Once upon a time the folks at Walt Disney World decided to make it easier for us to pay for our vacations in advance. They created the Disney Dining Plan. That was the year 2005. Today, just seven years later, the plan has undergone many changes and has lost much of it’s value. The original Disney Dining Plan (DDP) included 1 Table Service Meal: appetizer, entreé, dessert and tip, 1 Counter Service Meal, and 1 snack per night. The cost was only about $34 per adult per night. It was extremely easy to save a ton of money using the plan, even as the price rose in the following years. Most Disney Restaurants that were 1 Table Service credit to dine out at, covered the cost of the whole day’s plan! Then Disney started to change the program. 2008 was really the watershed year for the Dining Plan value. In 2008 Disney removed both the appetizer and the gratuity from the program.
Current Refillable Mug
Today there are three different Disney Dining Plans. The Quick Service Dining plan provides 2 Counter Service Meals, 1 snack and 1 refillable mug per person, per night. The cost is $34.99 for adults and $11.99 for children. This is what we were paying for the REGULAR dining plan only seven years ago. The Disney Dining Plan in 2012 costs $51.54 for adults and $15.09 for children, keeping in mind that you will also have to add gratuity to your check at your sit down meal, the cost is actually higher per day. This plan still includes 1 Table Service Meal: entreé, dessert and non-alcoholic beverage, 1 Counter Service Meal,1 snack, and 1 refillable mug. The Deluxe Disney Dining plan, which includes 3 Table Service Meals: appetizer, entreé, dessert, and non-alcoholic beverage, 2 snacks, and 1 refillable mug costs $85.52 for adults and $23.79 per child.
Now let’s look at a typical food day for a vacationing adult, who is using the Disney Dining Plan. Breakfast: use a snack credit to get a bagel from the resort food court. Cost Out Of Pocket (OOP) would have been $2.59. Lunch: use a Counter Service Meal credit at Pecos Bill’s in the Magic Kingdom for a cheeseburger meal. Cost OOP would have been $11.28 for the burger and a drink, or $14.87 if you actually want that shrink wrapped chocolate cake. Dinner: use a Table Service Meal credit at Liberty Tree Tavern. Cost OOP would have been $31.99, plus tip–but you would have paid the tip using the DDP so let’s assume $6.00 for tip, which we also have to add to the cost of the DDP for the day, bringing the total of the DDP cost to $57.54. The total OOP cost for the day is $55.45.
If you have an Annual Pass, are a DVC Member or a Florida resident you can purchase a Tables In Wonderland card that will get
Tables in Wonderland?
you a 20% discount at almost all Table Service meals and even a few Counter Service meals. The Tables in Wonderland card costs between $75 and $100, depending on which category you fall into. The break even point for the card starts at about $350 worth of food. If you think that your family is going to spend at least $350 on food at Walt Disney World during the course of the year, the Tables in Wonderland card is probably the right choice for you! Plus TiW discounts include alcoholic beverages as well and the card is accepted at many of the resort bars and lounges as well as restaurants.
There is also the almost annual promotion that provides free Disney Dining Plans for anyone paying the rack rate for a package during the late summer and early fall. Don’t “fall” for it! The amount of money you can save on your room and tickets using a room only discount code and buying tickets from a discount broker, like Undercover Tourist, or Maple Leaf Tickets, will save you far more money than free dining.
I’m giving the Disney Dining Plan a thumbs down for cost, value, and flexibility. I’d rather be able to decide to order two appetizers and no entreé than to have my meal paid for in advance. The convenience of pre-paying for your meals may look attractive, but it doesn’t save you any money. You’d do just as well to put the money onto a Disney or Visa/American Express Gift Card if you’d like to have it put away before your trip. Another idea would be to open a savings account for saving your dining money and move it to your checking account right before the trip, or if you bank using your smart phone, you could move it as needed into your checking account.
Happy Eating Everyone!
I especially like your suggestions on how to pay for your meals before you go–without doing the dining plan. To me, the bother of counting my meal credits coupled with the decreased flexibility (as you know, I also like to order only appetizers) means I’ll never do the dining plan. And seeing your math, I’m even more convinced.
Great post!
You are probably correct in saying the dining plan won’t save you money. However, we are going to WDW and having been there twice a year for the past few years, we have no expectation of saving money. We get the dining plan because it is convenient and we make sure we book the trip(s) when the dining plan is included in the booking. After the first trip to WDW three decades ago, we realized that saving money was not going to be very successful if we wanted to enjoy ourselves.
Hi Heather!
Thank you so much for this post! We have been tossing around the idea of whether or not we’d do the dining plan this year and this will help a lot in our decision.
We’re booked with a pin code room discount and haven’t booked the plan yet. We’ve gotten it for the last 3 trips but it has been free and there were no room discounts for our dates so we figured we were at least saving something. But we decided we didn’t want to be tied down to ADRs either on this trip. My boys would be just as happy with pizza, chicken nuggets and burgers and I know there are some good CS choices that are not in those three categories for my DH and I. We’ll be referring to your blog when we make this decision.
Thanks so much 🙂
Dawn
I agree that the dining plan is not a great value when purchased, but disagree that free dining is not a great promo if you use it properly. I booked all my sit-downs before the promo was even announced. It really makes my family feel like we are splurging to have a great sit down everyday and a counter service where ever we want without thinking about the cost. Yes, I could do the whole trip cheaper, but I don’t want to live on PB&J all week either.
I completely agree with Heather about the dollar value of the dining plan. You can also take into account that most people, (I think,) don’t need a sit-down, table service meal every day of their vacation. I know we wouldn’t. That being said; Last fall we already had our trip booked when they added in free dining. Naturally, I snatched it up! It was awesome!!! We never have eaten so well and without care on a vacation! I did extensive research on the restaurants and chose carefully. California Grill was without a doubt worth the 2 credits for the meal! Cape May’s seafood buffet was also wonderful!! So, while it won’t save you as much as the room discount, it’s awesome!!!
Hi Heather,
Thank you for your review of the DDP. I had used it when it first came out, but have also found it to be of less and less value. Especially when you don’t have confirmed dining plans. You may find yourself paying for meals you never use!
Ed
I like your article,:) but have to disagree about the free fall dining. Our family of 4 is able to stay 5 nights/6 days this fall w/free dining for $285 cheaper than the 4 nights/5 days that we were originally booked for. I think it depends on how many are in your party & what their ages are, as we have one child now considered an adult at 10 years old. It also depends on how much & where you like to eat. We have eaters who love the high priced character meals, so for us it works to our advantage.
But..the kids price, especially if you plan
But..the kids price, especially if you plan On character meals, or if you have more than 2 kids is still a good deal.
I have found it is a good deal for our needs, however we enjoy going to the signature restaurants and trying the appetizers, entrees and desserts we would not otherwise splurge on if we were dining out for each meal. We are very wise with the restaurants we select for our lunch choices, and utilize the ADR ahead of time to maximize our dining plan. I totaled up our meals and snacks, and we saved nearly 50% off the cost of our selections. I agree that the dining plan is not cost efficient for everyone’s budget and tastes, but for us, it is a fantastic savings, and a great way to sample fabulous food from restaurants all over the Disney World Resort.
Sorry but I have to disagree. My family of 4 went to Disney at March break and we had the Deluxe Dining plan and we loved it. We would have a quick breakfast from Mara (in Jambo house) but 4 times we also sat and had brunches. Once at the Crystal Palace, twice at Boma and once at the Tusker house. Seeing the bills made me very glad we had the dining plan. It was great just handing our disney card to the server and not have to worry about paying. Lunch and dinner were always sit down and we enjoyed our time at each of the different restaurants. Plus we got to eat more than burgers and fries.
If you watch when you book then take advantage of the dining plan sales. But I for one will always get it.
I agree with the author. In my opinion Didney has priced the dining plans out of the market for our future trips. We used it in 2007 and 2010 when it still had value. The convenience of prepaid meals just isn’t enough to entice us to pay for this overpriced plan.
I found the DDP to be awesome for my family. We live on the west coast so a trip Disney World was a BIG deal. I really liked knowing that everything was paid for before hand and I didn’t have to worry about what the kids were wanting off the menu. It may not save much money, but the piece of mind was well worth it. We actually did save quite a bit of money because my 4 teenagers thought it was really cool that they could order the most expensive thing on the menu which they did at every restaurant!
Thanks for the info….happy that someone actually broke down the prices. I agree with you…I do wish they would come up with a plan that could save us a few dollars.
Where can you purchase the Tables in Wonderland card?
Guest Relations in each park or Downtown Disney