UPDATE: This offer has been suspended as of May 9, 2020. You can read more information here!
Yep, Disney World finally extended its closure timeline this week.
Magic Kingdom
But, it looks like we may be saying “see ya real soon” thanks to the newest Disney World vacation package offer just announced!
According to Disney World’s website, the new vacation package includes accommodations at a select Disney Resort hotel, park admission, and a Disney dining plan! That’s right — eligible guests who purchase Theme Park tickets and accommodations get FREE DINING!
©Disney
Your Dining Plan will be determined based off of which level of Resort you stay in. Guests staying at select Disney Value Resorts or Moderate Resorts will receive the Disney Quick-Service Dining Plan. Guests staying at select Disney Deluxe Resorts or Disney Deluxe Villa Resorts will receive the standard Disney Dining Plan.
©Disney
The offer is only valid on new reservations booked before the end of May and is only available to guests whose reservations were directly affected by the closure. Eligible guests can book an arrival date for most dates from June 1st through September 30th, 2020 — as long as you book through May 31st, 2020. You can call (407) 939 -4251 or your travel professional to learn more! It is likely that guests who are eligible will receive communication from Disney directly.
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What about passholders? Seems like we are getting the short end of the stick. For those who have soon to be expired passes and aren’t renewing (and live far away), a simple extension may not be helpful. Seems better to be a non passholder right now, with more flexibility and offers. We can’t just drop everything and go to Disney whenever, as much as we’d like to!
This is only for people who purchased a vacation plan, hotel, park tickets, and meal plan at one time. I contacted Disney after seeing this and they told me because I purchased separately, I am not eligible for the free meal plan.
How is this fair for the customers who cannot afford to purchase all of their vacation in one deposit or payment. I feel like its just another thing to be disappointed in.
What if you already paid for the dining plan in advance with you vacation package?
Are they sure the parks will even be open by June 1st?
I was forced to rebook from the uk and had paid for the dining. Will we get a refund?
Does this apply to guests who had a dining plan and were in resort for a week still when the parks closed but did not book the holiday through disney. The parks closed on the Monday and we still had until the Friday to go, based at Caribbean beach resort…and as you no, Disney springs closed too. Thank you.
Are passholders getting the same thing if we had a vacation during this time that was canceled?
Why not extend this offer to the end of the year. I cancelled my May trip and have another huge trip planned in November
This is upsetting. They don’t seem to care about what also affects annual pass holders from out of state. We had a trip planned last week that was cancelled and it seems everyone else will get something out of this except the people who spend more money than someone who goes once a year.
We were originally booked with a vacation starting May 2. Disney contacted us last night and we rebooked to September with this offer.
I wonder if this means Disney anticipates the closure lasting through May. It could also indicate most people affected by the closure are rebooking to 2021.
What about DVC members who will be affected?
Do you know if this applies to DVC members? We had our trip scheduled March 31st-April 6th with our DVC points. We have already changed the reservation to Sept. We also had regular park tickets purchased but did not have a dining plan.
We were scheduled to go in April (now cancelled) and in July. We are dvc. Do you think this will apply to us? It seems like dvc members never get the free dining deals, but I’m wondering if in this case there will be an exception. Thank you
We rescheduled our Spring Break trip (April 4-11) to the week of Thanksgiving. Too bad they don’t extend this offer till the end of year. I don’t relish going to WDW in the heat of the summer. Way too hot for my family! I always love to save $$ but I choose not to go in the HOTTEST weather. 🙁
Hi Ted – just curious? How did Disney contact you? We also had reservations for the first week in May, and a Disney cruise before that. We canceled both on our own thinking that Disney may not be up and running by that time, and not knowing about the Disney cruise line also. So since we had already canceled our reservations, we didn’t get any notice from Disney about the free dining offer. Just wondering if May cancellations are included in the offer and if it makes a difference whether you canceled it yourself or not? DFB do you know?
We have a trip planned in Mid June.
Staying at Old Key West as a DVC member.
We bought 4 days of tickets already.
Scared that the pandemic will scare or not allow us to visit. We are using last year points, 2020 points and 2021 points. Will we be able to talk to someone about losing points?
What about guests that had reservations made in April and now had to cancel and we booked for he middle of October – I believe Disney needs to help out anyone who had to cancel – if some one cancelled and then rebooked right away they should be offered – I really believe not fair to everyone that had to cancel in these past few months and some individuals had to figure out other dates that they could get off work. I really think Disney needs to rethink this.
Stephanie, when you make a vacation package with Disney you have until 30 days before your trip to pay it off but you do have to put down a $200 deposit.
Arlene,
Our Disney Travel Agent contacted us via phone. She wanted to know if we wanted to take advantage of the offer and if so, what dates we wanted so she could see if there was still availability.
Our situation was we had made a reservation in December for our May trip (without Dining). We were going to cancel on Wednesday as our final payment was due on Thursday. But we hadn’t canceled the reservation when our Agent contacted us.
I hope that helps.
What about DVC members? We were bumped too!
Thank you Ted! We have already rebooked our Disney trip and Disney Cruise for later this year in August. We wanted to take advantage of the other Disney offer, the “Sun & Fun” Room Only offer which runs through August 31st. We will add our tickets at a later date. We are Annual Passholders but our passes will be expiring May 15. We had planned our trip for early May in hopes of getting to use our passes one last time before they expired. The extension for A/P’s will not help us since we are returning late in August. Hopefully we will all be able to get back to Disney World and enjoy some much-needed fun and family time together soon! Thanks again!
What about the people that got there before they announced the closure? We got there on the 12th and that’s when it was announced…..we had tickets until Wednesday! They should also offer this deal to those people that got the trip shortened! Even if it’s just for the remaining tickets we have left!
Disney world should really offer some kind of credit or offer for people who are being affected by the closure but cannot get the free dining. For free dining I would have to buy two day base price park passes but I already purchased military park tickets (nonrefundable) and to get the free dining I would have to pay even more then we already are paying with the dining plan. I feel like Disney World is offering the free dining to get people to book trips they otherwise would not have taken rather then offering inconvenienced guests any recompense. I would be happy with an additional 10% off my trip or one free night, or even a gift card, just something to show some goodwill and to help out people who are having to re-book and reschedule their lives, especially the ones who are not local and this is the one and only trip they can take. It seems like I am having to shoulder the burden of rescheduling but they are still getting my money at no additional cost to them.
Just wondering. Is this just for guests who book through disney direct in the USA? As we have booked last year with a UK travel agent for the 23rd April for 14 nights travelling from the UK and have already paid extra for the quick dining plan. In the current situation it doesnt look like the holiday booked is going to take place. The Travel agent we use has nothing about this on their web site and to move and rebook the same resort in July is going to cost another £2,000 UK pounds on top of what we have already paid.
My husband and I recently changed our reservations to mid May. We are DVC members and our points run out for this year on May 31st. If not used by then we will simply lose them. Do to no fault of ours! We have been told that we couldn’t put them towards next year as the January 31st date has passed and in order to keep them at all we would have to put them into RCI, this means we can’t use them at Disney and only at other RCI vacations which include Disney! Not for nothing but I Don’t want that!!!!! I am hopping that this changes as I feel our money is now being misspent!!!
Tim & Bridget Fogarty,
We’re dealing with very similar criteria as you’ve outlined–we, like you are DVC members (since 1993) and have a 21 member, family reunion also scheduled for mid June 2020. Additionally, most of our group have already purchased tickets for the vacation–so refunds on those tickets have yet TBD. At this time we’re awaiting news…first, looking to info from health experts and then DVC/WDW, et al, as to whether this decades long vacation/reunion we’ve planned will actually happen in June. Technically, those of us who’ve already linked our Park Tickets to the My Disney Experience app should soon be able to make FastPass+ selections. But honestly, if there isn’t a formal and public announcement of an anticipated re-opening of WDW parks and resorts, this long-time, dreamed of reunion/vacation won’t be happening. We’re very much aware and concerned that this is first a worldwide, health and safety issue and concern…as it should be. Our “group” is multi-generational, so it’s important to us that everyone’s health and safety is first. We’re like so many others like yourselves, we continue to be hopeful that we will be able to gather together again in June, but it is still questionable if in June, it will be safe and feasible to do so.
DVC Guest Membership Services has tried to answer as many of our questions as they are able to do so (at this time). We know that for several members of our family group, if it doesn’t happen this June, then many of our loved ones will not be able to reschedule before the extended period of Dec. 15, 2020, or because of the economic impacts, have the luxury or afford to delay. If that’s what happens, then our special dream (something that’s been decades long in planning) sadly, won’t come true.
We truly hope to have the opportunity to meet you folks, fellow DVC Members, there at OKW in June!
DVC Members,
Try first to see if there are answers to your specific concerns on the DVC Membership website as we did, and if you cannot see pertinent info there try to contact your DVC Adviser directly with your questions. There’s a lot of info being posted online, some accurate and credible, a LOT that isn’t! Believe me, if I/we knew for certain what’s truly happening with all things Disney, not just DVC related, we’d try to let others know.
Everyone, please keep safe! Save lives…we all have the opportunity and responsibility to do our parts.
G&J Bennett, DVC since 93
Natalie, and everyone really
It is my understanding, after talking to a Cast Member in Guest Services in late March, that if your trip was interrupted by the park closure that you should be eligible for the special offers. I did not ask about AP or DVC since they did not apply to me. BUT the key point is that to be certain that you get any special offers you might be eligible for that you should contact Disney when rescheduling (or your Disney travel agent if that was the method you used) vs. doing it yourself. I’d guess that of course you could schedule it then call to confirm that you got all possible offers but the “safest” method would be to contact Disney directly.
FYI we arrived on March 10th in the late evening and were scheduled to check out and fly home 3/17/20. We had park passes for that entire time. My husband was concerned that we could get stranded in Florida (we are from Minnesota) if we stayed thru the end of our trip. The morning after upcoming closure was announced I convinced him to consider heading home early. This was our first every family trip to Disney. He did not want to disappoint the kids but I knew he was very concerned about the whole situation. His worry was preventing him from really enjoying the trip. I caught on to this, and even though I was still pretty comfortable staying, I decided it was best to start pushing him towards changing our plans. We took a flight out in the early evening Friday March 13th. We had the Standard DDP and 4 hotel nights left We checked out a front desk late Friday a.m. We recently got a credit for the rest of our stay. We feel the credit we were granted is certainly fair. Our park tickets, have been automatically extended thru Dec 15th, they said if we are unable to return by then that we should contact Disney Guest Services and any credit or further extension will be determined at that time. It sounded like they are going to do their best to make it right.
A big part of why, even though we plan and book them ourselves, my husband and I often choose to book directly with the hotel, resort or destination we are going to, rather than a 3rd party, is because you will have the best chance of getting their best service if any complications occur.
Hey Kari! Yes I contacted Disney and they said we where eligible for the free dinning ! So we scheduled for September! Thank you