As we reported early last month, Walt Disney World’s list of participating locations for the 2026 Disney Dining Plans was missing 50+ restaurants and there were reader concerns about this. The key takeaway from that was not to worry, as third parties usually aren’t added until the last minute. Now that the new year has arrived, exactly that has happened–there are now only a handful of missing spots.
As basic background, Disney Dining Plans are now available to purchase for 2026 vacation packages. 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. Honestly, we expected an announcement about Free Dining to happen already. Last time, Walt Disney World teased it and other discounts on December 30th. There’s still almost certainly a big special offer release on the horizon; it appears WDW just won’t give a heads up about it this go-round (that, or the tease and the release have both been delayed due to the timing of New Year’s Day 2026).
Assuming Free Dining does return for 2026 (a safe bet), 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.
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. The last time we shared an update on this back on December 10th, the list of participating restaurants for the regular 2026 DDP was only 174, with 100 restaurants on the Quick-Service Disney Dining Plan (QSDDP).
Fast-forward a few weeks, and those numbers have shot up: 228 restaurants on the regular 2026 Disney Dining Plan and 118 restaurants on the 2026 Quick-Service Disney Dining Plan.
We are now in the range of what’s normal, suggesting business as usual for the 2026 DDP. If you’re curious about current restaurant eligibility, see this list of 2026 Disney Dining Plan Restaurants at Walt Disney World.
(For reference, the Walt Disney World dining portal listed 222 restaurants as participating in the 2025 DDP and 116 restaurants that were eligible for the 2025 QSDDP as of December 10th. This means there’s been a year-over-year increase of 2 restaurants, despite some spots still being missing!)
Here’s a non-exhaustive list of the additions since we last reported on what was missing (spoiler: it’s almost all of the restaurants), followed by what’s still missing…
EPCOT
- Chefs de France
- La Crêperie de Paris
- La Cantina de San Angel
- Les Halles Boulangerie-Patisserie
- Lotus Blossom Cafe
- Pizza al Taglio
- Via Napoli
- Tutto Italia
- Teppan Edo
- Katsura Grill
Disney Springs
- The BOATHOUSE
- Blaze Pizza
- Chicken Guy
- Cookes of Dublin
- City Works Eatery & Pour House
- Earl of Sandwich
- The Edison
- eet by Maneet Chauhan
- Morimoto Asia Street Food
- Pizza Ponte
- Polite Pig
- Terralina Crafted Italian
- Smokehouse at House of Blues
- Splitsville Dining Room
- YeSake Kiosk
Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort
- El Mercado de Coronado Food Court
- Rix Sports Bar & Grill
- Siestas Cantina
What’s Still Missing
- California Grill*
- Connections Cafe
- Creature Comforts
- Main Street Bakery
- Trolley Car Cafe
- Monsieur Paul*
- Space 220 Restaurant*
- STK*
- Takumi-Tei*
- T-Rex Cafe
- Rainforest Cafe (Animal Kingdom & Disney Springs)
- Yak & Yeti Restaurant
- Yak & Yeti Local Foods Cafe
*Did not participate in the 2025 DDP, and not expected to be added to the 2026 Disney Dining Plan
As for what else is still missing (but expected to be added), it’s currently just the Starbucks locations in the parks and select Landry’s restaurants–but not even all of them! Note that if you navigate to the specific websites for these restaurants, a few actually do say “Some Dining Plans Accepted.” Since there are only two Disney Dining Plans and those are mostly the quick-service spots, “some” presumably means the QSDDP.
In all likelihood, all of the entries on the “what’s missing” list probably accept the DDP at this point. It would be odd for Landry’s to ink a deal for another year of the DDP at some–but not all–of its restaurants. And I’d be shocked if Starbucks even has the option of opting out of the Disney Dining Plan at its in-park locations; I’d hazard a guess that’s in their contract.
This has happened before. I recall one where when the website for Chefs de France wasn’t updated until mid-January, suggesting it was not accepting the Disney Dining Plan even though it actually was–and there was reason to believe there was never any gap in eligibility. In all likelihood, the websites just haven’t been fully updated to reflect the restaurants that have since extended their DDP deals.
Why Did This Happen?
Back when first reporting on this in early December, we cautioned readers against worrying too much about this, and advised against giving it any thought until, like New Year’s Eve. Some restaurants wouldn’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.
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 same thing happened last year, and the year before it, and the year before that. I can almost guarantee we’ll be having this same conversation in December 2026 about the 2027 Disney Dining Plan. We first noticed this issue back in 2018 when there were a lot of restaurants missing, and many weren’t added until January 2019.
There’s always a chance a restaurant or two will “break ranks” and opt out of the 2026 Disney Dining Plan. Previously, we pointed to the potentiality of Walt Disney World reducing their reimbursement rate to third party restaurants on the basis of the Kids Eat Free in 2026 promotion. (Otherwise, Disney would be subsidizing that, despite not realizing any revenue for the kids’ DDPs. Someone has to eat those loses!)
That was purely speculative, and if it did happen, it clearly wasn’t enough to move the needle. Nearly every restaurant that participated in last year’s DDP is now eligible for the 2026 Disney Dining Plan. As we also pointed out, ADR demand has cratered in the last couple of years due to guests reallocating vacation dollars to Lightning Lanes, so it was likely third party restaurants wouldn’t want to risk losing even more business by rejecting the Disney Dining Plan.
We’re still in the dark as to what happened in the background as part of Walt Disney World’s negotiations with third party restaurants, or if anything changed from their perspective with the 2025 vs. 2026 Disney Dining Plan, but the bottom line is that virtually all locations that accepted the DDP last year are once again accepting it this year.
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Your Thoughts
Pleased to see almost every fan-favorite restaurant accepting the 2026 Disney Dining Plan? Disappointed about anything that’s still missing? 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!