Disney World Free Dining 2012

THE 2013 FREE DINING OFFER HAS BEEN RELEASED.

***Update: The free dining offer has been extended to include later 2012 dates. It requires a 5 night stay and must be booked by Sept 29th (although I recommend booking much sooner as resorts are filling up fast). The dates are as follows...

September 30th-October 4th

October 19th-November 1st

November 9th-15th and 23rd-29th

December 10th-13th

A three night minimum stay is required. If you're dates are off, you can still get the free dining offer so long as you have at least one overlapping night within 3 days of the dining offer.

Also, the offer is currently (Monday, July 9th) offered only to guests with a Disney Visa Card, however, the offer is expected to be made open to the general public on Thursday July 12th.***

Ok. It's official. Today (March 5th, 2012) Disney opened up the free dining offer to the general public (American public only so far...international guests have not yet been included) if you book by May 18th (although you will need to book much sooner than that because the rooms are going fast) for stays between August 25th and September 27th. Don't worry if you're entire stay is not within those dates...just one overlapping night within three days of the offer and you can get the offer for your entire stay. Also, keep in mind you can only have one discount at a time so you can't combine the current military discount and the free dining offer...just one is permitted and for the record, free dining will almost always save you more but do the numbers for your group and see for your self.

The way the free dining offer works is this...IT IS ONLY AVAILABLE TO GUESTS STAYING AT A DISNEY OWNED AND OPERATED RESORT. So, you are ineligible if you're someplace else like Shades of Green. It is a package inclusion...meaning you have to book a package...resort AND park tickets so if you're a season pass holder, you'll be required to buy TWO days worth of tickets...no more, no less are required. 

If you stay at a Disney Value Resort you'll get the quick service plan (details on the exact differences on the plans can be found on my Disney Dining Plan page) for free.

If you stay at a Disney Moderate Resort EXCEPT FT WILDERNESS CAMPSITES or a Disney Deluxe Resort, you'll get the basic dining plan for free.

Either way, you can pay the difference to upgrade your dining plan...say from the quick to the basic if you're staying at a value resort or from the basic to the deluxe dining plan if you're staying at a moderate or deluxe resort.

A family of four staying at a moderate resort for 6 days, 5 nights could easily save over $600 with this great deal. Check it out and book today. In order to get the free offer YOU HAVE TO CALL IN. You can't book it online. The number is 407-939-7675. Expect the wait time to be significant. I called at 6am (my time...7am Orlando) to add this deal to our current package for a trip we had already reserved within the time frame and was on hold for 40 minutes before they got to me but within ten minutes I had the free dining and saved our family a significant amount of money. Disney phone lines are open every morning at 7am EST and stay open until 10pm EST.