New offer is out - I waited for this???

[VickiVM]

You don't have to pay rack rate - That's the whole point. You're only paying rack rate because you're holding out for free dining. In the meantime, you could just book with one of the discounts out there, and if free dining comes out and is cheaper, then just switch it.

I currently have a 35% off mod for our family of 5 (all my kids now count as adults) and truthfully, once we add in tickets from a ticket broker, and a conservative cost for meals it is not much different than when I priced the same days as a package as though free QD were offered. So give or take a couple of hundred dollars (and keep in mind if we were to pay OOP for meals, we would be on a very strict budget) the total vacation cost either way is very close to $3K including traveling expense to and from Orlando.

So a discounted room rate would not necessarily mean the total vacation cost is cheaper. Free dining would entice us only because we would have more dining options without penny pinching. But after 5 years of no family vacations...penny pinching our meals @ Disney is not a bad option