Savor the Magic: Disney World Dining Plans are BACK!

Walt Disney World recently brought back dining plans to bring a more all-inclusive feel to the resort campus! There are now (as of January 2024) two dining plans options- the Quick Service Dining Plan and the Disney Dining Plan!

Here is a quick bit of information on what these plans have to offer:

Quick Service Dining Plan: one snack, two quick service meals (includes a drink), and one refillable souvenir mug per person per night of your stay.

Disney Dining Plan: one snack, one quick service meal (includes a drink), one table service meal (includes a drink), and one refillable souvenir mug per person per night of your stay.

My family and I recently stayed four nights at Boardwalk Inn, with 3-day park hopper tickets and the Quick-Service Dining Plan. With either plan, each party has meals and snacks placed into their own total “pot,” if you will. The app showed me the total number of meals or snacks we had remaining throughout the stay. The total count rolled over from day to day, and we could use our dining plan from check-in day up until midnight on check-out day.

We were traveling with four adults and one toddler (about 20 months old). At the beginning of the trip, we ordered an Instacart to stock up on snacks and little things, especially for our daughter since she wasn’t part of the dining plan! And even though we didn’t get much, we still had SO much left over at the end of our stay!

We chose the quick service option over the traditional dining plan for this trip because we didn’t think our toddler would want to sit through an hour and a half dinner every night- and boy, were we happy we made that choice! She was a busy bee all week, taking naps in the stroller instead of inside/in a crib, and with all of the new things going on around her, she didn’t want to sit still! The quick service plan allowed us to pick up our food, sit outside, enjoy the pleasant January Florida afternoon/evenings, and let her run around the turf areas at the Boardwalk!

We had plenty of quick-service meals no matter where we went- parks, resorts, and Disney Springs all had various options, and no one ever went hungry! As I mentioned above, each quick service meal included a drink of choice (alcoholic or non-alcoholic, as available at the quick service location you choose). We all got a refillable mug for coffee, hot chocolate, soda, and water. Especially in January, it was great to have a drink like hot chocolate to warm me up on the chilly morning trips to the parks! These mugs were refillable at all resorts, so we always had easy access to fill them in the mornings and for an afternoon break.

The only downside we found was inconsistency in what was included as a “snack.” Some things, such as the Mickey cinnamon roll, were included as a snack at our resort hotel, but it was not considered a snack in the parks! This could also be a kink that needed to be worked out in the first few weeks of the returned dining plan. So, if you order a snack in the parks, just check the posted menu for the “Dining plan” icon next to the item! This will confirm what options are included as a snack/meal and what are not!

The biggest plus of the dining plan…I am all about convenience when it comes to traveling with littles. It was terrific and helpful not to overthink budgeting for food and the cost of every meal and beverage. We felt a lot of freedom in having already paid for it and getting to pick from the options at whichever park we were at that day. Everyone could decide what they wanted, and we didn’t even have to all go to the same place! The app also allowed us to filter in only the quick-service dining options, so we didn’t have to search and click every option to see if it was included in our plan!

Overall, I highly recommend the dining plan to my clients who are traveling with little ones, looking for that all-inclusive feel to your theme park stay, or just want to minimize the stress of trying to figure out where to eat, out of all of the fantastic options available on Walt Disney World Resort property!