Ahh, the Disney Dining Plan, it’s the hot topic of the day!

Ever since Disney World announced that the dining plan would be returning for 2024 vacations, we’ve had LOTS of questions about the popular offering. Will it work the same as it used to? Which plans will be returning? And of course…how much will it cost? Today, we’re doing some math and making some educated guesses on that last one.

UPDATE: Disney has now announced the cost of the Disney Dining Plan in 2024. Click here to see those prices.

How Much Did the Disney Dining Plan Cost Before?

To estimate how much the dining plan will cost when it returns in 2024, we have to first look back at how much it cost before. The last time the plan was available was in early 2020 before the parks closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For 2024, only two dining plans have been confirmed to return so far, so we’ll just look at the pricing for those two.

First up is the Standard Dining Plan. This version previously came with one quick service meal credit, one table service meal credit, and one snack credit per person, per night of your package, as well as a refillable resort mug for each person in your party. Before the closures, you could get this plan for $78.01 per night per adult (ages 10 and up) or $30.51 per night per child (ages 3-9).

The other option that has been confirmed to return is the Quick Service Dining Plan. With that plan, you could get two quick service meal credits and one snack credit per person, per night of your package, as well as a refillable resort mug for each person in your party. Since you’re dining at quick service spots, this option was cheaper, costing $55 per adult each night and $26 per child each night.

Okay, now that we’ve got those old prices laid out…let’s make some predictions for the future!

Will the Dining Plan Cost Increase in 2024?

Even though it’s not a guarantee, it’s likely that Disney will choose to raise the prices of the dining plan when it returns for 2024 vacations. Since 2020, we’ve seen price increases on most things in Disney World, including everything from Minnie ears to snacks to annual passes.

One of the most obvious price increases was on Disney World park tickets. Back in 2020, tickets were split into five tiers based on how busy Disney projected the parks to be each day. The “holiday” ticket was $159 per adult, the “peak” ticket was $139, the “regular” was $125, the “value” was $117, and the “low” crowd season tickets were $109 per day. But in the past four years, things have changed significantly.

Now, ticket prices can vary from day to day, and the cost will change for one-day tickets based on the park you visit. Tickets for Animal Kingdom range from $109-$159, while tickets for EPCOT cost between $114-$179. Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom tend to be the more expensive parks, with Hollywood Studios tickets costing $124-$179 per day and Magic Kingdom costing $124-$189 per day.

Overall, that means you’ll be paying 18.87% more on peak day tickets to Magic Kingdom versus the cost in 2020. For the cheapest days at Magic Kingdom, the price increase is about 13.76%. The only category that didn’t increase in price was the cheapest days at Animal Kingdom — those still cost the same as they did pre-pandemic.

So what if we took those percentage increases and applied them to the dining plan cost from 2020? It’ll give us an estimation of what the plan could cost when it returns. Let’s do the math!

How Much Could the Dining Plan Cost in 2024?

If we base a price increase for the dining plan solely on the price increase for theme park tickets, we could expect the Standard Dining Plan cost to rise between $10.73-$14.72 per adult, per night. For children, the increased cost would be between $4.20-$5.76 per night. This means a predicted adult cost of $88.74-$92.73 and a predicted child cost of $34.71-36.27 per night. 

For the Quick Service Dining Plan, applying those percentages gives a predicted $7.57-$10.38 increase for adults each night and a predicted increase of $3.58-$4.91 per child each night. This means that the possible price range for that plan would be $62.57-$65.38 for adults and $29.58-$30.91 for children.

Now keep in mind that these predicted prices are only based on ticket price increases. It’s more likely that Disney would base the dining plan cost on the cost of food and restaurant meals, which would take considerably more time to extrapolate. These numbers just give us a rough “guesstimate” of what the new nightly prices could be. And of course, you also have to multiply this cost by the number of nights that you’re staying, plus the number of people in your group.

We’ll see what the new cost is when the dining plans go on sale for 2024, so stay tuned to DFB. We’ve got you covered with the latest news and updates and all the dining details you need to know for your vacation!

Click Here to Learn More About the Dining Plan Returning!

Are you planning on getting the dining plan when it returns? Tell us in the comments!