New 2019 Discounts for Disney World, Including More Free Dining!
Walt Disney World has released new promotions for 2019, with Free Dining and room-only hotel discounts plus bonus gift cards being among the money-saving offers released. These are for pre-Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, a time that is rumored to be abnormally light in terms of bookings. In this post, we’ll take a look at the various new special offers Walt Disney World has released and provide some commentary about the deals.
The big one here is Free Dining, which returns and is available exclusively to Disney Visa Credit Cardholders for arrivals August 1 through August 21, 2019. This offer follows the normal rules of Free Dining (which are covered in full detail here, along with comprehensive analysis and Free Dining tips); most notably, Value and Moderate Resort guests receive the Quick Service Disney Dining Plan, while Deluxe and Deluxe Villa guests receive the standard Disney Dining Plan.
This second wave of Free Dining must be booked by June 16, 2019. A 4-night minimum stay is required, as is the purchase of a 4-day Park Hopper or Park Hopper Plus park ticket. A valid Disney Visa Chase Credit Card or rewards card must be used to pay the deposit. If you don’t see this one on the special offer page, here’s a hack to make it work…
Search DisneyWorld.com for travel dates in August that meet the aforementioned requirements, and you should see a checkbox at the top of the page with an offer selected that is not Free Dining. Switch that to “A Delicious Offer for Disney Visa Cardmembers” (see screenshot below) and voila!
This deal appeared before disappearing from DisneyWorld’s promo page…which is not the first time this has happened with the Visa offers; we are expecting it to reappear later this morning once Disney Visa has a chance to officially announce it. In any case, it’s available for booking now with the hack above!
If you’re not a Disney Visa Credit Cardholder, the news isn’t as good. Rather than the ‘full’ Free Dining offer, you have access to book something we call “Free Dining Light” now with two-thirds fewer calories than normal Free Dining! This promotion is Walt Disney World’s way of catching the attention of potential guests with those magic words that everyone loves (free food!), but without actually offering a great deal.
This discount is available at Value & Moderate Resorts for arrivals most nights from May 28 through August 21, 2019, for bookings made through June 30, 2019. The promotion offers guests staying at Value Resorts one Quick Service Meal per night and requires a minimum 3-night stay and purchase of at least a 2-day ticket.
Seldom is “Free Dining Light” the best offer available, and that remains true for Summer 2019. Our “Free Dining is Back for Summer…Well, Sorta” post from last year provides some analysis as to why we typically do not recommend this discount. That insight remains true for this incarnation of the deal, so refer to that (ignoring the dates) if you want to know more about it.
Next up is the room-only discounts. The general public one here has an interesting twist, with Disney gift cards being offered per night depending upon the resort tier. With this offer, you can save up to 25% on rooms at select Walt Disney World hotels, valid for stays most nights May 28 through August 28, 2019 when you book through August 28, 2019.
When you book this offer for arrivals May 28 to June 30, 2019, you’ll receive a Disney Gift Card at check-in based upon Resort Category and original length of stay:
- Deluxe Villa Resorts: $25 per room per night
- Deluxe Resorts: $20 per room per night
- Moderate Resorts: $15 per room per night
- Value Resorts: $10 per room per night
In doing some quick back of the napkin math, I don’t see any scenarios where this discount plus the gift card beats the superior percentage offers for Annual Passholders and Florida residents, but I haven’t crunched the numbers for many dates. If you’re an AP or local, you’ll want to do this math yourself.
Rather than typing out all of the room discount percentage amounts, here’s a screenshot from Disney’s promo page:
Finally, Florida Residents can save up to 30% and Annual Passholders can save up to 35% on rooms at select Disney Resort hotels for stays most nights July 1 through August 28 when booked by August 28, 2019.
See all of the discounts by room tier here on DisneyWorld.com’s special offer page for the discount.
Walt Disney World’s phone lines are likely to have long, multi-hour waits all morning, and online system will probably slow to a crawl given that several new deals have simultaneously been released. Normally, we’d encourage you to book as early as possible to have the best selection of resorts and room categories.
In this case, we’re not so sure it’s worth the headache. Summer 2019 promotions have already been released and the most in-demand dates were previously covered. This does add new travel dates in July and August, but competition should not be incredibly fierce for these deals. About the only one that might require a sense of urgency is the second wave of Free Dining.
Alternatively, you can request a FREE quote from our recommended Authorized Disney Vacation Planner and have them do the work for you, so you don’t have to wait on hold or struggle with the online system at all. Once we have more time, we’ll spot-check availability of the various promos released today for Summer 2019, but our assumption is that inventory for these promotions is pretty healthy.
For what it’s worth, these special offers are not coming out of left field. Back when 2019 Free Dining at Walt Disney World was “inexplicably” released early, we stated that it was an attempt to prop up bookings, which were down for the first half of the year and that a second wave of Free Dining was possible if internal expectations weren’t met.
Likewise, the grand opening of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge was not pushed forward because the project is way ahead of schedule. It’s being rushed towards an incomplete debut to help with lethargic bookings, particularly in September and early October 2019.
As we discuss in our massive Star Wars Land Info & Galaxy’s Edge Guide, we still expect to see significantly elevated crowds from mid-October through December 2019, and likely for at least the first half of 2020. Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is generating serious buzz, and not just in Disney fan circles. It will be cause a spike in attendance, and be a massive growth driver for Walt Disney World.
However, just because Star Wars Land causes a surge in attendance and growth does not mean it’s living up to the sky-high internal forecasts for the project. Estimates peg the cost of each Galaxy’s Edge at over $1 billion, which likely does not account for the (shared) R&D or blockbuster marketing budgets the lands will receive.
When you couple the cost of Galaxy’s Edge with the expectations associated with the cultural touchstone that is Star Wars, it’s understandable that expectations are so high. For Disneyland and Walt Disney World, this is the end-all, be-all of Star Wars in the parks. There will be no standalone park or even a slow trickle of new rides. This is it. The theme park culmination of Disney’s acquisition of one of the world’s most lucrative franchises.
It will be interesting to see the degree to which these new Walt Disney World discounts move the needle. While this is not exactly last minute, we’d hazard a guess that many potential guests have already made the decision about whether to attend Walt Disney World before or after Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge…or whether to wait it out even longer.
What’s interesting to me is that it would seem deals like this are most appealing to Walt Disney World regulars who aren’t approaching this from an either-or perspective, and are instead likely to be lured into making another trip to Walt Disney World because a tempting offer is on the table. Situations like this demonstrate just how necessary loyal fans are to Disney’s success, even if the company has made moves that alienate some fans over the last few years. The question is whether this will be enough to entice WDW loyalists into another trip or prompt tourists who are on the fence into booking a summer Walt Disney World vacation?
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
What do you think about these new Walt Disney World discounts? Surprised to see Free Dining return? Think we could see even more discounts–possibly for select Fall 2019 dates–if bookings remain soft? Have you booked any of these new deals? Do you agree or disagree with our analysis? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
Tom, do you think more room offers will come out for October 2019 in June??
I booked in March for Oct & I keep seeing free dinning. For 2019 which I can’t use.
Here is my experience at 2pm EDT on Wed, April 24:
1) The hack did not work in the morning.
2) I got my Disney Visa email, clicked through, and everything went as expected on the website.
3) EXCEPT that I could not find any availability.
4) So I called Disney directly. I was only on hold for two minutes before the computer did all the pre-questions about my party, my address, etc. Then I got to a CM who was able to book us at the Cabins at FW for Aug 12-19, letting me know that I could book EMM at MK that week and that first Halloween Party was that week, too.
So try the website, try calling, don’t accept a No from one source as the end.
I’m excited because our family of six needs FD to do WDW. It’s a bigger discount than a 30% room discount would be for *us*–even if I call back to upgrade from the QS plan to the traditional DDP for $700. (I have to do a spreadsheet to see which is more cost effective for the four character meals we want to do, especially since CRT is a 2-credit meal….)
GL, everyone!
We previously had a 4 night room only booking for mid August at the Boardwalk Inn. I saw the discounts online, and noticed that the total was now about $90 less for the same room with the new Passholder discount. My wife called (I’m at work) and was told there was no additional discount and that we already had the best rate.
I was able to book a new reservation online and cancel my previous one. Not sure why the rep on the phone wasn’t able to see the Passholder discount.
Tom you are SUPER fast on the news, love the newsletter, thanks for taking the time! You are right on the “Free Dining” I was curious and checked the month we are going and it is for VERY select resorts, AKL, the resort we have booked, savanna view room, was not available for the offer or were any deluxe resorts. So just to see if it was a savings saved us a total of 272, this was for PO, meh……but thanks for the email, I look forward to them!
If I’m a Disney visa cardholder, can I book a vacation for someone else?
Hmm, I tried your hack (am logged into MDE) and the Visa offer isn’t showing up at all, despite multiple refreshes and searches. The AP discount looks really good tho!
I find this very interesting. Are bookings really still that soft or just down a little? I’d guess towards the latter, since these discounts are not as good as the ones previously available for the same time period. The discounts that were available up until late March, I believe, were for room only discounts UP TO 30%, and Free Dining, and both were available until September 30th, I think. So this is a lower discount offering and a more restrictive Free Dining offering. I’m sure they are hoping to at least some extent that there will be some publicity for this and people previously not paying attention will be pulled in by it. I don’t believe this is something, however, that will make those previously on the fence about booking last month now decide to go.
Well…I think soft and down a little are approximately synonymous, if that answers that.
As for the discounts not being as good as before, that might be true of the general public ones, but those AP and FL resident rates are very attractive, which is a good exercise in price segmentation.
When it comes to the other discounts, re-running the same deal again says a lot. Walt Disney World having a good amount of room inventory also helps paint the full picture here.
I’ll be curious to see what ends up on Priceline for August. That’ll be most telling, IMO.
Yeah, soft vs. down a little was the wrong wording. I had read somewhere yesterday that the discounts were being released today because a lot of rooms were available. Soft is definitely too vague a term, since some use it to mean pretty bad whereas it should be used as you use it, down a little.
Now, with the annual pass discount now compared to the discount available until the end of June (40%), has June been that much slower the last few years than August that they would have such a hefty discount at that time, then go a bit lower for August? Given that there had been the 30% discount for general public through September before the SWGE announcement, I was curious whether there would be 40% for passholders in August as well once that was released.
40% might have enticed us to drop Free Dining and go with that instead and purchase an annual pass, especially now that we just bought into DVC and will be upgrading our tickets from Free Dining to the Gold Pass anyway now that we’ll be eligible to buy that one. We’re a family of 4 and staying at Yacht Club, so the math is close. Not that 5% is that much of a difference, but at the 30% previously available, the math still worked in our favor, even with buying 3 tickets through a third-party vendor. So I guess if 30% to 35% isn’t enough to sway us, that same logic should carry with 35% vs. 40%.
We’re going in November, so this promo won’t work for us…so the only question left is, what is that chocolate-covered strawberry drink, and where do I need to go to get one!!?
lol Heather, I was just about to ask the same question, that drink looks so yummy. We will be there in November as well…. cheers!!!! whats the answer Tom we need to know 🙂
It’s the seasonal milkshake from All Star Movies. It’s good, but not worth the effort/expense.
So Heather, I guess the question for Tom is. We want to see free dining for October & November for my friend Heather
I do think that things aren’t going as well as Disney projected. The Know Before You Go video they released trying to get people to book hotel rooms at Disneyland and the surprising selection of rooms available when I search for rooms at Disneyland. A guaranteed reservation at GE hasn’t been as enticing as expected. I’m hoping that September-October at DW won’t be as bad as expected too. This pushed up partial opening is a ridiculous way to do this. Spend your thousands on a half done park?
Tom, we always go to Disney World in November. Do you have any info on whether there will be free dinning in November or December? We are anxious to get our trip planned.. Do you have an educated guess??? I was hoping for info today, since April 24 seems to be the day of announcement for the free dinning deals. Thank you for keeping us in the loop!!!
It’s highly unlikely.
To the extent that any fall/winter discounts are released, I’d expect availability to be very limited. I also wouldn’t expect them any time soon–Walt Disney World will want to fill as many full price rooms as possible before discounting.
With Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge opening in a month at Disneyland, there will be a lot of media buzz (much of it with an “opening later this year at Walt Disney World” angle) and that will generate bookings for WDW. I wouldn’t expect any fall discounts before that.
I have a large family. We have been saving for this trip for 3 years. We love Star Wars but feel like at this point it was ruined our trip. We were counting on going around Christmas before the crowds got large and the dining was still free. Now that seems impossible. We have booked our trip but are strongly debating on canceling it. I can not justify spending $7000 to stand in line for hours on end, in huge crowds. I can take my kids on an amazing vacation for that price elsewhere. I feel like Disney has lost something it had just 5 or 6 years ago.
We’re doing a rather large splurge family trip this year, and I chose first week of December before knowing about Galaxy’s Edge. I debated changing, but I want to see Disney at Christmas since we’ve never done that. I really don’t think anything will be ruined. Compared to the last time we were there, seems the food has been improved quite a bit, mobile ordering has expanded, and there’s so much to do other than Hollywood Studios. Yes, we’ll go there, and will expect crowds, and will take it for what it is. Lines will always be a part of theme parks, and I recall pretty long lines 30 years ago! Besides, I’m too freakin excited to cancel any plans at this point! Disney World has changed for sure, but my kids still adore it, and we’ve had some of our best memories there, lines, storms, no-see-ums, and all.
If you are (rightly) concerned about big crowds and navigating with a large family, it might be worth your while to delay your trip until the following year. It’s worth remembering that Star Wars land will only have 1 of it’s 2 big attractions when it opens from what I have read. I am personally debating visiting when it it’s “fully” open vs. being in first wave to see it . (ie. not having to spend twice to see it fully opened.)
Maybe Tom can comment on if there is any new rumored date for the second attraction to open? I imagine crowds will still be large the second year, but maybe less insane. At least here’s hoping…
And the hoopla around it opening seems to have swept that fact about not having both attractions seems to be getting forgotten in the excitement.
I mean, you can’t count on free dining to occur every year. I’ve seen on this blog they always caveat free dining conversations with saying “it may not happen this year, we won’t know until it actually does get offered.” It sucks, as they’ve offered it for the last 7 years or so (I have used it every year for a while), but I never relied on having free dining to make it worth it. Now, I understand being blindsided by the opening date of GE, but at the same time they announced it years ago, it has to be open ASAP for them to make money. Also, we’ve known the “Fall 2019” date for a long time, so that information was available when you made your booking.
The crowds will be larger, but I do not think they will be at park entrance shutdown levels by when you plan on going. I’m not saying things will look normal, but it will be like going during a high season day, you just have to plan your fastpasses, and take advantage of your extra booking window for those passes to book them for the rides you miss on the first time around (if you’re doing 5 or more days in the parks). The lines will not be fun, but if that bothers you enough, Disney World is not the vacation you need to take. Book something like a cruise, or a trip to EU with that money.
I cannot get the Disney Visa offer to load. Any other suggestions?
I just tried the hack to see the free dining package rate for Disney Visa card holders, and it is not showing up…I wonder if they pulled it? My family of four has visited WDW three out of the last four years in a row, and I am on the fence about a trip this year, but I have been watching for a good discount to see if I want to book a trip. A really good deal combined with a slow time at Disney might push me over the edge.
I just searched again and still see it. However, it took me three tries just to get the results page and the system was moving slow.
Be sure you’re logged into your MDX account, and search for rooms during the applicable dates in August.
Disney has pushed me to the brink. Even though we are lucky to get Fl. Resident passes, the prices we spend here no longer justify the trip. The no smoking policy finally did it, Star Wars and Avitar are not my interest. I’m sick of construction, rides my children loved are gone. I think I’ll save and go on a cruise!
As a pass holder who had an August trip booked I just changed it to the new summer promo and saved around $5 per night. Every little bit helps. Thanks for the heads up.
Hi Tom. We are a party of 9 and coming to Disney world in may with dvc points being used. Is there any deals on dining for us? Help please.
Still keeping my fingers crossed that they will offer free dining in December 2019, any more rumors about fall thru end of year?
Has everyone read the latest negative reviews of WDW on TripAdvisor? It’s sounding like pure misery to go!
Thanks for heads up on Free Dining and AP discounts. Our trip is not until Oct of this year but I checked this new offer out to get an idea of what to expect if there is a Fall offer. Your blog makes it much easier to figure out how to plan a Disney trip.
Thank you,
Didn’t work for me either :(. Maybe they pulled it ?
I just looked, and what I saw was not a free dining plan; it’s one free quick service meal per person per night. You have to upgrade to full dining plans.
Ah, never mind. Didn’t read far enough into the post to catch the explanation!
Link to these discounts didn’t work for me. Brought me instead to a page listing/describing some of the annual passes to WDW.
You need to be logged in to an MDX account with Annual Passholder status for that link to work.
I’m a Canadian Annual Passholder. I’ve never been able to see resort discounts for Passholders.
So the free dining is only available in August? Or did I miss something â“
Yes. No.
Thanks for the heads-up! – I have a cruise (not a Disney cruise :0) in June sailing from Port Canaveral and we like to piggyback a few days at WDW before or after, and I just snagged a room at All Stars for only $126/night.
Regarding Star Wars: I can take it or leave it so y’all have fun with that. I am from the first generation of Star Wars. I was in high school when the first Star Wars movie opened in theaters in 1977, and went to see it over and over with my friends that entire summer. I guess I was over it by Fall of that year, lol. 😉
I agree with you about Star Wars opening moved up because of the lack of filled resort rooms from sept. to dec. Most people waiting until dec. opening of Star Wars. Opening early filled up rooms for sept. to dec. now.
I doubt there will be any usual discounts from sept. on now.
I booked in sept. like I always do for the slower season. Not right to open Star Wars earlier and screw those of us not wanting to be at HS or Disney world for that matter during the opening months. I’m dreading it.
I’m a Star Wars fan but I didn’t plan on being near it until it was open at least a year.
I agree…. I like Star Wars and all but we go in Sept because of the reduced crowds and I was a tad upset to hear that we may now be avoiding HS when we go this year 🙁
I have mixed feelings. I got the 30% discount for Yacht club for 8/31-9/6. I’m wondering if that will turn out to be great due to SW open or bad waits all over.
I’m hopeful the other parks won’t be a zoo just HS. If I wanted to come when it’s crazy I would have booked my trip for Dec.
I always book for sept. and it’s tolerable. Pretty upset.