We are planning a trip for May 2017 We have always enjoyed using Disney Dining Plans and scheduling our days around them. I just pulled up the Restaurants available for the plan in 2017 and only saw ESPN offered for Disney Springs, We used to love to go there at the end of our day and especially loved going to Rainforest Cafe. It also wasn’t offered at Animal Kingdom. Are they going to be adding more restaurants? Because if they aren’t we will probably be rethinking purchasing the plan for this trip.
Yes, they renegotiate the contracts for non Disney owned restaurants. The list most likely will not be complete until closer to December. Usually the same restaurants will be added again.
Unless there’s a strong rumor to the contrary, always assume that a restaurant that has been on the DDP will remain on the DDP the following year. Except for restaurants actually closing, I think it’s only been like once that a participating restaurant dropped from the plan.
We are travelling in April 2017 and I emailed Disney with regards the Disney dining plan being updated. They said the full list will be published in January but if they did it this year then the likelihood is that they will do it next year and to book as normal. On that advice I will book and then double check in January cancelling if necessary