Disney World Meal Plans FAQ

There are a lot of questions that come up about the Disney World meal plans so I thought it would be a good idea to put together a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page so some of the most likely questions you have about dining at Walt Disney World are answered.

The various Disney World dining possibilities can get pretty complicated at times because there are so many different types of restaurants at Walt Disney World. So figuring out whether you can use your table service credits at the Disney character meals and Signature Dining restaurants might leave you wondering what the best way is to use your Disney Dining plan or whether its even the right meal plan for you to use.

Cinderella's Royal Table is the most popular location to enjoy a character meal at Disney World. It isn't hard to understand why. The restaurant is located inside Cinderella's Castle in the Magic Kingdom and the characters that visit with Disney guests are the ever popular Disney princesses.

If you're wondering if you can use the Disney Dining Plan for meals at Cinderella's table, the answer is yes, but it will require two table service credits. Cinderella's Royal Table is one of Disney World's signature dining restaurants and they all require you to use two table service meals from your available Disney Dining Plan credits if you are going to use the meal plan to eat there.

If you want to enjoy character dining at Walt Disney World, you will save quite a bit of money signing up for the Disney dining plan. With the exception of Cinderalla's Table, which requires two table service meals from the meal plan in order to eat there, all of the other character meals only require one table service meal.

So if you want to dine with the Disney princesses, you can save meal plan credits by choosing to make reservations for the Princess Storybook Dining meals at  Akershus Royal Banquet Hall in the Norway Pavilion at Epcot.

The answer to this question really depends on what characters you want to dine with? Who are your favorite Disney characters? Who are your childrens' favorite Disney characters?

Cinderella's Royal Table is by far the most popular character dining destination at Disney World, but this doesn't mean it is the best. It may be the best if you have young girls who really love the Disney princesses. If you have young boys, they might not love it so much.

For dining with some of the most popular Disney characters, Mickey, Goofy and Chip & Dale, I really like Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary Resort. So I think your best bet is to decide what characters you want to have at your table and them make your plans accordingly. The food that's available at most of the character dining restaurants tends to be very similar. Of the 13 restaurants at Walt Disney World that have character dining, seven of them are buffet meals serving standard American fare.

If you want to use the Disney dining plan, you have to order it for everyone in your party that's over 3 years old. Now some kids are very picky eaters or just don't eat much, so sometimes you will find yourself with leftover kids meals -- usually the table service points. It would be great if the adults in your party could enjoy those kids table service meals, but unfortunately Disney doesn't allow it.

If you have kids meals points to use, only the kids can use them! Sorry. Adult diners have to use adult dining points regardless of what menu you order off of. So you can't get around the restriction by ordering from the kid's menu. Basically, if you are over 10 years old, Disney is going to insist that you pay full price!

If you have some other questions about the ins and outs of using the Disney World meal plans, please feel free to ask in the comments. If I can find the answer, I'll be happy to post it.