Disney is forcing me to stay offsite

[Eno]

We are planning a trip to Disney the end of August and are considering purchasing 8 day tickets with the Canadian deal that is on till Feb 28th.
Will be purchasing 3 tickets - husband, myself and daughter(25 and back in school).
I would love to stay onsite if there is going to be free dining.
Original plan, wait till April/May and see if a free dining comes up, if not stay offsite.
Now with this deal, I feel like I am forced to stay offsite.
If it don't get the tickets now and there is no free dining, I won't be happy.
If I do buy the tickets now and there is free dining, I won't be happy.
I guess I gotta ask myself one question, do I feel lucky?

We went to Disney for many years and then the past 10 did other trips.
Last year had free dining and that was going to be our last final return trip to Disney.
One third option that I am considering, buy the tickets and if free dining comes out, lock them in
the safe for a future trip. Ties up money and forces us to return.
Just when I thought I was out.... they pull me back in.

If I buy the tickets through Disney I believe that they would be tied to our names, so If daughter doesn't go back to Disney we can't reuse her ticket ourselves at yet another time. If I buy the tickets through CAA I think I read they aren't tied to names, that would be better.
I have spreadsheets with prices, options and going crazy.
Why you do dis to me Disney?

 

[ottawamom]

If you DD doesn't go back to Disney with you, you will be able to re-assign her ticket. Yes the tickets may be attached to names in your MDE but they can be re-assigned until they are used once.

The free dining may not be that great a deal when you compare it to paying Rack rate for the room and full price for the tickets. Your spreadsheet will certainly tell you what's up with that though.

 

[AngelDisney]

I got a special room only deal on Beach Club for late August and 25% off tickets which actually came out cheaper than having free dining. Since we are a party of two, free dining is not much of a great deal actually. We did it once and upgraded it to deluxe dining. There was too much food and we were limited to places that accepted dining plan. We would rather have good room discounts and pay our meals out of pocket. We like the flexibility to skip a meal or enjoy some lounge food.

Calculate your numbers for all your options and compare. For me, free dining this August would not give me the best value.

BTW: If the tickets are not used, you can always reassign them to someone else.

 

[Eno]

Good to know that the tickets can be reassigned, that somewhat simplifies things for me.
The tipping point for dining was the fact that our last two days, Aug 31 and Sept 1st will be the Epcot food and wine start - always wanted to go for that.
I always felt that snack credits were a bit of a waste, yes bought dole whips but ended up getting snacks to bring home.
Using the snack credits for two days at Epcot would save us a bunch, could snack all we wanted for 2 days and save the 2 table services to splurge on Cali grill and Yachtsmen steakhouse.
Guess when I look at it -
The Good - at least I will get a deal on the tickets
The Bad - I could miss out on free dining
The Ugly - me if I pick wrong
Think I will get the tickets and stop worrying until April/May.

 

[isabellea]

You could also do a split stay with offsite and onsite with dining plan at the end of your trip for F&W. With room-only discount + the 25% off tickets you book a ticketless package with the dining plan and you might save money if compared to free dining. Free dining is never 100% free since you don't have a discount on your hotel room!!

 

[Donald - my hero]

With the most recent Stay Play and Dine offer (or whatever it was called) Our kids were able to get the package put together at a resort that was EXCLUDED from the offer because the CM i dealt with used the ticket discount coupled with the RO discount at that resort. It came out cheaper than the same level resort that was included.

They stayed at POP for less than the offer at Music and ended up with the FULL dining plan not the QS option. Just an example of how you can use this discount with a RO discount and come out ahead of "free dining"

 

[Eno]

These boards are so helpful, years ago I was always on it giving advice at times, so much has changed and so many discount options (some good some not so much).
Right now we are staying offsite at a hotel that offers a really nice free breakfast (I did factor in the 20 it is going to cost per day for Disney park parking).
When we stayed at Disney was always at a moderate, so for 3 adults, free dining worked out.
Fourteen years ago we did stay at Wilderness Lodge when the Cdn dollar was worse than it is now and they had a Cdn at par deal that calculated a better discount than it should have.
For now, will plan for offsite but get ready if there is a free dining offer - see now that you can book dining 180 days out (that's crazy).... more planning and spreadsheets.

 

[Donald - my hero]

There are a few of us who are obsessed with Disney Math and the planning of hypothetical trips so if you want to put out some details of your trip you might get some solid suggestions
# of people going
when & how long
how many park days
how many meals -- both sit down and counter service
"wish l" resort, "preferred " resort and "i would rather not" resort

 

[jsebsirois]

Sorry to bump in, but I thought you could use the tickets for the Free Dining promotion... Am I wrong?

 

[AngelDisney]

Sorry to bump in, but I thought you could use the tickets for the Free Dining promotion... Am I wrong?

For free dining, you must book a non-discounted vacation package with room and a minimum of 2-day ticket. Or if you have discounted room and/or discounted tickets, you can pay to add dining plan to your existing booking.

 

[hdrolfe]

I'm in somewhat the same boat. I am going to buy the tickets and hope for a room discount. This will be our first full Disney trip, we usually add on a day or two to a cruise. I'm not even sure where we want to stay! I should go with a value, but oh I'd love to stay deluxe. We are looking at end of August as well. For me, I could lock up the tickets for a year but because kiddo is now 7 I have limited time to use his child ticket before he gets too old... What to do...

 

[AngelDisney]

I'm in somewhat the same boat. I am going to buy the tickets and hope for a room discount. This will be our first full Disney trip, we usually add on a day or two to a cruise. I'm not even sure where we want to stay! I should go with a value, but oh I'd love to stay deluxe. We are looking at end of August as well. For me, I could lock up the tickets for a year but because kiddo is now 7 I have limited time to use his child ticket before he gets too old... What to do...

I wonder whether the child ticket can be upgraded to an adult ticket if it's unused.

I remember vaguely reading somewhere that a child AM ticket can be upgraded to an adult ticket.

 

[jsebsirois]

For free dining, you must book a non-discounted vacation package with room and a minimum of 2-day ticket. Or if you have discounted room and/or discounted tickets, you can pay to add dining plan to your existing booking.

Thanks for the quick answer!

Perhaps, we could simply add 2 days full price tickets if free dining is a better discount for us

Good luck to everyone else on planning your next disney trip!

 

[momof2gr8kids]

Would you be getting the PH or WP&M Option? If not, that's usually a requirement with the FD package, so that ups your cost right there. It's a $524 difference between the 8 day Canadian and the regular 8 day plus PH for 3 adults. Plus FD often doesn't have availability for the standard rooms, you end up booking a higher cost preferred or pool view to get the FD. In the end you're probably better with the Canadian tickets and paying OOP and a RO discount.

Someone else mentioned getting a deal at Beach Club for Aug. Most likely it's the agency that gives exclusive magical deals for disney resorts. We booked through them for our last trip as well and nothing that came out later was lower. Can't mention it on the Dis but google that to find them and get a quote.