******Official 2017 Free Dining Plan Watch, Wait, and Dream

[Disneylover99]

Im in similar situation with three adults two kids.Would cost 580$ to upgrade at cbr to TS dining.Versus staying at BC would be 1000$ more.420$ difference. Not sure what to do.What would you guys do?? Thats assuming the Deluxes have availability for standard room.

I would do a Suite at Music. Isn't that roughly $250 per night? Then upgrade your dining.

 

[FinnsMom7]

Last year it looked like info dropped only days before - hoping if additional info comes to light updates will keep coming here before the drop - also wish I knew if it was 4 am again or not

 

[bjcaed]

Im in similar situation with three adults two kids.Would cost 580$ to upgrade at cbr to TS dining.Versus staying at BC would be 1000$ more.420$ difference. Not sure what to do.What would you guys do?? Thats assuming the Deluxes have availability for standard room.

We have stayed t all three resorts levels and if we can stay Deluxe with Dinning for only 500 more that upgrding to take at a moderae it is well worth it!!!!

 

[squirrel]

Booklet???

Yes, I booked the Savory Summer Offer back in February and Disney sent me a booklet. It contained my reservation # and was personalised with the resort I was booked in.

 

[Kindermouse]

Really hoping mods are not just QS for FD. I've been crunching the numbers and the difference in price between a room only discount with 1-park per day tickets and the TS meal plan is within $50 of a MOD w/ FD, PH passes and the TS upgrade. Essentially making FD pointless.

I have almost the same numbers. I think it may be different for people in larger parties but for a mod with only 2 Disney adults and no Disney children and the lack of standard rooms at Mods FD is not a savings-certainly not a saving worth getting up before the sun for and certainly not worth staying at a resort with limitations and inconvenience due to construction. This seems like Disney's way of saying free dining is for value and deluxe resorts only.

 

[squirrel]

Yeah, I can't seem to get better than what I currently have, even if I have to pay to upgrade dining. Taking into consideration the $75 a day gift cards, it works out to be $225 average a night in a moderate with full dining plan for 8 nights. Add on 4 day park hopper for 3 and we're done. I can't seem to save more than $10 a ticket buying park hopper elsewhere. That's $30 total saving over the whole trip. Not going to cancel out free dining, even QS!

Have you priced out the TS meals you want? For me I would add in a few TS and keep the QSDP if that's what they end up giving the moderate resorts. You would have plenty of food and you could use the gift cards for your TS meals.

 

[Disneylover99]

It is just so interesting that you can use the same name and same credit card and hold more than one reservation. Hmmm, when you book don't you fill in names and ages in your party? So you just do the same thing twice? Suppose I need three rooms with all my family....then I could literally book six rooms, the new three for the FD and then cancel the old three? It seems Disney wouldn't allow this?

They do allow it. Why not? I have a fd bb booked right now. I cannot even cancel that online. If a different resort or room category becomes available with the GP fd offer that wasn't offered through the bb, of course I'm going to book it online......same people, same dates. I will keep it til I can cancel the fd bb offer, which will be a week or so after fd drops because it will be very difficult to get through on the phone lines.

 

[bjcaed]

So I want online and prices both packages 9 day park ticket w hopper plus, without adding dinning. Here is what I got. Hope I am doing this right.
8 days POR not paying for dinning=4386
672 to upgrade to TS = 5058

AkL standard room free dinning = 5422

I am sure AK over POR for less that 400 is a great deal.

Does this look right?

 

[anorman]

Very short summer for sure. But, you must love it...because you haven't moved!

Yup...many folks have this plan that's for sure. The only thing I like in Florida is Disney and Universal, otherwise it's just blaa to me...sorry don't mean to offend any Floridians....just my opinion. You get used to a place and nothing else feels like home.

Florida feels like my second home. I love the people and friendly attitude that seems to prevail everywhere I have been in Florida. Not that I haven't encountered "sketchy" people there (we have those here too) but that I always feel welcome. I love Disney and Universal but I also love the pools and beaches and most of all the sunshine.

 

[squirrel]

So I want online and prices both packages 9 day park ticket w hopper plus, without adding dinning. Here is what I got. Hope I am doing this right.
8 days POR not paying for dinning=4386
672 to upgrade to TS = 5058

AkL standard room free dinning = 5422

I am sure AK over POR for less that 400 is a great deal.

Does this look right?

Or you could use that $672 and see how many TS meals it will cover. You would be getting more meals this way since you are not giving up your CS meal for a TS meal.

You could also see what the prices are for two value resort rooms with the DDP upgrade. More beds and bathrooms.

 

[Haneyman]

What is everyone using to crunch numbers?

I USe mousesavers.com. Search for room and ticket prices and they have all those with tax already added

There has been some mention of the Disney Vacation Account. I just looked into it and I see that you can earn a $20 gift card for every $1000 spent (up to $500) after having an account open for 120 days. It was also mentioned here that you can save additional money by purchasing disney cards at Target with the 5% red card discount (great idea).

My question is, do you think this is the best way to save your money for a trip, as opposed to a high yield savings account( about 1%APY)? Has anyone done the math? Just curious! I'm thinking the Vacation Account seems better but the few articles I read said it was not the best way to go. Main reasons being you can't purchase airfare with it unless it is a part of your Disney package (which I would not do) , and you can't pay for anything with the account anything once you get to Disney.

I
Tennessee here, I buy Disney gift cards at Kroger when they have 4 times the fuel rewards on gift card purchases.
example- $100 in cards equals .40 cents off 35 gallons of gas equals savings of $14. I take that money and buy more gift cards.
I also buy the gift cards with my Disney Visa Premium card which gives me 2% back which I save to use at Disney.
Usually for us, on a $5000 trip I have $300 or so on my rewards card for the trip. We have 4 cars so I buy a lot of gas.

 

[pooh'smate]

I got that. But can you stay 8 days, buy 4 day ticket plus "extra" option and stretch The water parks past 4 days?? Or do the water park allotments expire when the 4 theme park days are used up? Or as we do for a 8 day trip. Only get 6 day plus water park. Two days in the middle are resort/ WP days. We slways end with them park. But had we done 6 days in a row theme, would those extras still be valid on day 7/8. technically our ticket package had ended. Never thought of this.

Yes you can stretch the "more" part of your tickets. They expire in 14 days like the tickets do.

 

[Rebekah3275]

that is the current rumor/information. nothing is "confirmed" until a FD/discount actually drops.

I would think if Mods only got QS plans there will be people trying to swap to economy, doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me

 

[TomServo27]

If you get free qs at POR and only pay 700$ to upgrade I think thats cheaper than AKl.Whatever your cost is at PoR deduct the cost of regular dining plan and just add the 700$ upgrade cost.Let me know what you calculate, this is how im crunching the numbers and hope its right.For us its three adukts two kids.The ref dp costs about $2064 for eight nights.If the qs is free then im deducting that $2064 I would have paid and adding 580$ which is our cost to upgrade to reg dp.Total trip ends up being about 4668$ versus 6442$ at BC with FD.Am I right guys?

For me wl standard $5151 akl standard $5289 por garden lowest available right now $4922 I'm going deluxe if they are available.

 

[kels420]

I would think if Mods only got QS plans there will be people trying to swap to economy, doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me

I agree and that worries me a bit.

 

[Deanarn80]

So are we all thinking POR will be included in September? If not- how about Saratoga Springs? And that is a deluxe resort correct? Thanks!

 

[DisneyLifePapioNe]

I love the fact that you truly have a Disney Husband. It seems many of the women take the lead on these things. You must be thrilled!

I wished my wife would at least respond to me when I ask for opinions on planning



It's usually just plan it, you know what we like, then the few weeks before our vacation all the questions come......I say don't you remember me saying this 3 months ago!!!

 

[TomServo27]

So are we all thinking POR will be included in September? If not- how about Saratoga Springs? And that is a deluxe resort correct? Thanks!

Por is an unknown right now wouldn't count on it ss should be that's another option for me especially being walking distance to Disney springs.

 

[LongLiveRafiki]

I would think if Mods only got QS plans there will be people trying to swap to economy, doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me

The mods are down a lot of rooms already at CBR and CSR due to the construction, so there's less availability. POFQ always books up fast which is why they are almost always excluded from discounts. POR fills up rather quickly too, hence why they are typically excluded from free dining except for the earliest set of dates. As stated, with CBR and CSR having limited availability for the construction, there are less rooms to fill so less need to provided really good discounts to entice people to book there. Since CBR had the now expired gift card offer, numerous people booked there for that, reducing their inventory even more. For many dates, they are booked solid with the exception of the more expensive, smaller bed, only 4 people, away from everything Pirate rooms. There's no need to offer great discounts for rooms that are being booked without them. That really only leaves the FW cabins. They are one of the few options that fit 6 people and are comparably priced to the family suites at the values. Plus they have bunk beds which is a huge attraction for many families and are only a boat ride from MK... Much closer than the value suites. So yeah, I doubt they have that much difficulty filling those up. Honestly, even if the mods are offering quick service, I will be surprised if there's very much availability at any of them for the free dining offer.

 

[Deanarn80]

Por is an unknown right now wouldn't count on it ss should be that's another option for me especially being walking distance to Disney springs.

I know I was thinking about switching to that- we would have the TS dining if we stayed there right? This is so frustrating! I hate the unknown!!! Lol