Free Dining in a Deluxe Villa?

[Chabby]

Hi guys:
My parents bought a vacation plan (not DVC) and the sales person told them they could exchange for Moderate Disney Resorts. Now that they got access to the trading webpage, it turned out they can trade for deluxe villas! We are beyond excited, of course

However, we were planning to go on low season, hoping for a low crowds and free dining. Is it possible to get FD in a Deluxe Villa if it's available?

It sounds to me like if you can afford to stay there you should be able to pay for your food

TIA!

 

[Mickey Fliers]

You have to reserve a package to receive free dining. A WDW Package includes resort room and tickets. If you already have a Villa, you won't book a package.

 

[Chabby]

You have to reserve a package to receive free dining. A WDW Package includes resort room and tickets. If you already have a Villa, you won't book a package.

Thank you, this is our first vacation plan ever, so we are very confused.

So, we would need to get the tickets also... hmm... The salesperson said that if we chose to stay in property we would get tickets and if FD was available they would get it for us. But it's not in writing, so I wanted to verify...

We need to factor in all of those costs.

Thanks again

 

[sissy_ib]

Thank you, this is our first vacation plan ever, so we are very confused.

So, we would need to get the tickets also... hmm... The salesperson said that if we chose to stay in property we would get tickets and if FD was available they would get it for us. But it's not in writing, so I wanted to verify...

We need to factor in all of those costs.

Thanks again

For free dining you need to be booked through Disney, pay full price for the room and buy a minimum of two day tickets for everyone in the room. DVC members are never entitled to free dining and exchanging in another timeshare would not be either. Just staying on Disney property does not give any access to the parks. What timeshare is this that they are telling you they are giving you free tickets and dining?

 

[chalee94]

However, we were planning to go on low season, hoping for a low crowds and free dining. Is it possible to get FD in a Deluxe Villa if it's available?

"free" dining is just a promotion that disney runs. i put "free" in quotation marks because you typically have to pay full rack rate to get "free" dining instead of taking a discount on the hotel room (and buy tickets to complete a package as already discussed). so it's a nice program for some, but you do have to give up something to get it.

so discounted stays (such as through DVC points or other timeshare trades) will not ever qualify for free dining.

if you want to pay full rack rate to disney directly for a deluxe villa during a free dining promotion, that is typically an option.

 

[Chabby]

What timeshare is this that they are telling you they are giving you free tickets and dining?

It was our local sales person, and the trade is through RCI. This is basically what my mom remembers he said (my mom is 69yo ):

If you stay in property, you get the tickets and if there is FD available, we can get it for you. If you stay off-property you can buy the tickets through us with a 60% discount.

I was able to verify the discounted tickets through RCI, but nothing else so far.

It's still a great deal, cheaper than paying OOP for a full price package and getting FD, we just need to be able to plan for everything we'll need

 

[Reddog1134]

The only time i've heard about people getting free tickets was for sitting through a time share presentation.

I've never heard of anyone offering tickets for that large of a discount (60%) either. The largest discounts I've seen are with Undercover Tourist which can be around 10% in some cases.

 

[sissy_ib]

The only time i've heard about people getting free tickets was for sitting through a time share presentation.

I've never heard of anyone offering tickets for that large of a discount (60%) either. The largest discounts I've seen are with Undercover Tourist which can be around 10% in some cases.

Even then isn't it usually only one or two days?

OP I would try to talk with that sales person if I were you. You don't want to go in to this thinking you have tickets only to find out once there you don't or the tickets are not what you thought they were.

 

[Chabby]

I've never heard of anyone offering tickets for that large of a discount (60%) either. The largest discounts I've seen are with Undercover Tourist which can be around 10% in some cases.

Maybe the discount is not that big, and it's just the way they present it that sounds like your getting a huge discount. KWIM?

If I wanted to get tickets for 8 days, I believe it was like $42 per day, as opposed to what you pay for 1 day. But I know that the more days you buy the cheaper they get...

 

[ghtx]

It was our local sales person, and the trade is through RCI. This is basically what my mom remembers he said (my mom is 69yo ):

Get back in touch with the salesperson and get the offer in writing. It sounds like someone along the way got some information wrong.

 

[Reddog1134]

Maybe the discount is not that big, and it's just the way they present it that sounds like your getting a huge discount. KWIM?

If I wanted to get tickets for 8 days, I believe it was like $42 per day, as opposed to what you pay for 1 day. But I know that the more days you buy the cheaper they get...

That sounds about right. 8 day tickets average out to be around $37-$47 per day depending on the options chosen.

 

[sissy_ib]

Maybe the discount is not that big, and it's just the way they present it that sounds like your getting a huge discount. KWIM?

If I wanted to get tickets for 8 days, I believe it was like $42 per day, as opposed to what you pay for 1 day. But I know that the more days you buy the cheaper they get...

Yes, the more days you buy on the ticket the cheaper it is per day. Please take a look at the WDW website. Maybe you are thinking of 7 day tickets? At 7 days an adult ticket is $41. 14 a day. This is the regular price. At 8 days they are $37.25 a day. That is with out park hoppers or water parks option.
http://tickets.disney.go.com/buy/TicketTrans

 

[jaysmom4285]

I'm not sure what you mean by a "local salesperson," unless it's the person who sold your parents the timeshare that they are exchanging. We own a local timeshare that we have exchanged through RCI to stay at Disney Villa properties (Boardwalk and Old Key West specifically). Never in any RCI representation was there a statement that tickets or a dining plan came with the exchange. We pay a fee for the exchange, and we are responsible for our own tickets and meals. As previous posters have said, you have to book the property through WDW and pay full rack rate for it in order to get free dining. There is no way to get free dining through an RCI exchange. RCI actually verified that they could get theme park tickets for a 60% discount? I'm not saying you weren't told that, but that's news to me, and we have gone through RCI several times. Something about this just doesn't sound right, as there are no authorized WDW ticket resellers that offer that big a discount.

 

[lanejudy]

Maybe the discount is not that big, and it's just the way they present it that sounds like your getting a huge discount. KWIM?

If I wanted to get tickets for 8 days, I believe it was like $42 per day, as opposed to what you pay for 1 day. But I know that the more days you buy the cheaper they get...

That's true of regular MYW multi-day tickets. The more days on a ticket, the less each additional day costs, resulting in an average "daily" cost of much less than a 1-day ticket. A 1-day ticket is ~$90, and the first few days of a multi-day ticket have minimal savings, but once you get past a 5-day ticket it only costs an extra $10 to add another day up to 10 days total.

Oops! sissy_ib beat me to it!

 

[Raenstoirm]

If you stay in property, you get the tickets and if there is FD available, we can get it for you. If you stay off-property you can buy the tickets through us with a 60% discount.

Maybe the discount is not that big, and it's just the way they present it that sounds like your getting a huge discount. KWIM?

If I wanted to get tickets for 8 days, I believe it was like $42 per day, as opposed to what you pay for 1 day. But I know that the more days you buy the cheaper they get...

Yeah, thats what they are talking about. It is a scam (well sort of). I would buy the tickets from UT. They can never get free dining. Your sales guy is very misinformed! But you are going to disney, so that's awesome!

 

[Chabby]

Thank you so much guys!

By local salesperson I mean the guy in Panama (where we live).

I was really worried that my mom was scammed because of all the things you've pointed out. I was really relieved now that she deposited her weeks and I was able to see with my own eyes that she had enough trading power to get a Disney Villa.

Now we are trying to figure out the rest.

Thanks for all the info, I will keep looking. Please feel free to add anything else you think may help us

 

[delmar411]

It was our local sales person, and the trade is through RCI. This is basically what my mom remembers he said (my mom is 69yo ):

If you stay in property, you get the tickets and if there is FD available, we can get it for you. If you stay off-property you can buy the tickets through us with a 60% discount.

I was able to verify the discounted tickets through RCI, but nothing else so far.

It's still a great deal, cheaper than paying OOP for a full price package and getting FD, we just need to be able to plan for everything we'll need

I trade into DVC through RCI. You get a room. You may add on the dining plan at full cost if you like and you may purchase tickets through DVC if you like. But that's it. And you'll pay a $95 housekeeping fee at check in too.

And it sounds like a huge scam BTW. Timeshares are given away every single day on message boards and ebay. There is no reason to pay lots of money for a timeshare. For the most part they lose 99.9% of their value the second you close on them. There are some exceptions like DVC but you'll pay a lot for those including a lot in yearly dues.

I suggest you visit the board over at TUG before signing anything.

 

[Chabby]

They already signed and paid a lot of money. But according to RCI we do have the weeks and they got us the trading power to get in property.

I believe the sales person exaggerated everything "Disney" because my mom mentioned we love it, so he used it a bait

As long as we can stay in property, we are happy campers

Still, we need to figure it out. She emailed the salesperson and he never replied. She hasn't call, especially now that we got what we needed (for now).

It seems like the next step would be to ask RCI directly, but she wants to wait until we have the dates (sometime in September 2013, depending on school calendar, we should get that in February at the latest).

Anyway, we are going to Disney, so I'm happy

 

[delmar411]

They already signed and paid a lot of money. But according to RCI we do have the weeks and they got us the trading power to get in property.

I believe the sales person exaggerated everything "Disney" because my mom mentioned we love it, so he used it a bait

As long as we can stay in property, we are happy campers

Still, we need to figure it out. She emailed the salesperson and he never replied. She hasn't call, especially now that we got what we needed (for now).

It seems like the next step would be to ask RCI directly, but she wants to wait until we have the dates (sometime in September 2013, depending on school calendar, we should get that in February at the latest).

Anyway, we are going to Disney, so I'm happy

Has she gotten the room for Sept already? AFAIK they haven't released rooms that far in advance yet. She'll need to put in an ongoing search for it so they can match it to her if it comes available. And the weeks for September will likely be available about 6-8mths in advance and gone pretty much as fast as they are posted. So make sure she has a search in as soon as possible.

 

[Chabby]

Has she gotten the room for Sept already? AFAIK they haven't released rooms that far in advance yet. She'll need to put in an ongoing search for it so they can match it to her if it comes available. And the weeks for September will likely be available about 6-8mths in advance and gone pretty much as fast as they are posted. So make sure she has a search in as soon as possible.

No we don't have the room yet, you are right, they are not relesed yet. I was only able to see that she has trading power for Saratoga Springs and Old Keywest that are relesed up to March 2013.
We need to find out when my DD will be off school to book. We'll be stalking RCI

Thanks!