2024 Festival of the Arts: Best Ways to Spend DDP Snack Credits

A sample from the Food Studios at the EPCOT Festival of the Arts can be one of the tastiest ways to spend your Disney Dining Plan Snack Credits. Most food items and non-alcoholic drinks are eligible for purchase as a Snack, and many are above the $6 break-even point for a Snack Credit.

But that doesn’t mean they’re all created equal. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to eat lousy food because it will “make my credits pay off”. Here are our parks team’s recommendations for where to spend your Snack Credits at the Festival — and where not to spend them, too. Our recommended dishes are good enough that you wouldn’t be sorry to shell out the cash, but when paying with the Disney Dining Plan they are a great value.

Spending cash and want to stick to a budget? Check out The Best Way to Spend $50 at the 2024 Festival of the Arts. Just want to know what’s at the Festival? 2024 EPCOT Festival of the Arts Menus.

Recommended Dishes

General Tso’s Chicken Shumai –$10.75 | DDP

This is one of the most expensive items but since it tastes even better than it looks – and it’s gorgeous – we think it’s a good value. We love that it’s 3 servings – this makes it the perfect Festival food to share. It’s also plated prettily and has a lovely combo of sweet and a kick of heat. For sure worth it.

Roasted Bone Marrow –$10.50 | DDP

Who is going to the trouble of preparing bone marrow? Who can do it for under $11 and make it taste this good?! Not us. For a DDP Snack Credit, this dish is a steal. 

⭐🌱 Wild Mushroom Risotto –$9.75 | DDP

The booth at the Canada Pavilion is all kinds of yummy with a second dish in this list (and their much cheaper Verjus-Roasted Beets made the best $50 too). This is the meatiest plant-based dish at the Festival, you won’t even notice the absence of animal protein. We’re not sure if the truffle shavings are what’s bumping up the price tag, but it doesn’t really matter when you’re not paying with cash.

Beef Wellington –$8.75 | DDP

A tender cut of beef. A decadent demi-glace. We’d be suckers for a dish that had either of these, but this one has both and a lovely flaky puff pastry crust to boot.

⭐ Red Wine-braised Beef Short Rib –$8.75 | DDP

This dish is such a good value that it made our Best $50, worth it whether you’re paying Snack Credits or cash. Can we stop talking about the tender beef, the sweet parsnips, and the tangy balsamic glaze? I guess we can’t.

⭐ Cast Iron-roasted P.E.I. mussels –$8.00 | DDP

Another favorite from our Best $50, both this year and last! Bread, mussels, broth. Simple, light, and satisfying on a cold day or a warm one. Last year our team ate this 6 or 7 times. Maybe we’ll beat that tally in 2024!

Not-recommended Dishes

Carne Asada –$10.50 | DDP

It makes us really sad to put this here, as it was one of our Best $50 favorites last year. The flavor is still there: beautifully marinated, roasty and beefy. But the portion size has been reduced significantly and it’s just a great value at this price.

Crème de Brie en Petit Pain –$9.95 | DDP

It is not that this dish tastes bad; it does not. But you could easily buy a wedge of brie at the supermarket and make this yourself for half the price; it’s really just not complicated. We get it, we get it, there’s labor and service etc., etc. But with so many other tasty things to try, we feel this is pretty much the worst value at the Festival.

Conchiglie Ripiene –$9.50 | DDP

Oh Italy, why do you disappoint us so? We know that you put gold in the food (we can’t explain the prices otherwise), but at least it could taste good? At $4.75 a shell, this would be steep even if the dish was tasty. But we weren’t impressed, and we don’t think that you get to bill the ricotta oozing into the pomodoro as “creamy sauce”.

Mozzarella Fritta –$8.50 | DDP

Italy again. This was a tiny serving of cheese on a plate that isn’t even full. The condiments were nice but would filling two more spots have toppled the budget? We wish they would come up with a less “the-earth-is-burning” serving idea. But seriously, fried mozzarella sticks are on every mid-range chain restaurant menu in the United States. They needed to bring it to justify this price, and they didn’t get close.

Do you use the Dining Plan Snack Credits when you visit the Festival? Are these dishes in your budget even if you aren’t using them? Let us know in the comments!