"Free" dining offer a joke

[Dizneydaz]

OT Dizneydaz-- if your DD is turning 10 on (during) the trip I didn't think she would be considered an 'adult', isn't it the same as a turning 3 y/o on the trip?
If 2 at the start of the trip the child doesn't count in the room occ total, doesn't need a ticket nor paying for a meal plan. Obviously a 9 y/o would need all these things but at a child rate vs 'adult' rate.

You're right, I could have her considered a kid for the entire trip. When I booked it and mentioned her turning 10 midway through the trip and then I asked the CM if she would be a kid or an adult (as far as DDP and tix are concerned) the CM I spoke to said he already put her down as an adult. I could have insisted that she be put down as a kid but since I am only buying a one day base ticket to get the free DDP I decided the small difference in pricing was worth it-I won't have to keep track of adult and kid credits. She can have her choice of meals. (inc. kid's meal if she wants). If I was paying for DDP then I would have her as a kid, and pay the kid's price. I will save her adult tix for another trip, I have last years 10 day, non-exp. for her to use this time.

OT-others have reported changing their kid's ages to 10 to get them the adult meals. CM apparently are fine with this.

Yes, if your kid is less than 3 at the start of the your trip, then they will be under 3 for your entire trip. However, if you are on DDP then they will not have any credits so you would not be able to order them a separate meal. (no problem at a buffet though)

 

[clanwilson]

Of course, it's "free" dining since I'm not paying for it. If free dining had not been available, I still would have planned a trip with my family, BUT I would have had to pay for our food as well. Many, many people visit Disney World and they pay full price. Some are unaware of available discounts and some travel when said discounts will not work for them. I'm NOT paying over $130 a day for four people on the Dining Plan...yep, that's free.

 

[DisneyGirl4188]

We have ASMu book for the end of Sept. For us, the free dining was a good deal, even though we have AP's. We could have used another discount, but it was still more (even considering we have to buy 2 one day passes). However, I looked for another time period and the free dining wasn't as good of a deal.

 

[Get me to Disney!]

All I know is I made my reservation with tickets/room and did not add in the dining plan - it was X amount of dollars then when free dining came out, I called in and added it to my reservation and my X amount of dollars didn't change. It sounds like the original poster missed the opportunity to have the lesser expensive rooms and therefore had to either A) not get the "free" dining or B) Add the free dining while being forced to upgrade.

 

[TDC Nala]

The OP indicated that the same type of room they already had was unavailable for their dates with the free dining package and could not get a room with free dining at the same resort without upgrading.

Not all rooms at all resorts are available on the free dining promotion. The amount of rooms that can be booked in each resort using that promotion are limited.

 

[chocovrdmicears]

The Free Dining offer is definately NOT a joke. Like any other discount it depends on a lot of factors like the pp's have mentioned.
Free Dining is definately NOT the best savings if you are staying at a deluxe if you compare it to a % off room rate.
Here is a specific example:
We originally had the WL courtyard view booked ofr 7 nights in Dec. with a 40% off room rate code. It was going to cost our family, if I remember correctly about $2600???
A few weeks ago we received the Free Dining PIN for December. We decided to cancel our reservations at WL and book POP using the Free Dining PIN.
Moral of the Free Dining story?
We are staying at POP for 10 days with free dining for under $2K.

Sooo...the free dining not only saved our family $600, it added 3 nights.
Definately NOT a joke for us!

 

[kevschickee]

Free dining saved me $413 and you know what? That is more spending money. You just have to plan it right. For us the room is where we go to sleep and shower that is it so we decided on a value resort. I up graded to the reg dp instead of the qsp

 

[maidenfairy]

Free dining saved us 600.00 dollars. If we had been told we needed to upgrade, then no it wouldn't be a great deal and I would have turned it down. But we booked it early and got our hotel of choice.

 

[GOOFY4DONALD]

I booked my trip last year. I booked The Poly, basic dining and park hoppers. After I booked airfare my trip was 7200. yesterday the CM added the free dining to my reservations and my total is now 6000. I am so thankful for that savings. I really don't care if it is called free dining or "your a big dork savings" if it saves me over 1K call it what you want.

 

[CoolPool]

We are staying at the YC next week, here's a rundown of what our discount possibilities would have been. All options feature YC room/ dining plan/ 8 days PH:
Rack rate: $4500
Free dining: $3900
4/3 deal: $3300
Naturally I'm pleased we stayed with the 4/3 deal which we booked back in March.
I'm glad there is a discount to please everyone, but I'll be a 4/3 dork everytime!

 

[disneygirlinnj]

i thought it was common knowledge that free dining was based on the rack rate for the hotel room? discount works for some people but not all.

 

[aubriee]

discount works for some people but not all.

True! I had bounce back free dining for my upcoming trip at CSR in Sept. However, I am traveling solo that trip, so when the AP discounts came out, I immediately switched. Not having to buy a one day ticket I didn't need and taking the 40% off on weeknights and 42% off on weekends that the AP discount gave me saved me enough money that I was able to upgrade to the DxDDP and Disney still owed me a little back on my credit card. The AP discount was definitely a much better deal for a solo traveler at a moderate than free dining would have been.

On the other hand, for my upcoming Dec trip at CSR I am traveling with my husband and mom. I had a choice of a 40% PIN code I could use, the 40% AP code, or free dining. Just yesterday I switched from the AP code room to free dining. Even losing the 40% discount and having to buy one day tickets, we still saved a little with free dining. My mom and husband would have had to buy park tickets anyway (and now have one day tickets worth about $80.00 each, that they can upgrade down there to what they need) and I'll just put my one day ticket up, to use at some later date. With them having to buy tickets anyway, if you factor in the price of the tickets and the money saved with free dining, it was still a little over $300.00 cheaper than the AP discount we were using and it would have been alot cheaper than if we had had to pay rack rate and still buy the DDP. With three adults in a moderate free dining beat the AP discount and also the PIN code we had.

You just have to run the numbers on each discount that may be available to you and see which discount is best for your situation. If there had been just two adults in the room for Dec, I would have went with the AP discount or PIN code and paid for the DDP. In a value free dining will nearly always be a better deal, in a deluxe the room room discount will usually beat free dining, but in a moderate you have to run your numbers, as it will depend on how many people are in the room and on what other discounts are available.

 

[GoofyKidd]

maybe this is a dumb question----but why didn't you just say 'never mind, I'll stick w/ my original plan' ?

Obviously that is what I said-why would I want to pay more?

 

[GoofyKidd]

Of course, it's "free" dining since I'm not paying for it. If free dining had not been available, I still would have planned a trip with my family, BUT I would have had to pay for our food as well. Many, many people visit Disney World and they pay full price. Some are unaware of available discounts and some travel when said discounts will not work for them. I'm NOT paying over $130 a day for four people on the Dining Plan...yep, that's free.

But you are paying more for your room, correct?

 

[Allison]

But you are paying more for your room, correct?

Not if they didn't have a discount on the room to begin with.

The free dining plan offer didn't work for you because you must have already had a discount on the room that was better than the amount saved on free dining. It didn't work for me either because I had a substantial room discount through a pin code.

Not everyone gets these discounts and therefore book their room at rack rate.

 

[kevschickee]

But you are paying more for your room, correct?

I didn't pay more for my room with free dining

 

[patclairesmom]

I just checked the Disney site, Woodview bunkbed is available for your dates, for Free Dining. I would call your travel agent back, or rebook on the Disney site and get your money refunded from AAA.

 

[Bride In The Attic]

Your savings per night with FD also depends on the number in your party. In our case we have 3 adults (DD is 12 so counts as an adult) and 1 child - I believe that is about $150/night for the dining plan. For our 8 night trip that is a savings of $1200 with FD.

We were able to rebook our STD view WL package with free dining, add a night to our vacation and still save a considerable amount of money. For us, it still worked out to be a better deal than the room only offer out right now.

 

[minnie1012]

I booked through AAA because it was "Disney month" thinking I would get something as an incentive. We are staying at VWL and there was no discount or anything offered. When free dining came out I called and asked about that and was told nothing is available at VWL. I also have been having a terrible time getting the ADR's I wanted and most people have the free dining! I am paying full price for everything. I'm sure we will have a great time just wishing I got some sort of bargain somewhere! We are driving I guess that's my bargain. lol.

 

[Bride In The Attic]

I booked through AAA because it was "Disney month" thinking I would get something as an incentive. We are staying at VWL and there was no discount or anything offered. When free dining came out I called and asked about that and was told nothing is available at VWL. I also have been having a terrible time getting the ADR's I wanted and most people have the free dining! I am paying full price for everything. I'm sure we will have a great time just wishing I got some sort of bargain somewhere! We are driving I guess that's my bargain. lol.

Are you staying at VWL because of the size of your party? Just wondering if two rooms at WL with FD or room discount would be cheaper for you.