Welcome back to planDisney, Kelly! I'm so glad to be able to answer your question today so you can get your budget in place for your upcoming trip to
Walt Disney World next fall.
Since you will be dining as a party of 9, table-service restaurants will add an automatic 18% gratuity to your bill. That policy kicks in for groups larger than 6 and applies even if you prefer to split the bill by families. The good news: you can absolutely do separate checks. You'll actually need to do this anyway, since your
Disney Dining Plan meals and snacks are allotted by room. This way, you can make sure that each individual room is paying with their own dining plan.
When you're seated at a
restaurant, your server will ask you if you're using the dining plan and if everyone is together on one check. You can take that opportunity to let them know how you're going to be splitting up, and your server will assign each person's food and drink to the correct check, and then the system will apply the 18% gratuity to each individual bill. Each family then pays their own total separately, no need for anyone to front the whole tab. The important thing to remember is that the gratuity is based on the total number of people at the table, not how many people end up on each individual check.
I hope this answers your question, Kelly, and please let us know if there's anything else we can do to help you plan your magical vacation!
Jessica