If you're using the Disney Dining Plan to pay for meals during your trip to Walt Disney World, even if you receive Free Dining as part of your package, you'll still want to make the most of your dining credits to ensure you get the best deal.
Here we'll share hints and tips to help make your dining credits go further, in the hope it prevents you having to pay for too many out of pocket extras.
1. Share meals
Food portions at Disney World are notoriously generous, with many meals being large enough to share. We find this works best at Quick Service locations, where we often buy 3 meals between the 4 of us. Over the week, this saves enough credits to purchase another 2 meals for the whole family.
Some of our favourite Quick Service Restaurants with sharing sized portions are:
- Pinocchio Village Haus and Pecos Bill in Magic Kingdom
- Tangierine Cafe and La Cantina de San Angel in Epcot
- Yak & Yeti Local Foods Cafe and Satu'li Canteen in Animal Kingdom
- Blaze Pizza at Disney Springs
Although we don't tend to share Table Service meals, this is also allowed in all restaurants - except those serving buffet style. As desserts are also included as part of a Table Service meal, you may find sharing a main and dessert is enough to satisfy, whilst saving a table service credit to use at a later date.
2. Order children an adult sized Quick Service meal
Unlike table service restaurants, where children are required to order from the kid's menu, at quick service locations there's no differentiation between child and adult dining credits. Therefore, to make it easier to share meals, thus making your credits go further, we recommend ordering all meals from the adult menu.
3. Use your drinks allocation wisely
In such a hot and humid climate, you'll find yourself needing to drink plenty of fluids to stay hydrated. The cost of this can add up, especially if there are a few of you in your travelling party, however, there are ways to make your drinks allocation go further:
- When ordering a quick service meal, select a soda (or 2) to share between you during the meal, then order bottled water for the remaining meals, so you can save this to take with you as you continue touring the parks.
- If you don't fancy soda's, you can make your drinks allocation go even further by requesting the free water which is available at all quick service locations - either ask at the counter, or use the water stations situated in some of the restaurants.
- When dining at the resort quick service restaurants, select cans or bottled beverages as part of your meal, saving these to drink later, then use your refillable mug during the meal.
- To get the most value from the beverages included with your meals, consider ordering one of the speciality drinks available, such as: cocktails (alcoholic and non-alcoholic), milkshakes, beer, and/or wine.
4. Choose menu items which can be saved to eat later
As well as saving bottled and canned drinks, some quick service locations will also have packaged sides which can be taken with you to snack on later. Carrot and celery sticks, grapes, apples, and crisps/chips tend to be the norm.
5. Eat at the more expensive restaurants, especially buffets and character meal locations.
Restaurant prices can vary quite considerably, especially when dining at the Walt Disney World Table Service locations, therefore, we would recommend you selecting some of the more expensively priced venues to get more value out of your dining credits.
Those in the highest price range are classed as Signature Restaurants, requiring 2 Table Service Credits per meal, which may not work out a cost effective way of using dining credits, because you'll likely need to pay out-of-pocket for another meal.
Of the 1 table service credit restaurants, those serving meals buffet style tend to be more pricey, where you can expect to pay between $35 - $55 per person, depending on the sitting you choose. Many character meals top this, with some costing around $60 per person.
You may think twice about paying this sort of money for one meal, especially as an 18-20% tip is expected on top, but if using Dining Plan credits, it works out much better value.
5. Don't use quick service credits for breakfast meals
With the exception of a pre-rope drop breakfast at Be Our Guest - where the chance to get ahead of the rope drop crowd may be worth a few quick service credits, we feel the breakfast offerings at quick service dining locations haven't been good value. The food standards and portion sizes tend to be better at lunch and dinner sittings, so we would recommend you using your dining credits for this rather than breakfast.
Instead, take or purchase cereals and breakfast bars to eat in your room before you leave for the parks, or alternatively, use your snack credits to buy some of the huge breakfast pastries on offer at the resorts and parks.
6. Make good use of your snack credits
When it comes to snack credits, again, we recommend you choose wisely to get the best value. Snack prices vary from around $2 for a carton of milk, up to $8 for desserts such as the funnel cake with strawberries and whipped cream from Sleepy Hollow in Magic Kingdom. Many guests feel they're getting value from their snack credits for anything above the $5 mark.
The list of available snacks on the Disney Dining plan is pretty extensive, and it even includes some savoury options which are ideal as a light lunch. Our personal favourites are those on offer at Mr Kamal's and Caravan Road in Animal Kingdom. The Teriyaki Beef Slider from Caravan Road was pretty good, especially when accompanied by some Seasoned Fries from Mr Kamal's.
We've put together more information on how to use your snack credits here;
7. Use left over credits to buy souvenirs to take home
On the final day of your trip, if you find yourself with any dining credits left over, you can use these to purchase confectionery and other edible souvenirs to take home. The resort and park gift shops have plenty of available snacks, especially Main Street Confectionery in Magic Kingdom and Goofy's Candy Co. in Disney Springs.
Snack credits are a straight swap - 1 credit per item, whereas quick service credits can be used to purchase 3 items as long as they are purchased in the same transaction.
Or, why not spread some Disney magic of your own and offer to pay for a meal or snacks for other guests who are not on the dining plan?
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