Reservations through other sources....

[chellerm]

Does anyone know, if I make reservations, say through Priceline, if I contact the resort, will I still be able to request the free dinning promotion? Along with the purchase of the needed number of park tickets.

 

[timmac]

No. Free dining, and other promotions, require purchasing a package from Disney.

 

[mcorbo]

Also, in order to get free dining you must purchase a package at full rack rate with at least 2 day park tickets at a Disney Resort.

 

[AndreaDM]

Yep, you have to book through Disney, you can't even BUY the dining plan if you book your room through someone else (well AAA but no discounters). I learned that years ago on our very first trip, booked room through Expedia, decided later to add dining plan, but no go.

 

[angelbear425]

In the long run it's generally cheaper to book the full price room with the free DDP through Disney than getting a cheaper room on Expedia, Priceline, or the like. I am going next month and staying at CSR with TS dining and it's several hundred dollars cheaper having the dining than it would've been booking though another site.

 

[chellerm]

Thanks everyone.

 

[bpesch]

In the long run it's generally cheaper to book the full price room with the free DDP through Disney than getting a cheaper room on Expedia, Priceline, or the like.

I would have to disagree. It totally depends on your circumstances and what you are looking for. There is no "one size fits all" when doing Disney bookings. It depends on your family, what you are looking for and what you are willing to settle for.

 

[Sagginit]

In the long run it's generally cheaper to book the full price room with the free DDP through Disney than getting a cheaper room on Expedia, Priceline, or the like. I am going next month and staying at CSR with TS dining and it's several hundred dollars cheaper having the dining than it would've been booking though another site.

Agree. It depends on your circumstances as stated, but our second year on free DDP my mother decided to keep track of what the out of pocket cost would have been on the food. We paid to upgrade to deluxe so we had 3 meals a day / 2 snacks. With two people we ate I think over $1000 worth of food at our meals. I think the food costs are inflated a bit to encourage the meal plan. A great starting point is to check menus and prices online, get an idea of how much you think you could spend at a min./max and decide if the increase in room rate is worth the free food.