Hi Heather,
Welcome to the Disney Parks Moms Panel! I love that you are planning a family vacation to the Walt Disney World Resort!
Good news - even if you are on different
dining plans, you can make
advanced dining reservations together! I just suggest that you check the number of dining entitlements required at each restaurant so that you know what your dining plans will cover. The Disney Quick-Service Dining Plan, for example, includes only quick-service meal entitlements so if you are eating at a table-service restaurant, you would not have any table-service meal entitlements on your dining plan to cover the cost of your meal.
Heather, to check the number of meal entitlements a restaurant requires, simply go to the restaurant's web page, click on the link that says "Some Dining Plans Accepted." Once you click on that link, a pop-up menu should appear that indicates how many and what type of meal entitlements are required at that restaurant. Pay careful attention because signature restaurants typically require two table-service entitlements per person 3-years old and over on the dining plan. Since I am always the vacation planner in my family, I make sure that everyone is connected through My Family & Friends List in My Disney Experience and then I make all of our dining reservations. After I make those reservations, I create a chart of our planned dining experiences and, on that chart, I indicate how many meal entitlements we will use at each meal. Creating this chart helps me to ensure that we will not run out of meal entitlements before the end of the trip!
Magic, memories and Minnie Mouse hugs,
Donyell