******Official 2017 Free Dining Plan Watch, Wait, and Dream

[KimBean]

I hate to say it but I'm seriously thinking of cancelling and booking offsite. I love disney but the discounts help people go to Disney I think people will still go but not every year like they were doing. I'm sure disney makes a lot of money already so giving discounts was very smart. Maybe they should limit the sit downs but still offer it. Like 1 every 2 days or something. Just my opinion

Stay offsite. Do whatever is best for your family. I had never stayed onsite until my last trip and I've been over 10 times. Staying offsite can be great. They offer discounts to pull what they need to pull. People will still come. If they don't they will change the discounts. You just have to play the hand you have when you want to go. But there are all kinds of ways to have fun trips.

 

[tinkarooni]

You would have to work the numbers I guess. How many days are you staying? Some people buy the tickets and then use their AP and save the tickets for a different trip. I'm assuming you go often since you bought an AP. However room discount and not having to buy your tickets might pay for your food. Without knowing where you are staying how many days etc no way to tell.

Four night trip CL beach club. I'm open to advice.

We go fairly regularly but are pretty basic, we do the same discount every time, usually free dining or Disney visa with a 7 day stay. Nothing earth shattering. I haven't had to figure out a lot of stuff in the past. I didn't even realize that you could keep the four day hopper for a future trip. I never even thought about it because we usually just get length of stay.[/QUOTE]

 

[KimBean]

Four night trip CL beach club. I'm open to advice.

We go fairly regularly but are pretty basic, we do the same discount every time, usually free dining or Disney visa with a 7 day stay. Nothing earth shattering. I haven't had to figure out a lot of stuff in the past. I didn't even realize that you could keep the four day hopper for a future trip. I never even thought about it because we usually just get length of stay.

[/QUOTE]

when?

 

[jods]

My kids

And now there are rumors about a Star Wars resort (http://www.wdwthemeparks.com/rumors/2017/02/18/star-wars-themed-resort-coming-to-disney-world)! I would honestly pay a lot to spend a couple nights there!

My kids would be in heaven! I would totally $$$ to stay there. I wonder where it would be built?

Would a tablet loaded with some favourite movies work ? Might work out much cheaper

SW

Nope. Did United once and never again. Did the whole ipad thing and portable dvd player. His peace of mind is worth the $. He would worry the whole trip about the flight home.

 

[tinkarooni]

when?[/QUOTE]
Oops, sept 11-15

 

[Obi Shaun Kanobi]

I have a reservation at POR Dec 17-26 to celebrate my 11 year wedding anniversary. I am new here, so how reliable is the news that just came out? We are taking our 4 year old, so should I go ahead and book a 2nd reservation for a standard room at POP just in case? I am afraid that if I wait until the 24th, rooms at POP will be gone. Upgrading from QS to the regular dining would still be less than my stay at POR, so saving money sounds good. My #1 choice is POR, but sounds like it wont be included, and even if it is, we would only get QS. We are wanting to take our daughter to all of the character dining spots.

 

[Rusty2rules]

First of all, I do believe they want to phase out FD in the worst way. However, they're trending down as far as filling up resorts and parks. In their quarterly call (back in January?) they said attendance was down 7% as were advance reservations. I think they were hoping once the PR machine ramped up for Pandora that would change. I'm getting the feeling it didn't. A Florida resident posted earlier that she had gotten an email offer from Disney for 50% off tickets and $49/night at the All Star resorts...for Memorial Day weekend! South American travel to WDW is way down. The American dollar is strong. Look back at the Canadian posts through this thread and see what they're saying about the exchange rate. They keep increasing prices while cutting services. I think they might have plateaued as far as what the consumer is willing spend to go to WDW. And look at Universal. They've got Disney in their sights and they're coming after them hard. Unless something drastic happens with the economy, I honestly don't see those trends reversing. My guess would be FD sticks around in some form for at least a couple more years, until SWL opens. SWL is going to be a game changer. At that point all bets are off. I think Disney will be able to pretty much name their price once that opens, at least for a couple of years, until the newness has worn off.

All I know is the last numbers I heard were SA visits were way down.

 

[KimBean]

My kids


My kids would be in heaven! I would totally $$$ to stay there. I wonder where it would be built?

Nope. Did United once and never again. Did the whole ipad thing and portable dvd player. His peace of mind is worth the $. He would worry the whole trip about the flight home.

I have one kid with anxiety and sensory issues. The other OCD and sensory issues. So I get the obsessive worrying that isn't always logical. Just curious what the difference is? Does he worry it will break, run out of batteries? Not asking for any other reasons of curiosity and understanding making plans to squish as much of this so they can have fun and be kids for awhile.

 

[KimBean]

I have a reservation at POR Dec 17-26 to celebrate my 11 year wedding anniversary. I am new here, so how reliable is the news that just came out? We are taking our 4 year old, so should I go ahead and book a 2nd reservation for a standard room at POP just in case? I am afraid that if I wait until the 24th, rooms at POP will be gone. Upgrading from QS to the regular dining would still be less than my stay at POR, so saving money sounds good. My #1 choice is POR, but sounds like it wont be included, and even if it is, we would only get QS. We are wanting to take our daughter to all of the character dining spots.

If it isn't available on April 24th then you won't be able to modify your room for availability either. Having a room doesn't give you an advantage.

 

[SouthernSoprano]

I may just be one who gets stuck on the phone half the day then My modify button doesn't work.

I don't have a modify/change button at all. Guess I'll have to call and hope my wait isn't all day.

 

[TomServo27]

My kids would be in heaven! I would totally $$$ to stay there. I wonder where it would be built?

I'm sure if they do this it be by ds.

 

[KimBean]

when?

Oops, sept 11-15[/QUOTE]

Okay so that looks like $557 a night, $2500 total just for the room. Using the summer room discount as a guide for a HOPEFUL fall discount it would be 20% off so $500. So $2000, 5 days for your husband without hopper is $370 with park hopper is $445 (didn't know which one you wanted.) then your food costs.

2445 + Food OOP

With free dining you have to pay $2500, plus tickets for both of you with park hopper $890.

$3390 with dining included.

So it's just the question of whether you can eat for less than $945.

Of course this is just all my speculation and I could have it wrong... and remember that is IF 20% discount would cover your dates etc.

 

[agassizsmile]

Yeah, next weekend, starting Friday night should be telling. I looked through the entire thread from last year and from what I recall, on that Friday before Monday, people were expecting it to drop that Monday! And it did!

Call me nuts but I'm calling in sick that day.Not going anywhere kids staying home!

 

[sharonabe]

So if you're booking a new reservation for a value or mod on the 24th, do you pick QS dining plan, apply the offer and call later to upgrade to the standard plan or can you pick the standard plan and when you apply the offer it'll give you the price to upgrade?

Actually, you click on the special offer FIRST and then it should show you the options. If you don't click on the special offer, it won't show you free dining at all.

 

[trucker den]

Call me nuts but I'm calling in sick that day.Not going anywhere kids staying home!

Your nuts!!

 

[Obi Shaun Kanobi]

If it isn't available on April 24th then you won't be able to modify your room for availability either. Having a room doesn't give you an advantage.

Yes, but I am hoping to be online at 4am on the 24th to get this done We really wanted to stay at POR but there is no way I can afford our trip without free dining. It would add nearly $1000 to our bill. This morning when I woke up to check prices, nearly every hotel that had standard rooms available yesterday no longer do. Everything is now preferred rooms and $50-$100 more a night. I think everyone is booking now with these rumors coming out. I wish things were certain, lol. This is killin' me!

 

[agassizsmile]

I agree. I'm already planning to stay offsite next time. Pool and hot tub baby!!

agreed, and Disney has said a few years ago that they would be scaling back on discounts. seems like there are few "slow" periods anymore where they need to offer significant discounts to get people to book. October used to be a slower time and now the whole month is excluded from FD.

I think there will still be Fall discounts but maybe Stay/Play/Dine might replace FD in a few years.

Bet Disney loses customers as more shorten trips or stay off site.Especially if they keep raising prices every year

 

[KimBean]

Yes, but I am hoping to be online at 4am on the 24th to get this done We really wanted to stay at POR but there is no way I can afford our trip without free dining. It would add nearly $1000 to our bill. This morning when I woke up to check prices, nearly every hotel that had standard rooms available yesterday no longer do. Everything is now preferred rooms and $50-$100 more a night. I think everyone is booking now with these rumors coming out. I wish things were certain, lol. This is killin' me!

So you shouldn't book a room. You should wait and book a room at 4am on 4/24. Much easier and more reliable to book a new reservation then to modify an existing one.

 

[mousefan73]

Four night trip CL beach club. I'm open to advice.

We go fairly regularly but are pretty basic, we do the same discount every time, usually free dining or Disney visa with a 7 day stay. Nothing earth shattering. I haven't had to figure out a lot of stuff in the past. I didn't even realize that you could keep the four day hopper for a future trip. I never even thought about it because we usually just get length of stay.

[/QUOTE]
If you have CL ( breakfast covered and snacks

Oops, sept 11-15

Okay so that looks like $557 a night, $2500 total just for the room. Using the summer room discount as a guide for a HOPEFUL fall discount it would be 20% off so $500. So $2000, 5 days for your husband without hopper is $370 with park hopper is $445 (didn't know which one you wanted.) then your food costs.

2445 + Food OOP

With free dining you have to pay $2500, plus tickets for both of you with park hopper $890.

$3390 with dining included.


With CL you have part of the dining covered... Breakfasta and snacks and drinks. How many are in your party?? If you are a room of 4 with 4 disney adults planning on everynight character dining. that is expensive and DDP is a win. but If you are couple sharing a room I would really crunch the figures and decide what your dining is like. F&W is this year early.. we are also at BC and i plan snacking a lot there.

 

[KimBean]

Bet Disney loses customers as more shorten trips or stay off site.Especially if they keep raising prices every year

When they do they will increase discounts. What they need to do is to figure out a way to entice offsite people to spend more time at Disney. Offsite people get no perks besides ticket price decreasing over more days purchased. If resorts aren't the issue but offsite people aren't coming then the need to motivate the appropriate group.