Disney dining plan

[Offtodisney]

Hi, just after some advice. We are taking dcs to Florida for the first time this summer. We're staying in a Disney hotel and have booked the dining plan. Do we need to book restaurants before we go? Any advice on where or what to eat? Not really sure how the whole thing will work.

Thanks

Did you get free ddp?

I think the character meals you need to book 180 days in advance.

You can book beforehand, it's better to do that if you want the very popular restaurants and in particular the character meals.
You can always change it when you get there, we didn't have any problem with that.
It's brilliant!

I'm going July. I've booked meals for every night based on a loose itinerary. You can cancel the day before without cost so makes sense. I think most if not all table service restaurants are booked out before arrival

Agggh!! I need help with an itinerary and with which restaurants are good. We paid for Disney dining plan. Any ideas??

Depends where you want to eat! You need to check out the Dibb forums. They have more advice than you could shake a tree at, never mind a stick! And they're friendly.

Yes, you definitely need to book if you want to get value out of the dining plan. What characters are your kids into? Get yourself a MyDisneyExperience account set up and you can book meals there (and fastpasses when you get to 60 days out).

Do you have the regular dining plan with one quick service, one table service and one snack credit? Make sure you make good use of your snack credits to get the most value out of the dining plan, don't waste them on bottles of water or cheap things.

We really liked Raglan road (irish pub in downtown disney springs), Tusker House (character breakfast with Donald duck etc), Crystal palace (breakfast with Winnie the pooh and friends), Yak and Yeti (animal kingdom, no characters) and Be our guest breakfast (the breakfast and lunch is a quick service with no characters), not a table service, so a good cheap way to see the inside of the castle. Did Chef Mickeys at the contemporary resort which was OK, you get to see Mickey etc there, and Hollywood and Vine character lunch which is the Disney Junior characters. The only one I really didn't like was Biergarten in Epcot, the queues for the buffet were ridiculous and it's group seating so you get sat with other people on one long table. Epcot had so many great snack options, I wish we'd just done those instead of wasting a dining credit on Biergarten.

Thanks, I will have a look into all of that. Yes it's the regular dining plan we have. I need to do some Disney studying now!

We didn't do the dining plan so I don't know what it covers, but our very best experience of the whole week was breakfast at Akershus in Epcot. All the Princesses are there and each of them comes to your table. It cost a small fortune but even DH had tears in his eyes when the princesses came in . (Plus the food was good).

We also enjoyed the Sci Fi Dine In at Hollywood Studios. You sit in a car and watch films while you eat. Only downside is there are 3 of us, so DH had to sit behind us, which was a bit odd, and it's so dark in there that we struggled to read the menu with our varifocals.

I found Be Our Guest (breakfast) a bit disappointing after the rave reviews. Yes the castle is lovely but the whole experience felt a bit like being in a canteen, with lots and lots of other people.

I have booked all my breakfasts and evening meals. You can book from 180 days before you travel. You can always change or cancel when you get there although need minimum 24 hours notice. Character meals and the more popular restaurants get very booked up.
My Disney experience app is how you book and they have all menus on there. You can also book by phone. Dibb is a great website with loads of info. I keep amending mine!
You really need to do some research, read the guidebook and the dibb.
Good luck,