Free Dining

[stemikger]

I am a little annoyed at this. I understand they are offering free dining to all UK residents starting August 10th.

I am not from the UK, but I will be there the 10th through the 11th. Why is Disney not offering it to U.S. residents also.

No disrespect to my friends from the UK, I'm glad you guys got it, but I don't think it is very fair.

I'm going to call Disney tomorrow to let them know how I feel about this.

 

[stemikger]

I am a little annoyed at this. I understand they are offering free dining to all UK residents starting August 10th.

I am not from the UK, but I will be there the 10th through the 11th. Why is Disney not offering it to U.S. residents at this time also.

No disrespect to my friends from the UK, I'm glad you guys got it, but I don't think it is very fair.

I'm going to call Disney tomorrow to let them know how I feel about this.

 

[aubriee]

Not to make you more pissed, but the people in the UK can book their free dining pkgs starting in the early fall for the following year, where as us here in the US must wait until the spring for the public free dining offers to come out. Their window is much longer than ours (almost two months vs about a month for us).

However, think about it! It takes longer for them to plan a trip, their trips are usually for much longer (usually at least 2 weeks, if not longer), the airfare costs them more to get over here, and they usually spend much more money while they're over here than we do. I know I have an AP, go several times a year for about 10 days, use my AP for room discounts, and due to the number of times I've been able to go, I seldom buy souvineers any more and never go to the local outlet stores and malls. I know Disney/Florida is getting very little money out of me. The average UK tourist easily spends 10x what I do down there. Disney is trying to get them over here and wants them to spend LOTS of money while they're here. They are helping our economy and I have no problems with Disney giving them longer dates for the free DDP or for allowing them to book it sooner than us. The UK visitors are also some of the friendliest and most polite visitors you'll ever see. You never read any complaints about their behavior at WDW. I welcome them with open arms and believe Disney wants to too. On the other hand if Disney was offering them free dining and us not at all, or if it was the rude Brazillan tour groups Disney was trying to lure over here, I'd have a problem. Also if I'm not mistaken, I believe the Value resorts were not an option for them for free dining. In order to get free dining they had to book at least a Moderate or Deluxe.

 

[stemikger]

posted by aubriee
However, think about it! It takes longer for them to plan a trip, their trips are usually for much longer (usually at least 2 weeks, if not longer), the airfare costs them more to get over here, and they usually spend much more money while they're over here than we do. I know I have an AP, go several times a year for about 10 days, use my AP for room discounts, and due to the number of times I've been able to go, I seldom buy souvineers any more and never go to the local outlet stores and malls. I know Disney/Florida is getting very little money out of me. The average UK tourist easily spends 10x what I do down there. Disney is trying to get them over here and wants them to spend LOTS of money while they're here. They are helping our economy and I have no problems with Disney giving them longer dates for the free DDP or for allowing them to book it sooner than us. The UK visitors are also some of the friendliest and most polite visitors you'll ever see. You never read any complaints about their behavior at WDW. I welcome them with open arms and believe Disney wants to too. On the other hand if Disney was offering them free dining and us not at all, or if it was the rude Brazillan tour groups Disney was trying to lure over here, I'd have a problem. Also if I'm not mistaken, I believe the Value resorts were not an option for them for free dining. In order to get free dining they had to book at least a Moderate or Deluxe.

This makes sense. I also agree with you about the UK tourist. They are cool people. I go every August and am amazed how many UK folks are there. I love their accents.

I actually watched a young couple from the UK have a argument in one of the shops on Main Street and I had to laugh. Even when they were arguing they seemed polite. It must be the accent.

Disney knows what they are doing. I don't begrudge UK folks for getting it, I just wish I could also.

 

[n2mm]

I am a little annoyed at this. I understand they are offering free dining to all UK residents starting August 10th.

I am not from the UK, but I will be there the 10th through the 11th. Why is Disney not offering it to U.S. residents at this time also.

No disrespect to my friends from the UK, I'm glad you guys got it, but I don't think it is very fair.

I'm going to call Disney tomorrow to let them know how I feel about this.

Sorry, life's not fair. I guess since they got to book it a year before the promotion, they got the first pick of the rooms. When it got offered to us, we got what was left. Nothing you can do about it. Looks like most of August is going to be busy, but reading all of the threads of people trying to get rooms during your timeframe, nothing seems to be available. We were all disappointed when it wasn't offered until late August, but since it was offered late August the year before we were prepared and expected it. Have a great time and remember, there are alot of us that missed out on the free dining because we live in the US not the UK.

BTW--We are there August 11-20, so add us to the list who are also not on free dining. Actually we didn't even buy the DDP this trip.

 

[MJ6987]

We (in the UK) do not get / cannot use discount ("pin") codes. These are worth up to 40% off for you! So, you may lose on some things but gain on others.

 

[RMulieri]

I am sorry but...So what? I understand you feel it is unfair, but they do not get pin codes or discounts of any kind.Also, the logisitics of travel for them are not as easy.It would be like us trying to plan a trip to Tokyo Disney.They need to start planning about a year in advance, and they usually stay here 10 days or longer.I disagree that they get first pick of the rooms though.The UK free dining promo is not considered by CRO as the US free dining promo.They do overlap dates, but they start before the US.They have certain groups of rooms designated for each promo.The only other advantage they get is they have a better park ticket category we do not have.The Us gets AAA discounts,pincodes,bounceback opportunities etc.They do not.

 

[ntsammy5]

Ahhhhhh, there was a promo for everyone but you had to book by the end of June IIRC. The promotion has expired now.

 

[tiger4me2]

Just a note they have to plan their holidays when their kids are out of school. They go year round with certain break times. If you want if you go down to Disney in September in the past they have offered bouncebacks for next year for free dining.
Understand where you are coming from. I never have recieved or gotten a code or a pin or postcard & I been to Disney over 27 times. I guess life is like a box of chocolate you never know what is in the box until you open it.

PS
It hasn't been offered to the UK folks that long. Disney is trying to get them to stay onsite rather than off sites as most stay offsites if they are coming over longer

 

[earthelves]

We (in the UK) do not get / cannot use discount ("pin") codes. These are worth up to 40% off for you! So, you may lose on some things but gain on others.

I Believe That We Can Use The 40% Off Codes If U Are "Lucky" Enough To Find One In Your Disney Room Or If There Is One Attached To Your Name When U Phone Reservation's

 

[mbanks21]

the UK free dine availability had nothing to do with the US free dine availiability

 

[dclfun]

I agree. UK visitors didn't "take" any rooms away from US visitors who both were booking FD. There is always a separate inventory. Remember too there was a separate inventory for Visa cardholders and then the GP. Visa cardholders didn't "take" rooms that were intended for the GP either. After reading about last year's UK FD offer I thought everyone would be limited to booking only mod/deluxe resorts but then US ( and other) guests were allowed to book the values- so in essence UK guests are the ones who should feel slighted over not getting to book the lower cost rooms if that was what worked w/in their budgets. If Disney decided only to offer FD in mid-August to UK guests then there was a reason for that. At least it's not like the "random" PIN codes and the offer did have a specific target for a specific reason- to work within traditional UK holiday timeframes and allow those guests, who also traditionally book their holidays a year in advance, the chance to choose Disney as their destination with the FD promo that was later extended to the rest of us. Disney didn't have to extend FD to the rest of us either. I'm just grateful they did!---Kathy