Dining Plan Query

[Sirgaz]

First time poster, Hi everyone
I'm confused about the dining plan. I know under the standard plan you get two meals a day, one quick service and one table service. But what about breakfast? Is that simply included once you take a dining plan (we will be staying in one of the Disney hotels, but not decided which yet) or is breakfast expected to be one of the two meal vouchers and we then have to purchase lunch/dinner (whichever we don't use the other voucher for)?

 

[Tuvalu]

Breakfast would require one of your dining credits (either quick service or table service depending on the restaurant.) Most people choose to pay OOP (out of pocket) for breakfast, since it tends to be the less expensive meal of the day.

 

[Monty]

A lot of people use snack credits for breakfast. It's up to you how you use your credits [there are no "vouchers", just credits].

You will be given all the credits for your entire stay as soon as you check in. They can be used at any time during your stay, you aren't locked into using all your credits on each day. You can go to a table service for breakfast, lunch and a signature restaurant for dinner all on the same day, though that will deplete your credit total by four TS credits each in one day.

The only thing you need to do is book restaurants for your TS credits in advance as much as possible. A number of popular restaurants book out at the 180 day mark or earlier.

 

[DisneyJoe]

Please note that the number of credits you receive are based on the number of nights of your stay, not the number of days. In other words, for a 3 night stay, you get 3 table service meals and 3 counter service meals and 6 snacks (2 snacks per night) per person.

 

[righttrack]

Basically you have two meals per night you stay plus a snack. To get the maximum value for the dollar I suggest using that table service meal for dinner, when prices would normally be the highest. Use the quick service meal for lunch. Use the snack for whenever you like, and bring a box of breakfast bars for breakfast. You're going to want to get going quick in the morning anyway. You get so much food on the meal plan, trust me, no one is going starving that's for sure!

 

[Sirgaz]

Thanks.
Looks like I need to plan to see if we can accommodate the restaurants we want to go to within the credits (not vouchers ) that we'll get. We'll be staying for 14 night (coming from the UK) so that's a lot of planning

 

[Weather_Lady]

Thanks.
Looks like I need to plan to see if we can accommodate the restaurants we want to go to within the credits (not vouchers ) that we'll get. We'll be staying for 14 night (coming from the UK) so that's a lot of planning

The website distripplanner.com has a convenient tool for this purpose. It's not always up-to-date (new restaurants may take awhile to come online), but it's a great place to start.

 

[JillC LI]

Thanks.
Looks like I need to plan to see if we can accommodate the restaurants we want to go to within the credits (not vouchers ) that we'll get. We'll be staying for 14 night (coming from the UK) so that's a lot of planning

Planning is the fun part! Buffets are expensive so if you want to do any of those for breakfast, you might want to use your TS credit that day for it.

 

[slappy magoo]

Planning is the fun part! Buffets are expensive so if you want to do any of those for breakfast, you might want to use your TS credit that day for it.

I'd also suggest, if you think about using a table service credit for breakfast, try to schedule one later in the morning. Treat it like a brunch. The restaurants will continue bringing out fresh food so it's not like you're stuck eating whatever is left over. And then you can probably make do with a counter service meal for dinner.

 

[DreamalittleDisney]

We either pop for breakfast or get some cereal delivered as part of gardengrocer delivery

 

[DisAl]

If you haven't already you can read the details of the dining plan at this link:
https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/guest-services/disney-dining-plan/
You don't mention if you have children with you on this trip but if you do one of the best uses of the table service credits are the character meals since they tend to be the most expensive. For our trip this past June we used a table service credit every day for a character meal with our grandkids.
As for ADRs (advance dining reservations) someone has already mentioned that you should make them at the 180 mark. My wife and I already have ALL of our ADRs for our 45th anniversary trip next March.
Even if you don't know for certain what you want go ahead and make your ADRs for what you think you want and make changes later if you change your plans. As someone else already mentioned some of the more popular reservations go quickly.
On restaurant choices there are many very good ones. Our favorites this last trip were Flame Tree BBQ (QS) at Animal Kingdom and the character dinner buffet at 1900 Park Fare (TS) at the Grand Floridian. (They have prime rib on the buffet. )

 

[Sirgaz]

Yes we have children, a 9 year old daughter and a 4 year old son, I had already thought about the character dining as we will want at least a couple (princesses for our daughter, not so much for our son).
Scheduling a breakfast later in the morning is a no-no unfortunately, our daughter gets up most mornings about 6am, so lasting until late morning would be impossible (oh for a lie in one morning )
For the planning we were thinking originally of planning only a couple of days to make the trip more fluid and adapt to where the kids are enjoying it most, but after reading a lot of posts on here I'm thinking that we need to plan a lot more and book in the restaurants, especially the character dining. Maybe only have 2 or 3 days that are fluid and the rest planned accordingly

Just a thought, can you book into say 1900 Park Fare at the Grand Floridian if you are not staying there or are the hotel restaurants only for guests of that hotel?

 

[Tuvalu]

You can book at any restaurant you choose, no need to be a guest at the resort.

 

[Sirgaz]

Well, the kids might not like it but I'm going for that prime rib at the Grand Floridian then

 

[Jon81uk]

We used a lot of the snack credits to buy cinnamon buns for breakfast and got a mug refill of coffee. A couple of times we used a quick service credit.
Then the days we weren't at Disneyworld (as we went to Universal/SeaWorld) and we didn't use as many snacks and QS credits made up for it.

 

[Sirgaz]

That's a great idea as I was wondering what to do with the snack credits, and we're debating whether to take in a couple of days at Universal too. We might leave Universal till we get there and see how we are doing with the Disney parks

 

[DisAl]

Well, the kids might not like it but I'm going for that prime rib at the Grand Floridian then

Looks like they have changed their menu with herb crusted ribeye replacing the prime rib. There are lots of other things there and my picky eater granddaughter had plenty she liked too.
Here is a link to the current menu at 1900 Park Fare:
https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/dining/grand-floridian-resort-and-spa/1900-park-fare/menus/dinner/
If you are not already familiar with this you can look at the menu for every restaurant on WDW property. That way you will know in advance if a particular location has things that you and your children like.

 

[slappy magoo]

Scheduling a breakfast later in the morning is a no-no unfortunately, our daughter gets up most mornings about 6am, so lasting until late morning would be impossible (oh for a lie in one morning )

2 things about that...
1: A WDW trip can be exhausting, even if your kids are little enough that they are often in strollers, they'll do much more walking than they normally do, their routine might be upended a bit despite your best intentions to keep them on a routine, and you just might have to drag her out of bed more than once.

2: But even if she still wakes up early every day, it's vacation, there's no law against 2 breakfasts. You can use snack credits or pay out of pocket for a little something, bagel and juice, something like that, when she first wakes up. Then, have a later buffet breakfast that also gets you through lunch, and a counter service dinner.

 

[DreamalittleDisney]

2 things about that...
1: A WDW trip can be exhausting, even if your kids are little enough that they are often in strollers, they'll do much more walking than they normally do, their routine might be upended a bit despite your best intentions to keep them on a routine, and you just might have to drag her out of bed more than once.

2: But even if she still wakes up early every day, it's vacation, there's no law against 2 breakfasts. You can use snack credits or pay out of pocket for a little something, bagel and juice, something like that, when she first wakes up. Then, have a later buffet breakfast that also gets you through lunch, and a counter service dinner.

Get some breakfast bars or cereal delivered and have a mini breakfast before leaving... that's what we do with our little boy then eat properly later in resort or parks

 

[Sirgaz]

2 things about that...
1: A WDW trip can be exhausting, even if your kids are little enough that they are often in strollers, they'll do much more walking than they normally do, their routine might be upended a bit despite your best intentions to keep them on a routine, and you just might have to drag her out of bed more than once.

You haven't met my daughter! She had her birthday a month ago and had some of her friends round for a sleepover. They went to sleep at 1:15am and she was up at 7am. At Disneyland Paris a couple of years ago she was the same, at least it's handy to make sure we don't miss the park opening times.

2: But even if she still wakes up early every day, it's vacation, there's no law against 2 breakfasts. You can use snack credits or pay out of pocket for a little something, bagel and juice, something like that, when she first wakes up. Then, have a later buffet breakfast that also gets you through lunch, and a counter service dinner.

I am very much a three meals a day person but you've got me thinking now.
I like the idea of a snack to keep the kids going and then a bigger breakfast later in the morning. It's a good way to use up the snack credits and also cuts down on needing to purchase a meal each day