The Disney Dining Plan will sometimes be offered for free. The Disney fans wait with bated breath for the yearly announcement. Every year around this time Disney makes public the dates that qualify for the free Disney Dining Plan. Typically there is a charge for the plan added onto your vacation package. It is a prepaid plan that gives you credits to use at restaurants and snack carts around Disney World.

The basics of the Disney Dining Plan is that it’s based on where you stay and for how many nights. The plan for value resorts is a quick service plan that excludes table service restaurants. The plan for moderate resorts includes one table service and one quick service per night. Deluxe plans allow two table service meals per night. The distinction of per night versus per day is important in terms of the number of credits. However, you do not have to space the credits out from day to day. Rather you are given all of the credits at the beginning of your stay to use as you wish.

What is the Free Dining Plan

The Free Dining Plan is a special offer that lets you include the Disney Dining Plan with your vacation package at no additional cost. The dates announced for 2019 came early this year and the offer is closed. However, there may be another announcement around the corner for the winter months as this first wave ends September 30.

Most years the free dining plan is announced in late March, or April. The early announcement came as a big shock to the Disney community and may have something to do with an attendance lull as Guests are waiting to experience Galaxy’s Edge later in the year.

Why Get Free Disney Dining Plan

The Free Disney Dining Plan offer is ideal for anyone who was going to get the Disney Dining Plan anyway. Although, there is a caveat to that described below. Reasons for taking advantage of the free dining plan would be if you are accustomed to only eating two meals a day and you don’t plan on eating at fancy restaurants. At least the nicer restaurants you patronize cost only one dining credit. The Disney Dining Plan is ideal for diners who typically enjoy dessert at table service restaurants and spend more money than average on food. You could also benefit from the dining plan if you use your refillable mug very frequently at the resort. There is a timer on refills, though. So, you will be forced to pace yourself somewhat.

Why Not Get the Free Dining Plan

There are reasons to avoid the Disney Dining Plan. For starters, it’s not accepted everywhere, you have limited credits per day, most snack prices are cheaper than the cost of a snack credit. You will likely end up paying out of pocket for some meals and you may have to work hard to use up your snack credits by the end of the trip. Some of these issues work against the dining plan but disappear if the dining plan is free.

The primary reason you may wish to avoid the free dining plan is that when you take advantage of this offer, you cannot use other offers in combination with it. There may be other deals that will save you more money than the value of the Disney Dining Plan. if that is the case, you should definitely not use the Free Disney Dining Plan offer.

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