How To Use The Quick Service Dining Plan (Pros And Cons!)
What Is The Quick Service Dining plan?
What Is Included On The Quick Service Dining Plan?
What’s in a Quick Service credit?
A Quick Service credit on the Disney quick service plan includes an entrée, or a complete combo meal, and a drink from a Quick Service restaurant. You can use these meal credits for Breakfast, lunch or dinner. The entrée may be something like a burger with fries; a sandwich with salad or a curry with rice, for example.
It’s definitely a good idea to do some research before you go (walking in to the closest Quick Service restaurant because we’re hungry has been a mistake in the past!) as there are some spectacular choices on offer and many different types of cuisine. You can find all of the menus for restaurants on the Disney website, but there are so many to choose from, you might need to narrow it down if you’re starting with no preferences. We’ve done a lot of work, here, for you, too:
- 12 Best (and Worst) Epcot Quick Service Restaurants
- 16 Best (and Worst) Hollywood Studios Quick Service Restaurants
- 10 Best (and Worst) Magic Kingdom Quick Service Restaurants
- 11 Best (and Worst) Animal Kingdom Quick Service Restaurants
When selecting the drinks, there are two options. Each diner can choose from the fountain drinks (and milk) as well as from any speciality drinks that are offered at that restaurant (e.g. shakes, smoothies etc). Not every restaurant has the same options with regards to speciality drinks, to it pays to check the menus in advance.
Diners over 21 could choose, instead, to have a single-serving of beer, wine or a cocktail/mixed drink. Again, not every restaurant serves cocktails, so check in advance if there’s something you particularly like or want to try. Don’t forget your ID if you’re ordering alcohol!
There are some crafty uses of credits on the Quick Service Dining plan where you can feed your family for 2 adult credits, stretching your credits further, if you need it, and also reducing food waste. Most, if not all, of the resort Quick Service locations do a ‘family’ deal of large pizza; salad and breadsticks for 2 adult credits – they say this feeds a family of 6.
How to use the credits
What Are Snacks On The Quick Service Plan?
2020 Disney Dining Plan Quick Service Credit Values
How Do I Tell If The Quick Service Dining Plan Is Right For Me?
Certainly, if you’re going for a long time OR traveling with several guests (over the age of 9), you’ll probably be wondering whether the Disney quick service dining plan is for you – after all, it’s a lot of money to add to your park tickets and accommodation, so you want to know it’s going to benefit you, right? You totally can, by using our free and simple calculator, below!
Download the Disney Dining Plan Calculator by clicking on the link below and you will see more detailed instructions as well as a completed example for a 3-day plan. In order for the calculator to work correctly for you, you must fill out, in the grey boxes, exact prices for where you want to eat, as they reflect on the Disney website!
Choose what you would normally order; don’t over or underestimate or the results won’t come out accurately for you. Fill out each and every box in order to get an accurate depiction. You can even use the sample for inspiration!
Filling out our Quick Service Dining plan calculator fully and to the best of your ability is the only way to get a good look and see if the plan will be worth it for you! Yes, it takes a little time, but think of all the money you will save if it doesn’t work out for you or all the money you WILL save if it ends up working out in your favor!
Quick Service Disney Dining Plan
Please note: When using this calculator, you will read each column from top to bottom. So the first column on the left will be “Day 1” and then you will go DOWN that column [not over left/right] but top/bottom and here you will fill out by breakfast/lunch/dinner/snack! I hope this is easy to understand!
What Are The Best Snack Credits On The Quick Service Plan?
There are too many snacks to list all the possibilities. However, others have created this spreadsheet of snacks, which is a great source of information on snack credits.
Children And The Quick Service Dining Plan
How To Keep Track Of Quick Service Credits
Pros of the Quick Service Dining plan
We feel there are plenty of pros of Disney quick service dining which will help your vacation be even more magical:
Paying ahead for your food, drinks and snacks will certainly help you budget for your vacation – you’ll be able to work out how much money you’re likely to need on ‘other’ spends, such as clothing, toys, gifts – but knowing that your food is taken care of can definitely remove some of the stress. I particularly love not having to say ‘no’ to treat snacks to my kids (who love the ice cream cookie sandwich as a snack credit at the Plaza Ice Cream parlor in Magic Kingdom!)
The plan allows you to have choice and not feel restricted – we know we’ve tried snacks that we would have felt too indulgent or expensive, otherwise. We also feel there’s an opportunity to ‘take a risk’ on something that you want to try but that may not be an ‘absolute winner’; we’ve felt less like we’ve wasted money on something that we may just have used a snack credit for!
Disney Quick Service choices are far superior compared to typical ‘theme park’ fare. There are some creative and unusual options, as well as the favorites you’d expect to see. There’s also a great range of plant based options and extensive allergy-friendly choices, too.
Dining on the Disney quick service plan is – as you’d expect – quicker, so you have more time to enjoy the parks and resorts! This pace seems to suit many ages of kids, too. We’ve found that table service, whilst a great experience, takes so long – whether it’s the experience itself (especially if you’ve paid for a character meal, you’d want to meet all the characters) or the travelling to the different resorts (getting the bus to Animal Kingdom Lodge for a meal certainly increases the duration ‘away’ from the park or pool).
There’s less food than the other plans – we love to eat, but we hate to feel full. Especially on hot days, feeling full can really sap our energy (and reduce our appetites) – the quick service dining plan is plenty of food, but not SO much that you’re going to feel like you can’t be busy and enjoy your vacation, if that’s what you like to do!
You don’t have to book Advance Dining Reservations ahead, so you have the freedom to eat what and when you want!
The plan certainly is hassle-free and we love the ‘feel’ like the one you’d get on an all-inclusive vacation.
Cons of the Quick Service Dining plan
It’s good to carefully consider if the Quick Service Dining plan is going to work for you; it’s a lot of money to waste if it’s not.
You or your family may be small eaters and you may feel there’s simply too much food to eat; you may know that, particularly in the heat, you can share a Quick Service meal and be perfectly satisfied.
This may lead you to wasting credits, which is a waste of money.
- You may waste credits, wasting money [link our DDP calculator]
- You could end up paying more than it would have cost you without the plan
To really make sure that the Quick Service Dining plan is the right choice for you, don’t forget to download and use our Disney Dining Plan Calculator.
What to do if you have leftover credits
You can swap an Adult’s Quick Service credit for 3 snack credits. This definitely isn’t the same value for money as using your credit for a meal, but you may be OK with that, rather than wasting credits. This could be your snack for the journey home!
Many people, with leftover credits, take bags of candy back for gifts for their co-workers; kids’ friends etc! Kids’ Quick Service credits can be swapped for 1 snack credit, so clearly it’s a better choice to use it for the meal credit.
Some people decide to sprinkle some pixie dust over others and offer to pay for another guest’s meal with their additional credits – this is, again, at the Cast Member’s discretion, but we know many people who’ve done it and made another party’s day!
We hope you’ve enjoyed reading about the Quick Service Dining plan and that it’s helped you make your decision. Do you think the Quick Service Dining plan is going to be for you? Let us know in the comments! As always, if you have any questions, we are more than happy to answer them for you! Thank you for reading!
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