The kids can eat free at the Walt Disney World Resort next year.
Disney announced this morning that its 2026 Walt Disney World vacation plans will open for booking tomorrow, April 22. One of the offers available next year will be free Disney dining plans for kids.
Here's the deal: Throughout all of 2026, guests staying at a WDW Resort hotel will get a free dining plan for their children ages 3 to 9 when purchasing a dining plan as part of their package for the other members of their party, ages 10 and up.
Unlike some other Disney offers, this one can be combined with other special offers from Walt Disney World, so it's an extra reason to book a family vacation to Waly Disney World for next year.
To get this deal, or inquire about others, please contact our travel agent for a free, no-obligation vacation quote.
Other perks for Walt Disney World Resort hotel guests include 30 minutes of early theme park entry every day, at every park, plus extended evening hours for guests at Disney's deluxe resorts. Resort guests also get early access to dining and Lightning Lane reservations for their stay.
And coming back next summer, Disney hotel guests can get free admission to Walt Disney World's water parks on their check-in day.
To see what else is available at the Walt Disney World theme parks, please check out our one-page visitors guides, which include our reader rankings as well as on-ride videos and links to reviews:
Again, for assistance in planning a Walt Disney World vacation, please contact our travel agent.
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ive always wondered, and im anti-googling your entire life because of rabbit holes and bad data results, how does disney handle their after hour events? do they marshall everybody out or periodically check tickets? can i hide in a bathroom (jk)? The logistics for early entry are obvious but after hours not so much.
For after hours and other hard ticket events that overlap regular park hours, CMs distribute wrist bands to guests with tickets for the event either at the front of the park or in the land were the event is taking place. Now, CMs don't necessarily do a "sweep' of the park/land to remove guests without wristbands, but if you're still in the park after the event begins without a wristband, you would have to work extremely hard and not ride any attractions or meet any characters in order to not be spotted an asked to leave by a CM.
Tourism to the United States is way, way down for obvious reasons. Will be interesting to see what happens over the next few years as the economy dips into recession, it would not shock me to see major projects get delayed/cancelled all over the industry.
Im sure we are about to unlock that untapped travel demographic of West Virginia and Montana to make up for it.
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This is so "small potatoes" in terms of savings - probably less than 1-2% on the overall cost of a WDW vacation, and has such a narrow scope of application given that you have to have kids that fall in the age range and are willing to buy the dining plan, which has significantly decreased in value since it came back after the pandemic suspension. Sure, it's a nice add-on if you were already planning a trip in 2026, but I don't think this really moves the needle to get more people to visit the parks next year.
This kind of worries me that Disney is already rolling out discounts for 2026, a year that is likely going to see more disruption to the overall park-going experience and very little new being added. The fact that this sale is so minimal and narrowly targeted just seems really dumbfounding to me from the Disney marketing machine that should be doing more to ensure they don't fall victim to the same phenomenon that has plagued Universal over the past 1-2 years leading up to Epic's debut. If you do fall into the group of people that is considering a visit in 2026, I think there will be far better discounts and deals if you're willing to hold off until later this year.