New Free dining offer - disappointing to say the least

[sharonabe]

I got on yesterday before the phone lines opened and there was plenty of availability at almost every resort offered for the July dates (I was searching 7/7-14). It was all gone a few hours later, though. Still hoping they offer another wave of free dining come April. Not totally sold on my dates (had to move up the dates and flights are more expensive).

Keep checking. I looked today, and just about everything was available for check in on the 6th and 7th.

 

[jessiegirl1982]

Keep checking. I looked today, and just about everything was available for check in on the 6th and 7th.

I booked it (sorry I wasn't clear). I was originally looking for mid-June or checking in around 7/9. A bunch of stuff is open again across a bunch of resorts (not all Deluxe Villas too haha).

 

[ilanakan]

We are arriving from Australia on 6th Sep, so not much wriggling room. For our dates nothing what so ever in the resorts we want, or for way more expensive prices where we do want to stay.

 

[sharonabe]

We are arriving from Australia on 6th Sep, so not much wriggling room. For our dates nothing what so ever in the resorts we want, or for way more expensive prices where we do want to stay.

Don't give up. Things sometimes open up. I would check every day from now until the end date.

 

[Tom P.]

Despite all of the hoopla about "Free Dining" everywhere, I haven't found it to be a deal in many, many years. To be honest, I don't understand why people get excited about it. We spend less money getting a room discount and paying out of pocket for our meals. We don't even get the dining plan. And we eat as much as we want, order whatever we want off of the menu, we don't have to think about credits and what counts as what, and we STILL spend less than we would spend getting a "Free Dining" offer.

As others have said, it depends. We are a family of seven and stay in value resort rooms. The room discounts do not even come close to saving us what free dining does. I mean, the difference is in the thousands. OTOH, families of different sizes staying in different resort types could find the reverse to be true. There is just no one definitive "best" discount.

 

[ilanakan]

As others have said, it depends. We are a family of seven and stay in value resort rooms. The room discounts do not even come close to saving us what free dining does. I mean, the difference is in the thousands. OTOH, families of different sizes staying in different resort types could find the reverse to be true. There is just no one definitive "best" discount.

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

 

[Disneylover99]

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

Buying discounted tickets and dropping the park hopper option (if you don’t really use it) coupled with the room discount can be a significant savings for some.

 

[bluezy]

Despite all of the hoopla about "Free Dining" everywhere, I haven't found it to be a deal in many, many years. To be honest, I don't understand why people get excited about it. We spend less money getting a room discount and paying out of pocket for our meals. We don't even get the dining plan. And we eat as much as we want, order whatever we want off of the menu, we don't have to think about credits and what counts as what, and we STILL spend less than we would spend getting a "Free Dining" offer.

As others have said, whether free dining is a good deal is dependent on many factors (no need for me to use quotes on free dining as those who are booked under this promotion will not be paying for the food they eat that is covered by this plan. That food will be free. It really doesn't matter what people are paying for their rooms, the food on the dining plan will be free. Whether free dining is a bigger savings than a room/package discount varies by family.). We are a family of 5 (all Disney adults and the kids are late teens/early twenties); we stay in a suite at AoA; we prefer to eat mostly QS meals (maybe 1 or 2 TS meals depending on the trip); and we always get Park Hoppers. We eat what we want when we want it and we also buy nearly all of our snacks and drinks in the parks as we usually go bagless. Based on our past trips, I know we will spend between $1800-$2000 for food on our upcoming trip, so Free Dining is truly saving us that much money -- we're not paying extra for PHs as we always get them; we're not changing our eating habits, and we're not changing our resort. We would need a package (not room only) discount of 25% at AoA to save $2000 on this trip. That's not very likely to happen. If a 25% discount is released, I wouldn't hesitate to switch to it and pay OOP for dining like we usually do. We rarely manage to book when free dining is offered and we will never pay for a dining package because when paying for a QS dining package, it's a break-even deal for us.

So, yes, I'm one of those people who rightfully gets excited about free dining since it will most likely save us about $1,000 more than any room/package discount that ends up being offered for our travel dates. We would be going to Disney with or without a discount, so saving $2000 is a nice bonus. I do agree though that if someone is upgrading their room category/resort, adding PHs even though they won't use them, and/or changing the way they eat to fit a specific dining plan, free dining is probably not a good deal for them -- or isn't as good of a deal as they might think it is. But for those of us who don't make any accommodations in order to qualify for free dining, it can be a huge savings.

 

[CalSea12]

As others have said, whether free dining is a good deal is dependent on many factors (no need for me to use quotes on free dining as those who are booked under this promotion will not be paying for the food they eat that is covered by this plan. That food will be free. It really doesn't matter what people are paying for their rooms, the food on the dining plan will be free. Whether free dining is a bigger savings than a room/package discount varies by family.). We are a family of 5 (all Disney adults and the kids are late teens/early twenties); we stay in a suite at AoA; we prefer to eat mostly QS meals (maybe 1 or 2 TS meals depending on the trip); and we always get Park Hoppers. We eat what we want when we want it and we also buy nearly all of our snacks and drinks in the parks as we usually go bagless. Based on our past trips, I know we will spend between $1800-$2000 for food on our upcoming trip, so Free Dining is truly saving us that much money -- we're not paying extra for PHs as we always get them; we're not changing our eating habits, and we're not changing our resort. We would need a package (not room only) discount of 25% at AoA to save $2000 on this trip. That's not very likely to happen. If a 25% discount is released, I wouldn't hesitate to switch to it and pay OOP for dining like we usually do. We rarely manage to book when free dining is offered and we will never pay for a dining package because when paying for a QS dining package, it's a break-even deal for us.

So, yes, I'm one of those people who rightfully gets excited about free dining since it will most likely save us about $1,000 more than any room/package discount that ends up being offered for our travel dates. We would be going to Disney with or without a discount, so saving $2000 is a nice bonus. I do agree though that if someone is upgrading their room category/resort, adding PHs even though they won't use them, and/or changing the way they eat to fit a specific dining plan, free dining is probably not a good deal for them -- or isn't as good of a deal as they might think it is. But for those of us who don't make any accommodations in order to qualify for free dining, it can be a huge savings.

I agree. With how my family does Disney we would save money even if we bought the full dining plan (it would have to be the Deluxe though). This trip is just me and DH... if we were not getting the dining plan for free and just outright bought the DxDP we would save about 700 for the week and a half we are there... because we are getting free dining we are saving even more. We do typically do 3 sit down meals every day though. If we are not doing three that day then we do a 2 credit somewhere. I would eat this way even if I didn't have a dining plan so we are truly saving lots.

 

[Nancyg56]

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

If you have tickets already, and you have two adults in a room, RO is way better than FD. YOu need to look at teh entire situation, get your pencil out and run numbers. Sometimes we book one FD and one RO and add a dinign plan. It's all about numbers.

 

[DisLiss]

Despite all of the hoopla about "Free Dining" everywhere, I haven't found it to be a deal in many, many years. To be honest, I don't understand why people get excited about it.

Because if it *does* work for you and it *does* save you money, then it's exciting. And whether or not it saves you money and how much it saves is going to vary wildly from one person/couple/family/group to another because everyone vacations at WDW so differently and with so many different variables.

We already had one standard POP room booked---for 4 people. A discount on one single standard POP room just isn't ever going to amount to much. We also already had park hopper plus tickets booked because we love to hop and DH is such a huge Hopper fan that he'd pass on going if we had to go without Hoppers! Plus, September's our favorite time to go. We were already planning on eating primarily at QS places because my youngest is not a sit-down restaurant fan.

So you can see that we are already set up for all of the parameters of this deal wot work for us. Now, we were NOT planning to buy the dining plan, because the dining plan would never save us any money if we purchased it. It would cost us quite a bit more money, actually. BUT, since we were planning on feeding 4 people out of pocket, this is literally free food. No quotation marks needed. Just FREE. Take the amount of credits we use, and subtract whatever small amount a Room Only discount may have gotten us, and that's saved money for us. So we're looking at shelling out about a grand less for our vacation now, and yeah, I get excited about a thousand bucks staying in my pocket.

We will still spend money out of pocket on food. That's part of why paying for the dining plan wouldn't work for us. We'd wind up paying for the plan and then paying more. We don't eat the way the plan is set up, so there will be things we buy because a location isn't covered; or because a kid just picked at their meal, and now wants 3 snacks that day instead of 2; or we do decide to do a few TS meals;, or we want an appetizer or side dish, etc. And that's fine. Because we had money budgeted for food right along. We just now don't have to spend all of that money.

 

[Nancyg56]

Because if it *does* work for you and it *does* save you money, then it's exciting. And whether or not it saves you money and how much it saves is going to vary wildly from one person/couple/family/group to another because everyone vacations at WDW so differently and with so many different variables.

We already had one standard POP room booked---for 4 people. A discount on one single standard POP room just isn't ever going to amount to much. We also already had park hopper plus tickets booked because we love to hop and DH is such a huge Hopper fan that he'd pass on going if we had to go without Hoppers! Plus, September's our favorite time to go. We were already planning on eating primarily at QS places because my youngest is not a sit-down restaurant fan.

So you can see that we are already set up for all of the parameters of this deal wot work for us. Now, we were NOT planning to buy the dining plan, because the dining plan would never save us any money if we purchased it. It would cost us quite a bit more money, actually. BUT, since we were planning on feeding 4 people out of pocket, this is literally free food. No quotation marks needed. Just FREE. Take the amount of credits we use, and subtract whatever small amount a Room Only discount may have gotten us, and that's saved money for us. So we're looking at shelling out about a grand less for our vacation now, and yeah, I get excited about a thousand bucks staying in my pocket.

We will still spend money out of pocket on food. That's part of why paying for the dining plan wouldn't work for us. We'd wind up paying for the plan and then paying more. We don't eat the way the plan is set up, so there will be things we buy because a location isn't covered; or because a kid just picked at their meal, and now wants 3 snacks that day instead of 2; or we do decide to do a few TS meals;, or we want an appetizer or side dish, etc. And that's fine. Because we had money budgeted for food right along. We just now don't have to spend all of that money.

Exactly. Last year I had 2 rooms booked at the Beach Club. I added hoppers and the dining plan, which is how my family wanted to vacation that trip. SO my spending was already in place. Well, FD dropped and BC was not included unless you booked a 2 bdrm suite. OUt of my price range! LOL! I booked OKW, two bdrim villa. We saved 4500 dollars, not counting the amount we saved over the cost of the rooms. I was wicked excited!

 

[Brett Wyman]

Let’s be honest only 16 arrival days to chose from is pretty darn sad and one of the worst offers we’ve seen in recent years.

 

[Nancyg56]

Let’s be honest only 16 arrival days to chose from is pretty darn sad and one of the worst offers we’ve seen in recent years.

I wonder if Disney is hedging their bets that folks will pay rack rate if the discount is too restrictive. Frankly, I think that the cost of disney vacations in general is skyrocketing, and this move may backfire.

I love Disney and in Decemebr took advantage of a RO BB offer I had in place, however I chose not to book another. This was the first time in years I walked away from having a discount offer in place. You see, it was not just the cost of the resort or the dates I had to choose from, but the total cost of a trip. I was still reeling from the $38 for two glasses of wine at the lounges my sister and I stopped at, the crazy cost of the TS meal I paid OOP, etc. I know I can downsize how I vacation, but the truth is that at this point in my life I do not want to, so I booked Aruba instead. It is a different kind of trip, but the accomodations are amazing, the concierge level service (not the food offerings aspect) is more than just booking meals, it is full service. It is AI, but even factoring in teh meals off property that we will enjoy, the total cost of the trip is much less than Disney. And no planning. One email to teh concierge and our table service meals are booked. Thats it. anything else we want to do we can decide when we arrive, and the concierge makes it happen.

 

[sharonabe]

Let’s be honest only 16 arrival days to chose from is pretty darn sad and one of the worst offers we’ve seen in recent years.

Disney WANTS to get rid of this discount. They have made it more restrictive every year with the end goal of it going away.

 

[Nancyg56]

Disney WANTS to get rid of this discount. They have made it more restrictive every year with the end goal of it going away.

If they have another hurricane season like the past few years they may be glad it is in place. They expanded the FD years ago after only offering it to get folks to return to the resorts in August after a terrible hurricane season the previous year. If DIsney wants to get rid of this discount they need to bite the bullet and stop offering it. The BB is a FD offer, which is different then the RO that has been offered lately. They send mixed messages and then wonder why they have disgruntled guests.

 

[sharonabe]

The BB is a FD offer, which is different then the RO that has been offered lately. They send mixed messages and then wonder why they have disgruntled guests.

Agreed. But to be honest, I like the idea of them continuing to use it as a BB offer. That rewards repeat guest. It bugs me to no end that cable/internet companies offer really sweet deals to new customers, but loyal customers have to beg, fight, threaten to go elsewhere to get them to come anywhere close to their "new customer" price. I would love to see Disney continue offering it as a BB only offer.

 

[Nancyg56]

Agreed. But to be honest, I like the idea of them continuing to use it as a BB offer. That rewards repeat guest. It bugs me to no end that cable/internet companies offer really sweet deals to new customers, but loyal customers have to beg, fight, threaten to go elsewhere to get them to come anywhere close to their "new customer" price. I would love to see Disney continue offering it as a BB only offer.

I would as well. I think that those of us who are Disney "frequent fliers" have been taken for granted and left unrewarded in many ways. While I do not think that there needs to be a huge financial reward for loyalty, there really should be more than "welcome back" after answering the question regarding the number of trips we have taken. A BB is nice, but how about something that costs Disney nothing to very little, such as a few anytime FP or maybe a nice additional meal at the resort you choose, or vouchers for appetizers. Something to let you know you are valued.

I know I am harping on the Aruba destination, but we book the same resort every time. I do not even price shop any longer, nor will my family consider looking elsewhere. There is an additional discount in place that is based on the number of stays. The staff makes a point of makeing sure your arrival is celebrated on a personal level, and the concierge asks dining preferences be emailed to her so she can book your TS meals. I know that this resort group is striving to keep us, and appreciate that they show it.

 

[bluezy]

Let’s be honest only 16 arrival days to chose from is pretty darn sad and one of the worst offers we’ve seen in recent years.

Disney WANTS to get rid of this discount. They have made it more restrictive every year with the end goal of it going away.

I think this is just another step in Disney preparing to eliminate Free Dining as a general public offering. This offer is extremely limited due to the very low amount of check-in dates available. It has caused people to either miss out completely on the deal or as in the case of my son, he is scheduled to arrive the day before one of the free dining check-in dates so he had to change his reservation to a split stay (same resort) and won't have free dining on the first day of his stay. Not a big deal, just a minor inconvenience for him to save several hundred dollars over what a room only discount will potentially save.

Agreed. But to be honest, I like the idea of them continuing to use it as a BB offer. That rewards repeat guest. It bugs me to no end that cable/internet companies offer really sweet deals to new customers, but loyal customers have to beg, fight, threaten to go elsewhere to get them to come anywhere close to their "new customer" price. I would love to see Disney continue offering it as a BB only offer.

I totally agree. It also bugs me to no end that new customers get much better deals than long-time loyal customers. I feel that pain every time my Comcast and Sirius contracts are up and I need to renegotiate. Sirius really kills me because they're constantly sending emails and also calling me to reactivate the radio in a car that we have that no one uses (it's our spare car that gets driven about once a month unless another car is in the garage for work. Not worth paying for Sirius on this car.). They're happy to offer me a 12 month subscription for $5/month. Yet when I want to renew in a vehicle that has been subscribed for several years, the best I can get is $6-7/month for 5 months. And don't even get me started on Comcast.... Makes my blood boil. But getting back to Disney...at least they make a feeble attempt to reward repeat customers with BB offers and PIN Codes for return guests. Of course, those PIN code dates are limited (and usually within a year of a previous visit) and the BB offer never works for us because we usually only visit Disney every other year.

 

[rdaky]

Disney WANTS to get rid of this discount. They have made it more restrictive every year with the end goal of it going away.

I don't necessarily agree that Disney wants to get rid of it. I think that Disney knows that "free dining" gets people excited and gets rooms booked. I have a few friends who haven't been to Disney in years and are jumping on this "deal" However, Disney isn't a charitable organization, so they're going to continue to hold out this carrot to get people to fill rooms, but continue to add restrictions. so that in the end, they're still making more money off of every single promotion.