Is the Disney Dining Plan worth the money?

Ready for your fast pass to the perfect vacation? This is Talk Travel to Me. Join host Kristy Ouellette and the Mickey Guru team for one big travel question every episode. Solo insights or expert round tables all with a sprinkle of magic and the ultimate insider edge. Fasten your seatbelt, it's time to talk travel.

Hey Traveler, today we're discussing a question we get asked a lot as travel advisors who specialize in booking Disney vacations. My guest today is Sammie Fay. Okay Sammie, are you ready for the question of the episode?

Oh boy, let's hope.

Is the Disney dining plan worth it in 2026?

Such a loaded question, Kristy, come on.

I know it is, but you know we get asked all the time because we'll offer it to people and sometimes they're like absolutely no, but then more often than not they're kind of like, well, is it worth it?

Or you have some that are like, I want it. I'm like, no you don't. No you don't. You're going to spend more money. And they're like, well, what do you mean? And then you have to do the Disney math.

All right, so one of the reasons we're doing this episode now is that not only are we hoping our clients do this, we're taking some trips. You and I and Eric and our newest agent Jess are going to be traveling to Walt Disney World on the, what are we calling that? I forget what we call the trip. Get me out of here.

Yeah, the get me out of here. Time to get my cast signed by the characters. We just need to leave New England. It sucks here.

Yeah. So we booked the trip, what, 15, 16 days out. That includes Walt Disney World for a day, then a Disney cruise for four nights, and then we're coming back and doing Walt Disney World for four more nights. Yeah, so we have thought and kicked the idea around of doing the dining plan for our first night when it would be you and I and Eric staying at Saratoga Springs. God help me. But that's what we're going to be okay.

Just one night.

Which coincidentally is what I've done before there. one night before a cruise is all I've ever done. So now I'm going to do it again just because for the gram, I guess.

And then maybe I'll tell guest services you hate their resort and maybe they'll do something nice for you and change your mind.

Oh my gosh, can you imagine?

No, I can totally imagine because I can already see that I'm going to do that now that it just blew out of my mouth.

So we're thinking about the Disney dining plan for that trip and then you're going with your family at least once this year?

We're going in August for sure and then either the Halloween party or the Christmas party.

And so one of the big things in 2026 that makes it really worth it is if you have kids age 3 to 9 and the adults buy it, the kids get the dining plan for free.

It's such a great deal except for the fact that Disney thinks that kids are no longer kids at 10 years old, which I strongly disagree. But that's a good point.

Yeah, that's a good point. They do it based on age, not actual status. So it's 3 to 9 and then 10 and up are the higher price. Kid-ults or whatever. Which this is a good opportunity to kind of talk about that a little bit. Your older daughter is 11?

He's going to be 13 in November and Olivia is 12.

Yeah, that's a rough one for moms. When you look at what she eats at Disney World, does she eat more like a kid-sized portion or does she eat more like an adult-sized portion?

Me, Adriana, who's my oldest, and Olivia all eat like birds at Disney because there's so much moving around. My husband is the only one that eats like an adult when we are at Disney.

We're interesting because we do, it depends on the weather. So like when we go in the summer, a dining plan is never worth it for us in the summer because I don't want to eat a heavy meal and then go run around the parks. It's too hot. It is. So we never ever get it in the summer. But we'll eat a fair amount of food. Eric definitely, I mean, Eric I think has a hollow leg so like he can just keep eating and keep eating. I eat much less, but I feel like I'm not bothered by it if I choose to do like a character meal that's more expensive because the whole experience, it's not just the food. Right. But I definitely think about it more than I used to when it comes to that.

For the dining plan, like we don't even necessarily base it on what year we're going. We base it off of what's the priority for this trip. So like we'll sit down with the kids and be like, doing a quick trip, like are we going just for the rides and for maybe if there's a new show or whatever is happening? or are we like, do we want to see characters? If they say they want characters hands down, I'm just going to buy the dining plan to save my soul because you save so much money. I think the last time that we did it was last August. We did the Disney dining plan and I did the math and we ended up saving over $400. We did so many characters. It was like each day we did a character meal. So like if you go into it that way and you're doing only like one table service dining credit meals, not like Cinderella's Royal Table when it's two, we saved stupid money.

Yeah. And that makes sense. I think it's one of those scenarios where like I started looking at it for a client recently. One of the services that we provide clients is if they want to do the dining plan, but they're not sure. Like we'll go through and do the math and look at what are you likely to eat and see if it makes it worth it. I have a client right now that I did that for and they are going to save big money because of what they're looking to do. Right. Like they're going to spend a significant amount. They have reservations for Ale & Compass and for dinner. OK. So like they're going to spend a lot of money there, I think. And I asked them because one of the things that I always catch with people is like, it depends on what you want to order too at these restaurants. Right. Like character meals are a no brainer, like you said. But this one, I was like, are you a family that likes appetizers? Do you prefer dessert? Because the table service credits come with a drink, an entree and a dessert. You don't have the option of getting an appetizer. Right. And this family was like, we are big dessert people. So when we did it, I did all the math and then I showed them on a spreadsheet. First of all, she was like, what the hell? She was like, I can't believe you just did that. And I said, well, it helps. I knew what we were looking at. I didn't do it before the reservations were made because that's silly. But now I know what we're doing. But even with Space 220 on her list, which is not on a dining plan, they're still going to save somewhere between 150 and 250 dollars.

That's awesome. And again, like that 120, I'm sure you're going to spend somewhere else. so my thing is like, I'm going to save it for now so you can go. Please don't buy a bubble wand or anything else, but like go buy a sweatshirt, go buy whatever else you need.

My big thing is.

Not accounting for the tip, because a lot of people forget that part because it's not included. So I always do the math on what the tip should be. I'm a service industry person. So for me, this is like a left eye twitching moment because I'm like, you got to tip 20 percent. That's the standard. So I equate that in. I'm like, this is going to be out of pocket. This is not included in your dining plan. And a lot of people are really shocked by that because it's not advertised that way. Really, it's not really thought about.

And years ago, when they like on our honeymoon, which is 26 and a half years ago now, the dining plan included three meals a day, whether you wanted a quick service or table service, it included appetizer, entree, dessert, drink, not alcohol, but a non-alcoholic beverage. It included gratuity and tax. And I remember the year that that changed. I felt so bad for the servers because they were now in a position to point out every time they put your bill down that your dining credits covered all of this but gratuity is not. And I knew that. But I heard so many other guests like complaining and whining about that, which I understand. if you didn't know, like it would be 20 percent every time you go to eat adds up, especially character dining.

Yeah.

Yeah. But also, like these servers have been busting their behinds for you because Disney servers are among the best I've ever encountered. So, like, I felt so bad. But even now, I've heard when you pay attention to, like, the TikToks from some of the servers and they're like, hi, just remember, please, it's not included.

I feel bad because again, in those situations, that whole tip doesn't go to the server. That's part of why the character dining is so expensive. Like that gets divvied out among people. It's not always just theirs. And I think that's where people have a hard time, like, understanding, like, why my bill is $300 with character dining, like, but my server didn't do $60 worth of work. Well, $60 isn't just theirs.

Right.

There's tip share.

So I know in restaurants, I've never worked food service, but in restaurants, you normally tip, like you tip your server, but then they have to tip out the bartender and like the bussers and stuff like that. Right.

It depends on the state that you're in and it depends on the company. So, like, each depending on the state and the company kind of dictates everything. So when I was a server, I would tip out the bartender, I would tip out the bus boys, I would tip out the food runner and I would tip out the host stand.

Oh, OK. So it's a lot.

So and it was always a percentage of my sales. So, like, it didn't make sense. at the time the company worked out, we would tip like five percent of our food sales to the bartender. I'm like, make that make sense. You didn't make my food, you made my drink. Right. So even if I had no bar sales, I was still supposed to tip out the bartender. I was like, this is dumb. This is dumb.

Yeah. So at Disney with the character meals, do those tips also go to the characters? Like, does Winnie the Pooh have a little like honey pot where he sticks his money into it? I'm under the impression that yes, I feel like that's something I want to discover on our next trip. Figure out how we can figure that out, because I know Winnie the Pooh doesn't need money. He doesn't need money. Winnie the Pooh doesn't. But his friends do.

Yeah.

Like for sure. OK. So, yeah.

Where does he buy his honey?

Right. I could go right down the rabbit hole and make a viral clip right now. But I OK. So tipping is definitely something you have to consider if you're doing the Disney dining plan. If you go with a quick service dining plan, you don't. So maybe we should stop for a moment and just explain the differences between the two, because Disney does have in 2026 two different options. One is the quick service dining plan. And with that one, you get two quick service meals, which is an entree and a drink for each quick service credit. And then you also get a snack, which you can use for a non-alcoholic beverage or you can actually get something food related. And then you also get that resort refillable mug for the quick service plan.

I love that mug. That mug's amazing.

Well, it's a souvenir, too.

But it saves my soul all of the time. I go get a hot coffee every night before I go back to the room. I'll put it in the fridge because I don't drink hot coffee. That's silly. So then I wake up and I have an iced coffee and I don't even have to leave the room yet. So I'm pleasant as pie first thing in the morning.

So let's start with the other Disney dining plan, which is just called the Disney dining plan, which is confusing to everybody. And that one has one quick service credit, one table service credit, one snack credit and the refillable mug. And those are all per person per night. And the table service includes your entree and a dessert and then a beverage. You can get alcohol if it's served at that restaurant. And actually, you can get the alcohol if it's served at your quick service restaurants, too, which is helpful. One refillable mug per person for the length of your stay of your trip. When you think about the worth, quote-unquote, of the plan, you definitely think about that mug itself is twenty-two ninety-nine right now, plus six and a half percent tax. So right off the top, you can take that off of the total. And then one of the things that we know and that we're looking at is it's for your length of stay up to 14 days. So when we check into Saratoga, it'll be good from the moment we check in and pick up our cup. And then when we come back from the Disney Wish and check into the other hotel, All-Star Music Resort, because we're doing it for the gram, folks, we'll still have our mugs and we'll still be able to use them because when they program them at your first resort, they do it for the full 14 days. So that makes it even more worth it.

Not for anything, too. I mean, it only takes what, five, not even like four and a half sodas to pay for that, because it's four seventy-nine for a fountain beverage. So that's a huge savings right there. And it doesn't have to be soda. And that's one thing I always tell people. And like they have the iced tea machines, depending on how some of them have, like the green tea, there's lemonade, there's Powerade, there doesn't have to be a Coke, even though Disney Coke is almost as good as McDonald's fountain. So crispy.

Yeah, and it hits just right, too. Like when you come back after a long day or if you're spending a day at the resort, I feel like one of the benefits for us is we love to do a day where we hop around resorts and it's not good just at your own resort. It's at any resort hotel. So like I'll just throw my bag on and go and have drinks all day. So let's talk a little bit about what we gave for our breakdown, for what we're talking about just for this one day trip with just adults and like how we do that Disney math, because obviously if you book with us, we'll do the math for you. But you can't just send us your spreadsheet if you booked on your own and get us to do the math. So we did that here. Sam, you want to do yours first, like the day?

Day one. I love this. What I love about Disney is I go with big groups all the time. Like we've done how many how many times I've been to Disney with you now? Three?

At least.

Yeah, if not more. I love the quick service aspect because I'm not stuck eating where everybody wants to eat so I can go eat whenever I want, wherever I want. And so for me, like this is huge because I'm a huge Satu'li Canteen fan. I don't know if I say it right. I probably botch it every single time. But a lot of people love it because it's definitely a different style of food. So that's where I'm going for my quick service. And I'm getting chimichurri beef with the chili garlic shrimp. So, so good. It's very hearty, so it'll keep me full. So I don't have to worry about extra money. With a drink, it's twenty-five thirteen.

And that's a fountain beverage.

Yeah, I could do one of the specialty coffees if I wanted.

Or you could get an alcoholic beverage if you wanted.

If I'm going there, though, I'm getting that Ube cold brew because, you know, me and my Ube, I'm obsessed. I have a problem.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, and that probably costs as much as an alcoholic beverage. So it's probably a decent.

Pretty much. So those with tax are six ninety-two. For my snack, it's a Bug Bite Brownie Ice Cream Sandwich from Terra Treats. It's eight dollars and 83 cents after tax, which is a pricey snack. But high value if you use that as a snack credit, because what we like to do in my house is we split snacks among each other because usually they're like big enough. And so this is a snack that I could easily split with you and Eric if I wanted. Cut it into threes and be done with it, because that's a lot of sweets.

Yeah, especially after eating the big lunch at the Satu'li Canteen. And then knowing we have dinner coming up at some point, Terra Treats. I can't picture it. Where is that in Animal Kingdom too?

Yes. So that is right across from the Tree of Life in the corner where the new blueberry cold brew condensed milk bad awful coffee is.

I love how she tells people where things are in relation to coffee.

If you ask my husband to say, how do you explain directions to Sammie? You have to take this as I can get food. You cannot say interstates or streets. Like, no, this is where you get that cold brew that you like. OK. Yeah, everything goes back. Oh, my God.

That's funny.

Then for dinner, I'm the Yak & Yeti girl. This is partially your fault. Second time I ever went to Yak & Yeti was with you. And now I'm part of Landry's Club, which is a whole different story. But anyways, I'm getting the chicken tikka masala. That's twenty-seven ninety-nine. Then very filling. But something caught my eye when I was looking at this earlier. The kiwi coconut margarita. I'm sorry, you're going to take two of my favorite things and put it into and then include tequila? That is a recipe for success. If this doesn't rock my world in good ways, I'm going to be very upset. Well, not a big dessert person when it comes to like sit down, more like give me an ice cream cone, like, let's go. I'm going to do the chocolate pudding cake only because I want to see if it's something that Ryan will like so I can convince him to go back to Yak & Yeti.

Does he not like Yak & Yeti? Does he need help getting back there?

No, not necessarily. But if I make it seem like it's because he needs to try something, then I'm being super sweet and kind and putting my husband's feelings in the forefront of the fact that I want Ahi Tuna Nachos again.

All right. So what are you all in for?

With that day, total cost is ninety-one dollars and sixteen cents with a twelve dollar out of pocket tip at Yak & Yeti, because what my total bill there would be is around sixty dollars. OK, this is not counting the value of that resort mug. So this is not thinking about the fact that I'm going to get a free iced coffee in the morning when my head is free, free iced coffee in the morning because I bought a hot coffee the night before. This is not including when we get back to the resort, I'm going to need a couple sips of a Coke because life is lifing and my feet hurt.

OK.

And the 14 days thereafter.

Right. And that's the thing, right? Like we're basing this on kind of like a one day thing, but nobody really goes to Disney for one day for real. And we'll have those free iced coffees for five mornings after that.

So exactly. Yeah. So I mean, it's seven dollars and forty-seven cents difference, essentially, again, not including that mug. So I make out like a bandit on this.

Mm-hmm. OK. So I went a little bit different with mine and I went and used my snack credit at Starbucks because at Starbucks, you can get any size drink as a snack credit. So one of my favorite things to get is the frozen Starbucks Refreshers with lemonade. Now, I always get that as a Trenta when I have a dining plan, because why the heck not? And the only prices they have online for it is Grande. But with tax, that's six dollars and eighty-seven cents. But I'm getting it as a Trenta. And that's just a little tip. They won't tell you that unless you try to order it and say, I'm going to use my dining credit and I would like a Trenta size. They're like, cool, gotcha. So a little tip.

That's sweet.

Yeah. I'm going to go for this purpose, Yak & Yeti Local Food Cafe. So that's the quick service at Yak & Yeti. I'm going to go with the honey sesame chicken there. And I will say that, again, like you talked about the portions at Satu'li Canteen, the portions at Yak & Yeti Local Food Cafe are huge, too. Eric and I have actually shared that as our lunch before.

I've never done the quick service aspect of Yak & Yeti.

Yeah, it's really good. Another little tip, if you're looking for a snack and you like chicken fried rice, they have a snack-sized chicken fried rice. And you know how they like fried rice in those little containers, they pack that in. It is like a whole meal to go for a snack credit. So if you're looking to like maximize in that way, it's a win.

I'm mind boggled.

Yeah. Absolutely cool. But we're going to get that and I'm going to get it with the Opici Family Sangria. That's 14.91 and I'm not a wine or beer person, but I do love sangria. So that's that's really good. So that's going to get me with tax thirty dollars and eighty-seven cents. Now, my last one, my table service credit is at my favorite restaurant in Disney World for all seasons, except summer because it's too heavy to eat during the summer: Liberty Tree Tavern. Oh, yeah. And so that with a cranberry sipper, which again, oh, such a good drink. It's it's non-alcoholic, but super good. That is going to be that meal will be sixty-four seventy-six with tax. I didn't figure out the tip, but clearly it's going to be between thirteen and fourteen dollars if we do that. So that day I win, I beat Mickey by three dollars and ninety-two cents without considering that mug.

So we really win, really win.

And it's interesting because like you all the things are different, right? Like so every it would be very different when you did the math for your family trip and you're there for multiple days. Right. But one of the things that I love to do is like if you're talking about character meals, right, like most of the character breakfasts are about the same cost. So you could do Crystal Palace, Topolino's, 'Ohana, and that's going to be fifty-seven fifty-one without tip per adult, thirty-seven twenty-eight for kids. Boma is forty-one fifty-four for adults, which Boma breakfast, have you ever?

No, I need to. I need to. So I tried to do this with Shalon when I was there in January and then life was lifing and it was like freezing cold outside. Yeah.

The Boma breakfast, especially if you're a picky eater and you don't really like the food at dinner, because if you're adventurous, you like the food at dinner. Breakfast and they have POG juice. They call it jungle juice there. But Boma for breakfast is a real awesome take, especially it's forty-one fifty-four for adults, including tax and twenty-four fifty for kids. So I will say the one thing that I really think that makes a great use of dining credits is Garden Grill at Epcot. Lunch or dinner is running about sixty-six dollars with tax for adults, forty-four seventy-three for kids. And Akershus is also in that same vein. So like, yeah, fabulous value. When I see somebody that wants those spots, I go, this is going to be an easier, easier transition to the dining plan.

And Garden Grill is really good for picky eaters, too, because there is a lot of variety for stuff and not for anything. If you like chimichurri sauce, you have to have the steak there. It is so good. And I'm picky about steak. It is so good.

Yeah. And I love the character interaction. We'll do an episode about that at some point, like which character meal is better. But the interactions at Garden Grill on point every single time. Pluto is very playful, just like you'd expect a dog to be. Like, I love that. Love, love, love, love.

But Chip 'n' Dale, mischievous.

Mm-hmm. I love those boys. They're my favorites.

So handsome.

So we definitely know that there's a way to make the math work for the Disney dining plan if you're looking at adults, certainly for kids.

The flip side of this is you end up spending more money while you're there because you were not prepared and did not plan accurately. So instead, like you wasted quick service credits and decided to go do more sit-down meals. And so now you're paying out of pocket for these sit-down meals and these service things go to waste. I was so excited. January, my my wedding people that were down there, she sent me a screenshot after they checked out and she goes, tell me I nailed the dining plan without telling me everything was zeroed out. I was like, oh, I have goosebumps. This is amazing. So like if you do it right, like great. But if you are leaving and you have like six table services left or six quick services left or five snacks left, like you left money on the table. So it's like paying attention to the app constantly like I've used this. And it's hard because you forget that you have it sometimes because Disney's not an all-inclusive place to remember, like to remember, like, oh, my dining service credit for this. or the fact that you blew my mind earlier when you told me that I could get a Joffrey's specialty coffee with the quick service thing instead of a fountain drink. Like I'm like, I'm going to get coffee at every meal. No one needs that caffeinated Sammie in their life.

But you're about to experience it in two weeks, Kristy. Sorry, Eric. You know, it's funny, though, and like to your point, like you have to pay attention. I know when we put it into our client portals, it'll say like, use a dining credit for this meal. So we try to remind people. But you can also keep track of it in the app. And that makes it work out really well. And I always tell my clients in the app, like specifically use a credit for this meal, don't use one for this meal. Like if you're going and you want to just get appetizers and a drink, do that. But that's not where you're going to use, well, you couldn't use your credit on that anyway. But be careful about where we're using them and have a plan. So that, I think, is where you really, really can either win or lose. Back in the day, you used to be able to turn quick service credits into snacks. Like you could walk up and be like, I want three snacks for a quick service. They stopped that when they brought it back last year, which I think that's bogus. I think we should be able to do that. Come on.

But Well, I mean, Cheeseburger Spring Rolls is a snack, but feeling wise, it's a quick service, like those are filling. There's two of them. Like just the way that they do everything is just weird. It, I don't know. I feel like you fields to customize it.

Yeah. And that's the thing. There is zero customization in this plan. So you have to be eating it the way that they set it up to get your worth out of it. I've gone down for trips before where we didn't do a single table service restaurant and we basically snacked around the world. So kind of like you talk about, like there's two cheeseburger rolls. So like you'd buy one and I would have one of those, you'd have one and then I'd buy the next thing. Right. A lot of that, especially with Food & Wine Festival or Flower & Garden, like, um, which is another place you get really great value out of your snack credits if you have them.

Yep.

Some of those suckers are like $10 or more and you could, that's a snack credit.

So when people decide they don't want to do the plan, what I tell them is they say, okay, well, if you're going to budget on the side for it, you're going to use the same numbers we just used for the Disney dining plan, you're going to use that $98 a day per person for, oh, and then it changes for a kid or the quick service one. this way again, those projections might be higher, but it's a rough estimate of what Disney thinks you will do, as long as you're not doing appetizers and all that.

Yeah. But I mean, I think even like if you're doing appetizers, we've had that happen where you spend more because you're at the table and maybe you get three or four appetizers and everybody's sharing and all of that where it's like, but some things you would just want that are on the appetizer menu. And so if that's the case, that's, you don't want to not have that. I, and I think this is where that individualized look that we do really makes a difference. I have another client that is a single mom and she's bringing her three kids under nine or under 10. Oh yeah. We looked at that. Like I did like half the math and I went, never mind. Like whether you do just quick service, because she has one that is like three and a half and she's like, she doesn't sit in restaurants ever. So I was like, that's fair. So one of the two plans. And so she's still trying to figure out what that looks like. Um, but I also explained that Disney is a great place to teach your kids about sitting in restaurants if you are up for that challenge, because no one's expecting you to be quiet and you know, it's a, you can get up and get your wiggles out. You're sitting there at breakfast at Hollywood & Vine, like you can get up and wiggle out, like that's totally fine.

So that makes a ton of sense again, like if the kids are outweighing the adults at that rate, that's a no brainer.

Yeah. So we're going to end this episode then with the answer being: it depends.

Maybe.

As we talked about, there's just so many different pieces to this puzzle that, um, it really is, it depends. It depends who you're going with. It depends when you're going. It depends, um, what your focus of the trip, like Sammy said, like if you're looking to just run around and go on rides, then the quick service plan might be perfect. But if you are looking at character meals, you definitely want to go with that other one, the full dining plan. All right. Well, that is one more question unpacked. If you have a travel stumper you want us to tackle, or if you're ready to let a pro handle the heavy lifting for your next getaway, send us a text to the show, come find us at mickeyguru.com or take a peek at the show notes. We're also getting real active on Instagram and TikTok under Talk Travel to Me Pod. So pop over there and say hi too. And we'll see you next week. We'll be answering the question: when is the best time to go to Walt Disney World?

All the time. Great.

See you real soon, everybody.

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