Voice of Travel

 

With rumors about Disney offering the dining plan for free (people with the Disney Visa can book today, and everyone else can book starting Thursday, April 12th), I wanted to share more about the Disney Dining Plan, since 2 years ago I took part in this promotion and really enjoyed it.
Each day, you get 1 quick service meal, 1 snack, and 1 table service meal. 
A quick service meal is the type of place where you go up to the counter, order your meal, and bring it to the table yourself.  With that meal, you get an entree, dessert, and non-alcoholic beverage. 
Your snack includes your choice of popcorn, frozen ice-cream novelty, popsicle or fruit bar, single piece of fruit, single serving bag of snacks, 20oz bottle of soda or water, or a medium fountain soft drink.  
Your table service meal includes an appetizer, entree, dessert, and non-alcoholic beverage. 
You can also use the plan for some character dining meals, or signature restaurants (although these usually use 2 table service meals)
You can use them in any way you want.  At the beginning of your stay you get all of the credits, and you can use them as you like.  For example, if you are staying 4 nights, when you check in you will get 4 quick service meals, 4 snacks, and 4 table service meals for each person staying in the room.  So if you want to eat 2 snacks one day, you can, and just not get a snack one of the other days.  You can use either the quick service or table service for lunch or dinner. 

Here are the restaurants that are currently part of the dining plan.

It is a good idea to call ahead and make ADR’s (Advanced Dining Reservations), as the nice restaurants do tend to get very crowded.  This way you can be sure to get a seat at the restaurant you want to eat at, at the time you want to eat, without having a long wait.
 
If you are interested in the dining plan, but won’t be going to Disney during the free dining offer, they do offer it at any time for $39.00 per adult (I’m not sure how much per child).  If you plan on eating both lunch and dinner on property, it can really save you a lot of money!  For many of our table service meals, for 2 we ended up spending over $100.00 per meal.  But of course it didn’t cost us anything since we were on the plan.  Plus, even 18% gratuities are included, so you really don’t have to pay for anything when you eat your meals.