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.)
We were supposed to be there from 8/15 – 8/22. I’m really disappointed in the changes, but when you are dealing with a pandemic, you have to be understanding. We are not a family that has the financial means to go every year. We’ve been saving for 5 years for this trip. Mostly, we’re just sad. We’ll be rescheduling.
Maybe I missed it somewhere…but any thought on park-hopping? Is this gone? To me that would be more of a deal breaker than FPs, ddp, masks, etc
Yes, I am extremely interested in seeing if there is any possibility of park-hopping with this reservation system. We typically will visit 2-3 parks in a day and never stay in 1 park the entire day.
I’m old enough to remember a time before FPP, when dining reservations were called Priority Seatings, and were booked at either 60 or 90 days depending on the venue. When you didn’t have to pull your phone out every 10 minutes to try to show same day FPPs or check line ride times. Crowds were lower and you were more “in the bubble” than now.
I get the frustration of people that lost bookings, but I’m kinda looking forward to the “new” old way.
My family and I are also traveling in September and have booked/paid for deluxe dining and park hoppers for our stay. Any thoughts on park hopping with the new reservation system? Will it even be possible?
I’m a dvc member an I agree with why open with all these restrictions I’m a annual pass holder to an we aren’t getting a discount on are dues or what we paid for a annual passes .I think they need to reconsider there plans for reopening it seems like all they want is are money an they are no longer giving the Magic that we all go there for
Do you know how this will affect Disney salute to military tickets? We are staying off the resort, but purchased our tickets for Disney in Jan of this year.
Will reservations be open to those of us with these tickets?
As of now all my dining reservations are still in my plans, wondering if they won’t be removed to the new system is live
That’s what I’m wondering too. My reservations are all still showing when I log onto the planning site. Am I just holding out false hope that all will stay and be as we have planned?? I’m so bummed!! We have a November trip planned.
He mentioned that people who had reservations will have priority to rebooking dining, so I wonder if they’re keeping it in our accounts until later?
We’d booked a couple experiences just to have the option when we go in October, such as Olga’s canteen. I figured I’d decide closer to our travel date if we wanted to go there. Now I’m glad we have some of those to potentially have priority booking later. I like the idea for the future of not having to book dining 6 months out. Who knows what they want to do 6 months in the future?
This is about as unmagical of a road that Disney could have taken. What a slap in the face to the their guests. I’m not sure if we’ll keep our rebooked trip (already changed from May to September) or not (husband and I aren’t in agreement), but as a travel agent, I cannot in good conscience book a Disney vacation for anyone until they right this very wrong turn. Not that I can at this point anyway, but even after that I will think twice.
I’m not happy about it, either, but surely we can understand why they had to do it.
Legally, Disney needs to reduce capacity in restaurants. If they didn’t, people would sue when they got sick. They have to make sure they follow all the recommendations, and that means a lot of restaurants will probably stay closed (such as buffet restaurants), and others will be at half capacity.
If you have something like a dining plan, you need to be able to eat at Disney restaurants. Could you imagine if someone paid thousands of dollars for a family dining plan and couldn’t eat anywhere but quick service?
To me, it sadly but logically follows that if Disney is cutting back on restaurant offerings, they have to out the dining plan, too.
Several times we’ve talked about a resort-only vacation, and always cave and add parks. If the pools end up being open, maybe this is the push we need. I’ve no desire to take my 4 and 1 yo in the parks with 4 yo in a mask-and we are staunch mask-wearing people these days, but that would be miserable for him since he would try to take it off every 30 minutes! But do breakfast and lunch in the room, quick service outdoors at the resort, and pool/splash pad and playground, play in the sand at Caribbean Beach? Sounds pretty great, actually.
Unfortunately, there’s no news about the pools being opened or what the risk is for transmission via pool water. 🙁
I’ve done reading on transmission via water and from that reading it seems very unlikely-bigger risk is crowded pools with people all right next to each other breathing on each other! But that’s me as a random internet person saying that haha. I don’t think there are a ton of studies on it, tbh. Just saying that IF the pools are open (and who knows when they’ll announce that) it could be a nice vacation! We usually book pretty last minute so the wait and see approach is ok for us. But since we’re neither DVC nor AP holders, we’re at the very bottom of Disney’s pecking order so don’t expect to even have the option to book for a while yet.
Hey there! I am IN for Disney whether my family has to sit on a bench and stare at the castle. We rescheduled our WDW trip – half DVC/ cash June trip for end of July. We don’t do dining plan because it feels like something I have to think about haha I also agree – we LOVE Disneyland and the more manageable nature of the entire place, but live close enough to quickly drive to WDW now. I would get in the car right now to drive down and just stay on property. Haha In fact, Here’s my question – (finally) – should we book an earlier DVC stay to maybe get to be part of a soft opening?! Is this a thing? We are practicing wearing our masks and ready for whatever experience Disney offers. Bubbles, Main Street, lollipops. We will all be happy hahahaahahaaa
I am curious about Magical Express! Anyone hear anything?
It is worth noting that dining plans already booked in 2021 only applies to international guests. The latest US guests were able to book a WDW package was 12/2020.
So this to me says that they are planning limited capacity in all restaurants until 2021! Makes sense since you have to get so much closer for eating. We are currently planning a November 2021 trip – something to look forward to in the midst of all of this. Luckily we are planning on getting a villa and eating in the room a lot. Even more of an advantage now if it means we can spread out and be comfortable. This is our new normal. We just must embrace that things will look different for a while.
That’s how I feel. Just readjusting to the new normal and what will make a trip work now. We moved from Beach Club to Bay Lake in case transportation is different, we can at least walk to MK easily with no worries.
So disappointed. We had a free dining package booked for All Stars the last week of August – for 2 adults, compared with what the discount at All Stars would be, this was easily a steal for us (worked out to be something like less than $5 a meal). We’ll go anyway – that’s always a low crowd time of year, but not looking forward to having to call Disney when that opens up for re-booking. I get cancelling any tiers of dining that have table service credits, but I would think Disney would see the value of the QS plan in keeping people out of the table service restaurants.
Our family of 6 cancelled. It wasn’t worth the effort and expense with all of the Covid related changes to characters, mask wearing, etc.. This is a complete non-starter. Sorry Disney, but you really dropped the ball on this re-start.
So sad although my reservation still shows in my MDE, I guess it will disappear soon. Had POP with free DDP booked for myself & my grandson in September. I’ve been with and without free DDP and I much prefer with. Have used it since 2006, have it down to a science and ALWAYS save money on it. 35% discount on a value will be maybe $60 so $30 each for food per day. I know we’d get more value from our free QS DDP. And I’m thinking the free DDP will never come back. Don’t know how I feel about all this just yet. First stage of grief? Please be kind to any CM with whom you interact. This is going to be a nightmare for them.
If I am reading correctly it looks like these suspensions are until the end of September. Maybe I am to positive but that says there is a good possibility Disney feels that if things go well they could be allowed to be back up to semi normal operations and capacity by November?
Misread it realized it’s 2021 not 202
I have a trip planned for September this year. It’s our 20th anniversary and I had planned to renew our vows as a surprise to my wife. Been planning for 2 years and had a time set aside at Be Our Guest to be able to do it before we enjoyed dinner and now it’s cancelled. You know what, I don’t care. So I loose my FP, I loose my reservation, I have to wear face mask, but I’m still there with my wife and kids and nothing Disney has to offer is more important than family vacations. We need to set our priorities different and realize nothing is for granted, so take what you can get and enjoy your family. I know I will.
So, this completely negates all advantages to staying on property other than transportation. I can’t get early ADP nor FP+, and because I wasn’t in the free dining window for when we rebooked from April to November, we don’t get even a room discount. Why on Earth should I keep my hotel reservation for Boardwalk Inn in when I can stay somewhere else as nice for far less money?
I don’t think this is the case, but time will tell.
The haven’t said it outright yet, but it seems the writing on the wall is saying the only guests that are going to have access to the parks “guaranteed” are guests staying onsite.
I wouldn’t be surprised if for the foreseeable future you can’t get in unless your an AP holder, or staying on one of their properties.
Just got an email from Disney informing me that my fast passes were being cancelled but that my existing “valid theme park admission” means I get priority booking on their new reservation system once it’s up and running.
I don’t have any FPs nor do I have a “valid theme park admission” (had an annual pass which expired last November) nor do I have any other Disney reservations including resorts at this time. I shouldn’t have received this email. This indicated that Disney’s system is messed up. No big deal, I never was planning to go this year even before the virus hit. Just thought it was worth reporting the email and figured others are probably getting it who shouldn’t be.
Well that’s interesting!! We let our APs expire last November too, but currently have 2 more trips booked in the next 8 months; both DVC through renting points and we even have tickets for one of the trips as we plan to do APs again. My best friend has a huge trip booked end of September (on-site and tickers purchased) and we have both received nothing and just assumed it would go in order by who is staying first. Sounds like this new system will work as good as the last…
That’s interesting. We have two trips booked currently (end of July with dining and fast passes set and September with the free dining promo) and haven’t received any information from Disney yet. I’m looking forward to a little more clarification!
I have been to Disney almost every year or so for the past 20 years. I can honestly say I won’t be going back for a few years. I’m sure disneyworld ticket prices won’t come down even with the ability to do things cut in half. No Disney dining plans, reservations to get into the park so no park hopper, no parades or fireworks! Why even open? It won’t be worth the money to even go there for a few years.