Free Dining Experts

[CarolinaMomOf3boys]

We are one of the ones who won the 'wold for $1" thing a while back and booked, without knowing, for the first week of free dining. I have run the numbers all sorts of ways ...what would I have to add/purchase to get free dining during our stay? I am beginning to think that since the room is free, just buy the park tickets and pay OOP for dining..

 

[LisaNJ25]

Since I I believe its a room only with them I dont think you can turn in into a package which is what you need for free dinning.

I would just pay oop.

 

[safetymom]

If you have room only you can't add dining. If you want free dining you need a package with at least a one day park ticket to add the dining.

Under normal circumstances you would book the package and make the deposit, they can't transfer the deposit from room only to a package.

 

[MichaelColey]

How many kids (assuming they're coming) do you have and how old are they? Which hotel do you have the $1 rooms at? If it's one of the nicer hotels, here's one option:

1) Keep and use the room at the nicer hotel.
2) Book a separate 7 day package at Pop Century (the cheapest value resort, since the tax rate is slightly less). This should cost you $82/night (if it's value season) + your tickets + tax.

That should be cheaper than paying for the tickets and dining plan separately (even if you could pay for the dining plan separately, which you can't). Depending on your dining style, it may or may not be cheaper than paying for food out of pocket.

Since you're going to buy tickets anyway and the $1 room is essentially free, the only variable is food, so there's just two things to look at:

1) Paying for food separately (which can really add up if you eat on site), or
2) Getting the free dining by paying for a package (in which case you are really just paying for the room since you would be buying tickets either way). The only additional expense is the $82 + tax / night room.

The only twist is that you can probably only book four people at Pop and from your name I think you might have five in your family. In that case, just book four of them in the package and do the youngest one separately (buying a pass and paying cash for his food).

Also, if one or more of the boys are considered adults, the room at Pop may be $10/night more (because you only get two adults in the room price) - it actually works out better because you'll get adult dining plans which are worth quite a bit more.

Make sure to verify the room rates for your nights to make sure it's the $82/night value season.

I've often thought that this would be a great deal for adults with discounted rooms in the more expensive resorts (where the room discount is worth more than free dining). Instead of paying ~$40/adult/night for the dining plan, they could book a second room with four adults at a value resort for $82/night + $20/night surcharge and essentially get their dining plans for $25-30/adult/night.

 

[dogodisney]

We are one of the ones who won the 'wold for $1" thing a while back and booked, without knowing, for the first week of free dining. I have run the numbers all sorts of ways ...what would I have to add/purchase to get free dining during our stay? I am beginning to think that since the room is free, just buy the park tickets and pay OOP for dining..

Since you didn't get the room from Disney, you cannot add anything to it. You cannot even pay to get the DP.

 

[dogodisney]

=MichaelColey;31592687]
Also, if one or more of the boys are considered adults, the room at Pop may be $10/night more (because you only get two adults in the room price) - it actually works out better because you'll get adult dining plans which are worth quite a bit more.

Unless ther child is 18 then there is not an extra fee for them. Although children 10 and over are considered adults as far as meals and tickets, they are not considered adults in the room.

 

[CarolinaMomOf3boys]

Michael, thanks for the breakdown, there are 5 of us, staying at port orleans, 3 adults, a 13 yr old and a 10 yr old. I am thinkng we should just pay for our meals OOP and do free dining next year, as we did it last year. We just got back from disney in April and I kept all receipts, there were 4 of us and we spent about $900 eating, that included breakfast at crystal palace and a dinner at Jiko and Cali grill, which we used the $200 gift card to cover jiko and some of cali grill.

 

[aka-mad4themouse]

The only twist is that you can probably only book four people at Pop and from your name I think you might have five in your family. In that case, just book four of them in the package and do the youngest one separately (buying a pass and paying cash for his food).
Also, if one or more of the boys are considered adults, the room at Pop may be $10/night more (because you only get two adults in the room price) - it actually works out better because you'll get adult dining plans which are worth quite a bit more.

You can't do that. First off you can't put 5 people in a room made for 4. In order to get the DP (even free) everyone in the party has to be on the plan.

Unless ther child is 18 then there is not an extra fee for them. Although children 10 and over are considered adults as far as meals and tickets, they are not considered adults in the room.You can't do that. First off you can't put 5 people in a room made for 4. In order to get the DP (even free) everyone in the party has to be on the plan.

Unless ther child is 18 then there is not an extra fee for them. Although children 10 and over are considered adults as far as meals and tickets, they are not considered adults in the room.

I believe that MichaelColey was advising that the OP reserve a package for 4 people at a value resort for the purpose of getting the free dining and tickets. I'm thinking that the intent would be to use that room soley for the purpose of obtaining the free dining while actually staying in the "World for $1" room at another resort. This could be less expensive than paying OOP for meals for 4 people if one were to spend $22 or more pp per day. The rack rate with tax for value rooms is $90 - $110 during value season.

One word of caution to the OP: If the room at the value resort appears to be unused, housekeeping could report it as empty and the room keys would be deactivated. Your free dining could go *POOF*.

 

[MichaelColey]

EXACTLY what I'm suggesting. I'm not saying to stay there, just to get the room (for two adults and the two older kids) as part of a package to get the free dining for those four. The room ($82) is actually considerably cheaper than the dining plan would be ($40/person, or $160).

Value pricing of $82/night is from 8/9/09 - 10/1/09 and free dining is 8/16/09 - 10/3/09, so I'm assuming you're there during the value pricing. If you're outside of 8/9/09 - 10/1/09, make sure to check the rates.

This would be a tremendous deal for you, especially since your kids now have to pay for adult meals. If you booked a package with 7 nights at Pop Century for two adults and two kids over 9, you would get 28 adult table service meals, 28 counter service meals, and 28 snacks. It would cost you $82/night + 12.5% tax, which should be about $645.75 (plus the cost of your tickets, which you'll be buying either way). Those 28 adult table service meals could be worth $1000, the counter service meals are easily worth $500, and the snacks can be worth $100.

If four of you spent $900 (presumably in a week) last year, five of you will spend more, plus you can eat at much nicer places. You'll have to pay cash for one person if all five of you get meals, but many places you should be able to share four (or even three) meals between five people.

If you do book the package, make sure to select standard rooms (no need for preferred ones, especially since you won't even be there) and opt out of the trip insurance.

Excellent point about the room being reported as empty - I would recommend leaving a big sign on the bed letting them know that you're staying elsewhere but that you still need the room and that you will check out on MM/DD/YY.

 

[dogodisney]

Michael I apologize. After I posted I realized what you were suggesting, so I went back and edited my post.

 

[Straitlover]

If you were to do that, please don't book at Pop. Pop always sells out for Free Dining, and I would hate for someone to not be able to book a room because someone else is tying a room up and leaving it unused just to get the Free Dining. Do one of the All Stars if you have to.

JMO, please don't get upset.

 

[Janet Hill]

One word of caution to the OP: If the room at the value resort appears to be unused, housekeeping could report it as empty and the room keys would be deactivated. Your free dining could go *POOF*.

I sort of did this one year during free dining. We booked the dining plan with 4 adults in a value room and stayed at Bonnet Creek. I never even saw what the room looked like. Keys were never deactivated. I think Disney was just happy that those keys were getting all charged up with incidentals.

 

[aka-mad4themouse]

I sort of did this one year during free dining. We booked the dining plan with 4 adults in a value room and stayed at Bonnet Creek. I never even saw what the room looked like. Keys were never deactivated. I think Disney was just happy that those keys were getting all charged up with incidentals.

Perhaps they don't care. But when free dining first came out, it was available at FW as well as the hotel resorts. There were people who booked campsites while staying offsite, just so that they could take advantage of free dining. A lot of real campers were unable to book at FW because of that. Now, Disney doesn't offer free dining for FW guests.

If people start booking value resort rooms for the same purpose, I think that we may see Disney take action on that as well. So, I wouldn't want to encourage the practice.

 

[MKCP5]

interesting