Bounceback deal dates have been announced for 2025 Walt Disney World vacations! These special offers are the best way to book discounts over a year in advance and typically have the best, earliest & easiest savings. This post shares eligible 2025 dates & details, how to take advantage of these highly-coveted WDW deals, potential 2025 Free Dining implications, and more.
Now officially referred to as “Future Stay Offers” by Walt Disney World, bounce-back discounts are only available to current travelers staying at one of Walt Disney World’s resort hotels. These were once available only during stays, but that has changed in the last couple of years. Now you can call up to a week after check-out from your Walt Disney World resort.
Bounceback offers are typically the best way to book popular discounts, but they can be confusing, elusive, and deceptively complicated–all adding to their mystique and popularity. Bouncebacks returned last summer with a room-only offer of 25% to 35% off, making them on par with the best targeted deals of the year…but without requiring an AP, Disney Visa, Disney+ subscription, Florida residency, etc. We’ll cover more of the ins and outs later in the post, but let’s start with the news about the return of bounceback offers at Walt Disney World…
Let’s start with the 2024-2025 Future Stay Offer details, so you know what to expect from the latest round of bounceback deals, and whether they’ll work for your travel dates:
- Save up to 25% off Value Resorts
- Save up to 30% off Moderate Resorts
- Save up to 35% off Deluxe Resorts & Deluxe Villas
Available the following remaining 2024 dates:
- Now to May 23 (not listed on the graphic below, but these dates *are* eligible per in-room fliers)
- May 27 to August 29, 2024
- September 2-30, 2024
- October 27-31, 2024
- November 25-27, 2024
- December 1-24, 2024
All 2025 Bounceback Deal dates:
- January 2-8, 2025
- January 13-16, 2025
- January 20-23, 2025
- January 26-30, 2025
- February 2-6, 2025
- February 9-13, 2025
- February 16-19, 2025
- February 23 to May 22, 2025
- May 26 to July 2, 2025
- July 7 to August 28, 2025
- September 1-30, 2025
- October 26-31, 2025
Here’s a better look at the bounceback offer for 2025 that has been released to resort guests at Walt Disney World:
The 2025 Resort Future Stay Offer excludes 3-bedroom Grand Villas, Bungalows at Disney’s Polynesian Villas and Bungalows, Cascade Cabins at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge, Campsites at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort, and the new Disney Vacation Club Cabins at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort.
As noted above, travel dates now through May 23, 2024 are also eligible for bouncebacks. We know this because we were just at Walt Disney World and checked out the bounceback fliers in both of the rooms we stayed in. None of those had the 2025 dates (yet), but they had been refreshed at the start of the EPCOT Flower & Garden Festival to remove dates that had already passed.
Speaking of which, we’ve done about a dozen stays since the future stay offer rolled out last summer, and have been fortunate to find it in all of our resort hotel rooms and Disney Vacation Club villas. I know this because I’ve checked every single time to see whether a new bounceback has been released. Thus far, it’s just been rolling updates of the room-only deal, which is essentially what we’re seeing with the 2025 extension.
If you’re trying to find the flier for future stay offers, it’s likely going to be tucked away in the “Your Take-Along Guide to the Magic” (pictured below) that’s usually left in the room below the television, on a bedside table or desk. All of ours have had the bounceback flier at the back of that guide.
Here’s everything else that we’ve learned about bounceback deals at Walt Disney World for 2024 and 2025:
- Emails are inconsistent. Some readers have reported them arriving immediately at checkout and others not at all. We have not received a single email about future stay offers following our stays. (Email being hit or miss is pretty typical for Walt Disney World communications; if you don’t receive anything, either check your spam folder or call.)
- Eligibility to book bouncebacks is NOT dependent upon receiving the email. When you call to book, the reservations center Cast Member will be able to confirm whether or not you’re eligible by looking up your past reservation. (The corollary to this is it also means that receiving a forwarded bounceback email with no accompanying completed stay won’t do anything for you!)
- Rather than hassling with this while on vacation from the in-room phone, call 407-934-7639 after departing. You have 7 days from checkout to do that, so no need to bother while you’re still on vacation at Walt Disney World.
- Each adult on the original reservation can book bounceback offers. You can also book multiple future stays from one original reservation, meaning that one stay this year could become several discounted stays next year.
- As with all discounts, availability is limited. The “rarer” the room category (e.g. suites), more popular the resort, or busier your dates, the less likely you are to have success. Deluxe Villas always have few options because the reservations center doesn’t control much of the inventory at DVC resorts. However, the options are still far better for this than the average deal.
- Resort of your current stay or how it was booked has no bearing on your future stay offer. As discussed below, you could do a 1-night DVC point rental and book several week-long bounceback offers at Pop Century for 2025.
That’s everything we know that feels worth sharing, but it’s possible we’re overlooking details that you might find important, so feel free to ask any questions you might have in the comments–we’ll answer to the best of our knowledge and experience.
All is that this works pretty much identically to bounceback offers pre-closure. The only material changes are the email at checkout (that, again, I’ve never received) and being able to call after departing Walt Disney World. Those are two big tweaks that are material improvements to the Future Stay Offers.
As always, the biggest barrier to booking bounceback offers is knowledge. Once you have that–and you will after reading this–then bounceback offers are without a doubt the easiest and most hassle-free way to book popular discounts.
Longtime Walt Disney World dealhounds might be wondering about the potential implications for Free Dining, which is the definitive Walt Disney World discount. Free Dining overshadows all else, and it’s pretty much always front-of-mind whenever discounts or Disney Dining Plan news is released.
There was no Free Dining Bounceback last year and now that this Future Stay Offer is being released for travel dates through October 2025, you might be worried about the same being true this year. I hesitate to make any confident predictions given that the Free Dining Bounceback hasn’t been offered since 2019, and obviously a lot can change over the course of 5 years.
With that caveat, what I can say is that the dates for this offer and the lack of 2024 Free Dining Bounceback are irrelevant. It wasn’t offered for this year because the Disney Dining Plan was brought back too late for that. Additionally, travel dates for bouncebacks often overlap.
To that point, this 2025 Bounceback Deal is completely consistent with 2019 and earlier. Well, for the most part. Back in the pre-closure days, the following year’s bounceback would’ve come out towards the start of the year, and immediately switched over to the following year’s travel dates at that time. It wasn’t done on a rolling basis with the current year’s travel dates remaining available.
Back in 2019, the early room-only bounceback deal encompassed travel dates for most of 2020. Same story back in 2018. I can’t recall when, exactly, those bouncebacks were released in rooms, but I want to say January. Regardless, the room-only deals often have dates stretching to December of the following year, and that never precluded Free Dining in the past.
In both years, the Free Dining Bounceback was released in rooms in late July or early August (right around the first arrivals for that year’s version of Free Dining) and stayed in rooms for a few months thereafter. Sometimes this last through the end of October, sometimes through the end of the calendar year. After the Free Dining Bounceback ended, a room-only offer would return.
Given that Walt Disney World is otherwise pulling from the “2019 playbook” for discounts, I think there’s a very good chance that a Free Dining Bounceback to return to rooms later this summer or early fall. Not only is WDW very closely following the special offer strategy of 2019, but they also clearly want a more targeted version of Free Dining by releasing only to Disney+ subscribers and Disney Visa cardholders–and not the general public.
Well, few offers are as narrowly-tailored as bouncebacks. They entice repeat visits, making them a great way to target guests who might need a greater incentive to return the following year (since they were just there). This is precisely why Walt Disney World offers better deals for Florida residents and Annual Passholders–because they need to do more to lure them to stay on-site. Similar story with bouncebacks, which is why the savings are superior in the first place!
As for timing, if the 2025 Free Dining Bounceback happens, I’d expect to see it show up in rooms no earlier than July 1, 2024. More likely, it’ll appear later in the month or once the August off-season rolls around. That offer being available through at least late October would be consistent with past precedent, and it could stick around in rooms for the duration of the holiday season.
About the only reason I could see the Free Dining Bounceback not returning for 2025 is if Disney forgets about it. That might sound jokey, and it sorta is, but Future Stay Offers are a very niche thing that’s under the radar–even internally. Most Cast Members, even ones at the resorts, have no clue what they are. Even the reservations teams are not as well-versed in bouncebacks as most other deals.
Odd as it might sound, there’s a scenario where the Free Dining Bounceback is not offered, and it’s for no other reason than a simple oversight. I don’t expect this to be the case, as Walt Disney World is already digging deep into the 2019 playbook for discounts with other obscure offers, but it’s a possibility. Otherwise, there’s every reason to believe the Free Dining Bounceback will be back for 2025. All other deals have been returning that would precede it.
So, who isn’t eligible to book Future Stay Offers? It should be obvious, but anyone who doesn’t have a current stay. Also, anyone who is at Walt Disney World, but is staying off-site or in third-party hotels.
You need to be staying at a Disney-owned hotel in order to take advantage of the Future Stay Offers. Swan & Dolphin are not Disney-owned, nor are Bonnet Creek or Disney Springs Resorts. If your resort is managed by a real-world hotelier like Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt, Four Seasons, etc–it’s not Disney-owned.
It also doesn’t matter if you will be arriving soon at Walt Disney World–you aren’t eligible to book unless you’re currently staying in a Disney-owned hotel at Walt Disney World, or are within the window following check-out. Beyond that, it doesn’t matter in which WDW hotel you’re presently staying or which promotion you’ve booked your current stay under.
Among diehard Walt Disney World planners, it’s very popular to do a strategic short stay during the bounceback window to make yourself eligible for the following year’s bounceback offer. (It most frequently was done for Free Dining, but we’ve heard of some people doing it for other offers!) This is not as crazy of an idea as it might sound!
You might remember the fictional Costanza family from New York, who have booked a variety of fake vacations in past blog posts on this site. The Costanza family now has 4 “Disney adults,” as their kids have grown up (I know you’re all on the edge of your seats with curiosity, so yes, they have added more pet hamsters to their family–they now have 15!–but none of those will be joining them on this trip).
The Costanzas really like the location of the Magic Kingdom area hotels, but they are incredibly frugal. As such, the Costanzas follow the advice in our Tips for Renting Disney Vacation Club Points post, and book a 1-night stay in a DVC Cabin at Fort Wilderness in mid-October 2024. After checking in, they arrive at their room to find that there is no flyer for the 2025 Resort Future Stay Offer in their room.
Cool as a cucumber and never one to get upset, Mr. Costanza picks up the in-room phone and dials x8844. A Cast Member assists them in booking for next year. Alternatively, since Mr. Costanza is on vacation and doesn’t want to deal with a call center or being on hold, he could simply contact his fee-free Authorized Disney Travel Planner, or travel agent.
In a perfect world, he’d give them a heads up about booking this bounce-back before his trip, which would make this a matter of a quick, one-line email during his trip. (We’ve done–and recommend–the latter approach.)
Since they only took a 1-night vacation this year, they go all out and book a stay at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge for December 10 through 24, 2025. Although Mr. Costanza does not celebrate Christmas, and finds tinsel distracting, he finds the ambiance of Wilderness Lodge very enjoyable during the holidays. (The hope here is that 2025 Free Dining is offered for those travel dates; if not, we’re assuming additional 2025 room-only bouncebacks will be released at a later date.)
These somewhat extreme example should illustrate a few important points:
- How you booked your current stay does not matter–it just matters that you’re staying in a Disney resort.
- It does not matter if your current resort or dates are excluded from the bounceback promo you want to book–you can book any eligible resort while staying at any Disney resort.
- Your current length of stay does not matter.
- The flier not being in your room makes no difference–dial x8844 and you can book the bounce-back offer.
The first three points we’ve covered above in sufficient detail (I hope) but the last point is worthy of elaboration. Mousekeeping is supposed to leaves these fliers in every single room, but sometimes, that does not happen. As you might know from our past posts, Mousekeeping is currently understaffed (and overworked) and sometimes oversights are made. It happens.
We cannot reiterate enough that dialing x8844 from the in-room phone or 407-934-7639 from your phone is how to book the bounceback offer (if you booked your current stay with a travel agent, they can also handle it for you, making this entirely hassle-free for you).
Do not call the front desk and do not call the central reservations line. While there is a chance that Cast Members at either of those lines will be able to help, there’s also a chance they won’t. Walt Disney World is a incredibly complex organization and it is not reasonable to expect every Cast Member to know every single thing about the resort. That’s like expecting someone who plays Olaf in Frozen on Broadway to know every single thing about New York City.
If you’ve read the blog post to this point, you already know more about bounceback or future stay offers than ~98% of Cast Members. That’s not a knock on them! It’s impossible to know it all. Any questions you could have now are unlikely to be answerable by anyone but a Cast Member whose role specifically pertains to booking bouncebacks.
The specific role of Cast Members at x8844 is booking bounceback offers, so they have specialized knowledge of the promotions, and will be much better at helping you. (Same goes for travel agents and having this specialized knowledge.) Think of it like a doctor. You might absolutely adore your proctologist (said no one ever)…but you should really go to a neurosurgeon for an operation on your brain, rather than the butt doctor.
Ultimately, booking a bounceback offer is neither brain nor butt surgery, even if our long-winded explanation might make it seem just as complicated. Hopefully, we’ve broken these discounts down in a way that makes sense and clarifies the who/how/when/etc. of Walt Disney World Future Stay Offers. We are huge fans of these deals, as they take a lot of the stress out of booking discounts–namely, the waiting and hoping there’s availability for your travel dates and resort. If you get the chance, we’d recommend booking the Bounceback or Future Stay Offer as a safety net when you visit Walt Disney World.
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
Have you booked any Bounceback or Future Stay Offer in the past at Walt Disney World? Do you make a point of calling x8844 to check for bouncebacks even if you don’t receive an in-room flier? 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!
