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.)
So if I am reading this correctly, they are cancelling every reservation any one has made, including resort stays?
Essentially making everyone rebook their trip which will give Disney a more accurate idea of who is actually going to show up?
Not cancelling DVC, but everything else.
Not resort stays – dining reservations, fast passes, experiences (VIP tours, Princess makeovers). Your tickets and hotel aren’t being cancelled thought
So….my Annual Passes expire on July 15th and I has planned to travel the week before. With everything cancelled and given my medical conditions (nothing contagious, just increased risk) I want to postpone. Will Disney be extending Annual Passes for the number of days they have been closed? Any other updates for Annual Passholders who will no longer be able to park hop or take advantage of other AP perks?
You can call and have your pass extended for the number of days they were closed but you will have to pay for those days since they suspended payments during closing. If you do not call to extend then it will just expire as usual.
Yes, they will extend APs for the number of days that the park was closed. They have not yet confirmed this next part, but in Shanghai they are also extending passes for the length of time that they capacity is limited. Incmwould hope they do the same at WDW, but they may not.
Unpopular opinion I know, but I hope this spells the beginning of the end of the Dining Plans. They’ve objectively made dining worse at WDW, between doing away with distinct lunch and dinner menus at so many restaurants, dumbing down menu items in general, and literally everything revolving around “maximizing” these stupid credits so that seemingly every casual TS joint has to have a mediocre, insanely overpriced steak on it now (looking at you, Kona). Quality and variety have taken such a backseat because of this thing. And yeah, “Free” Dining is absolutely a racket 90% of the time…I call it a tax for the math averse. Most people have no business opting for it, but they see “free” and lose their minds.
Of course for all my ranting, when things get back to some semblance of normalcy, Disney will absolutely bring it back because they make out hand over fist from the crowd scrambling to buy stale rice krispy treats from the resort gift shop before they have to get on the Tragical Express. But it might be nice to think of a World without it.
I agree, I never really saw the appeal. To me your locking yourself in to spending your money a specific way and likely spending more of it than if you paid later. I’d much rather have the flexibly and not have to worry about eating the right stuff at the right places to make sure I didn’t get ripped off.
So disappointed. We have reservations at AKL for the beginning of September with the free dining plan. There are 8 of us, so the 35% room discount wouldn’t make up for the meals. I think this may force us to cancel our trip. We had such great reservations too. I am wondering why though, you have to book at a later date to get the 35% discount. Couldn’t they discount our current reservation? Is it because prices will go up?
Just throwing this out there, and it may depend on how the park reservation system works out, but you could always stay off property.
If people’s finances are affected and they can’t go because no free dining there are a lot of really nice places to stay very close to the parks. You could pay as low as 30% of what you’d pay for a similar room on property. Yes, you’ll have to rent a car but rentals in Orlando are cheap and the drive to the parks is as short as waiting for Disney transportation in some cases.
I know people want to stay on property, but this does provide a way to go despite the financial hit of not having free dining. Just an option some might not be considering.
I’m not disappointed. I’m furious! This is my family of 9’s first every trip. I’m 42 years old. Never been. Originally booked for March 17th. Now on my 5th rebooking for August. Fifth!!! They rebooked me so many times they gave me 9 hard fast passes per person per day for our trip. I had CRT, BOG, Tiffins, Tusker, all booked. After Hours, early morning magic, all booked and rebooked five times. All of it! Now gone. After all this time this is the biggest slap in the face! And to still not communicate EVERYTHING! My love for Disney has turned into disgust. How could they treat people this way. Especially knowing all the kids involved. And make a 2 yr old wear a mask? Covid is one thing they can’t control but they can certainly control their communication. As much as I don’t wish I’ll on anyone, I hope they pay dearly for disrespecting their fans in this way. They need to be taught a lesson.
I think you’ll likely still get all those restaurants and the rides you would have used the fast passes on. There are some disappointing aspects to be sure (the uncertainty, poor communication, mask wearing, etc.) But I also think there is a lot of opportunity. Those of us that go early may get one of the best Disney experiences anyone has had.
There will be compromise of course, and having a two year old will make that more difficult. I just wanted to provide some encouragement that you can still have a great trip, it just won’t be the same as you had originally planned.
I have a similar scenario. I had friends that were supposed to be coming down with kids for their 1st ever visit and it was originally scheduled for this week. We already rescheduled everything for the end of July. We had all of our perfect dining reservations lined up as well as the boutique for the kids. What is Disney without parades, fireworks, and especially character meet and greets? It we just wanted to go on rides we would go to universal. We wanted Disney for the Disney experience and they’re taking all of that away. And now canceling all of the dining reservations we already had made? We’re going to end up canceling this trip again because there’s no point in going if we can’t enjoy all the things that make Disney Disney. On top of that it’s going to mean we’re going to have to change airline tickets again and probably pay extra money for that now too since we already changed them once. I understand the need for some caution, but this is a little out of control in my opinion. Add to that the requirement of wearing a face mask in Florida in the summer with the heat and humidity. They’re going to have a high level of medical emergencies with people passing out.
Tom,
Appreciate all the work you put in here. Have followed you for a long time and your information has had a positive impact on all our trips to Disney. Unfortunately, our 10 day trip with free dining is going to be cancelled. Doing the math based on our current Deluxe resort room rate, the 35% off would give each of use $38 per day for meals. And I highly doubt I would be able to get that rate again so there is really no value in the discount. I don’t believe Disney is treating the people with current reservations who put a tremendous amount of time and planning into their vacation very fairly. As you have always said Disney does not provide discounts etc just to be nice. I wish no ill will on anyone who works for Disney or whose job revolves around Disney but I hope the people who are making these decisions and Disney pays a steep price. Unfortunately, it Probably would be all the cast members etc And not those in charge. The magic is gone and we will spend our vacation dollars somewhere else where customers are valued.
I just read what you wrote and wrote the exact same thing. Smh
So will you be able to make any reservations at all to the restaurants when they reopen or is it a first come serve when you get at the restaurant. Just wondering!
As a father of a cast member I’d like to thank you for your sentiments regarding cast members and how they should be treated. It really reassured me that people will be civil and respectful when they return to the parks. Bless you!
This whole thing sounds so cumbersome for Disney’s organization and cast members! I feel for AP holders, and DVC members, but it sounds like Disney is making reasonable efforts to retain value for those guests. It sounds like a visit this summer will be an adventure into the unknown, especially for the plan-ahead gurus that I suspect make up a large portion of the Disney blogoverse. I, personally, won’t spend my money on a WDW trip until things improve all around, in equal parts due to health concerns, a (hopefully temporary) furlough, and these operational cut-backs, but I would be curious enough to make a day trip into the parks if I lived closer than my current 1,100 miles away. I still get tons of mileage telling tales about the empty parks and heightened security I experienced during the WDW trip I took shortly after 9/11. I feel like this summer’s travelers will retain a lifetime’s worth of bragging rights, “You should have seen how bizarre it was during the Covid pandemic…” I’ve disliked the dining plan both times I’ve used it and would emphatically prefer the 35% resort discount. I hope those discounts continue into 2021!
Tom-Do you have any insight to the 35% off room offer? ( Like is it 35% for deluxe, 25% moderate, 15% value? )Also, one last question… Any word on Disney’s plans for club level operations? Appreciate any response from you. I think in the next few days, we will have more and more information on resort operations, water parks etc. (That was coming from a CM I spoke with today.) I have been a long time reader of your blog, but, I just subscribed last week. I don’t know what took me so long â€â™€ï¸This is
the first time I have posted to the feed 🙂 very cool
Are the resorts opening in July too? Will the pools be open?
Disney vacation club resorts in Fort wilderness. No official word on pools, yet. Likely, the pools at the resorts will be open in July. Look for her Disney to announce any news in the next few days regarding this. Hopefully they will address it. I have many questions about this as well.
So very sad had a trip March 21st that was of course canceled- rebooked for September 26th… the mask requirement alone is terrible for Florida heat- People who can wear them for longer than an hour in the heat can try their best – I am a nurse who is out working since this started and all for protection but this is too much – I unfortunately will be canceling especially given the news of no dining plans and no fast passes No fireworks no parades – I can’t believe I took all that time booking my dining plans again – I pray Disney will refund everything including the Halloween party and the $200 deposit- uggh so disappointed – boo Disney
What a great time to be a Disney blogger…not so much to be a Disney trip planner. Hey Tom – long-time reader, first time posting a reply. I’m actually getting more optimistic about my August trip. I’m seeing an opportunity here for those with a little patience. All these cancellations – this is a strategic move by Disney to get down to their capacity limits. Think about it: Disney already knows they have too many reservations, ADRs, FastPasses, etc. then they have allowable capacity. So how do you get enough people – including die hard Disney fans – to voluntarily cancel their plans? You do it by cancelling everything they’ve already planned. Put simply, Disney just hit the reset button. They knew they couldn’t please everyone, so they opted to inconvenience everyone knowing that a large percentage will not rebook for a while. A quick scan of the comments here reveals as such. Fellow Disney fanatics, we’ve spent countless hours honing our skills to plan the perfect vacation. We’ve become experts at it. Well, look at it this way: the game is the same, they’ve just changed the rules. So we have an opportunity to learn new skills and navigate the new rules to, what I believe will be, nearly the same outcome. I’m actually looking forward to this. Game on, Disney.
“What a great time to be a Disney blogger…”
Strongly disagree with this.
Mostly agree with everything you wrote following that. Look for a new post along these lines tomorrow or over the weekend…
This is the attitude I’m taking too. I just hope I can get reservations to get into the parks. I have tickets and resort reservations, so I think I’ll be OK. As long as I can get in I can roll with the punches and learn the new rules.
Where is the official language about the 35% room discount? I see it in Tom’s post, but where is it on Disney’s site? Thanks!
It’s not on Disney’s site yet.
Oh, ok. Thank you. I felt like I was going crazy not being able to find it. We have a free dining recovery offer booked for July 15-25, and I’m trying to figure out what the price would be to keep the same reservation. It depends a lot on whether the 35% discount is offered for those dates, I guess. Is there any sense for when guests will begin to be contacted?
We’re booked for an October trip. My 2 biggest complaints are the cancellation of our dining reservations to have to do the “hunger games” of rescheduling again! And we REALLY like the ability to park hop. And with this trip my son and his friend can only be there 3 days, so to hit all of the parks we were going to hop. The other disadvantage is the fairly significant changes in park hours (shortened), you are going to be leaving a park that closes early with no ability to hop to another.
I am questioning if they are trying to get people to weed themselves out and lower attendance numbers by all of these restrictions and a diminished experience?
Well it’s one of two things. They either believe people will pay top dollar no matter what, or that people will drop off and make things more manageable. It’s Disney, so they probably believe the former.
They are just moving back to 2004 where there was no dining plan at all or back to 1999 when there were no fast passes. It was a simpler time then. But it cost a lot less, too.
I Have annual Passes for the water parks and they expire 3rd week in July. We we going to go in June for a week and so water parks 4-5 days. Since they have not announced reopening. Any word on longer extension or refund? Only use mine in summer so I am out of luck this year. Bought last July went for a week and were going back for week before expiration in June but guess no luck.
Disney is being so vague. It’s frustrating to say the least. I know it’s a lot to prepare to reopen, but come on! I have been being very patient with Disney, thinking that they’re reopening plan released this week would offer much more needed insight. But, it did not. Thank you,Tom, for the exceptional blog. Your insight is the best. Straightforward and humor rolled in one:)
I’m Hoping DIsney will release more details about When/if specific resorts open. It’s hard to look forward to your vacation you have been planning, when you don’t even know if your resort will be open for the dates/month you have set.
Fingers crossed
I feel as if they are being that way for a reason. Call me a conspiracy theorist, but I found it odd that on the day of a huge announcement they would be having a “magical upgrade” to their system. The CM I spoke with yesterday make it seem like they were seeing what the blowback would be from the announcement and didn’t want everyone to cancel. I’m in no way an expert Disney mind reader, but it seems like more info could be coming over the next few days. Hopefully it is less of what is being taken away and more happy news.
everyone please just be kind to the customer service CMs who are going to bearing the brunt of all of this. you can agree with the changes and requirements and plans or not, but it doesn’t matter when talking to them.
Yes, please don’t take it out on them. I spoke with a cast member today, she said I was the most patient and kind guest she spoke to all day. I told her I could imagine the things people are saying to her. It is not their fault, Disney isn’t being more specific with details. Kindness is king
Good call–went back and added this to the main text of the post.
tom- good addition. sadly, it will fall on many deaf ears, i fear.
I have a July 26 trip also. We’ll be going and I’m looking forward to it but cancelling FP and Dining reservations is a blow. All my reservations are still showing as well.
I’m hoping the reduced capacity will make those things irrelevant (assuming we can get park reservations). I guess we’ll see. We all just have to be understanding everyone is doing there best in these tough times. People will make mistakes and bad decisions, but it isn’t deliberate. The world can use a little more forgiveness these days.
Regardless we’ll have a fun time even if its not what we had planned.
I know things are still being figured out, but wondering if guests who were canceled between March and now that hadn’t rebooked will be among the groups contacted prior to the system opening up to everyone. The free dining recovery ended just a week or so after our trip cancellation email came, thought I had more time, so I didn’t get a new reservation made.
At any rate, I’m glad things are moving forward. I hope all the changes to the reservations will be beneficial to guests and not make things worse.
So… paid DDP will be cancelled/refunded? Also I’ve looked into what Shanghai did for park reservations and I know it would need to be tweaked here because of different situations, but would park reservations be made so many days before trips as to let people cancel if they can not obtain reservations for their group? My trip is July 26 and all of my FP+ and ADR are still showing on MDE. I called to cancel my trip yesterday and the CM talked me out of it stating I might be surprised by some changes that could be announced.
Ooh, the suspense. 🙂 Guess if the changes aren’t worth it, you’ll still have time to cancel. Good luck
I sure hope so. I’ll give that CM credit. He really sold it to me. Lol. This is legitimately our last chance for a trip until 2022. I’ve had to reschedule it 3 times from the original date in May so fingers crossed that everyone gets it figured out and enjoys their trips.