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.)
Hi I’m not sure if there’s been any update on the 35% off if your Dinning plan was canceled. I’m trying to change my reservation for next year. Has anyone been able to rebook & keep the 35% off? Anyone one has any info?
Thanks
Thanks, Neil and Basset Lady. I’m glad I’m not the only one shocked and disappointed at such un”Disney”like treatment of guests. This was meant to be a special trip as we have one launching and it probably would have been the last family trip for sometime – prom/graduation/senior trip might have gotten cancelled but it was a real Disney-for-the-win when they offered free dining to rebook and made it doable to not have to take away that, too, despite finances taking a major hit from the pandemic. This was such a cheap shot at the worst possible time, truly tarnished the magic.
Thanks for the tip on Universal, looks like the two days free with two days actually makes that an intriguing option. Discovery/Aquatica/Busch Gardens combo also would be a big savings now that the free dining has been taken away. Without any benefit to staying on property at WDW (esp at Value level), there are very nice Orlando hotels with better rates than even the 35% off option.
A lot of people talk about ‘growing out of Disney’ and moving on to the Universal parks when the kids get older. For our family, this was always our magical home away from home and a place we made a priority as a splurge over buying stuff and other extra expenditures. We jumped on the good deals and made it happen. I never thought we’d be a family that would “outgrow” Disney, but it kind of feels like Disney has outgrown us. Pretty sad, actually.
We are booked for Sept and got the recovery 20 applied, but would like to rebook. Our email talked about priority rebooking, but no word on that yet. Wondering if we will receive any type of discount with that, and when we will be able to rebook…
Ann I feel your frustrations,, I am also there as well.I think Disney is going in circles right now.Eventually when things settle down I feel as though Disney will reduce their prices to reflect the Disney experience we will get.
It seems like that would be the right thing to do, but it appears they are actually increasing costs. I find it odd they are looking at reopening the higher end hotel options with interior hallways which would be more of a health risk and not the value resorts whose rooms open to the fresh air outside, under the guise of corona considerations. (The campground is the exception, but not like that is the same cost for them to maintain as a hotel so is higher profit.) With the lowered capacity, buses could still offer just as safe passage with social distancing/masks. And if they are suggesting they can’t (despite many major cities using them) then they shouldn’t be using any magical express or buses at the deluxe resorts either. Sure appears they are strategically ensuring they fill their allowed 20-30% park capacity with only the highest dollar spenders– without admitting it outright.
Fine, if they need/want to do that moving forward to survive. Pick a date a reasonable time out and change your policies, eat the lost earnings on ‘lesser guests’ as the cost of doing business right and honestly. But to not honor the already sold reservations at the same rates they promised? Shameful. They have said to read fine print of cancelation policy, they are allowed to cancel paid for and confirmed reservations if they like and then legally no longer have to honor the rates, packages or inclusions they sold.
This is a complete bait-and-switch rip off, with a kicker of emotional blackmail to force us to just roll over and accept it since we told the kids we were still going this summer when they offered us the DDP to rebook. We are serious Disney fans– having visited on dozens and dozens of out of state trips over the years. But promising a $170 daily value bonus (rebooked corona-cancel with complimentary DDP) to get us to rebook and get the kids excited and happy again. and then taking it away and offering what amounts to a lousy $30 room discount instead is a $140daily screwing in a time when families are already stretched. Talk about taking advantage of loyal fans during a terrible time in our history. Disgusting. I have lost all respect for Disney–koolaid I’ve happily been drinking for 40 years has been tainted for good. The only fair thing would have been to offer a credit in the same amount of the promised free dining. They are intentionally screwing over guests/families who opted for value resorts. Does Disney think I can feed two adults and two teens for a total of $30 a day in their parks?
Make no mistake, this is a money grab for Disney and not ‘crowd control’ or ‘health consideration’ move. If they are letting people into their parks and hotels, those people still have to eat whether they are using the promised free dining plan or pulling out their wallets.
Shameful and Shortsighted. Disney can steal my $140 a day because I’m not willing to do what they are and screw over the kids in these already difficult time, but that 6x$140=$840 they will steal from me this trip is going to cost them the over 80k I have spent with them in the past and would have continued to in the future. Not to mention the praises I have sung to others over the years, encouraging them to come. I sure hope stealing $840 from my family was worth it to them.
No offense but if you have been there dozens and dozens of time, you obviously can afford to go very often. For most people it’s a once in a life time vacation, that is who I feel sorry for. It’s like in sports the billionaire owners vs the millionaire players argue and complain, like they haven’t enjoyed their life’s enough. While the fans that can barely attend one game or vacation are the ones who a truly hurt.
Ann,
We feel the same way. We talked to our kids about the filthy behavior Disney has tried to foist in our family.
Price a Universal trip. Our family is saving a great deal of money by making the switch. Your kids might enjoy a trip to Universal. It is a great time to talk to your kids about voting with their wallets and about choices having consequences.
As for people who don’t have sympathy for you because you have gone before, it boggles me.
This is an economic and emotional toll on you and your family.
If your family is anything like ours, the last few months have placed tremendous strains upon your budget, your sense of peace and safety, the day to day logistics of living under quarantine. The fact that Disney is now adding to this, by taking away QSDP is another blow in a long line of blows.
While there may be logistical issues associated with the upper tiers of the dining plan, due to table service issues, since they will have counter service running they should honor the counter service plan or offer a discount commensurate to the value of the plan.
Universal is still offering early entry, plus dining plan, and they have opened their water park.
We love Disney, too, but this is just a level of nasty we cannot tolerate. They can try to bully and string arm us, but we can move to a different resort.
My brother and his family are renting a nice condo and doing Discovery Bay, Sea World, and Aquatica. They are paying $200 ish dollars per ticket from Undercover Tourist and they are good for one day at Discovery and then 14 days at the other parks.
This all just blows my mind and makes me incredibly sad! Obviously with all of this Covid going around, I count my blessings. But, We look forward to going to Disney yearly. We live in Virginia and with work and school it’s hard to make the time. However we haven’t been since December 2017. It seems like something always comes up. We were supposed to go Spring Break of 2018, but we pushed it back to October so we could do MNSSHP. We had a lot going on at that time with work, we had another vacation and were supposed to be moving, so we pushed it again to 10/2019. Then we didn’t end up moving because of school and we also had a cruise planned that couldn’t be rescheduled so we pushed it again for 10/2020. Then the cruise got cancelled due to a Hurricane. â€â™€ï¸ So we missed out on both trips. Now we finally have Disney ALL booked, this is our very first time staying on property. We added the DDP and I researched (Thank you for your help) all the best character spots, restaurants, type of dining, what time was best, where everyone in our family wanted to go. Made a schedule of the week with EMH for each day and where we could eat and which park to go to according to EMH… this took months. Then woke up at 5 am to schedule those ADR’s. Which we had the best of the best. (For us) It took time, weeks. To get what and when we wanted that fit with the days we needed for the park we were going to, and distance we would have to travel between. (You get it)
California Grill late dinner so we could see the fireworks, Minnie’s Halloween Bash for early dinner with EMH at HS in the morning, Late dinner at Boma after EMH at AK with lunch at Flametree, Cape May Cafe for breakfast with Mickey and friends, Dinner @ Storybook AP with Snow White, Breakfast at 1900 & Fare, And Linch at Be Our Guest. We were taking FULL advantage of daily EMH’s and DDP for all the places everyone wanted to go, but have never been. So much time and effort… and expectations. When I woke up yesterday morning to all my cancellation emails. I almost cried! It’s crazy but it could be worse. I’m thankful my family is healthy and safe! What else could I really ask for! Take care! Thank You for always being there for our WDW needs! â¤ï¸
I totally feel your pain! I just wanted to say don’t lose hope about your dining reservations. You will be able to book reservations before your trip and even during the busiest of times I’ve been able to get the reservations I’ve wanted. The character meals and fireworks from California Grill might not happen but if you aren’t going til October then you never know…maybe things will be somewhat back to normal by then. 60 days before your trip is when you can start on your reservations again so just try that day to make your reservations and if you can’t get some of the ones you want just randomly check every now and then and also a lot of people cancel last minute so usually the day of or day before you want to go it will usually be available.
Hello Tom, I am reading that although reservations are being cancelled now that we will still be able to reserve within a closer window prior to arrival. With that said, I received cancellations for Droid depot and Savi’s, have you heard anything about that being treated same as dining, that it’s canceled now but once new reservation system is up and running we can rebook those too?
Gina Our travel agent told us they stopped the hopper and Disney will adjust the prices for our August trip. Don’t give up yet, Disney changes their rules daily.
Thank you so much Neil; I’m hopeful.
I wonder if the reservation system for park entry will affect park hopper tickets. My vacation is not until early December therefore, I’m trying to stay patient and wait for more info to be released. I currently have a park hopper; I can’t change it to a regular 1 park per day as no modifications are allowed for the time being. I’m sure Disney will address this but wonder if we need to make a reservation, if we still can leave and re-enter the park. Any thoughts on this?
My wife and I booked a stay at Old Key West for the two of us and six grandkids arriving July 11th. Seemed like excellent timing…..initially, then all the cancellations began happening. We booked this last October at Food and Wine with the free dining Bounceback. We do this every year, at least we have since Tom and Sara told us about the Bounceback. Of course we lost all our dining reservations, dining plan, fastpasses and as of yet have not heard from Disney. One good thing happened today and we haven’t seen a word about it. We were able to book dining reservations at non Disney restaurants at Disney springs. We made reservations at Chef Art Smith’s, Frontera and a couple of others. We have tried for days and this is the first day we were successful. Don’t know if these will go by the wayside also, but it seems a positive change to us.
Hi All,
Just wanted to share an insight on the dining plan. I know many of you had free dining and are upset you lost it and rightly so. We have used free dining and it is a great feature. I would even go so far as to say it was way too much food for my family. We were cashing in a myriad of credits before we left for the airport, with snacks and meals. As a Disney regular and someone who travels here frequently- I would say that unless you are getting free dining, I would not purchase the dining plan. We have done it both ways and we spend far less, including our cocktails out of pocket, then we do to purchase the dining plans. With parks operating at lower capacities, you will get your pick at restaurants and dining options. The only downside,is there will be no character dining.
Where offically does it say that dinning plans are cancelled until September 2021?
I am in a fight with virgin. And i nees this information dircetly from disney.
So torn about cancelling the vacation in August. Lost reservations for Boathouse, Ohana, Cape May Cafe and Be Our Guest so far. Can’t fathom wearing a mask in the August Florida heat, it’s hard to breathe now in the north. Seems like an awful lot of hard-earned money for no park-hopping, reservations, difficult breathing and an unsure dining solution. This was our dream trip to celebrate two graduations that have not happened, just don’t know what to do. I have until 6/27 to cancel without a bigger penalty and I’m watching intently.
I haven’t gotten an email yet for our August dates; is there a penalty for cancelling? Also, is it definitive that park hopping even with resort stays and AP’s are not going to be allowed? Sorry, having a hard time keeping up with the Disney emails and posts…
Wondering why I haven’t received an offer yet.
Hi Lisa Z
According to Disney’s email that you get when you book from them, you can cancel 30 prior to your arrival with no penalty. My reservation starts on August 15th & I received my revised reservation on May 31st. The new reservation was called Recovery20 Disney Resort Hotel Package, since they took away my free dining. So I have until July 15th to cancel, which we are still considering. They kept my park hopper tickets intact though.
Chris
Lisa. Our trip also starts in August. I haven’t received my email either, my travel agent said we can cancel without penality 30 days before we go. Good luck!
So, if I go in October will there be an advantage to staying at a Disney property in terms of being able to make a reservation for park admission? It wasn’t 100% clear on the post. Thanks in advance. Great article.
So I’m not sure how Disney cancelling reservations is truly working. I had 13 table service reservations for the 2 weeks in August 14th-28th. Disney cancelled 9 of them from my Disney experience, I received emails from Disney on only 4 Disney Springs restaurants to notify me of the cancellations. Disney still showing my reservations for 4 Theme park restaurants. 3 in Epcot ( Tutto Italia, LA Hacienda San Angel & Chefs de France) & 1 in Animal Kingdom Yak & Yeti Lunch. The other reservations I had were buffets at parks & hotels, & Be our Guests lunches at MK, which were removed from my Disney experience. So do I still have the 4 reservations showing, since these restaurants are not high priority, or did the just not cancel them yet?
Tom If we will be able to get pick of restaurants, how come Disney cancelled all reservations instead of just character dining reservations
Ok spoke to soon, went on my Disney experience today, & now all my reservations are cancelled except Yak & Yeti, which I’m sure will be cancelled also. Not sure why they didn’t just cancel all at the same time.
When Disney talks extreme limited capacity following the CDC guidelines, I wonder what that looks like? Phase 1 @ 20%? 30%? or is limited in the eyes of Disney more like 50% capacity??? How long will that last? July only, maybe into August??? Any thoughts on that?
Seems like 50% capacity is what they are going for. Hopefully it’s like Disney was right before Star Wars opened. It was empty in all the parks. Definitely ranks up there for my favorite trips to Disney.
GamiTS
Where did you find this out?
It is on the Disney World website under “Update on Walt Disney World Resort Operations” under the “Disney Resort Rooms and Packages” (I don’t think I can post the webpage on here). It says:
“If no action is taken by you before your check-in date for arrivals during the closure period, Disney will automatically cancel your reservation within 7 days of the original check-in date and process any refund due to the original form of payment.”
I may be reading it entirely wrong but it does day “for arrivals during the closure period”.
I do believe they had first indicated the 35% off for rescheduling but that verbiage has since been removed. Girl, all this has my head swimming.
Hopefully Tom will come back and help us all understand.
Yes Tom can you please confirm the free dining (35% off) deal please