Free Disney Dining Plan offer question

[Mnementh]

I don't know if this is the right place for this, but it seems as good as any, so here goes....

I'm a little confused with the "free Disney Dining Plan" offer that Disney does every so often. Do you really get one free table service meal, one free quick service meal, and one free snack a day for your whole trip? With no catch? There's some catch in there, right? Disney's food is too expensive to just give it away like that.

Thanks for your help.

 

[myhouseofmouse]

No catch, you just have to stay at a Disney Resort (Moderate or Deluxe for the Table service Free dining and Value resort gets the Quick service free dining. the only Real catch is you have to pay the FULL price of the hotel...Some people can find the hotel for cheaper prices. or they get pin codes to make them cheaper. Free dining can be a good value is you can not find any other discounts!!!

 

[dixonismydog]

I don't know if this is the right place for this, but it seems as good as any, so here goes....

I'm a little confused with the "free Disney Dining Plan" offer that Disney does every so often. Do you really get one free table service meal, one free quick service meal, and one free snack a day for your whole trip? With no catch? There's some catch in there, right? Disney's food is too expensive to just give it away like that.

Thanks for your help.

Nope....no catch!!! It's awesome!

 

[csummerlin55]

When we're not staying on DVC points, we always try to schedule around the free dining plan. The only other thing to consider is you will have to pay tips out of your own pocket. As a family of 5, it really is a great deal for us.

 

[wdw4rfam]

Nope- no catch. You have to pay full price for hotel, and 2 day tickets (at least) for everyone. I know for us, we have 5, and stay moderate (POR), and the dining plan is $1600- so there is NO ROOM PIN worth that. Now if you only have 2 or 3 people and stay deluxe, maybe room dicount can be better. Or if you wouldn't usually pay for dining.

 

[seasheller]

Also, think you have to book by October 29, 2011 for the offer out now.

 

[canopynut66]

I don't know if this is the right place for this, but it seems as good as any, so here goes....

I'm a little confused with the "free Disney Dining Plan" offer that Disney does every so often. Do you really get one free table service meal, one free quick service meal, and one free snack a day for your whole trip? With no catch? There's some catch in there, right? Disney's food is too expensive to just give it away like that.

Thanks for your help.

No catch it is free and when we stay say at value and you only get the Quick service we pay the difference and up grade to the MYWD.. we have not found a resort discount that is better than taking the free dining. you get the free dining for each night of your stay. but can use when you want..like if want to use 2 TS and go to Cinderellas breakfast or do a signature dinner or dinner show like Hoop De Do you can do that as well. There is no catch to it.

 

[Marionnette]

Also, think you have to book by October 29, 2011 for the offer out now.

They extended the booking window for dates in 2012. You now have until Dec. 17 to book for check ins beginning 1/8/12–1/12/12, 1/21/12–2/2/12, 2/11/12–2/16/12, 3/3/12–3/8/12 and 3/24/12–3/29/12.

 

[scrapquitler]

I don't know if this is the right place for this, but it seems as good as any, so here goes....

I'm a little confused with the "free Disney Dining Plan" offer that Disney does every so often. Do you really get one free table service meal, one free quick service meal, and one free snack a day for your whole trip? With no catch? There's some catch in there, right? Disney's food is too expensive to just give it away like that.

Thanks for your help.

The 'catch' is that you can't use a discounted code for the room, you have to pay full rack rate for the room and you need to buy park tickets (it used to be minimum one day passes for every member of your party but it might be two day passes now) even if you have annual passes. You need to do the math and see if you would actually save by doing this or if you will end up better off getting a discount room rate and paying out of pocket for your meals.

Oh, and they automatically charge you 18% gratuity on those table servie meals, so you still need to pay that out of pocket.

 

[vicki_c]

Oh, and they automatically charge you 18% gratuity on those table servie meals, so you still need to pay that out of pocket.

That is not true -there is no auto gratuity unless you are a large party (over 6 I think). The Tables in Wonderland card has that auto gratuity, but not the DDP.

 

[angierae]

We're saving over $200 a day on our trip to POFQ next March (4 disney adults). We would need a room discount of over 90% to be as good as free dining for our circumstances.

(We did upgrade to DXDP, but we're paying LESS for the upgrade than we would have paid for DDP.)

 

[lizabu]

The 'catch' is that you can't use a discounted code for the room, you have to pay full rack rate for the room and you need to buy park tickets (it used to be minimum one day passes for every member of your party but it might be two day passes now) even if you have annual passes. You need to do the math and see if you would actually save by doing this or if you will end up better off getting a discount room rate and paying out of pocket for your meals.

Oh, and they automatically charge you 18% gratuity on those table servie meals, so you still need to pay that out of pocket.

This (agreed the 18% tip is parties of 6 or more but everyone tips even if its not 18%). You're paying rack rates for the rooms to get "free" dining and they're filling their hotels in slow periods. I took the "free" dining deal because it works best for my group but it's not always the best deal for everyone.

 

[Minnesota!]

The 'catch' is that you can't use a discounted code for the room, you have to pay full rack rate for the room and you need to buy park tickets (it used to be minimum one day passes for every member of your party but it might be two day passes now) even if you have annual passes. You need to do the math and see if you would actually save by doing this or if you will end up better off getting a discount room rate and paying out of pocket for your meals.

Oh, and they automatically charge you 18% gratuity on those table servie meals, so you still need to pay that out of pocket.

Not true. They "suggest" 18 - 20%, but it's not automatically charged..

 

[Bob NC]

Disney's food is too expensive to just give it away like that.

Obviously, Disney is not giving anything away "free."

Probably a more accurate term than "free dining", might be "prepaid dining."

 

[okeydokey]

It may be a a good deal if you were going to have a sit down meal reservation every day anyway. My family prefers to eat on the fly with Counter service so it is not a deal for us. Add the gratuity on top of that and have to pay full price for a room and it is not a bargain for us at all.

We went with my in-laws one year, they did dining, we did not and they spent a good part of each day planning attractions and locations around their dinner reservation. It was stressful for them and they missed out on a lot of fun stuff my family did while they were spending 2 hours at meals.

 

[ksloane]

It may be a a good deal if you were going to have a sit down meal reservation every day anyway. My family prefers to eat on the fly with Counter service so it is not a deal for us. Add the gratuity on top of that and have to pay full price for a room and it is not a bargain for us at all.

We went with my in-laws one year, they did dining, we did not and they spent a good part of each day planning attractions and locations around their dinner reservation. It was stressful for them and they missed out on a lot of fun stuff my family did while they were spending 2 hours at meals.

I think you can get free quick service dining if you stay at a value and still eat on the fly.

 

[scrapquitler]

That is not true -there is no auto gratuity unless you are a large party (over 6 I think). The Tables in Wonderland card has that auto gratuity, but not the DDP.

Okay, then I misunderstood. Sorry about that.

 

[csummerlin55]

It may be a a good deal if you were going to have a sit down meal reservation every day anyway. My family prefers to eat on the fly with Counter service so it is not a deal for us. Add the gratuity on top of that and have to pay full price for a room and it is not a bargain for us at all.

We went with my in-laws one year, they did dining, we did not and they spent a good part of each day planning attractions and locations around their dinner reservation. It was stressful for them and they missed out on a lot of fun stuff my family did while they were spending 2 hours at meals.

We did the deluxe dining one year and we felt like all we were doing was going from one ressie to the other and it wasn't as fun. With the regular dining plan we usually only have 1 ressie a night. We never feel like we miss out on anything there (but we usually try to schedule our ressie's around parades and stuff).

Have you looked into the free quick service? I was wondering if it's worth the money for short trips or people like yourself who prefer quick service restaurants.

 

[AnjieNet]

My DH is a big eater and loves, Loves, LOVES his food. The DDP was his dream come true! Course, all he had to do was follow me to each restaurant. I had to do all the ressies and planning that goes along with it. Though it was a bit of a pain to plan, once down there everything was in place and we didn't feel like we were running around just to eat. We stayed in the parks for our ressies making it much easier on all of us. We did have an AKL ressie after the closing of AK one night at Bama but that was the only non-park. I think having a lot of the hotel dining makes for a more hectic experience. Next time though, I think we'll do the regular dining plan. To me and DD it was just way too much food.