When it comes to deciding on whether or not to get the Disney Dining Plan we are usually a hard pass. But on a recent trip to Walt Disney World we decided to do a little experiment. We saw an opportunity to be strategic and took on the challenge of seeing how much we could save with the priciest option: the Disney Deluxe Dining Plan. We are proud to say that we absolutely slayed this challenge and far surpassed our expectations of coming out ahead. And we felt like we were drinking champagne on a beer budget (even if it was a Disney priced beer budget lol.) So let us break it down and explain exactly what we did to “hack” the Disney Deluxe Dining plan to save nearly half the cost of what we consumed…
Cheers to a successful experiment (we love Iron Horse Fairy Tale Cuvee)
Go ahead… have your cake and eat a second dessert too!
Unsuccessful Past Experiences
Years ago we used to love the Disney Dining Plan. It was a no brainer to be able to save lots of money on fancy meals and Disney snacks we would bring home. Unfortunately as time went on the prices have continued to go up and the offerings keep changing, to the point where we no longer find value in the Dining Plan at all. Sure there were “tips” on how to get the most bang for your buck such as:
Use Meal Credits for Lunch or Dinner instead of Breakfast
Choose more expensive items like a steak instead of salad
Take advantage of a cocktail instead of a beer or soda
Seek out the priciest snacks instead of a bottle of water
But even if we would do our best to order the most expensive thing on every menu we found, at the end of the day we would do slightly better than breaking even. And in the end, we were actually wasting money as we were ordering drinks and desserts we wouldn’t have purchased if simply paying cash.
Sometimes using a snack credit and resort coffee are a better value for breakfast than a full meal credit.
But This Trip Was Different
When planning a stay for Christmas, we knew being a special occasion we would like to splurge on nicer meals and indulge on things like drinks and dessert. We also realized that the two days we were staying were black out days for our usual go-to discount program Tables in Wonderland. When we started looking at the menus of where we wanted to go on Christmas Eve we decided to revisit the Dining Plan once more to see if it made sense. The Deluxe Dining Plan was priced at $116.25 per person per night and included the following:
1 Resort Refillable Mug
2 Snacks or Nonalcoholic Beverages Per Night of Stay
3 Meals Per Night of Stay (Any combination of Table-Service and Quick-Service Meals):
For reference a Quick Service Meal or Breakfast Includes:
1 Entrée (or Full Buffet or Family-Style Meal)
1 Nonalcoholic Beverage (or Alcoholic Beverage, for Guests 21 and older)
For reference a Lunch or Dinner Meal Includes:
1 Appetizer
1 Entrée
1 Dessert
(or a Full Buffet or Family-Style Meal)
1 Nonalcoholic Beverage (or Alcoholic Beverage, for Guests 21 and older)
So as you can see this particular dining plan is a TON of food in one day. And if someone were to try to book this dining plan for a multi-day vacation they most likely wouldn’t be able to get through their credits and end up wasting money. BUT one thing to keep in mind is a dining plan starts midnight the day you check in and expires on midnight the day you check out. So with a one night resort stay we technically had two full days to get through the plan and spread it out. So we set out to make our credits count.
Our plan included two resort mugs.
This hummus pack was a great snack value at 6.99
What We Ate
Day 1
We arrived that afternoon at the resort to find free cookies in the lobby of the Grand Floridian. We headed over to Gasparilla Island Grill to get our refillable mugs for some coffee and hot chocolate to go with them. We also picked up a hummus snack box to share.
$19.99 Mug (x2)
$6.99 Snack #1: Hummus Pack
For Christmas Eve Dinner we booked a reservation for a fancy meal at Narcoossee’s at the Grand Floridian. (You can read our full dining review of Narcoossee’s here). Because this was a signature dining experience it took 2 of the 3 credits from each plan.
Meal #1: Dinner at Narcoossee’s
$15.50 Cocktail
$22.00 Champagne
$16.00 Starter
$22.00 Starter
$52.00 Main
$54.00 Main
$13.00 Dessert
$14.00 Dessert
TOTAL = $208.50
(As you can see this meal alone was almost the cost of the dining plan)
Day 2
For Christmas day we booked a hearty mid day meal so we decided to start the day by sharing a large pastry with coffee.
$6.49 Snack #2: Large Holiday Mickey Cinnamon Roll
For lunch we booked a reservation for traditional holiday fare at Liberty Tree Tavern in the Magic Kingdom. (Stay tuned for our full dining review of Liberty Tree Tavern). While most people go for the all-you-care-to-enjoy family style meal, we decided to order off the menu instead.
Meal #2: Lunch at Liberty Tree Tavern
$18.00 Champagne
$18.00 Champagne
$14.00 Starter
$14.00 Starter
$24.00 Main
$26.00 Main
$10.00 Dessert
$10.00 Dessert
TOTAL = $134.00
It’s good to note we usually carry around some small snacks in our bag like beefy jerky. Since our mid day meal was very filling in addition to those we were only really hungry for a snack later and decided to share a Mickey Pretzel. We also picked up a Rice Krispy treat to take home too.
Snack #3: 7.25 Mickey Pretzel
Snack #4: 4.99 Rice Krispy Treat
A Mickey Pretzel is a good snack choice.
Packaged treats are a great way to spend extra credits.
What We Saved
Even though we only ate one big meal per day we found that we still had plenty of food. We could have made the choice to do three single credit meals as well, but we were glad to splurge on a fancy Christmas Eve meal instead.
The total we had paid for the meal plan was $232.50. The total value of what we consumed over the two days was $390.31. With tax that comes to a grand total of $432.69. (We didn’t bother calculating tip because that was the same whether we had the dining plan or not.) So after all was said and done, we ended up with a final savings of 46%! Holy cow!
Also it is a good note that some people may argue that the resort mugs shouldn’t be counted as a savings because no one would ever pay $19.99 for one day of beverages. But even if you take that off we still saved 40% off food alone. Not too shabby.
So while most of the time we will continue to skip the dining plan and stick to our 20% Tables in Wonderland discount, it was still super fun to try this experiment. We were shocked that we ended up saving more than we thought we would. While we wouldn’t go with this plan all the time, for this particular instance it made perfect sense. We were so glad to be able to splurge for Christmas, drink fancy champagne, and know that we got a killer deal. We hope to book another one or two night staycation soon and try another fancy meal or two. What are your thoughts on the Disney Dining Plan? And have you ever tried the Deluxe option?
