need advice-Free dining or kids stay and play free?

[never growing up]

We are so excited to be able to take our boys (ages 7 and 5) to Disney World for the first time. We have settled on a time frame (endof September) which happens to fall into the "Kids Stay and Play for Free" promo. Seems like a good deal, but I know historically, in Sept, there is a Free Dining plan offered. We would have to book by the end of the month to get the kids stay and play free deal. But I have a strong suspicion that come April, we will be hearing about a new Free Dining plan during our stay. So, do we hold off just in case Disney comes though, or book the sure thing now? By the way, the Free Dining would mean saving $400 more for us.

I'm seeking advice from you seasoned Dis'rs. Anyone else in the same boat? Do you know something I don't?

Thanks!

 

[chellt]

We are so excited to be able to take our boys (ages 7 and 5) to Disney World for the first time. We have settled on a time frame (endof September) which happens to fall into the "Kids Stay and Play for Free" promo. Seems like a good deal, but I know historically, in Sept, there is a Free Dining plan offered. We would have to book by the end of the month to get the kids stay and play free deal. But I have a strong suspicion that come April, we will be hearing about a new Free Dining plan during our stay. So, do we hold off just in case Disney comes though, or book the sure thing now? By the way, the Free Dining would mean saving $400 more for us.

I'm seeking advice from you seasoned Dis'rs. Anyone else in the same boat? Do you know something I don't?

Thanks!

We booked for June with no discount. When kids stay/play free came out we just called and had it applied. Then when we got a pin for free dining, we called and asked which one would save us the most. Free dining saved us more $$$, so we switched. Not sure if this is the norm, but it worked for us!!!

 

[never growing up]

Thank you, ChellT~ I was hoping to hear a story like this! I think we'll go ahead and book then!

 

[Flowers4]

We booked our trip through a travel agent with the Kids Stay and Play Free deal and was reassured that if a better promotion came out that we would re-adjust. I have heard the same with Disney direct but I would recommend using a travel agent..it is free to you and saved us some money (I looked up exact same deal through disney direct and it was going to cost $700 more).

Our agent even worked with us on deciding which day to do which park and set our ADR. (This is also our first trip, and actually my first trip ever, So I was very thankful for the help

We used:
Stacy Dostal
Kingdom Magic Vacations, Inc.
Authorized Disney Vacation Planner
866-972-6244 EXT 736

If you haven't used someone yet.

 

[klhill]

We booked for June with no discount. When kids stay/play free came out we just called and had it applied. Then when we got a pin for free dining, we called and asked which one would save us the most. Free dining saved us more $$$, so we switched. Not sure if this is the norm, but it worked for us!!!

We called and got the kids/stay and play for free and then 2 days later got the pin code in the mail for the free dining. When I called them to see which was the better deal the free dining was another 400.00 in savings.

 

[Blackbeltdisneygirl]

Disney Travel is really great about doing what you need done. We have called in the past just to see which deal would work out better for us, and they did a comparison. If the other deal was better, we could've changed with no issues, but as it was not, we didn't. This was back when the Disney gift card promotion came out. When I book my next trip after our May trip, I will just bank on switching to a better deal when the free dining comes out.

 

[BigTikiDaddy]

What got us deciding to book this year was the free dining, only to find out my pin runs out 5 days before we wanted to go. I played around with different booking senarios and finally we decided just to book now and adjust later if a new pin got released. We went to our CAA TA and she booked us automatically with the kids stay/play free. We haven't yet added the meal plan, as we wanted to wait and see, but with playing with the numbers, I figure if we get the dining, it'll save us only around $200. (we plan to upgrade the QS to regular dining), so even if the pin never comes around, we still save roughly the same amount, making us quite happy. I'm tempted to just say the heck with it and just add the dining now, not stress over whether or not we will get a pin for it. Heck, before we booked the trip, we got in our ADRs to make sure we get where/when we want. Good luck!

 

[Flowers4]

What got us deciding to book this year was the free dining, only to find out my pin runs out 5 days before we wanted to go. I played around with different booking senarios and finally we decided just to book now and adjust later if a new pin got released. We went to our CAA TA and she booked us automatically with the kids stay/play free. We haven't yet added the meal plan, as we wanted to wait and see, but with playing with the numbers, I figure if we get the dining, it'll save us only around $200. (we plan to upgrade the QS to regular dining), so even if the pin never comes around, we still save roughly the same amount, making us quite happy. I'm tempted to just say the heck with it and just add the dining now, not stress over whether or not we will get a pin for it. Heck, before we booked the trip, we got in our ADRs to make sure we get where/when we want. Good luck!

How do you get a PIN? Is this something you have to sign up for?