Please Help with Dining Plan

[twinkles]

Can anyone please explain this Free Dining to me. Is this still going on? I will be in Disney Xmas week. Please fill me in all the requirements!
Thank you sooo much.

 

[honeymo78]

Free dining was offered until Oct 4 if you booked by Aug 20. You can still add the dining add on to a package (room and tickets) for $35/night/adult and $10/night/child.

 

[twinkles]

Thanks...do my park tickets have to be for length of stay or can I buy 1 day ticket and still get the dining add-on? Do you think it is worth the extra $35 add on? Me and my daughter are light eaters but my husband, well that is a different beast!

 

[jjohnson]

There's a "sticky" at the top of this board that should help answer all your questions.

 

[honeymo78]

You don't have to get los tickets, a one day pass is fine. Everyone in the room has be to be on the dining plan too. I think it's a great deal but we don't use it since we opt for the premium plan which includes more.

 

[dizplanner]

Child is defined as ages 3-9. If your daughter is 10 or older, she will be charged the adult rate. You get 1 counter service meal (including drink and dessert), 1 table service meal (includes appeatizer, drink and dessert - child off kids menu only) and 1 snack (from set list of items) per night per person. All people in room must purchase meal plan and it must be purchased for all nights. Meal credits are good from time of checkin until midnight of day of check out.

Only discount allowed is AAA package discount and AAA package must be booked with AAA travel agents. Tickets must be purchased as part of the package, but can be for any length. $35/adult and $10/child per night in 2005 - goes to $38/adult and $11/child in 2006.

The free dining was the discount of the year to get people to come in the slow time of Sept. It was good for checkins from Aug 21 through Oct 4 and had to be booked by Aug 20. There were limited number of packages available per resort.

Disney has often done some type of promotion this time of year to get people to come - free dining was the choice this year. Other years it has been Buy 4 days get 7 day packages or room discounts.

At Christmas they don't need to discount, so I would not count on free dining being available. But you can purchase it if it works for your family. Look at menus at allearsnet.com to see what you would spend on dining without the dining plan and what you would get if you did have the dining plan (this are probably not the same - you may eat at different places if you are paying out of pocket) and compare these with what the dining plan will cost you and see if it is a good deal for your family.

 

[twinkles]

thanks everyone...i will check out prices on the menus and do some comparison to see if worth my $$.

Would I be able to use for Candelight Procession? I already booked but wondering if I decide to do the add-on dining what I would need to do to transfer...if I even could?

Thanks

 

[dizplanner]

They are now including Candlelight Professional and Fantasmic package with the dining package. I don't know how they are handling it with the advance purchase nature of CP, particularly since you have already purchased it.