I had an interesting conversation with a CM about August AP Rates / Free Dining

[kinggoofy]

We had booked the Poly with the bounce back program last November. With free dining....AFTER several weeks of hmming and so on....we decided to cancel the free dining and POLY.

We are now at CBR for 11 nights, Aug 8 - 19th with the AAA rate, water view for $1584.

We could never eat SO MUCH food. We DO NOT have kids...so the free dining really wasnt a benefit for us. PLUS, with free dining, we felt it was "too much under the gun" to make reservations and make sure we kept them.

We are more of the "spur of the moment" people.

That being said, I had a great talk with a CM today, at some point free dining is going to be offered...BUT, only if Disney feels it has to. It will all depend on bookings.

We made several ADR's this afternoon for our trip. If we keep them..fine...if not we will cancel. But at least we have them.

Also, he is fairly confident AP Room only rates are going to be offered during value season...(which starts Aug 5 ) but was "almost certain" there will be no AP rates during the summer. As of now, bookings are way up. The same thing happened last year of you all remember. Nothing was available for the summer.

 

[n2mm]

Thanks for sharing. Sounds similar to last year. As for the free ddp, I guess we are all waiting to see what happens next. I'm hoping the Disney/Visa offers a package different the the GP rumored one. We are going mid-August and was hoping to add a few free ddp resort days to our stay before moving to the BCV. As for the free ddp, it is alot of food, but only if you made it that way. We have used the DDP 4 times now over the last 12 months and find now, we just order what we want. You can't imagine the look on the server's face when I ordered a ceasar salad as my entree at the Coral Reef last month. We also find us using more and more CS credits for a quick breakfast now. We don't try to maximize the costs anymore (we did that the first time in Sept. 2005). Enjoy. I'm jealous that you got the bounce back promotion. We were there Oct. 27th, then the promotion came out and ended in Dec. Then in Feb 2007 we were back. We had the worse timing this year in terms of promotions and discounts. We even had the 40% pin, but none of our planned trips this year fell during the required dates. Oh well, I'm just lucky to be able to take 4 trips a year.

 

[FirstNo]

We could never eat SO MUCH food. We DO NOT have kids...so the free dining really wasnt a benefit for us. PLUS, with free dining, we felt it was "too much under the gun" to make reservations and make sure we kept them.

We are more of the "spur of the moment" people.

You understand that the "free dining" is for two meals a day (one meal counter service, one meal sit down restaurant) plus a snack, right? I'm not certain how you think that is "so much food" unless you've had your stomach stapled and can eat no more than a table spoon full of food. Then you're right, it definitely wouldn't be worth it.

One of the many great things about it is that it is set up to be used "spur of the moment" so, again, I'm not certain as to why you would think it wouldn't be a good fit for yourself. It's fantastic for those with kids, but still a great deal for those who don't have them.

Considering the cost of food at Disney, this is one of the few times I HIGHLY recommend using a package. The deal like that doesn't get too much better.....

 

[dclfun]

I agree with the poster who said she no longer tries to maximize her value. If you are spending alot of time to compare prices, read menus to see which restaurant has the most expensive meals, etc. then to me it ruins the trip. Knowing that the dining is paid for allows me to relax and just plan what we want, not try to book the restaurant that would be the most costly, or make menu selections that would maximize our value, etc. We often used the TS for a nice late breakfast at the park or resort and then got a CS meal later at one of the parks as we tend to be slower in the morning and gear up later at night. We rarely used the snack though so came home with a lot of goodies to enjoy later. I agree though that if you are not a TS person ( and some people don't want to use the time it takes to have a TS meal either ) then the dining plan may not be a good thing for that person/party. ---Kathy

 

[kinggoofy]

In reply to the previous posters...

We just dont think free dining is for us. If we read it the right way...
for every sit down meal each of us would get an appetizer and a meal.

For lunch, we usually split a meal. ( as we are not breakfast and BIG lunch people ) What we split is usually a cheesburger / ruben. We tell the server up front what we are doing and EVERY time when have done this over the last 10 years, they bring the meal split up on 2 seperate plates.

For example, ( and this is only an example pertaining to OUR eating habits )
I dont imagine my wife eating an appetizer, ie a plate of onion rings, then a ruben sandwich with fries at Sci-Fi.

Or, I dont imagime, us eating at ESPN Club, ( one of our favorites ) and both getting an appetizer and a meal.

We are not breakfast people..basically coffee. Lunch time, we usually split. Dinners..we are on our own. BUT, for dinners, we usually share an appetizer then order "whatever". Except, obviously when we eat at Chef Mickeys or LTT.

We our AP holders and have the DDE card. For us, the DDE is more of a savings than the DDP would be.

Now, ask yourselves this question....If, the DDP was free, then why would 11 nights at CBR in August cost +/- $2,200 including a 1 day MYW Ticket for each of us.

AAA Rate at CBR is $1,584. If, and hopefully, when the AP rates come out, the Room only rate at CBR will be $1,386.00.

If the DDP was free, THEN, it should cost $1,584 or $1,386.

No AAA and / or AP rates can be applied to the DDP.

Again, its just our preference. BUT, if we had kids, it would be a different story.

As far as the "spur of the moment"...if you dont have ADR's, you will be eating dinner at 9pm at some places.

We made all of our ADR's yesterday. The CM who I spoke with already said that reservations are filling fast FOR ALL OF SUMMER.

 

[DisneyMomx7]

I'm curious about one thing in regards to AP rates for June and July. I checked our dates on WDW website (June 28-July 12) and it showed availability in all deluxes except CR. In fact there was availability at almost every room level (gv, lv, mk view, concierge etc.). I'm still keeping hope that an AP rate will be released for those dates even if it is limited to certain resorts. Of course I booked YC and Poly with a AAA rate just in case.

 

[nurse.darcy]

I think you really have to see which way is better foryou. There are some great AAA room rates to be had. The dining plan is convenient in that food is "paid for in advance" (either by paying full rack rate at Disney or getting a discounted rate through AAA and purchasing the dining plan). We did a test this past weekend of how much we actually spend per person when we eat at Disneyland. We are AP holders here and get a percentage off at nearly every place so I had to add that percentage back in to make sure I was comparing apples to apples. We ate where we wanted, what we wanted to and purchased snacks as well. All told we spent about $34 per person per day average. Granted, we didn't order dessert (no one wanted one), we didn't order appetizers (no one wanted any) and I did have a couple glasses of wine with dinner at ESPN. So if I can save money on my hotel through AAA and decide that the DDP is worth it for us then I would go ahead and purchase it, but paying rack rate and getting free dining is nearly exactly the same so therefore not worth waiting for.

 

[MariaEllerºoº]

Maybe I'm missing something along the way, but +/- $2,200 per person??? I'm really confused as to where that figure is coming from.


The dining plan isn't for everyone, but my husband and I sure enjoyed it.

In reply to the previous posters...

We just dont think free dining is for us. If we read it the right way...
for every sit down meal each of us would get an appetizer and a meal.

For lunch, we usually split a meal. ( as we are not breakfast and BIG lunch people ) What we split is usually a cheesburger / ruben. We tell the server up front what we are doing and EVERY time when have done this over the last 10 years, they bring the meal split up on 2 seperate plates.

For example, ( and this is only an example pertaining to OUR eating habits )
I dont imagine my wife eating an appetizer, ie a plate of onion rings, then a ruben sandwich with fries at Sci-Fi.

Or, I dont imagime, us eating at ESPN Club, ( one of our favorites ) and both getting an appetizer and a meal.

We are not breakfast people..basically coffee. Lunch time, we usually split. Dinners..we are on our own. BUT, for dinners, we usually share an appetizer then order "whatever". Except, obviously when we eat at Chef Mickeys or LTT.

We our AP holders and have the DDE card. For us, the DDE is more of a savings than the DDP would be.

Now, ask yourselves this question....If, the DDP was free, then why would 11 nights at CBR in August cost +/- $2,200 including a 1 day MYW Ticket for each of us.

AAA Rate at CBR is $1,584. If, and hopefully, when the AP rates come out, the Room only rate at CBR will be $1,386.00.

If the DDP was free, THEN, it should cost $1,584 or $1,386.

No AAA and / or AP rates can be applied to the DDP.

Again, its just our preference. BUT, if we had kids, it would be a different story.

As far as the "spur of the moment"...if you dont have ADR's, you will be eating dinner at 9pm at some places.

We made all of our ADR's yesterday. The CM who I spoke with already said that reservations are filling fast FOR ALL OF SUMMER.

 

[skier_pete]

OP has an excellent point..."Free dining" is just really another discount. Instead of a room discount, they are giving you a food discount. For some, 40 % off the room rate would be a better discount than free dining. This is why "free dining" is a big win for Disney...they give you a discount and use it to both fill the rooms and fill the restaurants. Giving a family 40 % off a hotel may be a similar amount of savings, but would only fill the hotel, NOT the restaurants. That's why this works so well for Disney at a slow time of year. Now, as more and more people go and the slow time gets smaller, well, then, no more free dining....but, I just need it THIS year, thanks!


SkierPete

 

[parith1114]

We did the free dinning last Sept. and had paid for it last May. While we did enjoy it I agree that it limits your time to enjoy the vacation. We had an ADR the first night we arrived at the Coral Reef and still waited over 1 1/2 hrs to be seated(SEPT). I know you have to wait sometimes anyway, but I feel the wait was excessive because everyone had free dinning. We were traveling with a 3 and 4 year old. It didn't go very well, as you can imagine. This year we have decided just to do my airline employee discount, almost 50%. We think we can still do better than booking free dinning, possibly even by $500. I hope it works out o.k. I'm still going to make ADR's for a few of our favorites, because after all DS is only 5 and DD will only be 4.

 

[kinggoofy]

MariaEller....

i'm really confused that you would think it was $2,200 PER PERSON.

its $2,200 TOTAL for the 2 people. Plus each person gets a MYW Ticket. We are AP holders, we have the DDE card. We dont need any extra tickets.

We get just about 20% off with the DDE card.

Hopefully, all the other readers knew what I meant and didn't read it the wrong way.

ITS $2,200 TOTAL.

 

[Disney's Fab 4]

We had booked the Poly with the bounce back program last November. With free dining....AFTER several weeks of hmming and so on....we decided to cancel the free dining and POLY.

We are now at CBR for 11 nights, Aug 8 - 19th with the AAA rate, water view for $1584.

We could never eat SO MUCH food. We DO NOT have kids...so the free dining really wasnt a benefit for us. PLUS, with free dining, we felt it was "too much under the gun" to make reservations and make sure we kept them.

We are more of the "spur of the moment" people.

That being said, I had a great talk with a CM today, at some point free dining is going to be offered...BUT, only if Disney feels it has to. It will all depend on bookings.

We made several ADR's this afternoon for our trip. If we keep them..fine...if not we will cancel. But at least we have them.

Also, he is fairly confident AP Room only rates are going to be offered during value season...(which starts Aug 5 ) but was "almost certain" there will be no AP rates during the summer. As of now, bookings are way up. The same thing happened last year of you all remember. Nothing was available for the summer.

Thank you for your info about your talk with a CM... I love that kinda talk... !!!!
Enjoy your vacation!!!

 

[MariaEllerºoº]

Sorry KingGoofy I must have read too fast, but I still come up with a cheaper price than $2,200 for 2 Adults, 1 day tickets for both for the same dates as you requested. You would still make out better with the AAA rate that you've secured and since you have the DDE and AP's you don't need the dining plan or tickets. For those that don't have AP's and DDE the Free Dining is going to be a better deal for them.

 

[DznyLvr2005]

We could never eat SO MUCH food. We DO NOT have kids...so the free dining really wasnt a benefit for us. PLUS, with free dining, we felt it was "too much under the gun" to make reservations and make sure we kept them.

We are more of the "spur of the moment" people.

You understand that the "free dining" is for two meals a day (one meal counter service, one meal sit down restaurant) plus a snack, right? I'm not certain how you think that is "so much food" unless you've had your stomach stapled and can eat no more than a table spoon full of food. Then you're right, it definitely wouldn't be worth it.

One of the many great things about it is that it is set up to be used "spur of the moment" so, again, I'm not certain as to why you would think it wouldn't be a good fit for yourself. It's fantastic for those with kids, but still a great deal for those who don't have them.

Considering the cost of food at Disney, this is one of the few times I HIGHLY recommend using a package. The deal like that doesn't get too much better.....

DDP is ALOT of food. BUt the hubby and I love it. It's only us and this Sept will be the 2nd time using it. The only thing that would make it 'too much' is if you're only going to eat counterservice the whole time. DDP pays for itself for us. We eat Tableservice one day and the bill would be worth over $100. JUST for tableservice, so it's like we got our counterservice for free and then some (because DDP is $39/day per person) We love it!

 

[kribit]

We also think DDP is a lot of food. We very rarely order appetizers and deserts at every meal and it's included in the dining plan. We could have definately broke even or saved money without the dining plan because we don't eat a lot of sit down meals and/or order appetizers and deserts. We saw quite a few people ordering "and wasting" food they couldn't finish because it was included in their ddp (and it was "free"). It actually really bothered me to see all that wasted food being thrown in the garbage, given there are so many starving people out there.

Anyway, we didn't take advantage of the full ddp offering because we just couldn't finish everything and didn't want to waste it.

There is something for everyone which is why Disney does so well with the DDP.

 

[dijid]

OP - I just want you to know that you're not the only ones for whom the DDP isn't such a good option. We are a family of light eaters who have never had a sit down lunch or dinner at a park or resort. We rarely eat out when we're home, and will often share like you and your DH. It just doesn't fit with our lifestyles and park touring styles either.

 

[Babyboo]

Also, he is fairly confident AP Room only rates are going to be offered during value season...(which starts Aug 5 ) but was "almost certain" there will be no AP rates during the summer. As of now, bookings are way up. The same thing happened last year of you all remember. Nothing was available for the summer.

I don't have first hand experience but I was looking on MouseSavers historical discount page and they mention an AP discount for Deluxe & DVC resorts from 6/20/06-8/5/06 & 7/5/06-8/5/06.

I was having a look to see if there was likely to be anything for our trip 06/21-06/28.

 

[kinggoofy]

I don't have first hand experience but I was looking on MouseSavers historical discount page and they mention an AP discount for Deluxe & DVC resorts from 6/20/06-8/5/06 & 7/5/06-8/5/06.

I was having a look to see if there was likely to be anything for our trip 06/21-06/28.

Yes, If i remember correctly, it was for "Selected" deluxe and DVC resorts. But, us and the mojority of the others, were left out of the AP Room Rates for values and moderates.

 

[kinggoofy]

OP - I just want you to know that you're not the only ones for whom the DDP isn't such a good option. We are a family of light eaters who have never had a sit down lunch or dinner at a park or resort. We rarely eat out when we're home, and will often share like you and your DH. It just doesn't fit with our lifestyles and park touring styles either.

I couldn't agree more with your's and kribits' comments and opinions. What a sin it is to see so much food being wasted and just tossed away.

 

[cinder1]

Just to throw this in. We've never done DDP either because we don't want to do a TS everyday. We have 4 kids and we only do a few sit downs a trip since that's all they can handle. Additionally, 2 of the kids are now "adults" according to Disney rules. One of them eats close enough to an adult to be ok, but the other barely eats a thing. Paying $38 a day for her would be over paying by at least $20 a day!! Probably more.