How Free is Free Dining?

[Cdn Friends of Pooh]

My DH and I were discussing a 4 day trip during the Free Dining promotion. For the four day trip with the free dining it would cost us $665.74, however, a room only rate would cost us $423.04 - which led us to wonder how free is free dining?

Any thoughts on this as we're confused?? :confused3

[iNTeNSeBLue98]

In order to be eligible for Free Dining you must book a package, which is minimum of 3 nights stay and one day's theme park admission. You then receive credits for one table service, one counter service and a snack for each person included in the package for each night of your stay. Normally the dining plan is about $38 per person per day.

If you are running the numbers on Disney's website, make sure you are following the link for the promotion, otherwise the price will be inclusive of the paid dining plan.

[argue]

My DH and I were discussing a 4 day trip during the Free Dining promotion. For the four day trip with the free dining it would cost us $665.74, however, a room only rate would cost us $423.04 - which led us to wonder how free is free dining?

Any thoughts on this as we're confused?? :confused3


free.:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

[HockeyMomR]

What kind of Park tickets are included with your free dining package price? The dining is free not the park tickets which you need to purchase to get the dining plan. Maybe that is the difference?

[Cdn Friends of Pooh]

What kind of Park tickets are included with your free dining package price? The dining is free not the park tickets which you need to purchase to get the dining plan. Maybe that is the difference?

One - one day park ticket for eligibility since we have APs - which doesn't cost over $200

[HockeyMomR]

O.K. I was no help. Sorry....good luck figuring it out.

Did you try the Disney Web site and use the link for free dining? We have never had free dining, but have priced it for fun. It is really free.

[iNTeNSeBLue98]

To clarify my early post, this year WDW is requiring a minimum 5 night/6 day stay.
$455 per adult based on adult double occupancy.
Prices valid most nights Aug 26 - Sept 22, 2007 in a standard room in a Select Value Resort. Add a child (ages 3-9) for $184 when occupying room with adult.
That's a savings of $194 per adult!

[DizneyNutz]

:rotfl2: :rotfl2: :rotfl2: Nothing is free. They used to offer discounts on the rooms, now they call it free dining and charge full price for the rooms. Disney is not in the business of giving things away for free. They want everyone there for as long as possible or at least returning, thus the 10 day ticket. We are sold on the 10 day ticket because we do plan on returning:cool1:

[auntie]

I personally think if you stay at a value or moderate resort during a "free dining" promo..it's a much better value, than if you are staying at a Deluxe resort. As you will be paying full rack rate for a room. So...free dining?...ahh...I'm not so sure. To me that would depend on where we stayed. Also...if I had a room only discount..and the discount card for the dining with an AP pass...I think I'd skip the "free dining" time periods all together.
We are staying at the WL next week. This is our first trip using the dining plan. We paid the $40.00 a day...to make it a package..and then our park passes. However...I did receive a pin code mailer..which gave us a discount on the room,..then they added on the dining and park passes. I actually had cancelled a trip back in October during the free dining promo..and wasn't able to secure ADR's anywhere we wanted to eat. For that...and a number of other reasons..we change our plans for this month.

[Cdn Friends of Pooh]

Did you try the Disney Web site and use the link for free dining? We have never had free dining, but have priced it for fun. It is really free.
Yes, used the free dining link :confused3

[CanadianGuy]

One - one day park ticket for eligibility since we have APs - which doesn't cost over $200

Not sure where you got your numbers exactly. I can't make the either the free dining link or the regular website spit out a total like yours for a value room for free dining dates with a four night stay. (There is no five night minimum.. there is however a THREE night minimum)

Four nights in preferred room
@ ALL STAR MOVIES : September 4-8 = 424.88

Four nights in standard room
@ ALL STAR MOVIES : September 4-8 = 370.64

-----------

Four nights in preferred room /w 1 day base MYW & Free Dining:
@ ALL STAR MOVIES : September 4-8 = $ 569.90

Four nights in standard room w/ 1 day base MYW & Free Dining
@ ALL STAR MOVIES : September 4-8 = $ 515.66

I see a difference of $145.02 (in either standard or preferred) which does roughly equal 2 one day base tickets.

[HockeyMomR]

Yes, used the free dining link :confused3

Did you make sure to remove the park hopping and water parks?

[CanadianGuy]

Just for fun... I did it with you PAYING for dining..

Four nights in preferred room /w 1 day base MYW & PAID Dining:
@ ALL STAR MOVIES : September 4-8 = $ 569.90

Four nights in standard room w/ 1 day base MYW & PAID Dining
@ ALL STAR MOVIES : September 4-8 = $ 881.82

Do you mind posting the dates you're trying to plan for and then I can run quotes with your exact dates.

Thanks,

Knox

[CanadianGuy]

Did you make sure to remove the park hopping and water parks?

I tried when I was doing my quotes with adding and removing each of those features one at a time and together, and I still can't make it add up to $665 as noted in the original post.

Knox

[joy13]

Nevermind, I miss understood your point I do see what you are saying now. I do know when I booked my trip I was originally booking for a week later without any dining plan. When I realized the free dining was going on, I changed my reservation to a week earlier - doing everything the same (days of the week etc.) and I got the exact same price except with the dining plan included. But I was doing a package price all along - I never tried room only reservations.

How many MYW ticikets to you need to buy to get the dining plan for everyone? Is it one per person or just one in the party? 2 MYW base tickets with tax is around 142 dollars.

[Cdn Friends of Pooh]

Not sure where you got your numbers exactly. I can't make the website spit out a total like yours for a value room for free dining dates with a four night stay. (There is no five night minimum.. there is however a THREE night minimum)

Four nights in preferred room
@ ALL STAR MOVIES : September 4-8 = 424.88

Four nights in standard room
@ ALL STAR MOVIES : September 4-8 = 370.64

-----------

Four nights in preferred room /w 1 day base MYW & Free Dining:
@ ALL STAR MOVIES : September 4-8 = $ 569.90

Four nights in standard room w/ 1 day base MYW & Free Dining
@ ALL STAR MOVIES : September 4-8 = $ 515.66

I see a difference of $145.02 (in either standard or preferred) which does roughly equal 2 one day base tickets.


Dates - September 2 - 6/07

Room Only - Preferred Room
Disney's Pop Century Resort
Vacation Total: $423.04

Special Rate Type : September Magic Your Way Package plus Dining (using link on DisneyWorld.com travel page)
One day Magic Your Way ticket with park hopper
Disney's Pop Century Resort - preferred room
Vacation Total: $665.74

[HockeyMomR]

O.K. I just got the same quote as the OP. 4 nights 8/26 - 8/30; 2 adults with park hopping and dining $665.74 at All Stars preferred room. Interesting.......

[CanadianGuy]

One day Magic Your Way ticket with park hopper

The park hopping is the difference. You pay for the park hopping.. Works out to about 50$ each or so.. Not exactly obviously. Since these are one day passes and you have AP's.. I'd drop that.

Knox

[HockeyMomR]

I just dropped the park hopping off....quote is now $569.90. Which should be about right. Mystery solved?

[CanadianGuy]

I just ran the quote for Pop Century - September 2-6 and it came out to 569.90 with free dining - no park hopping.

Turn on park hopping (which you pay for ) and it's $665.74.

Mystery solved. Good Detective work HockeyMom! You can be my Velma to my Scooby Doo!

:)

Knox

[Cdn Friends of Pooh]

The park hopping is the difference. You pay for the park hopping.. Works out to about 50$ each or so.. Not exactly obviously. Since these are one day passes and you have AP's.. I'd drop that.

Knox

OK gotcha now ... quote I get then is $569.90 which is a difference of $146.86 - so yes that would be the 2 - 1 day passes.

The lightbulb goes on :lmao:

Thanks for all your help!!

[CanadianGuy]

To paraphrase the Genie from Aladdin.....

"Yes! She can be taught!" - :teacher:

Big smile!

Knox

[Philagoofy]

Ok, I didn't follow all that. Is it really free dining or not?

We were thinking of going Sept 1-15 with the 10 day park hopper tickets. I choose both ways, with the free dining & without & the price was the same, so it sounded like a good deal to me.:confused3

[disney_family_1247]

We used the free dining last September and were very pleased with it. We were going to be visiting in the fall anyway, so it wasn't like we spent money on a vacation just to get the free dining. The cheapest room we've ever had at Disney using a room discount was $55. Our room last year was $79. That's a difference of $168 over the 7 nights we stayed there. We bought six day tickets without any options or add-ons. Every time we used a food credit, the bill came totalled with what we would be paying if we didn't have the free dining. For two adults, a five year old, and a three year old, the week's total was $1000. Even if we'd gone without the plan and only eaten fast food to save money, we would have spent more than $168!

I would call that pretty free :thumbsup2 .

[CanadianGuy]

Ok, I didn't follow all that. Is it really free dining or not?

We were thinking of going Sept 1-15 with the 10 day park hopper tickets. I choose both ways, with the free dining & without & the price was the same, so it sounded like a good deal to me.:confused3

Yes. The price is exactly the same as if you didn't have free dining.

There's no cost differential for "free dining" -- The user had checked "Park Hopping" on their one day base tickets and that's what we discovered was confusing up the price.
:)

Knox

[silverarrowknits]

When booking your package make sure that you are aware of the travel insurance that is automatically checked! I couldn't figure out why I was being charged so much and then I realized that I needed to uncheck the travel insurance. If you want Disney's travel insurance, that's cool, but if you don't, make sure that you uncheck it before you make your MYW package.

[Joan1]

Maybe insurance was added?

[momoftwodisneykids]

To clarify my early post, this year WDW is requiring a minimum 5 night/6 day stay.

Actually it is still only 3 nights/4 days stay, as we are booked for free dining from 8/31-9/3. We too are AP holders, so we just keep the ticket and apply the price toward our AP renewal. The free dining really ends up being worth it. We did the free dining for the same long weekend last year. I kept all my receipts and our free dining ended up totalling more than $500 of free food/gratuities. We did add some extra gratuity on the TS, as we were a large party. We didn't have to purchase any food out of pocket, as we split some CS meals--double cheeseburgers, chicken & ribs at Cosmic Rays (well, actually we did purchase an extra bun for the double cheeseburger for $1), plus we came home with 6 snacks for lunches, as we didn't use all our snack credits. I hope they keep this up for many years to come, as I love getting away for Labor Day weekend anyway, and this makes it cost effective for us.

Joanne :flower3:

[huskies90]

Here is a very simple formula for how much you save if at all:

With Free Dining you have to pay full resort rack rates and full Disney ticket prices. So, subtract the savings you’d get from any other discounts from the rack rates and compare that to the cost of dining. It is that easy. It does not matter what add ons or how many days you get on your tickets because we’ll assume you’d buy the same tix in a package as you would ala carte. With free dining you will get a better value in a value resort and a better value if you have 4 people in your room especially if all four are over 10. 2 people staying at a deluxe will get less of a discount.

Here are two examples showing each end of the spectrum. ymmv:

2 adults and 2 children over 10 at Pop Century 5 nights with 5 day MYW plus hopping:

Free Dining Package:
$82 X 5 nights at Pop rack = $461.25 (includes tax)
Theme Park tix from Disney = $1069.28
Total = $1,530.53 and includes 5 nights of DDP ($779.80 value)

$82 X 5 nights at Pop with AAA discount = $369 (includes tax)
Theme Park tix from a discount broker = $991.80
Total = $1,360.80 and you pay for your own meals

The Free dining package costs you $169.73 more but you get 5 days of the DDP which you may or may not want. Assuming you do, you save $610.07.

Now, 2 adults no kids staying at The Beach Club 5 nights with 5 day MYW plus hopping:

Free Dining Package:
$315 X 5 nights at BC rack = $1,771.87 (includes tax)
Theme Park tix from Disney = $534.64
Total = $2,306.51 and includes 5 nights of DDP ($389.90 value)

$315 X 5 nights at BC with AAA discount = $1,506.09 (includes tax)
Theme Park tix from a discount broker = $495.90
Total = $2,001.99 and you pay for your own meals

The Free dining package costs you $304.52 more but you get 5 days of the DDP which you may or may not want. Assuming you do you save $85.27…not all that much...

[andromedaslove]

We are AP holders who have used the free dining for the past couple of years. It has really worked well for us. We save the money on the food we buy as a family of 4, and we use the one day park tickets toward our renewals for next years AP's.

[mickeyluv'r]

Except that if you are AP holders, there is usually an AP discount rate that you can book. Add to that - or rather subtract from that DDP savings, depending on where you would eat, and how you would eat (Are you really going to order an appetizer, entree and dessert pp if you are paying for it?) - and usually you will realize that:
AP room only rates + DDP = usually a better deal

It also matters if you have kids. There is a slight difference on the room rate if you have kids and book a package, though the difference is smaller than in the past. I'm also using Disney prices. You can do slightly better buying tickets through a third party vendor, and if you've got AP's you won't really need to buy the tickets. But just to show comparisons:

5 nights CSR reg Standard(July 1) = $984.40 rack
5 nights CSR standard(July 1) +AP = $781.88
5 nights CSR stndrd(July 1) + 2adlt 1-day tkts, non-hop ($142.72) = 1127.12
5 nght CSR stdrd(7/1) + 2adlt, 1day tkts, non-hop as a package = $1129.42
2adlt tickets + 2kids (1day non-hop +tx) = $262
2kids tickets 1day non-hop = $119.28

5nght POR stnd(7/1) + 2 adults + 2 kids (1-day non-hop) as a pkg =$1251.00
5nht st(7/1) + 2 adlt +2 kids (1day nonhop)not pkg = $984.4+ 246 =$1230.4
5nght st(7/1) +2adl+2kids (1day nonhop) AP discount, non-pkg= $1043.88

free dinig 6 night CSR (9/1), 2ad +2kids, 1-day non-hop = $1082.20
same thing non-pkg, but no dining , non-pkg = $815.70 +262 = $1077.70
free dining 6night (9/1), 2 adults ONLY, 1 day non-hop = $960.62
same as above but w/2kids tickets =$960.62 + 119.28 = $1079.90

The differences aren't huge, but they are there. Part of the problem here is also that the AP discount for the fall has not yet been released -so I'm comparing "summer season" (5/24 - 8/4) rates to value season rates.

To FURTHER add to the confusion. It matters which resort you stay at. During the summer, the mods are operating at "Summer rates" which are high. But at the Deluxe resorts, april 15 - July 7 is reg season and July 8 - October 3 is part of "value" season. So if you do the math for a Deluxe you get different numbers completely. The AP rate for value season Deluxes (BC, YC) is $194 - compared to $315 rack rates! That's a big savings. It would be a much better deal to go during those rates than it would be to hit free dining!
The free dining pgk above at BC is $2657.20 (9/1-9/6)
AP room rate 5 nights at BC (8/1-8/6), plus 2 adult 1days (which you wouldn't need) $1091.25 + 143 = $1234.25 So thats $1423 for food for two adults. That gives you $142.30 per person to spend on food each day, for the same price. About the max. "value" of DDP is about $90 per day, per person.

[dyna]

I don't have DH's figures here but I know when he added up our stayin at POP the same # of days and just eating CS meals 2 a day (we always eat breakfast in the room we take food for that) the park tickets regular tickets not hoppers like we will get with free dining. It came out to be a heck of a deal.

2 yrs ago when DH and I did the free dining just the 2 of us we saved big time on food. We at well and we ate at TS places we would have NEVER EVER otherwise at at. Usually we don't do TS meals at all.

We are doing the free dining again this year an already making plans to do it next year.