Free Dining and Park tickets

[robfamily]

We have been to disney 3 times, but have never had a dining plan. We are hoping to go during antipicated free dining in Fall 2015. I have lots of questions, but my first is if free dining is offered for a 7day/6night stay do we have to have park tickets for the entire 7 days to get free dining? We need breaks and would probably only need 5 day tickets. Also if you have to have a 7 day park ticket, could we stay 8 nights and only get a 7 day park ticket, but still get free dining for the entire 9 days?

 

[msb578]

We have been to disney 3 times, but have never had a dining plan. We are hoping to go during antipicated free dining in Fall 2015. I have lots of questions, but my first is if free dining is offered for a 7day/6night stay do we have to have park tickets for the entire 7 days to get free dining? We need breaks and would probably only need 5 day tickets. Also if you have to have a 7 day park ticket, could we stay 8 nights and only get a 7 day park ticket, but still get free dining for the entire 9 days?

Unless things change, you are only required to buy 2-day tickets, and stay 3 nights, to be eligible for a Free Dining package.

You can stay for 3 nights, or 10+. Within that range, you can have 2-day tickets, or up to 10-day.

 

[robfamily]

I was looking at the current bounceback offer for free dining next year. For October 2015 it was for 7d/6n. I was assuming the public free dining would be the same, but maybe not. That is good to know that it hasn't been for that long in the past.
Regardless of the number of days, do I have to purchase park tickets for the same number of nights as the the free dining? If I stay 8 nights, but only purchase park tickets for 5 days will I still get free dining for all 9 days at the resort?

 

[HopperFan]

Tickets are independent of the number of nights. You have to buy a minimum of a 2 day ticket to get the package. You can add on as many days as you need, hopper or water park & fun but don't have to. You will be billed for the 2 day ticket immediately but you can even wait until you arrive to upgrade the ticket to what you really need.

Dining Plan is directly tied to your number of nights. If you book 5 nights you will get 5 days of Dining, 10 nights 10 days of Dining. If you are booking 8 nights then you will get 8 days of dining credits. You can begin using them as soon as you check in and they expire at midnight on the day you check out.

 

[msb578]

I was looking at the current bounceback offer for free dining next year. For October 2015 it was for 7d/6n. I was assuming the public free dining would be the same, but maybe not. That is good to know that it hasn't been for that long in the past. Regardless of the number of days, do I have to purchase park tickets for the same number of nights as the the free dining? If I stay 8 nights, but only purchase park tickets for 5 days will I still get free dining for all 9 days at the resort?

*Usually* the offer they quote is just an example. As long as you meet the minimum requirements, you should be able to book it.

Yes- you get free dining every night of your stay, even if your tickets are for a shorter length. Your 8/5 example would certainly work. It's a great way to enjoy all the restaurants outside the parks!

 

[robfamily]

Thank you for the helpful answers!

 

[MakiraMarlena]

Free dining offer for the past several years has been minimum 3 nights, maximum 14 nights (21 nights for UK residents), minimum of 2 day park tickets required as part of a package reservation. The only way it's changed since 2005 is that it used to be a 1 day ticket, and now it's 2. That's a 2 day minimum - you can book a 7 night stay with 2 day park tickets and still get the dining, so long as you book at least 2 day tickets.

If you see anything else (like 6 days 7 nights) that is just an example for advertising purposes. Although they never make that clear, so it confuses lots of folks into thinking you HAVE to book a stay of that length and you HAVE to have length of stay tickets. But remember the DDP is tied to your resort stay and not to your park tickets, so it makes no difference how many days your park tickets are for. You just need a minimum 2 days on your tickets to qualify for the promotion.