$900 'Free' Dining Plan Help

[Bounca]

Thanks Sharadoc small world, I used to work at a small laboratory in Pottstown many, many years ago. Currently live in Lancaster county.

First trip to DW.

Anyway, you bring up a good question. I’ve researched driving distances/times and I’m not too concerned with bouncing from park to resort for evening meals. Or should I be. Is traffic that bad, like in September when I’m going? I would think it would just be a 15-20 minute drive to the parks from SSR. Not sure about grocery store distances. Indeed, consuming up valuable park time for the sake of maintaining full bellies would be a bummer.

 

[Bounca]

I'm a little confused about why you were quoted a higher price? I also received regular quotes for the Free Dining package from Disney and other travel agencies. Then I received a quote on a Free Dining package from AAA. AAA was considerably lower due to the AAA discount. I went with AAA. Maybe you should get an alternative quote from another AAA travel agent? I'm not sure where you're located but instead of calling my local AAA office, I requested a quote thru the AAA main website. I was assigned a travel agent named Anne Boscombe. She was wonderful to work with... Try asking her for an alternative quote:

I should clarify. Our stay is 7 nights, not 5 like mentioned in OP. Our price for SSR without DDP is 5045 with trip insurance, park hopper, 3A 2 kids. The additional DDP would cost an ‘extra’ $900 after loosing the AAA discount. To be honest, our AAA agent is a bit flakey. I wonder what the cost would be minus any AAA discount. Sorry, I feel like I’m taking my own thread off topic.

 

[mbanks21]

Are you in a studio or a 1 bedroom? I can only see this being possible if youre in like a 2 bedroom with a 30 or 40% discount. Then the discount would be better then free dine...

 

[Bounca]

Yes studio. Two bedroom, kitchen, washer/dryer, etc.

 

[septbaby]

I just did a quote online that includes Free Dining: $5,090
- 3Adults, 2Children
- 2BR Villa at SSR
- Sept. 7-14th (not sure of your dates)
- 7 Day Parkhoppers

The Trip insurance would be about $200 more. I doubt you can feed your family for $250-300 for 7 days in Orlando. Free Dining is a much better deal if you are willing to use Disney restaurants. It will allow you to take your kids to character meals and for the adults to pick a couple of nice treats too.

There are two hidden gems of the DP:
1. You can say YES to your kids requests for snacks, because you'll have 5 snack credits to spend daily (grandma actually used most of ours )
2. You don't ever have to choose based on price, its already paid for, no matter what you order.

Those are two things I really didn't "get" would be so nice before we experienced FD in 2007. I am grateful Disney is allowing my family to return with another FD offer this August.

 

[Bounca]

So you can’t do character dinning without a dining plan?

Could I ask where you got that quote?

 

[septbaby]

So you can’t do character dinning without a dining plan?

You can always to character meals, but they would be in addition to the $5,045 you'll pay. For your family a breakfast at Chef Mickey's would be about $100 plus tax and tip. If you spent the $5,090 you'd already have that meal covered and would just pay tip, say $20 if you tipped 20% (you don't have to tip that amount, just a round number).

Could I ask where you got that quote?
That's easy, just went to disneyworld.com, chose the Free Dining offer, clicked the link and put in some Sept dates, 3A, 2C, and got a quote. Once the quote comes up I clicked on the Ticket tab and removed the waterpark option to reduce the price and match your quote.

That is what I was suggesting on my first post, sorry if I was unclear. Again the DP isn't for everyone, but seems like it could work for your family. We had a 5yo with us (2A, 1C) and we really enjoyed the plan, not everyone does.

 

[septbaby]

Pay OOP.

To fully realize the value of the DDP, users should be using the TS credits on dinners. Character meals (other than CRT which is 2TS anyway) and lunches are less expensive than a dinner at Le Celier, Chefs de France, Wave, etc. and are a poor use of the TS as far as getting "value".

Think of it this way. Will you spend $900 on lunch or character meals in 5 days? Being that you said you're not huge eaters, I doubt it.

You don't have to eat TS dinners only to get value out of the DP. A mixture of B, L and D can also help you breakeven and surpass what you would spend on the DP. Especially since you have children on the plan and might take advantage of character meals its easy to get value. A child on the plan cost $10.99, there isn't a buffet/character meal that costs less than $11.99, so you are already up $ and the child hasn't had a snack or CS meal yet.

Also keep in mind that $900 cost is a not accurate, don't use it for comparison. The number is closer to $250 more assuming you buy the insurance, $50 if you skip the insurance.

 

[sharadoc]

Thanks Sharadoc small world, I used to work at a small laboratory in Pottstown many, many years ago. Currently live in Lancaster county.

First trip to DW.

Anyway, you bring up a good question. I’ve researched driving distances/times and I’m not too concerned with bouncing from park to resort for evening meals. Or should I be. Is traffic that bad, like in September when I’m going? I would think it would just be a 15-20 minute drive to the parks from SSR. Not sure about grocery store distances. Indeed, consuming up valuable park time for the sake of maintaining full bellies would be a bummer.

Cool!

I think the highest number of Disney attendees are from PA! That's why they send Mickey and the gang to the Philly Thanksgiving parade - statistically we are a majority!!!

Lancaster County is my fave place to shop. Food, furniture, crafts. I could SO live there someday.

Back to Disney reality, I think traffic will be fine. September is an off time and lower attendance so you won't be on the road too long. An hour total to and from would be a reasonable estimate, though. By the time you leave the front gate of a park until you go in your front door sometimes takes a LONG time.

I just meant that you might not want to leave the parks at all if you're really having a great time. The restaurants will be busy but the crowds should be generally manageable overall. Not every room qualifies for free dining, so it doesn't increase attendance too, too much (so I've heard!).

We loved driving everywhere. It was only kind of a pain at the Magic Kingdom, but we went to one of the resorts and used valet parking which made it a LOT easier.

 

[sharadoc]

You don't have to eat TS dinners only to get value out of the DP. A mixture of B, L and D can also help you breakeven and surpass what you would spend on the DP. Especially since you have children on the plan and might take advantage of character meals its easy to get value. A child on the plan cost $10.99, there isn't a buffet/character meal that costs less than $11.99, so you are already up $ and the child hasn't had a snack or CS meal yet.

Also keep in mind that $900 cost is a not accurate, don't use it for comparison. The number is closer to $250 more assuming you buy the insurance, $50 if you skip the insurance.

Plus, it's FREE, so you're ahead no matter how you look at it IF you don't have access to another discount. AAA discounts run out and not everyone gets pins or AP discounts, so free dining is a wonderful luxury. I know some families who would have been going at rack rate anyway, so this is a blessing and allowing them to stay for more days.

 

[sawyert]

If I may interject into this post with some questions of my own regarding the dp. I am planning our family of 5 first trip to wdw in jan of 2010 and I'm feeling a little overwhelmed with everything i'm reading. we are using air miles for flight and hopper tickets I am having a hard time figuring out if we can get the dining plan without buying hopper tickets if I read the one site correctly it only showed pricing with buying park hopper. We haven't booked a hotel yet and I understand you need to stay at a disney resort. Last week I called reservations to figure out which hotel would accomodate our family and she told me the deluxe accomodations are the only ones. Very pricey unless I try and buypoints from someone on this website, little leary about that.

Any advice?

 

[septbaby]

If I may interject into this post with some questions of my own regarding the dp. I am planning our family of 5 first trip to wdw in jan of 2010 and I'm feeling a little overwhelmed with everything i'm reading. we are using air miles for flight and hopper tickets I am having a hard time figuring out if we can get the dining plan without buying hopper tickets if I read the one site correctly it only showed pricing with buying park hopper. We haven't booked a hotel yet and I understand you need to stay at a disney resort. Last week I called reservations to figure out which hotel would accomodate our family and she told me the deluxe accomodations are the only ones. Very pricey unless I try and buypoints from someone on this website, little leary about that.

Any advice?

Welcome to DIS!!!!

In order to buy any of the Dining Plans you must do the following:

Scenario A: Stay at a WDW resort hotel/villa, purchase tickets for everyone on the reservation (the same ticket) in a package with your hotel stay

Scenario B: You are an Disney Annual Pass member you can book a WDW hotel and be allowed to purchase the DP

Scenario C: You are a DVC member or renter staying on points in a DVC villa, you can reserve the DP and pay in full when you check in for your stay.

If you have tickets from a source other than Disney you cannot purchase a DP, even if you stay at a WDW resort hotel.

 

[mbanks21]

You dont need hopper tickets to get the dining plan and there are plenty of options for a family of 5. Port Orleans Riverside, AllStar Music Family Suite, Fort Wilderness Cabins, 2 rooms at any value or moderate resort....

 

[Mickey country]

You can have the dining plan without buying hopper tickets. You will have to purchase hotel room onsite @ rack rate, and a one day ticket for everyone in your party. Then you qualify for the dining plan. Your family could stay @ a moderate resort (Port Orleans Riverside) which starts at $149nt. during value season. You can then use your existing hopper tickets and keep you one day passes for another trip.

 

[KKB]

The most cost effective for a family of 5 is Port Orleans...but the bed for the fifth is a trundle, so truly needs to be a child.
Another more cost-effective option is the family suite at All star suites or adjoining rooms at any value resort.
Hopper tickets are helpful for the dining plan, but not necessary with a bit of planning.

 

[Brygida]

A month ago we booked Saratoga Springs resort for 6 days in September. The free meal plan for general public just came out so I called our AAA agent who we booked through to see if we could add it on. She said that it would bring our total cost up an extra $900 dollars so it wasn't really 'free'. Turns out that if you do the free meal plan you lose the AAA discount for the room booking, but she mentioned that it was still a good deal cause I guess the meal plan for the 5 (me, wife two kids and mother in law) of us would be more like 1300 to 1500.

Thanks

Funny you should say this.... it just happened to me too.... I got a AAA quote for the week prior to *free* dining (including paying for the DDP) and a quote for a week during *free* dining. (Port Orleans French Quarter, 1 adult, 1 child). The difference between the two was only $123!!!

That is the first question I asked the AAA agent... I know the cost of DDP is much more $123 for a week... What's up? She said that when you don't book a special Disney package (like free dining), you get the AAA discount on the room, even though the package includes tickets and the paid-for-DDP. I did not know that! Having done the *free* DDP every year it has been done!

Anyway to answer your question. In general with 5 people, the free DDP is a steal! Making the trip affordable for many people. However, if you plan on cooking 2 out of 3 meals a day in the room, then it won't be. You need to step back and decide if you *really* want to cook dinner in the room or were you just doing that to save money. Meals at Disney for 5 people will add up to $900 very quickly.... and just the meals you have planned to do at Disney may add up to $900. Sooooooo.... I think it comes down to what your family loves to do.... do you like to cook?.... or do you prefer a meal out? .... which is more relaxing for you?

 

[Brygida]

Welcome to DIS!!!!

In order to buy any of the Dining Plans you must do the following:

Scenario A: Stay at a WDW resort hotel/villa, purchase tickets for everyone on the reservation (the same ticket) in a package with your hotel stay

If you have tickets from a source other than Disney you cannot purchase a DP, even if you stay at a WDW resort hotel.

Let me further clarify.... to get the *free* dining plan, you must book at least a 3 night room package, with at least a one-day-one-park ticket per person. Then those people (who got the one-day-one-park tickets) will get 1 TS credit and 1 CS credit and 1 snack credit per each night of your stay.

If not all people want the same type of ticket during your stay (such as, park hopper, water parks, # of days), this is the only way to do it. Once you check-in, you then take your one-day-one-park tickets and upgrade them (each one upgradeable individually) to the exact ticket you want.