New Free dining offer - disappointing to say the least

[Craig Larson]

When I was pricing out the difference between free dining and the typical room discount, the free dining was more, but only 400 more. There is no way I would only pay 400 for food on a 10 day trip for 4. So even if it's more expensive, it can still be the better deal. Alas, free dining was not offered for my dates, so it was a futile effort lol

For deluxe level stays, I could see room discount being better most of the time due to the Percentage off they give and the much higher cost per night.

 

[Darcy03231]

Well, by the time I was able to contact my daughter and go over the dates with her, free dining at the values was sold out. I ended up booking the RD at about $1000 more. I'll keep checking in the hopes that more rooms will be released, but I'm not counting on it.

 

[LaDonna]

I agree. And by leaving alcohol and specialty drinks, they didn't take anything away. However, by enforcing the kids meal rule that was already there but not being enforced, that actually saves Disney a lot of money because people are no longer being able to pay for kids meals and get an adult priced meal. I have no idea how many people were taking advantage of the loophole but obviously it was enough of an issue for Disney to fix it. Kind of like they fixed it so that you can no longer make an ADR at BOG for dinner and show up to eat a cupcake.

I am not sure if I’ve read correctly but some things that I have been coming across people are saying on their free dining reservation they can upgrade the child ticket to an adult for around $20 for the length of their stay which then upgrades their QS credit..... If so doesn’t seem like Disney is saving much with this method are..... But as I’m typing this i realized I guess it would be different if you’re paying for the dining

 

[bluezy]

I am not sure if I’ve read correctly but some things that I have been coming across people are saying on their free dining reservation they can upgrade the child ticket to an adult for around $20 for the length of their stay which then upgrades their QS credit..... If so doesn’t seem like Disney is saving much with this method are..... But as I’m typing this i realized I guess it would be different if you’re paying for the dining

You can upgrade a child to an adult, but you have to pay the price difference for the dining plan which would be about $20/DAY to upgrade the QS plan and about $50/DAY to upgrade the regular dining plan. And in order to upgrade the dining plan from a child's to an adults, you also have to upgrade their park admission ticket. That's actually not terribly expensive -- on an 8-day PH ticket it would be about $20 total.

 

[LaDonna]

You can upgrade a child to an adult, but you have to pay the price difference for the dining plan which would be about $20/DAY to upgrade the QS plan and about $50/DAY to upgrade the regular dining plan. And in order to upgrade the dining plan from a child's to an adults, you also have to upgrade their park admission ticket. That's actually not terribly expensive -- on an 8-day PH ticket it would be about $20 total.

but if booked under free dining promotion you actually just pay the ticket price increase

 

[bluezy]

but if booked under free dining promotion you actually just pay the ticket price increase

True

 

[Craig Larson]

but if booked under free dining promotion you actually just pay the ticket price increase

Would you not be paying more for the room too (if that brings you over 2 adults)? That is more than just paying the ticket upgrade. Obviously, certain room types don't have a extra adult charge so this wouldn't apply.
Never mind...too tired and wasn't thinking clearly. They would only be listed as above 9 on the reservation, so still considered a kid for hotel purposes...lol

 

[GeorgiaHoo]

I can't seem to see how the room discounts, even at 20%-30% get close to the saving on free dining.

So I’m late to the discussion but as a family of 5 adults free dining is a much better option, even though we are getting 2 rooms at Boardwalk. Free dining saves us $390 a day while the 25% room discount saves us about $250 a day at the absolute most and discounted tickets about $350 for the trip (at least according to my rough calculations). We booked free dining checking in July 7, previously planning on a July 9 check in so the change didn’t affect us much.