I don't think the general public will ever know why Disney offers discounts, though there is lots of speculation. My opinion......The economy is pretty icky right now and while the downturn started months ago, most people already had their summer/fall plans in place and perhaps didn't change them....but as summer wore on and people may have decided to forego a winter vacation, or do it somewhere closer to home and less expensive, until the economy settles down a bit. Of course, that would mean that Disney would have less bookings for the winter than they really wanted....I've read business news reports that conflict with each other....some say that Disney is one of the few companies not feeling the effects of the economy, and another saying that Disney's occupancy levels were lower than they had been since 2001. It is a first for them to offer free dining in other than August and September and a couple of years it's gone into the very first weeks of October, but never November or December, but judging from this board only, it's definitely filling those rooms! We were already booked to go but I was able to add free dining so I'm thrilled, as there is probably little hope that I'll ever go in August/Sept because of the weather....October maybe, but it's still warmer than I want to be out and about in, so it would have to be a really really good deal, lol. But, hey, let me book first exactly when I want to go and then offer me free food, I'm there.
As for whether they'll offer free dining next year and which food plan it will be....again, at this point we can only look at some clues and form an opinion....but the people that are at WDW right NOW are reporting bounceback offers for 2009's free dining, and they're reporting that it's the basic plan, not the quick service. Now, will that be the same offer that is made to the general public in April (or whenever they offer it to the public, typically it's April).....we won't know until April, unfortunately. BUT....I don't think they'll offer the smaller meal plan. My personal opinion is that plan was made for the people who decline the basic plan when making a reservation saying it's too much food for their family.....I declined it and the CM inquired why and then tried selling me on it. The fact is that I used the menus posted on allearsnet.com and the kids and I pretended we were ordering...I added up what we'd possibly eat, added tax and tip, subtracted my DDE discount and found that it would be several hundred dollars CHEAPER for me to pay out of pocket. Mostly because we DON'T eat big meals, we tend to share CS meals and occasionally TS meals especially if we had a character buffet earlier in the day. And we rarely do snacks. It helped that I had kept a journal last trip and knew what snacks we ate and which restaurants we had eaten in (though I hadn't kept track of what, drat). BUT....now that Disney has offered it to me free, and my room rate stayed pretty much the same (I have an AP so I did have to buy all three of us a 1 day MYW ticket, so that was an added expense but we'll just save it for 2009 and use it to upgrade to an AP again...so it was a cost on this trip that I won't have to pay next trip, so I didn't consider it an expense)...so now instead of the $700 food budget for those 9 days, it's zero. That's a fantastic savings to me, and if it means we have too much food and don't use all the credits it won't seem a waste to me as it would if I'd paid for it. We'll likely still order the same amounts of food, or maybe the kids will decide instead of sharing they'll get their own so they can each have a different entree (that was always the hardest about sharing was compromise on what to order). And yeah, we'll probably eat a snack everyday because it's there.....but since we don't have free dining for the second half of our trip, they better not get used to it, lol.
So, don't lose hope......just temper it with not getting those hopes up so high that they are dashed if it doesn't happen. Again, personal opinion, but I think the free dining offer that typically comes out in April will be very simliar to what it was for 2008. Somebody save this and tell me if I'm right, lol.
