Last week I talked about Disney’s Quick Service Dining Plan. It’s a great plan for people on a budget, light eaters or anyone who doesn’t want to be tied down to reservations.

This week, I want to talk about my FAVORITE plan – the Disney Dining Plan. Some people refer to this plan as the table service or regular dining plan.

Disney World offers three levels of dining plan – the Quick Service plan, the Disney Dining Plan and the Deluxe Dining plan. Each of these plans include 2 snacks per day and a refillable mug. The difference in each level is your meal credits. On a Quick Service plan, you get two quick service or counter service meals per day. On a regular plan, you get one quick service and one table service. On the deluxe plan, you get 3 meal credits to use however you would like between table and counter service.

In my quick service post, I went over the huge variety of snack and quick service options there are. So, be sure to go back and read that post if you haven’t yet so that you get a full picture of what a day of eating looks like at Walt Disney World!

Now – let’s talk about those Table Service Credits. Disney World is known for their outstanding food! The restaurants are extremely accommodating for food allergies or dietary needs. I recently booked a family that is Vegan and I can honestly tell you that they dined at some of my favorite restaurants and enjoyed it as much as I do.

Disney has a huge variety of restaurants to choose from as part of the dining plan. The choices include dining at the resorts, in the parks and at Disney Springs. They range from full service gourmet meals to family style all-you-can eat that is brought to your table to buffets.

One of my favorite things about the Disney Dining Plan is the character meals! This is a great use of your credit and also allows you great interaction with your favorite characters, some of whom you can’t even meet in the parks except during special events. Meeting with characters during your meals also saves you from waiting in line and losing precious park time!

Characters meet at breakfast, lunch and dinner depending on the venue. Your travel planner can advise you when and where the characters will meet.

Another thing I love about the table service plan is the ability to try foods I do not normally enjoy at home. When you dine at Epcot, you can choose an Authentic German Buffet, complete with an Oompah band on hand to entertain you.

You can dine with Princesses and enjoy Norwegian inspired meals. There’s Japanese hibachi, Fine French fare and so much more!

Also, just like with the quick service plan, your meal does include speciality drinks, including milkshakes or slushees for the kids and alcohol for the adults.

At a current price of $75.49 per adult and $27.98 per child, per night of your stay, the plan differs from the Quick Service Plan in that you do need to plan for gratuities. Gratuities are not included in that price and are automatically added to groups of 6 or more.

Just like with the quick service plan, your credits do not expire until midnight on the day of checkout. We frequently do a large character breakfast and then skip lunch and save that quick service credit for another time.

Have you used the Disney Dining Plan? What is your favorite use of a Table Service Credit?