Hitting Up an Epcot Festival? Why the Disney Dining Plan May Be Good for You!

Traveling to Walt Disney World soon? Unless you visit during the summer months, chances are high that you will be there during an Epcot festival.

If you also happen to have purchased the Disney Dining Plan, you can get some serious bang for your buck at these festivals!

The Dining Plans — Quick Service, Basic, and Deluxe — each come with varying numbers of Table Service, Quick Service, and Snack credits to use daily throughout your trip to Disney World. These credits can be used at almost every dining or snack location throughout the parks and resorts.

But one thing all three Disney Dining Plans have in common is that they all come with two snack credits per day.

Today we’re going to focus on these Snack Credits and why Epcot festivals are a great opportunity to use them!

The four festivals at Epcot include the Festival of the Arts, the Flower and Garden Festival, the Food and Wine Festival, and the Festival of the Holidays.  Every festival features food booths scattered throughout the park which offer smaller-portioned food items (think: appetizer size) as well as drinks (alcoholic and non) from around the globe.

And if you’re enjoying an Epcot festival while also carrying a load of snack credits from the Disney Dining Plan, it’s time to cash in! Because you can redeem your Snack Credits at the many festival booths throughout Epcot for just about everything (the only regular exception is alcoholic beverages)!

To know which items are DDP snack credit eligible, be sure to check the menus for the Disney Dining Plan snack symbol. In general, food items and non-alcoholic beverages can be purchased using Dining Plan Snack Credits. Very occasionally an item may be excluded (usually because it’s pricey), but as a general rule, you can use those snack credits on anything you want to try!

By most calculations, most families don’t save a ton of money by purchasing the Disney Dining Plan. In fact, you can probably be savvy and spend way less on food out of pocket with some advanced planning. But there are some variables that make the DDP more palatable. One is that everything is prepaid, so you don’t have to fork over more cash for food once you’re in the World.

But another tasty reason to purchase DDP is if your travel plans include one of Epcot’s festivals. Not only do the festivals allow you to taste unique dishes from around the world, but you often get way more value for your Snack Credits if you redeem them on festival food. The quality is typically top-notch, and the prices help to maximize the value you get for your Dining Plan.

If you want to really crunch the numbers, keep in mind that not all snacks are created equally and some are less expensive than others. In general, you want to aim for the higher priced snacks in order to get the most value from your Snack Credits.

Skip the cupcakes and use your snack credits on the Epcot festivals instead! The Epcot festivals are a great way to use your Snack Credits on some seriously incredible food! The food offered at these booths could easily substitute for a lunch or dinner if you feel like sampling food from around the world!

Which Epcot festival is your favorite? Let us know in the comments!

Click here to scroll through everything you want to know about the Disney Dining Plan!

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