New Room Discounts - Should I Drop Free Dining??

[jkh1978]

Follow the directions in the threads about the PIN codes, and see if you can land a 20/30/40 pin code. That is good up until Dec. 16th, and we booked during the first 2 weeks in December.

I've tried 10 email addresses and no luck.

 

[MCFADDEN5]

We have found that it all depends on your resort and the age of the people in your party.
We went with 40% off at the YC a few years back, with 3 adults and 2 kids. (our daughter was 10 so classifies as an adult with the meal plan) That worked out to be the cheaper route, it was also cheaper than the by 4 get 3 free deal, becuase we were staying in a deluxe.
In Feb we went to CBR with the by 4 get 3 free and it was cheaper than the 30% off that was also available.
This year my son will be 10 as well so free dining is cheaper becasue there will b 4 adults.
You really have to worked it out in all ways possible to fiqure out what's best, taking into consideration the parties agaes, resort choice, length of stay and the possible offers out there.
With our 4 "adults" fd will save us around $1200. So it's the best deal by far. I just really hope they extend it to December.

 

[lucas]

THANK YOU!

I just called and we saved $317.25 in late August for the Beach Club/Club Level.

I am still hoping there will be an Annual Pass or Florida Resident rate, too!

 

[Missus Toad]

Just switched mine from free dining at the Poly to the 40% off + paying for dining and I saved $325. When I told the reservation agent what I wanted to do, she initially dismissed me and told me she thought FD was the better deal. I told her I thought it was questionable and could she run the numbers, and sure enough she was wrong.

 

[nowellsl]

THANK YOU!

I just called and we saved $317.25 in late August for the Beach Club/Club Level.

I am still hoping there will be an Annual Pass or Florida Resident rate, too!

Florida resident rates are out for August but it's the same as the general public discount.

 

[lucas]

Florida resident rates are out for August but it's the same as the general public discount.

Is it just thru Aug 14? Just curious.....

We are going at the end of August.

Wish the Annual Pass discounts would come out for that time.

 

[CraftyOtt]

We have initially booked for the FD deal at CSR, but as usual I find out about a possibly better deal here on DIS board (thanks DISers!!). We're a family of 4 but my 2 kids count as adults for the DP, and the youngest has major food allergies so we don't use his QS credits for his meals (but we usual use it to get a larger "snack" for the teenager - like the kid's pizza or something - just to use the credit up). Anyway, here are my numbers:

CSR for 8 nights + 5 days of tickets + FD: $2395.58
CSR for 8 nights (with 30% off) + 5 days of tickets = $1969.76
---That's a difference of $425.82 for us to use for dining OOP for 8 days. Now if we eat only at QS places (to be frugal) with an average bill of $12 per person (I know, that may be pretty low) x 3 people (I have to bring my allergic son's food because I don't trust the cross contamination issues at QS) x 16 or so meals, that comes to about $576. I'm thinking that the FD deal is better for us in this instance. Am I correct? Any other suggestions from the fabulous DISers here? As far as all of the TS ADR's and such, we did FD 2 years ago and didn't mind having a set time to have eat. We booked early dinners and didn't have to wait long for our tables.

 

[nowellsl]

Is it just thru Aug 14? Just curious.....

We are going at the end of August.

Wish the Annual Pass discounts would come out for that time.

No, it's through Oct. 2, I believe.

 

[LJD2143]

Add me to the list of FD dropouts!
Just called Disney to switch our 2 reservations at WL from Free Dining to the 40% Room discount. Between 2 rooms with 5 adults and 2 kids we saved an additional $474!

 

[TheRatPack]

I'm thinking that the FD deal is better for us in this instance. Am I correct? Any other suggestions from the fabulous DISers here? As far as all of the TS ADR's and such, we did FD 2 years ago and didn't mind having a set time to have eat. We booked early dinners and didn't have to wait long for our tables.

Yes, not to mention that you'll get snacks, drink mugs and you won't have to be 'frugal' when it comes to choosing what you want to eat at a QS meal.

I ran our numbers this morning too and with 2 rooms, 5 kids and 2 of those kids considered adults by Disney standards....it works out cheaper for us to keep the FD on one room and the Kids play, stay and dine for free on the other. I was thinking it might be cheaper...but we're also booked 10/2 as our check in so we'd have to move our vacation back a week to get in on the room discount, then we'd miss the F&W festival too LOL....it was about 200.00-400.00 cheaper for us to just stick with our current plans. Oh and we're staying Value so that makes a difference too...it probably would have saved us more if we were staying at a Mod or Deluxe.

 

[KRCMOM]

Whoo-hoo! I love that so many of you guys were able to switch and save money!!

 

[lucas]

Whoo-hoo! I love that so many of you guys were able to switch and save money!!

Yes, and all because I saw your thread!! Thanks!!

 

[CraftyOtt]

Thanks RatPack! I thought we might be better with the FD deal, but I also know that if it weren't for FD, we wouldn't get the DP so I wanted to check my math on the room only discount. My husband is the one who got caught up with the FD bug this time.....we had it on our last trip and I think it spoiled him!

 

[su_A_ve]

It all depends...

Our BB offer at POP is $1768.31 with Free dining (regular). Switching to the room only promo and adding tickets, this drops to $1661.47. This is for 6 nights. No way I can feed a typical disney family (2A, 1J, 1C) for $107.

Room only offers are great for Deluxe though...

 

[2ofUs]

But doing the room only and dropping the BB, wouldn't that limit you to just QS dining? I know our BB @ POP offered TS (we were there in September 09) but we weren't sure we were going back so we didn't book - duh on us!

Anyway, a couple of months ago we decided to do something different:

1-nite room only @ POP,
1-night with Premium pkg added. Wel get our Signature dining fix (Citricos, Hollywood Brown Derby, Flying Fish) plus a Segway tour, Magic of Steam Trains tour, Wild by Design tour, special viewing for Wishes, photo session, golf lesson for DH and La Nouba - and still save more than $400 over normal cost!
3-nites @ Wyndham Bonnet Creek Resort (right by POP);
3-nites @ Bay Lake Towers studio w/MK view (WOW - I'm gonna love this);
Both of these rooms are free to us - gifts from family for my 62nd BD (9/11).

We do have to move 2x, but we have a washer/dryer in our 2-bedroom, full kitchen & living room (and balcony overlooking Epcot) at WBC so we can do laundry half way through which REALLY saves packing!

Should be a great trip!

 

[Huff]

We make full use of the DDP. We do not go to any Character Buffets and mostly go to the more expensive of the 1 TS restaurants as well as the CS restaurants that are a better value than most. I've added up our reciepts from FD and we always save quite a bit from paying for the same meals OOP.

This year we're dining at Coral, Kona, Le Celliar, Marrakesh, San Angel, Ohanas and Boma. Ohana's and Boma are the lowest priced on the DDP but we enjoy them.

For CS we like Pepper Market, Seasons, Wolfgangs and Marrakesh which all seem like better values than many other CS's.

For people who do mostly buffets and the lower cost CS's then the DDP plan may not be worth it except when free and not staying at Deluxe with 40% off. Currently Values have 30% off but thats nowheres near the savings of FD.

 

[ADisneyQueen]

I just want to chime in some advise for any 1st timers with kids- you will be really surprised how hungry ( and if it's hot thirsty) your kids and yourselves will be. There is a lot of walking and you will need more food. That's why we like the DDP. Also, the buffets are so nice for kids because they won't get stuck with a meal they taste and don't like.

 

[beth_cam]

To be honest, I didn't read everything so this may well have been pointed out -
With free ddp, you are paying rack rate and having Free dining thrown in. With the 40% off discount, you are paying less than rack rate.

We'll say your room costs $350+tax.
Free dining = 393.75/night
40% code, add DDP (2 adults and 3 kids?) = 354.25
So with a room rate of 350/night the savings would be about $40/night better by doing the 40% code.

Since you aren't terribly concerned about sit down meals, but don't want to be watching the cost the whole time, you could even add on the qsdp instead of the DDP making the it cost another $30 less/night.

 

[jessnic95]

I, too was so excited about free dining being out yesterday that when I saw it online I picked up the phone and dialed. I never even looked at the other offers until I saw this thread early this morning. THANK YOU! I book two rooms at Boardwalk Inn - 1 with 2 adults and 1 with 2 adults and 3 kids under 10. After running the numbers with a very nice CM, I saved $400 more on the first room and $300 more on the second room than we would have with the free dining code. We just paid for the dining but it is definitely worth it! Good luck everyone and double check because in most cases it is cheaper!! Here we come WDW - 8/23-8/30!!

 

[maggiew]

Yes, not to mention that you'll get snacks, drink mugs and you won't have to be 'frugal' when it comes to choosing what you want to eat at a QS meal.

Just remember you only get the mugs on the QSDP and the Deluxe dining plan - not the regular DDP.

Maggie