$100 photobook with free dining= Disney epic fail

[donaldtutter]

We have been annual passholders for 8 years. When free dining first was offered we stayed at Pop with regular ding plan which included appetizers and tip and only needed to purchase one day pass. Next Disney eliminated the appetizers and tip. This was followed by a downgrade to Quick service dining plan. Then a purchase of a two day pass was required. Now a forced $100 purchase of a photobook, which we do not want. What was once a great deal is no longer a deal at all for passholders IMHO. We have decided to not renew our AP's and go elsewhere for vacation this year. We are so disappointed.

 

[GraceLuvsWDW]

This is all to wean us off the steep discounts. Before you know it, 5% off will seem like a good deal. Not renewing the AP is a good protest in my opinion, I will probably do the same. You'd think HP would have made them a little more aggressive in trying to get people to stay Disney, but I guess they have to pay for the Fantasyland expansion somehow...

 

[ginnymack]

I am not seeing that an additional purchase is required. It looks like it is free dining AND a free photobook. I does not appear that you have to but the cd.

 

[su_A_ve]

One word.. Marketing... With the lower cost of great DSLR cameras, you end up taking better pictures than the CMs. So you don't get that many photo pass prints, hence they probably have been loosing money on this.

So now you are buying 20 pictures in a book

 

[su_A_ve]

I am not seeing that an additional purchase is required. It looks like it is free dining AND a free photobook. I does not appear that you have to but the cd.

Photo book is not free. It's included in the package price. Nothing mentioned about any other purchase requirement.

FD is advertised as free if you get the 'memories' package which includes a photo book.

 

[lurkernj]

I have to agree, I don't particularly like this photo book add-on. Our next stay we were planning to get our teens their own room, which would mean I have to buy 2 photo books, when I don't even want one.

 

[SnipsNSnails]

I agree that it's not great, and I'd rather not have it added. On the other hand, I was going anyway, and even with the photobook it's $190 cheaper than I was already going to pay and it's $750 cheaper than my parents and grandparents were going to pay, so I'm happy! It would always be nice for it to be even cheaper. I can understand those who were NOT going to go anyway being unhappy with it. It is what it is. We aren't the type of people who will go every year. This will only be my 4th time staying on site with 2 being 3-4 day stays. I don't see us going again for another 3-4 years to stay on property.

 

[skier_pete]

Good for you. The only way to "protest" Disney's deals is with your wallet. And it has to start somewhere. If enough people say "this isn't good enough", then they'll HAVE to lower prices.

Of course, this attitude is a good argument for Disney needing to wean the public of these discounts. "How dare Disney not give me a HUGE discount on my vacation! Screw you Disney!"

 

[TDC Nala]

I am not seeing that an additional purchase is required. It looks like it is free dining AND a free photobook. I does not appear that you have to but the cd.

The photobook is not free. You are required to include one with your package to get free dining under the current general public offer. It costs around $100.

 

[irishdadx4]

Epic Fail???

Well I don't see it as an epic fail. While I don't like that the Free Dining deal has been morphing over time, I'm not mad at Disney for doing this....every business has to make money in order to stay in business...."no margin, no mission" I'm more peeved with myself for not knowing about free dining until 2009..I missed the apps and tips included?? Wow, how great was that!!!!!! Does it make it harder to take Disney trips without great discounts..Yes. But I find a way to afford them...I guess Disney is doing it's job then.

 

[SnipsNSnails]

Yeah, the fail can't be that epic seeing as how I waited 1.5 hrs to get through when calling at 7:15 AM this morning and everyone else seems to be experiencing the same types of waits. So I'm guessing Disney considers it a huge success! It was $940 successful for our party of 8.

 

[KELLY]

Same here watied over hour to get Fd added to my reservation. From the Kids free promo we added the QSDP. We still saved 268.00 for 9 days with the new FD offer.

I guess I don't mind the photobook or it being extra. But then again we pefer the QSDP and so glad disney does offer it now. We did it last year and it just worked way better for us. We still do a couple of ts meals OP. So I'm a happy girl today and now I only owe 36.00 on my reservation.

 

[mousegear]

I don't like that Disney decided to add Photo Book to FD packages. However, it still saves $$ for those who decided to go anyways. I guess as coporate stand point, they are there to make $$ and it makes sense to throw in Photo Book which probably cost very little and add $90~100 to package. But there are still plenty of us (including me) who would take that offer depite since it still saves compare to other offer/no offer. It's like grabbing buy 1, get 1 half off deal or any package deals for any other types of shopping. It's a great marketing ploy and we buy/spend thinking that it's great savings (it really might be) and sometimes, we don't fully get value out of it for one reason or another. It's just not Disney who throws deals at us, it's everywhere even down to grocery shopping.

 

[ElizabethG]

One word.. Marketing... With the lower cost of great DSLR cameras, you end up taking better pictures than the CMs. So you don't get that many photo pass prints, hence they probably have been loosing money on this.

So now you are buying 20 pictures in a book

You can actually use your own photos in the photobook. I make one every year. You can have a combination of photopass and your own pictures in the book. It is a really nice, hard cover, book and a great souvenier of the trip.

Also, I think it is crazy to complain about a discount because they aren't giving you enough. The entitlement of todays society never ceases to amaze me.

 

[jestagrl79]

Also, I think it is crazy to complain about a discount because they aren't giving you enough. The entitlement of todays society never ceases to amaze me.

I agree 100%! Glad someone else sees things from my perspective.

 

[TDC Nala]

The charge for the photobook on the free dining packages is coming out to $90.90. To see the actual value of the package discount, compare it with a regular price package with the relevant dining plan added.

 

[smidgy]

as I stated on another thread, I understand the marketing. I just wish they had given us an option of a couple different things to be required to purchase to get the free dining. maybe one of the tours or something.

even though we weren't planning on, say, the Ft. Wilderness segway tour, we would rather have to purchase that then the photobook (we are 2 adults, so there won't be any memories of our kids, etc. we already have tons of pics no one wants to look at anymore)

but, apparently, the tours are selling jsut fine, and it seems like the photopass book isn't.

 

[MNTwinsMom]

Also, I think it is crazy to complain about a discount because they aren't giving you enough. The entitlement of todays society never ceases to amaze me.

I agree completely. Thanks for posting.

 

[PIRATEGIRL007]

I woudln't call it an epic fail, I'm not happy about it but at least they finally offered a discount worth snatching up. I have gotten some really insulting pin discounts latel (less than public offer, got another one that is like 6% off, etc) so this is at least saving us something.

Think of the pure profit disney will make off the photobooks simply because people won't use photopass much or will forget to do thier book before it expires. It's similar to mail in rebates philosophy I am sure Disney already knows X% of guests that book this will forget about the book and thats just money in the bank.

 

[AmberHeartsDisney]

I agree 100%! Glad someone else sees things from my perspective.

yea i also agree.