WDW pulls free dining offer for 2025

[SL6827]

Ok, I haven't caught up with the thread but, was this offer available to DVC bookings too? I cant remember. I was thinking so, or was it just the kids free dining offer?

 

[focusondisney]

Ok, I haven't caught up with the thread but, was this offer available to DVC bookings too? I cant remember. I was thinking so, or was it just the kids free dining offer?

It required a full priced resort booking & ticket purchase. DVC resorts were included, but only if booked with cash, not member points.

 

[SL6827]

It required a full priced resort booking & ticket purchase. DVC resorts were included, but only if booked with cash, not member points.

Ok. I was thinking they let point bookings book it too this time. I know that was never the case before.

 

[Lewisc]

This is the first time Disney fully pulled a promotion. You could, almost always book something if you adjusted your dates by a day or 2 and were willing to accept your 10th choice for resort and your last choice of room type.

Disney had the right to pull it. Guests have the right to be surprised, shocked really.

I'll speculate, without any evidence, Disney got concerned with food costs. Tariffs are outside of Disney's control. Will the tariff end up being 10% or 50%? How much will the labor costs go up for US producers? Assuming they can even find enough employees to replace those arrested and sent to foreign prisons.

I'll also speculate the guest mix was skewing to 4 Guests per room.

 

[Isthisnormalatdisney]

This is the first time Disney fully pulled a promotion. You could, almost always book something if you adjusted your dates by a day or 2 and were willing to accept your 10th choice for resort and your last choice of room type.

Disney had the right to pull it. Guests have the right to be surprised, shocked really.

I'll speculate, without any evidence, Disney got concerned with food costs. Tariffs are outside of Disney's control. Will the tariff end up being 10% or 50%? How much will the labor costs go up for US producers? Assuming they can even find enough employees to replace those arrested and sent to foreign prisons.

I'll also speculate the guest mix was skewing to 4 Guests per room.

That’s exactly my point, this was not normal behavior for Disney. I personally think if they wanted the right to pull it or limit it such as they did, then they should have clearly stated that in all advertisements, including the official Disney blog post. Disney should advertise truthful and clearly state time limits or items being limited. The other three items listed are still available
.
I’ve had to deal with the moving the dates and playing with resorts before but we don’t even have that here, here it’s just gone. Still shows up on Google too.

The guest mix was also prob skewing more towards 4 per room but if those are adults they get some extra from them on the additional fees plus they get the no discounted park tickets.
They still have up the free kids dinning for 2026 so they can’t be too worried but the under 9 was never a families biggest worry as it’s a third of the cost of someone 10 and up.

 

[Lewisc]

That’s exactly my point, this was not normal behavior for Disney.
The guest mix was also prob skewing more towards 4 per room but if those are adults they get some extra from them on the additional fees plus they get the no discounted park tickets.
They still have up the free kids dinning for 2026 so they can’t be too worried but the under 9 was never a families biggest worry as it’s a third of the cost of someone 10 and up.

My point is Disney had the absolute right to pull the offer. Your point is the exact opposite.

A family of 2 adults and 2 teenagers get 4A meal plans without paying any charges for extra adults in the room.

Free kids dining can easily become free chicken fingers and free pasta. Easy to control costs.

 

[Isthisnormalatdisney]

My point is Disney had the absolute right to pull the offer. Your point is the exact opposite.

My point is not the exact opposite. I agree that Disney can pull the offer but they need to provide this information in their advertisements such as state limited supply or give a time frame. Like you said this is the first time Disney has done something like this and their advertisement did not give any warning that it could be pulled. My point isn’t with the pulling it’s with the misleading and incomplete advertisement that I and many others got the information for before Disney pulled an unprecedented move.

A family of 2 adults and 2 teenagers get 4A meal plans without paying any charges for extra adults in the room.

that’s true but Disney isn’t giving the alcohol at the table services so it kind of washer out. Plus they getting the full price tickets and only giving up one room capacity.

Free kids dining can easily become free chicken fingers and free pasta. Easy to control costs.

Not as easy at character dinning but a lot of the kids meals are like that, cheap food mostly.

 

[Lewisc]

My point is not the exact opposite. I agree that Disney can pull the offer but they need to provide this information in their advertisements such as state limited supply or give a time frame

I said Disney has the right to pull the plan PERIOD. In other words the fine print and terms and conditions permit the "surprise"


My posts were clearly worded. Glad you changed your previous opinion and agree with me.

 

[Isthisnormalatdisney]

I said Disney has the right to pull the plan PERIOD. In other words the fine print and terms and conditions permit the "surprise"


My posts were clearly worded. Glad you changed your previous opinion and agree with me.

I never changed my opinion. It has always been that Disney’s advertisement wasn’t truthful or complete and was misleading. It is still misleading. I never said Disney couldn’t pull the offer, what I said was Disney’s advertisement was misleading. Disney can put whatever they want in their terms and conditions but they should have at a bare minimum includes a direct hyperlink to those right there in the offer not require people to go dig through all the different offers.

All Disney had to do to was state it was “limited” or “supplied last” or give a date it will end and the advertisement would have been truthful. Instead like you mention for the first time ever they pulled it without warning or stating It was limited in the advertisement.

My complaint was always with the misleading deceptive advertisement.

 

[Lewisc]

I never changed my opinion.

You lied when you continued to say my point was the same as yours, AFTER I said our points are the exact opposite.

You should add me to your ignore list. I will correct the misinformation you post.

Guests who wait frequently find the resorts and dates they want are gone. Disney went the next step.

 

[Isthisnormalatdisney]

You lied when you continued to say my point was the same as yours, AFTER I said our points are the exact opposite.

You should add me to your ignore list. I will correct the misinformation you post.

Guests who wait frequently find the resorts and dates they want are gone. Disney went the next step.

You are really grasping for straws, paper straws that is.

Go reread my posts and your posts and it took you until the third post to state that Disney didn’t need to be truthful in its advertisements. I agreed that Disney could pull offers, what I don’t agree with is providing deceptive advertising and not clearly stating it is a “limited time offer” or provide a time limit. I never stated Disney is obligated to keep it open forever what I stated was they need to be truthful in their advertisements.

I am not spreading any misinformation you are just being argumentative for the sake of being argumentative. We can agree on one aspect of something and disagree on another.

Just to be clear our points are not all the exact opposite despite your desire for them to be the exact opposite. We both agree that Disney can pull offers, but we disagree on whether their advertisements need to provide that relevant language and be truthful. I think the advertisements should say “limited” or something similar you think Disney should be able to say whatever they want and not be held to any standard at all.

 

[focusondisney]

The customer not reading the fine print (ie See Important Details) on the actual company website, not a social media post, does not make the advertisement deceptive.

 

[crazy4wdw]

It's time for everyone to take a deep breath and treat everyone who has posted on this thread with some dignity and respect. If you have stated your opinion on this topic, move on. I do not want to close this discussion but will if needed.

 

[Isthisnormalatdisney]

The customer not reading the fine print (ie See Important Details) on the actual company website, not a social media post, does not make the advertisement deceptive.

This is far more than a social media post. It was an advertisement and it literally is the companies actual website. It’s Disney owned and operated. This isn’t a third party. They did not indicate that the details were important. Again, all they had to say was it was “limited” or even include a hyperlink to it. I’m not sure why you don’t want Disney to advertise more truthfully and complete. You should expect more out of Disney, not less.

they had the ability to state all of this: “Free Dining Plan Deal Returns: Back by popular demand, you can get a free dining plan with the purchase of a non-discounted 4-night, 4-day (or longer) package that includes a room at select Disney Resort hotels and a ticket with a Park Hopper option. This offer is for visits on select dates from June 29 through December 22, 2025.  ”

They also have the ability to indicate that it was limited instead it reads like it is back for good.

 

[Lewisc]

Pulling the offer was more honest then continuing the promotion with a small number of rooms available on a very limited number of dates.

Anecdotal evidence suggests bookings are light. I'm surprised Disney didn't increase the allotment of rooms for free dining.

 

[Minnie1222]

I was just doing what @lanejudy in the post stating: “Maybe do some research into "advertisements."” The research showed that the official Disney blog post was in fact an advertisement……..

This is far more than a social media post. It was an advertisement and it literally is the companies actual website.

Whether we think it's an advertisement or an ironclad agreement is irrelevant, because it calls itself a Blog.

The link you provided is a  blog. It clearly said so in the heading.



But it gave  us another link into the official booking site for us to read about the limitations & restrictions. It's not the blog's fault that some people chose to end their reading prematurely.

 

[Isthisnormalatdisney]

Pulling the offer was more honest then continuing the promotion with a small number of rooms available on a very limited number of dates.

Disney never even made an official announcement that they were pulling the offer……….
They need to be more truthful in their advertisements and provide the limited time considerations or give a date frame. Just randomly pulling stuff without saying so in advertisements is misleading and deceptive.
Look at the 50% down for an annual pass promotion being run right now. They are clearly stating an end date. With the free dining promo from late 2024 they gave a clear booking window.
When a company does that and then gives a promotion without stating limited time or anything then it’s deceptive.

Anecdotal evidence suggests bookings are light. I'm surprised Disney didn't increase the allotment of rooms for free dining.

they are also giving some good deals for summer that they don’t normally do. The economy isn’t doing the best and epic universe I think is eating into them a tiny bit which is why they tryin to focus more on your kids now

 

[Isthisnormalatdisney]

Whether we think it's an advertisement or an ironclad agreement is irrelevant, because it calls itself a Blog.

The link you provided is a  blog. It clearly said so in the heading.
View attachment 976070

Uh just because something is labeled as a blog doesn’t mean it can’t be an advertisement. If you scroll down to the bottom of the page it states “Internet based ads” because the blog is an internet based ad.

Are you seriously making the argument right now that the disneyparksblog can never be considered an advertisement before Disney because they label it as a “blog”?

You read the statute right I included?

But it gave  us another link into the official booking site for us to read about the limitations & restrictions. It's not the blog's fault that some people chose to end their reading prematurely.

It is the blogs fault and ending the reading was not premature. All the other blog posts contain that relevant information. The blog post also meets the Florida statute definition of an advertisement. Disney didn’t even hyperlink to that specific promo.

Again all Disney had to do was state that it was limited time or like they done in the past give a clear time frame it’s available or expires.

 

[Marrila]

Disney never even made an official announcement that they were pulling the offer……….
They need to be more truthful in their advertisements and provide the limited time considerations or give a date frame. Just randomly pulling stuff without saying so in advertisements is misleading and deceptive.
Look at the 50% down for an annual pass promotion being run right now. They are clearly stating an end date. With the free dining promo from late 2024 they gave a clear booking window.
When a company does that and then gives a promotion without stating limited time or anything then it’s deceptive.

they are also giving some good deals for summer that they don’t normally do. The economy isn’t doing the best and epic universe I think is eating into them a tiny bit which is why they tryin to focus more on your kids now

Lots of us are well aware of the old sayings, you snooze you lose. Book quickly if the deal is important to you. Rooms availability for an offer usually goes down as time passes. It's been that way for a long time.

 

[Lumpy1106]

I am only going to wade into this discussion enough to say this; run the numbers. Just as in life as in Disney, "free" is never free. Say what you want about how the promotion was introduced or removed, but the fact is it probably didn't save you enough money to get excited or upset about. Case in point is the 3-Day, 3-Park offer. We are going during the time period it is offered but will probably be in the park 4-5 days, haven't decided yet. I opened an Excel file and ran the numbers - we weren't saving enough to forfeit the flexibility of just buying a regular multi-day ticket. It was literally only about a $40 saving for the whole family for the whole trip. There was only one way to find out though, I had to RUN THE NUMBERS. </waders>

And now back to whatever this is you were doing on this thread...