Free Disney Dining Package for DVC Members?

[Brian Noble]

It costs Disney nothing to give someone free entry, outside of the minimal cost of the physical ticket.

My accountant friends tell me that the absence of revenue is exactly the same as the presence of cost...

 

[jlewisinsyr]

Big thumbs down on complaining to DVC about not getting Free Dining...

 

[maryserv]

"I don't care about the "free" dining, as we're getting a much better deal in the long run. What I'd love, though, is the ability for DVC members to buy a TIW card without having an AP!"

I'm with you on this one, the opportunity to buy a TIW without having an AP. That would be a nice perk. I had an AP, and also a DDE card a few years back. I scheduled a few trips to make sure I was within the window for both. It was a good deal. Now that our son is "school age" we can't just plan a trip whenever we want to and make the AP worth it. BUT, the TIW is a great program, and worth the $75 IMOP.

 

[MARY-IN-OH]

You still gotta pay tips for "free" dining, right? And if you want appetizers, that would be out of pocket too, right?

Yeah, free dining not so free anyhow - - (at least anymore, that is..)
-mary

 

[crisi]

Oh don't be a Debbie Downer

Well, personally I want Disney to be able to afford to keep the rides running in the park.....and I understand that I might be expected to contribute to that cost. My lovely timeshare at Disney is worth a lot less when Disney can't pay their utility bills (can you imagine what their electricity usage must be?)

 

[Cmbar]

It costs Disney nothing to give someone free entry, outside of the minimal cost of the physical ticket.

Jason , What??

How could it cost them nothing to let thousands of people in for free. I thought they were crazy to do it for the Military (although they deserve it more than anyone else!). I am an accountant and I agree with Brian Noble. IT costs to not have income!! While I am sure that Disney makes a significant chunck on those tickets agains their theme park costs, I do believe they couldn't let a multitude of people in free. They did that in the first years didn't they? That stopped pretty quickly. And I agree I don't want anything raising my fees!

 

[jns]

I don't care about the "free" dining, as we're getting a much better deal in the long run. What I'd love, though, is the ability for DVC members to buy a TIW card without having an AP!

Now this would be a great perk
and woudn't it be nice to have discounts on all park tickets not just the AP's

 

[Deb & Bill]

"I don't care about the "free" dining, as we're getting a much better deal in the long run. What I'd love, though, is the ability for DVC members to buy a TIW card without having an AP!"

I'm with you on this one, the opportunity to buy a TIW without having an AP. That would be a nice perk. I had an AP, and also a DDE card a few years back. I scheduled a few trips to make sure I was within the window for both. It was a good deal. Now that our son is "school age" we can't just plan a trip whenever we want to and make the AP worth it. BUT, the TIW is a great program, and worth the $75 IMOP.

You need to do what we do. We do one trip a year, but make them fall within a year's time. Last year we started our trips on June 7. This year it ends on June 6. Plus I did get to sneak in a few days in March when I had to be in Orlando for a meeting.

By the way, if you want to quote someone, click on the QUOTE button at the end of the box their text is located and you will quote that text in your response. If you want to quote more than one person, click on the + box next to the QUOTE box first, then on the last person you want to quote, click on the QUOTE box. You'll have all of those quotes in your message.

 

[rico974]

I agree, if you buy into DVC, the AP should be automatic to the main parks. If they did that, they would sell even more. IMOP.

 

[tkitty]

Perhaps, if they offered other "perks", they would even sell more DVC and add on points, because people would try to go more often?
I don't know, but don't people love to feel they're getting something for nothing, even if they're paying for it.
I love free stuff.
At least the OP was able to voice their opinion to DVC, and feel as though they are listening.

 

[DebbieB]

I agree, if you buy into DVC, AP into all the main parks should be automatic. they would even sell more IMOP.

They've been able to sellout every resort they have built without having to do that. It would be nice but there's no way it will happen. There's no reason to throw revenue away.

 

[cyndixo]

I get the dining plan everytime we go, it is a great value. Maybe if they offered us something off on it. I already inquired about some type of added incentive for DVC members.

 

[christa112]

I also agree Disney should offer my discounts to DVC members besides the Annual Pass, because that doesn't work for everyone. My wish would be discounted park tickets and/or discounted DDP.

I can see why they don't offer Free Dining because we have already paid for our room, so the only thing Disney would be making money on is park tickets.

I think sometimes people forget Disney is a business and businesses are out there to make $.

 

[chrismass]

How about if they let those of us DVC members who like the dining plan use points to purchase it instead of cash? Wouldn't that cover all the bases - it's not illegally overselling the units and it would be optional so the costs wouldn't be spread out through annual fees to those members who don't want in.

 

[Chuck S]

How about if they let those of us DVC members who like the dining plan use points to purchase it instead of cash? Wouldn't that cover all the bases - it's not illegally overselling the units and it would be optional so the costs wouldn't be spread out through annual fees to those members who don't want in.

Since points have no actual cash value, they would still need to deposit those points with CRO for use for cash reservations. Meaning that their would now be several layers of CMs involved (CRO, Accounting, etc.) To make that work, it would take many more points than the DDP is worth. And legally, points can be used for accommodations only.

 

[chrismass]

Oh well, there goes my wish list item! I always seem to have an extra 5 -10 points a year that I can't use and this was my big idea for them.

 

[BEASLYBOO]

Oh well, there goes my wish list item! I always seem to have an extra 5 -10 points a year that I can't use and this was my big idea for them.

Well since it seems that the dining idea is a bust, please don't let those points go to waste! You can always donate them to a poor DVC'r who always runs out of points and consider it having done a good deed!

and Gee! if no one comes to mind, for a good cause, keep me in mind!

 

[mjlass11]

I'll probably be severely criticized for this, but here goes. I strongly believe that we should be given more benefits than what we are. A lot of us spent at least $15,000 on our points and continue to spend at least $1,000 a year in maintenance fees. We have a vested interest that Disney succeeds, and are probably more apt to be the ones who spend more at the parks. I think at if we were given a discount the DDP or free TIW card, possibly more people would eat at the parks instead of cooking at their villas(and it's not as if the food at the parks/resorts isn't overly inflated in price to begin with that a 10 or 20% discount would cause them to lose money off that sale). As for the park tickets, with how they've dramatically raise the prices and added all the different catagories over the past several years, I don't think that a 10 or 20% discount would break them either. Yes, I know that when I brought into DVC what I was getting into and didn't expect any of these to be added. However, it would be a kind gesture on their part to show a little more appreciation to the people whom are their best customers, instead basically bribing people to come with "free dining" and making DVC members compete with them for dinner reservations 90 days out. (Now, let the Mike bashing begin)

 

[Chuck S]

I'll probably be severely criticized for this, but here goes. I strongly believe that we should be given more benefits than what we are. A lot of us spent at least $15,000 on our points and continue to spend at least $1,000 a year in maintenance fees. We have a vested interest that Disney succeeds, and are probably more apt to be the ones who spend more at the parks. I think at if we were given a discount the DDP or free TIW card, possibly more people would eat at the parks instead of cooking at their villas(and it's not as if the food at the parks/resorts isn't overly inflated in price to begin with that a 10 or 20% discount would cause them to lose money off that sale). As for the park tickets, with how they've dramatically raise the prices and added all the different catagories over the past several years, I don't think that a 10 or 20% discount would break them either. Yes, I know that when I brought into DVC what I was getting into and didn't expect any of these to be added. However, it would be a kind gesture on their part to show a little more appreciation to the people whom are their best customers, instead basically bribing people to come with "free dining" and making DVC members compete with them for dinner reservations 90 days out. (Now, let the Mike bashing begin)

No bashing here, but looking at the simple economics of free/discounted DDPs and or free TIW for 20% off all meals for 150,000+ families would be a pretty good chunk of change. Figuring the TIW is $75 for AP holders, that would be lost revenue on just the sale of the card of $11,250,000.00 Then figure each family would save $250 annually off of the food, on average, you are looking at another $37,500,000.00 So you're looking at $50,000,000.00 lost profit.

Many already consider the DDP to be a money saver over paying out of pocket, so why give more when the restaurants are already busy? After all, they don't really need to entice DVC owners to travel to WDW.

Then consider that stockholders, that actually DO have a vested interest in the company, don't get any perks or discounts, I won't complain too loudly about what we, as DVCers, receive. We do get several perks and discounts, could they be better? Sure! But they have to be financially justifiable.

 

[DebbieB]

When I joined almost 10 years ago, the only ticket discount was 10% off Length of Stay (an old ticket plan that included all the days of your stay, park hopping, minor parks, etc). When we got the $100 off AP's, that was huge. At the time it was introduced, it was about 25% off.