Hey howdy hey, Randy!
Welcome to planDisney! Thanks for bringing your Disney World planning question to us today. How exciting that your trip is coming up very soon! I love talking about the Disney Dining Plan, so let's take a look at your options for your vacation.
A Walt Disney World vacation package includes your Disney Resort room plus theme park tickets. When reserving a vacation package online, you'll have the option to add a Disney Dining Plan for an additional cost. There are two types of dining plans offered:
Disney Dining Plan: 1 Table Service meal, 1 Quick-Service Meal, 1 Snack - per person, per night of stay
Quick-Service Dining Plan: 2 Quick-Service Meal, 1 Snack - per person, per night of stay
... plus both plans include a resort-refillable mug, for each person in your party. Which is one of my favorite things!
Again, adding the dining plan is optional. If you are debating about whether the additional cost of adding a Dining Plan to your Disney vacation package is worth it, I'd start by looking at your eating style and dining plans for your stay. Will each member of your party eat two meals per day, plus a snack? For some this proves to be more food than they would typically need.
Do you plan to enjoy any character dining, or buffet meals like
Boma - Flavors of Africa (my family's favorite!) during your vacation? These types of dining experiences maximize the value you would be getting out of a table service entitlement from the dining plan. It looks like your arrival date is just 2 weeks away, so you would definitely want to make some
advance dining reservations as soon as possible!
For my family, I find we include a Disney Dining Plan in two different situations. One, if I'm able to reserve a
Special Offer that includes free dining. Or two, if I'm booking quite a while in advance and want the opportunity to pre-pay for our food expenses. This allows us to budget ahead of time for those costs.
Overall in my experience of purchasing a Dining Plan, I've found it doesn't necessarily save us money. I'd say we typically break even. But I really don't think you can go wrong either way! When you've purchased the dining plan... it's awfully nice not to notice or worry about the menu prices during your vacation.
Randy, I hope this helps give you some things to consider in deciding what to include with your vacation package. Have a wonderful vacation at Walt Disney World! Please visit us again at planDisney if you have any additional questions.
See ya' real soon,
Tami