Free Dining??? I don't think so!

[2SillyBirds]

There is no such thing as free dining, in fact you pay more when they have the promotion. Let me explain.

I booked a 10 day trip in October, this past March. When I made the reservation, I added on the basic dining. Yesterday, I found out that Disney was extending the free dining promotion. The only problem was that the free dining promotion started the sixth day of our trip.

When I called reservations to see what I could do, she said that I would have to break my original reservation into two seperate reservations and pay for the dining plan for the first 5 days and then the second reservation would have the free dining. So here I am thinking that I am surely saving money but when I got home tonite and looked up the cost of my original reservation - where I paid for the dining plan for 10 days - was actually cheaper than the two new reservations in which I was supposed to have free dining for the final five days of the trip.

Obviously, they are making up for the free dining by charging more for the rooms. I think I will contact them tomorrow and tell them that I want my original reservation back and they can keep the "free dining".

 

[sissy_42]

There is no such thing as free dining, in fact you pay more when they have the promotion. Let me explain.

I booked a 10 day trip in October, this past March. When I made the reservation, I added on the basic dining. Yesterday, I found out that Disney was extending the free dining promotion. The only problem was that the free dining promotion started the sixth day of our trip.

When I called reservations to see what I could do, she said that I would have to break my original reservation into two seperate reservations and pay for the dining plan for the first 5 days and then the second reservation would have the free dining. So here I am thinking that I am surely saving money but when I got home tonite and looked up the cost of my original reservation - where I paid for the dining plan for 10 days - was actually cheaper than the two new reservations in which I was supposed to have free dining for the final five days of the trip.

Obviously, they are making up for the free dining by charging more for the rooms. I think I will contact them tomorrow and tell them that I want my original reservation back and they can keep the "free dining".

Did you have a room discount? If so you lost it on the part with the free dining. Depending on where you are staying and how many people you have free dining can be better, but not often.

 

[StacyMarie]

When I added FD to my existing reservation, it did not make my balance go up at all. I was not charged extra for my package.

 

[sissy_42]

When I added FD to my existing reservation, it did not make my balance go up at all. I was not charged extra for my package.

Did you have a room only discount?

 

[d1gitman]

free dining isn't a guarantee of a the cheapest way to do a WDW vaca. lots of factors come into play. one of the things you have to realize is that there are different seasons for resort rates at WDW. Those are set on a calendar. Where YOUR trip falls on those dates is entirely up to you, not WDW. Unfortunately, it sounds like your dates landed in no man's land with the promo. if you were to compare the same length trip starting during the free ddp, you might see that it is a savings. if you have a room discount, then you actually could be saving more than free ddp, depending on resort level, resort season, number of guests, etc...

the one thing i hope is that you didn't lose out on whatever pricing you had on your original booking, that would be a bummer. i am surprised that the CM didn't run all the new figures first and inform you of the costs before cancelling a reservation and making the new one. everytime we have ever called to run multiple scenarios, the CM was very specific to NOT cancel anything until we had all the info and understood what the changes were that we were making.

what seems odd is that from your description, the CM had you book two seperate trips. i undertand why, if you want ddp, it has to be for the number of night on your ressie. since free ddp landed in the middle of your ressie you had to book it as two trips, one with ddp you pay for and one with free ddp. you also are required to have tix with that ressie, so if i have it right, you bought two sets of park tix - one for each booked trip - which would certainly add to the cost.

 

[Lou Holtz]

You only get free dining if you pay rack rate for the room.

 

[disneyfav4ever]

Free dining is not free, it is just a discount on a package, but free sounds better. It works out to be a pretty good deal for people that stay at the value resorts, but otherwise it's really not that great of a deal.

 

[serene56]

We are staying at pop- when we added free dining to our package we were charged 10.00 pp per day to upgrade the QS to regular dining.
Our rate didnt change at all.
I wonder too, if you had a room discount

 

[Jennasis]

There is no such thing as free dining, in fact you pay more when they have the promotion. Let me explain.

I booked a 10 day trip in October, this past March. When I made the reservation, I added on the basic dining. Yesterday, I found out that Disney was extending the free dining promotion. The only problem was that the free dining promotion started the sixth day of our trip.

When I called reservations to see what I could do, she said that I would have to break my original reservation into two seperate reservations and pay for the dining plan for the first 5 days and then the second reservation would have the free dining. So here I am thinking that I am surely saving money but when I got home tonite and looked up the cost of my original reservation - where I paid for the dining plan for 10 days - was actually cheaper than the two new reservations in which I was supposed to have free dining for the final five days of the trip.

Obviously, they are making up for the free dining by charging more for the rooms. I think I will contact them tomorrow and tell them that I want my original reservation back and they can keep the "free dining".

The FACT is that my original booking (paying OOP) for the dining plan was $1542. My booking with free dining is $1214.

Sorry the deal isn't working out for you.

 

[noahdove]

Late winter 2009 I received a room discount code and made my ressies for that. However, later on, when free dining came along, I emailed my AAA agent and asked her what the better deal was...free dining So, I took the free dining and was happy as a clam...I hope you can work things out with WDW...

 

[grandmadebby]

It probably went up because to get free dining you had to purchase a 5 day ticket so now you have your original 10 day ticket plus a new 5 day ticket. Anyway I think that is what happened because you have to buy room and ticket to get the free dining.

 

[EddieMccoy2]

I think it worked out to not be cheaper for you because of the tickets. You probably have two different set of tickets, because free dining requires every person to have at least a 2 day base ticket in the package. Two reservations probably meant 2 sets of tickets and there is a big difference in cost for two 5-Day tickets versus one-10 day ticket. My guess is this why it cost you more.

I'm an Annual passholdrr an booked a bounce back offer in the fall and this week added 1 extra day to the stay and was able to save just over $100 by doing that on my current bounce back offer.

Just my 2 cents on the price difference.

 

[eagillinois]

For us, we had booked with 30% PIN code at POFQ for 6 nights, when Free Dining was released, I called and it was $70 cheaper to use the free dining code so we switched the reservation.

 

[lizandjason]

The FACT is that my original booking (paying OOP) for the dining plan was $1542. My booking with free dining is $1214.

Sorry the deal isn't working out for you.

Our savings are about $300, too.

You can't book outside of FD dates and then expect to get the full FD deal!

 

[francie57]

As others have said, it depends on the classification of resort and the number in your party. For us the room discount is a better deal since we stay at the BWVs in a 2 bedroom. Rack rate is basically $650/day so a discount is much better. You probably had a room discount of some type.

 

[DVCajun]

As others have stated, nothing is "free," including "free dining."

"Free" dining is only offered when rack rate accommodations are being paid. If you pay that rate, you're paying for dining and more.

I'd recommend doing some homework and finding the best deal on your accommodations. If you *then* find that you have a better deal booking through Disney and getting "free" dining, then congrats to you. It's a miracle.

 

[DisneyFirefly]

Free dining is working out well for me on my next trip. I was paying rack rate anyway (no pin, no codes, no discount of any kind) until free dining was announced. I'm saving $160. It doesn't work for everyone, which is why crunching the numbers is always best.

 

[vicki_c]

I agree it's most likely about the tickets and the discounted room rate the OP probably already had.

If you previously had (as an example) a 10 day stay with a 10 day ticket and the dining plan - for one adult, it would be:

$41.99/night x 10 nights = $420 DDP
10 day base ticket = $258.80
Let's say a 10 night stay in a moderate = $149 weeknights (assume 8) and $159 weekends (assume 2) = $1510
with a 30% discount that would be around $1057
So total in that example is $1736
(and that is for just one person)

Free dining with your stay now split - let's say 5 days with and 5 days w/o free dining:
$41.99/night x 5 nights = $240
5 day base ticket = $243 (see this costs almost as much as the 10 day ticket)
5 full price nights @ that mod - weeknights = $745

PLUS
Free dining
5 day base ticket = $243
5 full price nights @ that mod - weeknights & weekends = $767

All totaled this free dining example comes to $2238. So this example costs you more than $500 more to get free dining. Now there are smarter ways to do it - don't get two 5 day tickets, but an 8 day and a 2 day - that will help to some extent.

Free dining is just a discount packaged a different way. For some people it works better to have that than a room discount, for others the room discount is a better deal. You HAVE to figure out what works best for your family.

They didn't raise the room price to give you free dining, they removed the discount because free dining is the discount in this case and you can't have both.

 

[StacyMarie]

Did you have a room only discount?

No, no room only discount. I booked a regular priced 9 night stay at the Poly with 8-day park hopper ticket. When I added the FD, there was no an increase in my amount due at all.

 

[vicki_c]

No, no room only discount. I booked a regular priced 9 night stay at the Poly with 8-day park hopper ticket. When I added the FD, there was no an increase in my amount due at all.

That is correct - if you are already paying rack rates, you are getting the DDP for free based on your previous price - you didn't have any discount to lose. That doesn't mean it's the best deal out there for you, though. Especially @ the Poly, a room discount is usually a better deal than free DDP, if one is available.