{"id":33651,"date":"2014-05-28T02:00:47","date_gmt":"2014-05-28T06:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/?p=33651"},"modified":"2022-05-05T01:11:49","modified_gmt":"2022-05-05T05:11:49","slug":"tips-free-dining","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/tips-free-dining\/","title":{"rendered":"Tips for Free Dining"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Keep<\/p>\n

The Disney Free Dining discount is probably the most popular promotion that Walt Disney World has! \u00a0For months before Disney announces a Free Dining, the internet is abuzz with people trying to guess when it will be announced and what dates Free Dining will be offered. \u00a0Do you stalk the internet waiting for that information, too?<\/p>\n

I want to share my favorite tips for maximizing Free Dining. \u00a0Actually, most of these tips will help maximize a paid dining plan, too. \u00a0Are you ready? \u00a0Let’s get started, then! \u00a0To start with, if you want to book a trip during Free Dining, make sure your dates match the dates that Free Dining is available. \u00a0Now, I know this tip may seem to be a basic understanding, but even though the dates are listed as select dates\u00a0August 31- December 23, 2014, there are a few dates that are blacked out. \u00a0A quick call to Walt Disney World or your friendly agent with The Magic For Less Travel will let you know if your travel dates are a part of the Free Dining promotion.<\/p>\n

Next, before you make your dining reservations (and don’t forget to make them at 180 days or as soon as you are booked if it is less than 180 days until your trip), you’ll need to decide what dining plan you will get. \u00a0If you are booking a Free Dining trip, you will get a Quick Service Dining Plan when booking a Value Resort. \u00a0You will get the Standard Dining Plan if you book a Moderate or Deluxe Resort. \u00a0You can see the different dining plans here<\/a>. \u00a0Keep in mind that you can pay the difference between the Free Dining plan you will get and a more expensive plan if you would like.<\/p>\n

\"Disney<\/p>\n

My tips are aimed toward the Standard Dining Plan because that is the one we usually get when we get a dining plan. \u00a0We have picky eaters who have big appetites, so we normally reserve a lot of buffet meals. \u00a0Buffets offer a lot of bang for the “buck” by including a lot of food that includes a lot of variety. \u00a0My kids are usually very happy after eating at a Disney buffet. \u00a0Of course, most of the buffets we reserve are character meals. \u00a0Why? \u00a0Well, besides the fact that many of the buffets at Disney are character meals, character meals offer a lot of entertainment value. \u00a0If you are taking your kids to Walt Disney World during a hot time of the year (In Florida, that’s about 11 months of the year, right?), you can sit and eat while the characters come to your table. \u00a0If you have waited with your child out in the heat to see a character, you will realize how HUGE this perk is!<\/p>\n

Another thing we try to do is to reserve our meals for an overlap time, like a brunch or lupper (Is that a word?). \u00a0You know what I mean… \u00a0The straddle times of 10:00 am to 11:00 am and 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm. \u00a0We find that we can stretch our dining plan credits a little further this way. \u00a0We usually order some snacks and breakfast-type items from Garden Grocer, so we can feed the kids a cereal bar to tide them over to a brunch reservation. \u00a0If we choose a 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm slot, we usually feed the kids a full breakfast in the room that will keep them going until early afternoon.<\/p>\n

Yes, if you are on the Standard Dining Plan, you will get a snack credit, a quick service credit, and a table service credit per night of stay in the onsite resort. \u00a0We use our quick service credit in a few different ways. \u00a0Sometimes, we use it for lunch, and other times, we use it for a late supper. \u00a0One of the nice things about the quick service credit is that it can be used in each of the Disney Resorts and Downtown Disney in addition to the parks. \u00a0This makes the quick service dining credit very versatile. \u00a0Want to see the Cars characters at Disney’s Art of Animation? \u00a0What a perfect opportunity to eat at the Landscape of Flavors Food Court! \u00a0If you would like to see what is on the menus at the different restaurants and food courts, we have the menus on The Mouse For Less<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Disney<\/p>\n

What about those snack credits? \u00a0The snack credits can be used on a lot more than popcorn and churros! \u00a0What’s great is that there are several items eligible to be purchased with a snack credit, and quite often, the snacks are big enough to share. \u00a0Besides stretching our credits further, it allows us to try more items. \u00a0But just watch out! \u00a0I’m not sharing my carrot cake cookie with anyone!<\/p>\n

What are your biggest tips for Free Dining?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Disney Free Dining discount is probably the most popular promotion that Walt Disney World has! \u00a0For months before Disney announces a Free Dining, the internet is abuzz with people trying to guess when it will be announced and what dates Free Dining will be offered. \u00a0Do you stalk the internet waiting for that information,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33652,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1688,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wdw-dining","category-walt-disney-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33651"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66575,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33651\/revisions\/66575"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}