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

[cath1979]

if we still have our magic band from 2013, can we still get news ones for free?

 

[NoodlesMom]

if we still have our magic band from 2013, can we still get news ones for free?

Yes, you'll get a new set of bands anytime you have a new reservation. I did a split stay once and got two sets of bands during that trip.

 

[samsteele]

I'm trying to take comfort in the reassurance that as long as it comes before the general release I will not have a problem getting the package I need.

If your first choice is POP (as opposed to one of the very restricted Moderates) and if Park Hopper is required (leading to either fewer ressies b/c families are holding off while they crunch the numbers to decide if this year's free dining is really the right deal for them), you should be OK in the fight for general public release. POP does have a huge number of rooms to fill - even if they only allocate x number for the free dining offer. Have you thought of using a TA at eg AAA or Sears or dreamsunlimited? Some have access to a larger room pool & will get on hold for the 2 or 3 plus hrs to book for multiple guests. I will use my TA at CAA to book my ressie pkg but I do all of my own ADRs, FP+, etc just as soon as I get my res number. In the past, I had one Disney vacation stay go upside down at a resort and I really appreciated the support & help I had from my TA. I ended up with a decent comp back on my VISA for a poor dis resort stay & problems. I wouldn't have been treated as well if I didn't have the strong backup from a big travel agency. Something to think about . . .

 

[Rivermonster]

I remember when "park hopper" was a perk of staying at a Disney resort...

 

[Meldev]

If (and its just an "if" and speculation until the offer is released) the Park Hopper is a requirement for free dining, I suspect that Disney has done some very thorough research & number crunching with the end result to dissuade families of 4 or more (what used to be considered the traditional family unit) from using free dining. It used to be a great deal for families who had 10 yr olds and older. Bottomless stomachs on those kids or not. Park food is pricey with adult rates starting at age 10. But Park Hopper adds up significantly with every base ticket in your package. It may quickly outstrip any benefit of free dining as we used to know it. Free dining has never been free. A room only discount is the trade off. However, the combo of rack rate with Hopper will tip the scales for many families. Park Hopper isn't as big of a deal for singles and couples. It is a big deal for families with 2.2 (and many more) kids. I wonder if this is the beginning of the end for fall free dining? Those who can swing Park Hopper (singles, parties of 2 or 3) may want to take advantage of this while they can. If true, this looks bad for the future of what had become a "family friendly" vacation staple.

If PH is required, I have to revisit all of my spreadsheets - and see if room discounts work out better or even renting points....that's a $300-$400 increase for us with the hoppers.

 

[Aubrav]

But Park Hopper adds up significantly with every base ticket in your package. It may quickly outstrip any benefit of free dining as we used to know it. Free dining has never been free. A room only discount is the trade off. However, the combo of rack rate with Hopper will tip the scales for many families. Park Hopper isn't as big of a deal for singles and couples. It is a big deal for families with 2.2 (and many more) kids. I wonder if this is the beginning of the end for fall free dining? Those who can swing Park Hopper (singles, parties of 2 or 3) may want to take advantage of this while they can. If true, this looks bad for the future of what had become a "family friendly" vacation staple.

Correct me if I'm wrong, and I know that everyone's situation is different, but if you are looking at only the difference in cost between Park Hopper and no Park Hopper, you're talking $68 per person for ticket packages of 2 days or more, right? So that would be a cost of $68 for food for your entire stay vs. paying out of pocket. Obviously you would have to compare that to other discounts especially if you are staying in a more expensive resort but a flat rate of $68 per person seems like a decent deal with significant savings.

I mean, that's going to add $273 to our package that we weren't planning on spending, but we couldn't eat out of pocket for $273 for 10 days at Disney for 4 people. Instead of looking at it as a Park Hopper upgrade, I look at it as a dining plan discount with free park hopper (yes, I've been thinking a lot about this new rumor). I think our dining plan would cost $1200 so that's almost an 80% discount. Even without the dining plan at all $273 is much less than we would spend out of pocket.

 

[Aubrav]

If your first choice is POP (as opposed to one of the very restricted Moderates) and if Park Hopper is required (leading to either fewer ressies b/c families are holding off while they crunch the numbers to decide if this year's free dining is really the right deal for them), you should be OK in the fight for general public release. POP does have a huge number of rooms to fill - even if they only allocate x number for the free dining offer. Have you thought of using a TA at eg AAA or Sears or dreamsunlimited? Some have access to a larger room pool & will get on hold for the 2 or 3 plus hrs to book for multiple guests. I will use my TA at CAA to book my ressie pkg but I do all of my own ADRs, FP+, etc just as soon as I get my res number. In the past, I had one Disney vacation stay go upside down at a resort and I really appreciated the support & help I had from my TA. I ended up with a decent comp back on my VISA for a poor dis resort stay & problems. I wouldn't have been treated as well if I didn't have the strong backup from a big travel agency. Something to think about . . .

I have actually never considered using a travel agent. And yes, my ideal plan would be POP with 6 day tickets. But I do fear that even though they would be on the phone for hours changing reservations, mine would be the last one and by the time they got to it all of the available value resorts would be sold out under the free dining offer. Plus, can you still use your visa through a travel agent? Will they book when the visa offer comes out?

 

[tinklvsu]

Can someone refresh me on the prices for upgrading from Quick Service to Regular Dining plan for adults/child? I looked at the beginning of this thread and didn't see the details laid out. I've looked at other sticky's, but its older years, and I assume the price has probably went up. With the new rumor of the park hopper, I'm here pricing out all of my options to see which may be best. Thanks in advance and sorry for asking a repeated question, I did try searching the thread, but couldn't locate it exactly.

 

[Aubrav]

Can someone refresh me on the prices for upgrading from Quick Service to Regular Dining plan for adults/child? I looked at the beginning of this thread and didn't see the details laid out. I've looked at other sticky's, but its older years, and I assume the price has probably went up. With the new rumor of the park hopper, I'm here pricing out all of my options to see which may be best. Thanks in advance and sorry for asking a repeated question, I did try searching the thread, but couldn't locate it exactly.

It's $18.XX for adults and $3.XX for children

 

[cath1979]

Can someone refresh me on the prices for upgrading from Quick Service to Regular Dining plan for adults/child? I looked at the beginning of this thread and didn't see the details laid out. I've looked at other sticky's, but its older years, and I assume the price has probably went up. With the new rumor of the park hopper, I'm here pricing out all of my options to see which may be best. Thanks in advance and sorry for asking a repeated question, I did try searching the thread, but couldn't locate it exactly.

about 18 $ adult and 3$ child

 

[samsteele]

Correct me if I'm wrong, and I know that everyone's situation is different, but if you are looking at only the difference in cost between Park Hopper and no Park Hopper, you're talking $68 per person for ticket packages of 2 days or more, right? So that would be a cost of $68 for food for your entire stay vs. paying out of pocket. Obviously you would have to compare that to other discounts especially if you are staying in a more expensive resort but a flat rate of $68 per person seems like a decent deal with significant savings.

I mean, that's going to add $273 to our package that we weren't planning on spending, but we couldn't eat out of pocket for $273 for 10 days at Disney for 4 people.
d

Absolutely . . . your math works out well for your family. However, for other families of 4 plus, instead of booking a more $ moderate with free dining, if required to pay Park Hopper for each family member, will opt to rent a condo offsite with basic kitchen facilities to save the extra. Some offsite accommodation is really nice & rental car rates not so bad. My neighbours (family of 5) did this a few yrs ago. They just couldn't justify the higher onsite expense and price of park meals. In the end, I think we are both right (kinda ) Disney is playing it very close to the edge of many families needs and expectations. If the required Park Hopper rumor is true, its going to be a very interesting time. However, its also going to be a very disappointing and frustrating time for many families who got used to (and had set budget expectations) for a certain free dining deal. That deal may not be such a deal after all. Bottom line: we all need to crunch the numbers & decide what works best for us. All the best!

 

[cath1979]

I have actually never considered using a travel agent. And yes, my ideal plan would be POP with 6 day tickets. But I do fear that even though they would be on the phone for hours changing reservations, mine would be the last one and by the time they got to it all of the available value resorts would be sold out under the free dining offer. Plus, can you still use your visa through a travel agent? Will they book when the visa offer comes out?

Really dont thing Pop or all star sport will be sold out quickly. a lot of persons go for maderate to get regular fd.. i know the fd deal is very popular, but i dont think that disney will make a deal that can be sold out in two days..can be wrong..but each years I see tv publicity for fd all summer long

 

[samsteele]

I have actually never considered using a travel agent. And yes, my ideal plan would be POP with 6 day tickets. But I do fear that even though they would be on the phone for hours changing reservations, mine would be the last one and by the time they got to it all of the available value resorts would be sold out under the free dining offer. Plus, can you still use your visa through a travel agent? Will they book when the visa offer comes out?

I'm not sure about this. But it couldn't hurt to ask a TA early next week. Of course, I don't have access to the Disney Visa (Canadian) but never had a problem getting the resort I wanted (POP) in past years. But who knows what the demand will be this time round.

 

[cath1979]

I'm not sure about this. But it couldn't hurt to ask a TA early next week. Of course, I don't have access to the Disney Visa (Canadian) but never had a problem getting the resort I wanted (POP) in past years. But who knows what the demand will be this time round.

it's sometime sucks to be canadian!! I wish I could have a DV card lol

 

[deide71]

I have crunched the numbers and I still come out ahead with 5 Disney adults @ a moderate.
3400 7 nights with 5 day hoppers.

5 5 day base tix will cost $1700
1 week in an offsite condo about $800
Rental car ( would need a van or SUV) around $200
Parking and gas and tolls around $150
So about 2850 offsite. The difference is only 550. I would be hard pressed to feed 5 for that.

Nope, still booking onsite.

 

[lazer]

When launching a digital ad campaign--you usually have to supply the materials 1-2 weeks prior to launch. So if a promo was going live next week, ad materials will already be with the service that is serving them. I work in advertising and the closest we have ever been able to traffic a digital ad campaign has been 72 hours--and that is cutting it uncomfortably close. So, it's possible the banner ad is real and was served up by mistake.

Ditto on the above. As a former designer/marketer...materials were always at the vendor weeks in advance. Typically, you'd send the link where the offer data will be live. Until the offer is live, you can have it click to a dummy page that either redirects to a generic offer or holds generic offer details and is eventually replaced with the new offers. (At least most people set them up this way). Disney just hasn't "flipped the switch" to update the page's data and discounts. It could be weeks away or could be days away. So, I can see this being totally possible. Works for us, because we were doing hoppers anyway and staying 7 nights. Hoping for a Visa early release so we can easily snag a moderate.

 

[Aubrav]

Absolutely . . . your math works out well for your family. However, for other families of 4 plus, instead of booking a more $ moderate with free dining, if required to pay Park Hopper for each family member, will opt to rent a condo offsite with basic kitchen facilities to save the extra. Some offsite accommodation is really nice & rental car rates not so bad. My neighbours (family of 5) did this a few yrs ago. They just couldn't justify the higher onsite expense and price of park meals. In the end, I think we are both right (kinda ) Disney is playing it very close to the edge of many families needs and expectations. If the required Park Hopper rumor is true, its going to be a very interesting time. However, its also going to be a very disappointing and frustrating time for many families who got used to (and had set budget expectations) for a certain free dining deal. That deal may not be such a deal after all. Bottom line: we all need to crunch the numbers & decide what works best for us. All the best!

Okay yes I agree, if staying off-property is an option to be considered then yes, that would save the additional cost. We actually stayed off property until last year, so I'm in tube with the condos and rental houses available. There are a lot of perks to choosing that option. I guess I was thinking more of the people who will only stay on property.

 

[DisneyRunner2009]

Usually my family uses a RO discount. We can eat cheaper than the $1000 worth of food we get when we use FD. FD is nice, everyone gets their choice of meal, but we never buy dessert at each meal if we pay OOP. Some FD meal options are huge portions for one person.

 

[disneyfanUSA]

Hi, What are the resorts that are rumored to be excluded? I was planning on a mod, but may go to a value & upgrade to full service dining to save a little money. We were going for nine days, may take a day off and only stay for 8. I need to crunch some numbers. TIA

 

[samsteele]

if staying off-property is an option to be considered then yes, that would save the additional cost.

And I think I am in the same boat as you. I really like the Disney transportation. The Magical Express return to/from airport alone is a great perk. I have paid for taxi before to the Best Western near Disney and it was easily a $50 cab ride one way. And that was like 8 yrs ago. The tolls are nasty. And driving in Orlando ain't fun. I figure the value resorts, even with their higher "real-world" price tag, once all the transpo & advantages of earlier ADRs and Fastpass plus booking windows are worked in, are a very good deal for me to actually have a relaxing care-free vacation. I get to park my brain & walk away from work & real world craziness for a good spell. I just use my room as a safe, clean place to sleep and get cleaned up in the morning. Otherwise, I am in the parks full time. POP works very well for me. I also use the boat transpo from POR, POFQ, Fort Wilderness, etc as I enjoy the ride & it isn't restricted to mod or deluxe guests. Aubrav, I really hope your ressies work out well for you & your family! I have enjoyed your wonderful insights & extra time participating in this thread! On behalf of everyone following this thread, thank you so much for your hard work, your words of wisdom & your dedication!