Annual/Season Passholders - Free Dining Woes!

[floracruise]

Anyone else out there who wants to commiserate?

Anyone who is a Seasonal or Annual Passholder and would LOVE to take advantage of the Free Dining, but is scared off by having to buy at least 2-Day Tickets to qualify? If the requirement was to buy a minimum of a 1-Day ticket, that would be do-able. 2-Days is a bit much. Makes me consider not renewing our Pass next year, so at last we could take advantage of free dining without having to buy tickets we don't need!

 

[CanadianGuy]

Anyone else out there who wants to commiserate?

Anyone who is a Seasonal or Annual Passholder and would LOVE to take advantage of the Free Dining, but is scared off by having to buy at least 2-Day Tickets to qualify? If the requirement was to buy a minimum of a 1-Day ticket, that would be do-able. 2-Days is a bit much. Makes me consider not renewing our Pass next year, so at last we could take advantage of free dining without having to buy tickets we don't need!

You do realize you can buy the 2 day tickets now for F/D and save them.. and apply them to the renewal of your AP next year? ?

 

[floracruise]

Thanks so much for your tip-
It's harder for me to commit to booking the Free Dining package when we have to buy the 2-Day tickets (for 4 people) even though we could apply that to next year's Annual Passes...the amount of committed money is larger, up front. It would be easier to make the decision if we only had to buy the 1-day tickets. (do you know if there is an expiration date for being able to apply the package tickets to pass renewal? Our Pass expires in January 2011 so I would hope to be able to apply the ticket value at that time, if we do go ahead & do it....a lot to consider)

 

[disneyfan55]

Thanks so much for your tip-
It's harder for me to commit to booking the Free Dining package when we have to buy the 2-Day tickets (for 4 people) even though we could apply that to next year's Annual Passes...the amount of committed money is larger, up front. It would be easier to make the decision if we only had to buy the 1-day tickets. (do you know if there is an expiration date for being able to apply the package tickets to pass renewal? Our Pass expires in January 2011 so I would hope to be able to apply the ticket value at that time, if we do go ahead & do it....a lot to consider)

Yes, and the way the offers are lately (greater number of days for tickets for an offer) you end up with unused tickets. We had 4 of the one day tickets and had thought about one of the offers in Feb but picked the 40% PIN off WL (AP discount was never avail for our dates/roomtype) We just used the tickets to upgrade to 3 aps and another 5 day pass. We would have ended up spending a few dollars more on one of the offers due to the tickets we wouldn't be using and just add to the collection! As offers come up and you keep buying tickets, they can collect. We found the TIW worked well for us!

 

[floracruise]

I guess that what we must decide is: Are we going to renew our Pass in January 2011? If so, then we could purchase the minimum number of tickets necessary to book Free Dining for September, and apply the tickets' value to our Pass Renewal in January 2011, unless for some reason the ticket value expires before then (Which I could check with a cast member on)

Does this make sense to you?

Alternately, we could use the tickets in 2011 if we let our Pass expire.

 

[DCbride]

DH and I were talking about this last night. I told him that I was thinking of waiting for an AP rate to come out to book, since we already have 5 one day passes to use for our upgrades (I know we can only use 1 at a time). At a moderate FD vs 40% off comes out about the same for our family.

It is just more fun saying we got FD

 

[CanadianGuy]

Thanks so much for your tip-
It's harder for me to commit to booking the Free Dining package when we have to buy the 2-Day tickets (for 4 people) even though we could apply that to next year's Annual Passes...the amount of committed money is larger, up front. It would be easier to make the decision if we only had to buy the 1-day tickets. (do you know if there is an expiration date for being able to apply the package tickets to pass renewal? Our Pass expires in January 2011 so I would hope to be able to apply the ticket value at that time, if we do go ahead & do it....a lot to consider)

I understand.. it's a hefty cash outlay no matter how you look at it.

Unused tickets never expire. So you could definitely hold them to January.. no problemo at all there.

Knox

 

[beautifultomorrow]

The tickets will never expire, as long as they are not used. If you decide not to renew your annual pass you can always upgrade the 2-day tickets to a longer multi-day pass instead.

This may sound confusing, but assuming Disney raises ticket prices in august (they always do) the 2-day tickets you purchase now could save you more on your annual pass renewal (or other ticket purchase) than what you paid for it. The trick is to use the 2-day pass for admission to a theme park and THEN apply it toward the renewal (must be within 14 days of first use). You'll get credit for the current price of a 2 day ticket at that time, regardless of what you paid for it. Does that make sense? Someone correct me if I'm wrong on that, but that's what we've always done in the past.

 

[TDC Nala]

I'm going at the beginning of September but I am not interested in free dining (I'm also DVC so wasn't eligible anyway). Personally I think the dining plan is too restrictive, free or not, so I don't get it anymore.

Yes, you could hold the tickets. A two-day ticket is more toward an AP renewal than a one-day ticket would be...

I can't blame Disney for wanting to sell more tickets instead of giving guests the option of booking a one-day ticket and then the rest of their tickets through a discount broker. That may be what's behind it more than the annual passholders. I'm sure Disney didn't have a problem with AP holders having to purchase an extra ticket.

 

[Letsbgoofy]

I can't blame Disney for wanting to sell more tickets instead of giving guests the option of booking a one-day ticket and then the rest of their tickets through a discount broker.

I don't really see how you could save money doing this. A one day ticket is so expensive compared to the $3/day more tickets for 4 days plus cost. Hmm, that made sense to me - did anyone else understand where I was going with that? The discount brokers may save you $20/tickets but that's not much compared to the $75 you have invested in a one day ticket.

 

[maggiew]

I'm kind of in the same boat, but with the GAD tickets. We have 2 GAD tickets that we can upgrade.

Free dining for the 2 of us: $1305 including 6 day base tickets. We would use the GAD vouchers for fast passes.

Free dining for the 2 of us: $1146 including 2 day base tickets + $324 to upgrade GAD tickets = $1470

The second way would cost more, but we would get 2 x 2 day base tickets for about $165 to use another time. I'm not sure if i should go this route or not!

Maggie

 

[lmountford]

I don't really see how you could save money doing this. A one day ticket is so expensive compared to the $3/day more tickets for 4 days plus cost. Hmm, that made sense to me - did anyone else understand where I was going with that? The discount brokers may save you $20/tickets but that's not much compared to the $75 you have invested in a one day ticket.

I agree with you. The way disney graduates the cost of multi-day tix makes a one day ticket really costly compared with say one tenth of a ten day ticket. I can't see any way people have been buying one day tix and then getting others from discounted sources, it wouldn't save them any money. The un-needed tix have simply been stockpiled for later use or possibly given to friends or family members?

 

[goofy4tink]

Disney isn't stupid. They used to put out free dining offers and people gobbled them up like crazy. Then, they made it so you had to book x number of days, then you could only get QS at the value but pay extra to upgrade to the regular ddp.
So...now, they say you have to book x number of days and buy a 2 day park pass. Not surprising at all. Disney gets us hooked on something and then once we're addicted (for lack of a better word..and it truly does fit!!) they start changing it up. It slowly becomes less of a terrific value to the guest while becoming more beneficial to Disney.

You just have to run numbers and compare. Otherwise, you'll end up paying for stuff you'll never need..which means, paying more. Compare apples to apples, not apples to oranges.

 

[ShellyShellfish]

I'm kind of in the same boat, but with the GAD tickets. We have 2 GAD tickets that we can upgrade.

Free dining for the 2 of us: $1305 including 6 day base tickets. We would use the GAD vouchers for fast passes.

Free dining for the 2 of us: $1146 including 2 day base tickets + $324 to upgrade GAD tickets = $1470

The second way would cost more, but we would get 2 x 2 day base tickets for about $165 to use another time. I'm not sure if i should go this route or not!

Maggie

We are in the exact same situation....we have GAD passes we wanted to upgrade to 10 day base tickets...but having to buy 2 x 2 day base tickets is kind of scary. I guess it just means we have to go back sooner than later.....right?

 

[CanadianGuy]

We are in the exact same situation....we have GAD passes we wanted to upgrade to 10 day base tickets...but having to buy 2 x 2 day base tickets is kind of scary. I guess it just means we have to go back sooner than later.....right?

And THAT right there.. is the genius AND evil of Disney marketing all in one simple paragraph.

 

[maroo]

We are in the exact same situation....we have GAD passes we wanted to upgrade to 10 day base tickets...but having to buy 2 x 2 day base tickets is kind of scary. I guess it just means we have to go back sooner than later.....right?

And THAT right there.. is the genius AND evil of Disney marketing all in one simple paragraph.

Precisely!

 

[maggiew]

I'm still hoping they might offer a % off room rate during this time too. That might be better than free dining if I have the GAD tickets?

Maggie

 

[eeyoresmom]

This may be confusing, but I have a question. We currently have AP's and are doing a split stay (5 nights DVC then 4 nights at Pop with FD) It has to be that way because our vacation starts Aug 12. We are bringing 2 friends but they already have GAD vouchers and will be buying PH's with that at the beginning of the vacation. That means I will have 6 2 day MYW tickets to use in the future. Are the 2 day tickets in each person's name and can I use them for other family members when I renew our DVC AP's? Does that make sense?

 

[lucas]

I'm still hoping they might offer a % off room rate during this time too. That might be better than free dining if I have the GAD tickets?

Maggie

I'm hoping for an annual pass discount or Florida resident discount on the room only for end of August.

 

[donaldtutter]

As an AP holder, I will not be booking the free dining package with the new requirement of two day tickets. We already have nine unused one day tickets from previous free dining promotions. Unless Disney changes their policy and allows more than one ticket to be placed toward an AP, I will not be paying almost $450 dollars for three 2 day tickets that we can someday put towards an AP.