What Are Dining Dollars? How to Redeem Promo Codes Provided by Undercover Tourist

You can now purchase Disneyland and Disney World tickets with a FREE $20 Dining Dollars credit per ticket from Undercover Tourist (for a family of four, yes — that's $80!). What a nice perk on top of Undercover Tourist's discount ticket prices! We love free money and saving on dining and shopping. Every little bit of savings adds up. But what are these Dining Dollars, and how do you redeem them? (Psst ... you can use your Dining Dollars to unlock a savings of up to 15% on Disney gift cards, too!) Let's jump into all the details about Dining Dollars so you can decide if this deal is the right one for you and your family.

Hop To

• What Are Dining Dollars?
• Eligible Tickets
• How to Use Them
• Where to Use Them
• Expiration Dates
• Are They Worth It?
• What If We Don't Use Them?

What Are Dining Dollars?

Have you ever been to a warehouse store and seen gift cards for sale for a restaurant? Maybe you might spend $80 to get $100 worth of dining at a particular restaurant. Dining Dollars is a website that, in a similar way, sells discount gift cards for specific restaurants. The restaurants may be located near theme parks and attractions, but some of them also have locations across the country. When you receive Dining Dollars credit, you'll get Dining Dollars promo codes added to a virtual wallet to spend on discount gift cards, including a Disney gift card.

If you have a $20 credit of Dining Dollars, it's not necessarily a straight $20 gift card to spend. It's more like $20 of credit to apply toward the purchase of a restaurant or Disney gift card.

Most of the deals are for 20% off retail gift card prices. A few have a higher or lower discount. You can purchase a Disney gift card instead of a restaurant gift card. Disney gift cards are 15% off retail, but they have more versatility and usability on your Disney vacation. You can use that Disney gift card in the parks for dining or shopping, or even in advance of your trip at the Disney Store for some extra ears or shirts.

Basically, you are going to spend money to save money if you want to use the Dining Dollars promo codes. However, if you are smart in your purchasing and use of these cards, it will make financial sense, especially if you use the gift card to pay for a meal you already plan to have anyway. Using the Dining Dollars promo codes is toadally optional, so if you don't think you'll use the gift cards, then you don't have to. BUT, with Dining Dollars, you can opt to load up on gift cards now, save 15% on a Disney gift card (or more, for other restaurant gift cards) and not have to worry about paying later.

Which Undercover Tourist Tickets Are Eligible for Dining Dollars?

Most Disney World and Disneyland tickets come with the Dining Dollars credit. Even special event tickets, such as Disney After Hours tickets, Disneyland Adults at Child Prices tickets, water park tickets and Disneyland 70th Anniversary ticket offers come with Dining Dollars promo codes! Eligible tickets have the "Free $20 DiningDollars.com Promo Code Included" message in green type underneath.

Ticket packages, such as Disney World vacation packages, are not eligible for free Dining Dollars promo codes.

How to Use Dining Dollars Promo Codes

Here's how to get and use your Dining Dollars:

• Purchase Disney World or Disneyland tickets through Undercover Tourist with the free $20 DiningDollars.com promo code offer. You will see it attached to any eligible ticket, highlighted in green.
• Shortly after purchase, you'll receive three emails: A confirmation of your purchase, an email containing the Dining Dollars promo code and an email containing your theme park tickets.
• Redeem: Click the "Redeem Promo Code" button in your receipt email.
• You'll need to do this for each code in your email if you bought multiple tickets with a Dining Dollars credit.
• Create or log in to a Dining Dollars account at DiningDollars.com: You'll be directed to the Dining Dollars site to sign up.
• Access your wallet: Once you log in, click "Account" (upper right) to see "Hi, your name! and your Dining Dollars balance. You'll apply that to a gift card purchase. You may also see "My Wallet" to the left of your account.
• Find restaurants or Disney gift cards: Now, click the magnifying glass icon next to the search bar, enter your location and scroll down to view participating restaurants in your area. You can set it to your current location or choose a different location off the map (such as Disneyland, Disney World or many other travel destinations in the U.S.). Choose a restaurant and read all about it, including the fine print. Ask yourself, "Which locations can it be used at, is it part of a participating chain of restaurants, and do you need to use the gift card within a certain amount of time?"
• You can't specifically choose how many Dining Dollars to spend. The system tells you what you can apply to a particular e-card purchase. Let's say you have $20 worth of Dining Dollars in your account. When you go to purchase a restaurant gift card, it tells you how much of your Dining Dollars you can apply to that purchase. It might use all $20, or maybe it just uses $5 or $15. It may take several transactions to use up your Dining Dollars, especially if you buy cards in smaller increments.
• When redeeming Dining Dollars for a Disney gift card, things are a little more fixed. You can put $7 of Dining Dollars toward a $50 Disney gift card (meaning you'll pay $43), or $15 of Dining Dollars toward a $100 Disney gift card (meaning you'll pay $85). You can, however, stack the Dining Dollars from multiple tickets (for example, you can use $30 Dining Dollars from two ticket purchases to purchase a $200 Disney gift card for $170).
• Read the fine print before purchasing to make sure the conditions work for your needs.
• Add to the cart and click "Buy Now."
• You will receive an e-card via email.
• Save the e-card. Figure out the best place to save your e-card so you can find it easily. You can add it to your digital wallet. In addition, you can take a screenshot. Perhaps save it as one of your phone's home screens, so you have easy access to it the day you want to use it.

In some cases, you cannot use your gift card to purchase another gift card. But you can combine multiple Disney gift cards into one card.

If you purchase four eligible tickets, you'll get four promo codes, for a total of $80 worth of Dining Dollars promo codes.

Where to Use Dining Dollars

Heads up: If you received Dining Dollars promo codes with your Disneyland or Disney World tickets, they are NOT necessarily for use for dining inside the park or on property. Hop here to learn how to use them for dining in Disney parks. There are some exceptions in Dining Dollars and additional savings at some of these Disney locations:

• Earl of Sandwich in Downtown Disney/Disney Springs (save up to 35%)
• Yak & Yeti Restaurant inside Animal Kingdom (save up to 25%)
• T-Rex Cafe at Disney Springs
• Chicken Guy! at Disney Springs
• Planet Hollywood at Disney Springs (save up to 35%)
• Disney Gift Cards (can be used at most Disney Resort retail and dining locations)

Dining Dollars are valid to purchase gift cards for select restaurants listed on the Dining Dollars website. Click the magnifying glass icon next to the search bar to find restaurants near you or near a particular theme park destination.

You might see chains such as:

• California Pizza Kitchen (save up to 25%)
• Domino's Pizza
• El Pollo Loco
• Papa Johns Pizza
• Cracker Barrel
• Hard Rock Cafe
• Applebee's
• Red Lobster
• Outback Steakhouse
• Krispy Kreme
• Morton's Steakhouse, Chart House, Joe's Crab Shack or McCormick & Schmick's Grille (all are part of the Landry's Inc. group)
• And so many more!

You'll also see smaller or lesser-known locations.

For the most part, you can use these cards at any nationwide location unless specified in the fine print.

You can apply your Dining Dollars to part of the cost of buying a discount gift card to restaurants of your choice. Read the fine print for each restaurant. You might redeem them to eat dinner close to home one night rather than using them on vacation. This is especially helpful if you don't plan to leave the resort property to dine. It's also a good idea to dine sooner if your trip is past the expiration date.

We can't emphasize enough to look at the expiration dates of the individual cards before purchasing.

Promo Code Expiration Dates

Dining Dollars expire one year from issuance. Make sure to go to DiningDollars.com to redeem them and use them within a year of your Undercover Tourist ticket purchase. You'll see this date listed in the email you receive as a hopful reminder.

Additionally, a gift card's promotional value may expire in a certain number of days after the gift card purchase. Read the fine print to learn those details for each restaurant or gift card before you purchase a card. Here's a hop tip: Put a reminder in your calendar so you can use your e-card in time. Save the e-card in a place that's easy for you to find so you can use it.

Are Dining Dollars Worth It?

Think of Dining Dollars as credit for buying a discounted gift card. Dining Dollars are worth it in these cases:

• You plan to eat at a particular dining location anyway.
• Saving $5 to $25 on dining/purchases is worth it to you.
• You are comfortable paying money to get a discount gift card.
• You are tech-savvy and on top of things.
• You read the fine print to make sure the conditions work for you before purchase.
• You can buy in increments that make sense. If you have to use the entire amount in one purchase, stick to a smaller gift card purchase.
• You can work within the expiration dates.
• You'll definitely use a Disney gift card to make purchases or dine at the parks.

We have some hopful tips to maximize your Dining Dollars in a separate post if you need any help in that department.

What Happens If I Don't Use My Dining Dollars?

Nothing! These are free credits, and you can use them or choose not to. You don't lose anything because they cost you nothing to have them. They are just a free perk of purchasing your Disney tickets through Undercover Tourist.

But if you choose to apply your credits to the purchase of a Disney gift card, then you need to make an effort to use that gift card to dine at a restaurant or purchase merchandise. You've put money into the gift card, so you should get your value. If you are looking for a way to shave a few dollars off your dining or park souvenir budget by paying for gift cards in advance, this is one way to do it (in addition to saving money on theme park tickets and hotels with Undercover Tourist!).

Do you have any further questions about Dining Dollars? Drop a question in the comments section below. You can get Dining Dollars when you purchase your discount Disneyland or Disney World tickets from your favorite green friends. Ribbit!

Related: How to Maximize Dining Dollars for Your Disney Vacation

Keep hopping!