My First Epcot Dining Package

If you’ve followed Disney Over 50 for a while, you know that I enjoy the concerts at Epcot. Disney features a diverse group of artists, and I’ve never been to a concert that I didn’t enjoy! One thing that I don’t enjoy is waiting in line for a concert on a hot day, but that’s part of being in Florida.

This summer has been unusually hot and humid here in the Orlando area. That’s why, for the first time ever, I decided to book an Eat to the Beat Dining Package. It’s not cheap, but this time I’m glad that I did!

The concept is simple. You’ll make a dining reservation for the Dining Package, enjoy your meal, and then receive a voucher for a reserved seating area. Disney asks you to show up at least 15 minutes before the show. After that, there’s no guarantee that you’ll still get a seat. Diners sit on the left side, facing the stage. There are some really close seats.

Most of the time you can make dining reservations 60 days in advance. There can be exceptions. In my case, reservations for any of the Eat to the Beat concerts weren’t open at the 60 day mark, so I was able to easily get the reservation that I wanted when they did open.

The entire process on the day of the show was simple. My daughter and I dined at Garden Grill Restaurant. When we checked in the hostess mentioned that we had a dining package. Kim, our server, also mentioned it when we arrived, and promised that she would take care of it for us. When we paid our bill, she gave us our vouchers, which were stickers with the date and time on them. Just put the sticker on your shirt so that Cast Members can see them when you enter the America Gardens Theatre. Easy peasy.

I’m used to getting in line a couple of hours early for an Eat to the Beat concert, and then sitting in the sun. We checked out the Dinner Reservation line about an hour before the show, and there weren’t many people in it. We joined the line about 15 minutes later and we had fantastic, fourth row center seats. The concert we saw was Joey Fatone & Friends, and we heard that some people lined up in the standby line when Epcot opened that morning. When we walked by an hour before the show the standby line was almost to Germany.

If you want to reserve a Dining Package, make sure that it is a Dining Package that you reserve. The reservation should say it when you make it, and will have the time of your show. You can’t have a reservation at a participating restaurant and expect to add it on once you’re there. Dining Packages fill up right away, but keep checking back, because people will drop them all the time. Out of curiosity, I checked the morning that we had our reservation. There were times available that hadn’t been there before.

Regal Eagle Smokehouse sometimes has Dining Package vouchers available. Don’t count on it, though! I’ve been by a couple of minutes after they opened and all the vouchers were gone. I’ve also seen some availability, it’s hit or miss. It’s worth a try, but it might not happen.

Another thing to keep in mind is that you’ll pay more for your meal if you have a Dining Package. You’ll pay a set price and then extra for the reserved seating. It’s about $15 more than you would have paid for just the meal.

One thing that I never thought of but overheard in line. You cannot buy just a voucher. You need to purchase the entire Dining Package. Someone asked a Cast Member about that when we were waiting because she didn’t want to wait in the ever-growing standby line.

Will I buy an Epcot Dining Package again? I very well might at some point. Like Garden Grill Restaurant, this will be a splurge for me. Most of the time I’ll still just arrive early for a show and wait in the standby line. On the flip side, though, if I had just one day at Epcot and there was a show that I wanted to see, I would probably buy a Dining Package. It was nice to have great seats without having to wait in the sun for hours.