How many AP holders book a Free Dining package?

Deb123 · Jun 2, 2015

We have had AP's for several years. We have never booked a FD package. However after doing some looking into it, just booked one. We were at POFQ for 14 nights on a BB during F&W. Now, the first 2 nights have been changed to All Star Sports with BB and then the next 12 nights (when the FD starts) at All Star Sports as well for 3 people with free QS dining. All in a standard room. Not interested in upgrading the DP because we are fine with QS as we will be enjoying bunches of seminars and F&W events. All 3 of us have the 2day PH tickets. The CM told me that we can use these tickets value (currently $257 each) to go as a credit for renewing our AP's next summer.
Now for the same price as 14 nights at POFQ room only reservation, we are staying 14 nights at All Star Sports with 12 nights of free QS dining and a "credit" from those tickets to go toward our AP's next yr. ($257x 3=$771) Seems to good to be true! Anyone else do this??

Disneylover99 · Jun 2, 2015

We do it frequently. I'll have three sets of two day tickets in August because some years we do free dining two times per year with AP's. I know free dining won't be around forever, and when it ends, I will take advantage of room only discounts and our two day tickets will come in handy when we upgrade to ten day tickets or future AP's. :goodvibes

mercydisney · Jun 2, 2015

After a lot of debate "I DID", and am happy I did! My tickets expire in the middle of August and my trip starts in the beginning of Sept. So I will renew my tickets when I check in use the passes I purchased with free dining and pay balance of the AP passes. It really worked out for us. I originally staying with BB in room only and paying for QS, for about $100. more I am eating TS meals for free.

Deb123 · Jun 2, 2015

mercydisney said:
After a lot of debate "I DID", and am happy I did! My tickets expire in the middle of August and my trip starts in the beginning of Sept. So I will renew my tickets when I check in use the passes I purchased with free dining and pay balance of the AP passes. It really worked out for us. I originally staying with BB in room only and paying for QS, for about $100. more I am eating TS meals for free.

Looks like you've times it just right! Our AP's will be good until next summer, so I will just let the 2 day PH tickets sit in MDE unused until time to renew the AP. The CM told me that when I check into the resort on FD that those tickets will then automatically be prioritized as the ones to use. She said it is very important that I go to guest relations at a park BEFORE using. She said I have to tell them to make my AP's the priority tickets, by doing that will keep the 2 day PH tickets unused until I want them to go as a credit toward next yrs AP's.

Deb123 · Jun 2, 2015

Disneylover99 said:
We do it frequently. I'll have three sets of two day tickets in August because some years we do free dining two times per year with AP's. I know free dining won't be around forever, and when it ends, I will take advantage of room only discounts and our two day tickets will come in handy when we upgrade to ten day tickets or future AP's.

How do you go about making sure that your current AP's are the ones that are prioritized and that when you go to a park the two day tickets won't be used? It still confuses me a bit.

DisneyWishes14 · Jun 2, 2015

Deb123 said:
How do you go about making sure that your current AP's are the ones that are prioritized and that when you go to a park the two day tickets won't be used? It still confuses me a bit.

Just go to Guest Services at the first park you visit and ask them to prioritize your tickets in the order you want them used. I have an AP and some non-expires and I always double check to make sure my AP is what they are pulling from when I enter my first park on our visits.

Disneylover99 · Jun 2, 2015

Deb123 said:
How do you go about making sure that your current AP's are the ones that are prioritized and that when you go to a park the two day tickets won't be used? It still confuses me a bit.

I know you can prioritize them, but I prefer to have Guest Services pull them right off MDE before I enter my first park and put them on hard tickets. Then I can save them or give them away if I want to.

Deb123 · Jun 2, 2015

Disneylover99 said:
I know you can prioritize them, but I prefer to have Guest Services pull them right off MDE before I enter my first park and put them on hard tickets. Then I can save them or give them away if I want to.

Oh, you just answered a question I had!! That is exactly what my husband wants me to do with them! I wasn't sure that it was possible though. So, assuming that I do then use the tickets to offset the cost of my AP renewal, do I then just give the CM the ticket number on the hard ticket when I call to renew for the "credit" of them?

Disneylover99 · Jun 2, 2015

Deb123 said:
Oh, you just answered a question I had!! That is exactly what my husband wants me to do with them! I wasn't sure that it was possible though. So, assuming that I do then use the tickets to offset the cost of my AP renewal, do I then just give the CM the ticket number on the hard ticket when I call to renew for the "credit" of them?

Hmmm, not sure if that's what you would do for a renewal over the phone. We've never actually used our free dining tickets to renew our AP because of the time frame we take our trips. We let our AP's expire and then buy new ones when we are there with our free dining tickets.

Deb123 · Jun 2, 2015

Disneylover99 said:
Hmmm, not sure if that's what you would do for a renewal over the phone. We've never actually used our free dining tickets to renew our AP because of the time frame we take our trips. We let our AP's expire and then buy new ones when we are there with our free dining tickets.

Gotcha! So you just then bring your hard tickets to guest services and then they apply the credit of them towards the new AP's? Sorry for all the questions, just trying to get it straight in my head, lol!

Disneylover99 · Jun 2, 2015

Deb123 said:
Gotcha! So you just then bring your hard tickets to guest services and then they apply the credit of them towards the new AP's? Sorry for all the questions, just trying to get it straight in my head, lol!

We've never actually used any of our "hard tickets" yet. We've only used the tickets that were part of our free dining package to upgrade to an ap. We use these tickets first to get into the park, and then upgrade to AP's at Guest Services inside the park. Hope I'm not confusing you!

Deb123 · Jun 2, 2015

Disneylover99 said:
We've never actually used any of our "hard tickets" yet. We've only used the tickets that were part of our free dining package to upgrade to an ap. We use these tickets first to get into the park, and then upgrade to AP's at Guest Services inside the park. Hope I'm not confusing you!

I understand! You've been very helpful!

Disneylover99 · Jun 2, 2015

Deb123 said:
I understand! You've been very helpful!

Thanks!
If you still have questions about tickets and renewing AP's, try asking on the Theme Parks board. People are always very knowledgeable there. :goodvibes

MsThumper · Jun 3, 2015

I've done the math a few times, free dining vs. room only with a discount and it just doesn't make financial sense for us. We are an older couple and always stay deluxe. Even though we like table service at the signature restaurants for dinner, we still don't spend as much for food every day as we save on the room only discount, at least not every day. I did a mock booking one time for just the two of us with free dining and the price for the package was $3500 (for only 4 nights), with only 2 days of tickets. No way do we spend that much on a trip even paying for food oop. I also don't like the free dining for the following reasons:

We don't drink soft drinks and I don't want to carry a cup around, so the refillable cup would be worthless to us.
I don't want to purchase tickets that we may never use again.
We have a Tables in Wonderland card which saves us money on food and alcohol purchases.
I don't like purchasing things where I have to over eat or over drink or over purchase to feel like I am getting my money's worth

Obviously the plan works for many people. I think the more people in your party and either staying at moderate or value resorts, it's probably a good deal.

Fizban · Jun 3, 2015

The math just doesn't work for us as hard as i try. We do use Tables in Wonderland though and it returns its cost on the first 2 days of the year with the rest of the year really saving us big $ (we go 4 to 5 times a year for a week each time).

IceSkatingPrincess · Jun 3, 2015

Never have. I'm an AP holder that also qualifies for military room rates though so I don't think it'd be in my favor generally anyway VS the room discount.

robinb · Jun 3, 2015

I have done this a number of times in the past. We would go in August right before my DD's school started for FD and the use our APs to enter the parks instead of our room keys. We would retain the keys and then bring them with us for our Christmas trip and use them towards a renewal for our APs. I don't know how you would do it this with MBs instead of physical key cards. It sounds like you prioritize the MBs to use the APs but what do you do after your trip? How do you access the tickets later on? Do you get them removed from the MBs somehow?

MakiraMarlena · Jun 3, 2015

Never. I have Tables in Wonderland which works out better anyway.

jessiegirl1982 · Jun 3, 2015

So I am have a DL AP, and I purchased a Free Dining Package for 9/25-10/3 at POR... does anyone know if Guest Services would let me upgrade to a Premier pass with the tickets purchased with the Free Dining package? You would think they would want me to come back on another trip (and spend $$), right?

robinb · Jun 3, 2015

jessiegirl1982 said:
So I am have a DL AP, and I purchased a Free Dining Package for 9/25-10/3 at POR... does anyone know if Guest Services would let me upgrade to a Premier pass with the tickets purchased with the Free Dining package? You would think they would want me to come back on another trip (and spend $$), right?

You can upgrade your passes from FD, but you can't combine them with your DL AP.

How many AP holders book a Free Dining package?

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