News Round Up

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rteetz said:
Free dining has been announced for select days in the fall.
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We bought into DVC partly because we didn't think we would be able to take advantage of free dining anymore. Wouldn't you know it, our dates this year fall exactly within the free dining window. Darn, I will have to commiserate with a drink while sitting at Stormalong Bay.

Seriously though - I notice that now you have to minimum buy a park hopper or a WP&M upgrade with your ticket. As a family, we would normally get a base ticket, so this would be a $200+ adder for free dining. "Free" dining becomes more and more expensive every year.
 
skier_pete said:
We bought into DVC partly because we didn't think we would be able to take advantage of free dining anymore. Wouldn't you know it, our dates this year fall exactly within the free dining window. Darn, I will have to commiserate with a drink while sitting at Stormalong Bay.

Seriously though - I notice that now you have to minimum buy a park hopper or a WP&M upgrade with your ticket. As a family, we would normally get a base ticket, so this would be a $200+ adder for free dining. "Free" dining becomes more and more expensive every year.
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That's the catch. Rooms at rack rates plus added things that some people don't need. So is free dining really all that worth it? We've never been able to go during the free dining time frame we ually go in the summer but have gone in January for marathon weekend as well. There have been numerous discussion on whether it's worth it or not. There have also been numerous rumors that it's not going to come back the next year. I think disney wants to get rid of it and that why they increase the minimums you need.
 
rteetz said:
I think disney wants to get rid of it and that why they increase the minimums you need.
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Well, I think the problem they have is that without some sort of big discount at those times of year they have a hard time filling rooms. They keep reducing what you get each year, but there still can be a lot of "Value" to it. (Got $1233 worth of food using it in 2013 - definitely worth the savings.) However, the amount you get out of it becomes less and less. (The value of the dining plan in general to me has completely gone away. I would never pay for dining today.)
 
skier_pete said:
Well, I think the problem they have is that without some sort of big discount at those times of year they have a hard time filling rooms. They keep reducing what you get each year, but there still can be a lot of "Value" to it. (Got $1233 worth of food using it in 2013 - definitely worth the savings.) However, the amount you get out of it becomes less and less. (The value of the dining plan in general to me has completely gone away. I would never pay for dining today.)
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The last two trips I've taken we've done the dining plan. Prior to that we had never done it. For us it worked well and got us to new restaurants we had never been to or thought of going to. We were always your family that eats two meals a day from counter service locations or food courts. Then maybe we would go to a character meal or two. The last two trips we've planned out ADRs every day and I've loved trying all these new places. For us the dining plan works.
 
I don't really want to get in a debate over it here as there are whole threads devoted to the topic - but the problem with the dining plan is it used to save you quite a bit of money. Early days they said 40% and that was easily true. Now if it saves you 10-15% realistically you've done good. Not saying it can't work for you @rteetz and many others, but the value isn't there like it used to be. Free dining IMO is still a VERY valuable discount though - probably still the best they give out, but the value of it has gone down significantly as well.

In 2009 we stayed at POP century and you could still get the DDP at values. We got $1358 worth of food and spent only $2500 on the whole trip (3 adults, 1 child). In 2013 we got $1233 worth of food (4 adults this time) on a trip that cost us $3,900. So we had to spend $1400 more to save roughly the same amount of money because we had to stay moderate to do it. (admitted not exactly apples to apples, the 2nd trip we could only get free dining for 8 of the 10 days, while the first trip we had it the whole time.)

Now it would be even greater cost to save that money. Not saying I wouldn't do it in the same situation because it still beats a room discount, but I'm just pointing out the savings has degraded significantly in just 6 years.

That's the last I'll say on the topic here.
 
The could be potentially huge news but strictly rumor at this point. Some sources are saying that Disney is working on a deal to get some theme park rights for marvel for east of the Mississippi. The sources say something is in the works but wouldn't necessarily take marvel out of IOA. They are also saying that the other properties within the marvel family could be part of this deal.

http://wdwnt.com/blog/2015/04/rumor...-with-universal-for-marvel-theme-park-rights/
 
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rteetz said:
The could be potentially huge news but strictly rumor at this point. Some sources are saying that Disney is working on a deal to get some theme park rights for marvel for east of the Mississippi. The sources say something is in the works but wouldn't necessarily take marvel out of IOA. They are also saying that the other properties within the marvel family could be part of this deal.
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The rumor is more likely having more (and more modern) marvel at IOA than the other way around.
 
Spirit said this rumor is false. Tho hulk and dr. Doom will be getting big work done to them in the near future.

Both Martin and spirit say marvel expansion at IOA is likely
 
Figmentforever24 said:
I bet you Disney does regret Avatar. It was a knee jerk reaction to Harry Potter yet I know they will make it right.
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I agree with you on all points except the last. After the Fantasyland debacle I am not at all convinced Disney is as committed to breaking barriers as they once were. Or put another way, get ready for the much ballyhooed Avatar-land to basically be a re-hash of "Soarin." I've seen this before - Mystic Manor in HK is essentially a re-hash of the same tech used in Indiana Jones at DL, albeit with a weaker back story.
 
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