2020 Disney World Hotel Discounts & Free Dining for Kids!
In addition to the 40% off deal for Visa cardholders, Walt Disney World has released more new discounts today! One is a room-only discount at select resort hotels for early 2020, while the other is the free Disney Dining Plan for kids. In this post, we’ll share the details of these discounts, and share some analysis as to how much money you’ll actually save with each.
We’ll start with the latter of these offers, which is probably what caught your attention anyway, as “FREE DINING!” is unquestionably the most popular term in the Disney Discount Dictionary. (It’s a thing…or at least, it should be.) Although it should be apparent, this is not the normal Free Disney Dining Plan promotion; this is a “kids eat free” deal. If you’re looking for the full offer, there’s a Free Dining Bounceback Deal for May – Christmas 2020, but only current resort guests are eligible (meaning it’s not available to the general public).
However, we expect Free Dining to be released again at some point in Spring 2020. If you want to be notified immediately about any “real” Free Dining news, sign up here for our FREE Disney newsletter here. We monitor drop date rumors and for the last several years have consistently given our subscribers an early heads up when Free Dining goes live. (Ask anyone who has waited on hold over the phone with Disney for 3+ hours just how important this can be!)
Anyway, with the “Kid-Sized Package Offer,” you get a free Disney Dining Plan for kids ages 3 to 9 when you purchase a non-discounted vacation package that includes a Value Resort room, theme park tickets, and the Disney Dining Plan for all adults in your party.
The Kid-Sized Package Offer is valid for arrivals most nights from January 1, 2020 until March 7, 2020. This Walt Disney World discount must be booked by January 1, 2020.
The Kid-Sized Package Offer is only valid for All Star Sports, All Star Music, All Star Movies, Pop Century, and the Art of Animation family suites. No other resort tiers are eligible, nor are the Little Mermaid rooms at Art of Animation. As with all Walt Disney World special offers, some room types and dates won’t be available. Flexibility is the name of the game when it comes to deals like this.
All 3 tiers of Disney Dining Plans are eligible for this offer, and the kids receive the same DDP as the adults purchase. Meaning that if the adults buy the Deluxe Disney Dining Plan, that’s what the kids receive. Same goes for the Quick-Service Dining Plan or standard Disney Dining Plan, meaning the amounts you’ll save depend upon both the number of kids in your party and the Dining Plan you choose.
In addition to kids eating free, you’ll receive the Frozen Welcome Pack. This includes a voucher for one stroller rental for the length of your stay, one in-park 5×7 photo print per room, and one merchandise bag per room including a plush, book, and two treats.
We’ve never been a fan of any of these discounts that take advantage of the goodwill and hype surrounding the “Free Dining” term, but instead offer what amounts to “Free Dining Light.” This version is among the worst offenders, as you’re paying full price for the most expensive components of the WDW vacation package.
However, this is potentially a good deal for parents (or a single parent) wrangling several kids. If you have, for instance, one adult and three children in a room, the math could work out in your favor. Similarly, a larger and more diverse party could strategically ‘stack’ one of their rooms with one adult and all of the kids and book a second, separate reservation with another room and the below resort-only discount.
As with all Walt Disney World discounts, there are potentially ways to leverage this offer to your advantage if your party fits certain narrow parameters or you can hack it. By and large, the “average” family isn’t going to find worthwhile savings with the “Kid-Sized Package Offer,” though.
Next up is the “Give the Gift of a Magical Stay” room-only discount. Although it’s being released in October, the name and verbiage suggest that this is Walt Disney World’s “Christmas present” discount.
With this offer, you can save up to 25% on rooms at select Walt Disney World Resort hotels for stays most nights January 1, 2020 through April 25, 2020. You’ll either need to book this by January 1, 2020 for the earlier travel dates or March 7, 2020 for the later travel dates offered under this promo.
In addition, you’ll receive a $30 Disney Gift Card per person (ages 3 and up) on the reservation when you upgrade to a package by adding 6-day or longer theme park tickets. (Pro tip: keep this as a room-only discount and purchase from one of the options in our Discount Walt Disney World Ticket Tips post–you’ll save more money and come out ahead that way!)
Here’s a chart showing the discount rates for each tier and resort:
This offer excludes the following resorts and room types: all 3-bedroom villas, Fort Wilderness Campsites, Cabins at Copper Creek Villas, and Bungalows at Disney’s Polynesian Villas & Bungalows.
Pretty much the exact same offer is available for Florida residents and Annual Passholders, but with an additional 5% or 10% off, respectively. (For this reason, it’s always worth crunching the numbers to see if one person in your party should buy an AP to take advantage of the better promos and other discount offers.)
As with most discount release days, Walt Disney World’s phone lines are already jammed and the online system is moving at a glacial pace–when Stitch isn’t eating the pages. If you’re at all flexible about your resort choice or room preferences, consider waiting until later this evening or tomorrow when things calm down a bit. You’ll save yourself a lot of headache and frustration!
In reviewing historical Walt Disney World discount numbers and dates, this is almost identical to this year’s room-only discount, with a release date about a week later and an end date two days earlier. Aside from minor differences among resorts and exclusions, the percentages are identical.
Overall, some of these room only rates are attractive, especially on the AP and Florida resident end of the spectrum. Savings at Value Resorts are more meager, to the point that anyone with multiple kids might be more inclined to take a harder look at the kids eat free offer that was also released. Nevertheless, it’s all pretty standard.
With that said, there were fears that the debut of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge would cause Walt Disney World discounts to dry up or become non-existent, and clearly that’s not the case. Identical offers for 2020 as this year is probably about the best-case scenario anyone could’ve predicted earlier this year, especially given that these deals start only a month after Rise of the Resistance opens and continue through the likely opening of Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway. All of this bodes well for future 2020 Walt Disney World discounts, especially Free Dining…
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
Do you agree or disagree with our assessment of these 2020 Walt Disney World discounts? Which, if any, will you book? Have any trouble with availability for your travel dates or preferred resort? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
What’s the secret for the Priceline Express deals? When I try to search Lake Buena Vista it won’t ever load results. What am I doing wrong?
download the hotel canary plugin. its easy and *usually* brings up the name of the hotel if you check under Bonnet Creek or Disney Springs areas. LBV doesn’t usually include wdw hotels.
Just called Disney to have them apply the Gift of Magic discount to our room only reservation, and it actually raised our total by $30! So the CM put me on hold to find out why the discount would increase my cost, and she said it was because the rooms were much cheaper at POP when I booked them last February even though they were rack rate (so 2019 rack rate is my discount). And when I booked them, the CM then told me that I will be able to apply discounts later in the year. So I feel like I’m being punished for being an early planner 🙁
When is your stay? Maybe there will be another deal released before then?
Not until February 2020, but the CM made it sound like I wouldn’t be eligible for any discounts because I already have a “discounted” rate. I’m holding out hope for the Visa card discount that should be released in December/January.
Do you think these newly released 2020discounts are replacing the Play, Stay, Dine discount of 2019? Wondering if there is a chance that they still release this discount for 2020.
I was wondering this too.
We were waiting for this discount, too, and were underwhelmed by the ones released this week. Hopefully one like that will come out as well.
I tried on 10/4 to get the room discount and it was gone for the Beach club. They said the only thing left was Riveria. I didn’t take it because we are happy with the Beach Club. The CM said there are lot a lot of rooms available for the discount. Good luck. Seems to be the new normal for trying to get any room discount at Disney.
Not a lot* . Sorry for the typo.
Disney is getting to be really shady in how the discounts on resort can work. AP discounts are mostly on Sun – Thu nights, especially at the moderates. But, if one tries to book a Sun – Thu stay, there is no availability. However, if the stay is extended to include weekend nights, the Sun – Thu nights are available! But the weekend nights are not discounted, so the entire stay might get a 8% discount overall.
Yep, they changed the reservation system. I think the reasoning was to prevent lower demand days from being left dangling and unbooked? Doesn’t really explain your example though.
They’ve become over-confident in manipulating guest spending. WDW is testing just how astronomical they can make prices before guests balk. The reasoning of price increases was to thin out crowds… a bit like playing with fire!
We are going from January 20th to February 4th, but those dates are not eligible for the discount. Figures. You think some days within 2 weeks would be. Unbelievable
I think you misread. If you look at the columns, the column that fits your dates is the leftmost column. It reads: “For stays most nights 1/1/20 to 3/8/20 if you book before 1/1/20.”
I know it says for stays “most nights” which doesn’t include all nights. I’m just shocked that out of those 2 weeks we are going, not one night is discounted.
Do you think they’ll release more promotions for that time of the year?
How do you apply the discount? Is there a code to use?
When you go into the system, look under the reservation tab. Towards the bottom there’s a link for deals and special promotions. This is the easiest way for me, as it lists all current offers.
When you go into the system and begin a booking with the first step of choosing a date, you’ll also see options to pick from above if your dates are included in any offers. The downside to this method is if one of your days is not included in an offer, you won’t see it. That’s why I like to look at all current offers and figure out which dates within them work for me.
What do you mean go into the system? The website? The app? I’m not seeing anything so I’m not sure what to do
If one checks in on Dec 31, can one use the Gift of Magic room discount for the other nights of the stay?
I just found out today when I tried to book a few restaurants that Disney removed all non-Disney restaurants from the list of restaurants on the Deluxe Dining Plan for 2020. I confirmed this with a cast member. The restaurants are still listed, but at the end after booking the reservation that dining plans are not accepted. It looks like this goes into effect at the beginning 2020 because I was able to book one of the restaurants being dropped on December 27,2019.
Can you give an example of a non-Disney restaurant? Is it restaurants in Disney Springs? What about restaurants at the resorts? Do you know if it’s only for the deluxe dining plan?
Wow! This piqued my interest so I searched and found this page. http://www.mouseketrips.com/images/dininglocations20.pdf
Only 6 table service restaurants in Epcot taking DDP? I wonder how much this will be a game changer against dining plans. Also, I wonder if this means the non-Disney run restaurants will stop giving AP or TIW discounts. Looks like this is not only for Deluxe DP but regular also?
Before everyone freaks out, this happens every year. It takes longer for the third party restaurants to be added to the list of participating locations, but they always are in the end.
I’m not saying it couldn’t be different this year, but this is how it has always played out in the past.
This normally happens every year (possibly until the restaurant contracts get updated). We look at the prior year to see which are included; there’s very little change year to year.
We are going to Pop Feb 22 -March 2 and our Travel Agent was able to get us the Kids Free dining plan. We have one 3 year old and were already going to do the Standard DDP for all three over us so we saved about $230. Wish it was true free dining or a better room offer though as we only have one kid.
Better than nothing!
So…when you say “kid” is it only for those guests 9 and under? I have 2 kids, 14 and 9.
Only the 9 year old is included. The Dining Plan considers a 14yo an adult. It’s not a generous offer as 3-9yo already have cheap dining plan cost out of pocket ($28).
The 14yo would have a much more significant savings with any Free Food, but you’ll need to buy the 14yo and any other “adults” in your party the $75 Dining Plan (each) in order to get the $28 cost of a 3-9yo’s plan for “free”.
The Quick Service plan is $53 for adults (10yo+) and $24 for children (3-9). Maybe a better ratio for savings but if you already plan to have a few character meals or table services, then the regular plan might save more money in the long run.
As a person who was OBSESSED with the free Disney dining and the chaos that immediately followed…I would suggest everyone wait a few days. Unless things have changed, travel agents will book rooms with the discount, then after 3 days if they haven’t filled those rooms, they get put back into the discount group. I used to freak about the free dining, wait in hold for hours to get a room only to see that the next week I could have just booked it no problem. Then I also realized I was way overpaying for the room and we didn’t eat near enough food for the free dining to be worth it.