different stays, so the price will be higher than one long stay at one resort. Only Disney Vacation Club members can break a trip up like this and still get the DDP for each resort. As a DVC member it makes it much easier to resort hop to see which one is your favorite, and I’m all for making it possible for everyone to do this.
There are three main DDP’s available and there are a few special plans such as a Wine and Dine plan, details of which can be found on Disney’s site. Each plan allows every member of a party staying in the same room the same amenities. Here is a link to Disney’s site with the current dining plan offerings.http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/planning-guides/in-depth-advice/disney-dining-plan/. It is important to note that the DDP is offered per nights stay. In other words, a three night four day package includes credits for three days worth of meals, not four. However. the meal credits will not expire until midnight on the day that you check out of your resort. We will explain how to stretch these meals into all four days in a bit.
First is the “quick serve” plan. This entitles every member in your party two quick serve meals, two snacks, and one refillable resort mug per person per nights stay. The resort mugs are only refillable at the Disney resort you are staying at. Quick service locations are those that serve full meals but are not sit down restaurants. They will include your choice of entree, drink and dessert for adults. Kids choices vary among quick service eateries but usually include a kids entree, such as pizza or chicken nuggets, two side dishes such as grapes, applesauce, or cookie, and a drink.
The “Disney dining plan” is the second tier plan. It includes one quick service meal, one table service (sit down) meal, and one snack per person per nights stay. Starting in 2012 it will include 1 refillable resort mug per person. Also, tips are not included at the table service restaurants. Tips generally come to about $20 per meal based on 18-20% tipping. They are optional, but Disney’s food and servers usually deserve the tip. While quick service meals are rather quick, taking on average half an hour or so, a table service meal will require at least an hour and a half of your time. You have to check in at the restaurant and usually wait about 15-20 minutes for a table to be ready.
The “Deluxe Dining Plan” is the top tier plan. It includes three table service meals per person, two snacks per person, and one refillable resort mug per person. This plan is best suited to people who want to enjoy many of the 2 meal credit character meals available, like Cinderella’s Royal Table, or shows like the Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue or Disney’s Spirit of Aloha show at the Polynesian resort. Disney’s signature dining restaurants such as Victoria and Albert’s at the Grand Floridian also use two meal credits per meal. These are equivalent to 5 star restaurants and will easily cost $100+ dollars per person if paying cash. They tend to be more intimate settings and most require some type of dress code to enter.
Reservations at table service restaurants are a must if you want to make sure you can dine there, especially during periods when “free DDP” is offered. These can be made online at Walt Disney World’s website http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/reservations/dining/. We strongly recommend that you make reservations as soon as possible. Disney allows reservations to be made 180 in advance of your first nights’ stay. Restaurants such as Cinderella’s Royal Table and Le Cellier will fill up very quickly, and if you don’t get an early start you may be disappointed, but never stop trying. Cancellations do occur and you may get lucky. For Cinderella’s Royal Table call exactly 180 days out at 8 am to have the best chance of getting a reservation. Some reservations require a credit card number, which will be charged a fee if you do not cancel or show up for the reservation.
In order to stretch your meals throughout your trip, do not think of them as per day meals, though that’s how Disney presents them. Each meal is issued as a credit on your room charge key. You must use each credit by midnight of the day you check out, or all remaining credits are forfeited. So for a three night quick serve stay, you will have 6 quick serve meal credits and 6 snack credits. They are yours to use as you wish. You can use three quick service credits in one day, and not use any another day. Your receipt given to you after each order or meal will state how many credits are remaining. This allows you to spread your credits over the entire stay and hopefully cover that last day. It also allows you to use cash to pay for some meals at places that are cheaper to eat, or places where you simply do not get as much value for your dollar. Save meal credits for expensive meals and snack credits for expensive snacks. Do not buy a $1.99 soda on a snack credit when you can get a $3.49 dessert in the Norway pavilion in EPCOT for the same credit!
We will update this post as needed and reviews of quick and table service restaurants are coming soon!
planningforwdw 