Free dining not worth it for us

[DebbieB]

It is not a mistake. We have 8 nights at the BC for a standard room. 5 in the family, 2 adults, 2-12 year olds and a 6 year olds. WE do NOT have hoppers (I stated that we would have to get hoppers if we did the Disney free dining). Our tickets for all 5 of us are for 8 days MYW and you get 1 extra day (9th day) to a water park or Disney quest. It is a magical deal and I switched it for the same time period for the Polynesian which was $200 more then the BC.

There's the key - the special travel agent deal that cannot be named here.

I personally would stay with Beach Club.

 

[emsstacey]

For me... running the numbers, it's not a great deal. I have a magical deal prices at around $2300 for 4 nights/4 night tickets at BC for the 4 of us... now all adult prices. Rack rate and 3 day tickets (not ph) at BC is just over $3k. I'm not sure we could eat for $700, though. My kids loved getting to order desserts and order whatever they wanted. We just wouldn't do that if we were paying oop for it all.

It definitely pays to run the numbers. IF my kids were under 10, it definitely would not even be close.

 

[sharonabe]

For me... running the numbers, it's not a great deal. I have a magical deal prices at around $2300 for 4 nights/4 night tickets at BC for the 4 of us... now all adult prices. Rack rate and 3 day tickets (not ph) at BC is just over $3k. I'm not sure we could eat for $700, though. My kids loved getting to order desserts and order whatever they wanted. We just wouldn't do that if we were paying oop for it all.

It definitely pays to run the numbers. IF my kids were under 10, it definitely would not even be close.

But if the rumors of needing park hoppers for free dining do come true, those numbers will change. I think you could definitely pay OOP and eat the way you want to for less than what will then be closer to $900 difference.

 

[2DisPrincesses]

I would probabaly stick with Beach Club. Your kids will love the pool! Definitely worth giving up a few table service meals. IMO. Free dining will come around again....

 

[doberlady]

We have BC for 10 nights for 5 of us with a F&F discount and it's $3200 just for the room

 

[Beth06015]

We have BC for 10 nights for 5 of us with a F&F discount and it's $3200 just for the room

Still a pretty good deal. My TA just emailed me to get the free dining for sept I had to be upgraded to a pool view room and park hopper, still saving money vs buying free dining but doesn't sound like by much. Are the rooms really sold out already?

 

[doberlady]

oh yes, totally! I am keeping my deal. Adding PH the total is $5282 for 10 nights. We are not going to eat 3K in food

 

[mi*vida*loca]

We are in the boat. It's two adults, DS15 and DD9.

Doing a split stay on the magical deal. 5 nights at Poly followed by 5 nights at BC with 8 day hoppers +1 free WP day. The total for both reservations is $3600.

If I change to CSR with FD I'm looking at around 3800 or so.

Our food budget is about $2000 for our trip. We are only doing two buffets for breakfast. There are places we plan on trying that we haven't before because they aren't a good value on the DDP like Plaza, B&C, Trail End's. We've done VN before but always OOP even with the DDP. We would always do dinner to maximize the value of our credits but my kids prefer TS for breakfast or dinner so we are mixing that up too.

So for us it would be a savings but I can't pass up the Poly and BC at these prices.

 

[Boardwalk Gal]

I am a DVC member and i am just as torn as some of you...but i am not passing up the FD package and will be staying at POP. Do i rather stay at the DVC resort?? Heck ya, (big difference between home resort and value resort!! )but i also know we don't spend much time in the room so i rather enjoy the food going to different places to eat...(yes we upgrade the dining to get TS to enjoy the table services!) and mind you, this is for our 25th wedding anniversary vacation... Trying to be humble here!! LOL!!!

 

[Arden01]

I loved the BC and we stayed 6 nights last summer. Not to throw a monkey wrench in your plans, but are you sure you don't want to add on PH's? We ended up going to Epcot almost every night and it was so convenient to park hop with Epcot being in our backyard. EP was only a 5 min walk from our room. We did a lot of hopping between HS and EP since they were so close. We are staying at POFQ this summer and not park hopping, but with an Epcot area resort, you might want to consider it if it's in the budget.

 

[kandb]

I decided to with CBR with the free dining. I was able to book a standard room for 9 nights (as opposed to 8 with BC) with 10 days park hopper for $4K. I know BC is a nicer resort but we really like our sit down dinners and if we stayed at BC we would not be able to do any Ohana's/Garden Grill/Cape May Café etc because it costs around $250 for a meal. We are happy with our choice. I booked online but am transferring the reservation tour travel agent I booked BC with.

 

[vinotinto]

We did a similar magical deal last year over Labor Day at YC and I compared it against FD (which was available and offered for our dates), and we did better with the magical deal and OOP food. Now, we're not totally typical DDP'ers as we do mostly TS, so with the DDP we would have left CS credits behind and had to pay additional meals OOP. I love BC / YC; it was totally worth it to stay there with the deal.

Are you going during the Labor Day timeframe? I wish we were going this year, but DH is working that weekend.

 

[Beth06015]

We did a similar magical deal last year over Labor Day at YC and I compared it against FD (which was available and offered for our dates), and we did better with the magical deal and OOP food. Now, we're not totally typical DDP'ers as we do mostly TS, so with the DDP we would have left CS credits behind and had to pay additional meals OOP. I love BC / YC; it was totally worth it to stay there with the deal.

Are you going during the Labor Day timeframe? I wish we were going this year, but DH is working that weekend.

If we change our reservation we will be going the week leading up to Labor Day! The week we have we had to upgrade to a pool room which didn't give me a great deal. I can do earlier in the month on free dining garden view. Do you think it will be busy? Doesn't seem it from the restaurant availability!

 

[lauradis]

If we change our reservation we will be going the week leading up to Labor Day! The week we have we had to upgrade to a pool room which didn't give me a great deal. I can do earlier in the month on free dining garden view. Do you think it will be busy? Doesn't seem it from the restaurant availability!

https://www.undercovertourist.com/orlando/crowd-calendar/

http://www.kennythepirate.com/crowd-calendars/

http://www.easywdw.com/

Here are a couple of links so you can look up your dates for crowd levels.

 

[Beth06015]

Th

https://www.undercovertourist.com/orlando/crowd-calendar/

http://www.kennythepirate.com/crowd-calendars/

http://www.easywdw.com/

Here are a couple of links so you can look up your dates for crowd levels.

a

https://www.undercovertourist.com/orlando/crowd-calendar/

http://www.kennythepirate.com/crowd-calendars/

http://www.easywdw.com/

Here are a couple of links so you can look up your dates for crowd levels.

Thanks! I use touring plans too but it's just hard to believe the low levels predicted for a holiday weekend. I've heard other people said it was dead too that same timeframe! Off to check these out, thank you!

 

[Kbee]

I decided to with CBR with the free dining. I was able to book a standard room for 9 nights (as opposed to 8 with BC) with 10 days park hopper for $4K. I know BC is a nicer resort but we really like our sit down dinners and if we stayed at BC we would not be able to do any Ohana's/Garden Grill/Cape May Café etc because it costs around $250 for a meal. We are happy with our choice. I booked online but am transferring the reservation tour travel agent I booked BC with.

We had the same magical deal for our last trip, but I booked CBR with free dining for this year.

 

[Beth06015]

I decided to with CBR with the free dining. I was able to book a standard room for 9 nights (as opposed to 8 with BC) with 10 days park hopper for $4K. I know BC is a nicer resort but we really like our sit down dinners and if we stayed at BC we would not be able to do any Ohana's/Garden Grill/Cape May Café etc because it costs around $250 for a meal. We are happy with our choice. I booked online but am transferring the reservation tour travel agent I booked BC with.

How do you transfer a reservation you made online to the TA? I feel bad because my TA has been working with us but I was looking late at night and found the FD available with different dates and made the reservation at a time she was unavailable. Would love for her to still be able to handle it, but wanted to make sure not to lose the room.

 

[darrengs]

How do you transfer a reservation you made online to the TA? I feel bad because my TA has been working with us but I was looking late at night and found the FD available with different dates and made the reservation at a time she was unavailable. Would love for her to still be able to handle it, but wanted to make sure not to lose the room.

Contact your TA and they will have you fill out a form to get it transferred, it is really easy.

 

[Beth06015]

Contact your TA and they will have you fill out a form to get it transferred, it is really easy.

Thanks!! I will do that, great.

 

[kandb]

Yes, I already signed the form and faxed it the TA. It was very easy. She was very appreciative. She cancelled by BC reservation right away and now
my CBR is showing up in our Disney experience. I was glad to do it for her because she was helpful and always answered my emails right away.