Disney Dining Plan

We are a family of four, kids aged 6 and 9. Is the Disney Dining Plan worth the money? Does it restrict you in the Disney restaurants too much? Also does the Port Orleans food court have a buffet style breakfast and if so, would this be included in Dining Plan? Thanks

Disney Dining Plan

The Dining Plan doesn%26#39;t restrict you in the restaurants except the children have to order off the children%26#39;s menu. My family tried it once and didn%26#39;t find it to our liking-it is a huge amount of food,much more than we normally eat. For instance,you get a table service credit for each day you stay at a Disney resort...which includes an appetizer,main course and entree. And a table service meal. And a snack. It works well for people if they use the table service meal and eat a lot I guess but it%26#39;s a matter of how you eat day to day.And you have to make reservations pretty early because the nicer places get filled up quickly.

Disney Dining Plan

Port Orleans does not do a buffet breakfast but it has a food court and Boatwrights restaurant which you can use your dining plan meals at.

You may find it worthwhile to do the plan if your kids are 9 and under as the price is reasonable,but after that they charge full adult price.

There is no way my 10 year old daughter could eat the adult portions as they are massive and my huband and I have problems.

Us British folk don%26#39;t have the appetite they cater for in the US.

When we are on holiday we stick to a good breakfast i.e toast, cereal a snack or sandwich in the afternoon and an evening meal (not 3 courses every night!!!!). No wonder people put on weight with the dining plan. Besides you then have to stick to places to eat around the resort instead of going further afield and trying places on International Drive. I wouldn%26#39;t do it but it could be worth it with young kids if you are just doing Disney.

P.S you can use the plan around Downtown Disney and Boardwalk as well.

Can you buy the Dining Plan for only part of your trip? (ie I am staying at WDW for 11 nights, can I buy the dining plan for only 5 nights, as we%26#39;d like to eat outside of Disney too)

We are a family of 4 as well...we have been to Disney 4 times and have always used the meal plan. We do agree that it is a lot of food however, we don%26#39;t always use 4 per meal. Some suggestions you may find helpful.....we always book the finer restaurants requiring 2 table service ie Citrico%26#39;s, Yachtsman Steakhouse, Flying Fish, California Grill etc. The food is outstanding and worth the 2 credits. We also use the credits for the Character Dining. For lunches we may only use 2 and split a sandwich or hamburger amongst the family and then grab a snack ie apple, ice cream etc. We find that will usually fill us up. By the end of the trip we have used all of our credits.

Your question about restrictions...we don%26#39;t find it restricts you at all...BTW make your reservations as soon as you know your arrival dates. Even though making them the day of is possible you get the time you want.

If you use the dining plan, I recommend including some buffets as children are required to order from the children%26#39;s menu and

buffets give the kids a break from the usual chicken finger / grilled cheese type options.

Here are our favorite restaurants and each of these will only require one table service credit per person.

Ohanas for dinner at the Polynesian Resort. We sometimes eat here on our Magic Kingdom day. This meal is has a fixed menu and is served family style. The hula hoop contests and coconut races will be fun for the kids but the fairly quiet setting will make a pleasant dining experience for you.

Chef Mickey%26#39;s is a very popular character meal and is at the Contemporary resort.

Magic Kingdom - Liberty Tree Tavern or Crystal Palace are nice enough - we%26#39;re just not super crazy about either one - that%26#39;s why we recommend hopping the monorail and going to Ohanas at the Polynesian, Chef Mickey%26#39;s at the Contemporary resort, or Cinderella%26#39;s Gala Feast (if you have girls) at the Grand Floridian resort.

We always try to get a reservation at Boma, in the Animal Kingdom Lodge (hotel) after a day at the Animal Kingdom theme park. The hotel has its own savannah area with live animals and the decor carries on the Animal Kingdom theme. The food is an ';African inspired'; buffet but designed with American tastes in mind. We always find a lot that we like and they do have typical kids fare. You can see photos of Boma - photos #52 -59 at

disneylinks.net/Resorts/AnimalKingdomLodge/

Epcot - if you are not doing a character meal, San Angel Inn in the Mexico pavilion has a wonderful ambience. Opinions are split on the Coral Reef Restaurant - looking into the acquarium is a neat experince but all that glass and cement make the restaurant surprisingly noisy for a ';fine dining'; type situation. The food is fine...not great or amazing, just fine. Most of the country pavilions have interesting dining choices but I suggest that you avoid the China restaurant - you can get better Chinese in your home town. Some kids love the Oom-Pah-Pah experience of the Biergarten

restaurant in the Germany pavilion while others are put off by the saurkraut and other German fare.

Disney-MGM Studios. My youngest daughter is nine and she swears that Sci-Fi Dine-In is the absolutel best restaurant in all of Disney World. I would say that food is okay but not spectacular (mostly burgers and sandwiches) but the theming is tons of fun. If you are going to Disney World during a peak travel season, you%26#39;ll probably want to do a Fantasmic Dinner Package to secure the reserved seating at Fantasmic. You don%26#39;t actually eat at the

show - you can choose one of three restaurants and then you get a voucher for the reserved seating. The Brown Derby requires two table service credits. Our favorite is Mama Melrose (Italian) but Hollywood %26amp; Vine is the least expensive and a buffet.

Has anyone given you this link yet? http://www.allearsnet.com/pl/packages07a.htm

It has great information about the dining plan and links to the menus.

To the person who asked about only doing dining plan for part of the trip....

The only way to do this is to buy a package for the length of time you want to each at disney. For example - buy a package with a 5 day room + a 10 day ticket + dining. Then you%26#39;ll have to do a second ';room only'; reservation for the remaining days. I would do this in 2 seperate calls with two seperate reservation numbers. You will only have dining credits for the portion of the trip w/ the package - the credits won%26#39;t carry over to the remaining days - they expire on that last day. There is a chance you might have to change rooms when you check in to the room only portion of the trip but Disney would move your luggage to the new room.

I don%26#39;t believe you can get the dining plan for only a portion of your stay (say 5 out of 11 nights), unless you stayed for a few days on Disney property, then moved off to another site, then booked another reservations back on Disney property.

If you stay 11 consecutive nights at a Disney resort, I think you have to purchase the dining plan for 11 nights as well.

ajcolorado great advice we will print those suggestions out and definetly use them

Zelda Aus,

We stayed 5 nights at the Beach Club Villas with the dining plan and then moved to the Caribbean Beach where we had a room only reservation. I don%26#39;t know if you can split it and stay in the same resort though.

Hope this helps,

Jennifer