Where to Eat - The Easy Guide to Your First Walt Disney World Visit 2015 - page 198

• Crystal Palace [Magic Kingdom]
Typically, over 40 restaurants will have same-day reservations available at some point dur-
ing the day. It's always best to secure reservations via 407-WDW-Dine, DisneyWorld.com,
the My Disney Experience mobile app, or in person at Guest Services or the restaurant it-
self. It's not uncommon for a restaurant to entirely turn guests away without reservations,
particularly at peak dinner times. Make reservations as soon as you know where you want
to eat.
The Disney Dining Plan
Disney World dining is expensive. For some guests, it may even be the priciest component
of the vacation, eclipsing the cost of lodging and theme park tickets. The three versions of
the Disney Dining Plan (Quick Service, Regular, and Deluxe) are a way to prepay some of
these dining expenses.
Years ago, when the Regular Dining Plan included appetizer and tip at sit-down restaur-
ants, you could actually save some money by using these plans. These days it's hard for us
to recommend them:
• The Quick Service Dining Plan is priced so high that it's only possible to break
even or come out ahead if you use the credits solely for lunch and dinner. From
there, you'll need to order only the most expensive items to eke out a potential sav-
ings of a dollar or two per day.
• At a cost north of $60 per adult per day, the Regular Dining Plan is expensive and
saving money with it requires planning only the most expensive meals.
• The Deluxe Dining Plan comes with three quick or table service meals per day at
a cost of about $110 per day per adult. Users either spend three or more hours per
day eating table service meals or use their credits on faster quick service meals, in
turn reducing the value of each credit.
With only a couple of exceptions, we suggest skipping the dining plans. Exceptions in-
clude:
• If you take comfort in pre-paying some of your dining expenses as a budgeting
tool (even if this means you spend more money), the Quick Service or Regular
plans may make sense for you—the cash loss may be worth the budget comfort.
It's nice knowing that food is pre-paid and users are free to order whatever entrees
and desserts that they like, even if those prices are higher than they're accustomed
to paying. As an alternative, consider loading a Disney gift card with the amount
of money you plan to pay for meals.
• Pricing on the Regular Plan is advantageous for groups with kids under the age
of ten that plan multiple buffets and character meals. The cost of a child buffet at
many character meals exceeds their cost of the Regular Dining Plan for that day.
With or without a dining plan, the typical family eating their meals on property should
budget $35-$60+ per adult per day for dining, and somewhere between $15 and $40/day
for the kids—depending on their ages and appetites.