The real reason POR is being excluded from Free Dining

[Eeyore's Wife]

I am one of the "evil" ones who had a reservation at POR. Please, do not vilify me until you know the particulars:

Our group can only go during the second week of September due to the schedules of the adults participating.

We were staying at POR in a Royal Room whether or not there was free dining offered. Had it been offered we would have added it to our reservation, but we will be staying there with or without free dining.

I booked our stay over six months out because we wanted reservations at restaurants that are difficult to book, so we needed the 180+10 window that comes with a room reservation in hand.

We are booked for dinner at Be Our Guest, Hoop Dee Doo, Fantasmic Dinner Package at Momma Melrose, O'hana, and Garden Grill. We are also doing High Tea at the Grand Floridian and we are eating at our preferred times on our preferred days.

Many of these dining options (or times) would have NOT been available to us if we had waited to the 180 day mark to make our reservations.

So, while I agree that someone just sitting on a reservation that they will not use does make the chances more grim for free dining, not all of us holding reservations were "gaming the system" and gumming up the works for the rest of you.

Free dining would have made the budget more tolerable, but it just means fewer fun things like Massages, Mickey Sweatshirts, purses, and tours. It also means fewer days in the parks and our eyes are really starting to wander to Universal. This year it is a day trip destination, but with all the changes and the lack of free dining at our preferred moderate resort, we are starting to really reevaluate.

This all girl's trip is for my Sister's 40th, and she really wants to "princess up" the experience with the Royal Rooms, but next year I think we will hit Universal instead and make Disney our "day trip" destination. This year we will swing by and look at the hotels at Universal. If we like what we see then Disney will be getting about $6000 less out of us next year.



There have got to be great inducements to make me vacation in the heat, humidity, and hurricane season. Between the Magic Bands and all the ridiculous hoops I have to jump through to book a Disney vacation, they are really encouraging me to stay at Universal and just come over to Disney for MNSSHP.

Edited to add: The front of the line privileges at Universal are so much less fuss and frankly, I just do NOT need any more scheduling and frustration in my life, especially during my vacation.

 

[disney*mom*82]

I dont agree with them not offering POR because of the cost for the 5th person for FD. Like it has been said, rarely is that 5th person an adult and rarely are 2 or 3 of the people adults. And I dont think each person is going to cost WDW $60 per day to eat at their restaurants. Not to mention, you are then getting 5 people worth of tickets as well (if all 5 over 3 yrs. old), so there is still profit to be gained.
I am so sad that they are not offering FD at POR, we have stayed there with FD several times, including Christmas-New Years 2011. My husband had just told me last month that if they offer FD over Christmas we will go and I was so excited until I saw no POR. I just can not justify paying double the price each night to stay at the Cabins. We are a family of 6 (one child under 3, so we are all still allowed to stay at POR), I really hope they add POR later, I will not book a room only discount, we much rather have FD.

 

[wdw4rfam]

I am one of the "evil" ones who had a reservation at POR. Please, do not vilify me until you know the particulars:

Our group can only go during the second week of September due to the schedules of the adults participating.

We were staying at POR in a Royal Room whether or not there was free dining offered. Had it been offered we would have added it to our reservation, but we will be staying there with or without free dining.

I booked our stay over six months out because we wanted reservations at restaurants that are difficult to book, so we needed the 180+10 window that comes with a room reservation in hand.

We are booked for dinner at Be Our Guest, Hoop Dee Doo, Fantasmic Dinner Package at Momma Melrose, O'hana, and Garden Grill. We are also doing High Tea at the Grand Floridian and we are eating at our preferred times on our preferred days.

Many of these dining options (or times) would have NOT been available to us if we had waited to the 180 day mark to make our reservations.

So, while I agree that someone just sitting on a reservations that they will not use does make the chances more grim for free dining, not all of us holding reservations were "gaming the system" and gumming up the works for the rest of you.

Free dining would have made the budget more tolerable, but it just means fewer fun things like Massages, Mickey Sweatshirts, purses, and tours. It also means fewer days in the parks and our eyes are really starting to wander to Universal. This year it is a day trip destination, but with all the changes and the lack of free dining at our preferred moderate resort, we are starting to really reevaluate.

This all girl's trip is for my Sister's 40th, and she really wants to "princess up" the experience with the Royal Rooms, but next year I think we will hit Universal instead and make Disney our "day trip" destination. This year we will swing by and look at the hotels at Universal. If we like what we see then Disney will be getting about $6000 less out of us next year.



There have got to be great inducements to make me vacation in the heat, humidity, and hurricane season. Between the Magic Bands and all the ridiculous hoops I have to jump through to book a Disney vacation, they are really encouraging me to stay at Universal and just come over to Disney for MNSSHP.

Edited to add: The front of the line privileges at Universal are so much less fuss and frankly, I just do NOT need any more scheduling and frustration in my life, especially during my vacation.

I don't think you are evil, we always book early and I have no problem admitting it. I have prime ADRs we want that "make" our trip. I need the 180+10 to get them. I had to go to day 10 to get BOG and day 6 for ohana. I personally saw what is available at 180, and 3 that we wanted were not on most days. Will I go anyways?? Usually, yes. I can tell you that had I been booked at POR this year, we would have switched resorts. I understand what people are saying about booking early, but for me, I'd rather risk get FD than not have my ADRs. But I'd also probably switch resorts and pay more to get FD if it was cheaper than paying OOP.
I also agree about Universal. It was our back up plan if no FD this year. We are going there 2 days, and seaworld, but with FD Disney was still a better deal. But without it, universal would have got all my money with the FOTL access, and 30%pin. ( in 15 years, never got a pin from Disney). We probably would have just drove over to Disney a couple days instead.

 

[LuzzBightyear]

And I dont think each person is going to cost WDW $60 per day to eat at their restaurants.

While this is true, you could also view it as $60 worth of sales that will not be realized. Obviously, Disney is betting the rooms will be full and many will still go ahead and purchase the DDP.

Also, just a general comment... I am not sure "blame" the ones who pre-booked with without FD in hopes of getting FD is entirely valid.

I am thinking Disney looked at previous years promotions and saw that POR got filled up very quickly with Free Dining...so why not offer it to other resort which seem to have a harder time filling up?

 

[DisMom2HAS]

We had fd at POR Nov 2013. 5 of us in a standard in the ab section. Had to take a day off our trip to get it. Bounceback FD was only good thru Sept when we were there. I am disappointed, as are my kids, that POR is excluded. We are going to try 2 value rooms this time. But still look out for POR or the possibility that CBR puts Murphy beds in with the rumored renos.

 

[mom4graceandlogan]

I don't understand the mentality that profit of any kind by Disney is bad or unwarranted. Yes, you may not eat $60 worth of food in a day or your kids may be under 9, but there are hundreds of employees being paid each day to provide the accomodations and food for you. From Housekeeping, to security, to front desk, to dishwasher,to hostess, to reservationist, to maintenance, to the person selling you a mickey bar, to the person who cleans and stocks the ice cream cooler, to the person cooking fries or stocks the buffet, to the lifeguard. It costs alot to make you vacation magical. If they have decided that a RO discount makes more sense than free dining there is clearly good reason, not a personal attempt to keep your family from having a vacation. So please keep that in mind, consider still experiencing Disney at a different resort, shorten your stay or consider not doing the dining plan. We are a family of 5 and save money every year by being lucky enough to get a room only discount(and I do consider it lucky because disney does not have to give a discount), we stay for ten days, but don't do the dining plan. We eat maybe 3 table service meals the entire trip, and split many counter service meals. You don't have to get dessert every meal. You don't have to stay onsite. The fact that you may have been lucky enough to get POR during the holidays in the past was luck and the result of a bad economy. Disney did not owe it to you. I am willing to go without a discount, and just made a reservation for Boma for my September trip and will be paying for it and for my room for family of five. For everyone getting free dining, great have a great time, pick a resort that is offering it. But don't be mad that you have picked a resort not offering it. Disney has the right to make a profit and we have the right to decide where we vacation.

 

[babydoll65]

Bottom line DIS is just trying to fill the rooms at the larger resorts in providing this offer so early. POR is one of the smaller resorts so to me they are trying to fill the POP, CBR, CS etc to get those rooms filled. I would not be surprised in another three months DIS raised room rates for the back half of 2014.

Caribbean beach resort is the largest moderate with POR being second. Coronado springs is actually smaller than the both of those but not as desirable because it's so spread out.

 

[MommyApo]

While I understand Disney is a business and no discount should be expected, I do think they could modify somethings. For example, my family of 5, 3 girls ages 10, 7 and 4, will cost Disney less to give the dinning plan to than a family of four adults. I also don't see why a moderate room cannot fit a trundle for a 5th person? I understand occupancy rules, but seriously a child under 5 does not take up that much room.

Why not allow a family of five with a child aged 5 or under book a moderate room with a trundle?

 

[Grimlock34a]

sorry if this was asked a response given, but has anyone asked a CM why POR was not offered (assuming the CM even knows)?

Did anyone contact Disney in any other manner (like complaining to a manager etc) to ask?

Just curious.

 

[aaarcher86]

sorry if this was asked a response given, but has anyone asked a CM why POR was not offered (assuming the CM even knows)? Did anyone contact Disney in any other manner (like complaining to a manager etc) to ask? Just curious.

None of the people you talk to make those decisions, so the standard answer will be that discounts are used to fill rooms.

They don't owe anyone an explanation, so they won't port forth any reasoning aside from that (if there is any).

 

[mmeeccee]

I bet that if they offer bounce backs this year, they may get a lot more bites at that too.

I have no idea if this was already addressed in this thread since I have not read all of it but there is a Bounce Back offer now. I just used it to book a weekend in October. It is 35% off of select dates.

 

[Glennie5]

sorry if this was asked a response given, but has anyone asked a CM why POR was not offered (assuming the CM even knows)?

Did anyone contact Disney in any other manner (like complaining to a manager etc) to ask?

Just curious.

I did not ask but when I was talking to a CM the other day about a different question, when I mentioned POR being excluded from FD she seemed surprised and said she would have to look to make sure it was excluded from the GPoffer, but then said she couldn't give out that info until the 7th.

 

[BuckeyeBama]

I did not ask but when I was talking to a CM the other day about a different question, when I mentioned POR being excluded from FD she seemed surprised and said she would have to look to make sure it was excluded from the GPoffer, but then said she couldn't give out that info until the 7th.

What a tease.

 

[aaarcher86]

I did not ask but when I was talking to a CM the other day about a different question, when I mentioned POR being excluded from FD she seemed surprised and said she would have to look to make sure it was excluded from the GPoffer, but then said she couldn't give out that info until the 7th.

It's excluded.

 

[Glennie5]

What a tease.

It was!

It's excluded.

I already knew it was excluded it was just part of our conversation - the CM seemed surprised that it was excluded.

 

[olecow]

sorry if this was asked a response given, but has anyone asked a CM why POR was not offered (assuming the CM even knows)?

Did anyone contact Disney in any other manner (like complaining to a manager etc) to ask?

Just curious.

When I booked the CM told me that POR Riverside had chosen not to participate in the free dining promotion this fall. Whether or not that's true I have no idea. Maybe they're not having any trouble booking rooms, maybe, as others have mentioned, Disney realized what a good deal families of five (like mine) were getting and decided to stop it. I'm just glad to be going.

 

[Bama_C]

I've wondered if fd at POR is not profitable? If a family has 3 children that are disney adults the cost of the dining plan would be about 200/night. About the cost of the room itself; essentially a 50% discount. A value suite is about $100 more/night(for my dates at least) and then families would have to upgrade or just use qsdp.

That is our family in a nutshell. We have made the most of it the past couple of years at POR_AB, staying for 11 and 12 nights w/ 10 day PH, and my Disney adult children have loved every minute of it. The freedom for them of ordering exactly what they want at a restaurant of our choice and not having to worry what it costs has been fabulous. It was a real value for our family.

This year we will be staying a shorter length of time, and we will be spending a lot less. Not sure how this works out for Disney's bottom line. But, they run a business, so they have to do what makes the most economical sense for their bottom line.

We are just happy to be going again for FD and looking forward to trying a new resort this time.

 

[disney*mom*82]

I just want to add on here that I heard there were some free dining pins going around and that they did not exclude POR. I called yesterday and asked if I had one and she said YES!! It was good for the same dates as the GP one and allowed POR. So, we are booked for Christmas and New Years at POR as a family of 6 with free dining!!

 

[Don Disney]

I just want to add on here that I heard there were some free dining pins going around and that they did not exclude POR. I called yesterday and asked if I had one and she said YES!! It was good for the same dates as the GP one and allowed POR. So, we are booked for Christmas and New Years at POR as a family of 6 with free dining!!

Nice...real nice!!

 

[Craigdarroch]

From what I can tell... POR has not be excluded (or maybe it was just excluded from the Visa promo). Lots of people are getting the FD for POR with and without a PIN.

I think this stuff is decided at the marketing level, so if a resort is already at a capacity percentage that they have predetermined is profitable, they probably won't offer discounts (or as many discounts) for that particular resort.

Things like people pre-booking or taking advantage of bounce-backs, probably fill a good portion of the more popular resorts.