Disney Free Dining gone by 2020

[BabybetterDisney]

This is predicted by several Disney Gurus. I just want to present the pattern here from the last few years. First, comparing dates:

2015:
August 28 – October 2, 2015
October 25 – October 31, 2015
November 8 – November 19, 2015
December 15 – December 21, 2015

2016
August 23* – October 1, 2016
November 15 – November 21, 2016
November 26 – November 28, 2016
December 10 – December 21, 2016

2017
August 21-September 30,
November 14-20,
November 25-27, and
December 8-23

2018
8/20/18 - 9/29/18,
11/24/18 - 11/27/18,
12/7/18 - 12/23/18

Next, comparing the number resorts offered:

2015: ALL resorts offered, with Port Orleans — Riverside is excluded from the offer from October 25 – December 21. The offer excludes campsites and 3-bedroom villas at all times.

2016: ALL resorts offered, but with bigger list of exclusions: Campsites, Bungalows at Polynesian Village, Grand Floridian Villas, Bay Lake Tower, 3-bedroom Villas, Port Orleans French Quarter, and Little Mermaid rooms at Art of Animation. Port Orleans Riverside is only available through October 1st.

2017: Big list of excluded resorts, (plus the moderates got downgraded to quick service):

• • Disney’s Fort Wilderness Campsites
  • 3-bedroom villas
  • Disney’s Art of Animation Resort – The Little Mermaid Standard Rooms
  • Disney’s Polynesian Villas & Bungalows – Bungalows
  • Disney’s All Star Movies Resort, Disney’s Port Orleans Resort – French Quarter
  • Copper Creek Villas at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge
  • The Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa
  • Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort.
  • Disney’s Port Orleans Resort – Riverside is excluded from the offer on November 14-20, November 25-27 and December 8-23, 2017

The most notable exclusion being All Star Movies, which is a big resort. The supply of of FD rooms is greatly reduced and became difficult to get.

2018: Even more resorts are excluded, including

All Star Movies, Bay Lake Tower, both Port Orleans Resorts, Wilderness Lodge, Polynesian Village Resort (villas & standard rooms), Contemporary Resort, Fort Wilderness campsites, Art of Animation Little Mermaid Rooms, Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian, and all 3-bedroom Villas.

So besides All Star Movies, Port Orleans Riverside, Polynesian, Contemporary are all excluded, that's 4 full resorts out of the game.

Conclusion:

Disney is obviously losing interest in offering free dining. So imagine what happens when Star Wars Land opens next , which is expected to be huge. So we should probably be prepared for the free dining to eventually go away.

Thoughts added on later:

1. If the economy goes bad, Disney might be forced to get free dining again to fill the hotel rooms, so instead of getting rid of free dining completely, they might just offer a scrap during the good years and make more decent offers when times are bad. So free dining may not completely go away, but expect it to go downhill for the next few years.

2. The reason the experts (and I) say 2020 is because Star Wars Land is expect to open around Nov 2019 because they are behind schedule. That's why September free dining might have one more year's life left.

3. Disney may also limit FD to BB offers only.

 

[Lee Matthews]

Thank God.

Once Galaxies Edge and all the other stuff is open for the 50th, they won't need free dining to entice people to stay.

 

[rteetz]

Free dining isn’t that good of a deal as it is right now. With Star Wars and the 50th anniversary approaching there isn’t much of a reason to keep it around.

 

[jeepwreck]

as long as they never totally get rid of the dining plans we are good

we have only been able to get free dining once and it did save us some money only because we were traveling with a large group but usually we just get the room discount and pay for the dining plans

 

[Doberge]

Free dining isn’t that good of a deal as it is right now. With Star Wars and the 50th anniversary approaching there isn’t much of a reason to keep it around.

I agree it's not a great deal, but as long as free dining can be used to spread crowds out a bit I think itll last a few more years. For example, if there are two families and one can travel all of August and the other only early August, the dining option may push the flexible family to late August and leave more room for families who can only travel peak summer. So I just see it as clever crowd manipulation.

 

[disney-inspired]

I've only done free dining once and that was when I went solo. I'm hoping the removal of free dining will dissipate the crowd that has ballooned up the past few years.

 

[rteetz]

I agree it's not a great deal, but as long as free dining can be used to spread crowds out a bit I think itll last a few more years. For example, if there are two families and one can travel all of August and the other only early August, the dining option may push the flexible family to late August and leave more room for families who can only travel peak summer. So I just see it as clever crowd manipulation.

Star Wars is opening in the free dining window next year. There will be no need to spread out crowds then.

 

[Doug M]

as long as they never totally get rid of the dining plans we are good

we have only been able to get free dining once and it did save us some money only because we were traveling with a large group but usually we just get the room discount and pay for the dining plans

You must eat a ton because it rarely comes out where you save money off of it. They wouldn't sell it unless they at least brake even.

 

[jeepwreck]

You must eat a ton because it rarely comes out where you save money off of it. They wouldn't sell it unless they at least brake even.

oh yes we take full advantage of it and now that that include 1 alcoholic drink it would out in out favour

we were just there in march and one of our meals was over $200 for two people
2 drink
2 entrees
2 desserts

we always try different stuff when we go and usually stuff that we normally wouldn't get

 

[Disneylover99]

More resort exclusions this year for sure, but in terms of actual number of days it's offered, there is not really a pattern. It's more of a shift in dates. More August and December dates now.

 

[ejgonz2]

We don’t use hoppers even when we’re forced to buy them for FD, so play stay dine is about the same value for us.

 

[StitchesGr8Fan]

They said several years ago they were going to phase it out. And every year it gets pared down a little more. Eventually it will be whittled away to nothing, or a very targeted promo of little use to most people.

And I saw very few torch and pitchfork posts from people today as compared to past years so I think people are coming to terms with the promo’s demise.

 

[Jimmy Mouse]

Free dining isn’t that good of a deal as it is right now.

I have to disagree. We booked Bounce Back for this coming September and the offer was free dining. We did CL at CR. We will grab a bite in the morning at the lounge ( we're not big breakfast people ) and use a QS credit for lunch and a TS credit for dinner plus the free snacks. We can actually go our whole stay and spend nothing on food. I think it's a great deal! At least it is for us.

 

[Wubar]

They said several years ago they were going to phase it out. And every year it gets pared down a little more. Eventually it will be whittled away to nothing, or a very targeted promo of little use to most people.

And I saw very few torch and pitchfork posts from people today as compared to past years so I think people are coming to terms with the promo’s demise.

torch and pitchfork posts. LOL. Love it.

 

[pooh'smate]

Free dining saved us $2100 this year so for us it is a good deal.

 

[rteetz]

I have to disagree. We booked Bounce Back for this coming September and the offer was free dining. We did CL at CR. We will grab a bite in the morning at the lounge ( we're not big breakfast people ) and use a QS credit for lunch and a TS credit for dinner plus the free snacks. We can actually go our whole stay and spend nothing on food. I think it's a great deal! At least it is for us.

If it works for you great. Bounce backs tend to be a bit different than regular public free dining. Many times the room discount works out as a better deal.

 

[Jimmy Mouse]

If it works for you great. Bounce backs tend to be a bit different than regular public free dining. Many times the room discount works out as a better deal.

True .... 2 years ago we received 35% off the entire package but this year I haven't seen any room discounts at Atrium Club level

 

[Wubar]

If it works for you great. Bounce backs tend to be a bit different than regular public free dining. Many times the room discount works out as a better deal.

Was trying to figure that out as well. Since we already had booked multiple upcoming RO reservations on bounceback offers to take advantage of our APs, I was calculating whether it was worth it to try and book a new reservation under the free dining promo, or just add a dining plan to our RO reservations. Having to purchase park hoppers is a lot of money to shell out if we already have APs....I know we could use them towards the cost of renewing our APs (probably unlikely), and knowing they would expire by the end of 2019 stinks too....

 

[disneynutz]

"free" dining is used to get guests to book lower occupancy resorts at lower occupancy times. That is why the dates and resorts change. They also modify the terms or inclusions each year to increase their profit now that people are hooked on the idea of free dining.

Bill

 

[Aussie RJ]

I’ve used the free dining promotion on our maiden trip and felt like we saved a ton of money. However, having now enjoyed a few trips to WDW and learned all the tricks from fellow disboard members... I now don’t get the fuss over free dining. It works out cheaper to rent points at a deluxe, buy your preferred tickets and even pay OOP for the dining plan.
I think the promotion in 2019 may be more widespread than the last few years, September may be empty if families hold their trips back for SGE to open.