When Will The Dining Plan Return?

Probably not. I always look at reviews for anywhere I eat when I'm on vacation.

Maybe not but for me it's more that I can find just as good food off property for a lot cheaper. Since I always have a car its not a problem to leave the bubble and find much better and cheaper options elsewhere. I would never pay over $70 for steak.
I'm with you on the not spending a lot on an entree regardless of on property or off and yes there is the ability for less expensive on average options outside of disney's property.

We always get a car too. I think for us it's the time part. We probably wouldn't leave property to just eat because it takes time to do that. Sure so does park hopping. However, it's nice to be able to eat and then go on Haunted Mansion for instance, or Spaceship Earth or it's a small world or something like that where it's a slower ride, with a bit of length where we can digest our food and it can be easy enough to plan for those rides at that time. Going off property means we eat (no pun intended lol) up that time. We also like to people watch and that can be nice to do during or after a meal and then it's easy to get back into the action of the park.
 
Does Disney allow DoorDash, et al to deliver within the resort bubble? When we stayed at Royal Pacific in August that was a big money and time saver for a couple dinners. A lot of restaurants have come online with the delivery services that weren't available before the pandemic.

While we will probably be DDP in the future because we use it as a budgeting tool as much as anything, I agree that there are plenty of good to better options off-site. Definitely less $$. We've done DDxP plan in the past, but could see downgrading to regular DDP and doing deliveries a few nights, or OOP QS breakfasts here and there.
 
You can't buy Disney gift cards with Target gift cards anymore. I believe that stopped in 2016-2017 online and in-store was later maybe 2017-2018; some locations probably filtered out later on. I don't know if the previous person was doing that when they said they buy Disney gift cards at Target or if they were just saying that's a location they buy them at. I haven't tried it in a long long time but when Target stopped doing it Walmart was still allowing their gift cards to be used to pay for Disney gift cards. Whether that is still the case I don't know.
You can still buy Disney gift cards at Target with the Target Red Card and get 5% off. I think the loophole that was closed was that people could buy Target gift cards at 5% off and then use those to buy the Disney gift cards for an additional 5% off.
 


You can still buy Disney gift cards at Target with the Target Red Card and get 5% off. I think the loophole that was closed was that people could buy Target gift cards at 5% off and then use those to buy the Disney gift cards for an additional 5% off.
You're correct you can still buy Disney gift cards with your Target Red card and get 5% off but the rest of your comment wasn't what I was referring to.

You cannot use a Target gift card to buy a Disney gift card. That was due to an increased security for money laundering/scams and applies to all 'entertainment' gift cards. That wasn't a loophole to use a Target gift card to buy other gift cards, was just what people did and what the person I quoted mentioned. I don't really shop at Target so I had converted some gift cards I was given as a gift back when you could to Disney gift cards to use for my trip. The reason why it was stopped is also why I wasn't sure if Walmart still allowed it.
 
We normally go every year for roughly 10-14 days? (this is the first year we haven’t gone to WDW since 2014 😢). We normally go in late August early September during free dining. I always upgrade it to the deluxe dining plan. It is just me and my 2 daughters, and we aren’t huge eaters, but for us it’s a no brained. We do many character meals (Chef Mickeys, Ohana, 1900 Park Fare, Crystal Palace, Tusker House, Hollywood & Vine, Akerhouse, Garden Grill, Tratorria Al Forno, Cinderella’s Royal Table, Storybook dining at Artist Point) so the cost is well worth it to us. We always stay at a value resort to offset part of the cost. Since we go for a longer period of time, we don’t have to rush around the parks. We love feeling pampered and enjoying the break at meal times that a TS provides. We also do 2 days at UO. But since we do several 2 credit TS, we end up using every single dining credit. The only leftovers we have are snack credits, so we go to Goofys Candy Shop on our last day to cash those in on goodies for the flight as well as souvenirs and gifts. To us, dining is just as much an integral part of the Disney experience as the parks and resort. Some of our favorite memories are from the Disney restaurants.
 
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Really? This seems to say differently:
Yes for the most part the food quality has gone down. The places that have good food IMO is very over priced. Universal is no different. The only place I go out of my way for is CowFish and Chicken Guy.
 


Yes Disney food is overpriced. It’s a theme park. I expect it to be pricier that usual.

I live 5-10 minutes from Philadelphia. Prices at places in rittenhouse square or olde city or chestnut hill are in line with Disney prices. So it’s not so much as a shock to me. But it still hurts when I’m paying for a family of 4 for 7 days straight at these prices. We eat at these places at home but not everyday or even once a week.
 
See this I completely disagree with you. Yes you can still find a nice assortment of food on property, but the selection at each restaurant has decreased since the implementation of the DDP. Each restaurant is now down to 6-7 entrees and only 4-5 appetizers because of cost control due to the DDP. Gone are the days of multiple page menus. Yes, quality has, and always will be great, but the selection at each restaurant has definitely decreased.

There are so many restaurant options, the size of the menu shouldn't be an issue. Most nice restaurants don't have a book for a menu. I'm perfectly fine with that.
 
You can't buy Disney gift cards with Target gift cards anymore. I believe that stopped in 2016-2017 online and in-store was later maybe 2017-2018; some locations probably filtered out later on. I don't know if the previous person was doing that when they said they buy Disney gift cards at Target or if they were just saying that's a location they buy them at. I haven't tried it in a long long time but when Target stopped doing it Walmart was still allowing their gift cards to be used to pay for Disney gift cards. Whether that is still the case I don't know.

The idea was that you had a "dining plan" but it's just a gift card rather than a credit card or cash. The whole thing is a mental exercise of having it pre paid for and the ease of mind that comes with that.
 
I spoke to someone from Disney (from the UK and Ireland website contact details) on the phone yesterday to ask if he thinks there will be free dining plan or any other special offers announced for next year. He said he couldn't say, which I expected, but he did also say if there were offers made available he imagines it would be by the end of October so perhaps that's something to keep an eye on.
 
I spoke to someone from Disney (from the UK and Ireland website contact details) on the phone yesterday to ask if he thinks there will be free dining plan or any other special offers announced for next year. He said he couldn't say, which I expected, but he did also say if there were offers made available he imagines it would be by the end of October so perhaps that's something to keep an eye on.
Unfortunately, phone CMs have the same information we do about future offerings at Disney. They are notoriously uninformed but love giving out the information.
 
Disney Dining.png

Looks like character dining is coming back, according to new reports. Hopefully, the dining plan will follow soon.
 
I hope the dining plan comes back..it IS an advantage for my family and we always plan around the time free dining is offered.
 

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