Hi Leslie,
Welcome to the Disney Parks Moms Panel! Thank you for bringing this excellent question to us!
I am thrilled that you have the Disney Dining Plan. As you have indicated, the
Disney Dining Plan includes two meals (one table-service and one quick-service) per night of stay for each person 3-years and over on the dining plan. It also includes two snacks per night of stay and one resort refillable mug. With a quick-service meal, on the 2018 plan, you can have one entrée and one non-alcoholic or alcoholic beverage (for guest 21-years old and over). A table-service dinner meal will include one entrée, one dessert and one non-alcoholic or alcoholic beverage.
Be sure you have the list of
participating restaurants. Once you review that list and decide where you want to eat, review the menus for each restaurant to see the entrée options. If you dine at a participating buffet restaurant, you will get the full buffet as your entrée. On our prior visits, the cast member who served us reviewed the menu options with us prior to placing our order. If in doubt, feel free to ask a question!
My family loves to return to some of the same table-service restaurants each time we visit. A few of our favorites include The Crystal Palace, Chef Mickey's, Coral Reef and Be Our Guest. We prefer dinner at Be Our Guest, but will dine there for breakfast if we can get a pre-park opening breakfast reservation. Doing a pre-park opening breakfast reservation gets us into the parks before the crowds arrive.
Leslie, I know you will love the Disney Dining Plan. It always takes us a few days to get re-acclimated, but, once we do, we feel like dining plan pros!
Magic, memories and Minnie Mouse hugs,
Donyell