Travel Dates: August 16 – October 3, 2009
Please note, this discount is now secondary, as the Free Disney Dining has been released to the general public. A Disney VISA is no longer required, and there is not additional benefit to booking with a Disney VISA.
Walt Disney World has announced the “Free Dining” promotion for the fifth consecutive year. Currently, the discount is only available to Disney VISA cardholders, though it will be released to the general public starting on Monday, March 30, 2009. With the “Free Dining” promotion, Disney resort guests who book a Magic Your Way package that includes both your Disney resort room and your Magic Your Way park passes, will receive the Disney Dining plan add-on for free for all guest three and older in their party. There are a few requirements:
- You must book at least a three night stay, and your stay cannot be longer than 10 nights
- You must include at least a one day Magic Your Way base ticket
- You must pay your $200 per room deposit at time of booking, you cannot “hold” a reservation
As it was in 2008, this year Disney World guests will also be able to book the “Free Dining”, and upgrade to the Disney Deluxe Dining for the normal price difference, which is $32 for adults and $10 for children three to nine. The Wine and Dine option is also available at full price to add onto either the Basic or Deluxe dining plans.
Availability is extremely limited, and must be booked by June 21, 2009. It appears that all suites have been excluded from this offer, though all resorts, including value resorts are included. To receive the Disney VISA cardholder discount, you must pay your deposit at time of booking with your Disney VISA, and you must pay the balance with your Disney VISA card as well, when due. As a reminder, this exact discount will be released on March 30 to the general public without the Disney VISA requirements.
One thing to note that while the last date of travel is October 3, the free dining will extend past that date, as long as you check in October 3 or before. As usual, this is subject to availability.
To book this special Disney VISA “Free Dining” vacation package, please contact our great sponsor Mouseketrips, and ask for the appropriate code:
- RYI – Magic Your Way Dining Plan
- EEV – Magic Your Way Deluxe Dining Plan
- UXQ – Magic Your Way Deluxe Dining Plan plus Wine and Dine
jacq says
March 26, 2009 at 11:10 amDo you know if this can be used in conjuction with the 40% off rooms they are offering military?
Keith says
March 26, 2009 at 11:45 amJacq
No, the 40% military discount is for a room only reservation, the free dining requires a Magic Your Way package that includes both resort and park passes in the package. You cannot combine the two discounts.
Depending on where you are staying, it may be cheaper for you to book the free dining with a one day park pass (value resort, probably, deluxe resort, definitely not).
jacq says
March 26, 2009 at 1:27 pmHi!
I guess I am slow today, but what does this mean
“Depending on where you are staying, it may be cheaper for you to book the free dining with a one day park pass”.I am looking for any and all ways to save $$, so ideas are very welcome! We are staying at the All Star Music family suites. 3 adults and 4 kids. I know they are letting military add the dining (paying) even though we aren’t getting the magic your way package. I am lost..completely lost!! LOL
Keith says
March 26, 2009 at 1:56 pmJacq
If you are staying at a value resort, your savings on the military deal will be small, about $30 per night. The free dining will be worth more than that, depending on who is in your family. So, at a value resort, you are giving up a $30 per night savings on the military rate to get a $100 per night savings on the dining plan.
At a deluxe resort, the nightly savings at 40% will be much larger, say $100 per night at the Polynesian (rough estimate), so you are giving up $100 savings to get a $100 savings, probably not worth it.
It depends on where you are staying and who is traveling with you.
isabel says
March 26, 2009 at 5:52 pmI booked the package deal where you purchase 4 days and get 3 free with the magic your way tickets. Will they allow us to add the Free Dining plan once its released to the public on 3/30 even after we already booked it?
Keith says
March 26, 2009 at 6:51 pmIsabel
No, for two reasons:
1. The two discounts do not overlap, the free dining is only good for check-ins between August 16 and October 3, while the buy 4 get 3 free ends August 15. It would be impossible to qualify for both.
2. Disney does not allow you to combine discounts. If there is more than one discount available during your travel dates, you have to pick which discount would be better for you.
Jen says
March 27, 2009 at 7:18 amHi,
The only offer I can find through Disney visa is a 5 night minimum with free dining instead of the 3 night minimum everyone is talking about. Am I missing something?
Thanks!
Keith says
March 27, 2009 at 7:36 amJen
The requirement is a minimum 3 night stay. The information on the Disney Rewards email/website says 5 night stay, but that is just a pricing example, and has nothing to do with the minimum or maximum stays.
Jen says
March 27, 2009 at 7:39 amThat’s great news! Thanks!
Yung says
March 27, 2009 at 12:13 pmOnly me and my husband are traveling to disneyworld. we already have 10-day pass. If we just book this package for 3-nights and buy 1-day pass base tickets, can we have 3-day free dining plan?
Keith says
March 27, 2009 at 12:57 pmYung
Yes. The dining plan is based on the number of nights you stay in the resort, and has nothing to do with the length of the park passes in your package.
Paul says
March 28, 2009 at 6:35 amJacq,
If you are 3 adults, 4kids, you would be saving $39.99 per adult & $10.99 per child PER DAY! Thats a total savings of $166 per day. That’s $1162 worth of free food for a 1 week vacation. Your Military discount for the room and ticket discount would not even come close to that. Wait for the free dining offer to be released on Monday and you will need to find the 3 letter code to tell the reservationist. It will be posted on this website. Then update your package and you will find out the total amount of savings. I’m guessing it will save you at least another $500 than your current package which does not include the dining. Hope that helps!
Paul says
March 28, 2009 at 6:44 amYung,
I have a 10 day MYW package, booked at the Pop for Sept. 2 adults and 1 child is saving me almost $1000. I stayed at POR last Sept for 1 week and this trip is costing me exactly the same this year, but for 10 days instead! That’s awesome. I found that we never used any of the Resort amenities cuz we were always at the parks/waterparks or dwntwn dis all day long. this yr, we just need a place to sleep. So the value resort’s are perfect for that. The Pop may be a bit more crowded, but it does have its own bus service not shared with the other value resorts. Booking the package for the whole 10 days may be a better value for you depending on what your park plans are!
Paul says
March 28, 2009 at 6:50 amNot sure if anyone realized but I thought I would bring it up. Epcot’s Food & Wine Festival runs from Sept 26 to Nov 9 2009. That means the free dining offer overlaps the festival for the last week. That’s an excellent option for people that want to travel at that time. That was never available in the past!
Amy says
March 30, 2009 at 5:07 amJust called and booked the free dining! I made the reservation on-line last week and just modified it this morning. I didn’t have a hold time and was connected right away!
jacq says
March 30, 2009 at 7:41 amdarn! I will have to add one full price ticket to each person AND give up the 40% off discount. It ends up only being about a $100 savings.
Keith says
March 30, 2009 at 8:33 amJacq
I will take the $100 if you don’t want it. You just saved $100, why would you be upset? The tickets have value too, you can keep them for your next trip, they do not expire.
jacq says
March 30, 2009 at 9:22 amHaha, no, $100 is a $100! I am happy with it! I just got it all changed. I am getting a great deal either way w/ the military tickets. I am just thankful we are able to take the kids. I think I was just upset because I called 2x’s this morning, both times getting different info. I finally got somebody that knew what they were talking about. I’ll think of something to do with the tickets. I doubt we could ever afford to go to disney again, but hey, they don’t expire do they?
Amy says
April 7, 2009 at 1:36 pmCan you add the free meal package to an exisiting reservation made with a travel agent if you have the Visa and booked with the Visa?
Keith says
April 7, 2009 at 2:50 pmAmy
Yes, assuming your travel dates are within the travel period, and there is availability (there should be), they should be able to get it applied for you. This is one of the reasons why people book with Disney specialists, they would have done this for you the morning it was released.
The Disney VISA no longer matters, as the free dining has been released to the general public as of March 30.
amb82 says
July 8, 2009 at 10:50 amFor some, the free dining is a great deal. For us (just 2 adults), it’s really not. We are traveling at the end of August and staying into September for 5 nights. We already have park tickets that we purchased before with no expiration. Disney has huge room discounts during those days, so we are saving $56 per night on a room at Port Orleans French Quarter. We paid $540 total (including tax) for our room. If we want to do “free dining”, we have to pay full price for the room plus add on at least a 1-day park ticket. I researched, even through a travel agent, and it would COST us $460 to get “free dining.” It just isn’t worth it in our case. I’m just adding this in to show that in certain cases, free dining is not free at all, so be careful. But in Jacq’s case, I agree with the rest of you. As far as I know, the suites are not eligible for the room discounts during that time anyway.