I visited Walt Disney World in March 2019, and due to booking with Thomas Cook and staying on-site, received the Quick Service Dining plan. Initially, I was unsure what this meant and how it worked. Through hours (and I mean hours, and hours, and HOURS) of trawling the internet and watching countless YouTube videos, I began to get the hang of it. I would write down places that we could visit to eat, meals I wanted to have and snacks I wanted to try. Hopefully, this post will be of help to beginners who are in the same confused, overwhelmed position I was in at the first mentioned of Disney Dining Plan!

The DDP works by giving you a number of credits that are transferred on to your Magic Band (a whole other post required for this!). We received 2 Quick Service credits and 2 snack credits for each day of our stay. This meant that for every day we were there, we could essentially have two meals (including a soft drink) and two snacks. ‘Snacks’ cover anything from a bottle of water, giant Mickey cinnamon rolls, Starbucks drinks, ice creams, pretzels and so on – the list is endless. There was a huge variety of meals available in all of the parks, hotels and Disney Springs, meaning we weren’t stuck to eating the same old meal every day.

Personally, one of the main benefits to me of the snack credits came in the form of the one and only Starbucks. Any drink of ANY SIZE, I repeat ANY SIZE is available as one snack credit. There are many other cakes and snacks available in Starbucks. There is a purple symbol next to the items that you have to look out for as this means they are eligible for the dining plan. There is a Starbucks in all 4 parks, as well as 1 in Disney Springs (towards Planet Hollywood, not the one near World of Disney), so you’re never far away from a whole load of snack credits! One thing I would highly recommend is the Mickey Cinnamon Swirl – we had this between two people from Creature Comfort Starbucks in Animal Kingdom. We loved it so much that we went back for another on a different visit to AK.

Arguably one of the best uses of a Quick Service meal credit is Be Our Guest in Magic Kingdom. This can be booked 180 days in advance if staying on-site, and it is really recommended that you do book as it can get busy (TIP – many people book this for as early as possible, meaning they can be in the park before the official opening time for the public). There are various options on the menu, I went for the ‘Feast á la Gaston’ (bacon, sausages, scrambled egg and potatoes). This is served alongside fresh fruit and a plate of pastries to share between your table. If paying out of pocket this comes up at $28 plus $3.99 for a fountain drink, so you can see why this is such a popular choice and the best use of a credit. There is the option to add an alcoholic beverage alongside your meal at no additional cost, which also goes down a treat! I really cannot recommend this enough if you are on this DDP.

Here is a recollection of some of the other restaurants we dined at (all were a Quick Service credit):

• El Mercado de Coronado (Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort) (breakfast, lunch and tea all available here, there is a really large variety of options.)
• The Polite Pig (Disney Springs) (various meats with a range of side dishes.)
• Columbia Harbour House (Magic Kingdom) (TIP – try the Chicken Pot Pie, you will not regret it!)
• Yak n Yeti (Animal Kingdom) (think Chinese food.)
• Be Our Guest (Magic Kingdom) (as stated above, this is a Quick Service option for breakfast or lunch, not evening meal.)
• Woody’s Lunch Box (Hollywood Studios) (when all you’ve wanted in two weeks is a sandwich, head here!!)
• Catalina Eddie’s (Hollywood Studios) (pizza and salad.)
• Liberty Inn (Epcot) (burgers and ‘fast food’.)
• Pizzafari (Animal Kingdom) (very similar to Catalina Eddie’s.)
• Sunshine Seasons (Epcot) (highly recommend eating here in the morning and having the Breakfast Platter.)

I hope this overview has been of some help and that you have been able to take some recommendations from this. If the DDP is something that you are new to, it really is a lot to take in. Once you begin to get your head around it and figure out where you want to eat, things will become much easier! Thanks for reading, Amy x