Last week in the UK, the highly anticipated Walt Disney World free dining offer was released for 2020 and I think it's safe to say it was more popular than ever before. As soon as the offer went live on Wednesday evening there was a virtual queue of over an hour long to even look at holiday prices, and by Thursday afternoon this queue had reached over 5 hours. Whilst many people, including myself, sat in this queue and booked their 2020 holiday as soon as possible having been planning for this day for a while, for a lot of others who have only just discovered this offer it will require some more researching, budgeting and planning. Although there's plenty of information out there already, having everything in one place is great, so here's my guide to all things dining plan, from a breakdown of the plans themselves, to an overview of the free dining offer and my opinions on the matter.
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| The Rose and Crown, a table service restaurant in World Showcase, Epcot |
What are the Walt Disney World dining plans?
Disney offer three different levels of dining plan, available to purchase with any Disney World vacation package. This means that to buy a dining plan you must be staying onsite at a Disney resort. All of the plans work on a credit based system, and these credits are linked to your My Disney Experience account. To use your dining credits you simply scan your MagicBand on the card machine and enter the pin you created for yourself. Although the number of credits allocated to you is based on the number of nights of your stay, you can roll them over, using none on one day and then multiple on another.
The three different plans vary in cost, with the price you pay corresponding to the amount and type of credits you can get each day, as detailed here;
The three different plans vary in cost, with the price you pay corresponding to the amount and type of credits you can get each day, as detailed here;
Quick Service Dining Plan
- 2 x quick service credits per day
- 2 x snack credits per day
- 1 refillable resort mug
Disney Dining Plan
- 1 x table service credit per day
- 1 x quick service credit per day
- 2 x snack credits per day
- 1 refillable resort mug
Deluxe Dining Plan
- 3 x quick or table service credits per day
- 2 x snack credits per day
- 1 refillable resort mug
Let's break these down even further so you can see exactly what you're getting with each plan;
Quick service credits can be used at quick service/counter service restaurants throughout property, including resort food courts and pool bars. These locations offer your standard chicken nuggets and burgers but there are also multiple locations such as Yak and Yeti in Animal Kingdom or Katsura Grill in Epcot that serve some really different and tasty meals. Included in a quick service credit is an entree and an alcoholic or non-alcoholic drink.
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| Barbecue ribs and mac & cheese from The Polite Pig at Disney Springs, all for 1 quick service credit! |
Table service credits can be used at table service restaurants, buffets and dinner shows. These restaurants often require advanced reservations (which can be made from 180 days before your stay) and can be incredibly popular. Certain 'signature' restaurants and dinner shows are worth 2 table service credits. Included in a table service credit is an entree, dessert, and an alcoholic or non-alcoholic drink. It should be noted that whilst the cost of your meal is included in your credit, gratuities are not.
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| The family style buffet at Ohana at The Polynesian, including the best noodles you'll ever eat! |
Snack credits can be used to buy multiple different smaller items such as ice creams and cupcakes. Drinks from Starbucks are also included as snack credits, as well as all food and non-alcoholic drink items from Epcot festival booths.
Refillable resort mugs are insulated souvenir mugs that can be picked up from the quick service location at your resort. They are activated at the beginning of your vacation and can be refilled as many times as you like within the resorts. Drinks available include coffee, tea and hot chocolate as well as sodas, with some resorts even having Coca Cola Freestyle machines.
What is included in the free dining offer?
Whilst all of these dining plans are available for you to purchase at any time throughout the year, for a large portion of the year you can get a dining plan included in the price of your vacation package for the next year. Whilst it is not always guaranteed, this offer has become available for the UK in April every year for the past few years, and at various other times in the year for other countries.
The type of dining plan that will be included in your package depends on the type of resort you're staying in;
Value resorts = free breakfast (this is a plan that can't be purchased outside of the free dining offer. It includes 1 quick service credit per day, designed for breakfast but available for use at any time of day).
Moderate resorts = free quick service dining plan
Deluxe resorts = free table service dining plan
As well as getting these dining plans included, it's also possible to upgrade, paying the difference between your included plan and a more expensive one. PRO TIP - When booking with free dining, make sure you compare multiple different resorts to get the best price. If you want a more expensive dining plan, sometimes it can be cheaper to stay in a value and upgrade, but sometimes it can be cheaper to pay more for your hotel and get the plan included.
Is the free dining offer worth it?
Having just booked my second Disney World trip with the free dining offer, I think it's safe to say that I am a big fan. Whilst some people are dubious of the offer, claiming that Disney up the prices of the resorts just before the offer goes live, any differences in price are likely just due to other offers ending.
Last year when we had free dining, we were curious to see how good value for money the offer was, so we decided to work out how much we would have spent in total on all of our food, drinks and snacks if we had paid out of pocket. Over 2 weeks, for 3 adults, we would have spent the crazy sum of just over $3000, so around a grand each! To put this into perspective, to upgrade from the quick service plan to the Disney dining plan it cost us about £250 each. Obviously we probably ate more food than we needed to to make sure we used all our credits, and we ate at some pretty expensive restaurants, so if we had been paying out of pocket we might not have spent quite as much. But for us a large part of the Disney experience is the food so to be able to eat at some of these incredible places without having to worry about the cost is amazing. Even if you do upgrade meaning your dining plan technically isn't completely free, in my opinion it's so worth it to have everything prepaid before you go, so you don't have to ruin the Disney magic by stressing about how much money you can afford to spend on your next meal.
For us and many others, getting free dining is what means we can stay onsite and have the full 'Disney bubble' experience, so I would always 100% recommend it. It's now 333 days until our trip and I cannot wait. Let me know in the comments if you're planning on booking a trip with free dining, or if you've already taken advantage of the offer!
