Disney Dining plans are back! When it comes to planning your visit to Walt Disney World, one of the most difficult aspects can be understanding and making a decision about adding a Disney dining plan to your package. In this post, we cover what the dining plans are, why they matter, how to decide whether or not you should book with them, and how you can get Free Dining plans from Disney.
Update: 2025 Pricing Announced
2025 pricing for the Disney Dining Plans has been announced. Prices are up slightly from 2024. Here’s per night, per guest pricing, rounded to the nearest dollar, for kids 3-9 / adults 10+, with the comparison to 2024:
Quick Service Dining Plan — $25 (+$1) / $59 (+$2)
Disney Dining Plan — $31 (+$1) / $98 (+$4)
This post now reflects 2025 pricing, but I’ll leave 2024 pricing here for reference until the end of the year.
Disney Dining Plans - The Basics
Walt Disney World has dozens of wonderful table service restaurants, over 100 quick service locations, and even more snack carts throughout the theme parks. Over the course of a seven-day Disney vacation, a family of four is going to consume nearly 100 individual meals. And all of the meals (and snack stops) cost money. It adds up.
To keep the sticker shock of a Disney vacation from ruining your experience in the parks, Disney has developed dining plans. In very simple terms, the dining plans are a way of paying for your meals before you get to Walt Disney World. When you get a Disney dining plan, you are purchasing a meal plan with dining credits from Disney that you can use at Walt Disney World during your stay.
When you book a Disney vacation package, you’ll be given the option to add either of two dining plans (we cover these in more detail below). Pricing ranges from about $25 per night for children on the Quick-Service Dining Plan to $98 per night for adults on the Standard Dining Plan. We cover the details of pricing below.
Historically, at least once a year Disney offered “Free Dining” packages, where you could book a vacation package and add a dining plan for free. The specific rules on what hotels are eligible and which dining plans are eligible change from year to year. We cover Free Dining in more detail below. Free Dining returned in 2024, with offers for Disney+ subscribers and Chase Disney Visa cardholders.
If you opt for a dining plan, when you purchase food or beverages at Walt Disney World, including table service meals if your purchase the more expensive package, you’ll tell the Cast Member you order from that you’re using the dining plan. They’ll clarify any questions you have about how your credits can be used at the specific restaurant.
Dining credits are linked to your reservation, so you’ll “pay” using your Magic Band or room key. You need to inform a Cast Member that you’re using the dining plan in order to use it for a given meal.
Disney World Restaurant & Food Types
We’re going to start our deep dive into Disney Dining plans with some concepts you need to know. Some of these are intuitive, but all of them require at least a quick discussion because Disney uses some terms in technical ways in their dining plan rules. Once we’ve got these ideas down, we’ll move onto the specifics of the two plans and then a discussion of whether they’re worth it. Here are the things we’re going to cover:
Disney World Package
Dining Plans
Dining Plan Credits
Beverages
Table Service Meals
Table Service Meals Requiring Two Credits
Quick Service Meals
Snacks
Disney World Package
A “Disney World package” is a combination of a hotel room, tickets, and optional dining plan purchased directly from Disney. While an agent can assist you with the purchase, a “Disney World package” that’s eligible for the dining plan must be purchased from Disney. While you may be able to get a “ticketless” package—i.e. a hotel room + dining plan—the hotel room will have to be booked through Disney in order to be eligible for the dining plan. (We have a separate post where we discuss the different ways to book Disney vacations, including packages.)
Dining Plans
When you add a Dining Plan to your trip, you’ll add either the Disney Dining Plan or the Disney Quick Service Dining Plan. We’ll talk more about these in detail below, but the thing to know now is that the plan is basically a bucket of food credits. You pay for the credits before your trip and then use them for food at Disney World.
Dining Plan Credits
Each dining plan offers a different combination of “credits.” There are:
Table-Service Meal credits
Quick-Service Meal credits
and Snack credits.
A Snack credit is good for one snack; a Quick-Service Meal credit is good for one meal at a quick service restaurant. A Table-Service Meal credit is good for one meal at a table service restaurant—for the most part. Some table service restaurants require two credits, as we’ll discuss below.
A Note About Beverages
I don’t want to belabor this simple point, but there are two categories of beverages. First, every meal (quick service or table service) includes a beverage, and beverages with meals include an alcoholic beverage for adults (standard / single serving). Disney uses the slightly clunky phrasing that a meal includes “1 Nonalcoholic Beverage (or Alcoholic Beverage, for Guests 21 and older)”.
But the second category contains beverages you can use your Snack credits on. Snack credits can be used for juice, soda, bottled soda, bottled water, coffee, tea, and hot chocolate, but not alcoholic beverages.
By way of quick example, let’s say you’re at Hollywood Studios and want both (1) a beer and (2) a Diet Coke in the afternoon. You go to lunch at Docking Bay 7 and get a Diet Coke, using a Quick Service Meal credit for that combination. You’ll have to pay out of pocket for your beer later on.
But if you go to lunch at Docking Bay 7 and get a beer with your lunch, using a Quick Service Meal credit, you can then use a snack credit to get a Diet Coke.
Table Service Meals
Walt Disney World’s table service restaurants are the nicer restaurants where you’ll either be served by a waiter or have access to a buffet. The include character dining experiences like Chef Mickey’s (at Contemporary), signature dining options like Jiko (at Animal Kingdom Lodge), and ordinary sit-down restaurants like San Angel Inn (at the Mexico Pavilion in Epcot’s World Showcase).
For purposes of dining plan credits a Table-Service Meal includes:
(for breakfast) one entree and one beverage
(for brunch, lunch, dinner) one entree, one dessert, and one beverage
(at applicable restaurants) one buffet seating
(at applicable restaurants) one family-style seating
However, there are FIVE categories of table service meals that require two Table-Service Meal credits per person…
Table Service Meals Requiring Two Credits
There are five categories of meals that require two Table Service Meal credits per person. These are…
Select Character Dining Meals. As of this update, Disney specifically lists Fairytale Dining at Cinderella’s Royal Table, Princess Storybook Dining at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall (at lunch and dinner only), and Story Book Dining at Artist Point with Snow White as requiring two Table Service Meal credits per person.
Fine/Signature Dining Meals. All Fine/Signature restaurants—Disney’s best restaurants—require two Table Service Meal credits per person.
Be Our Guest Restaurant. Both lunch and dinner at Be Our Guest now require two table service credits.
Dinner Shows. Dinner shows, like Hoop Dee Doo Musical Revue at Fort Wilderness, require two Table Service Meal credits.
In-Room Dining. I confess to not following this closely, but my interpretation is that in-room dining is currently only available at Grand Floridian, where it requires two Table Service Meal credits. If it’s available at other hotels, I recommend clarifying before ordering.
Quick Service Restaurants
Quick service restaurants are (mostly) the spots around the parks where most people grab lunch. These are places where you’ll line up at a register, place your order, pick up your food at the counter (hence the oft-used term, “counter service”), and find your own seating.
Some examples of quick service restaurants include places like Satu’li Canteen at Animal Kingdom, Docking Bay 7 at Hollywood Studios, Cosmic Ray’s at Magic Kingdom, Regal Eagle at EPCOT, the food courts at value and moderate resorts, and Geyser Point Bar & Grill at Wilderness Lodge.
For purposes of dining plan credits a Quick-Service Meal includes: is one entree and one beverage. For more examples, you can read our ranking of the Hollywood Studios quick service restaurants here.
One exception: at select hotels you can order a large pizza. A large pizza meal requires two Quick-Service Meal credits and comes with two beverages.
Snacks
Snacks are the smallest form of food at Walt Disney World. Snacks include obvious things like ice cream bars, ice cream cookie sandwiches, bottles of water, popcorn, and coffee. But pretty much any small, single food item counts as a snack, including popular treats like Dole Whips.
Most notably, snacks include items at Epcot’s Festivals: Festival of the Arts, Flower & Garden Festival, Food & Wine Festival, and Festival of the Holidays! Not every item is included, but menu boards use the dining plan icon to indicate the items that you can purchase with a snack credit. This is easily one of the best ways to use Disney Dining Plan snack credits at Disney World. Snacks also include snacks and beverages at the Starbucks stores inside the Disney parks.
Snacks are often indicated using the following icon:
Copyright Disney, included for reference / commentary only
Seeing Which Restaurants Accept Which Dining Credits
The Disney World dining page has a pair of filters that allow you to see which restaurants accept dining plans. It’s maybe an imperfect system, as a “Dining Plan” filter will show both quick service and table service options, leaving you a further step of looking at which is which. The “Quick-Service Dining Plan” will just show restaurants accepting quick service credits.
The Two Disney Dining Plans
There are two dining plans. The lower-cost option is the Disney Quick-Service Dining Plan. The higher-cost option is simply called the Disney Dining Plan. We’ll start this section with some basic rules applicable to both plans before getting into what each plan offers.
Rules Applicable to Both Dining Plans
There are a few things that are true of every dining plan. First, dining plans are available to persons aged three and older. Kids under three cannot participate in the dining plan. They either have to share with someone or get a separate meal purchased for them.
Second, children aged three through nine are categorized as “children” and must order from the children’s menu, where available. The reverse issue, children ten and over wanting to order from the children’s menu, is typically handled on a case-by-case basis.
Third, dining plans are purchased per night as part of your entire package. Someone arriving at 11PM on Monday and checking out at 6AM on Thursday gets the same number of credits as someone arriving at 9AM on Monday and checking out at 10PM on Thursday. Both would get three nights worth of meals.
Relatedly, credits purchased on a package are (maybe) shared by those booked as part of the package. Disney specifically says “Meals are nontransferable between party members”. Under the pre-2020 system, I never heard of or had any issue myself with different people using each others credits. Post-2024, this seems to be a “your experience may vary” situation (plan for the worst, hope for the best).
Also, in any case, adults cannot use child credits and children cannot use adult credits.
Fourth, you still need reservations, where applicable. The dining reservation system and the dining plan system have nothing to do with each other. You can’t just walk up to a table service restaurant that’s fully booked and demand the right to use a credit there.
Fifth, you can all dine together or separately. Credits are on a person-by-person basis. You might even have meals together where some people use dining plan credits while others pay out of pocket. (Example: Two grandparents have a meal on their own that they’ve planned that will be a better use of their credits than a family meal you’re all having together.)
Sixth, everyone (three and older) gets a refillable mug for use at any Disney-operated hotel at Walt Disney World Resort.
Now, let’s move on to the two tiers of the Disney Dining plans, what they include, and what they cost.
Disney Quick-Service Dining Plan
The Disney Quick-Service Dining Plan comes with:
2 Quick-Service Meal credits per night, per guest
1 Snack credit per night, per guest
For stays in 2025, the Disney Quick-Service Dining Plan costs (rounded to nearest dollar):
$25 for children aged three through nine per night, per guest
$59 for persons aged ten and above per night, per guest
Disney Dining Plan
The “standard” Disney Dining Plan comes with:
1 Quick-Service Meal credit per night, per guest
1 Table-Service Meal credit per night, per guest
1 Snack credit per night, per guest
For stays in 2025, the Disney Dining Plan costs (rounded to nearest dollar):
$31 for children aged three through nine per night, per guest
$98 for persons aged ten and above per night, per guest
Is The Disney Dining Plan Worth It?
This is the big question, and the answer is pretty straightforward. If you try to get the most value out of your credits, the dining plans will be mathematically worth it. If you plan to just wing it, the dining plans won’t be mathematically worth it.
This section is going to get math heavy, but honestly—the math is not revealing. The takeaway from all the math is that Disney knows how to set prices for these plans. Assuming you can do a basic amount of planning, you shouldn’t have much trouble justifying the cost. It’s the sections that follow—covering “upsides” and “downsides” that are going to be more important for deciding whether the dining plans make sense for you.
The Quick Service Dining Plan Isn’t Worth It
I’m getting ahead of myself here but I think it’s important to save some of you some time—the Quick Service Dining Plan isn’t worth it. Quick service meals have a narrow range of prices, and—in the grand scheme of the cost of a Disney World vacation—we aren’t talking about a lot of money.
Now, I bet you could find some quick service meals and beverages (particularly expensive cocktails) to make it mathematically pretty appealing, but even in the case I think the loss of flexibility and clunkiness of using the dining plan will offset any cost savings. So while I’ll still go through the math for both plans, it’s really the standard Disney Dining Plan that deserves your attention.
Valuing Dining Plan Credits
I’m going to quickly assign values to the credits. If you always eat the most expensive items and drink the most expensive beverages, you’ll get more value. Conversely, if you tend to be on the cheaper end of the menu (as vegetarians this is often us), you’ll get less value. I’m aiming for something of an average in my calculations. You can use the Disney World restaurant menus and the mobile ordering interface in the app to cobble together your own prices, if you want.
Snack Credits are worth about $6 for adults and kids. A Mickey Ice Cream Bar costs about $6.25 (after tax), and a bottled soda costs about $5. I’ll go ahead and assume you work to get close to $6 for these credits.
Quick Service Meal Credits are worth about $22 for adults. This assumes you sometimes drink a beer and sometimes drink soda. Notably, drinking cocktails, where available, push these up to about $30 of value. Quick Service Meal Credits are worth about $9 for children.
Table Service Meal Credits are worth about $49 for an adult. Again, this assumes sometimes top of the menu, sometimes bottom, sometimes alcohol, sometimes soda. Table Service Meal Credits are worth about $14 for a child.
Valuing the Dining Plans
I’m putting two issues to the side. First, I’m assuming you won’t be doing the meals that cost two table service credits, as those are usually poor value. Second, I’m assuming you’ll find a way to use all your credits, regardless of how your trip is scheduled.
There is a final issue we have to tackle—refillable mugs. Refillable mugs are tricky to value, particularly because guests with dining plans already are getting beverages with their meals and using snack credits for beverages sometimes. I’m going to go ahead and value these at $4 per night, which is just under the cost of a fountain soda. Personally, I think this is generous (I’d value mine at $0), but I’m trying to be reasonable. (Refillable mug expire at midnight on day of checkout, for what it’s worth.)
Above, we shared the number of credits the different plans come with. Based on the number of credits each plan costs and our estimated values of the credits, you can value the dining plans at (per night):
Quick Service Dining Plan. Worth $54 per adult and $28 per child per night.
Standard Dining Plan. Worth $81 per adult and $33 per child per night.
Comparing Our Values to Disney’s Prices
Let’s bring it all together. Here’s how our valuations compare to what Disney is charging (per night in 2025):
Quick Service Plan (Child) — Valued at $28, costs $25
Quick Service Plan (Adult) — Valued at $54, costs $59
Standard Plan (Child) — Valued at $33, costs $31
Standard Plan (Adult) — Valued at $81, costs $98
This breakdown isn’t surprising. Meal prices for kids are more standard than meal prices for adults, and quick service meal prices are more standard than table service meal prices. That’s why those first three prices are all within the price of a snack or the difference between a soda and a beer.
But the price for an adult on the standard Disney Dining Plan is, as the saying goes “where they get you”…or is it? Let’s quickly talk about that before moving past all our calculations (which, to be clear, are as unilluminating as one might expect—you dig into the price of a pencil and you find, most of the time, pencils are pretty appropriately priced).
I used Skipper Canteen, once of my favorite restaurants, for my table service meal prices, putting the average adult meal at $49. If you went with the most expensive entree and an alcoholic beverage every meal, this goes up to $61. In that case, the adult plan would be valued at $93 and cost $98, a much smaller difference.
This just goes to show that, in terms of pricing, Disney (gasp) knows what they’re doing here. That’s because Disney knows when you google “is disney dining plan worth it?” all of the top results are going to have some math like this and they want it to balance out—they’re honestly not trying to “get you” much on price here.
Of course, as we’ll see, they are still trying to get more money out of you. That’s the point. The “upsides” and “downsides” sections below include some of the ways Disney is going to get more money out of you.
Disney Dining Plan Calculators
We haven’t inspected many of these, but Google points to plenty of Disney dining plan calculators if you’re looking to run some numbers. The menus for all the Disney restaurants are also available online.
The trick here is to be honest about what you would typically spend. If you use these calculators to put together your dream dining experience, you’re doing things backwards. Start by finding out whether the dining plan makes sense based on what you’d typically spend.
Upsides of the Dining Plans
Okay, so the math wasn’t much help. Let’s move onto some less concrete issues. These are the things that will really determine whether the dining plans make sense for you. We’ll start with upsides before moving onto downsides.
It’s a Good Way to Keep Family Members On Budget
If you’ve got teenage kids (or others in your party you’re paying for) eating on their own, you won’t have to worry about how much they’re spending on their meals. With the dining plan, they just have to know they have a set amount of credits and that’s it.
You Can Mostly Ignore Prices (And so Expand Your Options)
Except that you’ll be tipping based on the price of what your order, you can ignore the prices of the items you’re ordering under the plan. Some special items might not qualify for the plan, but for the most part if its listed under “entree,” it will count as an entree on your meal credit whether it costs $20 or $50.
I don’t care about food, but a lot of people do. And a lot of people would always pick the $20 entree over the $50 one because they don’t like to overspend even though they think the $50 item sounds really exciting. But when you walk into a restaurant with the dining plan, you’ve got a bit more freedom to try those items you otherwise might have ignored.
You Reduce On-Site Sticker Shock
Congrats on working hard to save all that money for your Disney World trip. Congrats on getting there and checking in. Let the magic begin…and open up that wallet. Because you’re probably going to wind up spending a ton of money just getting through the day at Disney World.
Lightning Lanes, t-shirts, bubble wands, your morning coffee, your afternoon beer, the pair of Mickey ears that flies off your kid’s head on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, it all costs a lot of money. One way to keep those “pending” charges from piling up is to…pay for food ahead of time with a Dining Plan!
Importantly, this doesn’t mean you’re spending less overall, you just shift when you pay for food to booking / final payment from in the parks. In fact, as we’ll get to in the “downsides” section next, you might wind up spending more on other things.
Downsides of the Dining Plans
There are a few downsides to the dining plans, and we’ll start with the same topic we finished with in “upsides”, budgeting…
The Planning is a Huge Time Commitment
We all have our biases, fine, but I very, very strongly feel the time spent on dining plan strategizing is a huge waste. Basically anything else you could spend time researching—Lightning Lanes, the best rides at Magic Kingdom, which hotel to stay at with a toddler—is going to be a better use of time. This isn’t because Disney food is bad—it’s great! But it’s because you’re talking about a lot of planning just to save, on average, a small amount of money per person.
You Might Spend More On Other Things
Let’s say you went to Disney World last year and set a daily budget of $100 per person per day during the trip. Since there were no dining plans, you set that figure to include food. Well, when you go to Disney World next year with a dining plan, are you really going to cut down your daily budget? Or are you going to say “well we can afford $100 per person per day during the trip” and then spend that extra money on merchandise and Lightning Lanes?
Now, this is one of the ways Disney is really “getting” you. Yes, the prices of the dining plans are going to make them some money because lots of people are going to leave credits unused or they aren’t going to get the most value out of the credits. But I’d guess a lot of people are show up to their vacation with whatever budget they always do, ignoring the fact that they already spent a bunch of money on food.
You Lose Some Flexibility
Yes, you can eat wherever you want regardless of whether or not you have the dining plan, but obviously when you have a dining plan you need to focus on getting value out of it or it was a waste of money.
To that end, you lose a lot of flexibility. To keep within the terms, you’ll be restricted to how many quick service and how many table service restaurants you go to. To get value out of it, you’ll have to go to specific restaurants and order from a more limited set of entree (that $15 pasta won’t be worth it, sorry).
Some meals we eat only appetizers. Sometimes we split an entree and splurge on desserts. Some days we only eat quick service, but we do it four times. And some days we spontaneously add a table service meal because it’s raining, or too hot, or we just want to try a new place. We are the worst people in the world for the dining plan!
Disney Package Required
The only way to book a dining plan is to book your hotel stay through Disney. If you’re booking online, you’ll need to book a vacation package (typically with tickets) to add a dining plan. You can usually add a dining plan to a room-only booking to create a ticketless package by calling Disney or your travel agent.
Because of the complexities of these packages and the fact that you’ll be limited in how much you can manage them online, we strongly suggest working with a travel agent if you’re interested in these.
You cannot get a dining plan if you are not staying at a Disney-operated hotel. This means guests of the Four Seasons Orlando, Swan & Dolphin, or Disney Springs hotels cannot get a dining plan. Having to book through Disney also means missing out on lower hotel rates you might find on sites like Undercover Tourist or Expedia.
Not All Restaurants Participate
The most notable restaurant that doesn’t participate in the dining plan is the best restaurant on property: Victoria and Alberts. Space 220 also doesn’t take the dining plan. Most other restaurants you’ll consider are on the plan, but you always need to confirm by checking directly with Disney.
Two-Credit Restaurants Aren’t Usually Worth It
This one is a real bummer for a lot of people. The math almost never works in the guest’s favor when it comes to the restaurants that require two table service credits. Those restaurants also happen to be the places most likely to occupy on a spot on your bucket list, which means getting value out of the dining plan can mean skipping some of the best restaurants at Walt Disney World!
If you pull up the menus for Jiko and California Grill, for example, you’ll see that an entree + dessert + beverage will come to around $80 after tax. If you go with our valuation of table service credits at $49, you’re losing money at both of these restaurants.
Tip Is Not Included
With a few exceptions (mostly show-meals and Cinderella’s Royal Table), tip is not included in the cost of the dining plan. So you can go ahead and order the most expensive entree, dessert, and beverage you can find, but then you’ll be confronted with deciding how much to tip. And don’t forget, parties of six or more will have an 18% bill automatically presented to them.
Friction, Confusion, and Lines
An amazing 2015 Wired article discusses how Disney introduced Magic Bands in order to create a friction-free world. The idea is that people should not have to waste time thinking, fumbling for their wallets, and swiping various cards and tickets. Magic Bands enable you to make a purchase with a simple tap of your wrist. They are frictionless.
Disney’s dining plans are anything but frictionless. They are full of friction. There is no comprehensive list of, for example, what counts as a snack. Guests are often confused about what credits they can use for what meals. It’s rare a day goes by when you don’t hear a confused guest in a quick service line in front of you trying to sort out meals and snacks and quick-service credits.
All of this is usually why we say if you’re on the fence about the dining plan, it probably isn’t worth it. If you’re not willing to put the work into planning how you’re going to use it, the ins and outs of it and the hassle of using it are going to outweigh the small savings you might stumble upon if you were lucky.
“Free Dining” at Walt Disney World
Note: We now have a full post covering Free Dining at Disney World in more detail. This section will see less frequent updates and serves just as a summary version of the full post.
Since 2005, Disney has regularly released a promotion colloquially called “Free Dining.” The terms and conditions of free dining vary year by year, but there a few common aspects to the promotion.
If you’re interested in booking a stay at Walt Disney World, we recommend getting a quote from Lauren Quirk at Travel With Character LLC.
Basic Terms of Free Dining
For eligible stays at participating hotels, the “Free Dining” offer allows you to add a dining plan to your vacation package for free. This can vary by hotel category—e.g. with value and moderate hotel guests getting the Quick Service plan and deluxe hotel guests getting the standard plan.
Not all hotels are included in Free Dining. The offer is limited in supply, so you may be able to book a room at a participating hotel but not have access to Free Dining. You can upgrade the dining plan included in the promotion to a better plan by paying the difference in price between the two plans.
Free Dining Announcement Date and “Book By” Date
Free Dining is typically announced in early January—January 2 in 2024—with dates covering July through September.
Free Dining Available Dates
Free dining dates vary, but usually are focused around summer / fall. There are typically blackout dates, sometimes encompassing entire months in this range. For 2024, the eligible arrival dates were most nights July 1 to September 30, 2024.
Is Free Dining Worth It?
Free Dining is typically released alongside other package or room-only discounts. To know whether it makes sense to book Free Dining, you need to know what you’re giving up by forgoing the other discounts. If you want to know more about this issue, check out Disney Tourist Blog’s coverage. In any case, be sure to run the numbers yourself before hopping on Free Dining.
You also want to make sure you’re not picking dates just for free dining. It’s possible there are cheaper dates to be found if you look beyond the free dining window.
Special Access to Free Dining
In the past, groups including Chase Disney Visa cardholders and Canadian residents have had access to special Free Dining deals. These deals typically have the same terms as the public deal, but are available earlier or for slightly different booking dates.
While Disney has not historically released special Free Dining deals for Disney World Annual Passholders or Disney Vacation Club members, these are groups they typically offer other deals too. If you’re in any of these groups, it’s worth keeping your eye on the Disney offers page, especially around Free Dining time.
Other Dining-Related Booking Offers
Besides the annual “Free Dining” promotion, Disney has occasionally released other dining-related discounts. The Summer Meal Offer has been available the past few years to book in January for arrivals on select summer (June, July, August) dates. Some years also had an offer for free kids dining for summer stays.
Free Dining is also sometimes offered as a bounceback deal to current resort guests. Finally, certain offers are discounted package deals that require you to purchase a dining plan to access to deal.
Conclusions
Hopefully you’ve gotten some value out of this lengthy discussion of the dining plans. One lesson to take from this post is simply how much thought you might want to put into deciding on a dining plan. But is it really going to be worth the hassle? Only you can look at your family’s habits and know whether a dining plan will be (or can be) worth it for you.
All Your Other Disney World Planning Questions Answered
Don't be overwhelmed by Disney World planning! Take a second to check out our most important content and you'll not only be an expert, but you'll save big $$$ along the way.
Just starting out? Check out our Walt Disney World planning guide! If you're still picking dates, we've got everything you need to know about Disney World crowd calendars. For picking your hotel, check out our Walt Disney World hotels guide.
When it comes time to book we’ll help you find discount Disney World tickets. Decide whether you need a dining plan in our Complete Guide to Disney World Dining Plans! And don't forget to book those Disney World Advance Dining Reservations!
Don't forget to master your Disney World Lightning Lane Guide and Strategy a few months in advance. We'll keep you out of long lines so you can maximize the magical time in the parks! We've got park-specific guides as well: Magic Kingdom Lightning Lane Strategy, Epcot Lightning Lane Strategy, Animal Kingdom Lightning Lane Strategy, and Hollywood Studios Lightning Lane Strategy.
Know what to ride with our guides to: Magic Kingdom rides, Hollywood Studios rides, Epcot rides, and Animal Kingdom rides! Plus learn about the water parks with our guide to Blizzard Beach and our guide to Typhoon Lagoon! And for some some fun prep, check out our Ranking of Every Ride at Walt Disney World.
Finally, before you head out, be sure to check out our to-the-point packing list, 10 essentials you forget to pack for every Disney trip. And if you're interested in saving, there's no better list than our 53 Ways to Save on your Disney trip from start to finish.