Free Dining January 2014?

[MellyBeans]

Hi all. I am planning a trip for my family in January. We will be a group of 5 (possibly 6) adults. My MIL has her heart set on doing the DP, but it is so expensive out of pocket for all of us and I really want to get FIL the best deal (he's paying for most of this trip). Seriously, our group can save 2K with free dining.

I know they offered Free Dining in January 2011 and 2012, but not in 2013. Any rumors for 2014?

 

[Wood Nymph]

Hi all. I am planning a trip for my family in January. We will be a group of 5 (possibly 6) adults. My MIL has her heart set on doing the DP, but it is so expensive out of pocket for all of us and I really want to get FIL the best deal (he's paying for most of this trip). Seriously, our group can save 2K with free dining.

I know they offered Free Dining in January 2011 and 2012, but not in 2013. Any rumors for 2014?

They didn't have free dining in 2013, but they did have the stay, play and dine plan or a room discount. Since you are a family of adults, the SPD plan could work out to be a good discount, assuming the terms of the plan would be the same in 2014 as they were in 2013. You would pay child's prices instead of adult prices for the dining plan and park tickets. If you are staying in one room, the SPD plan would be the best discount. If you are staying in two separate rooms at a deluxe resort, then the room discount could be the better deal.

Last year the Jan 2013 discounts came out around October 9th. So you have a few months before you find out. Good luck.

 

[MellyBeans]

They didn't have free dining in 2013, but they did have the stay, play and dine plan or a room discount. Since you are a family of adults, the SPD plan could work out to be a good discount, assuming the terms of the plan would be the same in 2014 as they were in 2013. You would pay child's prices instead of adult prices for the dining plan and park tickets. If you are staying in one room, the SPD plan would be the best discount. If you are staying in two separate rooms at a deluxe resort, then the room discount could be the better deal.

Last year the Jan 2013 discounts came out around October 9th. So you have a few months before you find out. Good luck.

Awesome! This is the first I've heard of this stay, play, and dine discount. With 5 (or 6) adults, paying child prices could be a great deal too! Do you think they may repeat that discount? Right now, I'm thinking we'll book 2 rooms at either Pop, or upgrade to 2 rooms at a mod for the queen beds if it doesn't end up being that much of a difference depending on deals, codes, etc. We are also kind of considering an AoA suite, but I think it might get cramped for all of us, and 2 rooms at pop is actually cheaper. MIL likes the idea of us all being under one roof though. . I considered DVC point rentals, but, since MIL wants the DP so badly, I think we are better off booking through Disney and crossing our fingers for a discount code of some kind in January. Too many choices! Thoughts?

 

[vinotinto]

Was the SPD offered for stays in January or was it offered in January for stays in Feb - April? If it was offered for Jan stays, do you know which dates and when it was released? I looked in mousesavers and the only discounts I see for January 2013 were room-only discounts (also bookable as packages). These discounts were released in October.
http://www.mousesavers.com/historical-information-on-walt-disney-world-resort-discounts/

MIL likes the idea of us all being under one roof though. . I considered DVC point rentals, but, since MIL wants the DP so badly, I think we are better off booking through Disney and crossing our fingers for a discount code of some kind in January. Too many choices! Thoughts?

You can add any DDP plan (QsDP, DDP, or DxDP) to a DVC reservation. You just may have to pay for it at the time that you book it through the member. Member would need to book it at least 3 days in advance, so you want to give the member some advance notice.

Also, I think we can count on some type of offer for January, but it may be a room discount, but you can always turn it into a package by adding tickets and DDP.

 

[ciera321]

We had the Stay, Play and Dine deal for our January stay. It wasn't free, but a huge discount for us! Good luck!

 

[MellyBeans]

Was the SPD offered for stays in January or was it offered in January for stays in Feb - April? If it was offered for Jan stays, do you know which dates and when it was released? I looked in mousesavers and the only discounts I see for January 2013 were room-only discounts (also bookable as packages). These discounts were released in October.
http://www.mousesavers.com/historical-information-on-walt-disney-world-resort-discounts/


You can add any DDP plan (QsDP, DDP, or DxDP) to a DVC reservation. You just may have to pay for it at the time that you book it through the member. Member would need to book it at least 3 days in advance, so you want to give the member some advance notice.

Also, I think we can count on some type of offer for January, but it may be a room discount, but you can always turn it into a package by adding tickets and DDP.

Yes, I know we can add the DP to any dvc rental, I just think we can have a cheaper, more economical trip waiting for a discount of some kind and booking directly through Disney. Obviously, free dining will save us the most (2-3K), but even a measly room discount will get us a package that's (slightly) cheaper than dvc rental + oop DP. Although I love the idea of staying deluxe, and I know my in laws will pretty much pay for whatever package I present hem with, I also know we won't spend that much time at the hotel and I want to try to be as cost effective for FIL (who is way too generous as it is) as possible.

I'll obviously have to wait until the discounts come out to really run the numbers, and by then DVC rentals will be slim pickings, but if I'm wrong and it does make more sense to rent points, I'm hoping at least a resort like OKW might still be available. Just don't want to chance it by locking myself into a dvc rental now, and potentially missing out on a FD offer or even this stay play dine offer which could save us serious money.

 

[Wood Nymph]

Was the SPD offered for stays in January or was it offered in January for stays in Feb - April? If it was offered for Jan stays, do you know which dates and when it was released? I looked in mousesavers and the only discounts I see for January 2013 were room-only discounts (also bookable as packages). These discounts were released in October.
http://www.mousesavers.com/historical-information-on-walt-disney-world-resort-discounts/

I noticed that Mousesavers doesn't always have all of the correct information about the historic discounts. They definitely don't include the black out dates, for one thing.

To the best of my memory, the Stay, Play and Dine plan was for resort stays between Jan 4 or 5th and February 12th, approximately, and I think that MLK weekend was blacked out. We took the room discount which saved us more money, and the reason we traveled from Feb 5th to 11th was so that we could get the room discount for all our days. Disney later extended the discount into March, but I don't think they offered the extension until January.

 

[vacation_junkie]

Hi all. I am planning a trip for my family in January. We will be a group of 5 (possibly 6) adults. My MIL has her heart set on doing the DP, but it is so expensive out of pocket for all of us and I really want to get FIL the best deal (he's paying for most of this trip). Seriously, our group can save 2K with free dining.

I know they offered Free Dining in January 2011 and 2012, but not in 2013. Any rumors for 2014?

It's Play / Stay / Dine again for January 2014.

 

[su_A_ve]

PINS are already going out for SPD. They start on January 5th 2014. Adults play/stay/dine as kids.

You save a few dollars from the tickets and a few more with the dining. This could add up to almost the cost of the dining plan.

 

[klitteral2009]

I'm positive that there are 100 different threads that address this, but I'm already here....

Could someone explain to me how SPD works? We stayed over MLK weekend and into the next week last year and I swear I thought it was free dining then. From the sound of it, I was way wrong. So I just wondered, what do you save with a SPD promo?

 

[vacation_junkie]

I'm positive that there are 100 different threads that address this, but I'm already here....

Could someone explain to me how SPD works? We stayed over MLK weekend and into the next week last year and I swear I thought it was free dining then. From the sound of it, I was way wrong. So I just wondered, what do you save with a SPD promo?

You pay rack rates for your room.
Adults pay kids pricing for your park tickets and the dining plan.

 

[vacation_junkie]

PINS are already going out for SPD. They start on January 5th 2014. Adults play/stay/dine as kids.

You save a few dollars from the tickets and a few more with the dining. This could add up to almost the cost of the dining plan.

It doesn't save near the amount free dining does.

You pay rack rates for your room. There is no room discount.

There is a very minimal amount of difference between the price of adult and kids tickets.
Kids park tickets vs adults will save us about $60

But then we need to pay $17.16 per person per day for the dining plan.
3x $17.16 x 8 nights $412 approx for the DDP staying at a moderate resort.

If we paid for the dining plan it would have cost us about $1344
Paying $412 as compared to $1344... Not bad.

 

[disneyfan2002]

Have you considered getting tables in wonderland? It's available to DVC members and we have found it to be a bigger savings for us especially with the alcohol discounts.

 

[jewels4488]

Do you happen to know the blackout dates for January?

 

[tybrilinja]

How do you get a pin for the SPD deal?

 

[black562]

How do you get a pin for the SPD deal?

PINs are a random thing, you'll either get one or you won't. It never hurts to call and ask if you have one because sometimes you do and just never get notified.

I always advise everyone not to panic or rush for a room discount or S/P/D offer. The only offer that truly jams up the phone lines and crashes the website is the free dining, which is amazingly popular. The other offers book much slowly and don't get the madness surrounding them that free dining does.


By the way guys, you should listen to Vacation_Junkie, she's on target with both of the discounts coming up. She was the first to leak both the room discount and stay/play/dine back on the 17th. They first went out as PINs back in July, but now everyone will get to book them in a few days....see quoted post below:

"Originally Posted by vacation_junkie - 9/17-13

There is no Free dining for Jan-March 2014. Its P/S/D.
the dates for the above (& RO discounts..with the exception of the blackout days) Will be

January 5, 2014 March 2, 2014
March 16, 2014 April 12, 2014

The R.O will be the following
35% off at select Deluxe Villas, 30% off at Moderate, and 25% off at Value. "​