Free Dining ads everywhere :-(

[lugnut33]

Which reminds me, I was wondering--has anyone who has been during free dining noticed whether there's a difference in crowd levels between resort table service restaurants and the parks table service restaurants?

Eat off-site if you think there will be problems. It's really not a big deal and there are tons of good places to eat within 10 minutes of WDW.

As for the crowds don't worry about it. I've been down there 2 times for free dining and the crowds were no different than any other time.

 

[Tara]

ITA! We were also one of the first on the "free dining train" and there were no deals on anything period.

I understand that recently some people have gotten PIN codes or mailings that offered a room discount AND free dining, but that isn't open to the public and it's a recent phenomenon, AFAIK.

 

[Cyndibear]

Don't worry about the crowds during free dining. We go every September during free dining. We enjoy that time of year because the crowds have been low. The dining places are full, and IMO, food quality is down, but the parks are great. Just relax and enjoy it. Just make sure if you are eating at WDW restaurants to make ADR's at your 90 day mark.

Cyndi

 

[disneynutz]

Not sure if this is encouraging or not but remember the reasoning behind all the ads and free dining.
Disney reported its' 2 quarter earnings and its not good. Park revenue was down 12% from the first quarter. Operating income was down a whopping 50%. While they have managed to bring people into the parks, folks are not spending. Free dining is not helping because now they are losing revenue from the restuarants.

Almost every other sector of their company has also had double digit losses.

I worry for the parks.

They still netted 1.5 billion dollars so far this year. As far as plans during "free" dining, don't dine. Eat QS or off-site, that's what we do.

 

[WolfpackFan]

Frankly, I've never understood the interest in Free Dining or for the Dining Plans for that matter. Do folks eat that much food while at home? Maybe it's just us, but we're perfectly happy eating the bulk of our meals at counter service restaurants or even eating in our room. In addition, quite often DW and myself share meals (us old people do that ). I would much rather have our great DVC accommodations rather than staying in an All Star and getting some free food that we don't need anyway.

PS - I found it humorous that on the first page of this thread the ad at the bottom was for Weight Watchers (which DW is on) .

 

[Corinne]

Maybe you'll be lucky and have a hurricane pass through during that week. It should keep the parks a bit quieter.

That's nice.

Anyway, I think the OP was just trying to say she was hoping it would be a quiet time to visit WDW, and now with the "Free" dining it may not be. We visit WDW every summer and yes,the offer has certainly changed the attendance for that time period. Before they offered the plan for "free" it was a very slow time. That said, it should still be a relatively quiet time, but if you are planning to eat at any TS establishments, it is imperative to make your ressies!!!!!! Good luck and Welcome Home!

 

[CarolMN]

It's going to be HOT and VERY HUMID when you visit. Most people (and especially kids) do not feel like eating big meals every day during that type of weather.

The 2 credit restaurants (signature) are alwasy easier to get than the 1 credit places. I think they have better food, too. Anyway, schedule a few TS meals at the signatures and either eat off site, in your villa or use QS for the rest.

FWIW, I think the free dining does not add much (if anything) to the crowds in the parks. It mostly entices people who were going to stay off site to stay on site. I bet the non-Disney area resorts really hate the free dining promotions, LOL.

Enjoy the trip.

 

[Eventer98]

I also have been during Free Dining twice before and never had a problem making ADRs in advance or having it be over crowded..if anything it's still less then when we travel in June/July. You will be fine

 

[goofy4tink]

Maybe you'll be lucky and have a hurricane pass through during that week. It should keep the parks a bit quieter.

Bite your tongue!!! That's when I'm going too...and I was there for Charley. It wasn't great. The parks filled up about 2 days after Charley came through. All the Orlando schools closed so as soon as the roads got cleared, the kids swarmed to the parks!!

It's really not all that bad during free dining. I was at POP last Sept for free dining. The parks weren't all that busy. The nicer restaurants were though. They seemed to be much more crowded than usual. I think that those who are planning on going to WDW get the free dining plan and then eat at the more expensive places. Those that weren't planning on going at that time of year, usually don't make a huge change to their plans in order to get free dining..yes, some do, but not all that many.

Disney offers it in order to fill up empty rooms. It's not a reward..it's a bait. They don't need to bait the hook in order to get DVCers there. We're already going. They already have our money!! Anything in a way of a perk they give us is going to be a reward. I have used the dining plan in the past, while staying on points. I don't do it anymore if I'm traveling with the family. If I'm on my own, then I may get the dining plan added to my reservation, but if it's more than me traveling, we don't use the dining plan..it's just too expensive. My dd pays the adult price but eats about $12 worth of food a day.
So...I have the TiW card, which I use most of the time...that works really well for me.

 

[rutgers1]

The only thing that upsets me is that I was really hoping for some empty parks in August due to the economy. Now this free dining thing is going to throw a wrench into that if they keep advertising so widely. This is the most they have ever advertised it.

However, thanks to DVC, we will be there 12 days, so we'll see what we need to see.

 

[mjlass11]

When was this? We took advantage of free dining the first year they offered it (2005) and there was absolutely no deal on rooms or admission - it was rack rate or nothing.

It was in 2006 I think. We had 4 nights in Pop, hopper pass and dining plan for $300 per person (2 a room) in September. I was offered at the end of July or beginning of August. I have not seen this since then.

 

[dr&momto2boys]

I'm sure others have said it too...
I think they're running sooo many ads because they're NOT booked up! It may not be as busy as you think. And remember, it's a good thing for them to be busy so the that they aren't in jeodardy of closing attractions or worse. And being busy means they will have the financial resources to keep creating attractions and improving the parks.

 

[lugnut33]

On WDWToday podcast they mentioned that the Free Dining is NOT really a big draw and Disney will probably have to add a different promotion to entice people to come. Said they have only sold 30% of the free dining rooms in the value and moderate category, 12% in deluxe, and only something like 4% of the DVC cash ressie rooms.

I think a lot of people blew their trip money during Spring.

That being said, DO NOT expect empty parks!! Empty parks will mean Disney will have to make even bigger cuts, which might mean parks closing at 7 or 8.

 

[jco_direwolf]

it's so annoying that the first day of our August trip is the first day of free dining, and it looks like every website I go to and every magazine or newspaper I pick up has an ad for free dining! Now it looks like the whole world is going to be there during what I hoped would be a relatively quiet time

Well if you listen to Len on WDWToday (I think it was last Weds, episode.) He said that EVEN with free dinning they have booked (and I'm doing this from memory) something like 50% of the value level, 30% of the Moderate, <10% of the Deluxe and ~3% of the DVC that they have available.

I was listening going into work on my iPod, and I was just floored. I even ran the podcast back to listen to it again. Remember this is a promotion, they aren't trying to book every room at every resort with this, they are trying to sell, what they believe is, excess inventory.

As others have pointed out, free dinning isn't really "free" since you have to book a package, with park tickets, and pay the rack rate for the room. The free dinning isn't cheap.

johno

 

[jco_direwolf]

On WDWToday podcast they mentioned that the Free Dining is NOT really a big draw and Disney will probably have to add a different promotion to entice people to come.

WOW two of us posting about quoting the same podcast.

johno

 

[gk90]

Anyway, I think the OP was just trying to say she was hoping it would be a quiet time to visit WDW, and now with the "Free" dining it may not be. We visit WDW every summer and yes,the offer has certainly changed the attendance for that time period. Before they offered the plan for "free" it was a very slow time. That said, it should still be a relatively quiet time, but if you are planning to eat at any TS establishments, it is imperative to make your ressies!!!!!! Good luck and Welcome Home!

Thanks, this is exactly what I was trying to say!

On WDWToday podcast they mentioned that the Free Dining is NOT really a big draw and Disney will probably have to add a different promotion to entice people to come. Said they have only sold 30% of the free dining rooms in the value and moderate category, 12% in deluxe, and only something like 4% of the DVC cash ressie rooms.


That being said, DO NOT expect empty parks!! Empty parks will mean Disney will have to make even bigger cuts, which might mean parks closing at 7 or 8.

I didn't know about those podcasts--they're fun listening. I wonder how sales for free dining have moved in the past, comparatively--it sounds like they expected more of them to have sold by now?

 

[PinkTink63]

I'm with you! We are in the same boat! We are checking in the day FD starts! One of the reasons we go at that time of year, because it is a little less crowded, but it probably won't be now! We've been there while FD is going on and it can be very crowded, especially the restaurants! We are definitely going to have to make some reservations 90 days in advance, as much as I hate to do that, because we don't really know what we want to eat 90 days out! I plan alot to get to WDW, but when we are there, we are more "go with the flow" kind of family!

I could care less about having the DP, it's the crowds I'm worried about!

It is what it is and we will make the best of it!

 

[mjlass11]

I understand that recently some people have gotten PIN codes or mailings that offered a room discount AND free dining, but that isn't open to the public and it's a recent phenomenon, AFAIK.

Whe I booked it, it was $39 or $49 a night at a discount resort, full price for the hopper pass and free dining. I'm sure I just booked it throught Disney's website and am almost positive that I didn't have a PIN. However, I do remember it being advertised in our newspaper, so maybe there was a code we needed. I also remember that we got a good deal on airfare (like $160 pp) so we basically had a 4 day all inclusive stay at Disney for <$500pp. I kept thinking what a great deal this was and wanted to do this again, but was never offered.

 

[Cee]

We're going Sept. 6-11 and staying at a THV so we will probably use the grill for most of our bigger meals.

 

[thelionqueen]

Whe I booked it, it was $39 or $49 a night at a discount resort, full price for the hopper pass and free dining. I'm sure I just booked it throught Disney's website and am almost positive that I didn't have a PIN. However, I do remember it being advertised in our newspaper, so maybe there was a code we needed. I also remember that we got a good deal on airfare (like $160 pp) so we basically had a 4 day all inclusive stay at Disney for <$500pp. I kept thinking what a great deal this was and wanted to do this again, but was never offered.

Since free dining was started, there have never been any room discounts included with the promotion. I was told from someone who works at CRO (then and now) it was not even possible to enter another code when the free dining code was entered. And you could not apply the free dining code to anything but rack rates (they automatically populated). The rates in 2006 for values (we stayed @ POP) was $79 per night for our trip, and the highest during the entire promotion was $89 per night (preferred room). They didn't have higher rates on weekends then, and we booked our trip while looking at many different dates (the rates were comparable for the entire promotion).

Not saying you didn't get a great deal, but I'm fairly certain the room rates were not lower than $79. The lowest rack rate I've ever seen @ POP was $59. Maybe with this promotion, since it's not as popular as previous years, they will add an additional discount, guess we'll just wait and see.