FREE dining plan for kids in 2026 is valid for DVC point stays

[eticketplease]

Of course, my youngest turns 10 the end of this year. I wish they'd offer some kind of discount for it for kids that are 10-18 or 10-20 as they can't drink, now that both my kids will be 10+ I don't see us ever getting it again.

Or just a plan in general one that doesn't include alcohol as a separate option for all.

 

[Girlstar30]

Random stands around the park, I know one right by everast. But once they are out, they are out for the day, I missed out list visit! It's a sealed pancake bun with sausage, egg, cheese, and guava jelly inside!

Guava jelly sounds delicious

 

[Anthony1971]

Random stands around the park, I know one right by everast. But once they are out, they are out for the day, I missed out list visit! It's a sealed pancake bun with sausage, egg, cheese, and guava jelly inside!

Pongu Pongu has it and is said to qualify as a snack.
some of the small stands that have it may not accept the DP unless Disney updated all carts etc which is hopefully the case.
But why cannot it have bacon. I like breakfast sausage as well just oddly not on a sandwich.

 

[Girlstar30]

Pongu Pongu has it and is said to qualify as a snack.
some of the small stands that have it may not accept the DP unless Disney updated all carts etc which is hopefully the case.
But why cannot it have bacon. I like breakfast sausage as well just oddly not on a sandwich.

I'm going to be ones the hunt for this in September for sure!

 

[SL6827]

Of course, my youngest turns 10 the end of this year. I wish they'd offer some kind of discount for it for kids that are 10-18 or 10-20 as they can't drink, now that both my kids will be 10+ I don't see us ever getting it again.

Right, the alcohol being priced in the DDP, even for those who can not partake, is a money maker for Disney.

 

[kilik64]

How do we see which restaurants require two of these credits?

Just go to the restaurant page through disney, it'll say if its two table service or not.

General rule of thumb is any Signature dining is 2, and some characters are 2 for lunch/dinner. I think all character breakfast are just 1 TS credit. Like akershus is 1 for breakfast, but 2 for dinner. Well except for CRT, i think its 2 all the time. 1 all the time example would be Garden Grill.

Pretty much any other table service is just 1 credit.

For an adult, eating a 1 credit character meal with an adult beverage is the highest value you can hit pretty much. Any other place, need to order most expensive thing they have on the menu and get an adult beverage. Will allow you to break even with the purchase price pretty much.

Kids, even when not free, you could save a little with them by eating 1 character meal a deal, the price covers that meal and then their snack and QS for the day were "free".

Since last year was the last time our oldest was a kid, we blew it out and ate a bunch of character meals that week. Once they hit 10 and you get flagged as an adult for them, the value goes to almost worthless, no way she eats $100/day in food, cheaper to just pay OOP as you go (with at a min 5% off gift card money, which you can also buy the DDP with incidentally). We still have two that would qualify for the free dining, but the 10 year old makes it not worth it still. If all 3 were still a kid, would probably do it.

 

[sethschroeder]

Also, a lot of food! I wouldn't be able to keep up for 2 weeks.

To clarify the current dining plan is:
1 TS
1 QS
1 Snack

1) A number of meals are 2TS credits thus over the course of 14 nights and possibly doing 2-4 of the 2TS meals you are now not having dinner with your TS credits on a number of nights
2) QS is not as sharable as it used to be and you need to stretch it to cover the nights you don't have a TS credit
3) Snacks this is a nice benefit as otherwise we would rarely ever have the kids get a cupcake or cookie or whatnot. These also fill in when your QS needs to be your dinner.
4) Departure day you don't have credits given so you need to stretch to make sure that is covered as well before heading to the airport (which for us is always evening or night)

You can make it a lot of food by only focusing on buffets but to us thats not what we would do. Hoop De Doo, Topolinos, Yachtsman, Le Celliar, ect all eat up 2 credits and really tank the value.

 

[Girlstar30]

Just go to the restaurant page through disney, it'll say if its two table service or not.

General rule of thumb is any Signature dining is 2, and some characters are 2 for lunch/dinner. I think all character breakfast are just 1 TS credit. Like akershus is 1 for breakfast, but 2 for dinner. Well except for CRT, i think its 2 all the time. 1 all the time example would be Garden Grill.

Pretty much any other table service is just 1 credit.

For an adult, eating a 1 credit character meal with an adult beverage is the highest value you can hit pretty much. Any other place, need to order most expensive thing they have on the menu and get an adult beverage. Will allow you to break even with the purchase price pretty much.

Kids, even when not free, you could save a little with them by eating 1 character meal a deal, the price covers that meal and then their snack and QS for the day were "free".

Since last year was the last time our oldest was a kid, we blew it out and ate a bunch of character meals that week. Once they hit 10 and you get flagged as an adult for them, the value goes to almost worthless, no way she eats $100/day in food, cheaper to just pay OOP as you go (with at a min 5% off gift card money, which you can also buy the DDP with incidentally). We still have two that would qualify for the free dining, but the 10 year old makes it not worth it still. If all 3 were still a kid, would probably do it.

Thank you! We are traveling with kids next year and we always do character buffets and signature restaurants and the kids characters and qs only, may be worth it to look into, but now I have to do more math, this should be called the DPMC, Disney Points and Mathematics Club

 

[Cyberc1978]

Whats stopping you from adding an extra child to the reservation and getting free dining for that child?

Reading online it seems that an adult can use dining credits from the child's entitlements.

 

[eticketplease]

Whats stopping you from adding an extra child to the reservation and getting free dining for that child?

Reading online it seems that an adult can use dining credits from the child's entitlements.

Hopefully a good conscience

 

[Hubalorian]

Whats stopping you from adding an extra child to the reservation and getting free dining for that child?

Reading online it seems that an adult can use dining credits from the child's entitlements.

I’m sure DVC/Disney has a way to track this kind of “abuse” and I think could limit offers like this in the future

 

[Cyberc1978]

Hopefully a good conscience

It could easily be the other way around that you have multiple kids going but 1 end up not coming due to illness or similar.

 

[Cyberc1978]

I’m sure DVC/Disney has a way to track this kind of “abuse” and I think could limit offers like this in the future

Maybe but since people abused the DAS why not this as well.

Trust is good, but being in control is much better.

 

[eticketplease]

It could easily be the other way around that you have multiple kids going but 1 end up not coming due to illness or similar.

That is true but are you no longer having an extra adult on the plan as well? If it was like my hypothetical example that I posted earlier with 1 adult and 4 kids and now suddenly one kid is not going would certainly raise eyebrows to me if I was Disney

 

[Hubalorian]

Maybe but since people abused the DAS why not this as well.

Trust is good, but being in control is much better.

Disney changed DAS due to abuse, making my point. If Disney believes there is abuse here, I’d be surprised if we see DVC included in future offers.

We kill Disney for being short sighted and this could be seen as short sighted costing DVC members long term

 

[Cyberc1978]

That is true but are you no longer having an extra adult on the plan as well? If it was like my hypothetical example that I posted earlier with 1 adult and 4 kids and now suddenly one kid is not going would certainly raise eyebrows to me if I was Disney

I honestly dont think it would - life happens, so does abuse (unfortunately)

I'm just surprised that Disney haven't thought of that before making the offer.

Another point of abuse is the sorcerer pass, which is for DVC members who buy direct. The non eligible DVC members are not supposed to get the pass but somehow they do anyway.

 

[Nicnicnic.nic]

I'm excited for this! Planning two short trips with just me and my 2 kids in 2026 since DH wants a break from WDW....pretty sure I'll be getting this and going to some character meals

 

[eticketplease]

I honestly dont think it would - life happens, so does abuse (unfortunately)

I'm just surprised that Disney haven't thought of that before making the offer.

So that single parent with 4 kids is going to suddenly not bring one child with them? Who is watching said kid?
Remember only 3-9 year olds are eligible for the free dining so is the 4 year old at home by themselves while sibblings and parent are playing at Disney?

What about tickets? Do you not think Disney would see that one child who would require a ticket to get into the park (3 and above) doesn't have one? It would be very odd that only 2 kids on the reservation have tickets but we are allowing 4 kids to eat for free since person x put down they had 4 kids staying in the room.

 

[eticketplease]

Another point of abuse is the sorcerer pass, which is for DVC members who buy direct. The non eligible DVC members are not supposed to get the pass but somehow they do anyway.

I had not heard any reports of this occurring since they started bringing back the AP's during the pandemic.
Is this still happening?

 

[Cyberc1978]

So that single parent with 4 kids is going to suddenly not bring one child with them? Who is watching said kid?
Remember only 3-9 year olds are eligible for the free dining so is the 4 year old at home by themselves while sibblings and parent are playing at Disney?

What about tickets? Do you not think Disney would see that one child who would require a ticket to get into the park (3 and above) doesn't have one? It would be very odd that only 2 kids on the reservation have tickets but we are allowing 4 kids to eat for free since person x put down they had 4 kids staying in the room.

How would disney know if a parent is a single parent?

The ticket part they could see. Still when you made the reservation you could have opted in for the DDP and the intention was to bring all 4 kids but before tix are bought only 3 kids are going, 4th one want to stay with dad. You could argue that then all you need to do is change the reservation. But if you rented the reservation from a broker then changing it might cost money and you dont want to spend that money so best to leave the reservation alone.