BIG Disney World Deal Drop Day PSA
Walt Disney World is going to be releasing discounts for Summer 2024 and likely beyond within the next week. This covers what we know based on both historical precedent and what Disney has already quietly announced, our predictions as to what deals will be offered, multiple scenarios for the releases, and–most importantly–how you need to prepare.
Let’s start with past precedent, which is a key piece of the puzzle. Early January has been Walt Disney World’s biggest special offer release date of the year since 2019. That was the year of the pre-Star Wars slump, when fans were postponing visits to Walt Disney World until after Galaxy’s Edge opened.
As a result, Walt Disney World moved forward the Free Dining drop-date, while also releasing room-only discounts for the general public, Florida residents, and Annual Passholders. Although there wasn’t as compelling of a reason to do so, the exact same thing happened the first week of January 2020.
Fast-forward to 2022, and the circumstances were once again similar. It wasn’t OG Free Dining that was released, as there was no Disney Dining Plan. Instead, the similar-but-very-different Free Dining Gift Card was released on January 5, along with a slew of room-only discounts. That’s a succinct rundown of recent and historical precedent.
The first week of January tends to be the biggest release date for Walt Disney World discounts because it’s when people are planning trips. We’ve mentioned this before, but there’s a reason why the ABC Christmas Day Parade is so valuable to the company–it’s basically an extended infomercial for Disney Destinations as families gather and start planning their vacations for the year to come.
Likewise, discounts are released in early January because that’s when people start to act on that and actually book vacations. Stumbling upon substantial savings rather than having sticker shock upon seeing rack rates for hotels is advantageous to the company for obvious reasons. It’s all part of Walt Disney World’s “Kohl’s Pricing Model,” where the regular prices are almost meaningless due to discounts. (Thankfully!)
Against that backdrop, we already know that Walt Disney World is releasing at least one discount on January 3, 2024 because a special offer “just for Disney+ subscribers” was announced last month (see above).
Note the adjacent image Disney+ used in promoting this promo–a couple sitting at the best character dining experience at Walt Disney World: Topolino Terrace’s Breakfast a la Art.
It could be a random photo chosen to illustrate the upcoming discount, but we suspect it was purposeful–that a dining discount of some sort is dropping for Walt Disney World.
A few days before that, I shared my 2024 Free Dining Deal Date Predictions. Even prior to that tease, I thought the chances of Free Dining coming back in early January was about 50/50. The other “half” of that wasn’t Free Dining not coming out at all, but rather, being released released in late March or early April 2024.
Other things have happened since that increase the odds of Free Dining, leading me to revisit the topic with refined predictions in our comprehensive Guide to 2024 Free Dining at Walt Disney World. Suffice to say, I now think the chances of Free Dining being released in January 2024 are 75/25. And if anything, that’s a conservative estimate.
But even assuming it is released, there are a few ways this discount drop could play out–all of which are supported by historical precedent. Let’s run through the scenarios:
Free Dining for Disney+ Only – Since we already know Disney+ is getting an exclusive special offer on January 3, 2024 let’s just assume that it’s the only discount that’s released and it’s the big one: Free Dining.
It would actually make complete sense for Walt Disney World to be conservative and not release any other special offers if they drop Free Dining on January 3 for Disney+ subscribers. Free Dining is far and away the most popular discount that Disney offers (based on booking volume) and after a 4 year absence, fans are going to be starved for Free Dining.
Releasing only Free Dining for Disney+ subscribers on January 3, 2024 would offer several advantages. It would allow Walt Disney World to assess demand and the necessity for other deals before releasing more. Disney could stagger demand so the website wouldn’t crash (or have as bad of a virtual queue) and prevent the phone lines from being as overwhelmed. From the perspective of the company as a whole, it would also push more people to purchase Disney+ subscriptions.
During past Free Dining releases, Walt Disney World has sometimes gone this route–with a slight staggering of discounts to spread out demand and prevent the website and phone lines from being overwhelmed.
If I were in charge of the company, this is exactly what I would do. It’s the disciplined decision with the most upside and least downside. But it also assumes coordination and cooperation between different divisions along with knowledge of how things worked (and didn’t) pre-2020, and I’m skeptical of all that happening. As such, I don’t view this scenario as likely.
Disney+ Discount Only (No Free Dining) – This is the same as the above, except with a different discount instead of Free Dining. In this scenario, I still think it’s a dining-related discount. Not necessarily because of the Topolino’s Terrace photo, but because food has been Walt Disney World’s go-to for “bigger” deals lately.
The first alternative here would be an extension of the current “Free” Disney Dining Card Deal for 2024 and/or 50% Off Tickets & Dining Plans Discount for Kids in Spring & Summer 2024. However, what we’ve seen since those releases is Walt Disney World getting even more aggressive with discounts, so I’m highly skeptical of them playing that same card–except targeted–again.
As such, the second alternative would be one or both of those dining-related deals, but better. Bigger gift card denominations or somehow more for kids. I wouldn’t necessarily bet against that; it’s more or less the trajectory we’re on. I don’t think it’s the most likely scenario, though, because Walt Disney World has already been pulling from the 2019 playbook, including some deep cut discounts.
Literally the only card they have not played is Free Dining. While it’s possible we could see a new or novel deal–such as “Book X days, Get Y Free” that would increase length-of-stay, they haven’t done a deal like that since the Great Recession. All recent signs have pointed to Disney saying: “What worked in 2019? Let’s do that again.” (I would bet that this is quite literally the conversation that has happened internally.)
Half-Dozen Discounts (Wide Free Dining) – This is the free-for-all option, with at least 3 types of room-only discounts and potentially as many as 5 depending upon what’s offered to Disney Visa Cardholders and/or Disney+ subscribers.
It also would include Free Dining for Disney+ subscribers, as well as the general public and perhaps Disney Visa Cardholders. It’s difficult to say what’ll happen with that last group–Disney+ has sometimes filled the slot that Disney Visa used to occupy, with “special” or “extended” special offers.
If this is what happens, Walt Disney World will still need to fulfill the promise of a special offer “just for” Disney+ subscribers. And they will, most likely with more Free Dining dates than what’s offered to the general public. This would be pulling from the old Disney Visa playbook, and is a way of offering the discount for dates with borderline room occupancy. (When a discount is necessary to hit targets, but a wide release would be overkill.)
On paper, this is the best outcome. Everyone gets what they want! As a battle-tested WDW deal drop-day veteran, I fear this possibility. In practice, people wait hours in a virtual queue or on hold and end up being shut out. It’s too much demand, all at once. Trust me, this would be a poor result. So the pessimist in me says it’s what’ll happen.
Half-Dozen Discounts (No Wide Free Dining) – Same as the above–meaning a bunch of room-only discounts for the general public and affiliation discounts–but with Free Dining only for Disney+ subscribers. In my view, this is the best outcome–especially for planners who read this site–and the optimist in me wants to believe it’s what’ll happen.
This is basically a compromise approach, and one that makes sense because there are distinct audiences for Free Dining and room-only discounts. It’s possible that Walt Disney World would worry that not releasing room-only deals on the exact same day as Free Dining causes some number of discount fence-sitters to immediately book vacations elsewhere. Maybe they’ve seen data suggesting this in the past–I don’t know.
If this does happen, it probably would not be the end of Free Dining for 2024 at Walt Disney World. If you look back to the 2019 playbook, there were three waves of the discount released–to different groups (general public vs. Disney Visa) and different date ranges. I would not be the least bit surprised to see Free Dining released for Disney+ subscribers for earlier travel dates and then released for the same dates to the general public (but more picked over at that point). Then in late March 2024, the same thing plays out again for later travel dates.
That’s right–I wouldn’t be shocked if there are as many as 4 waves of Free Dining in 2024. I also wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if it books up well enough with Disney+ subscribers that there are just two waves and it never hits the general public, period. The barrier to entry on a streaming service subscription is a lot lower than a Visa card, and anyone with any sense will just buy a month of Disney+ to get immediate access to the deal. It’s a totally different ballgame than with a credit (or debit) card.
Why You Need to Prepare NOW!
This is now my fourth 2024 Free Dining prep post, and maybe you’re getting tired of them given that it’s still only a potential discount and not a real one. Sorry not sorry. You’ll thank me when you’re ahead of the game by being fully prepared for the range of possible outcomes, one of which is almost certain to happen. Don’t believe me? Come back on January 3, 2024 and read the frantic comments from people who are having trouble–or flat out fail at scoring a deal.
One way or another, the Disney+ special offer for Walt Disney World is going to be better than what’s offered to the general public. As such, our strong advice would be to subscribe to the streaming service TODAY. Ring in the New Year by watching Christmas with Walt Disney, Pluto’s Christmas Tree, and some Muppet goodness. (It’s still technically the holidays!)
Even if you don’t want Disney+ for whatever reason, you only need to subscribe for 2 months–the one of booking and the one of travel. You will absolutely come out ahead, monetarily, if you book the discount even after accounting for the cost of Disney Plus. And even if I’m wrong, you’re only out eight bucks–but got to watch Pluto’s Christmas Tree and Christmas with Walt Disney, so you still came out ahead. (You’re welcome.)
In a perfect world, you’d use the same email address for subscribing to Disney+ as your My Disney Experience account. My reason for suggesting you do this today (January 1, 2024) instead of waiting until January 3 is because of the potential problems. It’s not uncommon for credentials to not properly link, meaning that your My Disney Experience account may not recognize you’re a Disney+ subscriber. (Disney IT isn’t flawless?! Who would’ve guessed!) To our knowledge, this has actually gotten a lot better since Disney made backend login changes–but it’s still not 100%.
Regardless of how you sign up, go to your My Disney Experience profile and check your “Membership and Passes.” If you’re a subscriber, you should see Disney+ there. If not, you should be able to go into your Disney+ account and update the email address associated with that to match your My Disney Experience account.
In both cases, should is the operative word. This won’t always work. If it doesn’t, try calling Disney+ customer service at 888-905-7888. You will likely have much better results doing that in the next 2 days than you will on January 3. Suffice to say, you’ll be one of the few people calling for help today–but won’t be alone then!
The bottom line is that you want all of this squared away before January 3, 2024 because it’s likely to be a competitive discount drop day involving virtual queues and in-demand dates, resort and room combos going quickly. Don’t let fumbling around with Disney+ be what gets between you and a great deal. Lose out the old fashioned way–because others are hoarding resort reservations! 😉
Finally, we’ll end with a plug. We will be closely monitoring the 2024 Walt Disney World discount situation, keeping our ears open for more news about a return of Free Dining. Should something–anything–be released or rumored, we’ll send you an alert if you sign up for our FREE Walt Disney World newsletter.
Longtime readers might also recall that we offered a heads up before Free Dining was actually announced most years up to 2020. While all of the above is speculation based on past experience and is NOT a rumor or leak, the latter does happen. If Free Dining really is coming on January 3, there’s a decent chance it’ll be an open secret by January 2.
Failing that, we’ve notified subscribers about discounts early in the morning–while they were live but before Walt Disney World officially announced them–on countless occasions in the last decade. All of this may not seem like much, but a heads up of even a day or a few hours can be the difference between successfully booking or not–or at least not being stuck in a virtual queue for hours!
If you’re already overwhelmed, you might just want someone else to do the work for you. Free Dining is Walt Disney World’s most complicated promotion, and can be a huge headache to book. Between limited availability and navigating a sea of rules and restrictions, it’s easy to get frustrated, have problems, or be unsuccessful in scoring a reservation.
To that end, we always recommend that Walt Disney World first-timers or regulars who just don’t want to deal with the hassle use a travel agent. (Click here to request a free quote from Be Our Guest Vacations, an Authorized Disney Travel Planner that we recommend.) Most legit travel agents do not charge for booking Walt Disney World vacations (and you don’t pay a premium to use them–Disney pays them commission, so they’re free to you), so that’s really the easiest way to go.
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 will happen–will Free Dining be released for the general public on January 3, 2024? Will Disney+ subscribers have access to an extended set of dates for that, or an entirely unique special offer? Agree or disagree with our predictions or commentary? Any questions? Hearing your feedback about your experiences is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts or questions below in the comments!
Hey Tom. Reached out to Small world through your blog. Hope they can accommodate. Been following your blog all year. Annual pass holder and Disney+ but learned a ton of little things that made a difference to 2 prior trips, one with a magical family event. Doesn’t matter how many times you have gone, nobody stays up to date on all the changes like the Brickers. Thank you. BTW thought I was the expert, NOT!!
For those of us that stay off site, the deal we are most looking forward to is the “4-day, 4-park Magic Ticket for Disney World for $99 per day” deal they announced last May for summer 2023. We visited in early June last year and will again in 2024. We had already purchased six 4-day passes when they announced the ticket deal in May but luckily I purchased them through Undercover Tourist and was able to get a refund (minus 5% fee). I was then able to buy the $99 a day tickets through Disney. Saved us a ton of money. Any speculation whether they will revive this deal in 2024? If so, hopefully they won’t announce is so late in the year.
I’m having an issue across multiple browsers for multiple days where I go to check out my cart with lodging, and it brings up a blank page. I can’t enter the Cart ID to pull it up. I am not asking for tech support, but flagging this as a potential headache happening for others that could make checking out a real headache on an already busy/stressful Disney IT day. (I’m going to try a few things on my own or call Disney, not looking for tech support here!).
Travel Advisor here! Disney did post in the TA portal that details would be announced Jan 2nd, so you will know if your current booked vacation would qualify before the drop on Jan 3rd. Very interested to see if your predictions ring true!
Several of you have asked about more EU/UK discounts and, honestly, I don’t know. I try not to make predictions that are outside my comfort zone, and I simply don’t have enough expertise with the EU/UK deals to speak credibly.
With that said, I would imagine that the return of the deal for the US will mark the return for other markets–and there’s nothing stopping Disney from revisiting/revising its normal release schedule for international markets. That’s especially true as the dollar is strong and WDW (presumably) will need to do more to attract some of you big spending int’l guests as localized pent-up demand with your demo starts to exhaust itself, too!
I have a question on modifying a reservation with a discount.
In the past, we’ve always successfully booked big discounts online when they’ve dropped by making a new reservation. This year, we already have a reservation made! I was planning on modifying it to add a discount. Unfortunately, my reservation is not able to be modified! It says to change or cancel my reservation, I need to call (also, secondary question: Why does this happen to some reservations where you can’t modify it online?).
On Wednesday morning, if a deal that I want drops, should I wait for the phone lines to open to modify it? Or should I book something online and have 2 reservations, and then call? Do they even let you have two reservations for the same dates?
“(also, secondary question: Why does this happen to some reservations where you can’t modify it online?).”
I have no clue why this happens, just that it does–and seemingly for no reason. (Maybe a TA would know?)
I think it’s sort of a personal judgment call, but if it were me, I’d probably make a second reservation online ASAP and then call to have the other one sorted out. That’s the sure thing. That is, if it’s Free Dining you’re trying to book. If it’s “only” a room-only deal, you probably have a lot more flexibility and time on your side.
I could be totally misjudging demand/inventory, but I think after a multi-year absence, this is going to be very competitive and go pretty quickly. Especially if there’s a wide release beyond D+ subs.
Thank you!
I have seen this happening to me a LOT of times in the past couple of months, as I was planning my Disney vacation for January. I usually plan my trips at night, when I can dedicate some quiet time to research, and what I have seen is that normally Disney makes updates to their pages around midnight (I’m based in Costa Rica, so that is around my 11PM). Sometimes they limit the changes you can make, and sometimes my reservation would be completely gone for hours, normally overnight. I’m a software engineer myself, so I can only guess that they temporarily block changes to current reservations until they stabilize the system and let everything work as normal again. I was able to change my reservation multiple times in October without a problem, but as soon as the new Dining Card Promo came out, I wasn’t able to add it. I had to cancel the old one and make a new one, as it wouldn’t show up as an option for me. Just a heads up! I hope this information works.
Let’s go Blue!
Wow, what a game that was.
(Despite being a Michigander, I’m not a UM fan–I was MSU growing up, but went to neither. Love to see a good game and hate Alabama, though.)
We booked Pop Century from June 2nd to 7th a few weeks back with 5 day park hopper tix. just joined Disney+ on ur recommendation in case free dining is offered like you predict. Do you think the first week in June might be in a free dining offer ? Lotta kids still in school so I’m keeping my fingers crossed. I just hope I can modify my reservation on my phone if it does drop. Guess I need to familiarize myself with that process. Thanks for all your tips and I hope you and your expanding family have a great New Year !
I hesitate to make predictions as to dates, except that I wouldn’t expect anything before late May or beyond September with the first round. June is probably the biggest wild card–I could see it going either way. Fingers crossed!
Tom have you heard if the Disney+ discount is for US only or if it will be available in the UK? If not have you heard anything about free dining for the UK?
What time do they release the deals?
EARLY!! I’m on the east coast and pre pandemic have been up by 4:30 for FD in 2016 and then maybe closer to 5:30am on release days in 2018 and 2019? (We’re a family of 5, my 3 “kids” are Disney.”adults” so we he 5 of us at CBR with FD is a steal!). I feel like it’s gotten a little later as time went on. way, much earlier than you’ll get an official email (if we even get one?!). I plan on checking by 5:30am ET—bonus, if you’re one of the early birds, the site is less likely to be slow—and of course you’ll get best choice of dates and rooms! Good luck!
We have our WDW package already booked for mid-April and are Disney+ subscribers. As you mentioned, I was on the app and went to my profile. It already has me listed as a Disney+ subscriber, so we are eagerly awaiting what they will offer. Thank you for all of your great insights!
Will these new deals be for US residents or will they likely apply to European tourists? We have a trip book from UK FOR June/July with a dining credit but a dining plan obviously includes more.
I went ahead and bought our Disney world tickets from undercover tourist during their Black Friday sale. I have been waiting to see what kind of hotel only discounts come out before booking rooms. However, I might be interested in free dining if it’s going on during my dates. Did I shoot myself in the foot by buying tickets ahead of time?
Thanks for the great info Tom, do you know if this will be applicable to UK travellers? We have booked already for August and don’t seem to have a modify reservation link in MDE app (or maybe I’m not finding it). It’s saying to call and modify. Just have a nagging worry they will say they can’t add free dining to the existing booking (assuming dates etc were to line up). Thanks!
I hope so!
what was the announcement Disney teased for the new years eve broadcast? all I’ve seen is a new ad. I know no one was expecting anything big but that seems like a particularly large nothingburger. is that all it was?
That’s all it was. I’m hoping that ties into a marketing or celebratory campaign about ‘magical moments,’ but as of right now, it’s a nothingburger. Very puzzling that they teased that ahead of time at all.
Tom… I have a question. We have booked 2 trips in 2024. Both trips include Disney Dining Plan. What can we expect if free dining is available during those visits? Will my dining plan be discounted?
Thanks for all of your information!
If your dates are eligible and if your resort is participating and if there’s room inventory for what you booked and if your package meets the requirements (e.g. tickets), then you should be able to apply the promotion to your existing reservation by modifying it.
Note all of the “and ifs” above. Those are all required. Quite often, it’s easier to just search for something new and cancel what you have–but try modifying first.
The available room inventory requirement trips up a lot of people, and what should give you a sense of urgency. It does not matter that you already have the room booked–the promotion still has to have eligible resort/room/date combos in order for you to apply it. So you’ll want to act ASAP (your travel agent should be on top of it, if you have one).
As always thank you for the heads up to prepare! It’s on my calendar since your last post. Happy and healthy new year to your little family!
Good luck–hopefully it’ll be a great deal. Happy and healthy new year to you and your family, too!