Free dining 2015 - no return?....

[queendisney]

Had to reply to this,
No the values are not bad at all, but everyone has a preference! I would not do the all stars as I do think they are not very good! But I have rated at POP 3 times and AOA twice and I love them

When I 1st stayed onsite we picked pop I cried when I entered the lobby! It was magical to me, sparkly floors bright colours disney everywhere!!
Same with AOA its the most amazing resort and my boys are begging to go back,...

Now I have also done 3wk trips at SSR twice! AKL savannah view, and the Polynesian last trip, yet I'd still stay at AOA and love my trip!

The reason I stay at the others is for free ddp but if that stops then ill go back to AOA!

Hope that's helped

Yep this.

Everybody has their preference's.

TBH if there wasn't space at POR/FQ (our fav resort) then I would rather go to POP or AOA then to any of the delux resorts. Its all about what YOU want from your holiday. The food side of Disney doesn't really interest me at all, its nowhere near the top of my list of important factors. We will only ever book maybe one or two meals. As there are only two of us a large room is not important and we certainly would not be cooking our own meals while on hols. I am however with some of the others and wouldn't pay (well not much anyway) to stay at any of the All Star resorts but unlike Wayne I certainly wouldn't rather stay at home if I got it for free. I would also rather stay in the All Stars then stay off resort! I NEED to be on Disney in the middle of it all. I go to Orlando for Disney.

 

[LiquidSunshine]

I'll add in some personal experience

we were on the regular DDP last october/november. And even if we only had one QS credit per day, we ended up throwing food away.

Breakfast is the lowest value for your credits. Wether it be TS or QS, breakfast will only get you one entrée.
Lunch and Dinner will get you a dessert, and as Lee said, you can choose from many offerings (basically a dessert is anything that counts towards a snack credit)
This mean muffings (huge), brownies, cinamon rolls, (3 beignets at POFQ), fruit (a whole banana for example), carrot cakes, you even can find fruit salads or vegetables (to dip) in the refrigerators where the beverages are.

So, if you are able and willing to do it, never use a QS credit for breakfast (or maybe the first morning). Use one QS credit for lunch and one for dinner.
Inside the parks, you'll notice that there is not really a way to save your dessert for later. You'll get ice cream, chocolate mousse, and things like that. They don't keep.

But as soon as you're in a resort with a decent food court, you can ask to have your dessert inside a plastic box.
Most of the time you'll have enough with the entrée itself.

store the dessert in the room fridge. And next morning use your refillable mug and eat your leftover dessert.

when you do lunch or dinner at a resort, don't forget your QS credit entitles you to a beverage. Take a Fuze bottle for example, and keep it for later. Use your refillable mug to drink while you eat. That's one less bottle of juice/water/etc to buy for the parks.

also think about pizza.
a large pizza will cost 2 QS credit (meaning you get 2 bottles of beverages and 2 desserts along with your large pizza)
A large pizza + 2 desserts can feed 3 person, and you save one credit. We used that "trick" (2A+1C) and even had leftover pizza for the next day.

as I said, we only had 1 QS per day and 1 TS, but even then we couldn't keep up with eating the desserts, and despite the fact that we ate a lot of breakfasts at POR, we still ended up throwing away quite a few of those desserts as we kept on bringing fresher ones back to the room ...

but the main point here, if you want to maximize the value of your DP credits, don't use them for breakfast.

If you want to know how much food it is. Imagine that each day, you could need to eat 2 large burgers and fries (not just burgers but that's for the general idea), and you'll be left with 3 large cinamon rolls (2 from desserts and 1 from a snack credit)
that's more than most guests would be able to eat in a day.

This great chmurf! Thanks!

Yes, when I am planning were to eat and making any ADR's, I will definitely bare in mind about not using credits for breakfast.

 

[Hipster Meg]

Hmmm, just got this reply from an Ocean Florida travel agent in response to my enquiry about booking for next year

'I am just going to put a quote together for you to have a look at but just wanted to explain that they will not have FREE Disney Dining for 2015, they will have something instead but unfortunately have announced they will be stopping this service from January next year.

When the new offer is released you will be able to add this onto your booking at a later date.'

 

[chmurf]

but unfortunately have announced they will be stopping this service from January next year.

This statement brings questions

because we, in the UK, usually get the FD deals in the spring.
"stopping the service from January next year" is quite a strange way to put things.
I could understand this for US bookings, as their FD deals come out just a couple of months out, so stopping FD in january 2015 would make sense.

there is the word "have announced" ... well, if Disney had, officially I mean, and specifically with an official stopping date, so officially that TAs quote it to their customers, it would be all over the internet by now, and not just "rumors and questions".

now, there is also the word about adding the deal to an existing booking, which is typically heard about a room only booking through the US website that can be changed into a package when a deal comes around.

I am very skeptical about the reply you received. Even if I know that, someday, FD will be phased out. The stopping of FD seems a bit abrupt, especially from january 2015 when 2015 rates and bookings are already opened on the Disney UK site.

I'm more under the impression that this TA wants to secure a booking ASAP no matter what, and cover themselves by leaving the door open for a FD deal in case it's released.
So, in the end, I guess that they don't have a clue and just want to secure a deposit.

 

[married2mm]

Free dining IS coming, I have had it confirmed from a friend who works for a WDW travel company, so they are outright lying to you.

I'm a bit late to this thread-but this post seems to have got lost amongst others...
Is your friend in management?
I know someone who works for wdw tc,and they don't know anything?!

On a personal level-we've booked individual nights for wdw perks.
(Pop,asmovies,asmusic-no probs at all)

We've also stayed onsite in 2 bed villas at okw and ssr-with free dining.

We decided to return to okw-but as Wayne has pp,prices have increased way more than their actual worth.

We then booked por and pofq-and actually preferred qsdp.(we also had a townhouse for space and amenities-rather fun having 2 homes!)

However,this would not work for many and thankfully we're all different with different likes and dislikes.

 

[Hipster Meg]

I'm more under the impression that this TA wants to secure a booking ASAP no matter what, and cover themselves by leaving the door open for a FD deal in case it's released.
So, in the end, I guess that they don't have a clue and just want to secure a deposit.

To be honest, that was my first instinct as well. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping that she's proven wrong; if it turns out that she is then it's really put me off booking with the company as I don't like being misled.

 

[DLPDreams]

To be honest, that was my first instinct as well. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping that she's proven wrong; if it turns out that she is then it's really put me off booking with the company as I don't like being misled.

That's very interesting as it was the same company that said they are stopping free dining from 2015 onwards.

As I said in my original post at this beginning of this long thread, I had only wanted a fly drive price and to enquire about Thomsons flights and they wanted to give me a quote for a package. I explained I wasn't interested in a full price package and wanted to wait for offers to be released .

I can see free dining isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I think it could have worked well for us. We'll just have to sit tight.....

 

[chmurf]

I've just priced a stay through Expedia UK

based on 2014 rates for WBC
flight + accomodation at Bonnet Creek for 14 days (second half of october) with 14 days disney tickets (from ATD) is 950 euros cheaper than POR + tickets + potential FD upgraded to DDP

we have a TS shortlist and if we do them all, it will come down to $700 for meals ( 530 euros )

this means that we have 420 euros left (compared to what we would pay for POR under a FD without Room discount) to pay for the car rental (DW has 6 months to pass her driving license, lol) and the groceries for the cooking in the WBC room.

I think the maths is quite easily done.
And I may even set the score higher through vacationsupgrade (thanks Wayne), even though our arrival date will just fall short of their value season, and we'd be paying $180 per night instead of $120 (expedia is about $190 if you take the flight out of the accom+flight quote)

DW definitely needs to resume her driving lessons, and do it quick

 

[Cadbury]

Any news, about the free dining in 2015?
Or do we just have to wait until april/may..

...i hate waiting

 

[Hipster Meg]

I emailed Charter Travel over the weekend to see what their quote for our holiday would be and got this reply -

'On-site Disney accommodation is on sale for all dates in 2015, however this does not include any free dine offers that Disney traditionally run, we have been informed that these offers will not go on sale or be in the market place until late April or May of this year. booking now could mean overpaying by as much as £2000. the Disney tickets will come as part of the overall package costs.

You may find an odd company advertising online and quoting for free dining in 2015 but the prices they will give will be high and most likely will be the same as paying for Disney dining. if we quote now you will be paying more than you need to and may also miss out on the bonus extras Disney usually give on their first run of offers (free spending money, free preferred viewing for fireworks and parades, shopping discounts etc).

Our advice is to hold off booking for a while until the 2015 offers are on sale. we are one of the top Disney sellers in the UK and have a huge list of clients waiting for the Disney dining offers to be released.

I have saved your contact details to contact you as and when the offers are released and we usually know a few days in advance so we can get in touch as soon as we have the details.'

So this particular travel agent seemed fairly sure about the fact that not only would free dining return, it would be on offer from late April. The fact that I was given advice not to book at the moment as it would end up costing me more makes me think very favourably of a company that probably works on commission.

 

[joolz1910]

I emailed Charter Travel over the weekend to see what their quote for our holiday would be and got this reply -

'On-site Disney accommodation is on sale for all dates in 2015, however this does not include any free dine offers that Disney traditionally run, we have been informed that these offers will not go on sale or be in the market place until late April or May of this year. booking now could mean overpaying by as much as £2000. the Disney tickets will come as part of the overall package costs.

You may find an odd company advertising online and quoting for free dining in 2015 but the prices they will give will be high and most likely will be the same as paying for Disney dining. if we quote now you will be paying more than you need to and may also miss out on the bonus extras Disney usually give on their first run of offers (free spending money, free preferred viewing for fireworks and parades, shopping discounts etc).

Our advice is to hold off booking for a while until the 2015 offers are on sale. we are one of the top Disney sellers in the UK and have a huge list of clients waiting for the Disney dining offers to be released.

I have saved your contact details to contact you as and when the offers are released and we usually know a few days in advance so we can get in touch as soon as we have the details.'

So this particular travel agent seemed fairly sure about the fact that not only would free dining return, it would be on offer from late April. The fact that I was given advice not to book at the moment as it would end up costing me more makes me think very favourably of a company that probably works on commission.

Nice to see this sort of honesty.

 

[DLPDreams]

I emailed Charter Travel over the weekend to see what their quote for our holiday would be and got this reply -

'On-site Disney accommodation is on sale for all dates in 2015, however this does not include any free dine offers that Disney traditionally run, we have been informed that these offers will not go on sale or be in the market place until late April or May of this year. booking now could mean overpaying by as much as £2000. the Disney tickets will come as part of the overall package costs.

You may find an odd company advertising online and quoting for free dining in 2015 but the prices they will give will be high and most likely will be the same as paying for Disney dining. if we quote now you will be paying more than you need to and may also miss out on the bonus extras Disney usually give on their first run of offers (free spending money, free preferred viewing for fireworks and parades, shopping discounts etc).

Our advice is to hold off booking for a while until the 2015 offers are on sale. we are one of the top Disney sellers in the UK and have a huge list of clients waiting for the Disney dining offers to be released.

I have saved your contact details to contact you as and when the offers are released and we usually know a few days in advance so we can get in touch as soon as we have the details.'

So this particular travel agent seemed fairly sure about the fact that not only would free dining return, it would be on offer from late April. The fact that I was given advice not to book at the moment as it would end up costing me more makes me think very favourably of a company that probably works on commission.

I have read this exact email reply elsewhere too - perhaps on another board? It seems to be a standard reply, however, as stated it is nice to see. Unlike the agent (see beginning of this thread), who categorically told me there would be no free dining so I may as well book now - when all I was after was a flight price .

Fingers crossed!