Disney World has started to re-open in phases, beginning with third-party restaurants and stores in Disney Springs!
Although some of these spots are opening back up, Disney World has also recently confirmed that they will no longer be taking any reservations earlier than July 1st. And, before today, if your vacation was affected by the park closures, you could take advantage of a private offer including a free dining package.
The original offer allowed eligible guests with trips during the closures to re-book with a free dining package for most arrival dates from June 1st through September 30th if booked by May 31st, 2020.
However, the private offer is no longer listed on the Disney World website. We also confirmed with a Cast Member that this offer is discontinued for new reservations for the time being. Guests who have already booked a reservation with the offer will still receive the free dining plan.
There is a possibility that Disney World could roll out another Free Dining offer later this year since they did it twice in 2019, but there is currently no precedent for how Disney World will handle special offers during an extended closure like this. We’ll continue to keep you updated with more information!
Check out the dining locations that are CONFIRMED to re-open on May 20th in Disney Springs here!
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Do you have plans to travel to Disney World later this year? Let us know in the comments below!
Julie says
Wow. I would be pretty mad if my reservation got canceled because of all this and everyone else got a free dining offer to reschedule and I didn’t get anything for canceling my trip. I feel bad for this last group!!
Keely says
Wish you elaborated on what this implies. Are they reopening soon? Are they booked to the new capacity?
Molly Calderara says
I feel like it’s important to note that this offer still stands for those who have rebooked with this offer. They are just not offering it for new bookings.
Becky says
I rescheduled my April trip to August 15th-22nd and got the free dining. Fingers crossed that they will open by August. I have already made all of our dining reservations. My question is this…I am an annual pass holder with an expiration date of May. When I made my August reservation I got a ticket for myself as I was not planning to renew my annual pass and assumed it would not still be good in August. Now that it looks like my annual pass may still be good due to the way they are extended passes due to length of closing, what do I do with my 8 day ticket?
Beccah says
My reservation was for May 17th and when I called in April, I was told to about the promotion and advised to wait a little longer to see what might happen in May. I called on May 9th to reschedule and was told there were no other promotions available to me and that my reservation costs had risen due to the date changes. I am beyond disappointed.
Jenna says
I was pretty disappointed by this change. I had called earlier in the week to verify the offer details and run numbers; even booked the room, but did not add the tickets or dining plan at the time because I needed a day to finalize it with my family. When I called to add the dining offer and tickets they informed me the offer was discontinued the evening before and could no longer be added to my reservation. I pushed a little harder because the email said we had until the 31st and I had just called the day before to verify and run numbers, but no budging. Since we were moving to September the agent shared to be on the look out for another offer in early June… still sad to see the free dining offer to go without warning and without honoring the original commitment made to people during this tricky window.
Jen says
Does this mean that since I didn’t rebook my Memorial Day weekend trip, I’m no longer eligible? I was waiting because even if the parks didn’t open, but the resorts did, I still would’ve gone. I decided last week to go ahead and reschedule to late June but that was the same day they stopped accepting new offers for June. My reservation hasn’t been cancelled yet. So bummed!
Mark says
So I made my reservation last August and if Disney cancels I get nothing….
21yrs of going and this once again is what you get for being a repeat customer.
Yep I’ll hurry on back.
Michelle D says
As someone with a June reservation, I think this means we are going to find out the parks are reopening soon and we will be able to cancel without penalty if we want, but we won’t get any incentives to rebook since so many people already have reservations for WDW. It is very likely they will need to control crowds of people wanting to visit than encourage people to go to WDW.
Chad Thiele says
Agreed on being mad. We are booked to go 7/2 to 7/9. Hours lost booking dinner reservations, and even recently fast passes just in case they are open. If people prior to this got several thousand dollars in credits (we have a party of 7!) and we didn’t, that would be ridiculous being impacted over a holiday vacation especially.
Chrystie Schmelter says
The free dining offer was never for new bookings. It was only for those reservations that were canceled by the closure and rebooked for stays between June 1st and September 30th.
DFB Sarah says
Becky, contact Disney to see what they say.
Michelle D says
Becky, If you get the ticket with your package, Disney will allow you to apply the value of that ticket to your AP renewal. Just be sure to NOT use the 8-day ticket while at the parks….or make sure to go to guest relations and renew the pass with that value applied before entering any park.
Dee says
Had a trip booked for May 3-13 that got cancelled. Had to rebook for next
May since that is the only time everyone in my party could get the same time off. I think they should have given everyone who had a trip cancelled the free dining for their trouble as long as it was rebooked at the time of cancellation no matter when it was rebooked for. We now have to book our dining reservations and fast passes all over agin so the free dining would have been nice.