Free Dine And Drinks Offer - Walt Disney World 2025 - Everything You Need To Know

It’s the moment so many of you have been waiting for - free dine and drinks is back for 2025 at Walt Disney World.  I’m going to be explaining how the offer works, plus some of my top Disney travel professional tips too.

Disney has some amazing places to eat and drink.  Food just seems to taste better when it’s Mickey or Minnie shaped.

The Free dine and drinks offer is at selected Disney hotels on selected arrival dates in 2025.  To be eligible for the offer, you need to check in and arrive at your Disney hotel between:

7th January to 5th April 2025

23rd April to 2nd October 2025

18th October to 17th December 2025

As long as you’re checked in on one of these dates at selected Disney hotels, you’ll receive the offer for the length of your stay.  Minimum stay is 5 nights and the most is 21 nights.  Sorry, you can’t live at Disney forever.  Just be aware that not all room types are on the offer.  Check with us and we’ll be happy to help.

This offer is all about delicious disney dining.

So, big question - What is a quick service meal and what’s a table service?

Easiest way to tell the difference.  A quick service is fast food, pick up your food from a counter, find a table and enjoy.  One credit will give you a quick service main meal and a drink.  This drink can be anything on the menu including soda, milkshakes, beer, cool mocktails and cocktails.  The drink needs to be ordered at the same time as your main meal.

There are over 90 places on the quick service plan with a massive range of food including Italian, American, BBQ, Sandwiches and even food from a galaxy far, far away.  I’ll be sharing some of my favourites later.

A table service is where you’ll have a server.  This can be either an a la carte restaurant or buffet.  This also includes 1 drink which can be something like a soda, mocktail, cocktail, beer or wine.  Stay tuned for my top picks.

Snacks range from ice creams and popcorn to incredible cupcakes that are made for Instagram.  There’s a little symbol on the menu or if you’re using mobile order, it’ll say it qualifies as a snack.

You get all your credits when you check in and they last until one minute to midnight on the day you check out.  You can use them whenever you want.  Fancy 5 quick service meals in a day? knock yourself out.

Lastly, at selected hotels, you’ll also get a resort refillable mug.  These only work at the quick service restaurants in your hotel and sometimes by the pools too. These don’t work in the parks so don’t bring them along.

Ok, now we know what each type of restaurant is, what are going to be getting for free?

It all depends on which category of Disney hotel you’re staying at.  There are 3 types of hotel - value - moderate and deluxe.   Let’s find out about the different hotel styles

Disney’s value hotels and well, great value.  They’re motel style hotels with the doors facing outside instead of into a corridor.  Most rooms have a regular bed and a foldable murphy bed.  This helps give you a bit more space.

When you stay at a Disney value hotel during the offer, each guest aged 3 years and above will get 1 quick service meal per night.  So if you’re staying for 10 nights, each guest will have 10 quick service meal credits to use anytime during your stay.

My favourite value hotels are All Star Sports and Pop Century.  There are 3 all star resorts next to each other.  They’re all pretty similar motel style hotels with resort style pools.  What gives Sports the edge over the other 2 is that it’s the first in the row.  So, it’s a few minutes quicker getting to and from the parks.  2 of the parks I spend the most time in are Epcot and Disney’s Hollywood Studios.  And to get there from Pop Century, you can take the brilliant Skyliner cable car.  This whisks you into the sky to sail over Orlando and to the parks.

Let’s move onto the moderate hotels.  These are usually the most popular with UK guests.  They have upgraded themed pools compared to the value hotels, some great locations and also an upgraded dining plan too.

Each night, each guest will get 2 quick service meals with a drink, plus 1 tasty disney snack and that resort refillable mug.  So again, if you’re staying for 10 nights, each person will get 20 quick service meals, 10 snacks and the refillable mug.  Stay tuned for some of my favourite places to eat.

I really like Coronado Springs (check out the bar in the Gran Destino tower).  Port Orleans French Quarter is one of Disney’s smaller resorts making getting around super easy. There’s a laid-back New Orleans Jazz vibe here.  If you’re a family of 5 and want to be close to more of the thrill rides, Caribbean Beach is a great shout.  Yes, it’s a big resort, but it has a great pool and is on the skyliner making it super easy to get to Epcot and the Studios.  If you have older kids, this will be a great hotel for them.

Lastly, Disney’s most iconic and sought after hotels - the deluxes.  These have incredible locations such as on the monorail, next to Epcot or close to Animal Kingdom.

When you stay here, you’ll get 1 quick service meal per person per night including a drink.  One snack credit and also that resort refillable mug.  But the most amazing thing is you’ll get 1 table service meal credit per person, per night as well.  These can be used at amazing character dining restaurants, plus iconic dining locations too.  I’ll let you know my top tips soon.

A few things to know - tips aren’t included and a few restaurants will use 2 credits instead of 1.

If you want to stay in a true Disney icon, I loved my stay at Disney’s Contemporary resort.  It’s on the monorail or you can walk to Magic Kingdom in a few minutes.  

Animal Kingdom Lodge has a brilliant vibe and where else can you spot a giraffe in the morning?  Yacht and Beach club are hotels located next to the international getaway entrance to Epcot.  You can take the Skyliner or water taxi to Hollywood Studios.  Or you can walk there in under 20 mins too.

I’m getting hungry just thinking about the offer and I have a feeling I’m going to be starving by the time I tell you about some of my favourite places to eat on the dining plans.

Let’s start with 3 quick service restaurants

Satu'i Canteen in Pandora, the world avatar is one of my favourites.

This modern counter service restaurant is a fan favourite thanks to its fresh food and healthier options.

The signature item is the customizable bowl. Start with a base of either salad, red and sweet potato hash, rice and beans, or whole grains and rice. Add wood-grilled chicken, slow-roasted beef, chili-garlic shrimp, or  tofu, and finish with a choice of sauces.

The menu also offers steamed “pods”: bao buns with a cheeseburger filling, served with rootvegetable crisps and crunchy vegetable slaw. The kid's menu choices are similar to the adults’ menu.

Docking Bay 7

Located next to the Millennium Falcon is Docking Bay 7

Smoked Kaadu Ribs, named after the creature Jar Jar Binks rode in Episode I are actually pork, cut vertically to give them an alien appearance, then glazed with a sticky-sweet sauce and served with a blueberry corn muffin. Endorian Tip Yip (chicken) is roasted on a salad or compressed into cubes, deep-fried, and served with mac and cheese and roasted vegetables.

And in the afternoon, you can also order the famous Ronto Wrap.  It's a pita bread filled with grilled pork sausage and slaw - tasty

Flametree

The Flame Tree BBQ in animal kingdom doesn't look like much, but lurking behind it are a few large covered areas surrounding a pleasant fountain. The furthest ones border the water, offering great views across to Expedition Everest.

Specialities include

St. Louis–style ribs; smoked half-chicken;; pulled-pork sandwich; smokehouse chicken salad; mac and cheese with smoked pulled pork and also a plant-based  sandwich;

Disney snacks are so much fun.  From good old fashioned cinema popcorn to insta-worthy cakes, there’s plenty to choose from.  Just look for that dining plan symbol next to the snacks.  But my top tip is to save your snacks for a day exploring the world.

Epcot hosts many festivals throughout the year so you're very likely to be going when there's one on.  It's a great excuse for some tasty treats. Explore the different booths mainly located around world showcase. Don't forget to pick up a festival guide to help to decide and tick off what you eat.

My big top tip is to use your table service credits for at least one of the dining packages.  These give you a brilliant meal and reserved seating for a show.  All year round, you can do the Fantasmic dining package in Hollywood Studios and get the best seats in the house for the show that evening.

If there’s a festival going on in Epcot such as the International Festival of 

the Holidays, then definitely do the Candlelight Processional Dining Package.  There are similar packages for other Epcot festivals such as eat to the beat.

If you have table service, then you need to do at least one character dining experience.  My faves are Tuskers House in Animal Kingdom Park or Topolino's Terrace – Flavors of the Riviera Breakfast à la Art with Mickey & Friends.  Great restaurant, long name.  And GArden Grill in Epcot is a firm fan favourite.

There are a few ways to book your trip to Orlando

Do it yourself.  Just remember, book it yourself, sort it yourself.  You could try and piece it all together yourself. That could involve potentially countless hours of research, asking Facebook groups for advice (and getting conflicting and multiple opinions) and watching so many videos you already feel like you've been there before stepping foot on the plane.  It’ll be down to you to find out every detail about your holiday and sort anything that goes wrong.  

Book with a regular travel agent - You may already have a travel agent you normally book with.  But this isn't like going for 2 weeks self-catering in Benidorm. Your special holiday requires special assistance.

Or, just let someone else do all your hard work for you.  Over 82% of our customers tried to do it all themselves, then decided it was easier and they'd have a better holiday if they left all the work to one of our Orlando Gurus.  Of course, you can plan as much as you like.  It’s just a lot easier to always have an expert on hand should you have any questions.  

When you book your Walt Disney World 2025 holiday with us, you’ll also have a really unfair advantage over everyone else too.  You’ll know which park to head to each day.  That can save you up to 4 hours a day.  So if you’re having 10 days in the parks, that’s a saving of up to 404 hours, which is like getting 4 days extra for free - pretty good reason to book with us

Well, I hope you found that useful.  Has that whetted your appetite?  Click the link in the show notes to start your Walt Disney World adventure.  Have a magical day