Walt Disney World has released vacation packages for next year, revealing 2026 Disney Dining Plan price increases & decreases. Unsurprising given food inflation and WDW trends, costs have changed. This covers how pricing has gone up & down for kids and adults on the various tiers of DDP, plus our commentary.
Let’s start with more unsurprising news, which is that only the Quick-Service Disney Dining Plan (QSDDP) and standard or regular Disney Dining Plan (DDP) are currently available for 2026 Walt Disney World vacation packages. The Deluxe Disney Dining Plan (DxDDP) and Disney Dining Plan Plus (DDP+) are still unavailable.
We wouldn’t necessarily rule out these returning, as Walt Disney World is just now in the process of bringing back Airport Luggage Transfer after a 5+ year hiatus. But 2026 will be the third year of the Disney Dining Plans being back, and the original explanations for the ongoing suspension of the DxDDP and DDP+ no longer hold water. On the other hand, Walt Disney World is looking at a tough year on the horizon, so finding creative “new” ways to boost guest spending will undoubtedly occur.
Then there’s the biggest change with the 2026 Disney Dining Plan, which is that Kids Eat FREE All Year in 2026 at Walt Disney World! Throughout all of 2026, guests staying at one of Walt Disney World’s more than 25 on-site Disney-owned resort hotels will get a FREE Disney Dining Plan for their kids (ages 3 to 9 at the time of travel) when purchasing a Disney Dining Plan as part of their package for the other members of their party (ages 10 and up at the time of travel).
The Free Disney Dining Plan included in this special offer depends on the Disney Dining Plan the adults in the party purchase. The Disney Dining Plan is included for kids ages 3-9 when purchasing a regular Disney Dining Plan for guests ages 10 and older in the party. The Quick-Service Disney Dining Plan is included for kids ages 3-9 when purchasing a Quick-Service Disney Dining Plan for Guests ages 10 and older in the party.
The number of packages available for this offer is limited. Everyone in the same room must be on the same package. Child must stay in room with adult. In other words, everyone gets the same tier of DDP, free and paid, and you can’t craft a package so that it’s one room full of kids (all getting Free Dining) and another full of adults (who opt against buying the DDP).
The Kids Free Dining Plan at Walt Disney World deal can be combined with other select special offers, meaning you may still be eligible to take advantage of other deals released later for 2026. General public discounts have yet to be released for any 2026 travel dates–and probably won’t until around October of this year–so we’ve yet to see what “other select special offers” are eligible. Our guess is mostly room-only discounts converted to vacation packages.
As always, Walt Disney World has not released official pricing for the 2026 Quick Service Disney Dining Plan (QSDDP) or the regular 2026 Disney Dining Plan (DDP), so we’ve reverse-engineered the pricing by selecting an October 2026 travel date for one night at All Star Sports, and done the math ourselves to remove the costs of the required park tickets.
Not publishing prices of the Disney Dining Plan upfront is a way of obfuscating costs and avoiding sticker shock on individual package components. Walt Disney World must’ve determined that a package total increasing by a couple thousand extra dollars was preferable to displaying a daily dining cost for whatever reason.
This year, though, the biggest sticker shock comes from adding tickets. If you can stomach an All-Star Sports room jumping from $157 per night to over $900 per night when adding tickets (and that’s just for one adult and one child!), the fairly modest increase to $1,000 probably isn’t going to be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
Regardless, the reason that Walt Disney World hides the prices of the Disney Dining Plan is to avoid conversations of cost, and to allow them to quietly raise the price of the DDP at the start of the fiscal year or institute seasonal surcharges (neither have happened in ages). The good news here is that the bumps in 2026 Disney Dining Plan prices are fairly mild.
Based upon our theoretical October 2026 Walt Disney World travel dates, per night pricing for the DDPs is as follows:
- Quick Service Disney Dining Plan: $60.47 per adult and $0 per child
- Disney Dining Plan (standard): $98.59 per adult and $0 per child
These prices all include tax, but guests must pay for tips or gratuity out of pocket. Children 3-9 must order from the kids menus; under age 3 eat free from an adult’s plate.
For reference, here are 2025 Disney Dining Plan prices:
- Quick Service Disney Dining Plan: $59.14 per adult and $24.71 per child
- Disney Dining Plan (standard): $97.79 per adult and $30.56 per child
For those who don’t want to do the math, here are the increases for 2026:
- Quick Service Disney Dining Plan: +$1.33 per adult and -$24.71 per child
- Disney Dining Plan (standard): +$0.80 per adult and -$30.56 per child
Obviously, the negative numbers for kids are what’s most eye-catching here. More on those and the modest increases for adults in the commentary.
2024 Disney Dining Plan prices were as follows:
- Quick Service Disney Dining Plan: $57.01 per adult and $23.83 per child
- Disney Dining Plan (standard): $94.28 per adult and $29.69 per child
2020 Disney Dining Plan prices were as follows:
- Quick Service Disney Dining Plan: $55 per adult and $26 per child
- Disney Dining Plan (standard): $78.01 per adult and $30.51 per child
- Disney Dining Plan Plus: $94.61 per adult and $35 per child
- Deluxe Disney Dining Plan: $119 per adult and $47.50 per child.
…and 2019 Disney Dining Plan prices:
- Quick Service Disney Dining Plan: $52.50 per adult and $23.78 per child
- Disney Dining Plan (standard): $75.49 per adult and $27.98 per child
- Deluxe Disney Dining Plan: $116.25 per adult and $43.49 per child.
Here’s what each tier of the 2026 Disney Dining Plan offers:
Quick-Service Disney Dining Plan:
- 2 Quick-Service Meals Per Night of Stay
- 1 Snack or Nonalcoholic Beverage Per Night of Stay
- 1 Resort-Refillable Mug Per Trip
Regular Disney Dining Plan:
- 1 Quick-Service Meal Per Night of Stay
- 1 Table-Service Meal Per Night of Stay
- 1 Snack or Nonalcoholic Beverage Per Night of Stay
- 1 Resort-Refillable Mug Per Trip
Our Commentary
This is an apples-to-apples comparison to the 2026 Disney Dining Plan, as nothing has changed in the plan details or credit entitlements between the two years. However, that’s not true as compared to prior years. Starting with 2024, Walt Disney World reduced the number of snack credits on the Disney Dining Plans from 2 to 1 per night.
When analyzing the prices, the big thing that sticks out is that the QSDDP for kids dropped in price from ~$25 to $0 and the DDP fell from ~$31 to $0. This is obviously the headline news, but we’re somewhat reluctant to dub this a pure price decrease. After all, we don’t refer to the current $99/night All Star Sports offer as a price decrease–it’s a discount. The sticker price still exists, just not for select dates.
To be sure, the kids eat free special offer is fantastic news for families with kids in this range, especially multiple. But there will be scenarios where it’s possible (or required) to buy a kids’ DDP for ‘other select special offers,’ and I would hazard a guess those prices will be higher in 2026. We just don’t have visibility into that yet, since discounts for 2026 have not yet been released. We’re still very bullish on this offer, but it’s nevertheless something to consider when you see the inevitable clickbait headlines about ~$30 price decreases to the Disney Dining Plan.
Generally speaking, our perspective is that kids eating free all year long in 2026 is a great special offer. This is especially true since this deal will be stackable with (at least some) other discounts. In all likelihood, it’ll be bookable with room-only discounts when those are converted to a package. At least right now, it doesn’t seem like there’s a meaningful “catch” to this offer. Whether that remains accurate is outcome-determinative in our ultimate assessment of this ‘kids eat free’ offer.
If there is a special offer that requires paying for the DDP for kids, it’ll have to be an even more aggressive one in order to bridge the gap between the combined savings of the room and DDP deal. Finally, it’s fantastic to see that adult prices really didn’t go up that much to offset the lower (free) kids pricing.
Even without the ‘kids eat free’ angle, the price increases for adults could’ve been a lot worse. Although inflation has decelerated in the last year, we still have not had deflation…and hopefully won’t given what that would mean for the broader economy. You’re no doubt well aware of this, as at least half of you see it firsthand while grocery shopping, and the only half either hear about the high price of food or see it for yourselves on receipts. This is no big secret and no one has been immune.
According to the USDA, food prices were 2.6 percent higher year-over-year from last February to this February. The food-at-home (grocery store or supermarket food purchases) CPI increased 1.9 percent; food-away-from-home (restaurant purchases) CPI was 3.7 percent higher year-over-year.
Throughout the next year, overall food prices are anticipated to rise slightly faster than the historical average rate of growth. In 2025, prices for all food are predicted to increase 3.2 percent, with a prediction interval of 1.3 to 5.1 percent. Food-at-home prices are predicted to increase 2.7 percent, with a prediction interval of -0.1 to 5.7 percent. Food-away-from-home prices are predicted to increase 3.7 percent, with a prediction interval of 2.6 to 4.9 percent.
In other words, the price increases for the 2026 Disney Dining Plan are below the backward-looking 3.7% rate of inflation for restaurants, as well as the forward-looking 3.7% for the year to come. That’s the more relevant statistic since it accounts for labor and other input costs at restaurants, which are obviously different from grocery stores.
As always, you’ll want to do the math to determine whether the 2026 Disney Dining Plan is right for your party. Just keep in mind that you’ll need to wait until October 2025 to do that math if you’re visiting in early 2026. Although Walt Disney World adjusts restaurant prices throughout the year, the start of the new fiscal year is when across-the-board increases typically occur. It’s been mid-October each of the past few years.
Given the aforementioned food inflation, it’s a foregone conclusion that Walt Disney World will raise restaurant menu prices at least once before next year begins. So doing the math on the 2026 Disney Dining Plan vs. paying out of pocket right now is pointless, because you don’t know what menu prices will be next year. By contrast, the DDP price is already locked in–and the increase to adult prices is well below the levels of food inflation.
The math is tricky for us as a party of 2 adults with no kids over age 3 currently…but one over 3 as of October 2026. (How do they grow up so fast?!) We also love to do character dining, and had been in a race against the clock to knock out as many of those meals this year to avoid paying for 3 next year. But we’re also Annual Passholders and Disney Vacation Club members, and at this point, it’s unclear the Kids Eat Free special offer will extend to us (to the contrary, early signs are that it will not).
If we were just casual tourists purchasing a package, the Disney Dining Plan would absolutely make sense for us. Those are words I haven’t written in several years, as the previous dealbreaker for us was/is booze–we never order alcohol anymore, and that has been pretty much necessary to bridge the gap. The calculus is going to change for us in late 2026 once our daughter turns 3, but not before then.
Those are our unique circumstances and yours could differ. Similarly, if you’re a solo parent with triplets who are 9 years old, you’re going to make out like a fat cat with the 2026 Disney Dining Plan thanks to the kids eat free angle (and only paying for one adult). At the other end of the spectrum, an older couple doing primarily Signature Restaurants shouldn’t even consider the DDP. We can tell you without breaking down the numbers that it won’t work out for you.
If you want to read more about most common circumstances when the DDP does or does not make sense, see When You Should Buy & Skip the Disney Dining Plan! That’s a long read, but it provides a breakdown of different demographics that likely will–and will not–benefit from buying the DDP. The bottom line is that for parents with kids (ages 3-9), the Disney Dining Plan suddenly makes more sense in 2026. For just about everyone else, probably not.
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’s your take on the 2026 Disney Dining Plan pricing increases & decreases? Do you use the DDP for eating at Walt Disney World? What advantage or disadvantages do you think it offers? Would you be happy with price decreases and the removal of alcohol, or does booze add a lot of value to the DDP for you? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment of the Disney Dining Plan? 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!
