you guys loving Sanaa makes me so happy!! i'm one of the cooks at Sanaa and when people talk about how much they enjoyed their dinner totally makes my job worth it!! 💛
I see a lot of bloggers that go to Disney all the time talking about the dinning plan. They often forget that the vast majority rarely gets to Disney, and want to experience as much as possible, including dining. This means they may not want the cheap meals like hamburgers, and chicken nuggets and pizza. This allows people to pre-pay for meals that they might really want to eat at including character experiences. Another great video by The Tractors thank you guys for what you do.
As a Canadian, the ability to purchase and prepay for the dining plan is a huge benefit. We can choose to do it when the exchange rate is best and then simply enjoy and not stress about food costs while on vacation. I also think being able to tell your kids that they can choose whatever they want that has the symbol is really exciting for them!
It would be interesting if you did the exact same trip and just ate what you wanted and where to really compare. So you have what you would naturally do with out the pressure and then what you're doing because you have the plan and you're trying to maximize.
I loved when Jen said this is one of the most beautiful lines and Tim said it was because of her. That is something my hubby would say to me. Made me laugh.
We found the best way to utilize our dining plan was to eat quick service for breakfast, snack for lunches and then sit down for dinner. That way we could eat a little earlier dinner to make sure we could see all the nighttime shows. Also I will say we also found it more economical when the kids got a bit older and ate more. Thanks for doing what you guys do! Hope to see you someday Orin Clermont again!
Great video, thanks for the information about the dining plan. Oliver is so cute, the way he listened to the waiter explain the sauces as if he was going to have some for dinner was adorable!
You guys nailed it! The plan is NOT practical. Getting your money's worth is not the same. We come from Chicago once or twice every year and would never do the plan. Love your channel!!!
1. The servers have a vested interest in helping you “work the dining plan” as their tips are based upon the value of your meal. The servers at AKL seem to be particularly well versed in helping customers maximize the plan. #disneymath 2. Snack credits are for Epcot or Disney Springs. 3. Not everyone eating has to have a dining plan. So, if you invite friends or family, you can use 4 credits at a sit down meal even if only 2 individuals have the plan.
For those of us that live out of state and enjoy a Disney World vacation I think the dining plan is worth it. Planning ahead is important for me because I don’t get there often. I think it’s easier when you live there to fly by the seat of your pants because there is always tomorrow.
We used to always use the dining plan. We would order our kids adult meals to share, so our meals would stretch even more! Leftover meals can be converted to snack credits that we would cash out on our final day and take home for a touch a Disney at home too! We always got the quick serve dining plan because that suited our family’s holiday style. So happy the dining plan is back!
We like the all inclusive feel of the dining plan. My husband relaxes more on the dining plan. With 4 adults (2 older teen boys) food adds up so very quickly and it can be stressful. Also if you use it for a 1 credit character meal it definitely helps get you the value!!
I think as someone visiting the park who does not come often (every 5 years or more) I really love the idea of being able to go all out with food via the dining plan, and eat lots on vacation!
We did the dining plan a few times in the past, and it was worth it(for us) for a few reasons. 1. We booked almost a year in advance, so we could pay for our trip throughout the year (which many do to be able to spread it out in a way to budget). Being able to have the dining plan as part that we were paying for over the months beforehand, made it so we wouldn’t have to worry about the food cost during our actual trip. One less expense to worry about at the time of traveling. 2. As you mentioned, you tried things you wouldn’t have normally tried. For us, that applied to cost of entrees too. When we’ve gone without the dining plan, we find ourselves looking for the cheaper options, even if something might sound better. With the dining plan, we didn’t have to think about cost, we could just order what sounded good. 3. We actually liked having extra snacks left at the end. We would use them to get some of the packaged snacks (boxes of Mickey/Minnie shortbread type cookies, packaged Mickey rice crispy treats, Goofy gummies, etc.) to take home for our daughter to have once we got home. She loved having special Disney snacks back at home. Also, I’m not sure if they’re doing it with the new plan, but you used to be able to trade out a quick service and get three snacks. On one trip we had a couple quick service credits left at the end along with a number of snack credits. We were able to get Mickey rice crispy treats to take home for our daughter’s whole preschool class. If we had to pay that during the trip, we wouldn’t have used our money that way, but since it was pre-paid it was a neat treat to be able to share. One thing I noticed you could have done differently (and still would have “spent” the same amount) was not using your two quick services the same day. If you would have switched to having the snack breakfast the day you went to the park, you may not have felt the same about having so much in one day. I would have saved the quick service breakfast for your checkout day.
When we came to Disney in 2019, we "worked" the dining plan to our advantage. We had Character dining every night. We had the quick service for breakfast and filled in with snacks until dinner. It forced us to slow down and enjoy our meals.
I love to use the Disney Dining Plan when I do a split stay. I can do half of my week with the character dining that I'd usually be too cheap to do, but not stuff myself all week long.
Personally I’ve done both but loved going for the quick service dining plan. You could also trade in 3 snack credits for a quick service credit. I’ve done this at the festivals; Try three festival foods (all snack credits) and it will equate to one quick service meal. It gives an opportunity to try three different festival foods at a booth.
Disney closing off a lot of the value of the plan, and honestly, even if you "come out ahead on paper" the house wins because you may not have actually purchased that much food to begin with
I have priced the Disney dining Plan so many times and there is absolutely no way I could eat that much food and so frequently. Watching your video was the backup science I needed! 😂 Watched the whole vid! They are counting on you taking home 5,000 krispy treats with remaining credits.
For those traveling to Disney World, the dining plan helps, so you don't have to guess how much money to budget for food. Prepaid costs when planning vacations sure helps. The old dining plan, if you had service meals left at the end of your stay, you could get those changed to snacks and fill your suitcase with snacks. I loved the dining plan pre-covid and am glad it's back!
Pre look up menus and prices. You would know where the most expensive snacks are. We look up food before our trips and reviews. We have way better food experiences when we do this. We write it all down.
I have always done the Disney dining plan with my personal family trips bc i love it all prepaid and planned out. I’ve been for years with my daughter when she danced there with her school dance team without the dining plan and I really missed it. I’m so glad it’s back. ❤
My friend loves the planning phase of Disney and actually put together a spreadsheet parsing out the meals we would like to buy at the restaurants we reserved, adding everything up, and comparing the price to just buying it all on the dining plan. Turns out there was very little difference, for our 6 night stay we pay about $100 more on the plan than if we bought it all at the table instead. We decided the convenience of pre-budgeting was worth that cost.
Absolutley love the longer videos, the longer the better for me! We come from the UK and the dining plan is included in our package at certain times of the year. For my family it's definitley worth it even when we pay to upgrade from quick service to standard, it takes so much worry out of our stay and allows us to try so many things that we wouldn't if we had to pay out of pocket. We love how easy it makes things.
When Tim said he’s a fly by the seat kind of guy and it didn’t makes sense for him, that is ok if you live here. For us visitors who want to eat at certain places, Disney trips are highly planned in advance with reservations. I wish it wasn’t that way but it is these days. I did do the running plan before and the snack credits were extra and not always needed but we made use of the meals. We can eat a lot lol. It is nice to “spend” more on high priced dishes you may not normally get if you were paying ala carte.
I really enjoyed this video and the cost breakdown at the end. We always do the quick service dining plan and we just love it. We buy fruits, yogurt and cheese at Walmart for the mornings then we use our meal credits for lunch and dinner. We love the quick service, you don’t need to make reservations ahead. We have gotten it for free many times and have paid for it as well. We went to WDW last year when they didn’t offer the dining plan and didn’t enjoy it as much, we were always looking at the prices and trying to choose the cheapest option. We are also coffee drinkers so the refillable mug is a big bonus for us. Our favourite snacks are a grande Frappuccino at Starbucks that my husband and i share and the smoothies at Auntie Gravity’s Galactic at MK. And since we are Canadians we use any snack credit we have left to buy snacks for the plane on our way home. We are very very excited to have the free dining for our summer vacation. Hope we can see you in the parks ❤️❤️❤️❤️
That safari guide sounded amazing, not only was she bilingual, her voice was simply like butter! 🧈 Also, Animal Kingdom Lodge is honestly one of my favorite resorts! Being local-ish, staying or just going there for a few hours feels like a true getaway from Florida! I love it especially in winter months or at Christmas, it feels warm and “cushy” 🥰👏🔥🐃🐗🦒🦓🦩🐆 Can’t go wrong with Sanaa or Boma!
I always did the quick service meal plan most. The sit down service is nice but so time consuming when you are trying to experience as much of WDW as possible.
We’ve used the dining plan for years. We never use a quick service meal for breakfast. You don’t utilize the value of the plan when you use it for breakfast especially if you do drink alcohol. Pay out of pocket for light breakfast or bring your own from home and save the credit for lunch and dinner. You can use the plan up until midnight the day you check out. It will also seem like less food if you do a light breakfast and then eat lunch and dinner with the DDP.
We found the opposite worked better for our family. Eat a good hearty breakfast (Kona Cafe atcthe Poly, best breakfast on property), then just a snack for lunch, and a nice large dinner.
Thanks for mentioning that tipping isn’t included in the dining plans! My wife is a server cast member and these individuals work hard to make meal time magical for guests. They work for tips and a very very low hourly rate (ride operators make more per hour). Many guests don’t know about tipping standards at Disney. Appreciate all you do!
Back in the 90s & early 2000s I recall Tipping WAS included in the Dining Plan. The waiters would always encourage us to get the most expensive items on the menu, as then their tips would automatically be bigger.
Here in the U.K. we used to get “free dining” as a promotion quite often. The great thing about it was that everyone in the hotel room got it. Our two kids were in their early teens, and they didn’t really like full “adult” meals. But because they were over 12, they qualified as “adults”. So we basically had tons of “free” adult dining credits to use - my wife and I enjoyed many signature dining experiences and lots of cocktails. Thanks Disney.
Free dining is a dream, it has saved us much more than the low room discount at Pop in the past. We have it lined up for our end of September trip! We get all our preferred snacks limostly figured and if someone is waiting until after the next ride for their snack someone is always ready to share because snacks are big. Quick service is much less of a time suck. If we want a table service we pay out of pocket and use credits to buy a sandwich for the plane or snacks for friends at home. Quick service gives more flexibility! Loved this video so much!!!!
Loved the dining plan- it gave us a chance to try foods we may have skipped previously. It is a lot of food but the snacks can be used for prepackaged foods which make great gifts to bring home. Taking the cups along gave us a chance to refill at different resorts close to the parks (coffee) and use the "drinks" with quick serve for water or bottled drinks. Heads up- wasn't worth it when travelling with older kids that could only eat from kids menu but wanted adult options/ more food.
They now only include one snack per day instead of two and you can no longer convert meals to snacks, so it’s not like before where you can really stockpile the snacks.
I think you (as in anyone) should look at what you would actually want to eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks and add those prices up. I would guess in your case it may be less than what you paid in the dining plan. As you said you picked the most expensive things rather than what you may prefer eating and missed out of a preferred snack at AK. I know I couldn’t eat that much. Really interesting insight into the plan and great video as always. I'd be interested in the quick service one and see how that compares.
"The only reason I got it was because it was the most expensive thing on the menu" says it all. You have to compare what you would NORMALLY eat to what you pay for the dining plan. You didn't spend $440.72 on the dining plan. You also have to add the tips you left onto what you paid for the dining plan. Since you are eating on the dining plan and picking more expensive restaurants, your out of pocket tips are more. Also, those glasses of wine that you wouldn't have ordered was $48 on their own. I was with people who did the dining plan for a week and they were TIRED of eating by the end of the trip. There is a LOT of focus on food when you get the dining plan - where will we eat, what's the best value, and then the post meal food coma.
Exactly ! The convenience is nice but that’s just about it. If you got a $60 steak and $25 glass of wine because you trying to get your money worth and passed on the $20 burger and $5 sprite that you really had a taste for … how does that make it worth it?
Back in the 90s & early 2000s the Tips WERE included in the Dining Plan. The waiters would always encourage you to get the most expensive things on the menu, because then they would automatically get bigger tips.
Also, when you aren’t local and it’s a once in a lifetime trip, or once every 10 year trip…. You do that much planning before coming anyway. All dining is booked months in advance etc, snacks are researched and lists are made of things we want to try. Hahaha so that part isn’t a problem in the park.
I think the dining plan can be worth it, if you either eat a lot, or you combine credits to eat at more "fancy" places. I also like that prepaying can be great for budgeting if you want to lighten your mental load. You can certainly eat cheaper at Disney, but having it all taken care of is pretty nice too. More like going on a cruise.
I love the longer videos! Today here in Texas it is 12 degrees and I’m not going out at all, so I got to take a virtual trip to animal kingdom! Yayyy! And thank you!!
It's like Jen said "I've wanted to try this!" You can eat cheaper than the dining plan on a Disney trip, but you can definitely get what you pay for, it's a good way to plan ahead for the cost of food, and it let's you enjoy your vacation a little more. There's lots of good tips online for utilizing a dining plan to the fullest, you do actually have to to use all those snack credits!
You have until midnight on your check out night to use all of your credits. So we would use some then too. We tried to use the snack for breakfast, a QS for lunch, and sit down for dinner. We would also get snacks to bring home too. We went without it last time and ate what we wanted and spent less. We won’t do it again unless it’s free.
Wow, it’s been WAAAAY longer than I realized since I watched you guys. When you said two adults and one child I was like, “whaaaat?! He’s 3 already?!” Last I watched he was still a baby!
I don't think the Dining Plan is too bad, it depends where you live for the offers they give. Booking here from the UK used to give really great offers like getting the plan for 'free' when you booked your park tickets so curious how that's changed. When we last went late 2019 with two kids who was 3 and 4 it was worth it, I know a lot of people feel forced to eat so much due to all the meals, but we discovered you could swap 1 quick service meal for 3 snacks, so it made for getting things like cereals, milk etc for kids or other smaller bites through out the day a lot better.
@@firemedic2816 There are lots of videos on TH-cam if you search “hotel thermostat override”. The method is different depending on the model and there are a few different models at the Disney resorts
My family has been apart of the DVC for forever so I've never known anything but! Using the dining plan and knowing how to get the most out of it was just the way we did Disney! I never really thought about the fact that others might not know so this was a great video for them. Super nostalgic for me too! I remember loving my refillable cup as a kid. There were always at least 8 of us so we'd fight over who got what color and who got to share colors with who. Years ago the cups were much bigger and I have fond memories of taking a swim break from the parks around 3pm and taking everyone's drink orders! We would get together as soon as we could to pick our reservations for locations and then would plan which parks to go to based on when we got reservations. One of our favorite sit-downs was Liberty-Tree Tavern in Magic Kingdom because you get the unlimited food like with a buffet, but they bring it out to you so you don't have to go up to get more! Also Chef Mickey's was a hit for us! If we ever felt like it was too much food, we'd buy something sealed like the popcorn that we could take home! More often than not we would pick up dessert on the way back to our room, usually a cupcake with a TON of frosting lol. As a child it was like heaven!
Great video! It seems like a lot of food but on a longer stay you wouldn't be having two quick service meals, a table service meal and a snack in one day. We have done mostly the quick service plan in the past which works out better for us. We did it back when it included two snacks a day and we ended up with snack credits at the end but that wouldn't be as likely to happen with only one snack credit per day.
When we last bought the dining plan, it was almost for the opposite reason that you two spent time wandering around the park: my husband gently suggested that we'd be more likely to just get the snack/meal that sounded good if we (me) weren't looking at the price. So we didn't try to maximize value, we did it for our convenience and for the lack of worry. And we only did the quick service. I hope you two try that one.
We did the Dining Plan for a week back in 2017 for four adults. We loved it! It was definitely a lot of food but it was worth it for us. My mom and I are extensive planners and I used to work at WDW many years ago so the planning part wasn't too bad for us. We loved that we could try a lot of different table service restaurants. I think that if we had not had the plan then we would have done all quick service. This was a celebration trip for us so it made it feel more special to be able to sit down for a meal together each evening. For snacks, we went to the festival booths at Flower & Garden, and we also got packaged snacks from the different pavilions to take home with us to use up some of our credits. Btw, snacks have a max price of ~$7 & have to be individual servings, that's why the giant pretzel did not count. Also, check out the various candy stores on property as most of their items count as snacks (I worked at the candy store at DHS & dealt with the Dining Plan everyday). We did have a couple of quick service meals left when we were getting ready to leave so my mom paid it forward and covered breakfast for some other guests at our resort.
I know what u mean about celebrating at Table service meals. When my Hubby and I were on our Honeymoon, the Restaurants made it REALLY SPECIAL. Same in 2009 during my Engagement. We were also celebrating my Dad's life (R.I.P). 2017 was Special as it was my Son's 1ST TRIP. He was 9mths old so we got the Best pics.
Back in the day we would do it so we knew our meals were paid for plus we didn't have kids and we used the meals as rest stops. I like this video. Thank you for sharing.
In the past we did it for a large family trip. It was great it allowed us all to eat together not worry about what we were eating . It did however make us spend a lot of time planning eating and it was to much food . I’d love to see you do this again with quick service .Also enjoyed this style of video . Love that you showed Jackson tired and what a real experience looks like.
The Safari Driver was Incredible, so descriptive and her voice was fantastic. Disney Meal Plan is convenient as it’s paid up front, rather than credit card charges for us out of Towners. It’s personal preference but Disney would not bring it back if they were not benefiting from it.
Love this video! AK Lodge is so beautiful. If you weren't leaving so early on check out day you would have been able to use one of your quick serve/table serve meals for breakfast - you have until midnight on check out day to use all your credits! So I understand you ate so much but typically you wouldn't do the 3x meals in one day. We always use the plan - any snack credits left we use take things home! Also they can switch 1 QS meal for 3 snack credits if you want - we've done this before at the epcot festivals so could eat at 3x booths for the price of 1 QS credit each. I hope you do try the dining plan again thats the type of video I'd love to watch x
The way we did the dining plan was to use snack credits for breakfast, as we weren't fans of the Disney breakfast foods. Then use 1 point for lunch, and 2 points for a fancy dinner or a character meal. We always ended up with a bunch of leftover snack credits, so we would hit the store on check-out day and load up for the car ride home. You just have to know your group's way of eating and make it work for you.
We have used the dining plan 6 times for 2 weeks each time. If you want the best bang for your buck you absolutely can but you need to plan ahead and look at menus in advance. We take refillable water bottles so don't use snack credits on drinks, and usually have an idea in mind of where we want to eat. We also save up a lot of our snacks to use at the epcot festivals so that uses a ton. We also use unused credits on our last day on pre packaged snacks to take home
We absolutely love the dining plan. Because we are from out of town we book a table service each evening before we come and then you the quick service for breakfast and my husband's favorite snack is a turkey leg which can be the lunch in mid day if you want and snacks we usually get things for the room to have for if it is late. We haven't been back until they brought the dining plan back.
We’ve done both dining plans in the past. We’ve paid for dining plans and we’ve lucked up and had promotions where it was “free”. Which in our experience means when they offer free dining the room rates are up. However it was nice have the entire vacation paid for. Now days when we go we look for a deal on the room and just pay for food. Eat when we want and go with the flow. No planning involved around food. To me it much more relaxed. Love your videos.
We had a free dining plan back in 2016 and have another one for this year in September! We use our quick service for breakfast, we picked a snack item for our lunch or got a treat. (we were usually still full from breakfast so didn’t need something too big) and had our table service at night. We think it was worth it. We didn’t have a meal plan during our honeymoon last June and we missed not having to think about our budget for food. It was nice to just have the dining plan in place and not think too much about it. We like to be in full vacation mode when we are at Disney. 😎
That's how my family feels. Food is Paid for with dining plan. We enjoy Signature Dining like Narrcoosses, Jiko etc. We r hoping that California Grill will eventually come back to Plan as that is one of our Favorite places
Very true about using all your dining plan credits! We go down there for a week and on leaving day, we have had to go into the resort food area and load up on all the left over snack credits we had. The dining plan has changed in the past years, pre covid even, where you got more snacks than you do currently. I remember one time we had to get 27 snacks on our last day to zero out our plan. LOL
When we went in 2017 I found that the best utilization of the table service dining credits was in character meals. The amount of time I saved not waiting in lines to meet characters was invaluable. Back then it was mostly just Cinderella’s royal table that was 2 credits though. It is a lot of food, but we were an open-to-close type family so it was a nice break from the heat and the walking to sit and eat. I also loved going to Walt Disney World knowing that food was prepaid. Food can add up so fast and those expensive meals would’ve felt like a bucket of cold water over an otherwise amazing trip. As a super planner who is also a foodie, I didn’t mind spending the time to plan all the food. It gave me a lot of reassurance.
Storybook dining with Snow white at Artist point is 2 credits. Not sure if Akersus is 2 CREDITS. I know Garden grill is One credit. Chef Mickeys is One credit. I think 1900 park fare is One credit too.
Sanaa provided one of the best meals I've ever had... at Disney for sure, but maybe ever. I still think about it 6 years later. Truly exceptional and so much fun! I'm a big fan of dipping, so that bread service was my jam! So good! I can't wait to go back someday!
AKL is our family's absolute FAVORITE Disney resort. Even if it doesn't have the benefit of being located within walking location of a park, it's dining can't be beat, and we think the resort and its rooms are the most immersive and transportive on property! We always rent DVC points, which brings it down to the same cost (sometimes even less!) than the cost of Disney moderates. We absolutely love Sanaa for breakfast, and it's only considered quick service! In terms of getting the most bang for your buck with the dining plan, you probably would have been better off using table service credits for a big breakfast at Tusker House, and then you could have used quick service for a late lunch or early supper with a couple of snacks during the day/night. Then you would have had a quick service breakfast to enjoy the next morning before checking out, and you probably wouldn't have felt like you were eating too much.
We started doing the dining plan when it first started back in the mid-90's. It was called the Food and Fun package then. It included an appetizer, entree, dessert and a non-alcoholic drink, and I'm pretty sure gratuity was included too. Then, in the 2000's it changed it's name, but what was offered stay the same. It continued that way until maybe 2008 or 2010 when the included appetizer was dropped. It was about that time that we decided it wasn't worth it. Trying to keep small children occupied in a busy sit-down restaurant every night for a week was a headache. You spend a lot of valuable park time loitering at a restaurant every day, and you find yourself eating way more than you usually would only to get your money's worth. It made more sense for us to do 2 table services (at restaurants we really liked) in a span of a week's visit and use a combination of eating in the room from food we brought with us on the trip and counter service meals for the rest of the trip. We could use "snacks" for a meal (like fruit, oatmeal and pastries from the resort for breakfast, like they did,) and we could share counter service meals to save money. We ate what we wanted and only when we were hungry, and saved time and money. Heads up: the value resorts, at least, do offer microwaves and toasters in the food court for you to heat up your own store-bought food.
We found the dining plan to be too much trouble. Our daughter doesn’t eat much and is very picky. We would end up with extra meals and would convert them to snack credits and buy things to take home. We found it was better to just pay your food as you want to eat. Less stress. But it could be a great option for some families. Thank you for showing us Boma dinner. Boma breakfast is our favorite restaurant on property. Maybe we will try dinner next time. Oliver definitely wanted the bread service 😂
I’ve done the dining plan 3 times but it was many many years ago!! Im not sure if i would get the dining plan now, i agree with Tim, the dining plan seems to just be added planning!!
Thanks for the great video! I LOVE a long format video every once in a while and this one was exceptional. Great footage to you both and great edits Jenn!
Favorite part of this entire video is Oliver looking like a little man listening and following everything the server pointed out about the bread service. 🥰
We did the dining plan in 2019 during our first trip ever. It was great! We spent way more for dinners then we would have, that being said, and being from west coast of Canada, the humidity did a number on during the day, so we didn't really use up all the snack credits we had back then. It still seems like a good deal depending on what you want to do. We always picked the most expensive thing for dinner! lol
I am a Disney Travel planner amd always have said For people who will plan and make sure to get the more expensive items, you can definitely make out. It's also great for those who want their trip to feel more "all inclusive ". Lastly, you touched on something Jen, that I talk to clients about - having it pre paid takes away any sort of thinking about what things cost. So if little Becky wants the filet, which is maybe $40, but there is a chicken meal for $25, Becky can have that filet and not worry about the price difference
I very much appreciate this video and comment section! I’m currently planning a trip for summer and this is some info I’m very thankful you touched on because it’s something I was considering. Thank you Tim and Jenn for the extensive and detailed video on the dining plan!
I've been doing DDP math for years and I could never make it work in my favor. We just don't eat enough food and we aren't at the resort enough to get that many drinks for the cup. Maybe if I had teen boys....😆
The addition of the alcoholic drink is nice. That is new as well. One of the things I love about the dining plan is that your meals can used anytime while you are there. Not like you have to use or lose like some places. You guys asked how you handle all the meals and snacks. all 3 times my kiddo and I went to Disney We always did the dining plan. We would use Snacks for breakfast, Quick service for Lunch and Sit down for Dinner. We always had left over snacks so we would grab a bunch of snacks to take home. We always had a quick service left for the last day and we would get food from the grab and go fridge to take on the plane.
Loved this video - thank you so much for sharing and showing what’s changed with the new Disney dining plan!! My family have done the dining plan before for a 2 week holiday in WDW and it was definitely worth it during that time but I definitely agree that it isn’t cost effective for everyone. Coming from the UK where we were spending a lot already on flights and such so we liked that we paid for our food in advance and new what we had leftover for souvenirs- we actually used leftover snack credits on souvenir packets of sweets (although this may have changed now). It’s very much the cruise/all inclusive perspective where you try and get your money’s worth out of it. Totally agree with the girl math too Jenn, when you’ve already paid it feels like it’s free hehe!☺️
What a great video and so informative. I do like the Disney dinning plan. If I do get to go to Disney this year I will get it. Thanks for the great content. Wow, Oliver was really paying attention to the server when he did the bread service. He is very aware of his surroundings. I suffer from depression so your videos always lift my spirits. Pray you know how much you help people. Love you all ❤
The CM on the Safari needs to do a Calm app! Watching Oliver watching the Waiter at Sanaa was so cute. Like he was really listening to what was being offered. Loved eating as this restaurant! I know on the old plan that by day 3 I felt the food was too much. I wanted to eat a salad because I was so full but the waiter said But You Did Pay for the Dining Plan so I had to order more. Just remember to tip!
This is one of the resorts I'd like to stay at, Wilderness Lodge being number one. I find it fascinating that a single movie like The Lion King can inspire an enormous idea to build a whole theme park and a resort....and more! If I could hear Walt Disney today on how his vision has grown over the years, I'm sure he'd be in tears. I try not to look at how expensive everything is today, but the ideas that the imagineers, inventors, artists and the creative designers at Disney have made everything possible
The Safari driver's voice is the best I have ever heard. Soothing and so very professional. And no "upspeak"!
I came here to say the same! She should be a voice over actor for audio books. Such a great voice!
and when she busted out the spanish for sitting down wow 33:29
Truly! She has a beautiful voice! And she did a great job of "tenderly" asking that little one to sit back down.
Agreed!
I was going to say, she needs to do audibooks !!
you guys loving Sanaa makes me so happy!! i'm one of the cooks at Sanaa and when people talk about how much they enjoyed their dinner totally makes my job worth it!! 💛
I love how the cuisine is inspired by banana-leaf-rice meals that I grew up eating in Asia ❤
In terms of interesting food that is really really good, Sanaa wins!
Thank you for cooking at Sanaa! My husband and I went last August on our couple only birthday weekend. It was one of the best meals ever and so yummy!
We may Try it in 2025
Good job Amanda👏
I see a lot of bloggers that go to Disney all the time talking about the dinning plan. They often forget that the vast majority rarely gets to Disney, and want to experience as much as possible, including dining. This means they may not want the cheap meals like hamburgers, and chicken nuggets and pizza. This allows people to pre-pay for meals that they might really want to eat at including character experiences. Another great video by The Tractors thank you guys for what you do.
As a Canadian, the ability to purchase and prepay for the dining plan is a huge benefit. We can choose to do it when the exchange rate is best and then simply enjoy and not stress about food costs while on vacation. I also think being able to tell your kids that they can choose whatever they want that has the symbol is really exciting for them!
never thought of it that way. So smart!
We had this safari driver a few weeks ago...she was the BEST we've ever had. Clear, well-spoken, informative.
It would be interesting if you did the exact same trip and just ate what you wanted and where to really compare. So you have what you would naturally do with out the pressure and then what you're doing because you have the plan and you're trying to maximize.
YOU BOTH LOOK AMAZING 😍 His haircut and her new blonde with that pretty makeup. Y'all look glowing and so good looking. ❤️
I loved when Jen said this is one of the most beautiful lines and Tim said it was because of her. That is something my hubby would say to me. Made me laugh.
THE SAFARI DRIVER'S VOICE WAS GOOD!
We found the best way to utilize our dining plan was to eat quick service for breakfast, snack for lunches and then sit down for dinner. That way we could eat a little earlier dinner to make sure we could see all the nighttime shows. Also I will say we also found it more economical when the kids got a bit older and ate more. Thanks for doing what you guys do! Hope to see you someday Orin Clermont again!
That seems like a Great idea. Especially if u go during Epcot festivals. Most BOOTHs have Dining plan items for Snacks or QS.
Is it just me, or did the Safari guide sound like a voice recording? I know it was a real person, but that cast member should be a voice actor.
Great video, thanks for the information about the dining plan. Oliver is so cute, the way he listened to the waiter explain the sauces as if he was going to have some for dinner was adorable!
Yes, Oliver was so cute. He wants the bread 😂
You guys nailed it! The plan is NOT practical. Getting your money's worth is not the same. We come from Chicago once or twice every year and would never do the plan. Love your channel!!!
1. The servers have a vested interest in helping you “work the dining plan” as their tips are based upon the value of your meal. The servers at AKL seem to be particularly well versed in helping customers maximize the plan. #disneymath
2. Snack credits are for Epcot or Disney Springs.
3. Not everyone eating has to have a dining plan. So, if you invite friends or family, you can use 4 credits at a sit down meal even if only 2 individuals have the plan.
For those of us that live out of state and enjoy a Disney World vacation I think the dining plan is worth it. Planning ahead is important for me because I don’t get there often. I think it’s easier when you live there to fly by the seat of your pants because there is always tomorrow.
Very true. Do you know how you pay with the Disney dining plan? Is everything on your magic band?
Everything is with your magic band but you HAVE to indicate you're using your dining plan!@@capucinemuslewski1811
OMGosh! I just said the same thing!! We already have to plan every second of our trip, so the dining plan doesn’t add that additional complexity.
Exactly like me. I go once every 2 or 3 years.
Agree
I love the dining plan because you can go and order whatever you want and not worry about how much everything costs!
We used to always use the dining plan. We would order our kids adult meals to share, so our meals would stretch even more! Leftover meals can be converted to snack credits that we would cash out on our final day and take home for a touch a Disney at home too!
We always got the quick serve dining plan because that suited our family’s holiday style.
So happy the dining plan is back!
Can’t convert to snacks anymore unfortunately :/
No longer allowed
We like the all inclusive feel of the dining plan. My husband relaxes more on the dining plan. With 4 adults (2 older teen boys) food adds up so very quickly and it can be stressful. Also if you use it for a 1 credit character meal it definitely helps get you the value!!
I think as someone visiting the park who does not come often (every 5 years or more) I really love the idea of being able to go all out with food via the dining plan, and eat lots on vacation!
That's how my family feels. We love the advantage of PrePaying for food. Like between 2011 and 2017 = NO TRIPS. Haven't been since 2017.
I love eating Steak. So steak restaurants when possible are a Must
We did the dining plan a few times in the past, and it was worth it(for us) for a few reasons.
1. We booked almost a year in advance, so we could pay for our trip throughout the year (which many do to be able to spread it out in a way to budget). Being able to have the dining plan as part that we were paying for over the months beforehand, made it so we wouldn’t have to worry about the food cost during our actual trip. One less expense to worry about at the time of traveling.
2. As you mentioned, you tried things you wouldn’t have normally tried. For us, that applied to cost of entrees too. When we’ve gone without the dining plan, we find ourselves looking for the cheaper options, even if something might sound better. With the dining plan, we didn’t have to think about cost, we could just order what sounded good.
3. We actually liked having extra snacks left at the end. We would use them to get some of the packaged snacks (boxes of Mickey/Minnie shortbread type cookies, packaged Mickey rice crispy treats, Goofy gummies, etc.) to take home for our daughter to have once we got home. She loved having special Disney snacks back at home. Also, I’m not sure if they’re doing it with the new plan, but you used to be able to trade out a quick service and get three snacks. On one trip we had a couple quick service credits left at the end along with a number of snack credits. We were able to get Mickey rice crispy treats to take home for our daughter’s whole preschool class. If we had to pay that during the trip, we wouldn’t have used our money that way, but since it was pre-paid it was a neat treat to be able to share.
One thing I noticed you could have done differently (and still would have “spent” the same amount) was not using your two quick services the same day. If you would have switched to having the snack breakfast the day you went to the park, you may not have felt the same about having so much in one day. I would have saved the quick service breakfast for your checkout day.
When we came to Disney in 2019, we "worked" the dining plan to our advantage. We had Character dining every night. We had the quick service for breakfast and filled in with snacks until dinner. It forced us to slow down and enjoy our meals.
I love to use the Disney Dining Plan when I do a split stay. I can do half of my week with the character dining that I'd usually be too cheap to do, but not stuff myself all week long.
Personally I’ve done both but loved going for the quick service dining plan. You could also trade in 3 snack credits for a quick service credit. I’ve done this at the festivals; Try three festival foods (all snack credits) and it will equate to one quick service meal. It gives an opportunity to try three different festival foods at a booth.
They no longer are allowing you to convert a meal to 3 snacks so this trick won't work currently
Disney closing off a lot of the value of the plan, and honestly, even if you "come out ahead on paper" the house wins because you may not have actually purchased that much food to begin with
You can’t do that anymore they did away with that.
Mayb it will come back eventually. I'm hoping DELUXE Plan comes back. My Hubby and I love Signature dining
47:57 Tim’s pickup line to Jenn was so wholesome !!!
I have priced the Disney dining Plan so many times and there is absolutely no way I could eat that much food and so frequently.
Watching your video was the backup science I needed! 😂
Watched the whole vid!
They are counting on you taking home 5,000 krispy treats with remaining credits.
Hey those rice krispy treats are delicious 😂😂
You can’t use the snack credits for snacks at the merch stores anymore I don’t believe.
@@oxsarahannexoit was shown in this video that you could?
We usually don't use all our snack credits but on our check out day we buy snacks we can take with us. Good for gifts as well for anyone back home!
For those traveling to Disney World, the dining plan helps, so you don't have to guess how much money to budget for food. Prepaid costs when planning vacations sure helps. The old dining plan, if you had service meals left at the end of your stay, you could get those changed to snacks and fill your suitcase with snacks. I loved the dining plan pre-covid and am glad it's back!
You can no longer exchange meal credits for snacks😢 Also some stuff that you used to get with a snack credit is no longer eligible.
@@schues317 wow that is a huge loss! that was a fun benefit
Pre look up menus and prices. You would know where the most expensive snacks are. We look up food before our trips and reviews. We have way better food experiences when we do this. We write it all down.
I have always done the Disney dining plan with my personal family trips bc i love it all prepaid and planned out. I’ve been for years with my daughter when she danced there with her school dance team without the dining plan and I really missed it. I’m so glad it’s back. ❤
My friend loves the planning phase of Disney and actually put together a spreadsheet parsing out the meals we would like to buy at the restaurants we reserved, adding everything up, and comparing the price to just buying it all on the dining plan. Turns out there was very little difference, for our 6 night stay we pay about $100 more on the plan than if we bought it all at the table instead. We decided the convenience of pre-budgeting was worth that cost.
Absolutley love the longer videos, the longer the better for me! We come from the UK and the dining plan is included in our package at certain times of the year. For my family it's definitley worth it even when we pay to upgrade from quick service to standard, it takes so much worry out of our stay and allows us to try so many things that we wouldn't if we had to pay out of pocket. We love how easy it makes things.
When Tim said he’s a fly by the seat kind of guy and it didn’t makes sense for him, that is ok if you live here. For us visitors who want to eat at certain places, Disney trips are highly planned in advance with reservations. I wish it wasn’t that way but it is these days. I did do the running plan before and the snack credits were extra and not always needed but we made use of the meals. We can eat a lot lol. It is nice to “spend” more on high priced dishes you may not normally get if you were paying ala carte.
I really enjoyed this video and the cost breakdown at the end. We always do the quick service dining plan and we just love it. We buy fruits, yogurt and cheese at Walmart for the mornings then we use our meal credits for lunch and dinner. We love the quick service, you don’t need to make reservations ahead. We have gotten it for free many times and have paid for it as well. We went to WDW last year when they didn’t offer the dining plan and didn’t enjoy it as much, we were always looking at the prices and trying to choose the cheapest option. We are also coffee drinkers so the refillable mug is a big bonus for us. Our favourite snacks are a grande Frappuccino at Starbucks that my husband and i share and the smoothies at Auntie Gravity’s Galactic at MK. And since we are Canadians we use any snack credit we have left to buy snacks for the plane on our way home. We are very very excited to have the free dining for our summer vacation. Hope we can see you in the parks ❤️❤️❤️❤️
Sanaa & Boma are next level Disney restaurants. They are phenomenal!
I'm loving Oliver face when the waiter was describing the Naan
That safari guide sounded amazing, not only was she bilingual, her voice was simply like butter! 🧈 Also, Animal Kingdom Lodge is honestly one of my favorite resorts! Being local-ish, staying or just going there for a few hours feels like a true getaway from Florida! I love it especially in winter months or at Christmas, it feels warm and “cushy” 🥰👏🔥🐃🐗🦒🦓🦩🐆 Can’t go wrong with Sanaa or Boma!
I always did the quick service meal plan most. The sit down service is nice but so time consuming when you are trying to experience as much of WDW as possible.
We’ve used the dining plan for years. We never use a quick service meal for breakfast. You don’t utilize the value of the plan when you use it for breakfast especially if you do drink alcohol. Pay out of pocket for light breakfast or bring your own from home and save the credit for lunch and dinner. You can use the plan up until midnight the day you check out. It will also seem like less food if you do a light breakfast and then eat lunch and dinner with the DDP.
Me too never use for breakfast
We did the same! I’m confused tho, isn’t it one quick service a day? Didn’t they use two?
I think they used 2, cause they didn't use the Qs for check in day.
We found the opposite worked better for our family. Eat a good hearty breakfast (Kona Cafe atcthe Poly, best breakfast on property), then just a snack for lunch, and a nice large dinner.
Thanks for mentioning that tipping isn’t included in the dining plans! My wife is a server cast member and these individuals work hard to make meal time magical for guests. They work for tips and a very very low hourly rate (ride operators make more per hour). Many guests don’t know about tipping standards at Disney. Appreciate all you do!
Where does your wife work??
Back in the 90s & early 2000s I recall Tipping WAS included in the Dining Plan. The waiters would always encourage us to get the most expensive items on the menu, as then their tips would automatically be bigger.
I love that Jen keeps doing Girl Math!!
Here in the U.K. we used to get “free dining” as a promotion quite often. The great thing about it was that everyone in the hotel room got it. Our two kids were in their early teens, and they didn’t really like full “adult” meals. But because they were over 12, they qualified as “adults”. So we basically had tons of “free” adult dining credits to use - my wife and I enjoyed many signature dining experiences and lots of cocktails. Thanks Disney.
This is a great point, sometimes it makes sense to pay out of pocket for some & then use credits for signature
My son would get Kids dining plan. So we couldn't use his credits for Sig dinners
Free dining is a dream, it has saved us much more than the low room discount at Pop in the past. We have it lined up for our end of September trip! We get all our preferred snacks limostly figured and if someone is waiting until after the next ride for their snack someone is always ready to share because snacks are big. Quick service is much less of a time suck. If we want a table service we pay out of pocket and use credits to buy a sandwich for the plane or snacks for friends at home. Quick service gives more flexibility! Loved this video so much!!!!
Loved the dining plan- it gave us a chance to try foods we may have skipped previously. It is a lot of food but the snacks can be used for prepackaged foods which make great gifts to bring home. Taking the cups along gave us a chance to refill at different resorts close to the parks (coffee) and use the "drinks" with quick serve for water or bottled drinks. Heads up- wasn't worth it when travelling with older kids that could only eat from kids menu but wanted adult options/ more food.
I do that as well get all the neat pre packaged snacks to bring home and have Disney with me
They now only include one snack per day instead of two and you can no longer convert meals to snacks, so it’s not like before where you can really stockpile the snacks.
I think you (as in anyone) should look at what you would actually want to eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks and add those prices up. I would guess in your case it may be less than what you paid in the dining plan.
As you said you picked the most expensive things rather than what you may prefer eating and missed out of a preferred snack at AK. I know I couldn’t eat that much.
Really interesting insight into the plan and great video as always. I'd be interested in the quick service one and see how that compares.
"The only reason I got it was because it was the most expensive thing on the menu" says it all. You have to compare what you would NORMALLY eat to what you pay for the dining plan. You didn't spend $440.72 on the dining plan. You also have to add the tips you left onto what you paid for the dining plan. Since you are eating on the dining plan and picking more expensive restaurants, your out of pocket tips are more. Also, those glasses of wine that you wouldn't have ordered was $48 on their own.
I was with people who did the dining plan for a week and they were TIRED of eating by the end of the trip. There is a LOT of focus on food when you get the dining plan - where will we eat, what's the best value, and then the post meal food coma.
Exactly ! The convenience is nice but that’s just about it. If you got a $60 steak and $25 glass of wine because you trying to get your money worth and passed on the $20 burger and $5 sprite that you really had a taste for … how does that make it worth it?
Here’s a dining plan [CREDIT CARD]
Exactly! When we tried it I was always ordering food that I really didn’t want because I was trying to at least brake even.
Thats how Disney tricks you into making them $$$$ by making you think you beat Disney..NO ONE beats Disney
Back in the 90s & early 2000s the Tips WERE included in the Dining Plan. The waiters would always encourage you to get the most expensive things on the menu, because then they would automatically get bigger tips.
Also, when you aren’t local and it’s a once in a lifetime trip, or once every 10 year trip…. You do that much planning before coming anyway. All dining is booked months in advance etc, snacks are researched and lists are made of things we want to try. Hahaha so that part isn’t a problem in the park.
I think the dining plan can be worth it, if you either eat a lot, or you combine credits to eat at more "fancy" places. I also like that prepaying can be great for budgeting if you want to lighten your mental load. You can certainly eat cheaper at Disney, but having it all taken care of is pretty nice too. More like going on a cruise.
Tim you make the best room tour videos!
I love the longer videos! Today here in Texas it is 12 degrees and I’m not going out at all, so I got to take a virtual trip to animal kingdom! Yayyy! And thank you!!
I went to work in Dallas today, this weather is crazy for us.
Nice to see the dining plan back. I enjoyed it when I did it in 2015. So glad to see some covid restrictions over and things going back to normal. ❤
It's like Jen said "I've wanted to try this!" You can eat cheaper than the dining plan on a Disney trip, but you can definitely get what you pay for, it's a good way to plan ahead for the cost of food, and it let's you enjoy your vacation a little more. There's lots of good tips online for utilizing a dining plan to the fullest, you do actually have to to use all those snack credits!
You have until midnight on your check out night to use all of your credits. So we would use some then too. We tried to use the snack for breakfast, a QS for lunch, and sit down for dinner. We would also get snacks to bring home too. We went without it last time and ate what we wanted and spent less. We won’t do it again unless it’s free.
We had the the dining plan when we went in 2019 and half way through we realised you could get the biggest Starbucks drinks using a snack credit!
Wow, it’s been WAAAAY longer than I realized since I watched you guys. When you said two adults and one child I was like, “whaaaat?! He’s 3 already?!” Last I watched he was still a baby!
I don't think the Dining Plan is too bad, it depends where you live for the offers they give.
Booking here from the UK used to give really great offers like getting the plan for 'free' when you booked your park tickets so curious how that's changed.
When we last went late 2019 with two kids who was 3 and 4 it was worth it, I know a lot of people feel forced to eat so much due to all the meals, but we discovered you could swap 1 quick service meal for 3 snacks, so it made for getting things like cereals, milk etc for kids or other smaller bites through out the day a lot better.
Apparently you can’t convert snack credits to a QS credit anymore
@@CarlessSarah Oh wow really? That is a huge bummer
We love the dining plan! One quick service and one sit down meal and one snack is just right for the day!!
Not sure if you know, but you can override the thermostat to disable the motion sensor and have it run at all times.
Do tell
@@firemedic2816 There are lots of videos on TH-cam if you search “hotel thermostat override”. The method is different depending on the model and there are a few different models at the Disney resorts
My family has been apart of the DVC for forever so I've never known anything but! Using the dining plan and knowing how to get the most out of it was just the way we did Disney! I never really thought about the fact that others might not know so this was a great video for them. Super nostalgic for me too! I remember loving my refillable cup as a kid. There were always at least 8 of us so we'd fight over who got what color and who got to share colors with who. Years ago the cups were much bigger and I have fond memories of taking a swim break from the parks around 3pm and taking everyone's drink orders! We would get together as soon as we could to pick our reservations for locations and then would plan which parks to go to based on when we got reservations. One of our favorite sit-downs was Liberty-Tree Tavern in Magic Kingdom because you get the unlimited food like with a buffet, but they bring it out to you so you don't have to go up to get more! Also Chef Mickey's was a hit for us! If we ever felt like it was too much food, we'd buy something sealed like the popcorn that we could take home! More often than not we would pick up dessert on the way back to our room, usually a cupcake with a TON of frosting lol. As a child it was like heaven!
Great video! It seems like a lot of food but on a longer stay you wouldn't be having two quick service meals, a table service meal and a snack in one day. We have done mostly the quick service plan in the past which works out better for us. We did it back when it included two snacks a day and we ended up with snack credits at the end but that wouldn't be as likely to happen with only one snack credit per day.
When we last bought the dining plan, it was almost for the opposite reason that you two spent time wandering around the park: my husband gently suggested that we'd be more likely to just get the snack/meal that sounded good if we (me) weren't looking at the price. So we didn't try to maximize value, we did it for our convenience and for the lack of worry.
And we only did the quick service. I hope you two try that one.
We did the Dining Plan for a week back in 2017 for four adults. We loved it! It was definitely a lot of food but it was worth it for us. My mom and I are extensive planners and I used to work at WDW many years ago so the planning part wasn't too bad for us. We loved that we could try a lot of different table service restaurants. I think that if we had not had the plan then we would have done all quick service. This was a celebration trip for us so it made it feel more special to be able to sit down for a meal together each evening. For snacks, we went to the festival booths at Flower & Garden, and we also got packaged snacks from the different pavilions to take home with us to use up some of our credits. Btw, snacks have a max price of ~$7 & have to be individual servings, that's why the giant pretzel did not count. Also, check out the various candy stores on property as most of their items count as snacks (I worked at the candy store at DHS & dealt with the Dining Plan everyday). We did have a couple of quick service meals left when we were getting ready to leave so my mom paid it forward and covered breakfast for some other guests at our resort.
I know what u mean about celebrating at Table service meals. When my Hubby and I were on our Honeymoon, the Restaurants made it REALLY SPECIAL.
Same in 2009 during my Engagement. We were also celebrating my Dad's life (R.I.P).
2017 was Special as it was my Son's 1ST TRIP. He was 9mths old so we got the Best pics.
Back in the day we would do it so we knew our meals were paid for plus we didn't have kids and we used the meals as rest stops. I like this video. Thank you for sharing.
In the past we did it for a large family trip. It was great it allowed us all to eat together not worry about what we were eating . It did however make us spend a lot of time planning eating and it was to much food .
I’d love to see you do this again with quick service .Also enjoyed this style of video . Love that you showed Jackson tired and what a real experience looks like.
The safari guide’s voice was so soothing 37:11
The Safari Driver was Incredible, so descriptive and her voice was fantastic. Disney Meal Plan is convenient as it’s paid up front, rather than credit card charges for us out of Towners. It’s personal preference but Disney would not bring it back if they were not benefiting from it.
Love this video! AK Lodge is so beautiful.
If you weren't leaving so early on check out day you would have been able to use one of your quick serve/table serve meals for breakfast - you have until midnight on check out day to use all your credits! So I understand you ate so much but typically you wouldn't do the 3x meals in one day. We always use the plan - any snack credits left we use take things home! Also they can switch 1 QS meal for 3 snack credits if you want - we've done this before at the epcot festivals so could eat at 3x booths for the price of 1 QS credit each.
I hope you do try the dining plan again thats the type of video I'd love to watch x
I heard they r not doing the SWITCH OUT for Snacks anymore :(
The way we did the dining plan was to use snack credits for breakfast, as we weren't fans of the Disney breakfast foods. Then use 1 point for lunch, and 2 points for a fancy dinner or a character meal. We always ended up with a bunch of leftover snack credits, so we would hit the store on check-out day and load up for the car ride home. You just have to know your group's way of eating and make it work for you.
We have used the dining plan 6 times for 2 weeks each time. If you want the best bang for your buck you absolutely can but you need to plan ahead and look at menus in advance.
We take refillable water bottles so don't use snack credits on drinks, and usually have an idea in mind of where we want to eat. We also save up a lot of our snacks to use at the epcot festivals so that uses a ton. We also use unused credits on our last day on pre packaged snacks to take home
We absolutely love the dining plan. Because we are from out of town we book a table service each evening before we come and then you the quick service for breakfast and my husband's favorite snack is a turkey leg which can be the lunch in mid day if you want and snacks we usually get things for the room to have for if it is late. We haven't been back until they brought the dining plan back.
We’ve done both dining plans in the past. We’ve paid for dining plans and we’ve lucked up and had promotions where it was “free”. Which in our experience means when they offer free dining the room rates are up. However it was nice have the entire vacation paid for. Now days when we go we look for a deal on the room and just pay for food. Eat when we want and go with the flow. No planning involved around food. To me it much more relaxed. Love your videos.
We had a free dining plan back in 2016 and have another one for this year in September! We use our quick service for breakfast, we picked a snack item for our lunch or got a treat. (we were usually still full from breakfast so didn’t need something too big) and had our table service at night. We think it was worth it. We didn’t have a meal plan during our honeymoon last June and we missed not having to think about our budget for food. It was nice to just have the dining plan in place and not think too much about it. We like to be in full vacation mode when we are at Disney. 😎
That's how my family feels. Food is Paid for with dining plan. We enjoy Signature Dining like Narrcoosses, Jiko etc. We r hoping that California Grill will eventually come back to Plan as that is one of our Favorite places
Very true about using all your dining plan credits! We go down there for a week and on leaving day, we have had to go into the resort food area and load up on all the left over snack credits we had. The dining plan has changed in the past years, pre covid even, where you got more snacks than you do currently. I remember one time we had to get 27 snacks on our last day to zero out our plan. LOL
When we went in 2017 I found that the best utilization of the table service dining credits was in character meals. The amount of time I saved not waiting in lines to meet characters was invaluable. Back then it was mostly just Cinderella’s royal table that was 2 credits though. It is a lot of food, but we were an open-to-close type family so it was a nice break from the heat and the walking to sit and eat. I also loved going to Walt Disney World knowing that food was prepaid. Food can add up so fast and those expensive meals would’ve felt like a bucket of cold water over an otherwise amazing trip. As a super planner who is also a foodie, I didn’t mind spending the time to plan all the food. It gave me a lot of reassurance.
Storybook dining with Snow white at Artist point is 2 credits. Not sure if Akersus is 2 CREDITS.
I know Garden grill is One credit. Chef Mickeys is One credit. I think 1900 park fare is One credit too.
Please do a comparison between the quick service and this meal plan!
Sanaa provided one of the best meals I've ever had... at Disney for sure, but maybe ever. I still think about it 6 years later. Truly exceptional and so much fun! I'm a big fan of dipping, so that bread service was my jam! So good! I can't wait to go back someday!
So interesting. Coming to wdw in August from the UK and doing quick service dining plan. Please do a quick service plan. That would be awesome 🎉
AKL is our family's absolute FAVORITE Disney resort. Even if it doesn't have the benefit of being located within walking location of a park, it's dining can't be beat, and we think the resort and its rooms are the most immersive and transportive on property! We always rent DVC points, which brings it down to the same cost (sometimes even less!) than the cost of Disney moderates. We absolutely love Sanaa for breakfast, and it's only considered quick service! In terms of getting the most bang for your buck with the dining plan, you probably would have been better off using table service credits for a big breakfast at Tusker House, and then you could have used quick service for a late lunch or early supper with a couple of snacks during the day/night. Then you would have had a quick service breakfast to enjoy the next morning before checking out, and you probably wouldn't have felt like you were eating too much.
We started doing the dining plan when it first started back in the mid-90's. It was called the Food and Fun package then. It included an appetizer, entree, dessert and a non-alcoholic drink, and I'm pretty sure gratuity was included too. Then, in the 2000's it changed it's name, but what was offered stay the same. It continued that way until maybe 2008 or 2010 when the included appetizer was dropped. It was about that time that we decided it wasn't worth it. Trying to keep small children occupied in a busy sit-down restaurant every night for a week was a headache. You spend a lot of valuable park time loitering at a restaurant every day, and you find yourself eating way more than you usually would only to get your money's worth. It made more sense for us to do 2 table services (at restaurants we really liked) in a span of a week's visit and use a combination of eating in the room from food we brought with us on the trip and counter service meals for the rest of the trip. We could use "snacks" for a meal (like fruit, oatmeal and pastries from the resort for breakfast, like they did,) and we could share counter service meals to save money. We ate what we wanted and only when we were hungry, and saved time and money. Heads up: the value resorts, at least, do offer microwaves and toasters in the food court for you to heat up your own store-bought food.
Remember when the food and fun card included ACTIVITIES!?!?! I remember sprite boats being included in that!
We found the dining plan to be too much trouble. Our daughter doesn’t eat much and is very picky. We would end up with extra meals and would convert them to snack credits and buy things to take home. We found it was better to just pay your food as you want to eat. Less stress. But it could be a great option for some families. Thank you for showing us Boma dinner. Boma breakfast is our favorite restaurant on property. Maybe we will try dinner next time.
Oliver definitely wanted the bread service 😂
I’ve done the dining plan 3 times but it was many many years ago!! Im not sure if i would get the dining plan now, i agree with Tim, the dining plan seems to just be added planning!!
Thanks for the great video! I LOVE a long format video every once in a while and this one was exceptional. Great footage to you both and great edits Jenn!
Favorite part of this entire video is Oliver looking like a little man listening and following everything the server pointed out about the bread service. 🥰
I'd love to see you guys do this with the quick service one.
Also, unrelated, Jackson's hair in this video is so adorable.
What a great video, we loved the dining plan and always got our snacks to go
We did the dining plan in 2019 during our first trip ever. It was great! We spent way more for dinners then we would have, that being said, and being from west coast of Canada, the humidity did a number on during the day, so we didn't really use up all the snack credits we had back then. It still seems like a good deal depending on what you want to do. We always picked the most expensive thing for dinner! lol
This is one of my favorite vlogs! I love Animal Kingdom and y’all explain everything so awesome! So happy about the dining plan coming back! Yay!
wait wheres oliver?😟
Next time you go to Sanaa, make sure you ask them about their secret dessert menu item!! Its my favorite dessert on property!!!
I am a Disney Travel planner amd always have said For people who will plan and make sure to get the more expensive items, you can definitely make out. It's also great for those who want their trip to feel more "all inclusive ". Lastly, you touched on something Jen, that I talk to clients about - having it pre paid takes away any sort of thinking about what things cost. So if little Becky wants the filet, which is maybe $40, but there is a chicken meal for $25, Becky can have that filet and not worry about the price difference
sanaa is my favorite restaurant on property it is so delicious!! glad you all enjoyed your meal :)
Tim’s got that “fresh” cut😀😀!!
I very much appreciate this video and comment section! I’m currently planning a trip for summer and this is some info I’m very thankful you touched on because it’s something I was considering. Thank you Tim and Jenn for the extensive and detailed video on the dining plan!
I've been doing DDP math for years and I could never make it work in my favor. We just don't eat enough food and we aren't at the resort enough to get that many drinks for the cup. Maybe if I had teen boys....😆
There no way you would normally eat that much food 🥘
Same here. We drink coffee in our room and we’re gone the rest of the day. The mug isn’t a savings for us.
I get mug to use at Home/work
The addition of the alcoholic drink is nice. That is new as well. One of the things I love about the dining plan is that your meals can used anytime while you are there. Not like you have to use or lose like some places. You guys asked how you handle all the meals and snacks. all 3 times my kiddo and I went to Disney We always did the dining plan. We would use Snacks for breakfast, Quick service for Lunch and Sit down for Dinner. We always had left over snacks so we would grab a bunch of snacks to take home. We always had a quick service left for the last day and we would get food from the grab and go fridge to take on the plane.
Addition of Alcoholic drink is very nice.
Loved this video - thank you so much for sharing and showing what’s changed with the new Disney dining plan!!
My family have done the dining plan before for a 2 week holiday in WDW and it was definitely worth it during that time but I definitely agree that it isn’t cost effective for everyone. Coming from the UK where we were spending a lot already on flights and such so we liked that we paid for our food in advance and new what we had leftover for souvenirs- we actually used leftover snack credits on souvenir packets of sweets (although this may have changed now). It’s very much the cruise/all inclusive perspective where you try and get your money’s worth out of it. Totally agree with the girl math too Jenn, when you’ve already paid it feels like it’s free hehe!☺️
You guys make great videos they help out alot thank you
What a great video and so informative. I do like the Disney dinning plan. If I do get to go to Disney this year I will get it. Thanks for the great content. Wow, Oliver was really paying attention to the server when he did the bread service. He is very aware of his surroundings. I suffer from depression so your videos always lift my spirits. Pray you know how much you help people. Love you all ❤
We LOVE our Mugs. We get Coffee in Morning. Then wash it out and use it as Our cup in parks. Pay out of Pocket for Soda and Pour in Mug
The CM on the Safari needs to do a Calm app! Watching Oliver watching the Waiter at Sanaa was so cute. Like he was really listening to what was being offered. Loved eating as this restaurant! I know on the old plan that by day 3 I felt the food was too much. I wanted to eat a salad because I was so full but the waiter said But You Did Pay for the Dining Plan so I had to order more. Just remember to tip!
This is one of the resorts I'd like to stay at, Wilderness Lodge being number one. I find it fascinating that a single movie like The Lion King can inspire an enormous idea to build a whole theme park and a resort....and more! If I could hear Walt Disney today on how his vision has grown over the years, I'm sure he'd be in tears. I try not to look at how expensive everything is today, but the ideas that the imagineers, inventors, artists and the creative designers at Disney have made everything possible
This resort truly is amazing, especially with littles! We’ve never utilized a pool area so much before lol. Splash pad also is awesome!