Free Dining Fall 2015? (and a whole lot more)

[CQuinn]

I'm planning for October 2016 but am still following this one to see how it goes for 2015. Just one quick question, if I book before the promo is announced, and then add it on, should I book WITH a dining plan included in my price? Or do I add the dining plan on when I call to add the promo?

 

[MakiraMarlena]

If you want to be able to add the promo on you should book a package. Doesn't matter if you book a package with dining or without dining.

 

[sunset7132]

november 13 -22 pofq looking around for fall discounts becasue the 2 daughters want to come lol

 

[sunset7132]

I agree. Black was so helpful and some people were out of control. There is no reason for rude posts. I too had someone last year give me a hard time and I am a newbie. I just dont get people.

im so sorry the nonsense continued. Black was always very helpful. i just came back looking for posts by him for 2015 guess i wont find any

 

[sahm2two]

I'm planning for October 2016 but am still following this one to see how it goes for 2015. Just one quick question, if I book before the promo is announced, and then add it on, should I book WITH a dining plan included in my price? Or do I add the dining plan on when I call to add the promo?

Woohoo! another October 2016er! I'm not the only crazy one.

 

[G719]

The christmas party dates have been announced online if anyone is interested in these.

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/events-tours/magic-kingdom/mickeys-very-merry-christmas-party/

 

[vrajewski10513]

Woohoo! another October 2016er! I'm not the only crazy one.

I'm November 2016 so my craziness may surpass yours haha

 

[lazer]

I want to look at those Christmas Party dates and the site is forever down. Thanks for posting . We typically go in Sept/Oct, but moving to Nov this year!

Edited: after I posted the above...the link worked!

 

[laurafaith]

watching --going down last week in oct -- hoping for free dining!

 

[scard192]

I'm November 2016 so my craziness may surpass yours haha

November 2016 for my family too. last 2 trips have done Sept + October, want to see the Christmas decorations next time

 

[vrajewski10513]

November 2016 for my family too. last 2 trips have done Sept + October, want to see the Christmas decorations next time

Haha Our last two trips were October and September.. We've done MNSSHP twice and decided we wanted to experience Christmas at Disney as well!

 

[sahm2two]

Haha Our last two trips were October and September.. We've done MNSSHP twice and decided we wanted to experience Christmas at Disney as well!

How is MNSSHP?? We're planning on going, but my husband's not so sure because of the whole hard ticket event thing, all he sees when I plan vacations are dollar signs.

 

[lazer]

How is MNSSHP?? We're planning on going, but my husband's not so sure because of the whole hard ticket event thing, all he sees when I plan vacations are dollar signs.

We've done it 3 times. Totally worth every penny. The parade alone is awesome, add in short waits for rides, tons and tons of candy (good candy too), unique meet and greets and the Hallowishes Fireworks. Honestly, we would do it every single trip if we could (going after the party this year). It even poured ALL night one year and it was still an amazing time.

 

[sahm2two]

We've done it 3 times. Totally worth every penny. The parade alone is awesome, add in short waits for rides, tons and tons of candy (good candy too), unique meet and greets and the Hallowishes Fireworks. Honestly, we would do it every single trip if we could (going after the party this year). It even poured ALL night one year and it was still an amazing time.

Awesome, thanks! I've read nothing but good things, with maybe a couple people saying the character m&gs were long lines, but we'd only be waiting for a few characters. I think my kids would LOVE it!

 

[vrajewski10513]

Awesome, thanks! I've read nothing but good things, with maybe a couple people saying the character m&gs were long lines, but we'd only be waiting for a few characters. I think my kids would LOVE it!

We dont have kids, and we still love it lol the lines for all the rides are pretty short. I think the longest line we waited in lastyear was for 7DMT which was like 20-30 mins. The trick or treating can def take up a big portion of your time at the party too because there are SO MANY candy stops. What works best for us is to skip the first parade. During that time we will try and head to any M&G that are available and the even shorter ride lines because everyone is getting ready for the the parade. After that we watch Hallowishes and find a spot for the 10pm parade. Its definitely less crowded, but with younger children it can def be tough to wait til that late. But the parade is awesome! All in all, we LOVE MNSSHP. We even went and bought tickets for a second night on our last trip lol

OH, and you are allowed to enter MK with your MNSSHP ticket at 4pm, even though the party doesnt start until 7pm AND you can schedule FP+ for those 3 hours before the party! I also recommend finding out where your favorite (popular) character will be and lining up about 30-60 minutes before the party starts because as a PP said those M&G lines are OUTRAGEOUS.

 

[vrajewski10513]

We've done it 3 times. Totally worth every penny. The parade alone is awesome, add in short waits for rides, tons and tons of candy (good candy too), unique meet and greets and the Hallowishes Fireworks. Honestly, we would do it every single trip if we could (going after the party this year). It even poured ALL night one year and it was still an amazing time.

lol It poured our first night we went last year. The WHOLE time. Some people tried to wait it out but once they realized it wasnt stopping the park pretty much cleared out. Some of the shows were cancelled, but it was nice to pretty much have free run of the park!

 

[Tanooki]

Its a waste but you could also use both for snacks, however last time I had 2 qs credits left and the nice cashier at POR help me figure out that I could get 2 bottles of water, 2 pieces of fruit and a couple other snack items and that equalled my 2 qs credits. Made for great plane snacks.

This is actually called a "continental combo" : a pastry (croissant, muffin, danish, etc.), a piece of fresh fruit and a drink, and it counts as a CS. We've use lots of these with my picky eaters

 

[bdillahu]

So I'm confused. I see a lot of people posting that the room discount saves them more then free dining. When I crunch the number (assuming I am correct in thinking that the 30% off is ONLY for the room rate and not park tickets as well) for 13 days at POR I would save like $688, but if I get a DDP free that's a savings of $1686.12!!! Even if I add park tickets to the 30% off it's still only around $1143 so I would still save quite a bit more with free dining. Am I figuring this out wrong, or are they figuring out how much they end up spending on dining and not what the dining plan cost's?

Something to remember is that most people don't eat as much food if you are paying for it out of pocket as the dining plan costs (at least for smaller groups). Some do, and if you have a family of several people, then it is much more likely you'll break even. So you probably want to compare the discount on the room against your expected out-of-pocket food cost, not the dining plan cost.

With that said, we probably come close to a "break even" with my family of three (including a teenage boy that accounts for some ), but we find the dining plan convenience and ability to "eat what you want and not worry about the price" really adds to the enjoyment. We eat places (character meals, better restaurants, etc.) that would always have me second guessing the cost if I had to plop the card down at the end of the meal.

 

[bdillahu]

I'm planning for October 2016 but am still following this one to see how it goes for 2015. Just one quick question, if I book before the promo is announced, and then add it on, should I book WITH a dining plan included in my price? Or do I add the dining plan on when I call to add the promo?

In times past, you can't really "add" the promo, you can switch to a promo if it is available. So even though you have a reservation of a package, that is no guarantee a promo package will have a room available, etc. As somebody else said, if there are 10 rooms available with the free-dining package, and you are the 11th caller, you don't get it, even if you already have a room reserved.

Generally I think the opinion is, if you would go regardless, without the special package, and want a particular room or whatever, then book it, and if you get the deal later, great. If you wouldn't go without the special, then don't book, as a booking just tells Disney there is a high demand for that period and thus they don't need as many promo rates to get people in the rooms.

The more experienced will correct me if I botched that, I'm sure

 

[bdillahu]

We've done it 3 times. Totally worth every penny. The parade alone is awesome, add in short waits for rides, tons and tons of candy (good candy too), unique meet and greets and the Hallowishes Fireworks. Honestly, we would do it every single trip if we could (going after the party this year). It even poured ALL night one year and it was still an amazing time.

Agreed... I was hesitant also, but since we wound up with free dining last trip, decided to splurge on the Halloween party... really enjoyed it. Short lines, neat characters, and the parade and castle show were really great. I would do it again.