Crowds / Free Dining

[recmouse]

Disney is a business... I get it... but all we ever hear on these boards are how crowded the parks are becoming and how there really aren't any 'slow' times anymore... and they keep building resorts. So why offer the free dining if people are coming anyway? One article I read said they think it's to draw people to the parks in the summer months since it will be so busy in the fall with all the new things opening.

I guess I'm just confused and venting...

 

[Klayfish]

None of us know for sure, only WDW leadership knows. My guess would be that even though WDW doesn't have "slow" times, which is great IMO, they still want to draw people in. And yes, maybe they want a bigger summer crowd because they're expecting it to be low. Summer has recently been "slower" than other times of the year. Besides, if people save money on food, maybe they're more likely to spend it on souvenirs and experiences.

 

[wdw&sonny]

Like any business, Disney offers many promotions. Free dining, discounted rooms, special packages etc. Each draws differently. Some wait for free dining. Some only book when rooms are discounted. They tweak offers to keep capacity high. They make money on all the discounted offers. If they didn't offer any discounts, they would see a decline in resort capacity. They certainly play with (carefully analyze) these situations year by year, depending on fluctuating economy, demand for new attractions, new resorts, weather etc.

 

[skippytx]

Klayfish covered most of what I would say about it. I was sorta surprised they offered it last year, and really surprised they offered it again this year. It does seem clear with the date changes they're trying to redirect some of the crowds to the summer months that have been less busy than years past.

 

[SaintsManiac]

Disney will always release promos. It doesn't matter how crowded the parks are. There are discounts year round.

 

[Remy is Up]

Take a look at room rates with the free dining and then compare them to getting a code or using an Ap disount on a room and not getting free dining. Someone on here did that analysis once and posted it. Pretty eye opening.

 

[recmouse]

Take a look at room rates with the free dining and then compare them to getting a code or using an Ap disount on a room and not getting free dining. Someone on here did that analysis once and posted it. Pretty eye opening.

I'm a DVC member so free dining never applies to me.

 

[Remy is Up]

I understand and Ive never used it either as an AP holder. My TIW discount and AP discounts on restaurants is much better of a deal for me after using the AP room rates or codes on rooms.

 

[recmouse]

I understand and Ive never used it either as an AP holder. My TIW discount and AP discounts on restaurants is much better of a deal for me after using the AP room rates or codes on rooms.

I'm a big fan of my TIW card!

 

[Remy is Up]

I use TIW on almost every trip at least once or twice. So far since I renewed it last May it has been used enough to pay for itself 4 or 5 times over. The perks of TIW is one of the best values if you are going to be eating on property a lot, especially at top level restaurants.

 

[disneycat321]

OP, same things I'm thinking about. Our trip is in July. We're pretty good at dealing with crowds because of our DLR experience, but I'm a little concerned about the draw of free dining bringing bigger crowds. We're using a room discount, but that's always there for the summer. I just assumed this is because of GE opening in the fall, and maybe even because of DLR's version opening in the summer. Maybe trying to pull people from DLR to WDW?

 

[mom2rtk]

Packing the parks has turned out to be an effective way of maintaining 24%+ margins in the parks. It's hard to continue this year after year. With SWL opening later in the year, they needed to pull out all the stops to keep the parks packed earlier in the year. Free Dining has always worked to pack the parks.

 

[hakepb]

I'm a DVC member so free dining never applies to me.

DVC members can buy the same “free dining” package with cash reservations, just like everyone else.

Checking prices, it would be $506/night (after subtracting ticket cost) for a BWI standard view room with “free” dining plan.

But I could book a BWV preferred studio this summer with my points at ~19 points/night.
When my 2019 dues + my point cost is only $160/night for the BWV studio room. I could buy the dining plan for 4-5 Disney adults in my DVC room and be spending basically the same total as the “free dining” offer. I guess it’s not too bad of a deal if I wanted to save points.
Basically this extra-special free dining package is my everyday price as a DVC member.

 

[serene56]

People see FREE dining and think they are getting FREE dining. Not paying attention to the rack rate deal they have to pay or that they are paying 64.00 pp for hoppers they might not even use. Our family of 4 (3 adults 1 child) free dining at pop was 2600 with 2 day park hoppers. or I could have a room discount of 938. there was nothing free about that deal at all.
when people come on and say they saved over 700 with free dining I have to wonder how.

 

[recmouse]

DVC members can buy the same “free dining” package with cash reservations, just like everyone else.

Checking prices, it would be $506/night (after subtracting ticket cost) for a BWI standard view room with “free” dining plan.

But I could book a BWV preferred studio this summer with my points at ~19 points/night.
When my 2019 dues + my point cost is only $160/night for the BWV studio room. I could buy the dining plan for 4-5 Disney adults in my DVC room and be spending basically the same total as the “free dining” offer. I guess it’s not too bad of a deal if I wanted to save points.
Basically this extra-special free dining package is my everyday price as a DVC member.

I'm not complaining I can't get free dining - sorry if it came off that way. As you said, I can pay cash if I want. I bought the TIW card in December and it has already paid for itself. I already have trips planned for April, September and December and am an AP holder. (Yes - I'm blessed!)

 

[OhThePain]

I'm thinking that with everything opening between this fall through 2021 or so, bookings for this summer have been well short of the usual by now. Discounts for the summer don't usually come out this early in the year (according to the historical chart on Mousesavers). We are going in August and wasn't expecting any deals to come out before mid-April. My guess is not many people are willing to go just before everything starts to open and would rather hold off a few months.

 

[marcyleecorgan]

Probably because "Free Dining" is a long-standing Disney promotion and they know customers watch and wait for that promo, year after year. And as pointed out by many, it's not actually Free Dining, it's Offset Your Costs In Other Ways - the rack rate is higher, they change the terms of the Dining Plan, etc.

 

[mamamelody2]

Well, I guess they don't like the occupancy level as is, so they want to boost it for those dates. Because they are a business, they don't want ANY truly slow times, and free dining boosts their numbers for the slowest times of the year.

 

[Disneylover99]

People see FREE dining and think they are getting FREE dining. Not paying attention to the rack rate deal they have to pay or that they are paying 64.00 pp for hoppers they might not even use. Our family of 4 (3 adults 1 child) free dining at pop was 2600 with 2 day park hoppers. or I could have a room discount of 938. there was nothing free about that deal at all.
when people come on and say they saved over 700 with free dining I have to wonder how.

Well, if you need the tickets anyways and you like to park hop or you plan to upgrade your tickets to an AP, FD is the best deal for a family of four at Pop. If you book a standard room, you’re not going to get more of a discount then about $30 per night, if you decide to go for a room discount.

 

[FCDub]

It's important to realize that visitors and Disney see crowded as two different things. It can NEVER be too crowded for Disney, as that means they are pocketing more cash than ever. So even if there are no "slow" times in the eyes of guests, Disney's goal is to create holiday-level crowds the entire year. That's why they do this stuff to get people into the parks. Sure, people are coming, but they want EVEN MORE people coming.