Fall 2017 Disney World Dining Deals
If you missed out on Free Dining or decided to book a different discount for Fall 2017 instead, don’t feel so bad, as select Walt Disney World restaurants will offer a special 3-course menu for $35 from August 25 through October 1, 2017. In this post, we’ll share the lists of restaurants with these deals, and offer some suggestions as to where to dine, and speculation as to why these deals are being offered in the first place.
Alternatively, there’s a 30% discount for Annual Passholders or Disney Vacation Club members at a number of restaurants now through September 30, 2017. This is up from the 20% discount that has been offered for around the last year in honor of Walt Disney World’s 35th Anniversary.
In order to take advantage of the savings, you must be seated for dinner prior to 6:30 p.m. or after 8:30 p.m. Interestingly, there’s no added discount for lunch or breakfast (at the restaurants that serve either/both meals), which are often the least popular meals. Here’s a list of participating restaurants…
- Jiko – The Cooking Place (Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge)
- Flying Fish (Disney’s BoardWalk Inn)
- The Wave…of American Flavors (Disney’s Contemporary Resort)
- Citricos (Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa)
- Grand Floridian Café
- Olivia’s Cafe (Disney’s Old Key West Resort)
- Boatwright’s Dining Hall (Disney’s Port Orleans Resort – Riverside)
- Turf Club Bar & Grill (Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa)
- Artist Point (Disney’s Wilderness Lodge)
- Captain’s Grill (Disney’s Yacht Club Resort)
While all of these bonus Annual Passholder and Disney Vacation Club savings are being marketed in honor of Walt Disney World’s 45th Anniversary, and as such end October 1, 2017, we would be shocked if another slate of AP/DVC discounts are not released shortly thereafter.
It’s quite possible they won’t be immediately extended in October due to how busy that month already is, but we suspect another round of AP/DVC discounts will be announced before the end of 2017, or by early January 2018 at the very latest.
If you’re neither an Annual Passholder nor Disney Vacation Club member, Visit Orlando’s Magical Dining Month runs from August 25 through October 1, 2017 and features more Walt Disney World restaurants than ever before.
During Magical Dining Month, over 100 Orlando-area restaurants offer special prix fixe menus which include appetizer, entree, and dessert for $35. Some of these three course menus look very, very good, too.
While Visit Orlando has been doing Magical Dining Month for years, and there are usually a few spots from restaurants in the Swan & Dolphin or Disney Springs on the list, this year there are a number of restaurants located in Walt Disney World’s resorts on the list.
Here’s a full list of participating on-property Walt Disney World restaurants:
- Jiko – The Cooking Place (Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge)
- The Wave…of American Flavors (Disney’s Contemporary Resort)
- Grand Floridian Café
- Olivia’s Cafe (Disney’s Old Key West Resort)
- Boatwright’s Dining Hall (Disney’s Port Orleans Resort – Riverside)
- Turf Club Bar & Grill (Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa)
- Morimoto Asia (Disney Springs)
- STK Orlando (Disney Springs)
- Paddlefish (Disney Springs)
- Il Mulino (Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort)
- Todd English’s bluezoo (Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort)
- Ravello (Four Seasons Resort Orlando)
For a complete list of participating restaurants in the Lake Buena Vista area and Magical Dining Month menus, click here. In addition to the restaurants listed above, there are several located in the third party Disney Springs Area Resorts, which are an easy walk from Disney Springs.
Note that you have to order from the specific Magical Dining Month prix fixe menu to take advantage of the $35 pricing, and that menu is not the standard menu at most of these locations. (In other words, no 28 oz. Dry-Aged Porterhouse from STK.)
However, some of the Magical Dining Month menus do feature pricier items, such as the Botswana-style Seswaa Beef Short Rib at Jiko, which is normally $48 by itself. Now, we’re guessing it might be a smaller portion than normal, but still, that’s a great price for three courses at Jiko.
In fact, $35 is significantly cheaper than you could do a three course meal at almost all of these restaurants, and could amount to savings of 50% off or more in some scenarios.
We’re visiting Walt Disney World during both of these promotions, and are excited to try out several new-to-us restaurants with the deals. We’re also looking forward to revisiting a couple of favorites we haven’t done in a while, like Jiko.
Not that you care, but the restaurants we find most intriguing for these deals (based on a mix of quality and price) are the following:
- Jiko ($35 Magical Dining Month menu)
- Flying Fish (30% off AP/DVC discount)
- Olivia’s (30% off AP/DVC discount)
- Artist Point (30% off AP/DVC discount)
- Morimoto Asia ($35 Magical Dining Month menu)
- STK Orlando ($35 Magical Dining Month menu)
- Todd English’s bluezoo ($35 Magical Dining Month menu)
- Ravello ($35 Magical Dining Month menu)
We came thisclose to taking advantage of the Free Disney Dining Plan promotion for our fall visit, but ended up canceling our stay at Caribbean Beach and doing a split DVC and Pop Century stay. I won’t say I’m “happy” about that decision now, but this certainly makes me feel a lot better about it.
This allows us to save more money by doing Signature Restaurants at Walt Disney World without using 2 Disney Dining Plan Credits. It also allows us to take advantage of deals at non-Dining Plan restaurants like Ravello and bluezoo. We’ve heard a lot of good things about both, and they’ve been on our “list” for a while.
Although I vowed never to step foot in there, I’m even tempted to give STK a whirl at that price. I’ll just have to pack my finest gold sequin jumpsuit so I’ll “fit in” with the club atmosphere in STK, I guess.
What’s perhaps most surprising here is that these overlapping promotions also coincide with the Free Dining promotion. Normally, Free Dining is the busiest time of the year for Walt Disney World restaurants.
It’s a bit concerning that restaurants would need to offer discounts this steep during the month of September to attract patrons. Don’t get us wrong–we love discounts–but the fact that some of these restaurants are offering such great deals during their “busy” season is concerning for their long-term viability.
Several of these restaurants have been offering a nearly-perpetual 40% off Cast Member discount for the last several years, but this is the most substantial deal they’ve ever done for the general public. In fairness, 30% off on some of these menus still is roughly the same as 20% off would’ve been ~2 years ago, but $35 three course meals? That’s unprecedented.
If I had to guess, these discounts being offered is partly a consequence of repeated price increases on these menus starting to catch up to Disney. More than that, it’s probably a result of increased competition. With Disney Springs now offering a formidable slate of excellent third-party dining options with, in many cases, better value-for-money, the hotel restaurants are struggling to keep up.
This is likely especially true for restaurants in hard-to-reach locations, or that don’t have particularly strong word of mouth. It is a bit worrying to see a restaurant like Jiko on the list, which deserves to be among the most popular at Walt Disney World. (It’s interesting to see it on the list, but not Sanaa.)
With more new restaurants due to open or be refreshed at Disney Springs, it’s likely Walt Disney World hotel restaurants will feel even more of a pinch going forward. Beyond that, new hotel restaurants are also slated to open.
In a perfect/logical world, better restaurants opening at Disney Springs would cause restaurants elsewhere to either raise their game, re-evaluate pricing, or both. That could very well occur, but I think equally as likely is that Walt Disney World will seek to cut costs and/or offer more deals to attract guests. I also wouldn’t be surprised to see locations like the Wave or Grand Floridian Cafe cease to exist in a few years. It’ll be interesting to see what happens, but I think the dining renaissance occurring at Disney Springs will ultimately be a net positive for the entirety of Walt Disney World. For now, that positive comes in the form of these discounts!
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 plan on taking advantage of the Disney Vacation Club or Annual Passholder 30% off discount or Magical Dining Month? Where will you dine during these deals? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment of why these discounts are being offered? Hearing your feedback about your experiences is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so ple
Thanks so much for this post. Just ate at Jiko for magical dining and it was a highlight of my trip. This seems to be sort of a local secret, so I am really glad you brought it to my attention. Always count on this blog for the best secrets 🙂
Sarah and Tom,
LOVE y’all and Disney Tourist Blog. You are my go-to site for the latest info, reviews, tip and all things Disney. I waned to mention that I had a hard time figuring out how to subscribe to your newsletter and finding your About Us page. Is there a way to put links to these on your homepage?
Thanks so much and keep up the magical work!
Amanda
Hey, Tom! Looking to eat at Jiko for the Magical Dining Month with my fiance but wondering if you had any insight (either from previous experience with Magican Dining Month or other prix fixe promotions) as to whether the quality of the food will differ significantly from the ‘regular menu’. Menu options (and pricing!) look great but since this is our first time visiting I’d hate to suffer on quality. Thanks for running such an awesome blog!
Thank you both for such good information!
I have sent several folks to you and they love it too!
Happy Anniversary and keep it up!
A semi un-related question: last year you mentioned about ordering market goods and having them delivered to our hotel. It worked great with Amazon in 2016. Now I can’t find how to get the goods delivered the same way as last year. You mentioned another company and I can’t seem to find the post from last year. Any suggestions for market deliveries? Does Disney still accepting deliveries? We are staying at Saratoga Springs in 2017. We were at Animal Kingdom last year, could that make a difference?
Thanks Tom,
Tom G.
Tom,
I found your other blog about groceries. Thanks for your time and thoughts, walking us through the system.
Enjoy!
Tom
I don’t suppose the AP/DVC discount could be applied to the Magical Dining, could it? Cause that would be awesome!
That said, I just crammed a ADR for Jiko into my already crazy schedule LOL!
Highly doubt they’ll be stackable, but I guess it’s not outside the realm of possibilities.
bluezoo is absolutely phenomenal and you absolutely should go!
Also, visited STK for the first time this trip and the majority of patrons were dressed extremely casually (Mickey Ts and cargo shorts a-plenty). The service we got was warm, approachable, and friendly. We only ordered truffle fries to go along with our drinks (we sat at the bar during a “drinking around Disney Springs” tour) and they still served us the complimentary pull apart bread, which was amazing. I definitely will return for a real meal, as well as more casual drinks.
Thanks for the feedback about STK. They have been tweaking things considerably since opening, and I am curious about the place. Just still not sure about it…
Any idea if you’ll be able to share the $35 Magical Dining Month offers? We aren’t big eaters, and two meals might be enough for my hubby, the kids and me.
Tom,
Thank you for the information.
While we are not traveling to the World this September, we are in September of 2018. This trip is to celebrate our upcoming 25 wedding anniversay, which normally occurs in August. But with the reduction in costs and potential crowds, we decided to put the trip off a couple of weeks. Could the lower crowds be driving the discounts as well?
Also, do you think they will repeat these promotions next year? Current crowd predictions for the end of August/beginning of September 2018 are extremly low, and that’s with the potential of free dining. If they do repeat these offers, this makes it even harder to decide whether or not we will keep our dining plan on our reservation.
I look forward to hearing your evaluations of the food and whether or not Disney believes these are successful promotions.
“Current crowd predictions for the end of August/beginning of September 2018”
I don’t know where you’re finding said predictions, but regardless, they are not reliable this far in advance. Disney could make any number of tweaks (1-day ticket pricing, discount offers, etc.) that could heavily impact crowd levels for 2018.
With that said, I think there’s at least a moderate chance of deals like this being repeated at various points in the off-season in 2018. With more restaurants opening between now and then, Disney will likely need to offer greater incentives to convince people to eat at some of the less popular restaurants.
Hi, Tom!
Thank you for all of your great information.
Can you help me with a question I have? I have a reservation for Jiko at 7 PM, does that mean it is not eligible for the prix fixe menu?
thank you so much!!
To my knowledge, the $35 menu is available whenever. It’s the 30% off that has limited hours.
thank you so much!!
I wonder if the extension of the Food and Wine Festival has anything to do with it. We made far fewer dinner reservations than usual for our early September trip because we plan to be snacking around Epcot a good bit. That said, in my limited experience, the new Disney Springs restaurants are superior to many resort restaurants (Jiko and V&As excepted).
“I wonder if the extension of the Food and Wine Festival has anything to do with it.”
That’s a good question. I guess at this point, Walt Disney World would have some ADR projections for late August/early September, and would thus know if Food & Wine Festival is impacting these restaurants.
My guess would be that it would impact the Epcot restaurants more than anywhere else, and those are not included in this. Who knows, though?
Interesting – those actually look like decent deals. Columbus runs “Restaurant Week” a couple times a year, with restaurants offering 3-course price fixed menus at different price points ($15 – $35). I would estimate that at 75% of the Columbus restaurants it works out to a $0 – $4 savings over ordering off the menu – and they are forcing you to get an appetizer and dessert, which typically carry very high profit margins.
There is probably a little of this in play at Disney restaurants too, but given their higher average menu prices, it helps make this a better deal.
I hope the AP discounts are extended – hoping they would be helped us do the math to not get TiW.
I think pretty much every city runs a promo like this, and whether it’s actually a good deal comes down to where you’re dining. When we used to do it in Indianapolis, some of the most well-known restaurants were no savings at all. Others offered exceptional deals.
In LA, there are actually blogs that analyze which restaurants have the best deals, and which ones to avoid–quite helpful.
It remains to be seen which of these WDW restaurants are actual deals, but I’d hazard a guess that Jiko, STK, and some of the others I’ve listed are good deals, at least relative to normal entree prices and alternative discounts.
If I am reading this correct. Artist point is only a AP/DVC discounted restaurant?
Artist Point is not participating in Orlando Magical Dining Month, if that’s what you’re asking.