2019 Disney World Free Dining for UK!
2019 Walt Disney World Free Dining is now available…for United Kingdom residents! (Sorry, for those of you sitting on pins and needles about the likely release of 2018 Free Dining for U.S. residents next week.) In this post, we share dates and details about this promotion, and whether the discount might make sense for you.
If you’re an American and are excited to read about this promotion because it might offer some insight or clues into the future of Free Dining for us…don’t. Not only does this have absolutely zero connection to the U.S. Free Dining promo, but reading the details of this will likely make you bitter with envy. (Don’t say we didn’t warn you!)
First, the details of the 2019 Free Disney Dining Plan discount for UK residents. You’re eligible for this promotion if you book a full-price Walt Disney World hotel and ticket package for a minimum of 5 nights for travel dates January 1 through April 7, 2019 and April 26 through November 30, 2019 (Deluxe Villas through September 16, 2019 only). You must book the Free Dining promo by November 6, 2018.
Guests staying at Value Resorts receive free breakfast, which should actually be a generic quick service credit that you could–and should–use for a different meal. Moderate Resort guests receive the Quick Service Dining Plan. Deluxe and Villa Resorts receive the standard Disney Dining Plan. Unless I missed something, it looks like every resort is available for this promotion, with the only notable exclusion being the Little Mermaid rooms at Art of Animation.
Guests booking the promotion also receive a $200 Disney gift card and Memory Maker for unlimited PhotoPass downloads. They are also eligible to purchase Disney’s 14-Day Ultimate Ticket for the price of a 7-Day Ticket, which also includes an exclusive Toy Story Land MagicBand. (This is ticket is not sold in the U.S., which may be why it sounds unfamiliar to some of you.)
Another “bonus,” albeit it not one tied directly to this promotion, is that the nightly parking fees recently announced for Walt Disney World hotels will not apply to visitors from the UK and Ireland through December 31, 2019. (We’re guessing this is a matter of notice required by law in the UK, but we will be keeping a close eye on it; perhaps Disney is considering walking back its parking fees after backlash?)
Aside from a slight shift in the blockout period, which varies every year and is based upon the Easter holiday (you could fairly reliably predict when this same promo will be offered in 2020 by simply adjusting for Easter 2020), this 2019 Free Dining promo for United Kingdom residents is nearly identical to the 2018 offer.
Now, if you’re an American Disney fan eyeing this mouthwatering offer, wondering why we don’t get something this nice, there are a few explanations. All of these explanations stem from something we always stress on this blog when discussing discounts: Disney never offers promotions out of corporate benevolence. Discounts exist to incentivize people to fill hotel rooms. (Walt Disney World is a hotel business that also operates some theme parks.)
In the case of doing more to attract “holidaymakers” from the United Kingdom, the rationale here is two or three-fold. First, that long flight over the Atlantic means UK visitors need a greater incentive to head to Florida instead of, say, Disneyland Paris. Second, despite the pound having rebounded a bit this year, it’s still not exactly strong versus the dollar right now.
Finally, UK guests are generally some of Disney’s biggest whales (I mean that in the flattering way, no implications about dining habits intended!). These visitors come for two or more weeks–hence the 14-day ticket–and drop a lot of money on Walt Disney World vacations.
The average length of stay for guests from the United Kingdom is significantly longer than the 5-day average for Americans, so Disney does what it can to entice these lucrative guests to come to Walt Disney World. If you’re a Floridian, you might consider thanking UK visitors for your lack of state income taxes. 😉
As we’ve noted in the past, these longer trips are in large part due to Europeans having double the number of paid vacation days per year than Americans. Additionally, the United States is the only advanced economy in the world without statutory paid holidays. Americans don’t even use all of the vacation time they have, with 662 million unused days in 2016 costing the U.S. economy $236 billion. So much for the dangers of ever-increasing leisure, Mr. Steinbeck!
If lengthy vacations were commonplace in the United States, you can bet Walt Disney World would try to attract domestic guests with comparable promotions. (Before you reply in the comments that you do visit Walt Disney World for vacations of that duration–you’re a fan who just read all the way to the end of a blog post about a promotion that is not applicable to you. They’ve already got you.)
That’s about it in terms of the 2019 Free Disney Dining Plan promo for UK guests. If you’re among the 5.1% of this blog’s visitors who can take advantage of this deal, hopefully this info is useful. Deals for the United Kingdom are not exactly our wheelhouse, so if you’re a European who can offer any insight into how this offer stacks up to other promotions targeted at your region, we’d love to hear your thoughts!
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
Your Thoughts
What do you think about the 2019 Free Dining discount for United Kingdom residents? Wish we got offers like this in the United States, or do you prefer getting the Quick Service Disney Dining Plan at the Value Resorts? Share any questions or additional thoughts you have in the comments!
Its a great offer, but for my quiet may fortnight, disney have have quoted 8k for beach club and 20k for yacht club. Standard rooms are unavailable. So the medium hotels are a good deal, i think they are funneling us to them. I cant get room only price unless i use a vpn to avoid disney.com directing me to disney.uk.
Question for the UK posters. Which travel agency do you use to book Disney vacations?
Kenwood Holidays and virgin holidays
I’ve only ever used Walt Disney Travel Company UK.
Some agents can come in marginally cheaper but there isn’t always the knowledge and expertise with a general travel agent.
Also by booking direct there isn’t an agent between me and my booking. If there are any problems I deal directly with Disney
I use Kenwood Travel and their Florida desk. They’re excellent. If you book direct the flights may be more. I find Kenwood are great because they tend to pre-book seats with a preferred airline.
I use Be Our Guest travel company. Mollie Miller is my agent and she is fantastic ! Give them a try, U won’t be disappointed..
I book hotel and flight separately and also through top cash back.
As luck would have it, I have some family living in Ireland that plan on coming over to visit and go to Disney with us. I am considering having them book the package for us, as it would save us lots in the long run. I’m just worried about complications that may arise with doing this. i already know they don’t send the magic bands overseas, you pick them up when you get to Disney.
Tempted to book this way, but I’m a worry wart and don’t want issues…..
Hi, further to your blog, disneyland paris do offer similar packages, can be expensive to stay at one of the 4hotels at the village, you get the dining plan which includes a full breakfast in your hotel, and a voucher worth 35 euros for lunch or diner. But… in can be bloody frezzing there, hence we all head over there! Warm weather and star tours in english sell it for us, just booked the 2019 offer for next easter, 6 adults 3 kids for my 60th and retirement holiday.
Free dining plan ( for what Disney choose only hs year – not on every hotel this year! Complete farce every other year for the last eight years we have booked Disney Yacht Club but this year for our 2019 trip we could book up until the dining plan came out and then suddenly when we came to book many of the prime hotels – Yacht club, Saratoga springs, old key west, contemporary etc etc were “sold out” ( I don’t think so!!) and unable to book?!! So we are now left with no booking for 2019 because our choice of hotel is on STOP SALE because of the dining plan being launched?!
I’ve not come across this before. However, in previous years I’ve seen the contemporary priced so expensively (3 times as much as the grand Floridian) that no-one would choose it. I’ve just looked for next year and some travel agents don’t seem to be showing all the hotel options as you’ve said above and Disney this year are showing yacht club at £15,000 per room! Versus the grand Floridian at around £5,000 per room. (For 10 nights)
I’d recommend you do keep checking.
I was holding out for PO FQ, and it disappeared as soon as free dining came on the site. I was so peeved. It wasn’t there for at least the first week after, and then I stopped checking.
I checked again this Sunday on a whim, and French Quarter was back. So I booked it immediately. They do seem to have updated the hotels (at least for my dates), so it’s worth a few tries.
hello greetings from Spain, we in 2014 and 2017 have gone with the disney uk offer, if you are a citizen of the European community you can access the offer.
Probably due to the fact that UK already remains in the EU, there is no problem for any European to book this offer or the equivalent one at the Irish web site. It just a question of being well informed (I booked this offer one year ago from Spain to go next August /September)
One of the 5.1% here. We won’t book for the 2019 offer – because we’re already on the 2018 one! This time next week I’ll be on the plane 🙂 As long as it stays the same I’ll probably aim for 2022, when all the 50th anniversary construction is done and it’s calmed down a little from 2021 (hopefully).
A tip – TUI’s packages tend to be around £500 cheaper for the exact same stuff (same hotel, same dates etc.) with the only difference being that they fly to Orlando Sanford, so no Disney Magical Express. They offer free rental care hire, or £60 for coach transfers to and from the airport, so it’s still massive saving, and you only lose the hour or so each way to get to and from the further airport. Well worth it IMO.
Also, the TUI Dreamliner planes offer free booze (except champagne) both ways…
(Hope this doesn’t sound like advertising – I got the tip off someone from Reddit and wanted to share as it genuinely saved us loads…)
Can somebody give me the link to book this offer with the free dining? I can’t find it.
This one: http://www.disneyholidays.co.uk/walt-disney-world/
I ive in Finland and just made my reservatin for september 2009. Dont get why Disney dont offer this for all the europeans, even if represent a yet smaller percentage of visitors. Going to the european disney vacation website (as if uk wasnt europe…) the offers are ridiculous, and there’s not incentive to make such an inversion that represents going to Orlando. I guess Disney want us to focus in Paris…. However throughout the uk site, or the irish version that is more convenient being everything in Euro currency, there is no problem booking the hotel, free dinning, 14 days tickets, free memory maker…
Could the dates indicate that Star wars land wont open until at least December?? Or it is just the standard blackout dates??
I’m part of the 5.1%! (More UK readers should read your blog!)
We’re making use of the free dining offer again this year. But I agree with Stuart above that it’s worth shopping around as we’ve found it cheaper to book the free dining offer through a travel agent because the flight prices without a package push the prices up.
I guess for UK visitors it’s worth noting that you still pay tips on top of the ‘free dining’ when dining in a table service restaurant (UK visitors are not used to tipping the percentage expected in Disney restaurants!) But the $200 Disney gift card can be used to help with that.
The photo pass is a nice addition too
PS if booking through virgin – do not pay extra for Disney transfers! The magical express should be free.
What’s the chance Aussie’s could book this
Just book through the wdw website and select uk ireland at the top then you can book.
I think the free parking must be part of a deal with the UK travel agents rather than a legal thing. The major British grave agent often offer “free” car hire on a small car which you then have to upgrade to fit anything more than a cuddly Mickey in. Paying for car parking would put people off taking up the car hire offer.
Hey Tom
One of the 5.1% here. It’s tough to do true like-4-like this early because the flight prices aren’t released yet. Generally, I tend to find that for a true comparative price it’s cheaper to use a UK travel agent to the tune of around 500 pounds as opposed to Disney direct. Booking room only is another option but you don’t tend to get such good rates. Some discount but its the flights where the agents win out not the accommodation. Having said that I’m always sat next to someone who claims they only paid 500 for their flight and booked it ages ago. I just don’t believe it. Not on a major carrier like BA or Virgin anyway. You’re looking at 750-1000 per person for the flight. Your reasons in the article are spot on. Our Disney ticket prices tend to be cheaper too. Think an ultimate park hopper is 329 this year. 21 days for 14. We’re just debating whether to book for 2019. We have to go in August because of holidays. My daughter is gutted as she wanted to do the Disney Cultural Exchange Programme next summer but she’s 17 can’t even apply until 18 so she’ll miss a year and thats too long a delay for university then. So we’re thinking of Disney fix in August 2019 to ease the blow.
Well although it may sound like a good package the price of my stay went up by £590 with the launch of the free dining promotion and a whopping £1960 for the same period, mid October, compared to the free dining package of 2018. Although it is for the 21 night stay and a family of 6 I stll find it a scam and wonder if I would have been better.off with the US room rates instead!
HAHAHAHAHA…. “(Before you reply in the comments that you do visit Walt Disney World for vacations of that duration—you’re a fan who just read all the way to the end of a blog post about a promotion that is not applicable to you. They’ve already got you.)” SO TRUE!!!
I know! I laughed pretty hard at that and thought “Yep, they got me!” But to be fair, I was trying to read through, out of curiosity, to find out if I brought a British friend with me would I be able to get the deal. That being said, our trip is booked for November 2018 so I guess my excuse is lame and Tom is right–Disney already has me!
Can you tell me if by some miracle, i have everything correct, included resort, right dates, park hopper and already have dining on my reservation, if it will automatically discount?
There is no automatic discounting. You must call or go online into your pkg booking to change or modify your booking if the promotion becomes available. If you’re American I believe you need to have booked a pkg with an eligible resort stay and a park hopper ticket of min 3 days and “no dining” and then if the promo becomes available for free dining ag your resort for your dates you can go online & add it on under “change reservation”. If Canadian I think the offers are pretty much the same to the American offer except I believe you have to book a longer stay, minimum 5 or 6 night stay.
The entire promotion is pretty much the same as it has been for at least the past 2 years or so, therefore I doubt it’s indicative of what offers will be released to the US. I think it’s due to the fact that no one in their right mind would want 14+ days worth of deluxe dining plan so offering just a free ‘breakfast’ credit is their way of starting the Quick service plan at moderate resorts, it that makes sense?
Hope that’s helped.
1. What is the likelihood that I can convince the fine Disney folks that the “Pittsburgh” in our home address is actually a misprint and should read “Ipswich”?
2. You wonderful Bricker folks have gotten too used to Southern California living and may not realize that it is currently Day 143 of Winter here in the Northeast and so Mr. Steinbeck is totally justified in complaining of too much leisure during this (wait for it)… the winter of our discontent (rimshot).
Sorry, just silliness to clog your comments.
For last year’s 2018 UK Free Dining offer, was the UK only offered a free breakfast when staying at the value resorts? Or is this a new thing? AND do you think that the US will only be offered free breakfast in our Free Dining offer?
Diann, if I remember correctly this is the 3rd year the free “breakfast” has been offered at value resorts (in practice it’s a use anytime QS credit), it’s definitely not new.
The only difference in the UK offer that I can see is the reduced booking window for Deluxe Villas. These have always been free dining eligible for arrivals up to Nov 30 but that’s been reduced to mid September.
It’s almost as if Disney is expecting a lot of DVC bookings for some big opening in the Autumn….
Barry, I think you are on the money there re a new land opening…
Re waiving the parking fees until 2019, I think this is probably because many U.K. guests will book with a tour operator 12 – 18 months in advance. Possibly an agreement was reached to delay the roll out of the parking fees to avoid backlash from those who had already booked at an agreed price.