Disney Free Dining Ultimate Guide

The Disney World Free Dining offer is by far the most popular promotion of the year. It is pretty clear why… FREE FOOD at Disney? Ummm, yes please!

In this post, I’ll answer the most common questions I get asked (e.g. Is it always the best deal? How much can I save?) and share everything you need to know about Free Dining in this post.

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What Is Disney Free Dining?

First, let’s look at some basic details of how the free dining offer works.

Each year from 2009 – 2019 Disney World released a “Free Dining” package offer for select travel dates.

We haven’t seen a Free Dining offer return after the pandemic, but fingers crossed for 2024. 

When Is Disney Free Dining Offered?

The dates during which free dining is offered change each and every year. Disney uses this promotion to fill its resorts during off-peak travel times, so these dates inevitably change.

I suggest you check out this post all about the Disney Dining Plans if you aren’t familiar with how they work. 

Can you upgrade the free Disney Dining Plan?

Yes, you can definitely upgrade a dining plan you get for free as part of the Disney Free Dining offer. 

If you get the Quick Service plan with your package and want the standard Disney Dining Plan, you will just pay the difference between the two plans. 

For 2020 the difference between the plans is $23 per night for adults and $4 per night for children. 

You could also upgrade from the Disney Dining Plan to the Deluxe Plan and pay the difference. 

How can I book a Free Dining Package?

You can only book a Disney World Free Dining package with a Disney authorized travel agent or directly through Disney.

I strongly recommend using a travel agent who specializes in Disney travel to help you with booking any Disney package!

I personally recommend getting a free quote from Siera with Destinations in Florida because she is one of the most experienced agent you will find to help plan your Disney vacation.

It won’t cost you anything extra, and you’ll have someone to handle all of the complicated details (trust me, there are A LOT), so you can just sit back and dream of your upcoming trip.

So those are the basics of how Disney Free Dining works. Next, I’ll break down who stands to benefit most from the free dining package and who might save more with a different type of discount.

What Resorts Are Excluded From Disney Free Dining?

This changes every year, but in 2020 exclusions from the Disney Free Dining offer included:

• Little Mermaid Rooms at Disney’s Art of Animation Resort
• The Campsites at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort
• Disney’s All-Star Movies Resort
• Cabins at Wilderness Resort
• Bungalows at Polynesian Resort
• All Three-Bedroom Villas at any Disney World Resort

These are the most heavily booked resorts (at least in 2020) so that is generally why they are excluded from Free Dining.

Is Disney Free Dining The Best Deal?

The short answer to the question “Is Free Dining the best deal?” is not always. Whether or not Free Dining works out to be the best deal for your travel party depends on several factors.

First, you’ll get a dining plan at no additional cost for every person in your travel party, which means you’ll save more when there are more people in your room. A family of four will save MUCH more than a solo traveler with the free dining offer.

Next, where you stay will greatly impact whether or not Free Dining is the best deal for you.

Generally, you’ll save the most from Free Dining at Disney’s Value or Moderate resorts. If you want to stay in a Deluxe resort, you’ll almost always save more with a “room-only” discount. To get an idea of what the regular or “rack” rates are at Disney’s resorts, check out this excellent resource from MouseSavers.com.

Disney regularly offers discounts of 10 – 35% off room-only reservations, or those that don’t include park tickets or a dining plan. The best discounts are for the Deluxe resorts, with savings commonly in the 25-35% off range.

It is possible to put together your own “package” by purchasing a room-only reservation then adding the tickets and meals separately. This will always be more work than purchasing a package deal, but the extra savings may end up being worth it to you.

Let’s look at how much you can expect to save with a Free Dining package next!

How Much Can You Expect to Save?

Now let’s crunch some numbers to see how much you can actually expect to save with Disney World Free Dining. Don’t worry, I’ll do the heavy lifting (I was a middle school math teacher in the recent past!)

	Credits (per night)	Cost (including tax)
Quick Service Dining Plan	2 quick service meals + 2 snacks	$55.00 (adult) $26.00 (child)
Disney Dining Plan	1 quick service meal + 1 table service meal + 2 snacks	$78.01 (adults) $35.50 (child)
Deluxe Dining Plan	3 quick service or table service credits + 2 snacks	$118.99 (adult) $47.50 (child)

Here is a chart showing the cost of the three different dining plans if you were to purchase them out of pocket. It is helpful to know the cost of the plans when figuring your potential savings with Disney Free Dining.

Next, I’ll give some examples for a five-night stay during the last week of November.

First let’s take a family of four, with kids ages 7 and 10, staying in a standard view room at Disney’s Pop Century resort (you can read my full review of the resort here).

They want to visit more than one park in a day so they’ve already planned on purchasing five-day Park Hopper tickets. They are interested in the Quick Service dining plan so they aren’t tied down to reservations.

If you purchase your park tickets separately (i.e. not as part of a package) I always suggest getting them at a discount through Undercover Tourist.

I’ve included their discounted prices here for the room-only discount comparison, which in this case will save over $100 compared to Disney prices.

Since Disney hasn’t leased a room-only discount for these travel dates yet, I’ll use a 15% discount since that’s often what you can expect to save at the value resorts, and I’ve included the hefty 12.5% resort tax.

Here’s a chart comparing the cost of the trip with a room-only discount versus one with a Free Dining package.

The trip costs roughly $3,200 with the room-only discount and discounted tickets and roughly $2,600 with the Disney World Free Dining Package. That’s savings of $600 for the five-night trip, or almost a 20% discount.

While it isn’t outrageous savings, most folks would like to keep $600 in their pockets, I’m sure. So in this situation, Free Dining looks like the best deal.

Now let’s look at a different situation. A couple wants to stay in a Savannah view room at Animal Kingdom Lodge the same week to visit the Epcot Food & Wine Festival.

They want the standard Disney Dining Plan for all of the those amazing snack credits and to eat at a table service restaurant most nights. Plus, they don’t really need a Park Hopper ticket and only want to spend three days in the parks (remember that you are required to add the Park Hopper option to get a Free Dining package).

Here’s a comparison of what they’d pay with a 30% room-only discount versus a Free Dining package.

In this scenario, they’d save $330 by NOT booking free dining and going with the room-only discount instead. So clearly Free Dining isn’t always the best choice!

Should You Get a Disney World Free Dining Package?

As you can see, it is complicated to determine whether or not a Disney Free Dining 2020 package is the best choice for you.

In general, the best value from Disney World Free Dining comes from parties of three or more staying in a Value or Moderate resort. But even then there are other considerations, such as whether or not you’d really use the required Park Hopper tickets.

Because deciding if Free Dining is the best fit is pretty complicated, I strongly suggest working with a travel agency that specializes in Disney travel.

I recommend Destinations in Florida, an award-winning agency with many Authorized Disney Vacation Planners who can help you decide if Free Dining is a good fit. Their agents can crunch all of the numbers for you, and find the resort and offer that is the best fit at the best price!

A Few Other Thoughts

Here are a few other things you should know about Disney World Free Dining 2020:

• Packages are bound by different cancellation policies than room-only reservations. You can change or cancel a room-only reservation up to five days before check-in without any penalty. You can cancel or change a package reservation with no penalty up until 30 days before check-in, making them less flexible for last minute changes.
• Free Dining is a wildly popular promotion. You will need to book as soon as it is released because availability is limited. You only need a $200 deposit to book and it is refundable up to 30 days before your trip, so it makes sense to book even if you aren’t 100% sure you’ll go. 
• The best way to stay up-to-date on offers like this is to join The Budget Mouse free private Facebook group or subscribe to my weekly email newsletter.

I hope this post answered all of your burning questions about Disney Free Dining. I’ve taken advantage of this offer MANY times and love using the Dining Plan at Disney World.

If you have any questions, just leave a comment below!