Walt Disney World With Kids (Fodor's, 2012) - Fodor's [9]
2. If you’ve gone with the standard plan, lock in your dining reservations at table-service restaurants at least 90 days in advance, either by booking them online or calling 407/WDW–DINE. This is especially key if you’re traveling during the on-season.
3. If you want to try one of Disney’s swank signature restaurants or if your kids have their hearts set on a certain character breakfast, combine two table-service credits for these special experiences and book them well in advance.
4. When you arrive at your Disney hotel, your dining plan information is programmed into your Key to the World card, which is also your theme-park ticket and room key. Handy, huh? Present it to your server or cashier before ordering and the card automatically monitors your allotted meals. Your receipt will show your balance so you can easily keep track of how many meals are left on the plan.
5. For families on the standard plan, it usually shakes out like this: an in-hotel muffin or bagel breakfast as the “snack,” a quick-service lunch, and a full-service dinner. But you don’t have to have your big meal at night; some families sit down at lunch to rest up, regroup, and escape from the parks during the hottest and most crowded times of the day.
6. Another thing to consider: The number and categories of meals you’ve purchased is loaded onto your ticket, but you can redeem them in any order. So if you want to use two of your full-service credits on your day at Epcot, which has lots of swell restaurants, and use two quick-service credits on your day at the Magic Kingdom, which isn’t exactly a dining mecca, that’s fine.
7. To get the most use out of your dining plan, study up in advance. The menus on www.disneyworld.com/dining will help you decide which, if any, signature restaurants are worth a multicredit splurge. You can also find out which character meals require two credits and which don’t. And, perhaps most important with kids, you can find restaurants that serve foods your whole family will enjoy.
Money-Saving Tip
If your kids are too young to sit still for table-service meals and you’re not planning to splurge on a character meal, consider the Quick Service Plan. It allows you to eat small amounts four times a day—perfect for kids who get hungry frequently but who don’t eat a lot at one sitting—and will increase the package price for a family of four by roughly $100 a day. If $100 a day sounds like a lot for fast food and snacks, welcome to Disney. Most of the families who’ve written to me report they believe the Quick Service Plan is still a good deal. One mom did the math and reported a 30% savings over ordering the same meals à la carte, and if you’re worried about facing a whole vacation eating nothing but burgers and fries, relax. Disney has done a good job of expanding their quick-service options, especially at Epcot. With a little preplanning, you should be able to find a wide variety of food options.
What Kind of Tickets Do We Need?
Under Disney’s flexible Magic Your Way ticketing system, you can customize your tickets to reflect your family’s priorities and length of stay.
Let’s say you have a long weekend to visit and want a three-day ticket. The base price is $224 for ages 10 and up, which comes to $75 a day, a savings over the one-day ticket price of $82. However, this base price lets you into only one park per day. From there, you can add the Park Hopper Pass, which allows you to move from park to park within a day. This will bring the price of your three-day ticket to $278. If you add on Blizzard Beach, Typhoon Lagoon, and DisneyQuest—called the Water Park Fun & More option—your ticket price once again rises to $278. If you want both the Park Hopper Pass and the Water Fun option, the price rises to $332.
Money-Saving Tip
If you know for sure that you’ll be returning to Orlando in the future it could make real sense to buy a