Am I the only one who DOESN'T care about free dining?

[mbanks21]

Free dining was NEVER extended. There was a completely seperate offer for Disa Visa members and people who were sent pincodes.

 

[PrincessTiffany]

Officially... right now.... yes. But remember last year when it was extended until Christmas? You could switch when it is extended.... and with the economy as it is.... it WILL be extended.

Mbanks is right, the Fall Free Dining offer wasn't extended. Last September Disney Destinations sent out some emails that offered free dining pin codes for select dates in October, November and December, 9/28-10/11, 11/9-11/22 and 12/12-12/20 to be exact . These emails were random, not for the general public, and the codes were non-transferrable. About two weeks after that Disney Visa sent out a free dining code for their card holders for the same select dates in October, November and December. Those pin codes were not part of the regular Fall Dining promotion and there was no general public fd code offered for any of those dates.

 

[Mcbruns]

I feel like such an oddball. I have no desire to do the dining plan at Disney, even for free. I've seen so many people have issues with what they have left, what they've used, not understanding how it works.

Don't get me wrong, I think it's awesome that so many people can take advantage of it. I'm just wondering if I'm all alone in my little world.

Yes -- I think you are ! Have you ever had free dining?

 

[mickeystoontown]

I would have loved to be able to take advantage of the free dining promo. The difference between a stay at rake room rates and a stay with free dining is $1,080.00 (for just three of us). We just found out that our 22 year old daughter is coming along so that'd add another approx. $310.00.

But, sadly, we can't travel during the free dining dates because our son has to be in school.

 

[MarkinNM]

Nope, OP you are not alone

1. It's not FREE! You pay rack rate for the room. Since IMHO the rooms at Disney are VERY overpriced FREE means "we marked up something else to give you the deal"

NOT true, as for instance in our case, we booked the 4/3, turned it into a 5/3 deal, then thought about adding the DDP at a cost of $40 PP = +1290 extra. Now with the Free Dining, we now go in Sept, same amounts of nights, 8, TOTAL package is +338 extra!!!! 8 days of added food, how’s that, for only 338 for a family of 4, 12 & 16 that eat VERY well BTW. That is a HUGE savings for us over $950 if I were to buy the DDP on my own and after looking at the menus and seeing the prices, the overall savings could easily add up to over 1K!!!! That is no chump change IMHO!!!! Also please tell me what hotel does not “overcharge” for a room, I mean it’s a stinken room!!!

2. It's not good to overpay for a room that will include more food then I need or want. That's just wasteful. (And I don't buy the "you don't have to eat it all" Folks on here will force themselves to eat it because "it's free" or "we paid for it " LOL!)

Not in our case, my family have VERY good appetites and I would be paying for BF/L/D and several snacks anyway, knowing that I will have to pay OOP for one meal everyday, where else can I go on a vacation and pay 338 for 8 days of lunch & dinner & snacks??

3. It's Disney Dining. With some exceptions it's not that outstanding. I live in a major city and can eat better!

As is the case in ANY city including your “major city” !!! I mean if your going to Disney for a Mobil 4 star dining then your in the wrong place, there is PLENTY of good solid meals in WDW…..

Free, maybe not but a very nice added bonus for our family vacation!!!!

 

[Brygida]

Mbanks is right, the Fall Free Dining offer wasn't extended. Last September Disney Destinations sent out some emails that offered free dining pin codes for select dates in October, November and December, 9/28-10/11, 11/9-11/22 and 12/12-12/20 to be exact . These emails were random, not for the general public, and the codes were non-transferrable. About two weeks after that Disney Visa sent out a free dining code for their card holders for the same select dates in October, November and December. Those pin codes were not part of the regular Fall Dining promotion and there was no general public fd code offered for any of those dates.

My bad. I should be clearer..... Since the Disney Visa members got the special offer, I interpret that as an offer to anyone. Is there someone out there who can't get a Disney Visa.... and hence the special offer. Disney Visa has no annual membership fee.... why not have it?

 

[DHofthe4morCM]

Our family of 4, including kids aged six and one at the time went last December, stayed three nights at WL with free dining on the Disney Visa deal. We would not go on free dining again.

It doesn't work for us because we like to stay at Deluxe resorts and the room discount becomes more important, 'free dining' doesn't include meals for the now two year who likes her own and will eat a good amount, we don't typically eat that many desserts, we buy only 10 day no expiration park hopper tickets tix and to get 'free dining' you have to buy at least one day's worth of much higher cost tickets that aren't park hopper unless you pay extra, we enjoy the 'signature' dining more than twice as much as a regular dining experience, and we don't want two beverages to cart around from breakfast all day.

I found the whole experience of 'free dining' to be more stressful to plan believe it or not since I tried hard to get even more value from it. Planning our next trip without DDP and I expect to enjoy it a lot more.

k

 

[purplebelle]

Thanks, Minnie&Nana. I will make advance dining plans and probably just pick my parks ahead of time (which I usually do before a trip anyway).

What happens if I were to break a table service reservation in that something comes up and I can't make my reservation? Does Disney have a strict plan with the free dining plan so that I lose one table service for not attending or something? I don't plan on canceling any reservations without proper notice, but we all know things can happen! (I think I read on here there's a 800# for dining reservations and I will have my cell phone on hand)

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Sorry, I am kinda hijacking the thread, but whats this 40% off code people keep talking about? Can everyone use it, or is it one of those pin codes only certain people receive.

 

[tricia]

My bad. I should be clearer..... Since the Disney Visa members got the special offer, I interpret that as an offer to anyone. Is there someone out there who can't get a Disney Visa.... and hence the special offer. Disney Visa has no annual membership fee.... why not have it?

Cause they won't let us Canadians have it.

Thanks, Minnie&Nana. I will make advance dining plans and probably just pick my parks ahead of time (which I usually do before a trip anyway).

What happens if I were to break a table service reservation in that something comes up and I can't make my reservation? Does Disney have a strict plan with the free dining plan so that I lose one table service for not attending or something? I don't plan on canceling any reservations without proper notice, but we all know things can happen! (I think I read on here there's a 800# for dining reservations and I will have my cell phone on hand)

No punishment for not getting to an ADR. Just ties up a spot that another could have had,so I try to cancel if I know I will not make it. Different rules apply for dinner at the castle, and you have to prepay that i think.

Sorry, I am kinda hijacking the thread, but whats this 40% off code people keep talking about? Can everyone use it, or is it one of those pin codes only certain people receive.

One of those codes only certain people got.

 

[rt2dz]

I didn't find that analysis helpful at all. She didn't say what the make up the family was, what dates they were going or what resort they were staying at. You have to factor all of those things in to see if Free Dining for your family. Free Dining can be an incredible savings for some.

We are a family of 6 and we always get two connecting rooms at a value for 8 nights with the basic dinnig plan.

A 40% discount room code saves us about $637.00

The 4/3 deal would save us about $750.00

The free dining discount saves us about $1,600.00

A more accurate analysis would be that most familes that have two or more children and stay value or moderate can get more savings from the Free Dining plan. If you stay deluxe and have less than two children then free dining would not be as good a deal as the 4/3 or a 40% discount.

I'm a little late getting back to this, but I swore I read it was a family of 5 with 2 adults and 3 kids. In which case, I then made the logical assumption that since it was one room that it had to be a deluxe resort. But that wasn't my point in saying that it can be eye-opening...

My point was that there wasn't much savings between free dining during *value* season than a few free nights during *regular* savings--keeping everything else exactly the same. I know that generally during free dining, once booking has shut down, room only discounts come out. A good discount on a room would save you much more than free dining during the same season in this case. AND, if you follow the link to the dining plan evaluation, you find out hwo the dining plan really can cost you more (if you are very light eaters or eat better than fast food).

Of course, it varies from traveling party to traveling party. There are a lot of variables--resort type, eating style, ticket preferences, etc. The point is to look deeply at everything and not fall for the hype of the word "FREE", even if attached to something pricey. Bottom line, if it wasn't profitable, Disney wouldn't do it.

 

[auntie]

It stands to reason that if one is staying in a value resort..the free dining is going to be a considerable savings. The more expensive the resort...the less of a value free dining is..considering of course you are now paying full rack rate for the resort. I have found that staying in a Deluxe resort..free dining, just isn't so free. As opposed to a decent room only discount. We have gotten those and then just added the dining plan..paying for it. A better fit for our family. Also we were lucky enough to secure the room only discount during a time when the free dining promotion wasn't in effect. This way avoiding any issues securing ADR's and were able to eat in any restaurants we wanted.

That being said..I particulary don't find the Dining Plan..free or not a terrific value now that they have cut out the appetizer and excluded the gratuity. Our last visit in October we used a room only AP discount..and used the AP discount for Tables in Wonderland card which gave us 20% off table service meals.
Just something else for those hoping to avoid the free dining time period, and wanting to stay Deluxe to consider as an alternative. Worked well for us.

 

[mamalle]

yeah its not for us either.. we are not the type of family to eat out 3 meals a day. we went over thanksgiving and enjoyed doing what we wanted it too and not having to be somewhere at a certain time. we only had one adr for thanksgiving/ds bday dinner.. we enjoyed our fruit/ muffin/OJ/coffee breakfast in our room every am. Most of our trips we have fla resident discounts for our rooms so that isnt a issue. Im not a fan of summer/sept trips to disney either which seems to be a popular time. its great disney can appeal to everyone by providing such deals throughout the year. Im sure they will only continue as our economy struggles..

 

[n2mm]

I guess I have to join the club. We got the free dining pin this winter and decided to book 2 rooms at Pop for the group. Well now no one is interested in doing the free dining. We are DVC members and we also have a 2 bedroom at the BCV reserved which I had not cancelled after booking the free dining at Pop. Now that I spoke up that I'm having reservations about all staying at Pop, it seems everyone felt the same way. They are all willing to give up the FD and eat sandwiches at the BCV instead. Go figure! I guess the stress will be lifted as we will only need a few ADRs for that week. I thought it might bother me that we are the only ones paying for our food the week of August 16th, but I guess I'm not alone. I guess when we got the pin, we didn't think the public would get the same dates. Now that it's open to all, we just don't want to be a Pop that week. We like Pop, but fear being there during FD. I guess we are a crazy family. My 15 yo grandson said I spoiled him by staying at BCV and BWV so often.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

The dining plan doesn't work for us so we've never used it. We don't do TS every day.

So we didn't do free dining last year even though we were there during free dining - we kept our 40% off deluxe room discount.

We aren't interested in free dining this year either - we can't go during the times it's offered this year.

 

[disneyfan55]

Free dining to me is great but only in a Value. I think the free $500 gift card we are getting per room next week is a better deal for us. We are paying rack rate, but have the Tables in Wonderland card and are staying at a value where you receive the 20% off as well and between the free card and Tables in Wonderland and being able to split appitizers and desserts, I think we'll make out better. We were lucky to be able to get all the reservations we wanted on such short notice (we booked 2 weeks ago)!! I think we will do better or just a good with this deal plus get exactly what we want as far as food. We booked the Hoop dee do as well as narcroisses. These are 2 places we never did with free dining due to these taking 2 TS and us really not feeling they are worth it. We are getting the 20% off on both!

 

[Texasmomof3]

I find this thread so interesting. We are booked to go in June no FD but a great room rate discount at POR. We are thinking of going back in Sept. for my 3 year olds birthday during FD. We can get another great discount on the hotel or pay rack rate and get FD. Reading this thread keeps me going back and forth. We have done DW and DL so many times and never tried the DD plan, we can't combine it with the discount we get and it's usually better. So do we or don't we....

 

[Genieklone]

Nope, OP you are not alone

1. It's not FREE! You pay rack rate for the room. Since IMHO the rooms at Disney are VERY overpriced FREE means "we marked up something else to give you the deal"

2. It's not good to overpay for a room that will include more food then I need or want. That's just wasteful. (And I don't buy the "you don't have to eat it all" Folks on here will force themselves to eat it because "it's free" or "we paid for it " LOL!)

3. It's Disney Dining. With some exceptions it's not that outstanding. I live in a major city and can eat better!

I admit I just dropped into this board this morning to watch the frenzy!

this is true. it says money, but not as much as what they state. you pay rack AND abnormal prices for tickets that you can get cheaper on the net. What is a bonus is that it gives you the opportunity to eat at nicer restaurants that what you would have done if it weren't free. I am getting the MYW package with one ticket and buying the other ones at the FL discount. This will save me about 125.00 or more depending on how many days we decide to go.

 

[floridascgirl]

We just received a pin code for free dining that fits our travel dates in December...we will be staying at AKL. I was thrilled, but my DH said never again! We were on the dining plan in 2005 and he hated it. I'm happy whenever I'm saving a penny, but to him it wasn't worth it. Even though we always make ADR's, he didn't like the feeling of having to stick to a resrv. or we would lose our credits. Our DS actually got sick on Mission Space and we had to go back to the room and I was like "but we have to eat out counter lunch!!!" He felt stressed having to keep a tally of credits for the day and making sure they all got used so we wouldn't lose them. He also felt very wasteful b/c we don't eat desserts...sometimes we forced them down b/c we felt guilty. Get the picture? Anyway, the pin code deal we got for the "free" dining wasn't exactly free. After doing the math, I realized that we were paying a much higher room rate with the package than before, and we would still have to upgrade our tickets to Park Hoppers. We also had to factor in the cancellation policy that accompanies a package...definitely not as flexible. Our total savings was not enough to convince the hubby to do it again. What we would really love is a pin for a Park Hopper upgrade!

 

[mitcham]

I personally don't understand the big excitement of "free" dining.

I don't go to Disney World to eat!! I am not going to plan my entire vacation around having to eat at a certain time, every day, three times a day. What a drag having to constantly check your watch, and feeling like you have to eat even when you're not hungry! I don't want to waste my time in the parks waiting for a table (even with ressies we have had to wait up to an hour at some places) then waiting to be served, eat, pay, etc. I would rather grab a hotdog or a pretzel and go do something fun!