Walt Disney World has a new discount of up to $250 off per night for January through July 2026. This post shares discount details, who will save the least & most with this promo, best dates for the biggest savings, and four (4) big ways this discount is better than the same offer this year.
This discount is one of several being released for 2026, and the most high-profile and longest-lasting of the bunch. If you’re looking for deals this year, see All Current Walt Disney World Discounts. There have been a lot of discounts released in the last couple of years, and we’re anticipating a repeat of that for 2026.
To that point, this is part of the first batch of special offers available for the first half of 2026, aside from Future Stay Offers. In addition to this, there are several room-only discounts that may be better deals even if they aren’t as exciting. We have a lot of commentary to share about this save up to $250 off deal–and there’s a lot to know before you take advantage of this special offer. With that said, let’s start by dispensing with the core details…
Per Walt Disney World, here are the deal details: Save up to $250 per night on a 4-night, 4-day (or longer) Walt Disney Travel Company room-and-ticket package at select Disney Resorts Collection hotels, for stays most nights from February 22 to July 25, 2026.
View the chart below to explore eligible Disney Resort hotels, values and arrival dates:
If you want to help determining which discounts are available for your travel dates and which resort will work best for your family, we highly recommend requesting a quote from Be Our Guest Vacations, a no-fee Authorized Disney Vacation Planner. The agents there will do the math for you, booking your vacation with the best-available special offer, and monitoring your package for future discounts that can be applied retroactively.
In particular, they can help you determine whether this room-only discount or the “save up to $250 per night” is the better deal for you, given your party size, resort preference, and eating preferences. Beyond that, Authorized Disney Vacation Planners help take the stress out of planning and will assist with itineraries, ADRs, and much more.
If you want to ‘do it yourself’ but aren’t sure which resort to book, check out our new Rankings of ALL Resort Hotels at Walt Disney World from Worst to Best. Several of the resorts with the biggest savings are in the top 10!
Here are other important details about the “save up to $250 per night” special offer, per Walt Disney World:
- The number of rooms allocated for this offer is limited.
- Savings based on the non-discounted price of the same package.
- Everyone in the same room must be on the same package.
- Theme park tickets are valid for admission beginning on date of check-in and must be used within a limited number of days, depending on length of stay and ticket.
- Advance reservations required.
- Cannot be combined with any other discount or promotion, except for the 2026 Kids Dining Plan Offer.
- Offer excludes the following room types: Campsites; 3-Bedroom Villas; Deluxe Resort Suites; Cabins at Copper Creek Villas & Cabins at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge; and Bungalows, 1-Bedroom Villas, 2-Bedroom Villas and Penthouses at Disney’s Polynesian Villas & Bungalows.
- This package includes a date-based ticket; theme park reservations are not required for date-based tickets.
Let’s start with one way this 2026 deal is worse than its counterpart this year: the minimum length of stay has increased from 3 nights to 4 nights. As before, the maximum length of stay of 14 nights. (Although if, for whatever reason, you wanted to stay more than 14 nights, you could always do a split stay. You just need to make sure each met the minimum 4-night requirement–there’s no way to go below that requirement.)
Although it’s bolded above, we want to draw your attention to this discount being stackable with Free Dining Plan for Kids All Year in 2026 at Walt Disney World!
We already knew that Disney was treated that was being treated more like an on-site perk than a special offer (with even DVC Members being eligible), but it’s still somewhat surprising to see that this can be combined not just with a room-only discount, but also a package deal.
This is the first way this deal is better year-over-year. Sure, you’ll have to pay to get the Disney Dining Plan for the adults in your party, but if you have multiple kids who qualify for the free DDP, adding this to your package is probably going to result in superior savings versus paying out of pocket. That should be true even if you do not maximize the Disney Dining Plan (some exceptions will still exist for vegetarians/vegans, etc–see the full post above for analysis).
Speaking of dining, this special offer is similar to the Free Dining Card Discount: Up to $200 Per Night at Disney World. That discount was offered for a couple of years, but has since been replaced by this ‘up to $250 off per night’ special offer. Although it sounds different, it’s substantially the same, albeit upfront dollars off as opposed to a rebate in the form of a gift card for food.
I personally far prefer the up-front savings as opposed to the dining card rebate. For one thing, it lowers the overall cost of the trip when booking. This is good for guests and, I suspect, also good for Walt Disney World at a time when there are concerns about pricing out the middle class.
With that out of the way, here’s what we found for best available rates for this ‘save up to $250 off per night’ discount:
This search is for May 18-22, 2026, which is part of the regular rate season at Walt Disney World.
On the rack rate chart spectrum, late May is a below-average time of the year to visit Walt Disney World in terms of costs. This season occurs from late April (post-Easter and Spring Break) through late May 2026 (the lead-up to Memorial Day). The least expensive nights are Sundays through Thursdays, but even the weekends are not terrible as compared to other dates during the deal. Once June rolls around, prices go up slightly–but there’s even less of a weeknight versus weekend distinction.
In general, Friday and Saturday will be the most expensive days of the week, with Sunday through Thursday costing less–but still more than Monday through Wednesday nights. Holiday weeks are also more expensive. Basically, room rates are higher any time when kids are out of school.
For more on timing your trip to coincide with the lowest prices, see When’s Cheapest to Visit Walt Disney World? That covers price increases and other variables that impact the cost of a vacation beyond just room rates.
If you’re looking for the very best dates to take advantage of this special offer, they are as follows for most WDW resorts:
- February 22 to 26, 2026
- March 1 to 6, 2026
- March 16 to 20, 2026
- March 23 to 27, 2026
- April 14 to 16, 2026
- April 20 to 24, 2026
- April 27 to 30, 2026
- May 1 to 21, 2026
One thing you might notice about this deal, as contrasted with last year’s version, is that the special offer is bifurcated. You’ll save considerably more if booking a stay starting February 22, 2026 and running through late July 2026 than you would for dates prior to then in January and February.
Part of this is offset by lower rack rates in Winter 2026, but definitely not all of it. There’s also the matter of higher occupancy rates the first two months of 2026 and Disney’s desire to lock-in bookings for spring and summer earlier by offering more aggressive discounts. Suffice to say, for the best savings, you’ll likely want to book from the above dates.
With that said, my assessment of this “save up to $250 per night” special offer is that it’s better than this last year’s version across the board.
Unfortunately, it’s impossible for me to offer an apples to apples comparison on pricing for this special offer, since I priced out the minimum 3-night stay under the 2025 version of the deal. Obviously, that was cheaper than increasing this to 4-nights. But at least on paper, this looks to me like a better discount. (As always, availability dictates a lot with deals.)
This includes the earlier dates in January and February 2026 at an “inferior” savings rate, but those simply were not offered at all last year (two years ago is a different story). This is another way the 2026 version of this discount is better year-over-year.
A lot of Walt Disney World visitors were very satisfied with the previous incarnations of this discount when it maxed out at a $150 to $200. Getting that up to $250 (except during the first two-ish months of 2026) is even better. The promo is significantly better on the high end in 2026, increasing by $50 per night (from $200 to $250) at the Deluxe Resorts. That alone is huge.
As you’d expect, the increase is lower for Value Resorts ($60 last year to $75 this year) and Moderate Resorts ($120 last year and $150 this year), but that’s at least partially to be expected given the massive disparity in room rates. There are times when Value Resorts and Moderate Resorts are in the $150 to $250 range for these dates, whereas Deluxes routinely exceed $700 per night.
Beyond that, the more aggressive discount reflects lagging occupancy for Deluxe Resorts, and Walt Disney World likely trying to entice visitors to book those. Even with the room-only special offers, we’re seeing greater savings for the Deluxes.
The next big year-over-year improvement we’re seeing with the “save up to $250 per night” special offer is that it runs through July 25, 2026.
That’s a really long time for a deal that is being released in September 2025. For those keeping score at home, last year’s version of this deal was released in October and ran through June 30, 2025.
Then again, it’s not really a surprise that Walt Disney World wants to lock-in Summer 2026 bookings as early as possible. There were a ton of last-minute deals this summer that offered significant savings; between ticket and resort discounts, it was possible to travel in June or July for the lowest prices since 2018 or 2019. Starting special offers earlier offers more of a runway on bookings so those last-minute deals aren’t as necessary to hit occupancy targets.
Another thing I find interesting about this ‘lineage’ of discount is that, in my anecdotal experience, it has surpassed OG Free Dining in popularity. As we’ve noted elsewhere, there’s less interest in the Disney Dining Plan as a whole–even when it’s “free.” With sticker prices on the DDP increasing, what’s included decreasing, along with more rules and exclusions, this shouldn’t be a huge surprise.
It’ll be interesting to see how Walt Disney World switches up 2026 Free Dining. Between waning interest and the existence of the 2026 Kids Dining Plan Offer, I’d think that they’ll have to do something. Maybe Free Dining plus a nightly gift card?
If it’s simply the same special offer as last year, demand will crater because every other discount can be stacked with a version of Free Dining (albeit one for kids). But that’s a question that won’t be resolved until late December or early January, so do not wait. Book this ASAP and rebook later, even if you’re traveling during historic Free Dining dates.
Turning back to this “save up to $250 per night” deal for 2026, this being a flat savings makes it an optimal deal for couples or solo travelers staying at Moderate Resorts or above. This group that routinely called Free Dining a “bad deal” because it didn’t work well for their circumstances.
Just as subjective assessments of Free Dining being “good” or “bad” were not true across the board, the same holds true with this special offer. It really depends upon a mixture of resort/room availability, party size, and the total package pricing that DisneyWorld.com spits out when searching for your dates.
Another thing to be mindful of is that the percentage savings vary widely, especially if you’re looking at pricey rooms at the Deluxe Resorts or Deluxe Villas. Because the savings are capped at a dollar amount, it doesn’t matter whether you book a standard no-view room or a swanky suite.
Once you get into shoulder season and summer, there are great savings to be had–consistent with the recent general public discounts we’ve seen recently–all of which have been varying degrees of good to great.
Making this a tiered savings chart is going to create winners and losers, and guests visiting in Winter 2026 might view this negatively. One of the attractive elements about this deal in previous years was that it was a flat-rate savings, so targeting the least-expensive dates on the rack chart improved it as a percentage discount. But that wasn’t the case in Winter 2025, so if we’re talking year-over-year, this is an across the board improvement.
It’s also still true to an extent that you can target cheaper rack rate dates–bookings in late May 2026 are going to offer higher percentage savings than ones in early April 2026. You just can’t truly hack it by booking the value season in January or February 2026. There are dates throughout both months when the rack rates at Value Resorts are ~$50 less per night than the “good” dates we’ve identified above in late April to late May 2026. Between that and rising occupancy rates for winter, it’s no surprise that Walt Disney World is switching things up with the 2026 version of this deal, improving the savings for spring and summer and decreasing the discount for winter.
It’s not as noticeable at the Values and Moderates, but there are instances of huge spreads at those hotels based on your travel dates and room choice. For example, All Star Sports has room rates as low as $149 per night during this promotion.
By contrast, the Family Suites at Art of Animation can cost over $700 per night during this promo. Despite that, both would receive the exact same dining card amount per night–$60. I’m sure I could find similar contrasts between Gran Destino Tower and Port Orleans Riverside.
The spreads are even more significant at the Deluxes. Old Key West has dates that are around $550 during this, and you can likewise book sub-$600 rooms at the lodges. And no single resort is a better example than the Contemporary, which has rooms for as low as $667 along with rooms that are over $3,000. It should be stating the obvious, but always take the percentage discounts when you’re looking at rooms that are that expensive.
This is why doing the math for your travel dates, preferred resort, and room category is essential. I could tell you that this amounts to 17% off Pop Century, 21% off Coronado Springs, or 26% off Contemporary Resort. However, that would be based on the parameters I’m choosing at random–and likely would not reflect your savings unless you’re traveling during the same dates and booking the same room categories.
This is why I like the room-only discounts. They’re more transparent, rely less on marketing puffery, require less up-front out of pocket outlay, and don’t demand the purchase of things you don’t actually want. While it’s absolutely true that all deals are YMMV, it’s also true that room-only discounts tend to offer the best and most straightforward savings to the greatest number of people.
But it’s also a double-edged sword, because room-only discounts aren’t really hackable. If you know what you’re doing and target the least expensive dates at the least expensive (in-class) resort and room combinations, it is possible to come out ahead here. The more opaque nature of this special offer is precisely what gives it appeal to savvy WDW dealhounds!
Ultimately, this is another discount that’s considerably better than what we were seeing in 2021-2022. That part isn’t really surprising, as it’s become an increasingly common trend. What’s more noteworthy is that this is an improvement year-over-year in the four aforementioned ways:
- Stackable with Kids Free Dining
- Addition of January and February dates (albeit with a lower savings chart and excluding weekends)
- Increasing the maximum nightly savings from $200 to $250
- Extending this promo by a month, ending it in late July 2026 as opposed to June
Prior to this, discounts had started to plateau or worsen on a year-over-year basis. Even the other discounts that were just released for January through April are almost identical to last year, albeit paired with higher rack rates for 2026 than last year.
Given all of that, it’s nice to see another really aggressive deal. One thing we’d strongly recommend is booking ASAP as opposed to waiting–Walt Disney World has a record of pulling deals early and re-releasing them with subpar savings. (You probably have until at least mid-December before this vanishes, so it’s not that urgent.)
The greater sense of urgency comes with availability, as only so much resort inventory is allocated to each deal. As always, plan on being flexible with your hotel choice, room category, and even travel dates if this special offer is a must-have for you.
Walt Disney World offering more discounts to the general public is great news. Consumers now appear to once again have more leverage, and companies need to entice them to visit. (One final thing to note is that you can still do better with Disney Vacation Club Point Rentals for some of these dates and you’re far enough out that DVC will have great availability for May 2026 and beyond.)
This should be an interesting saga to follow, and it’s almost certain that we haven’t seen the end of Walt Disney World’s efforts to woo back former fans and pull “levers” to incentivize more demand and guest spending. We will be closely monitoring what’s released and will notify subscribers of our free email newsletter when any Walt Disney World discounts are released or rumored!
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 do you think of this “save up to $250 per night” Walt Disney World deal for Spring and Summer 2026? Disappointed that it’s a flat rate savings instead of a percentage off, or just happy that something is being offered? If you’re trying for this deal, what travel dates are you aiming for? Are you ‘sitting out’ Walt Disney World this year, doing Universal Orlando and Epic Universe instead? Any questions? Hearing your feedback about your experiences is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts or questions below in the comments!
