Disney World Free Dining- Booking Details, Is It Worth It?

Free dining is one of Disney's most popular promotions for travel to Walt Disney World and we are excited to see it return for 2024. There are currently two free dining offers available for guests that book hotel packages with specific criteria. Currently, the two free Disney World dining offers are for Disney+ subscribers and Disney Visa Cardmembers. 

Let's break down the qualifications of this offer including travel dates, details of the Disney World dining plan, and whether it is worth it compared to other discount offers coming for 2024.

I visit Walt Disney World frequently and always take advantage of any Walt Disney World promotions available. I will use the same math I would do to break down if this offer is worth it and how much savings you will earn vs. a regular discounted stay offer.

What is Disney World Free Dining?

First, let's explain what it means to get free dining at Walt Disney World. This was an extremely popular promotion that guests loved and many of us are quite excited to see it return. If you book the Disney World free dining promotion, at a non-discounted rate (this is key!) then you will receive either the Quick Service Dining Plan or the Disney Dining Plan for all guests on your vacation package for free.

So essentially with this promotion, you are giving up the ability to book any other Walt Disney World discount offers, these offers can never be combined, to take advantage of the free dining plan.

Guests who book at Walt Disney World Value or Moderate Level Resorts will receive the Quick Service Disney Dining Plan with this offer. Guests who book a Walt Disney World Deluxe Resort will receive the Disney Dining Plan. Guests are also given the option to pay the difference to upgrade to the Disney Dining Plan.

Disney+ Subscribers- Free Disney World Dining Offer 2024

This 2024 free Disney World dining promotion is exclusively for Disney+ subscribers. You must be a current Disney+ subscriber for the month you are booking the promotion AND for the month you are visiting Walt Disney World. Here is the full criteria for the free Disney Dining plan offer:

• Valid for arrivals most nights July 1 through Sept. 30, 2024
• Non-discounted 4-night, 4-day vacation package at a Disney Resort hotel
• Theme park tickets must include Park Hopper option
• Disney+ subscriber for the month booking promotion and travel month

Offer excludes the following room types: 3-Bedroom Villas, The Campsites at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort, Cabins at Copper Creek Villas & Cabins at Disney's Wilderness Lodge and Bungalows at Polynesian Villas & Bungalows.

The most popular resorts for Walt Disney World discount offers can vary but the three most popular resorts are usually Pop Century Resort, Beach Club Resort, and Polynesian Resort. Usually, standard rooms will book up first as they are the lowest cost tier of rooms available. If you have your heart set on these popular resorts or a standard room then you need to plan on reserving your dates ASAP.

FREE Dining Offer for Disney Visa Cardmembers

There is also another offer for free dining exclusively for Disney Visa Cardmembers. Guests that reserve and pay for their hotel package with a Disney Visa can enjoy FREE dining when they purchase a non-discounted 4-night, 4-day Walt Disney package that includes a room at a select Disney Resort hotel and a theme park ticket with a Park Hopper option.

This offer is valid for the following dates:

• July 1 to July 31, 2024
• September 1 to September 7, 2024
• December 9 to December 21, 2024

Deluxe resorts will receive the Disney Dining Plan for free with this offer while Moderate and Value resorts will receive the Quick Service Dining Plan.

This offer excludes the following room types:

• 3-Bedroom Villas
• Treehouse Villas at Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa
• The Campsites at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort
• The Cabins at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort (Disney Vacation Club)
• Cabins at Copper Creek Villas & Cabins at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge
• Bungalows at Polynesian Villas & Bungalows
• Club Level and Suites at Disney Moderate and Deluxe Resorts
• Deluxe Studios – Club Level at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas – Jambo House
• 1-Bedroom Villas – Club Level at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas – Jambo House
• 2 Bedroom Lock-Off Villas – Club Level at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas – Jambo House

This offer is much more targeted than the Disney+ free dining offer but also includes dates that overlap with Christmas at Disney World. I expect these dates to be the most popular.

When Can I Book Disney World Free Dining?

The free dining for Disney+ subscribers has been available since January 3rd, 2024. You MUST use the same email you used to sign up for Disney+ to book this offer. Standard rooms will likely start selling out for this offer first along with the more affordable resorts. Remember, only a limited amount of rooms are set aside for this offer. For Disney Visa Cardmembers, this deal went live on April 9th 2024.  

This is why, especially for this popular offer, I recommend booking your Walt Disney World vacation with Get Away Today. There is no additional cost to use Get Away Today for your Walt Disney World trip and they take care of booking this promotion for you. If this all seems overwhelming, booking with a travel agent is the way to go. Walt Disney World pays them a commission so this is all at no cost to you! This is the perfect time to get a FREE Walt Disney World quote so you can price out your trip dates and then you can line up one of the wonderful agents at Get Away Today to book this offer for you to get the best price. 

Is Disney+ Worth It For Disney World Free Dining?

The lowest-cost membership option available for Disney+ with ads is $7.99/month. You will need to be a Disney+ subscriber when booking this promotion AND during the month of your travel. So at most, this equals to $16 to get the ability to book the free Disney World dining offer. This is a pretty low cost and it is absolutely worth it to book this offer.

If you have an existing Walt Disney World account, just use the same email for that account to sign up for Disney+ and they will automatically sync up. To be able to book and view the promotion, you will need to log into your Disney account for it to show up.

Is a Disney Visa Worth It for Free Dining?

To be eligible for the Disneyland and Walt Disney World Disney Visa card member discount you need to either have the Disney Premier Visa Credit Card, Disney Visa Credit Card or the Disney Visa Debit Card.

The Disney Premier Visa Credit Card and Disney Visa Credit Card provides cash back in the form of Disney reward dollars that can be redeemed for Disney vacations and merchandise. Now signing up for a credit card just to receive a discount offer seems a bit wild so I would consider how much use you would get out of this card and if those perks are something you'd utilize consistently. 

Now the Disney Visa Debit Card is available if you open a checking account at Chase Bank. This card is free and still gives you the chance to take advantage of Disney World Disney Visa discount offers. This seems like a much more logical move if you just wanted a Disney Visa to utilize Disney perks. 

How Does Free Disney World Dining Work?

Guests will receive the Quick Service Dining Plan when staying at a Value or Moderate Resort. Guests staying at a Deluxe Resort will receive the Disney Dining Plan for free with this discount offer. This will be for every guest listed on the vacation package. 

Let's get into the specifics of the Quick Service Dining Plan and Disney Dining Plan to see how this works with the free Disney World dining offer.

Quick Service Dining Plan 

Each guest on the reservation will get this included per day:

• 2 Quick-Service Meals (each meal includes a beverage)
• 1 Snack
• 1 refillable mug for duration of stay

Disney Dining Plan

Each guest on the reservation will get this included per day:

• 1 Quick-Service Meal (includes beverage)
• 1 Table-Service Meal (includes beverage)
• 1 Snack
• 1 refillable mug for duration of stay

The easiest way to think about how the Disney Dining Plan works is to look at what's included as credits. So for example, for a four-night stay under the Quick Service Dining Plan, each guest would receive 8 quick-service meal credits and 4 snacks. It's up to the guests when they want to use these credits. You could use 3 quick-service credits in one day for one guest if you wanted to, for example. Or you could use two snacks in one day. The guest gets to decide when these credits are used, it doesn't have to be per day.

In the past, guests who only received the Quick Service Dining Plan with their hotel stay were given the option to pay the difference in cost between the two plans to upgrade to the Disney Dining Plan.

Is Disney World Free Dining Worth It?

This is the million-dollar question, isn't it? Is the Disney World free dining offer worth it? Well, that depends on a few factors especially when you look at the fine print of this offer.

• Park Hopper ticket is required to book
• Offer is only valid for non-discounted Disney World packages
• Dining plans restrict guests to eating primarily at Disney World restaurants

These are three important things to think about when booking the free Disney World dining offer. If you already planned on purchasing a Park Hopper ticket and eating out at Walt Disney World (as opposed to ordering groceries, eating off-site to save money, etc.) then this offer likely makes sense.

As for the last criterion, this is the biggest one to price match. The free Disney World dining plan will also be running at the same time as other discount offers which are typically a percentage off stays. You cannot use both- you can only pick ONE Walt Disney World discount offer. To best compare these offers, add up the cost of the Disney Dining plan and use that as an example of money saved for your trip. Then price your dates for the percentage-off savings and compare which offers the best savings.

Sound too complicated? This is why using a travel agent like Get Away Today can be a lifesaver, they can do this math for you and give you the best advice!

Let's look at the cost of the Disney Dining Plan to see how these savings add up.

Quick Service Dining Plan Price

• Adult, per night- $57
• Child, per night (Ages 3-9)- $23.83

Disney Dining Plan Price

• Adult, per night- $94.28
• Child, per night (Ages 3-9)- $29.69

So if you book a 4-night vacation package then the value of free Quick Service dining adds up to $228 for an adult and $95 for a child. For the Disney Dining Plan that adds up to $377 for an adult and $118 per child. The more members of your group, the more worth it this likely becomes. If you are traveling with two adults and two children, that's a savings of $646 for the Quick Service Dining Plan and $990 for the Disney Dining Plan for a 4-night stay.

Once you do that math, compare it to any other discounted per-night stay offers. There is also a promotion released for travel dates March 25 through Oct. 3, 2024, for up to 35% off at Disney Resort hotels for 5-night stays or longer. This is the offer I would compare these savings to. With the up to 35% offer, you will save more at a higher-cost resort than a lower-cost one. With the free Disney World dining offer, if you are planning on booking a Value Resort, then this offer likely comes out on top. If you are planning on staying at a Deluxe Resort, then you might want to look more closely at the savings for the 35% off offer. Typically the Deluxe Resorts are the ones that see that 35% off savings with the Value Resorts typically receiving the lowest percentage off.

Another part of this math equation to keep in mind is the cost of a Park Hopper ticket for each guest. This is typically around $95 per ticket which can add up quickly so make sure to add that to your cost. Read more about if Park Hopping is worth it in our guide to Park Hopping at Walt Disney World. If you planned on Park Hopping anyways, this isn't much of a consideration but if it's something you feel you could do without, then it does impact how much you save with its offer.

Also, keep in mind that by booking a free Disney World dining offer you will be committing to dining primarily at Walt Disney World. For some guests, this was already part of their plan but many guests like to eat off property whether it's by purchasing groceries and eating at the hotel or grabbing food at nearby fast food restaurants. So this is another important consideration.

My Experience Booking the Free Dining Offer 2024

Lke all my Walt Disney World vacation planning, I always crunch the numbers and compare the savings to see what makes the most sense. 

Free dining works for my family because we primarily eat at Walt Disney World on our trips, we do not rent a car and usually don't leave the Disney bubble unless it's for a day trip to Universal Orlando.

I always book a Park Hopper ticket on our Walt Disney World trips as well so that criteria is not a problem for me. My son and I are pretty savvy parkgoers and sometimes hop between three different parks in one day if we're feeling up to it. We love to park hop and typically don't stay in one park all day. So since our trip lines up with both those criteria, the free dining promo makes the most sense!

But I also compared my trip to the released percentage-off offer. This is something I absolutely recommend you do to make sure you get the best price. For our vacation, I booked my favorite Walt Disney World Resort- the value resort Pop Century– along with a Park Hopper Plus Option (to add a day at Blizzard Beach or Typhoon Lagoon) for an 8-night stay. For my vacation package, I did pay the small increase to upgrade to a Preferred Pool View Room- at Pop Century Resort this will place you dead center of the resort making for great access not just to the main pool but the Skyliner and main building. Here are the two offers for our trip so you can see how I do my math to get the best deal:

• Package Total with Free Dining Offer: $4025
• Package Total with 25% Off: $3430

So while I look at these totals, it's obvious my price is LESS with the 25% offer- it is actually $595 more to book the free dining offer. However, if I add up the value of two Quick-Service dining plans that comes to about $900. Since I know that we always eat on-site at Walt Disney World, it makes more sense for me to book the free dining offer because I'm looking at about $300 in savings. I also know that the dining plans do provide a great value by purchasing these rather than buying food as we go- in that second scenario, we always spend more money.

Now if I decide we want to upgrade to the Disney Dining Plan, guests can pay the difference to do this from the Quick Service plan, then I would be looking at a $600 cost to upgrade. What this would do to our vacation package is essentially give us a discount on the full cost of the Disney Dining Plan. In that scenario, I would end up paying $4625 for our trip which would include the Disney Dining Plan. Since the Disney Dining Plan costs around $1500 for two adults, this is still less than booking the percentage off offer and adding that plan separately as that would cost $4930. 

So in nearly most cases, the free dining offer comes out on top. If you are interested in a Walt Disney World Deluxe Hotel then you should absolutely prioritize price matching this deal with the percentage off offer. The more you spend, the more you save with that offer, and those savings might cancel out what you would save with a free Disney Dining Plan. This is also true if you are not traveling with a large group, the dining plan becomes less valuable when you have a smaller group in your vacation package. This is why I booked a Walt Disney World Value Resort with this offer, it was the best way to maximize my savings. If I had booked a standard view room, my savings would have been even better but I always like to pay more for convenience. For guests staying at Walt Disney World Moderate Resorts, the same price matching should be done because this deal can go back and forth a bit with that middle-tier category of hotels. Depending on what you book, you might be better off with the percentage off offer, especially if you're looking at a higher cost moderate level like the Caribbean Beach Resort. 

I am excited to see free Disney World dining return and I anticipate this is just the first wave of many more future 2024 discounts. It is likely we will see additional free Disney World dining promotions released whether it's to the general public or for additional travel dates that may overlap either with the Walt Disney World Halloween season or the holiday season at Walt Disney World. But for now, this is a great offer that coordinates with summer travel which is easy to navigate for many families.

Plan Your Disney World Vacation!

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