Dining

It may seem silly to think about food so far in advance, but unfortunately due to the Disney dining plan, restaurants fill up in advance. Some restaurants require an Advance Dining Reservation (ADR).

At Disney World there are two types of restaurants; Quick Serve (QS) and Table Service (TS). Quick Serve restaurants do not require a reservation (ADR) and essentially function like a fast food restaurant in the real world. You order your food and pay, the food is given to you and you seat yourself. While these restaurants do function like real world fast food, this is not indicative of the quality or selection. There are some really amazing and delicious meals to be had a QS restaurants, there are some fast food type options available too of course. QS prices mostly come in at under $15 for adults, with the average being around $10. You can expect to pay between $5 and $10 for kids, a few meals fall outside that range. Table service restaurants function like casual dining restaurants for the most part, though there are a few fine dining restaurants at Disney. Meals typically run between $15 and $30 for adults and $6 and $15 for kids. In order to eat at TS restaurants you will more than likely need to make an ADR. Walk up seating is possible on occasion, but it tends to come with a huge wait. You can make reservations by calling 407-WDW-DINE, or by logging into your My Disney Experience account and visiting the Dining page. You can make ADRs 180 days in advance, and I recommend doing so. Reservations fill up fast during busier times of year.

In addition to restaurants there are numerous snack and drink carts, and kiosks located all around the parks. Snacks run a large variety from theme park staples that you would expect like popcorn, ice cream and pretzels, to fresh fruit and cheese plates. There are a few gems, that I'll let you discover on your own. You will also find a few bakeries and candy stores. Several of the World Showcase pavilions in Epcot have bakeries where they make treats from their country. There are many delicious items to be had.

You can review menus on the DIS. There are many sites that provide full menus, but the DIS updates more frequently than any other site I've found. They also have a restaurant and menu search tool that can help narrow down by price, style of food and location. I have not seen a tool like that on any other site. You'll want to find restaurants to match the number of meals you plan on eating in each park. Unless you have park hopper tickets, you can not eat a meal in a park you are not in. Even if you do have park hopper, it probably isn't worth it to leave the park you are in for a meal unless you are switching parks anyway, or are taking a break and eating at your hotel.

If you are staying on-site at a Disney hotel, you may be staying during a time that you get the dining plan for free, or even if it isn't free, you will want to look into the Disney Dining Plan to see if it is right for you. There are a few different options.

The Quick Service Dining Plan- Each night of your package stay, each person over the age of three in your party gets: 2 Quick Service meals, 1 Snack, 1 Refillable drink mug (refillable in the QS locations at the Disney hotel you are staying at.) The price is $41.99 per night for ages 10+, and $16.03 for ages 3-9. (Prices include taxes)

The Plus Dining Plan- Each night of your package stay, each person over the age of three in your party gets: 1 Quick Service Meal, I Table Service Meal, 1 Snack, 1 Refillable drink mug. The price is $60.04 for ages 10+, and $19.23 for ages 3-9. (Prices include taxes)

Deluxe Dining Plan- Each night of your package stay, each person over the age of three in your party gets: 3 meals of your choice, 2 Snacks, 1 refillable drink mug. The price is $109.53 for ages 10+, and $29.86 for ages 3-9. (Prices include taxes)

Meal credits are good as soon as you check in and are usable at any time. The number of days worth of credits depends on the length of stay, not number of ticket days. If you stay for 6 nights, you get 6 nights worth of credits. Most meals require 1 credit, with a few Signature Dining exceptions that require 2. Allears.com has a list of which restaurants take the dining plan that includes number of credits required. Your credits are tied to your Magic Band, so you only need to carry money for tips into the parks.

There is a lot of debate on whether the dining plans are money savers. For the most part I don't think they are a good value food wise. If you plan on doing a lot of character meals, like one a day, the Plus plan will save you a little money. You can look at the menus and decide if the dining plan is right for you your family. It may be worth it to you to pay a little extra to get the dining plan just for the convenience of not having to carry money for meals into the parks every day.

If you have any Special Dietary Needs, you will still have plenty of options at Disney. They are very accommodating to allergies and other dietary needs. Allears has some great information on that subject. If you are looking for healthier options several restaurants have options available, just look for the Mickey Check logo.

After you have figured out what restaurants you want to eat at, you can use the Easywdw to figure out which parks you plan to do on which day. Find your month in the right margin and look at the calendar. There are suggestions of the best park to visit on each day. This suggestion avoids the park that has Extra Magic Hours on that day. If you are staying on-site and have standard tickets, you will want to decide if EMH is worth fighting a larger crowd in that park for the day. If staying off-site you will definitely want to avoid the EMH park unless your time constraints just don't allow it. We followed the recommendations on our trip, on all our days but one, and we had great luck. We ended up having to do our first Magic Kingdom day on an EMH day, and it was quite crowded.

There are several Character Dining meals available for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Character meals are either served as a buffet, family style, or pre-plated. Character meals are Table Service meals and require an ADR. While you dine, the characters will make their way around visiting each table. You will have a chance to get autographs and take photos with the characters when they visit your table. Children under the age of 3 dine for free at character meals. Character meals vary in price from $19 to $60 for adults. One of the most popular character dining experiences is Cinderella's Royal Table, which takes place inside the castle and features 5 Disney Princesses. Epcot also features a princess character experience at the Norway Pavilion in the Akershus restaurant. Once you have it figured out which parks you are doing on which day, you are ready to make your ADRs at your 180 day mark. You will have to make one a day, each one at its 180 day point. It really isn't as much of a hassle as it sounds. I did it online each morning while getting my son ready for school. It takes about 5 minutes to do. I got all the ADRs I wanted, except one I had to do at a slightly later time. You have to provide a credit card when you make the ADR, but it's just a place holder. Nothing will be charged to your card UNLESS you don't show up to your ADR or don't cancel an ADR by 11:59 pm the night before. Always, always, ALWAYS cancel if you aren't going to be able to make it. Someone else might be looking for that spot. If you are unable to get an ADR you want, you should have a backup, but periodically call or check the website to see if anything has opened up. Cancellations happen all the time. You can review and cancel your ADRs on your My Disney Experience.

Whether using the Dining Plan or not, please remember to budget for tips for your servers in all TS restaurants. If you have a party of 6 or more, an 18% gratuity will automatically be added to your bill.