2024 Free Dining at Disney World Dates & Info
The Free Disney Dining Plan is a great Walt Disney World vacation package discount. This covers info, tips for booking, current dates, predictions & rumors for future dates around Halloween & Christmas, and answers to questions including whether this deal is “worth it.” (Updated April 11, 2024.)
Let’s start with the good news, which is that Walt Disney World has brought back the paid Disney Dining Plan (DDP) in 2024! If you’re unfamiliar with the DDP, we’d direct you to our comprehensive Guide to the 2024 Disney Dining Plan. That covers the basics, what the DDP includes, whether the Disney Dining Plan (paid) is worth the money, and much more.
Free Dining is now available for travel dates from July 1 through December 21, 2024 thanks to a ‘second wave’ of the special offer released in April. If those dates don’t work for your vacation–as discussed below in the rumors & speculation section–we’re hopeful that there’s another wave of Free Dining for 2024. If you want to be notified immediately when more 2024 discounts are released, sign up here for our FREE Walt Disney World newsletter.
We’ve consistently notified our subscribers when Free Dining and other Walt Disney World deals are going to drop. Either in advance of their release or on the day they go live at ~7 a.m., which typically gives you a 2+ hour head start on Disney’s official announcement. That may not seem like much, but it makes a huge difference when booking–it means that you won’t have to wait on hold for hours on the phone or in a long virtual queue online.
In the last several months, Walt Disney World has released over a dozen different discounts, including some that run all the way through October 2024. There are even targeted deals available through December 25, 2024. This is a huge change as compared to 2021-2022, when many dates didn’t have discounts at all due to revenge travel and guest spending being so strong. That coupled with capacity is why the Disney Dining Plan took so long to return in the first place. Those are both non-factors now, and things are more or less back to 2019 norms.
This is all relevant to the return of Free Dining in 2024 because the deal is not offered out of corporate benevolence, but as an aggressive move to help boost resort occupancy numbers. That wasn’t necessary for the last couple of years due to pent-up demand. However, that has changed significantly in the span of about a year, and now Walt Disney World is pulling several “levers” to try to incentivize demand in 2024.
On that note, here are some predictions about subsequent waves of 2024 Free Dining at Walt Disney World…
2024 Free Dining Forecast & Rumors
In the last year or so, Walt Disney World has released a couple of different discounts that we’d categorize as Free Dining “adjacent.” They are the same types of promos and are meant to appeal to those would’ve been inclined to book Free Dining, but they generally are not as good. The most notable examples are the “Free” Disney Dining Card Deal for 2024 and the 50% Off Tickets & Dining Plans Discount for Kids in Spring & Summer 2024.
These discounts can be very good for some families, but they are not the “real” Free Dining. For many Walt Disney World vacation planners, the above offers are still a better offer than percentage savings on a room. For almost everyone, they’re inferior to the full Free Dining. So a step in the right direction, but not still more like “Diet” Free Dining than the original formula.
The good news is that, as mentioned above, Free Dining is now available for the following arrival dates:
- July 1 to July 31, 2024
- September 1 to September 7, 2024
- December 9 to December 21, 2024
You can book the deal directly via Walt Disney World’s official site here.
Rather than doing the work yourself, we’d recommend requesting a FREE no obligation quote from Be Our Guest Vacations, an Authorized Disney Vacation Planner and having those travel agents book for you. They’ll assist you with the planning process, help you choose the most economical dates, best add-ons, etc.
Equally as important, they’ll help you with discount comparison shopping. There are a ton of different discounts currently available for Walt Disney World in 2024, and that number is only going to grow! So what you see now isn’t necessarily everything that’ll be available for your travel dates.
Some of you have asked about the likelihood of Free Dining for additional dates in 2024. We’ll start with the bad news, which is that there’s almost zero chance of Free Dining for travel dates before July 2024. I guess there’s an outside possibility if hotel occupancy numbers remain really soft and Walt Disney World gets desperate.
I’d put the chances of that at under 1%, though. Disney is pretty good at forecasting resort occupancy, and if the numbers or projections were bad between now and June 2024, the company would’ve already offered Free Dining for those dates. Suffice to say, if you’re traveling before the start of the current wave of 2024 Free Dining dates, you should book a different special offer ASAP.
About the only reason there’s even a ~1% chance of Free Dining before July 2024 is in the event of a sudden recession or cataclysmic economic occurrence that results in Walt Disney World needing to act aggressively ASAP to shore up business. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen, as such a scenario would obviously have negative real world implications far beyond Free Dining.
With that in mind, we previously predicted that Free Dining would be released in between two and three waves, with the first promos being released in early January and late March or April. As it turns out, both were correct. But that doesn’t necessarily close the door on Free Dining being released again in 2024.
At this point, it wouldn’t be completely surprising if there’s a third wave of Free Dining, just as was the case in 2019. Normally, special offers occur on a timeline–and the second wave of Free Dining includes travel dates in December–the 12th month of the year. That alone would seem to close the door on a third wave of Free Dining.
However, Walt Disney World has been toying with discounts this year, pulling and reinstating them in a ‘Disney Vault’ style strategy to create a false sense of urgency. This approach seems to have three goals: getting people to book earlier, for longer durations, and to fill unsold rooms relatively last minute.
The only reason I could see a third wave this year is if Walt Disney World occupancy targets end up falling short of expectations for August through November, and they need to scramble to offer something last minute. Given the dates for the second wave of Free Dining and this strategy, there’s a definite possibility of a third wave of Free Dining.
The best month of eligibility being the closest one (July 2024), skipping August entirely and having limited dates in September–the two slowest months of the year–and then having availability again in December is suggestive of this approach. To be clear, this doesn’t meant that it definitely will happen. Whereas we thought a second wave was all but certain, a third wave is about 50/50.
It just doesn’t seem like the dates have been chosen on the basis of actual occupancy projections. It looks more like there’s near-term urgency to fill rooms in July, which is fast-approaching, followed by a desire to entice in December. Another wave of Free Dining for August through September (and maybe bits of October and November) doesn’t seem the least bit far-fetched. But it’s equally possible they’ll stick to room-only deals for those timeframes, or roll with another novel discount.
For those wondering (since it’s a common question), the main reason Walt Disney World would not yet release discounts for October 2024 and beyond also relates to resort occupancy numbers. Again, the company is really good at projecting hotel bookings, but it’s just like a weather forecast–more accurate as dates draw nearer and less accurate further into the future. Walt Disney World only wants to offer discounts as necessary to fill hotel rooms, so they release discounts in phases.
This rolling nature of Walt Disney World special offers isn’t really a prediction–it’s what happens consistently year in and year out. The company typically releases its first batch of discounts in early January, next set in late March or early April, and another during the summer (our guess would be June 18, 2024 for the next special offer release). Aside from the early January release, none of these dates are really set in stone–they’ve been inconsistent in the last few years.
What we also know is that Walt Disney World has been following the familiar formula of 2019 discounts. It might seem odd that they’d go back 5 years to replicate a special offer strategy, but that’s precisely what’s happening. That’s in part because things have been abnormal at Walt Disney World for a while–2024 is the first year of Free Dining since then–and in part because the post-pent-up demand economic environment is very similar to 2019.
If you look back to the 2019 playbook, there were three waves of the discount released–to different groups (general public vs. Disney Visa) and different date ranges. Back then, the third wave of Free Dining–which was the one that included dates for September, November and December–was released in mid-July.
It’s possible that Walt Disney World will replicate that strategy exactly, releasing a second wave of Free Dining in early April and then the final set of dates in the summer. It’s possible these offers will be targeted, either to Disney+ subscribers or Disney Visa cardholders, meaning Free Dining might not be offered to the general public at all.
In any case, there’s a reasonable chance of another wave of Free Dining for additional travel dates between July and December 2024. If that turns out to be accurate, I’d also bet on it being released before the beginning of July 2024. Even though Walt Disney World is pulling from the 2019 playbook, they’re doing it earlier and more aggressively. It’s hard to see them waiting until that late in the summer for another round of Free Dining.
Obviously, this is only a prediction–the actual dates could vary a little or lot, and it’s entirely possible that nothing is released at all!
Again, we want to emphasize that this is not a rumor–it’s simply us analyzing resort bookings and past precedent on discounts, and making an educated guess. Walt Disney World could go another direction entirely, as the company has stated repeatedly that they want to reduce discounting.
However, Disney also likes high levels of per guest spending numbers, and no other special offer helps achieve these high per caps like Free Dining. Despite “free” being in the name, it’s an advantageous promo from Disney’s perspective because it locks guests into full-price hotels and tickets. It also keeps guests on-site for the most part, since they have “free” meals at Walt Disney World. No other discount accomplishes all of these important goals for the company.
Either way, will be closely monitoring the 2024 Free Dining situation, keeping our ears open for more news about a return of Free Dining. Should something–anything–be released or rumored, we’ll send you an alert if you sign up for our FREE Walt Disney World newsletter.
We’ve consistently notified email subscribers when Free Dining and other deals on the day they go live at ~6 or 7 a.m., which is a 2+ hour head start on Disney’s official announcement at 9 am. That makes a huge difference when booking Free Dining–you won’t have to wait on hold for hours on the phone.
Free Dining FAQ
Free Dining is Walt Disney World’s most complicated promotion, and can be a huge headache to book. Between limited availability and navigating a seas of rules and restrictions, it’s easy to make mistakes. This section of the post covers the rules, terms and conditions, and policies that generally govern the Free Dining promotion.
We always recommend that Walt Disney World first-timers (or regulars who just don’t want to deal with the hassle) request a FREE quote from Be Our Guest Vacations, an Authorized Disney Travel Planner. Most legit travel agents do not charge for booking Walt Disney World vacations (and you don’t pay a premium for them–Disney pays them commission), so that’s really the easiest way to go.
With this special offer, Walt Disney World guests booking vacation packages with non-discounted resort hotels and park tickets receive the DDP for each member of their party for no additional charge. For obvious reasons (who doesn’t love free food?!), the promotion is incredibly popular and some resorts that offer free dining tend to sell out quickly.
Guests booking the Free Dining promotion for Value or Moderate Resorts will receive the Quick Service Disney Dining Plan, with guests staying at Deluxe or Deluxe Villa Resorts receiving the standard Disney Dining Plan.
There are some room exclusions for the Free Dining promo: 3-bedroom villas, campsites, Cabins at Copper Creek Villas & Cabins at Wilderness Lodge, Bungalows at Polynesian Villas & Bungalows, and Little Mermaid Rooms at Disney’s Art of Animation Resort.
These resorts and room tiers are all not eligible for Free Dining. Additionally, room inventory is limited across all resorts. In practice, this means that when you go to book, a particular category (standard view, garden view, etc.) may not be available for your travel dates–or your travel dates may not be available at a specific resort at all.
To take advantage of Free Dining, there’s also the requirement that guests purchase tickets that include either a minimum 4-day Park Hopper or the Park Hopper Plus option. Additionally, a 4-night minimum stay is required with a maximum stay of fourteen nights.
This means you can’t purchase discounted Walt Disney World tickets from an authorized reseller, which we normally highly recommend in our Walt Disney World trip planning advice. This is something to keep in mind when doing the math to determine if “Free Dining” is a good value for you.
When it comes to Free Dining, doing the math is incredibly important. Other discounts (such as a room-only discount) might be better for your family. Remember, there is no such thing as a free lunch; you have forfeit an alternate discount to qualify for Free Dining. We break down some of the math in our “Is Free Dining Worth It?” post.
If you have already booked a vacation package with an arrival date that qualifies for Free Dining, we recommend using the “modify reservation” link in your booking to apply the promotion to your package. This is the quickest and easiest way to apply the promotion.
You might see other advice that recommends calling to book Free Dining. This is outdated. If you call Walt Disney World’s reservation line, you will likely wait on hold for an hour (or hours) until you’re able to speak to an agent. Booking or modifying your reservation online is far quicker and easier.
Even if the online system crashes (which has happened) or moves slowly due to all the traffic, it’s easier to just keep trying online. Unfortunately, booking online isn’t always possible and technical errors do happen…so you might have to call and wait on hold.
If you are wondering which hotel to book for the Free Dining promotion, check out our new Best Walt Disney World Hotels for Free Dining post. It gives our preferred option for each resort tier. Oh, and don’t forget to make some ADRs for the best and most popular Walt Disney World restaurants.
With this Free Dining offer, Value and Moderate Resort guests receive the Quick Service Disney Dining Plan during the promotion. Guests at Deluxe and Deluxe Villa Resorts receive the standard Disney Dining Plan.
We highly recommend making Advance Dining Reservations as soon as possible. Yes, even before Free Dining is offered, if you can. Everyone gobbles up the good ADRs quickly for Free Dining dates, so if you don’t book early, you will be stuck eating counter service or unpopular restaurants for the duration of your trip.
To answer some other common questions: yes, you must purchase tickets with the offer even if you already have them (or an Annual Pass). No, bookings made with Disney Vacation Club points are not eligible for the offer. No, you cannot “stack” this offer with a percentage-off room discount (at least not in the U.S.). For those wondering about other Walt Disney World discounts, check out our Current Walt Disney World Discount Offers post for what’s presently available.
For details about which tier of the Disney Dining Plan includes or for recommendations about which restaurants to book to maximize your use of the DDP, please see our comprehensive Disney Dining Plan Overview Page.
Note that the Free Disney Dining Plan promotion is always based upon arrival dates. For example, if Free Dining runs June 27 to June 28 and you arrive on June 28 and stay until July 5, you are eligible for Free Dining–even though it’s blocked out for July 5 arrivals. (You didn’t arrive on July 5 in that scenario–you arrived in June.)
However, if it’s offered those same dates and you arrive on June 26 and stay for the same dates, you are not eligible for Free Dining, even though more of your stay falls during an “eligible” period than the first example’s. The work-around for this is doing a split stay, with the ineligible arrival nights part of one vacation and a second vacation starting at the first valid “arrival” date and continuing thereafter. Again, arrival dates are what matters with Free Dining.
In the section below, we have historical Free Dining dates for the last few years. The rest of what follows is historical information about the Free Disney Dining Plan promotion…
Historical Information
The following is not pertinent to current bookings, but we have found that readers find it useful to have details about past Free Dining promos when planning for the future and what to expect. Note that the dates are pretty consistent from year to year, with slight shifts for holidays, weekends, and special events, or other things that may be excluded from the Free Disney Dining Plan promotion.
Last year, there was no early booking window for Disney Visa cardholders, but there was an expanded date range (see below). The two years before, Disney Visa cardholders did have an early booking window. Exact dates are listed below. Most years, the general public is able to book Free Dining packages 5 days after Disney Visa cardholders can book.
In years past, Free Dining has been announced in late April, with booking opening first for Disney Visa credit card holders and the general public a few days later. The last couple of years, there was no early window for Disney Visa cardholders.
Here are the Walt Disney World Free Dining dates that were available from 2013-2020 for historical reference…
2020 Free Dining Dates (Cancelled):
- June 27 through June 28
- July 5 through July 7
- August 29 through September 8
2019 Free Dining Dates:
- July 5 – September 30*
- September 1 through September 18**
- November 17 through November 27**
- December 8 through December 23**
*First and second wave of Free Dining
**Third wave of Free Dining
2018 Free Dining Dates:
- August 20* — September 29
- November 24 — 27
- December 7 — 23
*Disney Visa Cardholders could book for arrival dates beginning August 2.
2017 Free Dining Dates:
- August 21* – September 30
- November 14 – 20
- November 25 – 27
- December 8 – 23
*Disney Visa Cardholders could book for arrival dates beginning August 13.
2016 Free Dining Dates:
- August 23* through October 1
- November 15 through 21
- November 26 through 28
- December 10 through 21
*Disney Visa Cardholders could book for arrival dates beginning August 14.
2015 Free Dining Dates:
- August 28 through October 2
- October 25 through October 31
- November 8 through November 19
- December 15 through December 21
2014 Free Dining Dates:
- August 31 – October 3
- October 26 – November 1
- November 9 – November 20
- December 12 – December 23
2013 Free Dining Dates
- September 2 to September 25
- September 29 to October 2
- October 18 to November 2
- November 11 to November 23
- December 12 to December 22
Other Free Dining Posts & Resources
If you plan on getting the Disney Dining Plan check out these other Walt Disney World posts:
- Disney Dining Plan Tips & Info
- Top 10 Disney Dining Tips
- Top 10 Counter Service Restaurants
- Top 10 Table Service Restaurants
- Top 10 Themed Table Service Restaurants
- Magic Kingdom Counter Service Restaurant Rankings
- Best-Value Table Service Restaurants on the Disney Dining Plan
- Best-Value Counter Service Restaurants on the Disney Dining Plan
- Best-Value Character Meals on the Disney Dining Plan
- Best-Value Snacks on the Disney Dining Plan
- Drinking Around Epcot’s World Showcase Tips
- Snacking Around Epcot’s World Showcase Tips
Want more dining tips? Check out our 101 Delicious Walt Disney World Dining Tips. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. Planning other aspects of a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. 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 think a third wave of Free Dining will be released in June 2024, or will it take longer before Walt Disney World “needs” to get that aggressive with deals? Are you a fan of the “free” dining promotion? Have any tips for free dining rookies? If you’ve booked Free Dining, what did you think about your experience with the deal? If you were unable to get it, where/when were you unsuccessful? Let us know what you think of the promotion and whether you’re planning on taking advantage of it in the comments!
Congrats to those who booked their free dining in 2019!
You may see some of the lowest crowds within the next couple years.
In some ways that makes it more exciting than waiting to do a StarWars trip.
I’ve been hearing a lot of murmurs that you can no longer “share” dining credits, such as purchasing a meal for friends/family using your credits. So far it’s mainly at HS, but managers are claiming that’s the way it will be this year across property, even though the pdf has not been changed to reflect this. If this happens, upgrading may not work out for many guests.
I am so worried about this as we are going with a big group and had planned most of our meals around sharing these credits!
I’m holding out for late Nov free dining, and even if I score it for a moderate resort, were staying with quick service plan instead of paying for table upgrade. Table service has become a huge drag for us because it ruins the spontaneity of snacking and also cuts into nighttime park hrs. Most table service dining Is notreally something to write home about, being only fair on food quality. I was able to book port orleans, Caribbean beach, and Coronado under the dining offer currently available with sept 30 arrival date, and let them all slide. We’ll see what comes up in a few months!
I’m also hoping for a November option, thought I gave not shared the possibility with the rest of my traveling group. My MiL is paying for hotels/air fare for 8 of us, we are each responsible for passes and our own food. My husband and I are the only ones who have been to WDW before. While we have tried to explain how much one can expect to pay for food, a few of the folks just aren’t understanding and therefore not preparing financially. It would be great to “surprise” them with a dining plan but I in no way want to get their hopes up!
I agree with you regarding not upgrading from Quick Service, I enjoy some spontaneity and have no problem footing the bill for a nice dinner out of pocket while on the quick plan (when getting the plan for free).
Fingers crossed for Nov offers for you!
That is so smart of you. I am also planning a trip for my family and they just don’t understand how much food and drinks are. I do not think they are saving enough for food. Good luck getting free dining on your trip.
We have gone the week after Thanksgiving the past 3 years since the weather is great, the crowds are relatively low, and they always offered free dining. However, this year will all depend on when Star Wars Land opens. I’d be surprised if Disney needs to offer any promotions in the 4th qtr to attract visitors. I would prob enjoy Star Wars Land much more than my kids, so I wouldn’t mind it being delayed until Dec or 2020 if it meant one more year of free dining and less crowds.
I’m so disappointed with this free dinner going on. I’m retiring and my wife made plans to take the grandkids and daughter in-law to Disney world. As soon as you announced it the phones were locked. . We are stay at arts and animation. How can Disney take advantage of the working class. There sold out. I have never been so disappointed in my life. The trip is costing 8k for four adults two children under five. Not including airfare. There no sympathy from Disney that I once knew as a child. One old mans broken heart . My wife booked it through Disney via call and the order taker even said we should get it.
What are your dates of travel? For the week we are going in mid-August, there still is availability for 6 at Art of Animation. The Web site has been working fine in the past day, check out availability there. If you can potentially move airline dates, you should be able to find a reservation with free dining. I feel that Art of Animation can be expensive for a value – maybe look at getting two rooms at POP or All Stars and ask for them connecting. We did this two years ago and it worked out great for a very low price. You’ll end up with four beds and two bathrooms for $200-$250 total per night.
We’re at the last week of September. They already told my wife no more rooms available. We are booked and been paying on it over the months. It will be only my second visit in my life time and will be my last. ONly doing it for the love of the grandkids. I know in today’s economy they will never afford to go.
Looking at availability, I am seeing that the sun and fun offer is still available for All Stars the last week of September. Assuming you are going Sept 22-29 (Saturday to Saturday, 7 nights), you can get two rooms at either All Star Movies or Sports for about $120 per night each. That would be $1680 for the room. Movies should be fully renovated by then with great new rooms. For park tickets, 6 day non-hoppers for your group would be $2553. Save more if you don’t go to parks that many days. This totals under $4300 leaving you $3700 left for food and drink for the week which is more than enough. You can cancel your package up to 45 days before with no penalty and get your money back. Do the work and change up your reservation and you’ll be in great shape and pretty much level with all of the deals us working class folks are getting.
Don’t understand how WDW is to blame for offering limited numbers of rooms for special offer if everyone isn’t able to get them booked. Just like sales everywhere things sell out. People getting in line quickly are happy. If you’re not one of the quick and lucky ones it’s nobody’s fault. Certainly not Disney’s.
If you were planning to go anyway before the offer was announced don’t let missing out on a limited offer spoil the fun.
If the Free Dining offer doesn’t work out, you can always try to get a room only discount too.
If the free dining offer doesn’t work out, you can try to get a room only offer.
Staying in preferred at Coronado for seven days at the beginning of August, even with the upcharge for the standard dining plan, the free dining promotion turned out to be more than $500 cheaper for our party of two than the current room only promotion. We had plans to do room only with the current promo discount and get annual passes for a subsequent trip, because we’ve heard so long that free dining discounts with rack-rate rooms usually equal the cost of paid dining plans with room discounts. We were so shocked at how much we were going to save with the current free dining plan that we ditched our plans for annual passes and will simply purchase a dining plan and park hoppers for our follow up trip after our August free dining trip. I can only imagine Disney built unusually large discounts into this current free dining promotion to really entice people to arrive before Galaxy’s Edge opens. I am so happy they did!
In doing the math, Moderate Resorts are usually the tier that could go either way–it depends upon the details. Values are almost always better off with Free Dining, and Deluxes also could go either way (room discounts are almost always better for parties of 2 or fewer at Deluxes).
Hi Tom! Thanks for all the great info. I currently have a room only trip booked for Nov 23-29, the week of Thanksgiving. Should I add tickets now or wait to see if free dining is offered. I booked a studio villa at beach club. Also, if I wait to buy tickets is it possible that parksavers prices will be higher by then? Any idea on when they may offer fall/November dates? If at all?
Thanks! Andrea
Tom, THANK YOU for your blog post! I was able to book the dates with free dining LATER in the month of September than ever before. We know it will still be HOT (b/e it’s Florida, after all), but it makes us happy to go a bit later and be sure to hit the HALLOWEEN HORROR NIGHTS at Universal as well as the MNSSHP – whee! Thanks for everything!
Hi Tom!
I tried to book all day yesterday and kept getting stitch. Finally at bedtime I filled out all the correct info but never got the option for free dining. Does this mean they are sold out already? We stay in the ‘cheapo’ hotels usually, but I also tried booking at the polynesian to see what my results were and I still didn’t get any option for free dining. We booked last year with free dining and had no problem. I may have to bite the bullet and actually call. I’m thinking I should go ahead and book a room and then call and see if they can modify. But maybe they have sold out of rooms already? Who knows.
I’d keep checking and trying. The issues you encountered were pretty common on release day and were largely errors, not reflective of actual inventory.
In any case, room inventory is often added to the promotion as it goes on, so continuing to check can yield positive results.
Thanks Tom and Sarah for the updates.
I previously booked my travel ( based on past dates from other years) at Coronado for Sept. 27- Oct 3. Went on WDW site today , changed my reservation to free dining promo and saved … $800.00 on my current reservation. Plus, I will be there at one of my favorite times… Halloween :).
Tom,
I am so thankful for your email early this morning! If we didn’t open it up we wouldn’t be going to Disney World this year. I think I just got the last room at All Star Sports for the dates we needed. A lot of hotels were already full for the promotion.
That was a pretty mean thing for Disney to do, release the promotion right after Christmas and unexpectedly.
You are a lifesaver.
It was especially mean to Disney’s phone operators, who had no heads up about this–nor was anyone given extra hours or shifts, hence the long waits on hold.
All around, it seems like this was a hasty idea thrown together at the last minute because bookings aren’t where Disney wants them.
I’m shocked that Disney decided to release this so early on, I got a room at Pop online with lag but other then that it wasnt too bad. But I wager that this will be the only form of Free Dining we will see this year. October has been out of the picture for the offer for a few years now. This past November it was only offer for arriving dates of 3 days, and for December for 2 weeks. Along with Galaxy’s Edge opening up, as well as all of the Disney Christmas happenings (taping, MVMC, and ect) I guess that they just didnt see the point to even bother with including those two months.
Thanks so much! I was (finally) able to get the Disney website to work to let me add it to my existing reservation at Wilderness Lodge for this summer. I am so excited – I have a teenager boy and we had debated on getting the dining plan just based on how much he eats but couldn’t justify it with how little my daughter eats. Disney now considers her an adult, but at Age 10, she’d rather order off the kids menu. This will be great because I didn’t have to change anything else about my reservation and added the dining plan! Thanks for getting the word out in your newsletter!
Thanks from me too. I am from the UK and I cannot see whether this is available over here!
Xx
Thanks so much for the updates! We used free dining offer last time we went in 2012, and it was awesome. My family isn’t planning on traveling to Disney until late January 2020 or late February 2020 though; do you think there will be any free dining offers then? Thanks!
Add me to the chorus of ‘thank you for the email heads up’ voices. Got it this morning around 8 am, modified my reservation, and saved $1,800 with only about 5 minutes of effort. One of my friends waited until Disney’s official announcement and still hasn’t gotten through to book after over an hour trying. (Long story short: she’s on your email list now!)
I have to say that I will miss the thrill of reading your rumor emails and predictions leading up to Free Dining, but I’m betting we will see those later (we are banking on it, we also have a November booking!). Something tells me Star Wars isn’t going to open by September 30.
Thank you for emailing about Free Dining this morning! I was able to modify my reservation and save nearly 1000 on my upcoming trip. 🙂
Thank you for the e-mail this morning. I was able to book Riverside Sept 24th-Oct 1st. So excited!!
You’re welcome! 🙂
Has Anyone ever had luck with Free Dining during Thanksgiving week? Just curious if we should hold out for that, which is our preference, or not wait and hope at all but just book for late summer which is our second option (but not as good for us). Thanks for advice for those who have gotten Free Dining plans in the past!
Normally, my line would be this: “past precedent is the best predictor of future Walt Disney World discounts.”
However, I’m throwing that out the window for 2019. Hotel bookings are/have been soft for times they normally would be strong, and it’s unclear whether that’ll remain the case. I’d hazard a guess that Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is the cause of this (more specifically, people waiting on a grand opening date for that), and it’s going to be a tremendous wild card.
In short, if Star Wars land opens in November, I’d say there is zero chance of a Thanksgiving week discount–some people will be hard-pressed just to get a room. If Star Wars land opens in late December, I’d expect lower than normal occupancy in November, and as such, a second wave of Free Dining covering Fall 2019 dates.
Hi Tom. I’m in Ireland. I got your email today but I’m unable to find where to book the free dinning anywhete? Should I phone? Thanks a mill
Just wanted to thank you so much for your speedy newsletters letting us know when Free Dining is released! I have been able to get it twice now (both last year and this year) solely thanks to those! Your site is my go-to for Disney info. 🙂
Awesome–glad to hear you were able to book it! You must’ve gotten through early.
The website is now missing the booking pages for the resorts… I keep getting the Stitch message “Someone ate the page!”. Possibly the flood of bookings coming in over this unexpected news?
I saw this too. Now it won’t even show free dining as a special offer! I am getting so frustrated.
Yeah, the only thing that’s consistent about Free Dining release day is that Disney’s systems *will* crash or ‘not play nicely’ at some point due to the influx of traffic and telephone calls. That’s a big part of why we recommend a travel agent–let them deal with all of these headaches. 😉
I’m working with a travel agent for our bookings, but thought I would run the numbers myself since Changing our dates by 2 weeks (we’re presently booked for the end of June) requires work date changes and discussions with an Ex who may be unable to change his summer plans for us… we’re wanting to see if changing dates is worth it. The hotel discount for June may be better than or at least equal to FDP’s in July and August 😉 . We will also have to change resorts to get the FDP’s or the % off room reservations since we’re staying at POFQ.
Decisions, decisions, decisions!
Just called this morning to modify an existing CBR reservation for mid-August and was able to score Free Dining!! A family of 5 (2 adults, 3kids 9,7,3) in a CBR 5th sleeper room…paying less than $1000 per person for 10 nights!! Wooo!!