Dollars & Cents of the Disney Dining Plan

But, this eludes to what is quite possibly a misconception held by many about the meals offered with the basic Dining Plan: that the two meals included are lunch and dinner. That is to say, that that’s the way Disney intends for them to be used. Breakfast then is an out-of-pocket, additional expense. In fact, I’ve heard some say that they were told by a reservation cast member that breakfast is not included in the plan.

That would make it easy then, to understand why so many people have negative reviews of the Dining Plan based on “too much food.” Two big meals back-to-back is too much. But, that Disney intends for the counter and table service meals to be used as lunch and dinner is not the case. Either counter or table service meals can be used for breakfast. According to the Dining Plan brochure, a quick service breakfast consists of: juice, entrée and non-alcoholic beverage, or combo meal plus one single-serving non-alcoholic beverage or juice. If you use counter service credits to have a late breakfast, and most of the resorts have walk-up counters that serve breakfast until 10:30 a.m., some as late as 11:00 a.m., use snack credits, which seem to be the hardest to use up, during the afternoon to buy fruit, drinks and the like to tide you over until dinner, and again use snack credits for a little something before bed, not only will you not have the feeling of being forced to eat too much, but you just might feel it’s not enough. Let me just say here that although the Dining Plan brochure gives examples of what qualifies as a snack as: popsicles, popcorn,
a single piece of whole fruit, a 20 oz. bottle of water or soft drink and the like, it has been my experience that there is a pretty wide range of items that snack credits can be used for.

So let’s turn now to the main point of this article: the dollars and cents of the Disney Dining Plan. Is it worth the money? Now, I have known people who could live on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and water three times a day, but for the sake of this discussion, we’ll use an average family of four: two adults and two children, who eat two to three average meals per day. I have prepared a sample of what a family of four, two adults and two children, might order for both table and counter service meals for 5 nights. You can make your own by looking at the menus at: http://allears.net/menu/menus.htm Although, Disney recommends an 18% gratuity, I chose to add 15%. I also subtracted the cost of desserts from the final total for the benefit of those who may not regularly order dessert. As you will see, the difference in out-of-pocket cost and the cost of the Dining Plan is about $87. Not a huge difference, but still a savings. That amount may be more or less, depending on what you order: the least expensive or most expensive menu items.

Finally, as Mom always says: Do your own math!