last year when they did free dining...

[ptmmg]

did they say that the number of rooms was limited from the begining. I know they extended it last year. Are they trying to psyche us out by telling us this. I am soo afraid I will not get a room of my choice even though I am already booked. I am afraid that to get free dining I will have to go with a deluxe which will make the free dining not worth it. Oh I just can't wait until Tuesday when I can book this!!!!!

 

[bigbabyblues]

I think it's limited to a certain # of rooms per night at each resort. Last year I tried to get Pop on the free dining, and I couldn't get it, but I waited until 3 weeks out to try and book, and the offer had been out for quite a while.

 

[Aimeedyan]

No, they usually limit room availability. That's the way with all special vacation deals, really. Cruises, packages, all inclusives, etc. Companies just set aside a group of rooms for each package.

 

[JillandFamily]

could someone please explain to me this free dining thing. Ikeep seeing all these posts about it but I haven't seen it explained.Thanks

 

[lark]

could someone please explain to me this free dining thing. Ikeep seeing all these posts about it but I haven't seen it explained.Thanks

If you go over to the restaurant board, you'll see a whole subboard for the disney dining plan. This is an option available to those who purchase magic your way packages (which are packages that include the hotel room and park tickets). Basically you pay about $42/day per adult and $12/day per child (after tax) for the dining plan. So, for example, if you're a family of 4, 2 adults and 2 children, it costs about $110 for each day of your stay. For this you get credits toward meals -- 1 table service meal, 1 counter service meal, and 1 "snack" per person per day.

It's very flexible and can be used at most of the onsite restaurants. (A very few restaurants are premium restaurants and you have to use up 2 table service credits.)

People -- particularly those who are good at planning their trips -- love the dining plan, because if properly used it can save you a lot of money. This is part art and part science -- again, check out the dining board to learn more.

The "free dining" promotion means that you get this package entirely free, if you book the package. You have to pay the full rack rate for the hotel room, and use a package that has park tickets, but if you do that, you get the dining for free. For a family of four, this turns out to be a savings of about $110 of ordinary rack rates per night. When you couple that with the fact that the dining plan, when used correctly, can save you additional money you'd otherwise spend for dining, people just love it.

Now, how much is the dining plan worth to you? You need to learn about it before you can decide. Disney makes money on the dining plan, or else they wouldn't do it. That's because most people don't understand how to take true advantage of it and end up spending considerable amounts of money in addition to the dining plan. Other things that may not make it right for you might include not being super vigilant about getting ADRs for the table service restaurants that will save you money or not being a big sit-down table service dinner kind of person.

 

[cobbler]

Yes they do limit the number of rooms avail for the package. I tried to book for my father at a resort last year and there wasn't any availibilty for the free dining but for the resort itself there was.