Travel Dates: August 28 – September 24, 2011
Update May 2, 2011: Walt Disney World has released this special Free Dining promotion to the general public, there are no longer any Disney VISA payment requirements to book the packages.
Walt Disney World has announced the “Free Dining” promotion for the seventh consecutive year. Currently, the discount is only available to Disney VISA cardholders, though it will be released to the general public starting on Monday, May 2, 2011. 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 one of 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 14 nights
- You must include at least a two day Magic Your Way base ticket
- You must pay your $200 per room deposit at time of booking, you cannot “hold” a reservation
Guests staying at a Disney World value resort will receive the Quick Service Dining Plan for free. Guests will be able to upgrade to either the Disney Dining plan or the Deluxe Disney Dining plan by paying the price difference. To upgrade to the Disney Dining Plan, the increased cost will be $11 per adult night of your stay (there is no increase for kids 3 – 9). To upgrade to the Disney Deluxe Dining plan, guests will pay $44 per adult and $10 per child per night of your stay.
Guests staying at a Disney World Moderate, Deluxe or Disney Villa resort will receive the Disney Dining Plan included for free. Disney World guests at moderate, deluxe and villa resorts will also be able to book the “Free Dining”, and upgrade to the Disney Deluxe Dining for the normal price difference, which is $33 for adults and $10 for children three to nine.
Availability is extremely limited, and must be booked by August 27, 2011. It appears that all suites have been excluded from this offer, though all resorts, including value resorts are included (All-Star Family Suites 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 should be released on May 2 to the general public without the Disney VISA requirements.
Guests will also receive a Disney Photopass Photo Book included as part of their package at the special pre-order price of $99.95. The photo book must be included in the package, you cannot exclude it.
One thing to note that while the last date of travel is September 24, you will receive free dining for your entire stay, as long as you check in September 24 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:
- I25 – Magic Your Way Quick Service Dining Plan (Value resorts only)
- Y23 – Magic Your Way Disney Dining Plan (Value resorts only)
- O2M – Magic Your Way Disney Dining Plan (moderate, deluxe and villa resorts only)
- H2C – Magic Your Way Deluxe Dining Plan
Valerie says
April 28, 2011 at 12:01 pmWhat is the booking deadline? It says August 27, 2010, but that can’t be right. Did you mean 2011?
Keith says
April 28, 2011 at 12:02 pmValerie – dumb fingers. It should read August 27, 2011, my fault, it is fixed.
Kim says
April 28, 2011 at 1:43 pmThanks for the FREE DINING tip! Just got off the phone with Disney and added this to my package! I’ve been waiting (hoping) for Disney to announce there would be free dining in the fall this year.
Keith says
April 28, 2011 at 1:48 pmKim – Glad you were able to take advantage, happy eating!
Beth Hansen says
April 28, 2011 at 8:16 pmThanks for the info! Do they usually offer free dining in December also?
Rob says
April 28, 2011 at 8:49 pmOk, I’m going to be booking a trip first thing in the morning but am kinda sweating some details. First we want to stay in the Fort Wilderness cabins. Are they excluded? Next, the website says that it’s for the “Memories vacation package 5 night/6 day”. We are planning on going for longer than that (7 nights/ 8 days) so will we be able to get the free dining for the entire trip? Thanks for the info
jasmine says
April 28, 2011 at 11:27 pmi’ve already booked 9/24-9/30 pop century, qs dining, will they let me change reservations & get the free dining? do i need to wait & call on may 2, i don’t have disney visa.
Keith says
April 29, 2011 at 8:48 amBeth – They did last year, I think it is very possible for 2011 as well.
Rob – The cabins are usually included in all discounts. Your length of stay can be anywhere between 3 and 14 nights, they use 5 nights as an example for prices only.
Jasmine – Yes, you can apply it to an existing reservation, though if you have a discount already, you can’t combine them, you can only use one. And yes, you will need to wait until Monday morning to call. The reservation center opens at 7AM EST, expect the wait to be considerable.
Barbara says
April 29, 2011 at 1:35 pmHi Keith,
I am from NZ and we are looking at heading to WDW 1st Jan to 14th Jan. In your experience, what are the chances of Disney putting a free dining plan out then?
Keith says
April 29, 2011 at 1:37 pmBarbara – probably close to 0. Disney has never offered free dining in the spring, you are much more likely to see some other discount like kids free or something like that.
Kristin says
April 29, 2011 at 3:08 pmHi, Keith! Thank you for the heads up! We just put a deposit on a room for Oct. 20-25, 2011. Is there a chance that the FD will be extended so that we can take advantage? If so, when might that info become available?
Thanks!
jasmine says
April 29, 2011 at 7:24 pmthanks keith!!! will i need a new code? is free qs dining a better deal than 25% off room rates?
Keith says
April 30, 2011 at 8:16 amKristin – Possibly, they did for 2010. I think that deal was released the first week of July, I would expect a similar time frame for 2011.
Jasmine – Probably, but that depends on your reservation. Free dining is usually the best deal, but not always. Just contact the person who booked your reservation (travel agent or Disney) and ask them to apply the free dining, they should tell you if it is a better deal or not.
Adelle says
May 1, 2011 at 7:36 pmIs the free dining at the deluxe resorts the deluxe dining plan or just the regular plan?
jasmine says
May 2, 2011 at 5:23 amTHANKS again Keith!!!! i just got our qs dining free & i added an extra night & our total was still over $100 in savings than our original 25% off discount!!!!
Jim says
May 2, 2011 at 6:08 amAm I missing something? They already had it extending to the end of September. Is this simply extending the sign-up date – which originally ended last December? Either way…I am hoping they extend it to December!
Keith says
May 2, 2011 at 8:20 amAdelle – No, free quick service at the value resorts, free Disney Dining at all other resorts, though you can pay the price different to upgrade to the deluxe dining if you wish.
Jim – Correct, free dining was offered in late 2010 for all of September, and that booking window expired right before Christmas. They have released it again for fewer dates.
tawnie says
May 2, 2011 at 7:27 pmHi Keith, We just booked the free dining in Sept. They added on the extra for the photo pass book. Do you know if this includes pictures on each page or is it just the book? A little confused on the whole thing.
thanks
Keith says
May 3, 2011 at 8:45 amTawnie – It is a custom made book after you return home with your photos in it. During your stay, you will have a photopass card, just use it whenever you have your photo taken in the parks or on some of the rides. When you get home, you will be able to go online and see all those photos and make yourself a photobook, they are pretty nice.
You can see some examples here: http://www.disneyphotopass.com/photoproducts.aspx
Yvette Saulnier says
May 4, 2011 at 8:55 amhi! just wondering if anyone knew if free dining will be extended into December 2011, in the past I know it has been…hoping it will! 🙂
Keith says
May 4, 2011 at 8:57 amYvette – No one knows at this point, I don’t think even Disney knows what they are doing. Personally, I think we will see it offered similar to last year, where it is a week here and there in October, November and December, along with some other deal that covers all dates. We probably won’t know for a few more months.
Yvette says
May 4, 2011 at 9:14 amhi Keith! tks for the information, was just checking last years dates…hope it is extended like that this year as well, we are going November 27th…cross my fingers! 🙂
Tina says
May 4, 2011 at 11:27 amOkay, I want to book but am curious as to how likely it is that we’d have bad weather late August? I know this offer is for the rainy season right? What’s the likelyhood of very bad weather? Thanks.
Keith says
May 4, 2011 at 11:32 amTina – Well, August is hurricane season, so I guess there is a chance it could get really bad. Most of the time in late August/September, it is just hot and humid with rain in the afternoon. Not sure if you consider that bad or not.
Candy says
May 4, 2011 at 7:49 pmHi Keith,
Just wanted to say Told ya so! I had asked for information on free dining being offered again a few months ago, and you said “highly unlikely” we have gone the last two Augusts, and gotten free dining both times, both booked last minute. My problem was different. We had booked a bounce back offer by Sept. for this August for 10 days for our family. Then in December my father in law died after a quick illness. We added my mother in law on and could not get free dining. I just would call every week or so, and once I was treated rudely. I wrote an email and Disney called me and apologized, explaining I could have booked 3 rooms with my original offer, and my mother in law should have been given it from the start.
This was our first time booking on our own. We have used mouseketrips for August 2009, Dec. 2009, and August 2010. I highly recommend them, and we have friends who have used them.
Keith says
May 5, 2011 at 8:45 amCandy – Yep, I was wrong. It is very rare that Disney releases a discount, let’s it expire, and then releases it again months later. Of course, this deal isn’t as good since you have to buy the photopass book, but still, very surprised.