Disney World’s most popular promotion has been announced for the summer of 2025! The Free Dining promotion has become highly anticipated over the last decade, and returned to the resort last year after disappearing post-COVID. We now have confirmation that it will be back this year. In this post, we’ll share the details about Free Dining in 2025 as well as add our own commentary!

The Details 

• From Jan. 2 to Feb. 10, 2025, you can get a free dining plan with the purchase of a non-discounted 3-night, 3-day (at minimum) Walt Disney Travel Company package that includes a room at a select Disney Resort hotel and a ticket with a Park Hopper option. 
• This offer is available for most arrivals starting May 27 through Jun. 26,and Jul. 7 through Aug. 6, 2025.

Also beginning Jan. 2, there will be more offers available, including deals on select Disney Resort hotel rooms.

What Is a Dining Plan? 

Think of dining plans as a way to try different restaurant and without on-the-spot budgeting for food. There are two options, the Quick Service Dining Plan and the Dining Plan, which include a certain number of meals and snacks based on the number of nights you stay. You purchase the dining plan as part of a vacation package before your trip, so when you’re on vacation, you can enjoy your meals with your loved ones without looking at the price tags. Like before, the dining plan included in this offer depends on the Disney Resort hotel you choose.

Here’s a little graphic that Disney has put together about the Dining Plan. The left side is very helpful while the right side is far more subjective.

Commentary

Disney Dining Plan is a divisive topic across the fan community. Some swear by the worry free nature of the plan and think it offers a good value, even when it’s not included in a vacation package. The counter is that Disney is banking on guests not ordering the most expensive things offered or not using all of their credits, making this a poor value. Both sides are valid as it comes down to whether or not people utilize the plan correctly or not.

We tend to enjoy the Disney Dining Plan. Melissa loves having everything paid for ahead of time, no matter if it’s included in the promotion or not. I like that too and is certainly more of an incentive to order the most expensive thing on the menu, which I’m not always prone to do otherwise. For a carnivore like me, having the Disney Dining Plan leads to a lot of steak and steak is good! Having said all of that, we usually only book the plan for 3 or 4 nights (with our split stays) as we start to get a little overly full.

Not to be overly wishy-washy, but how strong of a promotion the Disney Dining Plan is relative to other Disney World promotions will depend on they type of food (and how much of it) your family eats. The plan rewards steak eaters and cocktail drinkers, while vegan options or pickier eaters tend to get less of a value. If you fit in the former category and are eager to try some Walt Disney World restaurants then the Dining Plan is likely the best promotion WDW will offer all year.

If not, then the room discount offers can hold up to the Dining Plan. This is the most popular promotion for a reason though! It’s fun to eat good food on a vacation! If you’re going to try to book this promotion anyway, we would recommend upgrading to the full plan and not just the counter-service plan as that’s when the good restaurants really come into effect.

Moving past whether the Dining Plan is the right move for you, the timing of the offer is interesting. Disney World seems to be reacting to the slow summers of the last few years by pulling out their most popular promotion for June-August. That paired with a new nighttime parade and a few other offerings could make for an exciting summer at WDW.

There’s no doubting that some of this is a reaction to Universal’s Epic Universe opening down the road. Walt Disney World is at risk of losing even more crowds during this summer thanks to that new theme park. Starting with a popular offer and more events announced now may give them a chance to combat it. I’ll be interested to see if WDW has a few more tricks up their sleeve.

Are you excited for the Disney Dining Plan? Let us know your thoughts or any questions you might have in the comments below. Planning a trip to Walt Disney World? Check out our Disney World Trip Planning Guide to help you out. Looking for Disney World discount tickets? You can find them here! If you enjoy what you are reading here on Wandering in Disney please share this post with your friends, as well as like our social media pages. You can also subscribe to the blog via WordPress or email. All of those links are on the right side of this page. Thank you for reading, we really appreciate it!