2024 Disney World UK Vacation Package Discount: “Welcome Back To Being You”
Walt Disney World has announced its flagship UK discount for 2024, a package that offers an up to $2,100 dining credit during a 2 week trip, 14-day tickets, and more. In this post, we share dates and details, what this could mean for the Dining Plan, future U.S. general public promos, how this compares to past deals, and more.
First, the details of the 2024 Walt Disney World “Welcome Back To Being You” early booker vacation package deal. You’re eligible for this promotion if you are a resident of the United Kingdom or Ireland (if I recall correctly, anyone in the European Union should be able to book this…or did Brexit change things?), and book a full-price Walt Disney World hotel and ticket package for a minimum of 5 nights and maximum of 21 nights.
Travel dates are January 9 through December 18, 2024 with some exclusions, but the deal is available for most school holidays. The 2024 Walt Disney World “Welcome Back To Being You” vacation package deal will be available starting April 20, 2023 and can be booked via a travel agent or on the official UK Walt Disney World holidays website. This “Early Booker Package” deal must be booked by July 6, 2023.
As part of this offer, you can take advantage of Walt Disney World’s 14-Day Ultimate Ticket for the price of a 7-Day Ticket, which includes Memory Maker. Guests booking Walt Disney World’s 2024 vacation package deal with a qualifying package will also receive a $400 Disney gift card. Here are additional details, followed by commentary…
As with regular Walt Disney World discounts, there are three different tiers for the 2024 Walt Disney World “Welcome Back To Being You” early booker vacation package deal…
Tier 1 – Value Resorts:
- Disney’s All-Star Movies Resort
- Disney’s All-Star Music Resort
- Disney’s All-Star Sports Resort
- Disney’s Pop Century Resort
- Disney’s Art of Animation Resort.
Tier 2 – Moderate Resorts:
- Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort
- Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort
- Disney’s Port Orleans Resort – Riverside
- Disney’s Port Orleans Resort – French Quarter
- Cabins at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort
Tier 3 – Deluxe Resorts & Deluxe Villas:
- Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge
- Disney’s Beach Club Resort
- Disney’s Boardwalk Inn
- Disney’s Contemporary Resort
- Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa
- Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort
- Disney’s Wilderness Lodge
- Disney’s Yacht Club Resort
- Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas – Kidani Village
- Boulder Ridge Villas at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge
- Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort
- Copper Creek Villas at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge
- Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa
- Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa
- Disney’s Riviera Resort
Excluded resorts & room types: Disney’s Old Key West Resort, all villas not listed above, campsites at Disney’s Fort Wilderness, Little Mermaid Room at Disney’s Art of Animation Resort, and just about every multi-bedroom unit, most club level rooms, and specialty suites. The list of exclusions is massive, but most are super niche–options like the “Royal Kuba Vice Presidential Suite-Club Level Access” are individually listed, for whatever reason.
While these are the attention-grabbing headline amounts of $2,100 or $1,200, there’s actually a set way to calculate the amount of dining & merchandise credit you’ll receive. For arrivals from January 9 to December 18, 2024 (excluding dates March 23 to April 12, 2023; August 1 to September 30, 2024; and October 12-25, 2024) the nightly amounts are as follows: US$36 in Tier 1 participating Disney Resorts; US$72 in Tier 2 participating Disney Resorts; or US$86 in Tier 3 participating Disney Resorts.
One thing that’s a bit confusing is the exclusion of August 1 to September 30, 2024 above. That’s not because those dates are ineligible, but rather, because the nightly amount is higher: US$50 in Tier 1 participating Disney Resorts; or in US$100 in Tier 2 participating Disney Resorts; or in US$150 in Tier 3 participating Disney Resorts.
Another key detail is the free $400 Disney Gift Card per booking with a flight-inclusive package. Or, get a $200 Gift Card with a hotel & ticket package. I don’t recall the doubled gift card when booking a flight previously, but perhaps my memory is off. The $200 gift card for resort & ticket packages is definitely normal.
So is everything else. The 14-Day Magic Ticket for the price of a 7-Day ticket that includes Memory Maker has been a staple of this package for as long as I can remember.
Currently, guests booking this Walt Disney World 2024 vacation package can modify their hotel and ticket package without any fees anytime up to and including 7 days before the arrival date up to and including December 31, 2024.
Currently, guests can modify Walt Disney World resort flight inclusive package without fees anytime up to 7 days before their arrival date excluding any transport fees imposed by the transport carrier for arrival up to and including December 31, 2024. You will need to pay any difference in price if the price is higher and we will refund you the difference if the price is lower, with a deduction of any applicable fees. Valid for bookings made in the UK or Ireland.
A couple of interesting things here. First is the use of “currently,” which is in the terms & conditions and suggests policy fluidity. I don’t know about in the United Kingdom, but here in America, contract terms cannot be unilaterally modified ex post facto. Hard to imagine that being different in the UK, so most of our legal system was “borrowed” from across the pond. So that’s an odd thing to include.
Additionally, the fine print does not mention cancellations. The main deal description only indicates you’ll receive a “cancellation refund” if Disney cancels your package holiday, which should be a given. That’s another contracts 101 kinda thing–if companies could simply keep your money and not deliver services…well, many would do that. The margins are far better.
We typically watch and share this deal for several reasons. One is that we love and value our UK readers!!! (I feel like a lead singer shouting the name of the city of the performance just to get some cheap applause). But seriously, we do. Our audience in the United Kingdom is surprisingly large and a lot of readers ask about these promotion; it thus makes sense from a demographics perspective to discuss this deal.
Another is that many Americans are interested in the details of the UK discounts, as it’s often a sneak-peek at what will be offered in the United States. In a normal year, that means a preview of the popular Free Disney Dining Plan at Walt Disney World offer. Let’s start with analysis of this deal, and then turn to speculation regarding Free Dining and the Disney Dining Plan, generally…
First, I want to pointlessly fixate on the name of this package deal: “Welcome Back To Being You.” Perhaps this is some quirky turn of phrase in the United Kingdom that we simple-minded Americans cannot comprehend (like adding an extra “u” to words), but I doubt it.
Not to overanalyze, but this strikes me as having a subtext about normalcy, and I’m guessing that it’s going to be a throughline in Walt Disney World’s 2024 marketing. I really hope I’m wrong, as it’s decidedly not good. While I do expect 2024 to be the ‘year of the reset and resumption of normalcy’ at Walt Disney World, I would absolutely not draw attention to that if I were the company.
The reason is simple. If a business suggests they’re back to normal in the year 2024, my instinctive first reaction is going to be what took so long?! That’s like 2-3 years after the bulk of society.
Then I’m going to wonder if that’s actually true, why they haven’t progressed further, etc. It’s the type of statement that raises more questions than it answers, and is certainly not reassuring. If I were Walt Disney World, I would not want to draw attention to normalcy at this point. That ship sailed long ago.
A better slogan along similar lines could still have that as a subtext, perhaps borrowing from the Magic Kingdom entry plaque: “Welcome to the Worlds of Yesterday, Tomorrow & Fantasy.” Something that captures both feelings of futurism and nostalgia, with a nod to the Disney100 Celebration and everything old and new. I don’t know what would work, but I just know what doesn’t: this.
Or maybe I am reading way too much into this slogan. Perhaps it’s simply Walt Disney World’s way of saying that everyone in the UK has been having an out-of-body experience up until 2024, when that will conclude. In which case, this makes complete sense.
As for the deal itself, I’m no mathmagician, but this deal sounds pretty comparable to what we’ve seen for the last several years. If my notes are correct, it’s almost identical for most dates, but better if you book flights or travel during the early fall off-season. In that latter scenario, it’s significantly better, and you also have the lowest rate charts of the year for resorts.
With that said, it’s inferior to the pre-2020 discounts. The value of the standard Disney Dining Plan was $78 per adult–so even a party of 2 would’ve come out ahead with that deal for every single travel date. Make it a party 3 or 4 and the Free Dining deal would’ve been exponentially better.
Of course, the Disney Dining Plan is not yet available and Walt Disney World was almost certainly baking in some degree of DDP credit waste into that promotion. Which is to say that they expected most guests to not use all of their credits, or to not use them efficiently. By contrast, a lower denomination dining gift card can be used more efficiently. However, that doesn’t even begin to explain away the full disparity. Not even close.
This also isn’t better than most garden variety room-only discounts during normal times. Obviously, the comparison isn’t straightforward since this offers fixed savings whereas a room-only discount varies by season, but those are almost always better.
Interestingly, this is very similar to the Free Dining Card Discount: Up to $150 Per Night at Walt Disney World offered in the United States for 2023. The amounts are almost identical, so the math and analysis should be about the same. (Many readers reported the savings with that were better for them than room-only discounts, but the majority did better with room-only offers. YMMV.)
To each their own, but if you asked me right now whether Walt Disney World will offer better discounts in 2023 or 2024, I’m predicting 2024 without hesitation. Although significantly lower than last year, pent-up demand is still a thing right now and it’s largely being driven by international visitors (assuming MCO’s traffic data applies equally to WDW attendance–and it should). It’s safe to assume that’ll subside further by next year.
That’s even without the possibility of a recession. Most economists are still predicting a mild recession in the United States later in 2023; the European Commission and UK Finance Minister seem to think the EU and United Kingdom have avoided a recession. Lucky ducks. Regardless, if I had to bet on demand being higher or lower for Walt Disney World in 2024, I’m guessing lower. And that’s the key driver of discounting.
I’m hesitant to draw any conclusions or speculation as to what this means in terms of whether Free Dining is offered to the United States general public for 2024. Obviously, we’d prefer to see a Free Dining deal here as that would be a nearly-definitive sign both that the Disney Dining Plan was returning and that Free Dining would be offered in the United States in 2024.
However, the absence of such a deal is not definitive proof of the opposite conclusions.
As we’ve seen repeatedly in recent years, when Walt Disney World releases a deal or announces something, its details are essentially frozen in time or a snapshot of whatever exists at that specific moment.
The terms and conditions of this “Welcome Back To Being You” package discount also mention park reservations. Same story there. Park reservations exist now, so they’re necessarily mentioned in the fine print. I’m not a gambling man, but I’d still bet money that regular visitors (meaning non-APs) will not be subject to the reservations system at Walt Disney World in 2024. (There’s my bold prediction of this post–Park Pass has outlived its usefulness, and will be one friction point to go as Walt Disney World looks to draw back guests.)
I’ll go a step further and predict that the Disney Dining Plan will return for 2024 despite not being part of this package. However, I do not think that Walt Disney World will offer Free Dining in 2024. At least, not early in the year. What happens after April 2024 is anyone’s guess at this point.
Perhaps I’m reading too much into the stupid slogan, but I really think “Welcome Back To Being You” was chosen for a reason here. It’s gotta be a clumsy way of suggesting normalcy, even if as much is not evident from the details of the package–which are similar to last year. My bet is that this is the UK version of branding that will be adopted for the United States, too. Here’s hoping that Walt Disney World workshops the verbiage a bit between now and then! (All of this makes me really wonder what’s going to be announced for 2024 Walt Disney World vacation packages when we get the full details this summer.)
Strong current bookings are likely why this UK deal is subpar. As intimated above, Walt Disney World is still seeing pent-up demand playing out, and a disproportionate driver of that is international visitors.
As we’ve said repeatedly, Walt Disney World does not offer discounts out of corporate benevolence–it’s to fill unsold rooms and increase occupancy numbers. Right now, the EU and UK are likely demographics that are outperforming for Walt Disney World. The company is not going to start offering you all superior savings until your consumer behavior changes.
That’s hardly a bold prediction; exactly that is what has happened for the U.S. special offers. Current Walt Disney World discounts through Fall 2023 are significantly better than they were one year ago. It’s a night and day difference.
Although it’s an inevitability that international travelers will fall back into familiar habits when visiting Walt Disney World, it nevertheless makes sense to extrapolate from current bookings and transpose present discounts into the future. If you’re Disney, that’s the pragmatic approach–you don’t want to “over-discount” and sell rooms at a lower rate than needed.
However, a lot will change between now and next year. I don’t know what that means for UK special offers–as they’re usually released a year in advance rather than on a rolling basis like the U.S. promos–but it likely means better discounts in the future, as a whole.
Ultimately, even though the United Kingdom usually gets one big deal per year, it’s not like that was etched on a stone tablet by Walter Elias Disney himself, making it supreme law of the World. There’s absolutely nothing that precludes the company from releasing another, superior discount once pent-up demand drops and/or the Disney Dining Plan returns.
However, there’s also nothing guaranteeing it (I don’t want to falsely get anyone’s hopes up here). The reality is that Walt Disney World will release more discounts if and when those are necessary to incentivize UK whales (whales in a good way!) to book Florida holidays. If bookings remain strong for 2024, fewer and worse discounts will be released in Europe and the United Kingdom. If bookings decrease or resort-wide occupancy drops, more and better discounts will be released.
The company has broken from “discount precedent” countless times in the past to do exactly that. The best example of this from “normal times” came prior to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, when Walt Disney World released Free Dining earlier than normal and then extended it with multiple subsequent waves upon realizing that numbers were still low. There’s no reason to believe Disney won’t take a similar approach to discounting if the situation calls for it. Then again, maybe all of you Brits who have been having an out-of-body experience for however many years will just be happy to be back to being you…at Walt Disney World!
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 2024 Walt Disney World “Welcome Back To Being You” package discount for United Kingdom residents? Do you wish we got offers like this in the United States, or do you prefer getting the room-only discounts and shorter minimum stays? 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!
First, let me start with everyone would love to get all these discounts!
We are from California,
We stayed 2 weeks in February 2023 and you can only purchase up to a 10 day park hopper pass for Disney World….. then to add more days, we had to start over and do a 4 day park hopper pass!
We Stayed at the Disney Beach Club Villas, renting points from a DVC owner and the cost was still $4400 ………….. plus food, airfare etc…..but we enjoy going to WDW and it’s definitely a vacation you have to plan for!
Wish that our Disneyland Magic key pass discounts could be used at WDW too!
I have a question regarding making room only reservations in 2024. I understand that the room only reservations cannot be made 500 days out until packages are released for 2024. Does this include the UK packages? Can I make a room only reservation for August 2024 if the UK packages are released before they are released for the US? Or is it only when the packages are released for the US that we can make those room only reservations? Thank you in advance!
My own thoughts on Disney’s offer is that free dining will not return. I’ve priced up for the three of us to visit in August 24 staying at the Beach Club for 2 weeks with flights and it will cost £13,300. That’s an incredible amount of money. Yes there are cheaper hotels at which to stay, but on top of that, I may then need to factor in the cost of Genie plus call that $100 a day for the three of us, plus additional food costs not covered by the gift card. We have been lucky enough to visit Disney 10 times over the years, but enough is enough. There is no way on this earth I will pay that sort of money. We are visiting again in 2023, having last been in 2019, but we are only staying for 6 days and to honest I am dreading it without the dining plan and having to pay and use that genie plus. The enjoyment and magic of planning has gone, it’s just too complicated. I am happy to pay for the dining plan if needs be.
Yes, Beach Club is expensive, a value resort might be your best option to ease trip cost. We all need to do that sometimes, no matter how lengthy your flight.
I completely agree. The magic has gone now that you have to pay all the extras. This year will be our last trip to Disney World after 15 years of visiting. Time to explore the rest of the world for half the price!
“everyone in the UK has been having an out-of-body experience up until 2024”
I was going with a metaphor of going through a messy, lengthy divorce … but that might work too. Welcome Back To Being You: How Britannia Got Her Groove Back.
I’ll complain that WDW isn’t offering me this discount in the US once I convince my employer to offer me longer vacation time so I have the 14 days necessary. Well, unless resort hopping is possible with this package – then I’ll be jealous regardless.
Disney has not released the Canadian Resident offer in quite a while now, I wonder if this is a thing of the past?
I was wondering the same, thanks for posting your question. – I wonder if will come back
If UK guests were truly being ‘welcomed back to you’ then this promo would be a sneak peak of the new dining plan. It’s an empty phrase if no meat from free dining behind it. Either it’s a test the waters tease with every intention of beefing it up over the next few months or it’s a hot mess. At this point, not even seasoned guests can read those tea leaves. This promo will just alienate loyal UK guests once they read past the tag line. More business for Universal. I truly do not understand the marketing minds behind this whopper.
This is basically the same promo that they released in 2022, it is already tested (actually they give more credit this year)
These promotions always irritate me (nothing against UK folks); I speak as a US citizen.
1.The parks are super crowded (WDW and DL) already,
2. We don’t get promos like this (basically half price tickets with Memory Maker… dang) here or at European parks, and
3. Europeans have lots of other (closer) Disney parks from which to choose.
Not sure where you’re getting the idea that Europeans have “lots of” closer parks to choose from. Aside from Disneyland Paris, the Asian parks are just as far, if not farther, for most Europeans as they are Americans.
Shanghai and Hong Kong are both 12.5+ hour flights from London, and Tokyo is 13.5+ hours. You can get to Tokyo much quicker from the West Coast of the US. Not to mention, Americans can choose between Disney World and Disneyland without having to go far.
I think promotions and pricing is different for UK guests because they pay an astronomical amount in flights to get to Orlando. The resources required for flights (9-10 hour flight, logistics of getting to the airport (often have to stay in a hotel the night before, long stay parking, plus financial cost of flights) are also why UK guests stay longer than 7 days and packages are 14-21 days. I don’t know what the statistics are but having lived in the UK and having friends there, while some have been to Disneyland Paris one time, they view coming to FL and WDW differently and big once in a lifetime holiday.
Alice, clearly I did not use an app to track the flight times (my apologies) from parks other than Paris. However, from US East Coast to West Coast is not near.
Yeah we have closer parks (Disneyland Paris is really the only one that’s close, I don’t think I would say that Tokyo or Shanghai would be more accessible) but there are major differences in how much is available when comparing the US parks with Disneyland Paris. Disneyland Paris currently has only 2 parks and neither are anywhere near the size of any one of the parks in the US. Also no waterparks and the pull of Disney World is how many other things are within reach while you’re there (Bush Gardens, Universal, Sea World or even just taking road trips to amazing beaches etc). The Florida weather is obviously also a big bonus for many as where I live it’s mainly cold and wet for the most part! lol
There are a few things here though (for our family anyway)….. we can only afford to go to the US maybe once every 5 years or so. Flight prices are insane for a family of 4 from the UK (we had to fork out £2500 just for flights last year for a trip that was postponed from 2020) and as other people have pointed out if someone from the UK heads to the US for summer hols then we tend to go for 2 or 3 weeks and it’s quite easy to spend 2 of those weeks at Disney. There’s no way anyone will spend 2 whole weeks at Disneyland Paris, there is barely enough there to have a week at it.
If deals like this were not available then basically it just prices most working families out (which I suppose would reduce how many from the UK come to Orlando (or California)) but I doubt that that is going to make any difference to how crowded the parks are. Crowded parks = more money for the suits. The other thing is, for people like us, it just adds extra years in between visits as it takes the extra time to save up to be able to go. (I first went to Disney World as part of my honeymoon in 2015, had never been as a kid but loved it so much we decided to take our son there in 2020. When that didn’t happen we kept postponing it and ended up having to take 2 kids in 2022 lol).
We don’t get deals like this for Disneyland Paris, in fact quite often the price on the UK website is higher than the same room etc on either the Irish website or other European websites. There hasn’t been any kind of discount or deal for anyone at Disneyland Paris since 2019 really (that I’ve seen).
Like I said all of this is just based on our experience, I’m sure everyone has their own perspective.
You don’t need to check flight times on an app to have an idea of basic geography and understand that Europe is not closer to East Asia than the U.S.
And for a centrally-located American, or even one on the coasts, both U.S. parks are comparatively closer than other parks are to a European.
I would be interested to know the cost for you guys in the US. For us UK citizens to visit for 2 weeks, with this promotion, it costs approx £10,000 for a family of 2 adults and 2 children in the All Star resorts. We cannot afford to come again at these prices. Maybe citizens of the US get it cheaper in the first instance? ♀️
Can UK residents book this with US based travel agents?
Yes you can. You can also use a VPN and book directly on the Disney US website.
You can also rent DVC points through David’s DVC or the other company both of which Tom covers. We are renting points this year at OKW and it’s far cheaper than booking a hotel
I assume this is ‘per room’ discount. This is so bad. A family of 2 get the same dining credit as a family of 5 who have paid significantly more.
Yep! it’s rubbish!
Ireland is part of the European Union, so they can not refuse to sell it to other EU-citizens because of the single market and consumer rights inside the EU. So yes, every EU-citizen can book this through the Irish website :-).
There has always been confusion on what UK offers Aussies can partake in. We are not part of EU so in theory this offer is not avail to us. But we are closely tied through monarchy so then theres that. If you book through companies like Attraction Tickets they allow Aussies to book their UK deals. Anyone know Disneys view?
Hi Tom,
Wondering if this deal or similar is available for Australians?
And why do they do special deals based on where you live?
This is a terrible deal when compared with the previous free dining plan deal. I had that deal booked for 2020 (obviously didn’t happen) and we didn’t get to go until last year. Just our time in Disney cost us thousands more due to the absence of the dining plan, we got food credit but between 4 of us it was pathetic. I can honestly say we won’t be booking again unless the free dining plan eventually comes back so fingers crossed…..
I agree….exactly the same story for me. We had a Lovely holiday last year in WDW but it cost a lot more!! We are not booking untill we get free dining.
Good for the Brits, really. They are farther away from WDW than I am…….but….
What special discount do Michiganders get? Aside from the typical ones that anyone can participate in ofcourse.
There’s a darn good chance I spend as much in WDW as the UKers, without the whopping discount. Obviously, this is a bee in my bonnet!
Brits tend to come for a minimum of two weeks at a time, so the WDTC do tend to try and entice us in. Plus no car, you have a group on property eating, shopping – captive for the most part
I also fly in for two weeks time, a few times a year, and some shorter trips as well.
No car, uber from the airport, and eat and stay on property.
I agree! I am from Wisconsin! That sounds like a better deal than what is available n the US!♀️
Dear Tom, Ireland is part of the EU, and yes, all EU citizens can book this offer in the Irish website! Actually I have my booking for August 2023 taking advantage of the previous one in April 2022
viva foro parques disney
Viva!