The Ultimate Disney World Dining Handbook (A Resorts Gal Reference Guide)

Let’s face it. Navigating the Walt Disney World dining landscape can be as daunting as any other part of the vacation planning process if not more. Where will you eat? How much will it cost? What if you can’t get that coveted dining reservation? Agh!

I feel your frustration and have experienced it many times myself. You wake up at the crack of dawn the morning your reservations become available, a list of priorities in hand, hoping for the best and expecting the worst. I wish I could say that it’s not that serious. But in the moment, we both know it is. This is your vacation, and you’ve worked hard not only to make it happen but also to plan this trip in a way that your family will remember forever. Hours later, you text your loved ones to let them know. We got in! We’re having lunch at Roundup Rodeo BBQ on our Hollywood Studios day.

But how did you even get to that point? Where do you start? Don’t worry. Like our other step-by-step planning guides, I’m here to break it down. Below, we’ll walk through everything you need to know about dining at Disney World. I’ll explain how it all works, what dining options are available, and decode a few mysterious abbreviations you might encounter along the way.

We’ve designed this guide to be your go-to dining reference. In some instances, we provide additional guides that go into even further detail about a specific type of dining. For example, our section on character dining below references our character dining guide, the ultimate resource when planning character meals. That guide gives a brief description of every single character meal at Disney World. That guide refers to our individual reviews of the character meals we’ve tried to date. But you can skip that section if you aren’t planning to dine with characters. We’ve provided a table of contents below to help you quickly locate important sections.

An Overview of the Types of Dining at Disney World

We’ll start with an overview of the types of dining at Walt Disney World. I’ve added a few abbreviations often commonly associated with Disney dining.

• Quick Service Restaurants (QS or sometimes Counter Service)
• Table Service Restaurants (TS)
• Signature Dining or Fine Dining
• Character Dining

Other popular dining acronyms and terms include:

• Mobile Ordering
• Disney Dining Plan (DDP or Free Dining)
• Advanced Dining Reservations (ADRs)

Quick Service Restaurants

You will likely eat the majority of your meals at quick-service restaurants. These restaurants allow guests to walk in and order food at any time, similar to visiting a regular fast-food restaurant.

Quick-service restaurants are the only dining option at value resorts. They are large food courts with stations offering various cuisines. Moderate resorts also have similar quick-service food courts. Deluxe resorts have quick-service restaurants where guests can order from a menu or pick up grab-and-go-style offerings.

We have a list of our favorite Disney Resort Quick Service Restaurants. This is one of our more popular guides, sharing what we’ve tried and tips for visiting each location. For example, if we’re at Epcot, we love to hop on the Skyliner and have a leisurely lunch at Primo Piatto, the quick service restaurant at Disney’s Riviera.

Learn More>> List of Every Disney World Quick Service Restaurant

Mobile Ordering

Mobile ordering is your friend. I repeat: mobile ordering is your friend. It took me way too long to get on board with placing mobile orders. I don’t know about you, but I am mercilessly old-fashioned and stuck in my ways sometimes. But I will scream it to the rooftops that mobile order is one of the best conveniences available to guests.

Say it’s 7:00 a.m., and you’re heading to Disney’s Animal Kingdom. You don’t have a lunch reservation because you plan to dine at Satu’li Canteen. Did you know that you can place your order then and select a 30-minute time window in which you’ll have it prepared later? Then, when that time comes, the app will send you a notification to confirm your order within the next 30 minutes. Once confirmed, the order is prepared, and you’ll receive another notification when it’s ready to be picked up.

You didn’t waste any time figuring out where to eat, what to eat, and when. It was all done ahead of time. However, if you had waited until 12:30 p.m. when the family was starting to get hangry (hungry + angry), you might have to wait in another long line to get food. You might hesitate about what time you’ll want to eat or whether or not you’ll be stuck in a long line when your window opens. But the good news is that the My Disney Experience app will allow you to adjust your window if needed.

We also like to take advantage of mobile orders late at night on the bus (or whatever transportation you’re privy to) back to the resort hotel. Order your food on the bus; when you get close enough, select “I’m here, prepare my order,” and then take your time walking to pick it up. It’s so simple, and you’ll be so grateful when you see about a hundred other guests waiting in line to get food. Meanwhile, you pick up your to-go bag and continue with your meal.

Additionally, a few table service restaurants offer mobile orders. This is one of my best-kept secrets. You can mobile order kids’ meals from table service restaurants, even if you’re not a kid! I am a pro kids’ meal adult and can’t stress enough the value you will receive for a reasonable cost. Obviously, we don’t do this for every meal, and you can’t get away with it when you dine inside a table-service restaurant. But I’ve been known to order a few blueberry kids’ meal pancakes from Ale and Compass (and their cheeseburger) when I stay at Disney’s Yacht Club or Beach Club Resort.

Learn More>>How to Place Mobile Orders at Disney World

Table Service Restaurants and Reservations

You’ll want to plan a few table-service restaurants for your vacation. Table service restaurants range from standard options to character dining and signature dining experiences, which we discuss further below. Most Disney restaurants take walkups based on availability. However, you should acquire advanced dining reservations whenever possible. (You will likely not get seated on the whim for any character meals. They are almost always packed.)

Per Disney, here’s what you need to know for making ADR’s:

• Guests with a Valid Disney Resort Hotel Reservation: Make reservations for your entire length of stay (up to a 10-night stay) up to 60 days before your arrival!
• All Other Guests: Make reservations up to 60 days in advance. (If you’re staying off-site, you must do this day by day.)
• At approximately 6:00 a.m. daily, new reservation booking windows become available for select Walt Disney World restaurants.

When you arrive at the restaurant, you will need to check-in. If you have location services turned on and notifications allowed, you’ll receive a message on your phone to let you check-in. This will happen when you get close enough to the restaurant for them to detect you’ve arrived. If you have any special celebrations or food allergies, you will enter them in the app at this time. (The app will prompt you to do so.) If you prefer, you can also check in at the podium.

If you don’t have a reservation, you can also check the walkup list in the My Disney Experience app or at the podium if you are near the restaurant—most table service restaurants only seat guests until 2:00 p.m. I have found that the walk-up lists tend to show at capacity by about 1:30 p.m. However, I nearly always get seated if I am physically near the restaurant and request a table.

A few of our favorite places to enjoy a casual table service meal are Grand Floridian Cafe (Grand Floridian Resort), Steakhouse 71 (Disney’s Contemporary Resort), Kona Cafe (Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort), and Ale and Compass (Disney’s Yacht Club Resort), and Sanaa (Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge).

Signature Dining

Some of Walt Disney World’s most sought-after dining reservations are for fine dining. These restaurants specialize in food preparation and location. Anyone who considers themselves a foodie or gourmet will want to plan at least one or two signature dining reservations.

Some things to remember with signature dining are the price of the meal and the amount of food involved. For example, you might have dinner at a restaurant with a five-course prix fixe menu. You wouldn’t want to make any other dining reservations on a day when you planned such a meal. On a day when we had an evening dinner planner, we would probably only do a late breakfast or early lunch (brunch) to save plenty of room for dinner. This will help cut down on dining costs. So make sure to spread these kinds of reservations out over the length of your vacation.

Our favorite signature dining locations include:

• Disney’s Hollywood Brown Derby (Disney’s Hollywood Studios)
• Shula’s Steakhouse (Dolphin Hotel)
• Jiko, The Cooking Place (Animal Kingdom Lodge)
• California Grills (Disney’s Contemporary Resort)

Victoria & Albert’s at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort and Spa recently received a Michelin star. This is also the most expensive dining location at Walt Disney World. If you want to learn more, our guide to signature dining at Disney World is an excellent place to start. It covers each fine dining experience and what to expect.

Character Dining

Anyone who is a fan of characters will want to include at least one character meal in their vacation plans. Additionally, those with younger children will likely want to try one of these special meals. Character meals are an excellent way for children and fans to meet characters. The characters, for the most part, visit your table during the meal. This makes for a much more convenient experience than standing in long lines at the parks to meet them.

Character restaurants have a higher price tag than regular restaurants because the character interaction is part of the meal. It is not uncommon for a character meal for a party of four (two adults and two children) to average approximately $230.00 after taxes and tips. Since this meal type requires such an investment, we recommend researching which character meal(s) will work best for your group.

Our Disney World Character Dining Guide is an excellent place to start. In it, we go into specifics about each meal, the characters who are present, and what to expect. We also recommend that you choose your meal based on the characters (and expect basic food) or based on the food, regardless of which characters meet. Our favorite option is Topolino’s Terrace at Disney’s Riviera Resort because it offers what we consider to be more high-end food offerings. It’s not that any of the character meals are necessarily bad. Most of them are buffets with pretty regular items.

A few popular character restaurants include:

• ‘Ohana: Characters are only offered at breakfast. The lineup includes Mickey in a Hawaiian shirt, Stitch, Lilo, and Pluto.
• Cinderella’s Royal Table: You must prepay for this meal at the time of reservation. But it’s nice because gratuities are included and you don’t have to worry about it later. Dine inside the castle with Cinderella and other Disney Princesses.
• The Crystal Palace: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner at Magic Kingdom with Winnie the Pooh and Friends.
• Storybook Dining with Snow White at Artist Point: This is a dinner-only experience at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge with Snow White, Dopey, Grumpy, and the Evil Queen.

Disney Springs Dining

Most guests visit Disney Springs for a meal during their Walt Disney World vacation. Disney Springs is a tremendous shopping, dining, and entertainment venue that’s free to all. Bus transportation is provided to and from every resort hotel at Walt Disney World to Disney Springs. Complimentary parking decks are also available for anyone who cares to drive.

One of the great things about Disney Springs is that it’s home to a good number of restaurants managed by celebrity chefs. For example, Oprah Winfrey’s former personal chef, Art Smith, is the owner of Homecomin’, a restaurant in the Town Center section of the venue that focuses on southern cuisine, namely fried chicken. You might also enjoy Mexican cuisine at Frontera Cocina, owned by Chef Rick Bayless. Chef Wolf Gang Puck has a table service restaurant, Wolf Gang Puck Bar and Grill. These are just a sample of the big names associated with dining locations at Disney Springs. Other favorites include The Boathouse and Morimoto Asia, and we really enjoy D-Luxe Burger and Blaze Pizza for quick service options.

Related: The Best Restaurants at Disney Springs

Dinner Shows

Hoop Dee Doo Musical Revue is the last remaining dinner show at Walt Disney World. This popular dining experience is performed twice nightly at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort and Campground. It is almost always sold out. We have a separate guide with instructions on how to get to Hoop Dee Doo Revue.

Disney Dining Plan

The Disney Dining Plan is an option for guests who might like to prepay for their meals. However, it is important to note that it’s rare for guests to break even using the dining plan, and it often involves a decent amount of food that you wouldn’t necessarily order if you were paying out of pocket.

Guests on the Disney Dining Plan receive the following:

• 1 Quick-Service Meal Per Night of Stay
• 1 Table-Service Meal Per Night of Stay
• 1 Snack or Nonalcoholic Beverage Per Night of Stay
• 1 Resort-Refillable Mug

We are working on a separate guide that discusses the Disney Dining Plan in more detail. In the meantime, you can reference a list of what’s included. Alcohol is now included with the dining plan for guests who are ages 21 years old or older.

It’s important to note that some dining locations require two table service credits. Character dining locations that require two credits include Fairytale Dining at Cinderella’s Royal Table, Princess Storybook Dining at Akershus (lunch and dinner), and Story Book Dining at Artist Point with Snow White. All signature dining restaurants that accept the dining plan require two table service credits. Be Our Guest Restaurant at Magic Kingdom also requires two table service credits.

From time to time, “free dining” is offered as part of a promotion. When free dining is offered, you generally pay the price of the Walt Disney World Resort Hotel room without any discounts. So, you pay full price for accommodations in exchange for receiving dining credits. I will try to put together some examples and comparisons in the coming weeks so you’ll know if it works for your family or not.

Learn More >> Understanding the Disney Dining Plan (A Complete Guide)

Dining Packages

Dining packages allow guests to have a meal and receive priority seating for an event in the same theme park on the same evening. Typically, the mealtimes are lunch or dinner, but not always.

Dining packages are one of those things we used to take advantage of often but have fallen to the wayside (for us) in recent years. We recently went to see Fantasmic! and I noticed the seating areas for guests with the dining package and couldn’t help but think what an epic fell on our part! We even ate at Sci-Fi Drive-In Theater, which is one of the restaurants listed in the package offering! It would have been a much better deal had we reserved the dining package and gotten priority seating.

Here are a few of the current dining packages:

Fantasmic! Dining Package: Disney describes this option as “Enjoy a mouthwatering meal at one of 5 magnificent restaurants and then experience Fantasmic! with VIP seating.” These restaurants include Sci-Fi Drive-In Theater, Hollywood and Vine, Mama Melrose’s Ristorante Italiano, The Hollywood Brown Derby, and 50’s Prime Time Cafe.

Spice Road Table Dining Package: Disney describes this option as “Dine on a meal infused with Mediterranean flavors as you take in the glittering fireworks spectacular—Luminous The Symphony of Us!” (This meal requires that you dine at Spice Road Table during the fireworks. So it will be a late meal that will likely extend after the park closes.)

Rose & Crown Fireworks Dining Package: Disney describes this meal as, “Savor a delectable dinner on a lakefront patio while you enjoy incredible views of an unforgettable fireworks spectacular!” (This option is similar to Spice Road Table where you must dine during or around the fireworks performance. We believe the views are much better from Rose & Crown over Sprice Road, where it’s difficult to see the fountains.) Related: Best Viewing Spots for Luminous: The Symphony of Us

Other dining packages throughout the year include those for Epcot’s concert series at the various festivals, like:

• Eat to the Beat Dining Packages
• Garden Rocks Dining Packages
• Disney on Broadway Concert Series Dining Packages
• Candlelight Processional Dining Package

These packages are all excellent options if you plan to attend any of these special offerings. However, note that all dining packages are limited and get reserved quickly.

Dietary Needs

From our experience, Disney does an excellent job accommodating guests with food allergies. Most restaurants will have an allergy-friendly menu that includes gluten-friendly options. We always requested to speak directly with a chef when my son was younger due to the severity of his food allergies.

For more information, try Disney World Dietary Requests

Tips for Dining with Kids

Disney has many options for kids’ meals. But you’ll want to read through menus beforehand if you have picky eaters. For instance, if you’re staying at Disney’s Beach Club Resort, they have very limited quick service items. If your child wants chicken nuggets, you would have to order them from Hurricane Hanna’s at the pool.

You’ll also want to remember to book a character meal or two. These meals are typically louder and more inviting for families. Nothing is hush-hush, so you don’t have to worry about your child being the only loud kid in the dining room or getting overly excited when they see a character.

If you have a terribly picky eater, you might single out a few snacks that can replace some meals for the week. I know a few people (adults and kids) who live off Mickey Pretzels and premium ice cream bars while at Disney. We always place a grocery order and have it delivered to our hotel on our arrival date with a few healthier options that could be substituted for meals.

Budget-Friendly Dining Tips

I’ve already mentioned our favorite tip for budget-friendly meals: ordering kids’ meals at quick-service restaurants or ordering a kids’ meal via mobile ordering at table-service restaurants that offer mobile orders. Another option is to order an adult meal at a quick-service restaurant and split it among two or more people in your party.

When dining at a table service restaurant, I often order soup, salad, or both instead of an entire meal. But my best tip and our favorite thing to do is take advantage of dining in lounges. They are all family-friendly, and most have a kids’ meal menu if you have children who might be picky eaters. We love Crew’s Cup at the Yacht Club, Territory Lounge at Wilderness Lodge, and Tambu Lounge at the Polynesian. (You can get the ‘Ohana noodles and bread pudding at Tambu Lounge, but the seating area is pretty open and often crowded.)

Refillable Mugs

If you’re considering a refillable mug purchase or receiving one with the Disney Dining Plan, you’ll want to consult our Disney Resort Refillable Mug Guide. It has the current price and a section detailing how to discern whether the purchase is worth it. That guide also lists our individual resort refillable mug guides. You can use those guides to preview photos of the beverage stations at each resort and find out what kind of sodas and other drinks are available.

Restaurant Reviews

We know this dining guide covers a lot of information, and it would be too much to include our restaurant reviews. So, we’ve created a separate guide that details every Disney World Restaurant Review we have available. You can scroll through the list and read about any dining reservation you want to learn about.

Theme Park Dining Strategies

You’ll have a couple of options when dining in the theme parks. Unfortunately, Magic Kingdom is the worst park when it comes to dining. We’ve gotten to where we enjoy Columbia Harbor House more than anything. They have an excellent seafood boil dish that could be shared between two adults. I also often order the fried shrimp kids’ meal that comes with hushpuppies. We like to dine upstairs near a window, looking out to Liberty Square when possible. If you just want chicken nuggets, Cosmic Ray’s will do that. We do not care for Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn that much anymore. It used to be pretty popular but has gone downhill in recent years. Regarding table service meals, you might do well at Jungle Skipper Canteen, and Be Our Guest is decent but expensive.

At Epcot, we think Connections Cafe has some excellent options, but Regal Eagle Smokehouse in the American Pavilion is my favorite place to dine. Again, I do well with a kids’ meal at Regal Eagle. Yorkshire County Fish Shop in the United Kingdom Pavilion is also popular if you don’t mind dining outside and fighting off the birds. When it comes to table service at Epcot, we have grown to love the San Angel Inn in the Mexico Pavilion. It is dark inside the restaurant, which isn’t for everyone, and the food is pretty authentic. So, it will likely not be what you consider a traditional Mexican meal. But we’ve yet to be disappointed. I also enjoy dining at La Crêperie de Paris in the France Pavilion. They have a pretty good prix fixe menu if you like crepes. Via Napoli is another excellent option in the Italy Pavilion of the World Showcase.

Disney’s Hollywood Studios is somewhat lacking in counter service options. We enjoy grabbing a Ronto Wrap at Ronto Roasters more than anything. Our favorite meal here is getting a walk-up at the Brown Derby’s outdoor lounge for a late lunch or dining inside for dinner. We’ve also come to like Mama Melrose Italiano Restaurant, and Sci-Fi Drive-Inn Theater is always a classic.

Surprisingly, Disney’s Animal Kingdom is the theme park with the best food options. We enjoy Satu’li Canteen, Flame Tree Barbecue, Yak and Yeti (Restaurant and Quick Service), the options in Harambe Market, and even Rainforest Cafe. Our favorite spot, however, is Nomad Lounge. This is one of the most relaxing spots at Disney World, and it has a fun beverage menu with delicious drinks (alcoholic and non-alcoholic options). If you can swing Tiffins, it’s another classy restaurant. We like dining at this park so much that we have a separate list of quick service options at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. It includes everything we’ve tried.

Hotel Dining Considerations

Hotels are our specialty here at Resorts Gal. We strive to know everything we can about the resort hotels at Walt Disney World, which is why we have a dining guide for each one. When you decide on a hotel, make sure to consult our corresponding resort guide. You can find our resort guides in our list of Disney Hotel Restaurants.

A few fun resort restaurants we enjoy (that don’t require a reservation) are Geyser Point Bar and Grill at Wilderness Lodge and Three Bridges Bar and Grill at Coronado Springs.

Budgeting for Dining at Disney World

Lastly, we love to teach guests to budget for a Walt Disney World vacation, and that includes dining. We have a dining calculator in our community that helps guests calculate their dining expenses almost down to the penny. We’ve thought of everything! It will also help you calculate every other aspect of your vacation. But the restaurant section is the real jewel. All you have to do is enter how many adults and children will be eating at a restaurant, and it will calculate a total that includes taxes and tips. You won’t believe how simple it is to use. Sign up for our complimentary budgeting course below.

Final Thoughts

We hope you enjoyed this dining guide and found it helpful in learning about dining at Walt Disney World. If you’re in the beginning stages of planning, our step-by-step guide to planning a Walt Disney World vacation is an excellent place to start. It teaches you how to plan a vacation in ten simple steps.

If you haven’t decided on a hotel, you might take our resort quiz or browse our Disney World Hotel Reviews list. We think the resorts are the best part of a Disney vacation and hope you’ll enjoy them as much as we do!

Good luck with securing those dining reservations! We hope you get every single one you want!