Free dining is here for the Fall

[Barb]

Ok, I have to ask because I don't understand. Is free dining really worth it? I thought you had to pay full price for your room package and then get free dining. Isn't getting a 30% room discount a better deal? The excitiment of the free dining offer escapes me. Can someone explain the concept for me? Thanks!!

 

[maryandtyson]

Ok, I have to ask because I don't understand. Is free dining really worth it? I thought you had to pay full price for your room package and then get free dining. Isn't getting a 30% room discount a better deal? The excitiment of the free dining offer escapes me. Can someone explain the concept for me? Thanks!!

Barb, it depends is the short answer. You have to do the math to figure out the better deal for your situation. We have 3 people who a dining plan adults and one child, so the free dining is worth over $165 per night. The 30% off is only about $130 a night. Still good, but not as good. When you call, they can check for you and compare the deals to see which one saves more.

 

[smitch425]

Ok, I have to ask because I don't understand. Is free dining really worth it? I thought you had to pay full price for your room package and then get free dining. Isn't getting a 30% room discount a better deal? The excitiment of the free dining offer escapes me. Can someone explain the concept for me? Thanks!!

It depends on your party size, the ages of your party, resort level, and how you like to eat on vacation. The best deal for some is not the best deal for others. For instance, we stay at POP and hate ADRs. Our DD is 10, so she is charged the adult plan price. We save several hundred dollars more with FD. On the flip side, a single person or even a couple staying deluxe, would be better of with a deep room discount and paying for their food OOP.

 

[skier_pete]

I was able to get through to Disney, however, they said there was a "glitch" in the system and they can not make any Free Dining or 20% off room reservations at Port Orleans, that I should try back in a few hours. My question is: we have reservations from November 10 - 18, has anyone had two reservations back to back at the same hotel? If we make a 1 night reservation at the regular rate for Nov 10 and a 7 night reservation starting on Nov 11th what is the possibility of not having to change rooms? I think the hassle may be worth the free dining but I'm not sure of the logistics of it.

We've done it before and are doing it the same time as you. I currently have a room-only for Nov 9th - 11th, and a package with free dining (from a PIN) 11th to 18th at CBR. If you ask them to, Disney will "Link" these reservations in the system. Understand you will have to pay a deposit on both reservations - with the room reservation being a one-night stay deposit.


We have stayed this way a couple times now and have never had to change rooms. In fact in 2011 we had THREE linked reservations. (We could only get a prefferred room our first night as the regular rooms were all booked - so I had a one-night single stay in a preferred room, THEN a one-night single stay in a regular room, THEN the package stay. We packed an overnight bag the first night, figuring we would definitely have to move at least once. They ended up giving us the preferred room for the entire stay and I didn't even ask. SWEET!)

Now, they will not promise that you will be able to keep the same room the entire time, but generally they try to do that whenever they can. That is why it is important to link the two reservations so that they will try to get you in the same room within the system.

You also should confirm this when you are checking in the first day that they can keep you in the same room. They may make you come back to the desk the next day, but possibly not (we've done both). If for some reason they have to have you move rooms, it really isn't all that inconvient - they can do that pretty much while you are at the parks...you would just have to be packed up the next morning and they can move your bags for you.

 

[skier_pete]

Ok, I have to ask because I don't understand. Is free dining really worth it? I thought you had to pay full price for your room package and then get free dining. Isn't getting a 30% room discount a better deal? The excitiment of the free dining offer escapes me. Can someone explain the concept for me? Thanks!!

I am staying at CBR. A 20 % room discount is a roughly $40 a day saving. Free dining for our party of three (our 10-year old is now a dining "adult") is $165 a day. For the seven nights of my FD stay, that's a $284 savings versus an $1155 savings, a difference of $871 MORE for the FD.

Not sure if that would get you excited, but it gets ME excited. It means I can stay at a moderate instead of a value! Getting free dining makes me so excited I want to burst. (And I've done free dining 5 times now, so figure out how much it's saved me in the last 6 years!)

Now, if you are staying at a deluxe with only two adults, and you save 30 % off of a $400 a night room rate, the room rate savings is $134 a night versus the $110 a night free dining savings - and in that case, the room discount is better. But if you had two kids over 9 with you, the dining savings would be $220 a day, so still might consider it worth it.

 

[mrskirk]

Yea, on their site POFQ was 20% off and they had Garden/River rooms available at the lower prices.

We made our reservations at the new rate then when we called Disney to cancel our old reservation they offered to give us FD if we moved our reservation to Caribbean Beach Resort, even though we are only staying 4 nights, so we took them up on that offer.

*edit, apparently you don't need 6 nights, only 3 nights. Man Disney was tricky with their wording on the site! lol

After reading your post, I just realized the same. We only have a 5 night/ 6 day package. I still successfully purchased this with free dining though. Hmm, odd.

 

[mommalovesglitter]

We had ressies for POR, but I happily switched to CS for FD! This is our first family vacation to WDW and to save this kind of $$ is wonderful I was on hold for less than 30 minis, though I would have waited for 30 hours for FD!

 

[smitch425]

We had ressies for POR, but I happily switched to CS for FD! This is our first family vacation to WDW and to save this kind of $$ is wonderful I was on hold for less than 30 minis, though I would have waited for 30 hours for FD!

Congrats!

 

[skriegerjr]

Do you HAVE to buy the tickets? I am an annual pass holder and DVC. Is there any exceptions at all? =/ Seems a bit annoying to buy a two day when you already have AP.

It might be annoying, but buying 2 days of admission to save $1000 is sort of a no brainer by my way of thinking.

 

[Barb]

Thanks for the explanations. I get it now. I'm DVC and use Tables in Wonderland, so FD is something I've never researched.

 

[RejoyceoverDisney]

Wow what pressure! But the decision was made.
As long as I kept our 2 reservations (another couple coming with us) with King size beds, hubby and friend was happy to switch.

So weighed out POFQ discounted room vs switch to CS w/FD and we made the decision to switch.

So now we are going to CS. It looks lovely but I'm feeling a little overwhelmed with the unknown and size of the place. I keep telling myself "it's Disney" and none of it could be "bad".

So now, switching my head to the new resort and got research to do.
Would love any input on CS as it seemed most of you were favoring PO in general. I've been to FQ so I know what to expect.

I totally lucked out and didn't wait long at all once I got through.
There was no FD left in the other moderates and she suggested CS.
So for $67 more than our original plan, the decision is made.
The funny part is my friend had originally thought about this one because of the health spa. I told her I guess we were meant to be there so she can get her massage or get her toes done. LOL Actually maybe a pedicure midweek might be nice after all that walking.

Moving into Happy dance mode. 107 days to go.

Would love input from people that have stayed at both. But mostly what I would like about CS.

 

[maryandtyson]

CSR is really nice! We stayed there 3 times- twice before kids and once with kids. It's different from PO, but nice. It has more of a desert feel rather than the trees and foliage of POR. You will love Pepper Market for your QS dining! It's a nice location near Blizzard Beach too. I hope you have a great trip!

 

[skier_pete]

So weighed out POFQ discounted room vs switch to CS w/FD and we made the decision to switch.

Would love input from people that have stayed at both. But mostly what I would like about CS.

We haven't stayed at CS - and honestly I would choose POFQ over it cause we love POFQ even though we haven't stayed there in 5 years - but we similarly "downgraded" to CBR in 2011 for free dining and ended up loving it there just as much.

I would suggest watching the recent 7 in 7 podcast in which Pete and the gang stayed there and were pleasantly surprised by how much they loved it.

http://www.disunplugged.com/2013/06/07/dis-unplugged-podcast-060413-orlando-show/

 

[massimo998]

Could not be more disapointed with the entire process. Booked months ago missed free dinning by a day and i booked with a travel agent due to me and my fiancés crazy work schedules. Long story short basically the only discount i can receive is 50 dollars off the reservation in a royal guest room. Called disney and got a employee whom was not magical to say the least. Was hoping for a discount as the trip is to plan our disney wedding now im rethinking the idea all together. Would not even talk to me about it

 

[Angela72181]

Well after our travel agent was on hold this morning for over 3 hours she got through, switched us over to free dining at CSR, added Photopass +, AND even with adjusted ticket prices she still saved us $1,848.27...

Thank you Joe and smitch for keeping my hope alive that this Pixie Dust would happen....

We may not be at POFQ anymore but are looking forward to trying out the Moderate resorts after last years Stay at Pop

I hope everyone else managed to score some pixie Dust as well that needed it.

 

[Denise773]

Question

On Disney's site it says 6 night/ 7 day for FD. On other sites, including this one and my TA's it says 3/2 does anyone have any clarity on that?
Thank you

 

[lockedoutlogic]

Thanks for the explanations. I get it now. I'm DVC and use Tables in Wonderland, so FD is something I've never researched.

I am the same boat as you but I'm considering trying one of these packages...

It saves us points that we could take a break from... And don't misunderstand what the ticket means...

The tickets have to be used with 14 days of their first use... But they RETAIN their value if they are not activated... And that value can be applied to a future ticket purchase.

So you are basically making a down payment of about $190 a person toward a future ticket purchase.

That's how you play this and still get the deal

 

[lockedoutlogic]

Question

On Disney's site it says 6 night/ 7 day for FD. On other sites, including this one and my TA's it says 3/2 does anyone have any clarity on that?
Thank you

It's 6/7 days

Trust the horses mouth selling the packages.

Travel agents are generally useless...they do what you can do yourself... Especially someplace easy like at Walt disney world

 

[JennyKS]

Well I only have 6 days 5 nights and I got free dining. I told the cast member I thought I had to extend it one day and she said no it was minimum 2 night.

I got my confirmation and I have free dining.

 

[JennyKS]

Well I only have 5 days 6 nights and I got free dining. I told the cast member I thought I had to extend it one day and she said no it was minimum 2 night.

I got my confirmation and I have free dining.

Sorry that should be 6 days 5 nights.