The age-old question when planning a Disney World vacation — should I purchase the Disney Dining Plan?
Cinderella Castle
Ever since the Disney Dining Plan returned in 2024, it has been a hot topic for people traveling to Disney World. You can add this offering to your Disney Resort package, but it may not be worth the cost if you don’t price out your meals and snacks the right way. However, no matter how I slice it, the Disney Dining Plan doesn’t seem to be worth the cost for me personally — here’s why.
For a little breakdown, there are two Disney Dining Plan options for your vacation. First is the Quick Service Dining Plan, which includes the following:
- Two quick service dining credits per person, per day
- One snack credit per person, per day
- One resort refillable mug per person
Restaurantosaurus
If you go with the other option, the Disney Standard Dining Plan, you’ll get the following:
- One quick service dining credit per person, per day
- One table service dining credit per person, per day
- One snack credit per person, per day
- One resort refillable mug per person
Time to dig in!
If you price out the Dining Plans by day for 2025, the Quick Service Dining Plan is priced at $59.14 per person, per night of your stay. The Standard Dining Plan is will cost you $97.70 per person, per night of your stay.
Full spread from our meal at Cinderella’s Royal Table
Those seem like fairly high numbers per day, right? Well, with each meal credit, you get an entree and a drink. So that’s two entrees, two drinks, and a snack per day. To break even or “make” money with the Dining Plan, you’ll usually have to order some of the more expensive options available to you. And for me…that doesn’t really work out.
Mickey Premium Ice Cream Bar
Often, the most expensive drink option available for adults is an alcoholic beverage. And me personally? I don’t drink alcohol. So if I purchased the Dining Plan and tried to get my best value just by ordering sodas and other cheaper drinks, I’m likely going to come up short of breaking even.
Drink in Disney World
For example, if I got the Quick Service Dining Plan and went to Magic Kingdom, I could order the following:
- Columbia Harbour House Lobster Roll — $18.99
- Columbia Harbour House Fountain Beverage — $4.79
- Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn & Cafe Double Barbecue Bacon Cheeseburger — $16.19
- Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn & Cafe Fountain Beverage — $4.79
- Sleepy Hollow Mickey Waffle with Chocolate-Hazelnut Spread, Bananas, Berries, and Whipped Cream (snack credit) — $9.49
If you add all those items up, my total only comes up to $54.25 pre-tax. That’s $5 short of the minimum I need to hit to break even, and I was choosing some of the most expensive items available for each credit!
Sleepy Hollow Waffle
But if I were ordering alcoholic beverages instead, those drinks would be more valuable. Of course, you can’t order alcohol at Magic Kingdom quick service spots, so you may still come in a little short there, but you’d likely be able to break even or “make” money at the other four parks or during Magic Kingdom table service meals.
Alcoholic beverages
So, for a non-drinker like me, I’d be doing a lot of math AND I’d have a very limited range of dining options in order to get my money’s worth with the Dining Plan. (You know, ordering the most expensive entree everywhere I go.) That’s why I choose to do my dining out of pocket when I go to Disney World!
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When we first went we had free dining plan, couldn’t eat all the meals,and had so many left over,so after that it was a no brainer,pay out of pocket is the best way for us
It’s always seemed obvious to me that if the dining plan actually saved money for even half the people who buy it, Disney wouldn’t offer it. Disney wouldn’t want to lose that much money from guests.
Everybody knows the dining plan is pretty much a complete ripoff. Claims that it “makes it easier” don’t measure up at all either. Only fools with more dollars than sense get the dining plan…and BOY, do they get upset when you point it out!
We like the standard dining plan for a couple of reasons. The main one being that character dining is included and those are very pricey so we actually save money for our family of five. AND because my kids meet the characters at restaurants we don’t have to wait in the long lines at the parks.
Second, we like that everything is prepaid so no surprises.
Finally we have fun researching the new snacks and making a list of all the new things we’re going to try and also look forward to having our favorites. It’s good to have a plan for your snacks so you don’t waste them on something like a banana at the resort .( If want a banana, charge it to your room , not the dining plan).
I am disappointed that Disney changed a couple of the restaurants to two credits (like Brown Derby) but it still works for us in the end as we enjoy most if not all of the sit down restaurants. Even our picky eater always finds something that he likes.
But the dining plan is not for everyone, you just have to figure out what works best for your family.
Thank you, btw, for years of great advice for our Disney trips!
I agree that the QS plan is now overpriced because it seems is no way to break even or come out better than paying OOP unless you drink an alcoholic beverage or 1,000- calorie shake with at least one meal per day. I do count using our resort refillable mugs at least twice a day toward the plan so that brings us about even, although the author here apparently counts them of no daily value. Dropping the price by a few dollars or adding a second snack back would likely induce more people to purchase and use a DP.
We have not been tempted to get the Dining Plan since it returned. We used to get the DP pretty regularly. We actually most enjoyed the 3 table service plan. It was a lot, but for example, sometimes we would stay 4 nights, 5 days, and that would stretch out to be only 2 table service meals on most days, which is very reasonable when you’re on your feet all day. But it was a struggle to get the value back even at the prices then, and on that plan, you also usually got an appetizer or a dessert or sometimes both. With the reduced options, the higher costs, and so many other ways to save money on dining, even on property, I’m surprised that there is much demand for the dining plan. I can see how if you are a small family who can all stay in one room, that it could be very worth it. For us now, taking longer trips less often (with more rest days), and needing larger and sometimes multiple accomodations, room discounts are a much better deal.