Free Dining is Now Available for 2020!
Walt Disney World has released the Free Dining Plan discount for select dates in June, July, August, and September 2020, including around Independence Day, plus the off-season. Here we offer info, tips & tricks, and thoughts on booking this discount.
We’ll cover all the details of Summer 2020 Free Dining at Walt Disney World here, what we recommend doing, and offer some speculation as to why this is occurring. There’s a lot to digest here (but at the same time…not so much) and we’ll break down all of that.
When we updated the ‘news & rumors’ section of our 2020 Free Disney Dining Plan Promotion page yesterday, we predicted that this wouldn’t be a full release of Free Dining today, instead anticipating that something smaller and more symbolic would be released. I’m the first to admit when I’m wrong, and that was partially the case here. But I’m also somewhat right…
Before we get to that, let’s start with a look at the dates for the Summer 2020 Free Dining Deal:
- June 27 through June 28, 2020
- July 5 through July 7, 2020
- August 29 through September 8, 2020
This offer must be booked by January 16, 2020, and it 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.
Another thing to note is that this offer excludes 3-bedroom villas, campsites, Cabins at Copper Creek Villas & Cabins at Wilderness Lodge, Bungalows at Polynesian Villas & Bungalows, Disney’s All Star Movies Resort, and Little Mermaid Rooms at Disney’s Art of Animation Resort.
2020 Free Dining Analysis
First is the obvious. Walt Disney World is offering Free Dining for four months…but only a total of like 16 days. In fairness, these are simply the required arrival dates, so as long as you can kick off your trip during these dates, you’ll receive the discount for the entire course of your vacation (within limits).
Second, contrary to what we predicted, this is not “Free Dining Lite” or “Half-Free Dining” as we’ve come to call Walt Disney World’s other marketing gimmicks that trade on the name recognition of the Free Dining offer. This is the real deal–full Free Dining.
The second part of that is why we were wrong with our prediction. The first part is why we were right (and I’m not just trying to save face here–I’m wrong all the time). As we predicted, this is “something smaller and more symbolic to give a light nudge to travel planners who are on the fence.”
While it’s the real deal, it’s a gutted version of that in terms of dates. To anyone on the fence starting to plan a summer trip but wanting to hold out until discounts are released, it basically sends the message: “this is all you’re getting from now through September, book within the next two weeks or forget about it.”
From that perspective, it’s a really savvy move by Walt Disney World. They get the splashy announcement of Free Dining, with an offer that’s the real thing, and a discount encompassing several months of the calendar. When the “Special Offers” page loads, it looks pretty good…at first.
Upon closer inspection, you see very limited dates for this June through September 2020 Free Disney Dining Plan deal. You’re thus forced to either squeeze your Walt Disney World vacation into those dates or book other dates with an alternative offer. One way or the other, most planners are moving on.
Another thing we’d caution here before you get too excited is that availability for some resorts and dates is undoubtedly very limited. Our expectation once we’re able to do extensive spot checking of hotel availability is that there won’t be a ton of options. What is available will likely go quickly as several months worth of Walt Disney World bargain hunters scramble to all fit their summer travel within the narrow confines of this offer.
My guess is that what I’m going to find once I start searches is that entire room categories, certain dates, etc., are already sold out from day one. (If you’d be willing to help me crowd-source this data, I’d love to hear via the comments what dates and resorts you were able–or were not able–to book!)
We’d also expect that the phone lines will be jammed all day today and the website will experience long waits. That “We’re Almost into Orbit” screen is a nice move (just like the Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance virtual queue, it’ll probably frustrate some of you, but it’s far better than the alternative of the site just crashing all day) that’ll hopefully work as intended. We’d expect those waits (which were 10 minutes or less at 4 am) to skyrocket once more people are awake on the East Coast.
This shouldn’t come as a huge surprise, as it’s more or less par for the course on Walt Disney World discount release day. Things will only get worse as more people wake up and try to book (which is a huge reason why we recommend just using a travel agent). This is to say you will want to book ASAP for the best chance at scoring the resort and room you want, I’d highly recommend getting something locked-in right now.
Since long waits in the virtual queue are a definite possibility for many of you, we’ll share the full promo page below. This is what you can expect to see once you’re able to click on the “Savor a FREE Delicious Deal This Summer” promo.
As for why Free Dining is being offered for these dates, the answer is always hotel occupancy. The better question is probably why, by offering Free Dining on June 28, 2020, Walt Disney World is giving the discount to tourists taking week-long vacations leading up to the Independence Day holiday?
I don’t think that’s supremely interesting, but not much about this is. My guess there would be that the weeks around Independence Day are not nearly as busy as the reputation might suggest. To the contrary, many Americans might actively avoid those weeks because of the reputation that these are the peak of the busy summer season. (At least at Walt Disney World, they aren’t.) That belief coupled with a spike in rack rates that weekend might necessitate some discounting.
As for why more dates aren’t being offered, I think we pretty adequately address that in our main Free Dining post. It’s a big year for Walt Disney World. Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is proving to be a smash hit, Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway opens soon–and with similarly high expectations, and Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure is also coming this summer.
It’d be something of a warning sign if Walt Disney World had the ‘hype train(s)’ from all of those big new additions and still had to offer aggressive discounts. The limited dates and availability for this Summer 2020 Free Dining offer suggest occupancy is looking good, but some dates could be better. (This honestly feels more like something we’d normally see for a Targeted PIN Code Walt Disney World Discount, and not a general public release.)
The question on many of your minds is whether we’ll see multiple waves of 2020 Free Dining like we did last year. I think that’s highly likely, especially because the booking window is so limited for this release and the deal only runs until early September 2020. While October is pretty much always excluded, the entirety of September–the slowest month of the year at Walt Disney World–is not.
Another release later this spring–or even this summer–with more dates running at least through the end of September 2020, seems like a given. As for November and December 2020? I wouldn’t have predicted Free Dining for those dates last year after the opening of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge was announced. Yet, they ended up being offered. As for 2020, it’s too early to say. The vast majority of guests have yet to book Christmas 2020 travel, so there’s no telling what occupancy looks like.
Ultimately, we’ll keep you posted about subsequent 2020 Free Dining releases. In the here and now, you should take advantage of this promotion ASAP if you’re thinking about Summer 2020 vacation to Walt Disney World and there’s any way to make these dates work for you. Between limited dates and limited room inventory, this promotion will book up fast. It’s not going to get any better than this for these travel dates, so there’s really no reason to hesitate.
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 for Summer 2020? Think we could see even more Free Dining for Fall/Christmas 2020 dates? Have you booked this 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!
Hi Tom, thank you SO MUCH for the info. I was able to book for Sept at the Pop Century and had no problems. I did it minutes after you announced it since I was desperately waiting for the news. I couldn’t have done it without you!
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Hi Tom,
We were able to switch our reservations from August to July 5-14 at Disney Yacht Club, in the same category to get the dining plan for our family of 4 (2 kids over 10, so we are saving over $2200 in cost moving the trip) Thanks for the heads up!
Mary
So I was looking for a dinner reservation and a number of the Epcot restaurants (like Tutto Italia) now say no dining plans accepted. Have you heard anything about limiting the restaurants for 2020?
Happens at the beginning of every year. They’ll still take the DP
I got the free Dining Plan just now (added to my existing reservation) but had to downgrade from a preferred room to a standard room at Pop Century! So pumped!!
Why did you have to downgrade room? I was able to get preferred room with dining plan at pop century.
So your saying if there is a second wave of dates it WILL NOT be for additional dates in August?.. I just found this strange because last year was almost all of July and August and I figured it would be close to the same this year since a lot of people will hold out for the 2021 anniversary
I have the same question. Should we not have any hope of any more August dates if there is another wave of free dining released?
Hey Tom! With Disney being such a good value as far as vacations go when they offer free dining, do you think they’ll ever go back to the full free dining like they used to for moderates as well? Also, locals show up in full force the 4th of July, don’t they? So out of state peeps mostly don’t want to be swamped with competing with the locals, which is why out of staters avoided the weeks around the 4th and now besides hurricane season, that’s what Disney is offering for non- fall free dining travel. I don’t know why I care so much, but I remember staying with full free dining before in May and thinking, this isn’t too bad. It was warm, but not September hot yet. Also, I just saw D23 mention the Genie as a feature. Do you know anything about that???
Thank you for heads up. Preplanned a girls trip starting Aug 30 to enjoy the Wine and Food festival, no problems changing to free dining this morning at Pop ! I also upgraded to Disney dining, one it’s only like 20.00 a day to do so and you can’t eat at Disney for 20.00 a day, two you can use snack credits at food festival so we won’t be hungry.
I just booked 1 room for July 7-13 at Boardwalk Inn for 5 adults (me, wife and 3 adults kids) with free dining. We had already planned July 9-14 and 2 rooms at Port Orleans so the date change wasn’t much of a problem. Decided to switch to a single room at Boardwalk to take advantage of the regular dining plan (instead of quick service that was only available at Port Orleans). About $7k for the package. I hate going to a single room since it will be cramped with 5 adults but we’ve done it in the past.
Why not do Port Orleans 2 rooms and just pay to upgrade dining? (or 2 value rooms and upgrade dining?) How do the cost compare?
Hey Tom:
Thanks for the quick heads up this morning. I was able to get in and snag my 2 rooms for POP Century for the week of August 31 to September 5. Will admit that my browser froze a couple of times which was frustrating but not unexpected. I was able to snag my first room and then as my other browser unfroze I was able to grab my second room. I did upgrade to the table service as we so do enjoy those meals.
The dates worked out as we were planning to go during these times anyway, now we just saved some extra money as we were on the fence about purchasing the Dinning Plan. For us this is a benfit as our adult kids eat a lot and they love the buffets that Disney offers.
PB
I am surprised French Quarter was not excluded. I had wanted Pop but love French Quarter as well. It is usually excluded from all offers.
Woke up and jumped on WDW and booked my trip!! Doing 5 nights/6 days at Animal Kingdom lodge, my first deluxe ever!! But im second guessing my resort bc of thr distance to all the other parks. Should i keep it or do French quarter/riverside? As for others im seeing a ton of availability and different room categories for most resorts, more so this year than previous ones.
I was surprised, too! I got the email from this blog early in the morning, but assumed French Quarter would be excluded as usual. I didn’t check until later, and was so excited to see it included!
Just want to confirm that if I rent DVC points I would not be able to take advantage of the free dinning?
Hi All!
I was able to book a 6 day, 5 night stay at Pop Century from Sept 7-Sept 13th with the free dining package at 8:42am EST no problem. The website did not lag once. Added on the water park option for a bit more and it came to a total of $2251. We actually had been looking at a trip for the very next week, everything exactly the same and it would have cost us $3055. All we had to do was go a week early but keep everything else the same. Awesome deal! Thanks for your hard work! This was a great alert to wake up to!
That’s awesome, great time to look forward to and begging of the year.
For how many people if you don’t mind.
This is an amazing deal IF:
1) You only plan on 5-6 days at WDW
2) You have no desire to return during the calendar year
3) You have no interest in DVC for your future or renting points.
4) You don’t already have an Annual Pass or DVC membership.
Don’t misunderstand me, I would have used this a few years ago to stay at Port Orleans Riverside:
$4652 for 5 nights Royal Room Standard View POR with 6-day park hoppers and upgraded to regular Disney Dining (1TS, 1 QS, 2 snacks, mug).
$4192 for 5 nights Royal Room Standard View POR with 6-day park hoppers and Quick Service Disney Dining
$2045 room only
$2141 tickets (6-day PH)
So, for an additional $460 my family of 2 parents and 2 adult children could eat our way through WDW as we normally do. Or for nothing more, eat at QS pretty well.
But we DO want to go more than 5-6 days, and we DO love DVC properties (rentals or owning), so we bought 300 pts last year and have Annual passes ($814 each with DVC and renewal Platinum).
Even with renting DVC points and APs, it would be less expensive to do, say, 10+ days at WDW than to use “FREE” Disney Dining. Another thing to consider is AP and DVC dining discounts (10-20%) and Tables in Wonderland if you are inclined to adult beverages.
I was able to book a September 6 day trip using the Free Dining, which I will cancel, just to see if available. For those who go multiple times each year (an expensive addiction, I know, but very contagious), and like to eat where and when and not worry about dining credits, either renting points or buying DVC makes sense, and the APs at a reduced rate make the food almost free anyway (well, that’s a lie, but….)
You aren’t limited to 5-6 days, that’s a minimum. You can do 10 days on this deal if you want to.
However, with everything else in your post, seems like you’re pretty well set.
Where are the may deals. I’m planning on going may 5-17.
We are too. I find it very odd that no deal of any type is being offered for any part of the month of May. I hope that this gets addressed. I’m curious to know why this may be. If nothing gets released we are going to have to cut our stay short by a day.
I even checked the prices if I put in July 7-17th, with free dining it was only $500 more than what my stock rate May 5-17 will be. And thats without even the canadian ticket price discount which would drop it to only $200 more. I think thats well worth the less people and less heat.
I got a unique offer code for my May trip. Maybe they limited their May discounts to that offer? Not really sure. On one hand, I’d like to see additional offers open up to compare, but on the other, I see all the people posting on here that they just booked a new vacation thanks to the free dining and I think, you know what, maybe it’s worth it to pay more for lower crowds…if that’s how it works out. Haha. Ok, I know most offers are to get people to pull the vacation lever because Disney is under booked for the dates they select.
So let me make sure I am understanding correctly….If I book to arrive July 28th and stay through August 6th I will get the Free Dining for our entire trip?
No. If you booked:
June 27 through June 28, 2020
July 5 through July 7, 2020
August 29 through September 8, 2020
you would get free dining. Since you are stating 28 July. That is not one of the dates listed. You would have to PAY for the dining plan or go without it.
I meant start 8/29
Then yes, you would get free dining on Aug 29.
Lol, nothing confusing about that at all… hahaha
Actually you will get free dining for the whole trip. Your ARRIVAL must be on one of the dates specified
I just changed our reservation at All Star Movies July 4-9 to All Star Music June 28-July9. 6 extra nights plus adding park hopper for only $1400 more! We also paid to have the Disney Dining Plan instead of Quick Serice Plan.
Hi Tom,
It is 9:30 am, January 2, and I have no trouble finding a free dining plan for 14 nights stay at Pop, staring 8/29. However, I’m not booking it because it is a 16% increase of what I paid last year, all other things equal. We are not taking the free dining offer this year because it’s not worth for us anymore.
Hi Tom, Yeah I was curious how hard it would be…was able to book with no problems 9/5 through 9/13 for 4 with Savanna View at Animal Kingdom Lodge. Love your site. Hope I helped you out! 🙂
That’s wonderful news!
I’m hoping to see the Free Disney dinning Offer towards the end on November as we already have our cruise booked for then. Our family is planning on spending a week at Walt Disney prior to the cruise.
How likely do you think it would be for Disney to offer the free dinning during November ?
I am having trouble just getting the offer to come up. It shows up and says learn more, and then goes nowhere, or it doesn’t show up at all after refreshing.
What about April ?
Room discounts for April. Real question is what about May, that’s the only month I can ever go to Disney.