Disney Diaries….OMG Free Disney Dining Plan is BACK!!!

YES YES YES!!!!

I have been waiting for this for about 6 months.

The FREE Disney dining Plan is back!

If you are looking to go to DisneyWorld in 2019 now is the time to book. The free Disney dining Plan is a great way to help budget your holiday, and to make it more of an all-inclusive holiday. If your not aware in the US it is very much Room Only basis, in hotels. You do get the odd Bed and breakfast but even that isn’t very common. That is the same for DisneyWorld. If I am honest though the portion sizes in the US put the Uk to shame. They very much feed you.

But DisneyWorld Restaurants are just another level, the service and food quality are AMAZING!! We all know I’m a foodie so I would not lie in this category.

So you should know what the DDP consists of but if you don’t let me break it down for you. There are 3 DDP packages, quick service, Dining and the Deluxe plans.

All 3 plans consists of 2 snacks a day and a resort refillable mug. The refillable mug can be filled with tea, coffee or fizzy pop but these can only be filled at a resort, any resort but in the quick service restaurants. Not in the parks!! You can get free water to put in them in the parks though. I’ll get on to what you can use your snack credits for later.

So the Quick service plan, you have 2 quick service Dining credits per person per night of your stay. A quick service is a food place where you go up order and collect your food. With every meal you get an entree and a desert and drink, sometimes they let you change your drink for another snack if you have your mug. This is great plan if you are always on the go and want the flexibility of picking what place to eat when you want. Also the portion sizes and food quality is still amazing.

The ‘normal‘ dining plan consists of 1 quick service and one table service meal per person per night. The table service is where a waiter comes to take your order from your table and brings it also out. Again you get an entree and a desert but now you can get an alcoholic beverage which my Aunty Janet will be happy about. I would say this is the most popular dining plan, with this plan you can also book restaurants with character Dining, or signature restaurants (but they do take 2 table service credits). This is the one I have always gone for and I always have credits left which we go to goofy’s candy store in Disney springs to get sweets with the remaining credits.

(UK terms quick service is like McDonald’s,KFC, and Table service is like Wagamama or Tgi but food is much much better)

The deluxe dining plan consists of 3 services of your choice so 3 table or 3 quick service per person per night and you can mix and match, so you can have table for breakfast, quick service for lunch and a quick service for dinner whichever you like.

Snack credits can be used for, crisps (chips in the us) popcorn, cupcakes, in some quick service restaurants you can even get some side orders as snacks, it’s usually something the value of $5 dollars or less.

If you want to see the different types of restaurants we ate at, you can see our Vlog on my youtube channel. Also you can look at my Disney Diaries to see where we ate and which restaurants have great character experiences while dining.

So the free Disney dining plan is running for holidays next year 2019 1st Jan-30th Nov and what I love is Thomas cook are doing a £0 deposit if you pay via direct debit. So Disney’sWilderness Lodge is where I will be taking my tribe to next year. I like Virgin but lately I am finding them much more expensive and especially when you are a family of 5 and don’t like to fly economy things get too expensive. On average we will pay and extra £1000 (for all of us that is)to fly Premium with Thomas Cook but virgin are looking for an extra £3000 sorry virgin 😢 Hello Thomas Cook 😄. I flew with Thomas Cook the first time I went Disney World and I have flown with Virgin on quite a few of my holidays, I’m actually flying premium with them when the hubs and I got to Dubai in September.

But anyway back to the Dining plan, so you are only eligible for the free Dining plan if you are staying at certain resorts onsite. If you are staying in a Moderate Resort (4*) like Disney’s Caribbean Beach, Coronado Springs, Port Orleans, then you will qualify for the free quick service dining plan. If you are staying in Deluxe resorts (5*) like Grand Floridian, Wilderness Lodge (my one), Animal Kingdom, Polynesian, Yacht and Beach Club then you will qualify for the free ‘normal‘ dining plan.

The Dining plan in my opinion is definitely worth the ‘freeness’ and also paying for it. When I went last year I paid for the dining plan and I kept a total of everything I ordered and I saved £378 which is amazing. Also that wasn’t counting the fact I had 20 snack credits and 1 quick service left to which I got sweets to bring home.

So if you are thinking about it…… Do it! Do it now. I also heard that this is the last year that Disney will be doing the free dining plan so take advantage.

Until next time.

Love, Always

The Crossley Mamma Diaries xxx