Question about historical free dining and MYW

[hambirg]

I've finally bit the bullet and am planning a for Dec 2011 trip. I would love it if free dining comes out again, but my question is this. . .my kids would like to do the YES program (if they are going to relaease dates for Dec) and I figure that would save on ticket prices, BUT if they come out with free dining, how many days of MYW tickets would I be required to purchase in order to qualify for free dining? I thought it used to be only 1 day, but I swear somewhere I saw last time it was 2 days.

We would like to go for 10 days (first and last usually not park days for us) so if I could get the 5day premium YES tickets and add 2 basic MYW tickets on to get free dining (if they even offer it of course, lol) I think it would work very well for us.

Even if they don't offer free dining, could I add the dining plan this way? I'm just not sure if I'm missing anything here.

 

[doconeill]

It is my understanding that the general Free Dining promotion the last two cycles has required a 2-day base ticket purchase per person. Some bounceback free dining offers only required a 1-day base.

I'd do the ticket math though to see if it makes sense to get the YES tickets in addition to the package tickets. I don't know if you can get more than one YES ticket per child. If you have to get the YES ticket AND get a 5-day ticket, that could cost you more in the end than just getting a 10-day ticket.

 

[hambirg]

Ok thanks. I'll do the math, but I was thinking a basic two day MYW and the 5 day YES ticket with hopping and WP+ would be ok for our ten days. I'm just trying to figure out how I want to go about this. . .so thanks for the info.

 

[doconeill]

Ok thanks. I'll do the math, but I was thinking a basic two day MYW and the 5 day YES ticket with hopping and WP+ would be ok for our ten days. I'm just trying to figure out how I want to go about this. . .so thanks for the info.

Some quick math - I don't know if YES ticket prices vary, but I'm seeing the 5-day premium (PH+WPFM equiv) tickets as $183.62 (including tax - the one place Disney includes it!).

A 2-day base ticket is $162 +10.53 tax = 172.53.

That's a total of $356.15.

A 7-day PH+WPFM is $378.08. So it is cheaper (although you'd get two extra days of PH and WFPM).

 

[DIS_MERI]

Its anyone's guess if YES will be offered in Dec (or free dining for that matter, lol), but there are 8 day YES tickets, so it might be more cost effective to get YES tickets and save the 2 day tickets for a future trip if they do offer both....

 

[doconeill]

Its anyone's guess if YES will be offered in Dec (or free dining for that matter, lol), but there are 8 day YES tickets, so it might be more cost effective to get YES tickets and save the 2 day tickets for a future trip if they do offer both....

Longer YES tickets might be restricted to larger groups. I'm seeing 5-day as the max on the web site.

 

[DIS_MERI]

Longer YES tickets might be restricted to larger groups. I'm seeing 5-day as the max on the web site.

The YES thread reports them as available to Individual enrollments, but you have to be in the registration process to see them

 

[hambirg]

Ahhh. . .good to know. I guess I'll have to join the "wait and see" game. Thanks for the info.

 

[drischar]

My understanding is that you can get up to a 10-day ticket with YES. I also believe that if you decide to add the minimum 2 days to your room, you can have those tickets "removed" for use on another trip.

Depending on which hotel and therefore which dining plan, and most importantly how many people in your room, it is USUALLY a better deal to use a room-only discount over a free dining discount.