Walt Disney World’s list of participating locations for the 2026 Disney Dining Plans has 50 missing restaurants and we’ve received questions from readers worried that their favorites are excluded. Despite being only a few weeks away from 2026, this explains why there’s no cause for concern about DDP removals…yet.
Let’s start with the basics, which is that that Disney Dining Plans are now available to purchase for 2026 vacation packages and have been for a while. This includes both full Walt Disney World vacation packages and ticketless resort hotel + Disney Dining Plan reservations. For the most part, this just impacts pricing–see 2026 Disney Dining Plan Price Increases and Decreases!
The biggest change with the 2026 Disney Dining Plan, and the reason why there are some (significant) price decreases, is that Kids Eat FREE All Year in 2026 at Walt Disney World. This is good news, as that perk or offer is better than Free Dining for most of WDW’s target demo–and it’s stackable.
What remains to be seen is whether Free Dining also makes a comeback in early 2026. Since it’s already being offered to UK guests for 2026 travel dates, it’s all but certain that Free Dining will be back again for 2026. But it’ll be interesting to see what, if any, changes that Walt Disney World makes to sweeten the deal. The stackable Kids Eat Free promo is going to be more attractive for many guests, so WDW needs to do something if they want higher adoption of Free Dining.
In addition to that, there have been rumors of an “Ultimate” Disney Dining Plan that could launch as soon as 2026. This sounds a lot like the defunct Deluxe Disney Dining Plan, which Walt Disney World declined to restore (along with the Disney Dining Plan Plus) when restoring the DDP a couple years ago, post-COVID and revenge travel.
All of this suggests that Walt Disney World is doubling down on the Disney Dining Plan. That they realize there’s a problem with Advance Dining Reservation demand, uptake of the DDP, and other issues with table service restaurants in the parks & resorts.
There’s no reason to believe the DDP is being scaled back for 2026. To the contrary, our expectation is that Walt Disney World will continue to scale it up, finding other ways to make the DDP more attractive. The Disney Dining Plan is a cash cow that increases per guest spending (a key metric for Walt Disney World) in both its paid and “free” form.
Against that backdrop, we’ve received concerned comments and questions from several readers about many restaurants being seemingly “excluded” from the 2026 Disney Dining Plan. To that point, the list of participating restaurants for the regular 2026 DDP currently stands at 174, with 100 restaurants on the Quick-Service Disney Dining Plan (QSDDP).
By contrast, the Walt Disney World dining portal lists 222 restaurants as participating in the 2025 DDP and 116 restaurants that are eligible for the 2025 QSDDP. In other words, there are nearly 50 “missing” restaurants that drop off the list from this year to next.
There are also some interesting anomalies, such as some restaurants only being eligible for the 2026 Disney Dining Plan at lunch. Others are only eligible at dinner. This is an odd quirk, and one I don’t recall seeing previously. If you’re curious about current restaurant eligibility, see this list of 2026 Disney Dining Plan Restaurants at Walt Disney World.
If you browse through the results on DisneyWorld.com (and contrast them with this year), you’ll likely notice that a lot of restaurants–especially in EPCOT, Disney Springs, and select resort hotels–are not eligible.
My biggest piece of advice to anyone worried about restaurants eligible for the 2026 Disney Dining Plan would be to stop thinking about it until, like, New Year’s Eve. This is not yet a comprehensive list of all restaurants that will ultimately participate in the 2026 Disney Dining Plan at some point. Dozens more restaurants will be added throughout the remainder of this year. Some won’t be added until the eleventh hour, in the last week of December or even early January 2026.
The reason for this is pretty simple. Many restaurants at Walt Disney World are owned and operated by third parties. This isn’t just at Disney Springs, which is home to chains and outposts of renowned celebrity chefs. It’s also true at some resort restaurants, and in both EPCOT and Animal Kingdom. This includes Homecomin’, Maria & Enzo’s, Morimoto Asia, Chefs de France, Via Napoli, Tutto Italia, Coronado Springs dining, and more.
If you’re wondering why this happens, it’s because Walt Disney World negotiates with these third party restaurants about the terms of their participation in the Disney Dining Plan. Actually, “negotiate” might be a strong word; I don’t have insight into the process, but assume it’s more a take it or leave it offer by Walt Disney World with uniform contract terms.
In our Disney Dining Plan Info & Review post, we reverse-engineer a dollar value for each type of DDP credit. Based upon our calculations, a table service meal is worth approximately $64.50, a counter service meal on the DDP is worth approximately $26.50, and a snack is worth approximately $6.50. Walt Disney World does the same (minus the reverse-engineering part) and sets a reimbursement rate for these third parties.
In other words, if a third-party table restaurant chooses to accepts the Disney Dining Plan, they are paid a rate below the actual value of each DDP credit, with Disney also taking their cut. For example, the third party might be paid $40 by Walt Disney World for each table service credit that’s redeemed. (This is an example and $40 is not the actual amount restaurants are paid–we don’t know the true amount.)
What we do know is that it’s low enough that third party restaurant operators have to weigh the low reimbursement rate against the upside of filling tables via the Disney Dining Plan. For third party restaurateurs, it’s a lesser of two evils scenario: do these venues accept reduced profits per meal or a reduced fill-rate for tables?
Inevitably, nearly all third party restaurants usually end up choosing the former. The final participant list for the 2026 Disney Dining Plan will probably be similar to what it is in 2025. The same thing happened last year, and the year before it, and the year before that.
There’s always a chance a restaurant or two will “break ranks” and opt out of the 2026 Disney Dining Plan. The most likely reason we could see that happening in 2026 is if Walt Disney World has reduced their reimbursement rate to third party restaurants on the basis of the Kids Eat Free in 2026 promotion.
This is a definite possibility! If Walt Disney World doesn’t reduce the reimbursement rate, especially for kids meals, they are essentially subsidizing the Disney Dining Plan and paying third party restaurateurs despite Disney not seeing any revenue for the kids’ DDPs. Someone has to eat those loses, and our best guess is that Walt Disney World wants the operating participants to pick up at least part of the tab. Again, that’s just a guess, though.
We’ve discussed at length how Advance Dining Reservation demand has cratered and Walt Disney World has been pulling “levers” to incentivize guests to dine at table service restaurants. The company might argue that the benefit of increased demand justifies the lower reimbursement rate.
Conversely, third party restaurants might contend that the Disney Dining Plan isn’t the driver of business that it once was, and that won’t change even with more aggressive DDP deals in 2026. That Lightning Lanes have made many guests forgo discretionary spending on table service restaurants, and there’s no unringing that bell (save for bringing back free FastPass). That volume is going to be lower, regardless, and they’re better off with fewer guests paying out of pocket at full rates than DDP credits reimbursed at a lower rate. That Walt Disney World doesn’t have the leverage it once did with the Disney Dining Plan.
Just to be clear, this is purely conjecture on my part. The salient point, though, is that it’s possible that negotiations for the 2026 Disney Dining Plan are more contentious than normal. Perhaps more third party restaurants will be okay with forgoing the DDP, as it’s really not that important to their business.
I’m skeptical of this explanation, though, especially as the same thing happens year in and year out. Granted, we aren’t usually still down ~50 restaurants year-over-year in December, but it’s entirely possible that Walt Disney World hasn’t updated the listing in a while. We have seen exactly that happen in past years, even as late as mid-January. (Restaurants that were accepting the DDP listed as ineligible.)
Honestly, if you asked me a few months ago whether more or fewer restaurants would accept the 2026 Disney Dining Plan, I would’ve guessed more. Even though the Kids Eat Free promo is a big wildcard that could lead to more restaurants opting out, it also could be exactly what Walt Disney World and third party restaurants need to reinvigorate dining demand.
Over the last year-plus, we’ve had some meals at Walt Disney World with a downright concerning number of empty tables. We largely attribute this, as noted above, to guests reallocating their vacation budgets from table service restaurants to Lightning Lanes. There’s also the reality of higher prices, driven by rising food costs and Disney’s routine price increases.
It’s gotten so bad that we fully expect some restaurants to be forced to scale back their meal services, reduce staffing, or otherwise scale back menus, food quality, etc. The first instance of this has already been announced, with the Cutback to Coral Reef at EPCOT. Unless the new Kids Eat Free and other dining-related promos in 2026 work at reversing declining demand, we’d expect this trend to continue.
This is precisely why it would behoove third party restaurants to accept the 2026 Disney Dining Plan, even if the terms are less favorable. Because the alternative might be even less demand, which might force them to make tough decisions about their operations.
The biggest exception to this is counter service restaurants. People still need to eat when visiting the parks, so many quick-service spots have seen increased business as a result of the table service decline. It might make sense for Les Halles Boulangerie-Patisserie in the France pavilion, for example, to stop accepting the DDP. That’s one stop that gets busier and busier with each passing year; they certainly do not need to accept a lower reimbursement rate. But third party counter service restaurants like Les Halles are pretty few and far between. It’s mostly table service restaurants.
Ultimately, all of this is why–on balance–we expect the final list of 2026 Disney Dining Plan restaurants to end up looking almost identical with this year’s list. The simplest and best explanation for the ~50 missing restaurants is that Walt Disney World and the third party operating participants haven’t fully negotiated their deals.
Once that happens, the number of eligible restaurants should sky rocket. Sure, there will be some last-minute holdouts hoping that they can sustain business without the Disney Dining Plan, or disillusioned by whatever terms that Walt Disney World is offering. But it’s difficult to imagine any of these restaurants magically becoming more popular with cash-paying guests, especially as ADR demand declines. The bottom line is that we expect the same or more restaurants on the 2025 Disney Dining Plan as this year’s version, not fewer.
This exact same scenario with the Disney Dining Plan plays out every single year. Readers usually start asking about exclusions in the fall, with some understandable “freaking out” closer to Christmas. In the past, it hasn’t helped that info on DisneyWorld.com is often inconsistent from page to page. We’ll keep you posted and publish a final list of 2026 Disney Dining Plan participants later this month or in early January.
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
Are you concerned about any Walt Disney World restaurants not accepting the 2025 Disney Dining Plan? Think this is the year that things will be different due to the Kids Eat Free promo? Or is it the same as always–that Disney is taking until the eleventh hour negotiating with third parties? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? 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!
