Tips about Disney Dining Plan

When on the Disney Dining Plan, signature or character restaurants require the use of two table service meals. To compensate for not having a table service dinner one night try having a late lunch/early dinner on your first night with the counter service meal for that day at Disney Springs's Wolfgang Puck Express at the Marketplace. You won't even miss the table service meal for that day with selections like roast chicken and garlic mashed potatoes. The portions and items on the menu are large and definitely not your typical counter service fare. Since you'll be eating a little earlier than usual, that day's snack will definitely hit the spot later that night. - Diane Fehring

EDITOR'S NOTE: The only character meals that currently require two table service credits are those at Cinderella's Royal Table. All others currently require just one. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused.

We just stayed at the Old Key West and took the basic Dining Plan. What we didn't know was that the OKW doesn't have too many counter service options, basically just sandwiches, so the counter service option really isn't useful here. It would have been much cheaper if we had just paid for our table service meals. Also with the change of tip not being included and appetizers not being included, it's not such a good deal anymore -- unless all you do is eat 24/7, and not visit the parks at all. The resort itself is great though. We had an older unit, huge, and a great location. Bus service was very dependable. - Nancy Morris

We are going to WDW in January. Right now, we have two nights at Kidani, followed by four nights at Bay Lake Tower. We are wait-listed to get into BLT for the first two nights. In speaking with DVC, they are considered two separate reservations. Thus for the Disney Dining Plan, we will have to purchase twice. Once at Kidani check-in for those two nights and then again at BLT for those four nights. If any entitlements from Kidani are not used by midnight on the night of checkout, they are lost. You cannot transfer them to the BLT entitlements. So, for those who are staying at WDW, but are splitting their stay between two or more resorts, they need to plan accordingly, so that they don't lose entitlements. This is not just for DVC of course, but for anyone using the DDP. Also, for anyone in a family/group staying in the same room, where any members of the group may only be in the room for a subset of days, they still need to get the DDP for everyone in the party for all nights. - Marc

Just wanted to let you know that you can now purchase the Deluxe Dining plan when booking your room using the military discount. We will be taking a trip in October and were able to book the Deluxe plan this week! Previously, you were only able to purchase the basic dining when staying in a room at a military rate. Please pass it on! - Allison Leonard

Even if you're not counting calories, skip dessert with your quick service on the Disney Dining Plan and opt for a second beverage. You will greatly appreciate it and it leaves you with a nice ice cream or treat or beverage later in the day. - Rose Ann Nelson

We learned a helpful hint regarding the Standard Disney Dining Plan (counter and table service meals) from one of the wonderful servers at the Port Orleans Riverside Mill Food Court while purchasing dinner on our last evening. Though we had made priority seating arrangements long in advance of our trip, we had canceled a couple of table service meals during our week's stay. This left us with zero counter service meals and four table service meals remaining on our plan on our last day of vacation. We had intended to pay for our counter service meal that evening, but the helpful cast member told us that you can always use a table service credit for a quick service meal (just not the other way around). So we saved $24 that we would have otherwise spent, thinking we had used up our counter service credits. So if you have table service meals left toward the end of your stay with no plans to use them at one of the table service eateries, you can use them at any of the counter service restaurants. Just tell the server you'd like to use table service credits to pay for your meal. We will likely use the Counter Service Dining Plan next trip (the older I get, the less inclined I am to be held to the "tyranny of the spreadsheet" to coin an AllEars® phrase!), but it's comforting to know there is a way to use leftover credits if needed. Thanks again for all that you do to bring us a bit of Disney magic every week! - Laura Lee Mildon

We saved over $400 by using the Deluxe Dining Plan. We scoured AllEars.Net menus to find which restaurants had food our children would eat and how much each meal would cost with tax and tip. Then we figured out the cost of the plan for two adults and two children, and it was definitely worth it, knowing approximately how much to allot for tips. This can be done with any of the plans, and then meals are paid for ahead of time. When booking with Disney reservationists, it also allows you to make payments over an extended period of time so it isn't so hard on the pocketbook. - Jennifer Keller

As an avid visitor to the world, we have found a few ways to save a buck or two. We have found the dining plan is a money-saver and we do not travel to Disney without it. We just returned from a trip and tried the counter service dining plan and enjoyed it just as much, if not more than, the sit-down dinners. Also, trade in those left-over snacks for some take-home magic! - Jodi from Louisiana

We are going on our next trip in June and are taking advantage of the quick service dining plan. We did our math and it seems like a pretty good deal. We've done the regular dining plan before, but this time around our pocketbooks (and our time... we're only there for five days) couldn't afford it. We'll have to see how we like this dining plan! - Laura Amlung

I have found that over the past several years that it's great to go during the "Free Dining Plan." The schedule works out very well for us. We have not changed our eating habits, only the amount of money we spend. We use the counter service credit for lunch time and then have a nice sit-down dinner (with the table service credit). I still find that paying for the meal plan is still a good savings. - Dianne Spawn

We used the basic Disney Dining Plan this trip. After having a quick-service lunch the first day, we decided we didn't need the dessert that came with our meal. If we were in a place such as Starring Rolls Cafe or Sunshine Seasons, we chose a muffin for our dessert, bagged it up with napkins, forks, and knives and saved it to have for our next morning's breakfast along with a cup of tea we could get with our resort mug. Voila -- free breakfast. - Fran

We just returned from a short trip to Walt Disney World. We had purchased the dining plan and on the last day, each person had two counter-service meals remaining. We found out that last morning that each adult counter service can be "exchanged" for four snacks. Wish we had known this earlier because we ran out of snacks and ended up paying for numerous bottles of water on the last full day. - Nancy

My family of four (kids are 18 and 15) just returned from Disney World. We stayed at Pop Century and had the quick-service dining plan. The best value we found in using our quick-service dining credits was for a whole pizza at the hotel food court. A whole pizza was only two quick-service dining credits and it came with two desserts and two drinks. Since we had our refillable mugs, we traded the drinks for two more desserts. Desserts included hand-dipped ice cream sundaes, milkshakes or ice cream cookie sandwiches, all of which were huge and delicious. We were each able to have two large slices of pizza and a dessert of our choice for only two credits. Also, we all prefer to drink water rather than soda, so we found that when using quick-service credits in the park, we could request a free cup of ice water and trade a drink credit for an extra dessert that we saved for a snack later in the day. Extra chocolate cake from Cosmic Ray's is always a treat! - Amy from Baltimore

Food & Wine Festival - We just came back from WDW and wanted to let your readers know that you can use the snack option to pay for food at the Epcot Food and Wine festival. We used all of our snack options as we made our way around the countires and were so full that we didn't need to use our table service credit for dinner. We saved it for our last day and enjoyed lunch at the Coral Reef. It really worked out well because we always have extra snack credits that we need to use up on our last day. - Jackie Davidson

We ate a fantastic meal at Boatwright's (Port Orleans) with great service. Regarding the Disney Dining Plan, it's good to know that the smoothies listed at the top of the menu are included as drink options with your Table Service Credit. They were so delicious and filling that they served as desserts, allowing us to pack our apple pies and fresh fruits for breakfast the next day. - Teressa