Dreaming of free dining math question

[TheDisney411]

Would we pay full price???

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You simply pay the difference to upgrade to whichever plan you want.

 

[TheDisney411]

How would I figure that out??? Any idea???

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You simply subtract the difference in the plans.

 

[TheDisney411]

Or there are the cabins at Ft.W.

The cabins are WAY overpriced for what they are and only have 1 bathroom - which is a deal breaker for our large family.

 

[TheDisney411]

i just booked a week stay at the contemporay in August, i paid for the meal plan but I'm wondering how do I get a free meal plan.

If you are booked at a deluxe, then you need to be looking for a 35% or more room discount to be released, as that will probably save you more money than a free dining discount. The exception would be if you have 2 or 3 children in the room, as they would be priced out as adults and in that case a FD discount would save you more. Either way, you will have to call Disney reservations when the discount codes are released and ask them to add the discount to your existing reservation.

 

[MamaJessie]

It's not true.

I hope you are right

The cabins are WAY overpriced for what they are and only have 1 bathroom - which is a deal breaker for our large family.

The one bathroom and smallish beds for the price are definitely something I have taken into consideration. But DH wants a hot tub, the kids would like the campfire singalongs, I like the boat to MK and it isn't much of an upgrade cost when you factor in the dining upgrade I will pay with two connecting values. I have also seen so many cute pics of the way people decorate their campsites. It seems like a nice place in general. Believe me I am having a hard time deciding, I could go on and on all day with my internal debating!!

Have you stayed there before? I love the personal experience insight if you want to PM me more info before I completely derail this thread

 

[jimjenkids]

we are a family of 6 and soon for the next trip will be down to 5...after looking at the suites, we prefer to have beds and not the "make into a bed" plus, we need 2 bathrooms! with this in mind, we have been doing 2 rooms since they were young. we have done both value and moderates. when the kids were younger they really liked the value and with free dining, a lot of savings. we are now planning our next trip and plan to do 2 rooms at POFQ(we would fit in one room at POR, but DH says we must have 2 bathrooms/showers) look at the costs and see what the difference is in price. we did have FD last trip and are now sold on the dp(makes life easier-will look at ddp this trip now that I set how much the gratuity is)

 

[Tarheel Mom]

It's not true.

TheDisney411, what are you hearing the fd discount will be? I'm hoping it will be like years past ~ qs for values, reg dp for mods and deluxe. Thanks for any insight you can provide

 

[3princes+1princess]

Thanks for all of the responses and things to think about. I just hope the rumors are not true....but I can see that happening. I can say that I loved POFQ because of the smallness. I would hate to have a spread out resort after walking all day.

We do have the option of getting a timeshare off site for nothing. Why would I even consider on site! Because its in the magic of course!

I guess I should put in for the timeshare to see if we can get our dates.....and patiently wait to see the trend for free dining. Not going until December OT January...so we have a little while.

 

[msjprincess]

Very little validity in this rumor. What's going to happen to those thousands of value rooms they need to fill during the height of hurricane season? Disney isn't going to shoot itself on the foot like that - those marketing geniuses at Disney are too smart for that.

They can offer a different discount. I don't think anyone said there weren't going to be any discounts offered for that time period. Or maybe the people that were planning on staying at a value will now stay at a mod.

 

[VikingInMouseEars]

Every year some people insist the free dining deals are over, yet they show up again. The dates change a bit every year so thats no real indicator. As others have said, this years deals will probably be based on current reservations. Personally I am betting that the fall free dining deals we have seen will be back and we are planning our Sept. trip to take advantage of them and in about 12 days we will start making our ADRs.

 

[pickles]

we are a family of 6 and soon for the next trip will be down to 5...after looking at the suites, we prefer to have beds and not the "make into a bed" plus, we need 2 bathrooms! with this in mind, we have been doing 2 rooms since they were young. we have done both value and moderates. when the kids were younger they really liked the value and with free dining, a lot of savings. we are now planning our next trip and plan to do 2 rooms at POFQ(we would fit in one room at POR, but DH says we must have 2 bathrooms/showers) look at the costs and see what the difference is in price. we did have FD last trip and are now sold on the dp(makes life easier-will look at ddp this trip now that I set how much the gratuity is)

try a villa...rent points from a member..they dont have to be as expensive as some folks think

 

[TheDisney411]

try a villa...rent points from a member..they dont have to be as expensive as some folks think

It's much more expensive to rent points and you can't even get a free dining discount renting points. For their family of 6 they would need to rent points for a 2 bedroom villa and that would be at least $2,500 more per week at WDW than just getting 2 connecting rooms at a value during a free dining week.

 

[pickles]

It's much more expensive to rent points and you can't even get a free dining discount renting points. For their family of 6 they would need to rent points for a 2 bedroom villa and that would be at least $2,500 more per week at WDW than just getting 2 connecting rooms at a value during a free dining week.

not true.. a week at AKV values is approx 185-243 depending upon season..I dont recall when the op said they wanted to go

so cost on avg would run $1850 to $2430 and you can add dining(just not free, but they dot have free dinning right now anyway)
and with that you get a washer and dryer in your room, a living room, a full kitchen, a private balcony, you can actually share the living room area with your friend/family that are with you. you get a deluxe pool with aslide and play area for kiddies

2 rooms at a value can run $130 each depending on season so $260 a night times 7 nights is $1820


so depending upon priorities , needs, time of year and which offers you are looking at , a rented villa can be a decent option for a family that needs 2 rooms, but especially a family of 5 because they can rent a 1 bedroom villa and still have all the amenities and often a lot cheaper than 2 rooms at a value

 

[Marionnette]

not true.. a week at AKV values is approx 185-243 depending upon season..I dont recall when the op said they wanted to go

so cost on avg would run $1850 to $2430 and you can add dining(just not free, but they dot have free dinning right now anyway)
and with that you get a washer and dryer in your room, a living room, a full kitchen, a private balcony, you can actually share the living room area with your friend/family that are with you. you get a deluxe pool with aslide and play area for kiddies

2 rooms at a value can run $130 each depending on season so $260 a night times 7 nights is $1820


so depending upon priorities , needs, time of year and which offers you are looking at , a rented villa can be a decent option for a family that needs 2 rooms, but especially a family of 5 because they can rent a 1 bedroom villa and still have all the amenities and often a lot cheaper than 2 rooms at a value

You do know that the AKV value rooms are pretty hard to get, don't you? There are only 10 2-bedroom lock-off value villas. They are available only to DVC members who own at AKV when the booking window opens at 11 months. If anyone books a 1-bedroom value villa, that reduces the number of 2-bedroom lock-offs by 1 and adds another value studio to the inventory. There are also 8 dedicated value studios. If members book more than those 8, then a 2-bedroom lock-off is converted to a 1-bedroom + studio, taking another 2-bedroom unit out of inventory. Since the value studios are a hot commodity, this makes getting a value 2-bedroom villa that much harder.

In order to rent one, you would have to find an AKV owner more than 11 months before the first day of your stay. He would have to be willing to be online right at 8 am on the first day he could book your stay. And even then, it's possible that not all of your dates will be available because other members may have already booked those villas. Not every owner is willing to make the effort to waitlist those dates or tie up their points trying to piece together a reservation that may or may not come to fruition. And not every renter wants to wait it out to see if things fall into place.

It's not entirely impossible but it is not as easy as people might think.

 

[pickles]

You do know that the AKV value rooms are pretty hard to get, don't you? There are only 10 2-bedroom lock-off value villas. They are available only to DVC members who own at AKV when the booking window opens at 11 months. If anyone books a 1-bedroom value villa, that reduces the number of 2-bedroom lock-offs by 1 and adds another value studio to the inventory. There are also 8 dedicated value studios. If members book more than those 8, then a 2-bedroom lock-off is converted to a 1-bedroom + studio, taking another 2-bedroom unit out of inventory. Since the value studios are a hot commodity, this makes getting a value 2-bedroom villa that much harder.

In order to rent one, you would have to find an AKV owner more than 11 months before the first day of your stay. He would have to be willing to be online right at 8 am on the first day he could book your stay. And even then, it's possible that not all of your dates will be available because other members may have already booked those villas. Not every owner is willing to make the effort to waitlist those dates or tie up their points trying to piece together a reservation that may or may not come to fruition. And not every renter wants to wait it out to see if things fall into place.

It's not entirely impossible but it is not as easy as people might think.

not true, been a DVC member and have booked values at less than 2 months out. and even so there is OKW which also doesnt have a high point requirement.

I guess all I was trying to say, is that I learned when we were a family of 5 that a 1 bedroom villa was often competitively priced to renting 2 rooms and had more benefits.

It is an option people who need 2 rooms should consider

 

[Marionnette]

not true, been a DVC member and have booked values at less than 2 months out. and even so there is OKW which also doesnt have a high point requirement.

I guess all I was trying to say, is that I learned when we were a family of 5 that a 1 bedroom villa was often competitively priced to renting 2 rooms and had more benefits.

It is an option people who need 2 rooms should consider

Well, since you're no longer a member, I guess that you can't check availability right now, but I can. As of this morning, there are no 2-bedroom value villas available for a full week for the rest of the year and only a couple of weeks where there is a 1-bedroom unit open for all 7 nights. There are some weeks with one or two available days; most of them are random days and not consecutive. And there's more availability between the 7 months and 11 months, which is a time when only AKV owners can book. It's gotten harder to get those value units as Disney sells out the remaining contracts at AKV.

I do agree that a 1-bedroom DVC unit anywhere is an affordable option for people who would have needed 2 rooms. I just don't want people to get the impression that they can easily get the least expensive DVC units when they look at the points charts. I see people suggest this on the Budget Board all of the time with no idea of how DVC works or how difficult it is to get value unit reservations without serious advance planning. Those value units at AKV are very few in number and they do go quickly. OTOH, OKW and SSR have a ton of 1- and 2-bedroom villas and they are much easier to get, even at 2 months out. They just cost more than the AKV value units by about 18-40 points for a week.

 

[TheDisney411]

not true.. a week at AKV values is approx 185-243 depending upon season..I dont recall when the op said they wanted to go

so cost on avg would run $1850 to $2430 and you can add dining(just not free, but they dot have free dinning right now anyway)
and with that you get a washer and dryer in your room, a living room, a full kitchen, a private balcony, you can actually share the living room area with your friend/family that are with you. you get a deluxe pool with aslide and play area for kiddies

2 rooms at a value can run $130 each depending on season so $260 a night times 7 nights is $1820

so depending upon priorities , needs, time of year and which offers you are looking at , a rented villa can be a decent option for a family that needs 2 rooms, but especially a family of 5 because they can rent a 1 bedroom villa and still have all the amenities and often a lot cheaper than 2 rooms at a value

We have a large family and I've priced out renting points against getting 2 connecting rooms at least 3 times and it's not even close when you have 6 to 8 people in your family, especially if your children are 10 or over - free dining comes out way ahead of renting points - purely by the numbers. We are looking at value, free dining season, so the 2 connecting rooms are going to be about $170 per night, so about $1200 for 7 nights, and your upgrade charge for the free quick service to regular DDP (using 2 adults, 2 10+ kids and 2 kids for example) for 7night would be about $460. So that's about $1660 for your resort and all of your food, which is still lower than your lowest DVC room quote, not even including your food or dining. I guess if you ate every single meal in your DVC kitchen during your 7 night stay at WDW you might be able to feed your family of 6 on $460, but you are still spending more on the room. If you rented the DVC points and actually got a villa for $1850, which is doubtful since none if the DVC rental/points quotes we ever got for a 2 bedroom villa were under $2300, it would cost you about $1670 to add the DDP, since you can't get it for free renting DVC points, that would put your total at $3520 for your DVC room and DDP, as opposed to your $1660 total for 2 connecting value rooms and free DDP. Even using your low ball villa number, that's still almost a $2,000 savings by staying in the 2 connecting rooms with free dining over renting DVC points.

 

[Marionnette]

We have a large family and I've priced out renting points against getting 2 connecting rooms at least 3 times and it's not even close when you have 6 to 8 people in your family, especially if your children are 10 or over - free dining comes out way ahead of renting points - purely by the numbers. We are looking at value, free dining season, so the 2 connecting rooms are going to be about $170 per night, so about $1200 for 7 nights, and your upgrade charge for the free quick service to regular DDP (using 2 adults, 2 10+ kids and 2 kids for example) for 7night would be about $460. So that's about $1660 for your resort and all of your food, which is still lower than your lowest DVC room quote, not even including your food or dining. I guess if you ate every single meal in your DVC kitchen during your 7 night stay at WDW you might be able to feed your family of 6 on $460, but you are still spending more on the room. If you rented the DVC points and actually got a villa for $1850, which is doubtful since none if the DVC rental/points quotes we ever got for a 2 bedroom villa were under $2300, it would cost you about $1670 to add the DDP, since you can't get it for free renting DVC points, that would put your total at $3520 for your DVC room and DDP, as opposed to your $1660 total for 2 connecting value rooms and free DDP. Even using your low ball villa number, that's still almost a $2,000 savings by staying in the 2 connecting rooms with free dining over renting DVC points.

Where are you finding 2 value rooms for $170/night with free dining? The rack rate for the AllStar resorts is $90-$98/night for weeknights in late Aug.-early Oct. Once you add in tax, you're looking at a minimum of $200 per night for two rooms.

Plus, you have to buy your tickets thru Disney instead of thru a discounter like UndercoverTourist. That also adds to your costs, which can be in the range of $25/ticket, depending on the tickets that you purchase. And that also needs to be taken into consideration when you're comparing renting points vs. any Disney package discount.

Everyone has to calculate their own savings and choose what works out best for them. It's not a one-size-fits-all situation. There's a potential for savings by renting points but not for everyone and not at all times.

 

[TheDisney411]

Where are you finding 2 value rooms for $170/night with free dining? The rack rate for the AllStar resorts is $90-$98/night for weeknights in late Aug.-early Oct. Once you add in tax, you're looking at a minimum of $200 per night for two rooms.

Plus, you have to buy your tickets thru Disney instead of thru a discounter like UndercoverTourist. That also adds to your costs, which can be in the range of $25/ticket, depending on the tickets that you purchase. And that also needs to be taken into consideration when you're comparing renting points vs. any Disney package discount.

Everyone has to calculate their own savings and choose what works out best for them. It's not a one-size-fits-all situation. There's a potential for savings by renting points but not for everyone and not at all times.

Rack value rates we had in December at a value resort were $85 per room and there were some $85 rates in January. But let's add on that huge $10 per night difference your quoting and I'm off by, heck lets make it a $20 per night difference, and add on that huge savings from those Undercovertourist tickets and that would add about $290 to my original total, so you would be saving a mere $1700, as opposed to $2000, by staying in the 2 connecting value rooms over renting the DVC points. Of course we could use the realistic DVC point rental of $2300 vs the $1860 and that would give you the even more realistic number of a $2200 savings.

Everyone should definitely run the numbers, especially people with large families, and DVC point rental can save you money over paying rack rate prices through Disney, but it is absolutely ludicrous to suggest that renting DVC points at a 2 bedroom villa can monetarily come out ahead of renting 2 connecting value rooms during a free dining promo! The DVC villas are beautiful and if saving a lot of money is not a factor, then I highly recommend them. We can debate the need of kitchens and laundry facilities and deluxe pools all day, but simply going by the monetary numbers, renting DVC points in this particular scenario is NOT, by any stretch of the imagination, the best economical choice.

 

[Marionnette]

Rack value rates we had in December at a value resort were $85 per room and there were some $85 rates in January. But let's add on that huge $10 per night difference your quoting and I'm off by, heck lets make it a $20 per night difference, and add on that huge savings from those Undercovertourist tickets and that would add about $290 to my original total, so you would be saving a mere $1700, as opposed to $2000, by staying in the 2 connecting value rooms over renting the DVC points. Of course we could use the realistic DVC point rental of $2300 vs the $1860 and that would give you the even more realistic number of a $2200 savings.

Everyone should definitely run the numbers, especially people with large families, and DVC point rental can save you money over paying rack rate prices through Disney, but it is absolutely ludicrous to suggest that renting DVC points at a 2 bedroom villa can monetarily come out ahead of renting 2 connecting value rooms during a free dining promo! The DVC villas are beautiful and if saving a lot of money is not a factor, then I highly recommend them. We can debate the need of kitchens and laundry facilities and deluxe pools all day, but simply going by the monetary numbers, renting DVC points in this particular scenario is NOT, by any stretch of the imagination, the best economical choice.

Thank you for showing me where you came up with the $85/night for your room rates. It looks like you've really done your math and you've taken a lot of the factors into consideration for your family. I was looking at the rates for the remainder of the year and there are none that are that low between now and the end of December. I doubt that we will ever see rack rates that low again! The rates for Dec. 2013 are $98/weeknight and $118 on weekends, before taxes! That's considerably higher than what you paid.