Disney World Cancels Free Dining & DDP, EMH, FastPass+ & Restaurant Reservations
Following the big announcement that Walt Disney World will begin the phased reopening of its theme parks in July 2020 and Disney Vacation Club Resorts would open in June 2020, it’s been a roller coaster couple of days for a variety of WDW reservations that have been cancelled or temporarily disappeared.
First, the online booking system closed to new resort, dining, FastPass+, and experience reservations. Then, existing bookings disappeared from My Disney Experience…before reappearing. Next, Walt Disney World removed verbiage from its website that its non-DVC hotels would reopen on June 15, 2020. It was believed that many of these were glitches occurring as Walt Disney World did IT infrastructure updates to prepare for the roll-out of the online advance reservation system.
During the first phase of Walt Disney World’s reopening, this reservation system will require guests to pre-book theme park visits online (if you’re sitting on pins and needles waiting for this, sign up for our free email newsletter as we will send out a notification immediately when the online reservation system for visiting the parks goes live). The new system is going to cause big changes, and now we have official confirmation that Walt Disney World will be cancelling a range of reservations, from FastPass+ to Free Dining…
Beginning May 28, 2020, all dining reservations, experience bookings, Disney Dining Plan, and FastPass+ selections will be automatically cancelled. Guests with existing resort hotel reservations will have priority access to the new park reservation system when it becomes available.
The FastPass+ service will be temporary suspended, and Walt Disney World will use additional queue space to manage capacity at our attractions and maintain physical distancing. Also upon reopening, Extra Magic Hours will be temporarily suspended.
Walt Disney World will reopen dining and experience bookings with more limited capacity closer to when the theme parks reopen. Disney will also shift from a 180-day booking window to a 60-day booking window for dining and experience bookings going forward to allow guests to make their plans closer to their visits.
Additionally, when restaurant and other experience reservations resume, guests who had existing bookings will receive priority access to rebook.
Guests who purchased a Disney Dining Plan and tickets for travel dates between May 28, 2020 and September 26, 2021 will receive an automatic cancellation and refund of their Disney Dining Plan. (That’s not a typo–cancellations of the Disney Dining Plan are being made through next September.)
Guests who booked resort hotel reservations with a Free Dining package for dates between May 28, 2020 and September 26, 2021 will receive an automatic cancellation of their Disney Pining Plan. These guests will be able to rebook their vacation for a later date with a 35% room discount instead.
(UPDATE: Disney has since removed all mentions of the 35% room discount, as well as an end date for cancellations. It’s unclear why the verbiage has changed, and whether the 35% discount will still be offered.)
When Walt Disney World’s theme parks reopen, park attendance will be managed through a new park reservation system. To enter a park, both a park reservation and valid admission for the same park on the same date is required. More details about this new reservation system will be available soon.
At this time, Walt Disney World is temporarily pausing new ticket sales to focus on guests with existing tickets. Existing ticket holders and Annual Passholders will be able to make reservation requests in phases before new tickets are sold; Walt Disney World will be reaching out to these guests soon to provide additional details. New ticket sales will resume after that period of time.
Florida Resident Discover Disney Tickets may be used through September 30, 2020. Guests who have purchased tickets for Disney After Hours, Disney Villains After Hours, Disney Early Morning Magic and Disney H2O Glow Nights through the end of the actual closure period will be automatically refunded.
Unexpired multi-day theme park tickets with unused days, or date-specific theme park tickets with a valid use period beginning March 12, 2020 through the end of the actual closure period will automatically be extended to use any date through December 15, 2020. If you are unable to visit by December 15, 2020, you may apply the value of a wholly unused ticket toward the purchase of a ticket for a future date.
In terms of commentary, the cancellation of the Free Dining bookings for over the next year is the big surprise here, and what’s likely to cause the most outrage. This is far and away Walt Disney World’s most popular promo of the year, and it was recently being offered as a recovery deal to those who rebooked trips during dates that were cancelled.
A lot of Walt Disney World fans put tons of effort, research, and telephone time into securing the Free Disney Dining Plan deal, and we can’t imagine they’ll be completely understanding. Nor do we blame them–this is a big blow that really stinks.
The silver lining here is that 35% off room-only discount being offered as an alternative. As we’ve long stressed, there’s no such thing as a free lunch, which is to say that you always need to do the math on Free Dining.
For most parties, a room-only discount on a Deluxe Resort was superior to Free Dining. That usually was not the case on the lower tiers, as the room-only discounts were lower for Value and Moderate Resorts. Getting 35% off those less expensive rooms could bridge that gap–many parties may even come out ahead with the hotel deal. Still, not everyone will be so lucky.
The most likely explanation for the cancellation of Free Dining is significantly reduced dining capacity. We covered this in our last post about a potential second wave of Free Dining (which now seems highly unlikely…at best).
Walt Disney World will reopen with less than half of its normal dining capacity, and that’s assuming that all resort restaurants, Disney Springs locations, buffets, and character meals reopen. It’s likely many of those locations will not reopen or will do so in a modified form, leaving Walt Disney World with 35-40% of its normal dining capacity.
In such a scenario, Free Dining would be difficult to navigate. This announcement goes a step further than that, suggesting Walt Disney World will temporarily suspend even paid forms of the Disney Dining Plan for the next year-plus.
The other big development here is the cancellation of FastPass+ reservations. This isn’t nearly as much of a huge surprise. About a month ago, Walt Disney World started seriously limiting the daily allotment of FastPasses, which didn’t make a ton of sense given that heavy use of virtual queues was already rumored at that point.
Even then, it was safe to assume the options were leaning even more heavily on FastPass+ or moving to a Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance-style virtual queue and boarding pass style system. From a social distancing perspective, the latter offers advantages in being able to dynamically make adjustments and pulse guests through queues at a better-managed rate. Based on tonight’s announcement, it would seem that this approach won out.
One downside to this is it all but eliminates the benefits of staying at on-site Walt Disney World hotels, aside from transportation and proximity to the parks. As we covered in “Is Walt Disney World’s On-Site Advantage Disappearing?” this has been a gradual erosion.
Now, without Extra Magic Hours, the Disney Dining Plan, or priority booking windows, there’s even less of a point to paying a significant premium to stay in a Disney resort. Unless you really value the transportation, theme, or location. (Or, unless Walt Disney World starts releasing some really good discounts to lure guests back!)
If you’re looking for an upside to all of this, it’s probably easier to see one if you didn’t take advantage of the Free Dining deal or aren’t a fan of the Disney Dining Plan.
In our view, the main advantage is the return of spontaneity in the Walt Disney World park-going experience. We’ve long decried the degree to which planning is necessary, noting repeatedly that we aren’t spreadsheet or binder people. (See our Being Spontaneous at Walt Disney World post.)
We far prefer the Disneyland approach, and all of these changes are basically making Walt Disney World more closely align with that. What we love about this is that it doesn’t require knowing where you want to eat 6 months in advance or planning your day down to the minute. It allows making day-of decisions without being shut-out of marquee or popular experiences.
With that said, it still offers plenty of room for planning strategy and using various tips & tricks to see and do more than the average guest. Essentially, it’s a new approach to master–and one that requires far less homework and months-in-advance planning. We suspect that once the initial shock of the change wears off, many Walt Disney World fans will likewise come to prefer the temporary, Disneyland-style strategy.
These are just some of our initial takeaways from these announcements. As we said when the park reopening plans and dates were announced, it’s likely that there’s a lot more to come, and that policies will continue to be tweaked. While we’ve stressed patience and flexibility throughout this, we also understand that this is frustrating for many of you who have poured considerable time, energy, and emotion into the planning process. We wish there were some reassuring words we could offer here, but the reality is that ‘certainty’ in vacation planning is going to be in short supply for the coming weeks or months.
One thing we will stress is being kind to Cast Members if you call to voice your frustrations, rebook, or cancel your vacation. The phone reps with whom you interact have literally zero say over Walt Disney World’s policies, and you’re not going to change anything or magically get Free Dining back by being rude to them. It’s one thing to calmly voice your displeasure, it’s another entirely to verbally berate or take your frustrations out on someone who did not cause the problem. If that doesn’t convince you to be nice, remember: you catch more flies with honey than vinegar…
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 have a reservation that has been cancelled as a result of the policy changes? What do you think about Walt Disney World cancelling Free Dining for 2020 and instead offering a 35% off room discount? Upset that your plans continue to change? Optimistic that things will be “back to normal” at Walt Disney World sooner rather than later? A variety of viewpoints are welcomed here, but we will not tolerate insults, arguing, or politically-charged comments. Additionally, please do not debate the efficacy of health safety policies—all such comments (for, against, otherwise) will be deleted. Those arguments are played out and isn’t the appropriate forum for that. (Saying you will or will not visit in light of certain measures is fine.)
This is a BIG blow. We’re a family of 5, so free dining was 70% of our room cost, twice the value of the new discount they are offering. Plus the 35% is only being offered “at a later date”– not for the original dates booked, which means we are stuck paying rack rate when we could have booked a room discount, since they won’t let us make or modify our reservation. I was prepared for them to cancel ADRs and fastpasses, but to cancel free dining? Heck, even using free dining at quick service would have been a better value for us than what we currently are stuck with: rack rate rooms, and dining out of pocket.
When I tried to tell my kids the trip couldn’t happen, my 8-year old offered to pay his “life savings” to “save our Disney trip.” Breaks my heart. What on earth was Disney thinking? Why not let us keep free dining and decide if it is still “worth it” with the limited ADRs they will make available later.
And don’t forget to get free dining you also had to get park hopper tickets, and we won’t even be able to park hop.
Sadly for my family, this means canceling our trip. I was only holding out hope because of the free dining plan and our excitement in being able to “splurge” on snacks and treats we’d otherwise go without, but with this now gone, plus loss of extra Magic Hours and park hopping, and everything else that is gone, we aren’t spending $$$ for so little.
Our trip in April was cancelled. Now Disney wants to take away our dining, parades ,fireworks,magic hours,hopper passes.fast passes,why open up. Disney is gonna have to do better than this.My whole family, 14 of us now have reservations in September. I haven’t heard Disney say anything about lowering their prices. Thanks for nothing .
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100 % agree. My april trip is now October and it dont sound magical at all, for the amount we have spent to stay at Disney and everything planned.
Cancelling all of my fastpasses and dining reservations? I can’t do this anymore. I just can’t. 🙁
I have a free dining reservation in Sept that is a reschedule from a May trip. I have a Dec free dining bounce back reservation. I will gladly take the 35% room discount, but I don’t like the “at a later time” verbiage. My time off work is set in stone. I have to travel those weeks. I hope they let me swap my free dining for a room discount for the same time period.
Agreed! I’ll gladly take a 35% off room discount. Especially now that we are going to cancel our park tickets and just do a resort stay. Hopefully the pools will be open. Good luck On your trips.
I feel the same. I want to keep my current dates booked for September and am actually fine with the free dining being cancelled and getting a room discount. As a Florida resident, the tickets we had to buy to get free dining were more expensive than our Florida resident tickets and I will just roll our tickets for our July trip into annual passes. But I hope the 35% can be used on the same dates!
Shocked! We went specifically in September last year to book the free dining bounce back offer! 35% off for my family of 5 isn’t the same! No Disney this year! Hope things return to the Disney we love sooner than later! Being a nurse and working and contracting covid through this pandemic left my family desperately needing the “magic”! Here’s hoping for a better 2021 as I will be canceling this year!
I wonder if limited menus at venues is cause for the paid DDP cancellation? To avoid an outrage from a guest using 2 dining credits for a restaurant with half the menu etc. My husband prefers to use DDP, and told me to cancel the trip when i read him this latest update (Trip date Oct 28-Nov 3). Ever optimistic I told him I’m not losing our spot in the system and we have up to 30 days before to cancel. I’m hopeful as more details come out between now and then that we’ll both feel more “at ease” about it all. As for the 60 days, I prefer that to the 180 days honestly. I like the idea of using the virtual queues for rides as well. Standing outside in a long line with a mask on, or waiting in a shop, exhibit, aquarium, or coffee shop for your turn to ride? Easy pick. You’re also likely to spend money in any of those places while waiting. Win win for Disney there. Assuming it works the same as a fast pass and not the mess that the world of Disney was on opening day I think it might make WDW more enjoyable. Less time in line more time to appreciate the parks. Something I find can be rare on many days. I also hope some clarification comes out regarding park hoppers. We were planning to do AK morning and then MNSSHP on nov 1, and then breakfast the next morning at be our guest to see the “holiday switch“. It’s not a deal breaker, but rather a big “womp womp” for the trip. Maybe we’ll have to do breakfast at wilderness lodge instead *aw shucks*
Disney changed there policy. You now have 7 days before your arrival date to cancel. That’s the only reason I booked a trip last week for the end of July.
That is awesome! Thanks for the info
Love your blog. I appreciate all the content you provide.
My question is, I have a room only discount (bounce back offer) for gran Destino club level June 21…. I have tried calling the past two days to speak with Disney resorts reservations, keep getting told they are doing “magical enhancements” to the website and thus, cannot modify my vacation. Will we be able to get the 35% off room discount, that the “free dining” folks will be offered? Since Disney will have to cancel our reservations for Coronado springs in June, due to them not being open. Since Disney will have to cancel our reservations for Coronado springs in June, due to them not being open. As far as I can tell, we will have to cancel our vacation and reschedule using whatever discounts are available to the public. I wonder if because we have existing reservations @ a resort, we wil be able to snag the 35% room discount? Thanks:)
Last December, we spent over $4000 for four-day Disney park passes for six adults and five young children to commence Sept. 21, 2020. The passes had to be used within a week. Earlier this month, we cancelled the trip to Florida. We live in Canada, the borders are presently closed, and the health and safety of our family are our primary concerns.
It sounds like Disney will honour our park passes for a future date. However, I do not expect that a trip to FL will be happening until Sept 2021 at the earliest. I sincerely hope Disney will accept the tickets. If there’s any clarification about that, I would appreciate hearing it.
Hi CC, this should help: Unexpired multi-day theme park tickets with unused days, or date-specific theme park tickets with a valid use period beginning March 12, 2020 through the end of the actual closure period will automatically be extended to use any date through December 15, 2020. **If you are unable to visit by December 15, 2020, you may apply the value of a wholly unused ticket toward the purchase of a ticket for a future date.**
“ Guests who purchased a Disney Dining Plan and tickets for travel dates between May 28, 2020 and September 26, 2021 will receive an automatic cancellation“, does the tickets portion of this refer to any park hopper tickets for example that we’re booked for that time frame? We have a stay coming up in August where I booked the hotel, memory maker and hopper tickets separately but through Disney? Will our hopper tickets be cancelled then?
Will guests who have resort reservations and park tickets between 6/9/20 and 7/10/20 be considered to be guests with “existing reservations” for rescheduling purposes? I fall into this group and we haven’t had our reservations canceled by Disney nor did we cancel them ourselves in hopes that they would reopen. I’m hoping I’m able to reschedule before the reservation system opens up for new reservations.
I am wondering the same. I have a trip in June and July that disney has yet to cancel and I have not received any info from disney either. Also we purchased 1 park hopper 3 day ticket. From what I understand park hopping is not going to be an option, so I am wondering will I get a refund for part of the ticket.
I canceled my air today, I did ok, gathering my strength to call Disney. I am over the age limit to be at Disney until this pandemic is better controlled. But it would be hard with all these changes, honestly it sounds like Disney doesn’t really want to reopen yet! What do they owe Florida.
So many changes and updates to keep track of! We have a DVC reservation for July 3-11 using a third party rental points (DVC rental store) and I just don’t know how we will be affected!?! If the parks aren’t open will we have any recourse? What if the borders are still closed to international travel? We all need Disney right now, but we also need to be safe and sensible to get through this pandemic. Fingers crossed everything works out!
Wow…this is crazy. I guess our September Grand Floridian week-long trip will be canceled. We were originally going last March and changed it to September.
What do you think the chances are for a “normal” Disney vacay next March 2021 will be?…masks, 6ft social distancing, having meet and greets, fireworks, parades, etc? I have 3 little grandaughters that are very sad. I hope March will work, but only God knows what will happen. What do you think, Tom? Thank you.
I had a trip for June and moved to July of next year. Also booked another for July of this year. But honestly, I’m starting to feel as though I should just cancel. What they are pushing isn’t Disney. It feels like a nightmare and horrible vacation in 95 degree heat in July.
No one can tell you that. Will there be an effective treatment? Will there be a vaccine? A second wave? No one can say for certain. I suspect Disney thinks not in March, since FP, DDP, etc, are cancelled until the end of September 2021.
We booked last September with free dining bounceback, I wonder if those will be canceled also or is this just the free dining booked due to the corona?
I have an October 10-18, 2020 package booked with DDP (not free) and my dining reservations are still showing up in My Disney Experience. Since this is ever-evolving I guess I’ll just wait and see how it goes a little while longer. â€â™€ï¸
We are in almost the exact same situation. We had a trip booked for the last week in March (rented DVC points for the first time) and we were not able to get a refund, so we just pushed our trip out to October. On top of that, I purchased gift cards at Sam’s club for a modest discount to pay for our dining plan. So now I have $1700 in Disney gift cards as well. Lol! We also purchased 5, 6-day park hopper tickets. Needless to say, we are committed to making this trip happen in October since we have a significant amount spent already. I am curious how they will handle our park hopper tickets with the new park reservation system. I am assuming we will be limited to one park per day. I am hopeful that they will refund that upcharge. But….the tickets were bought through undercover tourist, so who knows.
Tom AWESOME information in the post, it’s why I follow you, just excellent work! With that said 35% instead of Free Dining? I guess we’ll have to see how it works out when the time comes to rebook. The good news here is us folks who were canceled have priority booking which is good news but how that will come to fruition remains to be seen. Thanks again Tom!
How is it going to work out? Is it going to be 35% off all resorts or only deluxe resorts? Also, I was looking at resort room rates early this week, Same room I have booked, and they went up $200-$300 a night!! So, Disney doesn’t look to be throwing out any big discounts for people to return. At this point I’d be happy with just a resort stay, no parks.
My daughter and I usually spend three weeks at Disney World each year (July, August, Christmas to New Years Day). We had a trip planned for June that was cancelled. It was for her graduation. I moved that reservation to next year (rack rates just for the room at the Grand Floridian) and created another reservation for the last week of July at the French Quarter. I’m not sure if I’m going to keep it because the experience is really beginning to look like it’s going to be a nightmare. We typically do a dinner with Eeyore, Citricos, Flying Fish, Monsieur Paul, San Angel Inn, and Tiffins when we are there. Everything was cancelled and unsure if I’m going to be able to get in now. I’m also unsure if I want to be there in 95 degree heat for 12+ hours wearing a mask. I think Disney is going to have problems with people overheating and passing out. My daughter and I REALLY enjoy park hopping, especially to go eat, but that may be fixed with no extra magic hours.
I hope that, long-term, WDW moves to a day-of Fastpass system like at DL! Our family went to DL for the first time last summer and we LOVED the convenience and flexibility of being able to book even the most popular rides (looking at you, Radiator Springs Racers) when we walked into the park in the morning. We talked about how awesome, and how much less stressful, it would be if WDW implemented this system. This is the perfect time to implement some big changes for the better! We are sad that the surprise 4th of July trip we had planned for our kids had to be canceled, but we are hopeful that we can re-create the Magic next year instead.
Agreed! Thanks for looking at the positive in this. Yes. In every crisis, our world has the ability to change for the better, even through the inconveniences of getting to that point.
We have never been on any of the star wars rides so we don’t know how to do a virtual queue. The fast pass system works so much better for us. I am in a wheelchair when in the park and we have always done our 3 fast pass attractions and then left for the day. It’s difficult to maneuver a park if you have to go to each one to get in line for the experience and with the impending heat of the day. Will this system mean we have to be there longer because it is basically like being in a stand by line for each attraction we want to experience?
Well, I will now be trying to dump my September trip (which took the place of the May trip which had to be canceled!) and book a trip for next May! Whew! My concern is since I seem to be outside the window for the extension of my DVC points from 2019…will I now lose those points? I talked to the DVC last week, and they walked me through booking a 2 bdrm at our home resort, and then changing to a 3 bdrm in October switching to using my 2019 pts first. I have no idea now if that’s possible. Thanks for keeping us all informed with your up to the minute reports! I can’t wait until this “Temporary abnormal”, as you so nicely put it is over!
Hi Tom,
We have a WDW trip planned for early September with Free Dining. Am I to understand that our entire reservation will be cancelled (hotel, tickets, and dining) or just the dining piece?
Our Gold AP’s expire June 1. I know they’re extended through the closure, but we need to renew for our December trip. Have they said anything about suspending AP renewals or sales?
We renewed our platinum pass with no problem. It expired in April. It’s a simple online process.
I renewed my weekday pass today with monthly payments and was told money will not come out until parks open and then may new renewal date will be next July instead May 2021. I also received a refund today for the month of March I believe
Thanks for the feedback – glad to hear we should be ok. We’re out of state so we have to renew by phone through DVC. We also have to get a pass for my nephew who will be 3 by December.
I’m actually not too upset about the 60 day dining, that’s what Disneyland does and it’s great!