2025 Free Dining at Disney World for UK
After a multi-year hiatus, Walt Disney World has brought back the 2025 Free Dining Plan discount for UK residents! This post discusses dates and details of the deal and whether the special offer makes sense to book. Plus what this could mean for future Free Dining deals for U.S. residents.
First, the details of the 2025 Free Disney Dining Plan discount for UK residents. You’re eligible for this promotion if you book a full-price Walt Disney World package for a minimum of 5 nights and a maximum of 21 nights in one of the participating resort hotels and a 7 or 14-Day Magic Ticket on arrival dates between January 7, 2025 and April 5, 2025; April 23, 2025 and October 2, 2025; and/or October 18, 2025 and December 17, 2025.
As part of this offer, you can also take advantage of Walt Disney World’s 14-Day Magic Ticket for the price of a 7-Day Magic Ticket, which includes Memory Maker and is available exclusively to UK and Ireland residents. This special offer is now available and must be booked by November 7, 2024.
Book the 2025 Free Dining promo by July 2, 2024 to save £300 per booking on flight-inclusive packages when you book direct with Disney or save £200 per booking on Walt Disney World resort hotel & ticket vacation packages. In reading the fine print, it looks like those amounts are in euro for guests from Ireland (€200 for packages without flights; €300 with flights), and it also appears that guests booking after the July early bird window still receive a £100 or €100 per booking discount.
One wrinkle as compared to the U.S. version of Free Dining is that for this promo, guests staying at Value Resorts will receive free one free quick-service meal as opposed to the Quick-Service Disney Dining Plan. This is not a new development for the UK version of Free Dining–this was how it worked in 2018-2020, too.
Consistent with other versions of Free Dining, Moderate Resort guests receive the Quick Service Dining Plan. Deluxe and Villa Resorts receive the standard Disney Dining Plan. There are actually a lot of room exclusions, with the most notable being Little Mermaid Rooms at Art of Animation. In addition to that, 2025 Free Dining is available (and is not available) at the following:
Value Resorts
- Disney’s All-Star Movies Resort
- Disney’s All-Star Music Resort
- Disney’s All-Star Sports Resort
- Disney’s Pop Century Resort
- Disney Art of Animation Resort (except Little Mermaid Standard Rooms)
Moderate Resorts
- Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort (except for Standard Room and Water View Rooms)
- Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort
- Disney’s Port Orleans Resort – Riverside
- Disney’s Port Orleans Resort – French Quarter (except Pool View Rooms)
Deluxe Resorts
- Disney Animal Kingdom Lodge (except Savannah View Room Club Level, 1&2 Bedroom Suites Club Level, Royal Assante Presidential Suite)
- Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort (except Water View Room Club Level, Resort View Room Club Level, 1 Bedroom Suite Club Level, Ambassador Vice Presidential Suite Club Level, Honeymoon Room Club Level, Theme Park View Room Club Level)
- Disney’s Grand Floridian and Spa (except Resort View Room Club Level, 2 Bedroom Suites Sugarloaf Key Club Level, 2 Bedroom Grand Suite Club Level, 1&2 Bedroom Suites, Main Building Club Level, Disney Suite Main Building Club Level, 1&2 Bedroom Suites Outer Building Club Level, 1 Bedroom Suite Sugarloaf Key Club Level, Theme Park View Room Main Building Club Level, 1 Bedroom Victorian Suite Main Building Club Level, Deluxe Room Main Building Club Level)
- Disney’s Wilderness Lodge (except Resort Room Club Level and Deluxe Club Level Room)
- Disney’s Beach Club Resort (except Garden Rooms Club Level & Water Rooms Club Level and Resort View Rooms Club Level, 1&2 Bedroom Suites Club Level, Newport Presidential Suite Club Level)
- Disney’s Yacht Club Resort (except Water View Room Club Level, Turret Suite Club Level, Resort View Room Club Level, 2 Bedroom Suite Club Level, Commodore Vice Presidential Suite Club Level)
- Disney’s Boardwalk Inn (except Resort View Club Level)
- Disney’s Contemporary Resort (except Garden Wing Resort View Room, Main Tower Theme Park View Room, Garden Wing King Room, Theme Park View 1 Bedroom Suite, Garden Wing 1 Bedroom Suite Club Level, Theme Park View Presidential Suite Club Level)
- Disney’s BoardWalk Villas
- Boulder Ridge Villas at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge
- Disney’s Beach Club Villas
- Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa (except 3 Bedroom Treehouse, 3 Bedroom Grand Villas and 3 Bedroom Grand Preferred Villas)
- Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort (except 2 Bedroom Lakeside Villas and 2 Bedroom Theme Park View Villas)
- Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas – Kidani Village (except 3 Bedroom Grand Villa – Savannah View)
- Villas at Grand Floridian Spa and Resort (except 2 Bedroom Villas Standard, 2 Bedroom Villas Lakeside View and 3 Bedroom Grand Villa Lakeside View)
- Copper Creek Villas & Cabins at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge (except 2 Bedroom Cabin and 3 Bedroom Grand Villa)
- Disney’s Riviera Resort (except Tower Studio and 3 Bedroom Grand Villa)
You can read more about the details, exclusions, and terms of the offer on Disneypackages.co.uk.
None of the room category exclusions are all that surprising. This is typical of recent Walt Disney World promos, with multi-bedroom suites and Club Level frequently not being eligible for discounts. In the case of Free Dining, I’m not sure why you’d want to book Club Level in the first place–so no real loss there.
Aside from a slight shift in the blockout period, which varies every year and is based upon the weeks around Easter, the 2025 Free Dining promo for United Kingdom residents is pretty similar to offers from previous years. The biggest changes from what I can tell as compared to 2020 (the last time the promo was offered) are that the booking window is longer (November 2024 vs. July 2019) and so is the travel window (last arrival date of December 17, 2025 versus October 3, 2020).
Due to the last arrival date being around Christmas, there’s also a blockout for a couple of weeks around Fall Break that didn’t exist with the 2020 promo, since it just flat-out ended then. Setting aside the across-the-board price increases (which apply to everything and thus are not unique to this special offer), it thus appears to me that 2025 Free Dining is better, or at least more encompassing, than the 2020 special offer.
None of these things should be much of a surprise. Walt Disney World has been pulling from the 2019 discount playbook, and so too does this 2025 Free Dining offer. The company has also been getting more aggressive with deals in the last year-plus, and this follows suit as a discount that (for many guests) will be much better than the last couple years of UK offers.
As for the blockout dates, it’s been a while since Walt Disney World offered Free Dining to U.S. residents for the month of October, so excluding Fall Break makes sense. That and the April blockout should provide a pretty good idea that occupancy is anticipated to be high for those weeks. I’m slightly surprised there aren’t similar blockouts around Presidents’ Day or Thanksgiving, but otherwise, all of this checks out.
It’s not a surprise since it’s been happening with recent discounts, but it is interesting to see ongoing special offer exclusions for Club Level. I remember a time not too long ago (2015-2019) when free upgrades to Club Level weren’t all that uncommon since those pricey rooms were harder to fill. Now, they can be downright difficult to book sometimes–even at full price. This suggests to me there’s still a version of pent-up demand occurring, especially among guests willing to “make it rain” on vacation.
I wouldn’t bet one way or the other as to whether Free Dining is offered to U.S. the general public in 2025 quite yet. I’d say it’s a near-certainty that Free Dining will be offered, but it could once again be confined to Disney+ subscribers or Disney Visa Cardholders. If I wanted Free Dining, I’d probably sign up for that credit card or plan on subscribing to the streaming service for a couple of months. The latter is a pretty low barrier to entry.
What I would not expect is U.S. Free Dining arrival dates to be this expansive. It has been common for the UK to start Free Dining on January 1, but that has never been a sign that United States residents will get the same travel dates for our version of the special offer. It’ll probably once again be late summer to December, so really, the end date and the exclusion of Fall Break are much more instructive.
Where this really bodes well is from the perspective of a 2025 Free Dining Bounceback offer being released later this summer or in early fall. There hasn’t been one of those since 2019, but it seems primed for return. In just about every other conceivable way, Walt Disney World is pulling from the 2019 discount playbook.
To the best of my knowledge, the lone lingering exceptions to that are Tables in Wonderland and the Free Dining Bounceback. And the only reason the latter hasn’t been offered is because the time when it’s traditionally offered has not yet arrived!
As Walt Disney World’s most popular promo, Free Dining is also its most polarizing. Anything with this many fans inevitably receives backlash, with some detractors pointing out the obvious–that it’s not actually free. That there are strings attached, which is true! It’s also true of pretty much everything. So I guess that’s a good life lesson for those who previously thought there was such a thing as a free lunch?
In any case, Free Dining can be a good or bad deal depending upon your circumstances. It’s impossible for me to run through the math for everyone, so I’ll make some sweeping generalizations. Free Dining is likely to work best for the following guest demographics:
- Most families staying at Value Resorts
- Most families in standard rooms at Moderate Resorts
- Parties of 3 or more Disney Adults at Deluxe Resorts
Free Dining is likely to work worst for the following:
- Parties of 3 or fewer at Deluxe Resorts
- Couples or solo travelers at Moderate Resorts
- Smaller parties in Family Suites at Value Resorts
From that, you should have a decent sense of who benefits most and least from Free Dining. Basically, you want to look at party size (the larger, the better!) and age (the older, the better!), and room cost (the lower, the better!). That’s pretty much it…but it sounds simpler than it actually is.
For the most part, that’s the conventional analysis of the DDP–but modified for the UK Free Dining deal not offering the Quick Service Disney Dining Plan at Value Resorts. For me, this would make upgrading to a Moderate Resort (and possibly a Deluxe depending upon my party size) a no-brainer. To each their own, though.
Every year when this UK deal is released, we inevitably see Disney fans from the United States perturbed that we don’t receive as good of an offer. Basically, it boils down to something we always stress on this blog when discussing discounts: Disney never offers promotions out of corporate benevolence. Discounts exist to incentivize people to fill hotel rooms. As we’ve said many times before, Walt Disney World is a hotel business that also operates some theme parks.
Disney does more to attract “holidaymakers” from the United Kingdom for a few different reasons. First, that long flight over the Atlantic means UK visitors need a greater incentive to head to Florida instead of, say, Disneyland Paris. Once in Orlando, Walt Disney World needs to work harder for those longer stays, as vacation home rentals are incredibly popular for holidaymakers taking long trips. (Likewise, Disney doesn’t want to lose on-site guests to Universal Orlando–especially in 2025, with Epic Universe opening.)
Finally, UK guests are generally some of Disney’s biggest whales. (I mean that in the flattering way–it has nothing to do with how those Disney Dining Plan credits are used!) These UK guests come for two or more weeks–hence the 14-day ticket–and drop a lot of money on Walt Disney World vacations. If they’re staying that long, they are also less likely to spend all of those Dining Plan credits or spend every waking hour in the parks. In essence, they are less costly guests in terms of utilization.
As we’ve noted in the past, these longer trips are in large part due to Europeans having double the number of paid vacation days per year than Americans. So much for the dangers of ever-increasing leisure, Mr. Steinbeck! Of course, it’s only fair to point out that the United States has considerably higher average wages than almost everywhere in the world, behind only Luxembourg and Iceland–and way above the UK or Ireland.
If lengthy vacations were commonplace in the United States, you can bet Walt Disney World would try to attract domestic guests with comparable promotions. If wages were lower in the United States, you can also bet that Walt Disney World would be forced to charge lower prices.
Before you reply in the comments that you do visit Walt Disney World for vacations of that duration or earn less money–you’re a fan who just read all the way to the end of a blog post about a promotion that is not applicable to you. They’ve already got you.
The average length of stay for guests from the United Kingdom is significantly longer than the 5-day average for Americans, so Walt Disney World does what it can to entice these guests to come to Walt Disney World. It’s a pretty straightforward business practice of catering to desired demographics.
All of this is precisely why targeted discounting exists in the first place. It’s also why Florida residents and Annual Passholders get better discounts–because Disney needs to do more to entice them to buy park tickets or book hotels. It’s also why Walt Disney World doesn’t do more for Disney Vacation Club members and has moved to AP tiers that don’t encourage non-locals to buy Annual Passes. Once again, they’ve already got you.
Moreover, it’s always odd to me that Disney fans are upset about promos to international visitors when these guests are a boon to the U.S. economy. In fact, if you’re a Floridian, you might consider personally thanking UK visitors for being a large contributor to the local economy…and your lack of state income taxes. 😉
That’s about it in terms of the 2025 Free Disney Dining Plan discount guests from the United Kingdom or Ireland. If you’re among the 5.1% of this blog’s visitors who can take advantage of this deal, hopefully this info is useful. Deals for the United Kingdom are not exactly our wheelhouse, so if you’re a UK resident who can offer any insight into how this offer stacks up to other promotions targeted at your region, we’d love to hear your thoughts!
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
Your Thoughts
What do you think about the 2025 Free Dining discount for guests from the United Kingdom and Ireland? Wish we got offers like this in the United States, or do you prefer getting the Quick Service Disney Dining Plan at the Value Resorts? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
It is worth noting that you can upgrade the type of dining plan applicable as per resort.
I was initially looking at a value resort, or potentially a deluxe depending on cost to almost make the trip full board.
But the best ‘bang for buck’ was staying at a moderate with full quick service, but upgrading that to the regular dining plan. it cost an extra £900 for a family of 3 for 15 nights.
i had been pricing prior to the deal going live and the prices were ever so slightly more without any Disney dining, so for us at least, in essence it really is ‘free Disney dining’. I am not so sure we would have booked without it, knowing that we would have needed roughly £3000 extra in spending money, i did consider using that to stay in a deluxe, but felt a saving of £3k was a better idea than staying in a deluxe resort.
Hi Tom thank you for the information. 3 points which may assist / be of interest:
1) The Dining Plan has changed. In its previous iteration you were entitled to 1 table service, 1 counter service inc (I think) soft drink only, and 2 snacks per day. (This itself was an evolution of the preceding version where 1 of the 2 snacks had to be acquired as part of your quick service meal). The new version drops 1 of the 2 snacks and, I think, expands the quick service offer to including 1 alcoholic drink in lieu of a soft drink. I am confident alcohol was not previously included in quick service but cannot guarantee it.
2) Ad hoc research indicates room prices have increased at Yacht Club to reflect the ‘Free Dining’. I cannot guarantee this as I was not regularly checking prices waiting for this deal to appear, but it appears there has been a £1k increase for the cost of a 14 night room booking for a Nov / Dec 25 stay.
3. For what it is worth, UK guests would also get complimentary Memory Maker too which, currently at least, is not included. We would also receive a $100 gift card per person which is also not available. However, there is a £200 price reduction “per package” for all bookings made by 2 July, which effectively balances the loss of the gift card if your package is 1 room and no more than 2 adults, but is less advantageous if booking a multi room / 3 or more adults package.
Don’t forget that any European citizen can benefit from this promo!
The free dining is definitely free. I have been tracking the price of our holiday for a month or so and the price I paid yesterday including the free dining, was the same as it was over a month ago. For us as a family of 4 it is a good offer. But in 2022 we had the dining credit. There were 4 of us in our room, and my dad came and he had his own room. We had $792 credit to split between the 4 of us over 2 weeks whereas my dad had the same amount all to himself. Obviously he shared his with us but my point is that wasn’t a fair deal for us. But the benefits of that offer were you could spend it on anything, you weren’t limited to what was included in the dining plan. Anyway, we are coming next year for 2 weeks! It will be our longest stay at Disney (we usually combine with Universal but we did Universal this year and not Disney). Can’t wait!
Indeed, as I wrote in my post, the gift card and dining/merch credit works wonders if you’re on your own! And yes, another major advantage over a dining plan is that you can spend the dining credit on any combination of drinks, snacks, table service, quick service, and merchandise, as you see fit, but the dining plans are really, really restrictive.
If you have a QS plan but fancy one or two table service meals on your holiday, it gets expensive again on top of the high price you’ve alread paid for the dining plan. Similarly, pay even more for the regular plan and you’re effectively tied to table service meals every day.
If you can get it “free”, as in no extra cost over what you would have paid for the same package, great, but you will probably have to pay extra for food that doesn’t fall into the plan, and it’s a very poor value for those who don’t like being restricted or are on their own, as compared to other forms of discount. That’s why they’re doing it!
Do you have any sense on whether free dining plans will be offered to Canadian residents?
Hi Danielle! Exclusive Canadian free dining offers are not usually offered. Canada is not a large enough market. We usually buy the US $ free dining or room discount offer and pay in addition the higher dollar exchange rate. This year’s Disney+ free dining offer was available to Canadians but it has now ended. The recent Disney visa free dining offer is not available to Canadians as only US residents can obtain a Disney visa card. However, there is an exclusive Cdn park tickets offer on the website and a general discounted room package. Some Canadians have found a way to purchase the UK discounted 14 day travel package through Attraction Tickets or similar. I haven’t tried to purchase the UK package as not interested in paying in British pounds given the huge discounting of our dollar in the currency exchange rate. Like always, you really need to do the math and decide what makes sense for your family. For me, the best choice is usually between the US$ free dining or US$ room discount promo.
I was fearing this day! I’m a solo traveller and have benefitted greatly from the gift cards and dining & merchandise credit with UK packages over the last couple of years. In February 2023 I had 11 nights at Riverside and that included $200 gift card and $792 dining & merchandise credit. It efectively made it all-inclusive, though of course hotel & ricket prices siubsides this don’t they.
The gift cards and credit I got were per room, whereas free doning is per person. I don’t need to point out that solo travellers are “penalised” by having to pay full price for the room, there is no single person discount. The credit was nice way of redressing that balance.
I would not pay out of pocket for the dining plans, they are not worth it and you end up paying more. The Quick Service plan for example – two meals and one snack per night. Drink and food requirements during your average day do not fall neatly into those categories, even if you try and maximise the value by getting those most expensive each time, so you end up spending more than you’re paying for the dining plan on more food & drink anyway.
We get good UK deals, yes, however there is no choice. We can’t say, oh, I don’t want the free dining, I’d prefer a gift card, or a discount on the room. You get what you’re given. And yes, we generally pay more than the average domestic visitor would spend on a holiday to WDW, that’s why we get deals that target longer stays.
Prices have rocketed generally.
But I’ve just priced up the identical holiday ifor February 2025 that I had in 2023, same room, same dats (but adjusted for the day of teh week) etc.
In 2023, the package was £3,461, including the aforementioned $992 credit/spending money (I could buy Genier+ and ILLs with the gift card)
In 2025, it’s £4,033, so 16% more expensive anyway, and pay extra for merchandise/souvenirs, Genie+, ILLS, and food/drink outside 2 QS meals and a snack per night. The same holiday will probably turn out to be 40%-50% more expensive.
Free Dining is NOT a good deal, I don’t undertsand why people are so crazy about it. These must be people who don’t travel alone. Visits will now be less frequent, they’re not exactly enticing me to return with these prices.
And £700 per night for Yacht/Beach club?? They are very much bucket list now, previously the MK resorts were bucket list, but I don’t think I’ll ever be able to justify deluxe resorts any more.
My husband and I ran a search of target dates for us two weeks ago from yesterday, and I ran them again yesterday, after the offer launch. The Free Dining promo, even when upgrading from QS to DDP, is a saving. It hurts that QS meals now cannot be broken into snack credits, but I still think we come out ahead. The only question is about whether to swallow a bitter pill in booking CBR for its connections, or saving the budget booking POR, and slowing our pace down now that we’ve been several times.
Hi Tom. We visit from the UK every 2 years. Free Dining is not a great incentive for us as we will not use all the credits. Generally we Early Entry each day, hit the rides we want in the first couple of hours, have a stroll around the park then leave at lunchtime to spend the afternoon/evening at the pool or offsite. Our holiday is to Florida as much as it is to WDW! Some days we do offsite daytrips and do not go to the parks at all or only for the fireworks. Other incentives like the dining/merchandise and gift cards we got last year or hotel discounts are far better for us. Thanks for the blogs…
Tom, am I missing something? Your opener suggests there will be some analysis of the benefits (if any) of the offer in your blog (“whether the special offer makes sense to book”) but this doesn’t seem to be included? Interested because, as a UK guest, the mark-up on Disney hotels is insane versus other Orlando properties (arguably even Universal)… I’d agree they almost need to do something to capture this demographic. Thanks.
We Aussies have to travel nearly 3 times the distance compared to the Brits at a huge cost, yet we don’t receive these special benefits. Any thoughts here Tom?
Its a size of the market thing. More then million Brits go to Orlando a year. Which I think is secind only to Canada in terns of forreign visitors. Also because of the distance they tend to spend 10 days plus in Orlando. As theyve spent so much to get there are more likely to pay for extras like genie plus. They are also likely to be or become repeat visitors.So Brits are are a ‘good yield composition’ in disneyspeak. So there is an incentive for disney to try to get them to stay in the hotels instead of i drive kissimmee or Universal.
Numbers of people coming from Australia for disney are lower so there is less incentive to marketmuch, even if you are likely to stay as long as the Brits.
Would love if they offered something similar for Canadian visitors in 2025. We are booked for February and the exchange rate is just terrible right now.
Hope you both and Megatron are well!