Disney knows that planning our vacation is enough work in itself, without having to worry about the daily meals. Thus, they offer the Magic Your Way PLUS Dining option. For each night of our 2006 vacation, the Disney Dining Plan gave my family the following meal options:

One table-service meal including appetizer, entree, and dessert, or a full buffet and non-alcoholic beverage.

One counter-service meal including entrée and dessert, or one complete combo meal, and non-alcoholic beverage

One snack - choose from a frozen ice-cream novelty or fruit bar, popcorn scoop (single serving box), single piece of whole fruit, single serving of chips, 20oz. bottle of soda, 24oz. Bottle of water, medium fountain soft drink, or apple juice.

You may choose to exchange two table-service meals for either one Signature Dining Experience at one of Disney’s restaurants, or for one Disney Dinner Show.

This was a great addition to the way we enhanced our vacation package, not to mention that we booked during a AAA promotion that gave us the dining plan for free. However, the 2007 dining plan fees are $38.99 per adult per night, and $10.99 per child ages 3-9 per night of your stay; and that includes the taxes and an 18% gratuity.

If you just eat when and where you want to eat, you could break even. However with the popularity of Disney’s dining plan, advanced dining reservations are more of a necessity than a recommendation. While we were in Disney some of the more popular restaurants had to turn away walk up guests. It is in your best interest when selecting the Dining Plan as part of your package, to do a little research and carefully choose where you and your party would like to dine, and then have your Travel Consultant make some advanced dining reservations, in order to make the most of your money. The best place to research the different restaurants and their menus is All Ears Net® on the web at: www.allearsnet.com. Deb and her crew do a terrific job at providing (for free) the most current menus and pricing for all the restaurants in the Theme Parks and the Disney Resorts.

Now I know that some of you are thinking, $38.99 seems like too much money to spend ahead of time, not knowing what you may select to eat. Here is an example of how I got the most for my money while on the dining plan.

For lunch I used my Counter Service meal and ate at the ABC Commissary in MGM Studios. My cheeseburger and fries, large soda, and chocolate moose totaled $13.07 including the tax, if I had paid out of pocket.

For a mid-afternoon snack, I choose to visit Toluca Turkey Legs and purchased a small bag of potato chips for $2.55.

For dinner, I used my Table Service option and dined at the 50’s Prime Time Café. I choose Shrimp Cocktail as an appetizer at $7.49, Top Sirloin Steak at $19.99, and for dessert, Angel Food Cake with fresh berries and whipped cream for $5.29. My total for dinner was $41.82 including tax and tip.

For the entire day, I would have spent $57.44
including the tax and gratuities, yet, I only paid $38.99 for all this.
All together my family would have spent approximately $1200.00 for the food we ate while on vacation. If the dining plan was not free when we booked it would have only cost us $685.72 when we booked. That is still a savings of 43%.

You can't loose, and you certainly shouldn’t book without the dining option. Not all, but most of the Disney eateries participate with the Disney Dining Plan and advance seating reservations can be made up to 180 days in advance by calling (407) WDW-DINE.

Please review our other Walt Disney World journals:
Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort
Vacation Village at Parkway
Walt Disney World Vacation - 2006

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