New 50% Off Tickets & Dining Plans Discount for Kids at Disney World in Spring & Summer 2024
Walt Disney World has released yet another new discount for Spring & Summer 2024. This post shares the details of this special offer aimed at families, commentary about the savings, and what else might be on the horizon. Specifically, the likelihood of full Free Dining coming soon! (Updated November 14, 2023.)
This is one of a growing number of special offers that has been released thus far for 2024 Walt Disney World vacations. If you’re looking for general public promos, the big one is the “Free” Disney Dining Card Deal for 2024, which runs through March 2024. Aside from this, that’s the other most notable discount out right now.
It isn’t the only deal available for booking right now, though–there are over a half-dozen different offers and some might be better for you, depending upon your circumstances. For everything else, see All Current Walt Disney World Discounts (Late 2023 & 2024). There are promos available for pretty much all dates between now and Spring 2024, with even more available for next year if you take a trip this year. So that’s worth checking out if you’re debating a trip in the next several months…
This deal is now available as of November 14, 2023. With the Kids Play & Dine for 50% Off Discount, children’s (ages 3 through 9) theme park tickets and Disney Dining Plans are half off with the purchase of a non-discounted 4-night, 4-day Walt Disney Travel Company package for you and your children that includes a room at a select Walt Disney World Resort hotel, theme park tickets, and Disney Dining Plan.
Book now for arrivals most nights from:
- March 3, 2024 through March 24, 2024
- April 7, 2024 through June 30, 2024
Here are the participating resorts:
There are a bunch of terms and conditions, pretty much all of which are common for this type of special offer. Everyone in the same room must be on the same package, meaning that adults must also purchase the Disney Dining Plan for themselves. Children must stay in room with adult, meaning you can’t book multiple rooms and fill one with just kids to ‘split’ the promo.
Table service restaurants may have limited or no availability at time of package purchase (a common complaint with Free Dining was the lack of ADRs for those who arrived without booking anything in advance).
Cannot be combined with any other discount or promotion. Disney Dining Plans exclude gratuities, which will need to be paid out of pocket at table service restaurants. Children ages 3 to 9 must order from a children’s menu, where available. Disney Dining Plan must be purchased for entire length of stay and for the entire party (ages 3 and up).
Offer excludes the following room types: 2-bedroom suites, 2-bedroom villas, 3-bedroom villas, campsites, Cabins at Copper Creek Villas & Cabins at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge and Bungalows at Polynesian Villas & Bungalows.
Note that the headline touts that this offers a 4-night, 4-day package. However, that is just an example–not what you’re required to book. Walt Disney World has been really weird about how it promotes these deals, often (shockingly) underselling them. The actual minimum stay is 1-night, and the maximum is 14-nights.
That’s really about it in terms of the terms and conditions that are actually meaningful. You can book the deal directly via Walt Disney World’s official site here.
Turning to commentary, let’s start by pointing out the obvious–that this is not be the “real” Free Dining promo. That should be apparent since it’s only 50% off, and only for children.
On a positive note, it’s also not as weak as “Free Dining Lite” or “Half-Free Dining” as we’ve come to call Walt Disney World’s past special offers that traded on the name recognition of the Free Dining offer. We haven’t seen one of those in a while, but they were common for travel dates during the winter through summer months in 2020 and earlier.
Although Walt Disney World has done “Kid-Sized” and “Play, Stay & Dine” offers in the past, none have had the same characteristics as this Kids Play & Dine for 50% Off Deal. This also is unlike the recent and upcoming Disney Dining Gift Card promo, which is more like a rebate deal. Anyway, just want to put this into context so you don’t just think HALF-PRICED FOOD and get overly excited! 😉
Before we start doing The Math™️ and confusing everyone, I want to put in a plug for reaching out to a travel agent. Any travel agent! As always, we’d recommend requesting a FREE no obligation quote from Be Our Guest Vacations, an Authorized Disney Vacation Planner and having them book for you.
They’ll assist you with the planning process, help you choose the most economical dates, best add-ons, etc. Notably, they also monitor reservations and can retroactively apply new discounts if a better deal is released to save you more money. (A big thing right now, since better deals keep coming out and supplanting the old ones!)
Equally as important, they’ll help you with discount comparison shopping. As noted above, there are over a dozen different discounts currently available, and if the last few weeks are any indication, that number is only going to grow! Walt Disney World makes these special offers confusing on purpose.
This is done in a bunch of little ways, which I assume is for marketing purposes or to appeal to different consumer psychologies. I really don’t know. Regardless, we highly recommend using a travel agent–even if it’s not Be Our Guest Vacations. (Just don’t use a Big Box or MLM–see Why You Should Use A Disney Travel Agent for more.)
The reason this comparison shopping is valuable will become more important over the course of the next few paragraphs…
Turning to The Math™️, we’re going to use Walt Disney World’s own example for illustrative purposes: a 4-night, 4-day stay.
The average full price of 4-day Walt Disney World tickets for children during the date range of this special offer is $579.16 per ticket. The per night price of the Quick Service Disney Dining Plan is $23.83 per child, for a total of $95.32 over the course of the stay. The per night price of the standard or regular Disney Dining Plan is $29.69 per child, for a total of $118.76.
Cut those prices in half and you have a savings of $289.58 on park tickets, and $47.66 to $59.38 on the Disney Dining Plan. That amounts to savings of roughly $338 to $350 per child. Now divide that by 4 to come up with the per night savings: $87.50. (Let’s just use the higher number rather than retaining the range–just keep in mind there’s some wiggle room.) Now multiply that times however many kids you have.
Doing all of that math is important because it gives us the means of comparing this discount to the previously-released Free Dining Card Deal, which offers a gift card on a nightly basis:
- $200 per room, per night at Deluxe Resorts & Deluxe Villas
- $120 per room, per night at Moderate Resorts
- $60 per room, per night at Value Resorts
As with any promo, there are a bunch of quirks and rules to that deal, so you’ll want to refer to the full details of the “Free” Disney Dining Card Deal for 2024 for those.
According to The Math™️, the Kids Play & Dine for 50% Off Discount is likely to work best for the following guest demographics:
- Almost all families staying at Value Resorts
- Most families at Moderate Resorts
- Families with 3+ kids at Deluxe Resorts
You probably don’t need me to tell you this, but $87.50 is more than $60, so even if you have one kid, you’re coming out ahead with the Kids Play & Dine for 50% Off Discount at a Value Resort. If you have 2-3 kids in the same room? GAME ON! That savings is suddenly ~$175 to ~$262 per night–better than the gift card deal at the Deluxe Resorts!
These are not hard & fast rules or numbers, though. The thing to keep in mind about The Math™️ here is that it changes and becomes less favorable with longer stays. That’s because the incremental per-day ticket cost decreases with longer duration tickets, so you’re no longer saving as much per day. If this example were with a 7-day stay, for instance, the per day savings drops to $65. With a longer stay, it drops even further.
The other thing to keep in mind is that this locks the adults in your party to buying whatever Disney Dining Plan you get for your kids. You cannot just purchase the half-price full DDP for kids and nothing for adults. To the contrary, you also have to buy the same tier of the Disney Dining Plan for adults, and the value proposition of those is a bit suspect.
In fact, we anticipated exactly this type of promo happening when DDP prices and details were released, as locking adults into the pricey Disney Dining Plan while giving it to kids at a discounted rate is incredibly savvy on Walt Disney World’s part. Personally, I’m reluctant to buy the regular DDP out of pocket because it’s tough to make it pencil out–but if I had a herd of children and booked a Value or Moderate Resort with this promo, it becomes a no brainer. (Just not quite as good as it appears on its face, since you’re ‘forced’ to buy the DDP for adults.)
With that said, this is called The Math™️ because it’s pretty rough. (“My spelling math is wobbly. It’s good spelling math, but it wobbles and the letters numbers get in the wrong places.” ~Winnie The Pooh ~Tom Bricker). That’ll remain the case until we have full details, exclusions, etc.
The bottom line, though, is that you’re probably going to come out ahead with the Kids Play & Dine for 50% off discount if you’re staying in Value or Moderate Resorts, and the kids in your party are equal to or outnumber the adults. If you’re a solo parent with triplets who are 9 years old and would buy the Quick-Service Disney Dining while staying in All Star Movies, you win big with this. It’s like hitting the jackpot as compared to the free dining card deal.
If you’re a couple with an only child staying at the Grand Floridian, you’ll be better off with the dining card deal. There are a range of scenarios in between, and a lot of “it depends” answers. In particular, you need to ask yourself whether the Disney Dining Plan makes sense for your eating habits, or if paying as you go will be the better bet.
There are also plenty of parties who will be better off with simply taking the room-only rate, as is always the case. Although it’s the “boring” discount, we are strong advocates of the room-only deals in borderline scenarios. Taking the up-front savings and not being “forced” to buy extras just to (supposedly) save more money is usually the best way to go if it’s a close call, in my opinion.
If you’re on the fence about whether to book this Kids Play & Dine for 50% Off Discount for 2024 or the Free Disney Dining Card Deal, our advice would be: don’t wait! Book something ASAP.
Although it didn’t happen in October, it’s still possible that Walt Disney World raises ticket prices in the coming months. Once tickets go up, you pay the higher prices for them with a new or modified booking. But whatever you lock-in pre-increase stays the old price. This means that anyone traveling between now and March 24, 2024 is able to secure the current prices now.
Obviously, it’s not possible to apply discounts to stays in April to December 2024 (aside from bouncebacks), but it is possible to at least book the undiscounted package now. After these potential price increases, it’s possible that’ll end up being better than future promotions. We highly doubt it given how aggressive discounting has gotten, but we’d still recommend hedging!
One question that keeps coming up from longtime Walt Disney World planners as discounts are released is what about Free Dining?
As we’ve discussed previously, there was never any realistic scenario where Free Dining was going to be released right alongside the paid Disney Dining Plan. For one thing, that would be turning the faucet wide open in terms of demand, rather than gradually doing so. There are still concerns with dining capacity and the ability of restaurants to meet demand once the Disney Dining Plan returns in early 2024.
It’s difficult to see that right now, as the fall off-season has made last-minute ADRs much easier to score, but the issue will rear its ugly head again this Christmas. The good news is that it’s lessening with each passing season, and by the time 2024 rolls around, things should be pretty close to normal again.
For another thing, the OG or “full” Free Dining historically was never offered for the first half of the year, anyway. If it returns in 2024, we’re likely looking at a late summer to early fall timeline as the first eligible arrival dates. Our Guide to Free Dining at Walt Disney World covers the historical dates–those should be pretty instructive. In particular, look at the dates for 2018 and earlier–2019 was an anomaly due to the pre-Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge lull, so more summer dates were released that year.
Nevertheless, I’m optimistic. Walt Disney World has now released or announced several room-only discounts for the first quarter of 2024, all of which were released earlier than their counterparts in 2018 or 2019. (The pertinent comparison since discounts were weak the last few years due to pent-up demand.)
In addition to that, Walt Disney World has also released the aforementioned free dining card deal and now announced this Kids Play & Dine for 50% Off Discount for 2024. While value for money can vary, my assessment of these discounts is that they’re both better on average than the “Half-Free Dining or Free Dining Lite” discounts released back in those time frames.
A lot can be said about Walt Disney World costing more in 2024 as compared to 2019 due to the loss of free FastPass, Disney’s Magical Express, and so forth. I’m not dismissing any of that–a 2024 trip that’s comparable to one in 2019 will cost you more as a result. Nevertheless, Disney has already released better discounts than in those years and earlier.
The bottom line is that everything we’ve seen so far from Walt Disney World discounts in 2024 suggests to me that Free Dining is increasingly likely. Walt Disney World is already heading down the road of at least matching deals from 2019 and earlier–Free Dining is the logical next stop.
With that said, it’s not a foregone conclusion. Free Dining was a big and bold deal that was leveraged by diehards, and Walt Disney World might be reluctant to bring it back after “retraining” fans to accept lesser special offers. However, they’d been trying to “wean guests off discounts” since 2010–for a full decade as of 2020–and it had never quite worked!
Given the sense of desperation already, and how that’s only likely to worsen once pent-up demand fades further in 2024 (not to mention a potential recession), I think Walt Disney World is more likely than not to offer Free Dining by Late Summer 2024. I think they’re more concerned about filling rooms and maintaining elevated per guest spending than they are about setting an unhealthy precedent with good discounts. My guess is that Free Dining is the ace up their sleeve that Walt Disney World won’t be able to resist playing.
Ultimately, this is another discount that’s earlier and better than what we were seeing in 2019 and earlier (nevermind 2021-2022!), which has been increasingly common with the discounts for travel dates this holiday season. While we’re still lacking full details about the Kids Play & Dine for 50% Off Discount, what we do know about it strongly suggests it surpasses the Kid-Sized offers from 2018-2019. Even without knowing everything, it definitely beats the deals for the same timeframe for the past two years.
Walt Disney World offering more special offers to the general public is great news, and definitively demonstrates that travel trends are normalizing now after running hot for way too long. During that period of pent-up demand, Walt Disney World was able to ‘get away’ with pretty much anything and still see record guest spending and insatiable demand. Consumers now appear to once again have more leverage, and companies need to entice them to visit.
This should be an interesting saga to follow, and it’s almost certain that we haven’t seen the end of Walt Disney World’s efforts to woo back former fans and pull “levers” to incentivize more demand and guest spending. If bookings remain soft for 2024, it’ll be interesting to see what type of more unique promotions (beyond room discounts) are released for the second half of 2024…it sure feels like things are trending in the right direction for even more aggressive offers! We will be closely monitoring what’s released and will notify subscribers of our free email newsletter when any Walt Disney World discounts are released or rumored!
More broadly speaking, this normalization is obviously good thing for fans and Walt Disney World. Revenge travel was a distortion that had unhealthy consequences at Walt Disney World and beyond. Putting that in the rearview mirror is good for consumers and the long-term health of the company–especially its reputation and guest goodwill. Walt Disney World not doing record-breaking numbers regardless of the guest-unfriendly decisions and changes they make–and instead having to actually compete for customers–is a good thing.
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 of this Kids Play & Dine for 50% Off Discount for Spring & Summer 2024? Do you like the ‘sliding scale’ that benefits larger families with more kids more than smaller parties, or would you prefer something that applied to everyone in the room? If you’re trying for this Kids Play & Dine for 50% Off Discount, which travel dates are you aiming for? Are you ‘sitting out’ Walt Disney World in 2024, not wanting to deal with the headache and stress? Any questions? Hearing your feedback about your experiences is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts or questions below in the comments!
Thanks for this. Dining plan works for us and this is the last year my oldest will be a Disney child. We will probably pay meals out of pocket for our next visit. The math works for us and we love the mugs at the end of the day. Booked an extra day.
Changed our June trip to this deal and it saved us over $1600! We have 4 kids so its a little larger than most, but still a very good deal it seems.
As a family with older teens, Free Dining would definitely make me consider booking a trip i wasn’t already planning. Food is SO expensive right now! But for anyone without kids 3-9, obviously you aren’t able to use the current dining promo. And I actually think that’s a big deal and why it’s so targeted. Younger kids are the life blood of Walt Disney World and i think after 5 years of the Disney Adult craze they are looking to woo regular young families again; and they typically have less money to spend than other demographics (of only adults). Just a thought.
Oh, it’s absolutely targeted for a reason! We discussed this in the pricing post about the Disney Dining Plan in general, which saw decreases for kids but big increases for adults.
It’s not so much that Walt Disney World is losing families with small children, it’s that they’ve been disproportionately solo travelers and couples without children. That speaks as much to changing demographics as it does Disney’s appeal, but in any case, they definitely want to win back families. (I wouldn’t necessarily assume that per-guest spending is lower than other demos; I don’t know, it’s just an assumption I wouldn’t make.)
In either 2016 or 2017 we had a free dining promo and we have only ever stayed in January or February.
I wish they would offer that again! It’s our favorite time to visit DisneyWorld.
This is the first discount Disney has ever done that comes close to making sense for my family. With 4 kids, we either have to get 2 rooms or a family suite, which means we do neither and tent at the campground. But with this discount we can group all of the under-9 kids with me and put the 10-year-old in a different room with my husband. They can get the room-only discount and the rest of the kids get discounted tickets and meal plans. Anything times 6 is expensive, so the ticket discount is a huge deal for us. Normal room-only discounts don’t make getting two rooms or an even more pricey family suite worth it, because our ticket cost takes up so much of the budget.
After pricing out counter-service meal plans, though, I am not sure you can make the adult QSDDP pay off without getting alcoholic drinks. The kids discount makes it worth it for this specific instance, but I wouldn’t even consider getting the QSDDP without the discount.
Yeah, the adult QS plan is so pricey, that even with the kid discount, it is still more money than we would spend on food. We are not the type to order alcohol or even soda with every meal, so it doesn’t work for us. You’ll come out ahead with 3 kids in the 3-9 age range though simply for the 50% ticket discount like you said!
We are a family of 5 (youngest under 3) and my 30% room only bounceback discount slightly edges out this promotion since we have a longer stay, but if we were going after my youngest turns 3 then this would be a great deal for tickets alone!
Jen, we’re a family of 6, and I had the same idea as you: one room for one adult and the under-10, and the others in a different room instead of getting one suite. We easily break even on the QS plan because we get alcohol or specialty drinks (milkshakes, floats, smoothies) for everyone at both meals, but I think I might prefer the flexibility for the second room.
Have a great vacay!
I notice you cant book this until November, which would be after the Price increase you expect in October. I am sure that is not a coincidence. You would then have to compare the savings on this deal vs the increase in the new price tier they would issue in October.
Since you’re forced to buy the same DDP for any adults on the reservation, does anything stop you from booking two kids with a single adult and having the other parent just buy their own ticket and stay at the hotel (assuming occupancy isn’t violated)? I’m thinking this would be a way to split 3 total DDPs across four adults if you don’t need all the food of a normal DDP.
Would even smaller things like getting on the buses or other hotel transportation be a problem?
Thank you for this!
Our plan is to go the first week of May and stay in a cabin at Fort Wilderness. I’ll have to run the actual math when this discount is released, but I’m thinking with 4 kids ages 9 and under it’s going to be great for us! Especially since we usually do a few character meals.
I mean, definitely do the math, but I think this is pretty much a sure thing for you with 4 kids in a cabin. You should come out way ahead with this as compared to any of the other offers.
Could you do some math checking this against traditional Free Dining? You have to pay 100% for adults and 50% for kids here, BUT you do NOT have to get Park Hoppers. If a family of two adults (including “Disney adults” 10yo+) and two 3-9yo staying for four nights, and gets the QS plan and “plain” tickets (with the kids’ 50% off), how much more is that package compared to them getting PH tickets at full price for all four of them but not paying for the QS plan at all? Might not be that different a deal for people with 3-9yo!
With a May 1, 2024, start date, I get regular 4- day tickets with half-price kids being $1802.89. If those become PH tickets for four, no discounts, I get $2774.66. So, $972 more for tickets. The QS DDP for two adults, two kids, for four nights is $646.72 (plus tax?) saved on Free Dining, where here the family pays $551.40. But $972 more for PH you might not want vs. paying $551 for a kid-discounted QS plan means people who don’t want to PH with small kids come out AHEAD here vs. the traditional rules of Free Dining!
Is my math off here? It won’t work for my party with only one person under 10yo, but it looks good for some people!
I might have spoken a bit too soon. I did some math for my party of six, five Disney adults and one child. We would pay $1188 for a QS dining plan for four nights with the kid half off, but we avoid $90*6= $540 in PH upcharges (we prefer no PH unless it’s free…or at least a lot less than $90 pp for the 1 or 2 days we would use it) and save another $275 on the child’s 4-day ticket or $815 less for tickets.
Sure, you might say that means I would still pay $373 more for this deal compared to True Free Dining, but there’s one, non-numerical wrinkle: the available dates. If you’re like me, and would much prefer to go in the first half of the year than the second, this deal is decent. The more 3-9yo in your party as a percentage of the overall group, the better this deal looks, AND you don’t have to go in the heat and hurricanes of late August-Sept or make kids miss school in Nov-early Dec.
The math that really blows my mind is comparing this deal to the 25% off Value rooms for my party of six. Incredibly, they are not far off. **Ticket prices are that high for kids** that 50% off a 4-day regular ticket plus half off the kid’s QS plan is not much more than 25% off two Value rooms or one Value family suite. The room discount does win for the six of us, but it would not if my college “kid” can’t go because of the timing or we otherwise reduce our party to one Value room (not a suite).
In short, people with at least one 3-9yo who can fit in one regular room: This deal can be better or equal to Free Dining if you don’t want Park Hoppers by dollar amounts and lets you go over, say, Spring Break and/or cooler Florida temps, and it can be equal to or better than 25% off Value rooms. Parties of two adults and two 3-9yo should give it a serious look if the QS plan fits your needs.
I think that analysis makes sense, but I did not independently do the math. (Already had my fill of that for one week.)
When this deal actually drops, its full terms are revealed, and it can be priced out without doing math on my own, I plan on doing more price analysis.
Frankly, when I first got the details of the deal, I was fairly unimpressed. It wasn’t until I started pricing out tickets that it struck me how good this could be as compared to other discounts. But also, kids tickets have gotten THAT EXPENSIVE?!?
Between this and the lower kids prices of the 2024 DDP, I’m guessing Walt Disney World has started to lose families (as compared to couples). They wouldn’t be doing things like this out of the blue, for no reason.
Tom, it is really interesting that you suspect they’re losing families, which could certainly be true in this economy! I jumped to the idea that families are desirable because of per-guest spending, namely *merch*. I admit nothing, but will hypothesize that it is much easier to convince a 12yo to save and think of getting only one real souvenir from a trip than a 5yo who sees 10 things they want every hour. And that you would rather enjoy them having, too. Droids and plush come to mind, not to mention people who think their child won’t want a costume in Fantasy Land or Galaxy’s Edge until they arrive and half the kids are in a costume. But first you have to get them into the park. This deal might convince some people to go for it.
But yeah, kids’ tickets, unlike the dining plan, are not really much less than adult tickets, and at $550 for a 4-day ticket, $275 per 3-9yo is a real savings! The $12/day you save on their QS plan, $48 over a 4-night trip, not so much. But $275 pays for 4.8 days of adult QS at $57.01/day. So if you have a 1:1 ratio of 10+ to 3-9yo, the child’s ticket discount pays for the adult’s 4 days of QS plan and most of the child’s half-price plan, too.
PLUS
1) Getting a dining plan gets each 21+ an alcoholic drink at each meal, and, again,
2) Unless they’re hiding it for the November drop, this discount does not require Park Hoppers for each and every person, a $90pp surcharge, making it arguably superior in one way to historical Free Dining requirements. Families with 3-9yo are exactly the people who will do fine with one-park-per-day tickets.
We are doing a split stay in April, 4 nights at Pop and 4 at Poly. We were contemplating doing the DDP for the Pop portion of our stay so this would be a no brainer. However, my question is for the ticket portion. We were planning to do a 6 day ticket. Would we be able to get this deal with a 6 day ticket or would it only apply for a 4 day ticket since our stay is 4 nights? Not sure this will be worth it if I have to purchase a 2 day ticket separately…
I assume it’ll only require you to purchase a minimum length-of-stay ticket, but won’t prevent you from going longer. That would be leaving money on the table for Disney, since the systems/policies aren’t designed with people doing split stays in mind.
With that said, that’s an assumption and we won’t know until the deal drops. I’m not 100% certain about the pre-closure policies with deals of this nature, but I’m pretty sure it worked like that.
We just booked a vacation at the beginning of May with this promo. We are also doing a split stay, with 4 nights under the promo and 3 nights at the campgrounds. We were able to get 6-day tickets with the 4-night reservation with the promo. I have 1 adult and 3 kids ages 5-9 in the room with the promo, and it will cost less than $100 more than what we would have spent just on tickets for the 4 of us. My husband and our 11-year old have a reservation for a different room so that we don’t have to buy 2 more adult dining plans and can use a room-only discount when that comes out. Also, we were able to choose a quick-service dining plan with the promo rather than the regular, more expensive dining plan. And it did not require us to get Park Hopper tickets like the Free Dining promo usually does. We don’t find park hopping to be worth it with little kids, so that is another savings for us.
A room only discount will likely be better. in our case this package doesn’t work (we leave WDW on March 3), but I ran the math for fun anyway. Two adults, two kids 3-9, and a 2 year old. We booked POR 5th sleeper for 30% off via bounceback which saved us $695 for 6 nights. 50% off of a 4 day child’s ticket for those dates would be a savings of $572.56. I suppose we would “save” another $145 on the QS dining plan, but I still don’t think it would work out in our favor. My 5yo is so picky we will likely pack most of his food anyway, and back in August we averaged $40-45 per qs meal for a family of 4. Let’s say $90 per day for 2 meals and another $20 for 4 snacks, so $110ish. We would be paying $137 per day for the QS dining plan and would come out behind unless we added a lot of non-water drinks, or purposely sought out expensive QS locations. The regular DDP would result in more savings with daily lunch or dinner character meals.
Just some extra math for anyone reading the comments! Hope it’s helpful!
Thanks for sharing your math!
I agree that it’s very important to ask yourself whether your dining habits ‘require’ as much food as the DDP offers. If it forces you to eat more to come out ahead, the savings are illusory.
Obviously your math is your math, but I’d just point out that for those who don’t have access to a bounceback offer (which is probably most people pricing this out), the wide/general public room-only discount is going to be 5-10% less than the bounceback. That’s not a huge difference, but probably would be enough to tip the scales for a lot of people.
I find all this so confusing. I am booked for April a family of 9 with 3 kids. If I call Disney now will I automatically get discounts that I missed. I booked in August.
This deal doesn’t come out until Nov 14. On that day if your dates and hotel qualify, you can either log in online to modify your reservation through MDE, or you can call Disney to have them apply it.
I hate how Disney treats kids 10 and up as adults for pricing. Aren’t we ALL kids at Disney?
I thinks it’s ridiculous that my 11 year old is considered an adult by Disney. They should have junior pricing for at least kids 10-14.
As a parent of 11 year old twins, I wholeheartedly agree. They get charged as adults on the dining plan but just eat pizza or burgers from the kids menu, and no alcohol. Crazy. And now we can’t even get a ticket deal. The Disney cruise line disney plus deal was better—it was a discount for the 3rd and 4th person in a room after the first two people paid full price, not about ages.