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disney free dining

Is Disney Free Dining the best Disney Discount?

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In 2006, shortly after Walt Disney World released the Disney Dining Plans that we all know and love today, they also unleashed the beast known as “Disney Free Dining”. This discount gives your family one of the Disney dining plans for free with your stay at a Walt Disney World hotel, but only during select dates. In 2006, it was made available for travel dates between August 13 – September 30, 2006, and everyone received the Disney Dining Plan for free regardless of their resort. Recently, the discount has been changed so that guests staying at a Walt Disney World Value Resort receive the Quick-Service Dining Plan for free while guests staying at a Walt Disney World Moderate, Deluxe or Deluxe Villa Resort receive the Disney Dining Plan for free.

For 2015, it was made available for select Fall dates:

  • August 28 – October 2, October 25 – 31, November 8-19 and December 15 – 21, 2015

Many of the dates after October 2 had very few rooms and resorts made available.

While everyone agrees that Free Dining is a fantastic deal, and without a doubt the most watched for and also mis-understood discount of the year, is it the best deal?

Not Always!

The answer really comes down to your travel party and where you are staying on Disney property:

If you normally stay at a Walt Disney World Value or Moderate resort, Disney Free Disney is the best discount of the year, by far. Well, there may be situations that if you travel alone and stay at a moderate resort that some other discount may be equal or slightly better, but that would be very, very few situations.

If your family consists of 2 adults and 2 or more teens, Disney Free Dining is almost always the best discount of the year.

However, if your family likes to stay at the Walt Disney World deluxe resorts, and is only 2 adults, or maybe even 2 adults and 2 young kids, Disney Free Dining is rarely the best discount, and you can almost always find better deals throughout the year.

Let’s look at the math:

2 adults, 1 child staying at the Polynesian Village, theme park view room for 7 nights:

  • Disney Free Dining Savings: $1,052
  • 30% Room discount Savings: $1,566

2 adults staying at the Grand Floridian, garden view room for 5 nights:

  • Disney Free Dining Savings: $637
  • 30% Room discount Savings: $989

2 adults, 3 children staying at the Saratoga Springs, 2-bedroom villa for 10 nights:

  • Disney Free Dining Savings: $1,959
  • 30% Room discount Savings: $2,086

Of course, Disney Free Dining can be a fantastic deal for most families:

2 adults, 2 teens staying at Pop Century, standard room for 7 nights:

  • Disney Free Dining Savings: $1,236
  • 30% Room discount Savings: $271

2 adults, 3 teens staying at Caribbean Beach, standard view room for 10 nights:

  • Disney Free Dining Savings: $3,185
  • 30% Room discount Savings: $643

2 adults, 4 teens staying in a cabin at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort for 5 nights:

  • Disney Free Dining Savings: $1,911
  • 30% Room discount Savings: $538

2 adults staying at All-Star Movies, standard room for 7 nights:

  • Disney Free Dining Savings: $618
  • 30% Room discount Savings: $248

Please note that these prices are just estimates, and are only used as an example for this article.

So, you can see that for most people going to Walt Disney World, the Disney Free Dining deal is the best deal of the year, by far. But for others, it really doesn’t help much as they can get better savings just about anytime.

We have not seen a Disney Free Dining discount for 2016. In 2015, the discount was released on April 27, and if we are to see Disney Free Dining again in 2016, I would expect it to be released around that same time, late April or early May, and I would expect to see it cover similar dates as 2015. However, we will not know if we will see it at all until it is actually released to the public.

Want to keep an eye out for Disney Free Dining?

  • Check out our facbook page, any information we have will be posted there as soon as we have it.
  • Stop by our main website at Mouseketrips, again, any information will be posted there first. We even have a newsletter that you can subscribe to that will email you once a discount is released.
  • Check out this Disney Free Dining website, it features complete information on historical Disney Free Dining release and travel dates. They also have a notification system you can sign up for to get notified as soon as Disney Free Dining is released.

Well, there you go. Feel free to ask any questions about Disney Free Dining that you may have.

best restaurant animal kingdom

Best Quick-Service Restaurant in Disney’s Animal Kingdom

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I would assume that just about every guests in a Walt Disney World theme park eats at one of the park’s quick-service restaurants during the day. In Disney’s Animal Kingdom theme park, there are 5 quick-service restaurants where you can eat lunch or dinner, all with quite different food options:

Animal Kingdom Quick-Service Restaurants

  • Flame Tree Barbecue – Located in Discovery Island near the entrance to It’s Tough to be a Bug, Flame Tree features BBQ options including ribs, chicken, pulled pork sandwiches and even a Watermelon Salad. The seating is fantastic, it is all in shaded pavilions overlooking the nearby lake with a great view of Expedition Everest. If you are ever stuck in a downpour at Animal Kingdom, the pavilions also make a great refuge from the rain.
  • Harambe Market – Located in Africa near the entrance to Kilimanjaro Safaris, Harambe Market features four separate walk up windows that each feature their own variety of African foods. While that may sound a bit scary to some, the food at Harambe Market is fantastic, and includes grilled chicken skewers, spice rubbed ribs and tikka masala chicken. Just make sure you check out the menu before you approach the window.
  • Pizzafari – Located in Discovery Island on the opposite side of the Tree of Life from Flame Tree Barbecue, Pizzafari features pizza! Not only can you get the standard pepperoni or meat lovers pizza here, you can also get items like meatball subs or salads.
  • Restaurantosaurus – Located in DinoLand USA, right before the entrance to DINOSAUR, the very difficult to spell Restaurantosaurus was once a McDonalds, but has now switched to more standard Disney hamburger fare, including bacon cheeseburgers, grilled chicken sandwiches and chicken nuggets. Seating is mostly inside, and air conditioned.
  • Yak & Yeti Local Foods Cafe – Located in Asia, Yak & Yeti features some of the food options available at the table service restaurant Yak & Yeti, including honey chicken, Korean stir-fry chicken and ginger chicken salad. Seating here is outside, and very, very limited. Even on quiet days in the parks, it is hard to find a seat at lunch time.

All 5 of these restaurants are available on the Disney Dining Plans and require just one quick-service or counter service credit per person.

I would fully expect to see another quick-service restaurant or two added in the near future, there is a definite need, and with the parks staying open later once the Rivers of Light show and other events start, there will be even more of a demand.

The Dis/dom choice for best Quick-Service Restaurant in Disney’s Animal Kingdom?

Yak Yeti local foods

This is a tough choice. I can immediately exclude both Restaurantosaurus and Pizzafari, as their food can be found elsewhere in the parks, and isn’t that great to start with. Many people love Flame Tree Barbeque, and while the seating is the best in the park, the food here has just been OK. I really, really like Harambe Market, it has fantastic food, but I think that Yak & Yeti Local Foods Cafe is the best Quick-Service restaurant in Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

  1. The food at Yak & Yeti is awesome, really, really flavorful and the portions are huge.
  2. There are options for everyone, including vegetarians and picky eaters. If your kids are picky eaters, they can even get Uncrustables.
  3. Do not miss out on the Egg Rolls, they are to die for.
  4. While seating here isn’t great, and much of it is not in the shade, you are a short walk away from Flame Tree’s pavilions in the shade, so take a one minute walk with your food and find a spot with a view.

While I have selected Yak & Yeti Local Foods Cafe, I couldn’t blame anyone for picking either Flame Tree Barbeque or Harambe Market for their family either.

What is your favorite Quick-Service restaurant in Disney’s Animal Kingdom?

disney cruise ice cream

Disney Cruise Ice Cream

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Several years ago, we went on a Disney Cruise with our extended family, about 37 of us in total. It was a fantastic experience. I have two boys that are around the same age, and a niece that is the same age as the youngest of my two boys. They were in the teen club at the time, and they had a ton of flexibility on where they could be on the ship. Every day, they would hang out by the pools and eat nearly non-stop. I guess that is what teenage boys do, it has been a while since I have been one. My niece would hang around with them, and would eat the food, but every time it came to eating the ice cream, she would refuse.

My boys never even thought twice about her not eating ice cream, they were too busy getting their own. This went on for 6 days. Finally, the last night of our cruise, my niece started complaining to her mom that my boys were so spoiled, they got everything they want, and she didn’t get anything. After some confusion, we all finally figured out that she didn’t know the ice cream was FREE!

She immediately ran out of the room directly to the ice cream shop and loaded up with the largest ice cream you have ever seen, trying to make up for the missed days.

The lesson we all learn is that you should be fully aware of what is and is not included on a Disney Cruise. A rough guide is that ALL food is included on your Disney Cruise. There are some recent exceptions where some items on the room service menu now have a cost listed by them, but any food that you eat in a restaurant or that you order at a window will be free, even if you order three entrees and two desserts at dinner (not that I have ever done that). All soft drinks are included with your meals or from the drink station up by the pools. Any drinks that include alcohol are NOT free.

Before your next Disney cruise, make sure everyone understands what is and is not included in your cruise fare. No one wants to miss out on free ice cream, and no one wants a huge bill at the end when you assume something is free that is not.