Unhappy with Free DDP Dates

[Disneyfamfan]

I know I should not complain. However, the only way we could travel across the country to go to Disneyworld for the 10 day trip we wanted, staying at POP Century, was if we received free dining. We are booked for August 9 - 19, 2007. The reason I booked this is also because of school dates, and our daughter will be starting high school. Another reason is because people from UK were getting free dining from Aug 5 thru Sept. as well as bounce back. Now, the people from the UK did not do bounce back, but yet they get the free dining. We live in Oregon and thats a long way to travel. Oh well, not sure what to do now. Someone mentioned we should get a AP, and that we would get a discount on our resort, and 10% off dining at Table service. Well, how much is an AP? They also said that we could use it again before the 12 months was over, well not if we live on the west coast, its just too far away. Sorry for such a long post, just feeling sorry for myself and family.

 

[robinb]

I'm sorry that things didn't work out for you . Last year's free dining didn't start until 8/13 after the Florida kids went back to school and I am not surprised that they pushed it back even more this year.

Unfortunatly, I don't see puchasing an AP as the solution. Even if you purchase an AP for only one person, you'll pay $185 more for it over a 10-day park hopper. IIRC, AP rates at Pop were about $75-$79 per night last August. Once you add in the extra cost of the AP, you are back at just about rack rate . You can look at staying off-site in a condo which will save you some money, but then you'll need to pay for a rental car which will eat up any savings. www.skyauction.com has some great deals and at least you will have a kicthen to cut more costs.

If you really want to stay on property you cannot change your dates, I would recommend cutting a few days off your stay down to 7 days. That will save you over $300. I would then look into eating as cheaply as possible. Bring breakfst food and snacks from home as well as a collapsible cooler to keep orange juice, milk, etc. You can eat for a lot less than you will pay for the dining plan!

 

[Zooey72]

I know I should not complain. However, the only way we could travel across the country to go to Disneyworld for the 10 day trip we wanted, staying at POP Century, was if we received free dining. We are booked for August 9 - 19, 2007. The reason I booked this is also because of school dates, and our daughter will be starting high school. Another reason is because people from UK were getting free dining from Aug 5 thru Sept. as well as bounce back. Now, the people from the UK did not do bounce back, but yet they get the free dining. We live in Oregon and thats a long way to travel. Oh well, not sure what to do now. Someone mentioned we should get a AP, and that we would get a discount on our resort, and 10% off dining at Table service. Well, how much is an AP? They also said that we could use it again before the 12 months was over, well not if we live on the west coast, its just too far away. Sorry for such a long post, just feeling sorry for myself and family.

I may a big child but I would just take the kids out of school for it. I was going to do that before free dining came out (even before I knew it existed). Yes, school is important but they can make up a week of school. Even if a grade got lowered I doubt it would impact them for the rest of their lives. Going to Disney World is something they will remember for the rest of their lives a lot more than the "B" they got in english rather than a "C".

I was planning on going during labor day week before free dining came out. Like you my GF's daughter is just starting HS. I wanted labor day week just because it is the slowest time of the year for Disney and I hate lines. We are going to be spending close to $8000.00 on this vacation and I want it to be something they will always remember.

That's just me, I wouldn't presume to tell anyone how to raise their children.

 

[bicker]

I actually never understood why value season began in early August. When I was in school (oh so long ago ) school vacations were from late June until Labor Day, so I'd expect the parks to be packed all through that time. I suppose the invention of air conditioning might have changed that. However, it does appear that a lot of schools are switching back to starting up after Labor Day again, now, so that would mean that they don't need to provide a lot of incentive for guests to vacation at WDW during August anymore.

The "taking children out of school" debate has raged online for years, though. I am torn, myself. We hate queues, but don't want to communicate to the little ones that anything should ever come before their education.

 

[Katiebell]

I totally understand. Why can't free dining be in May when DH and I pulled off a miracle and managed to get a week off work at the same time?

Seriously, free dining is offered when Disney expects their slowest time of year -- hurricane season, the weather in Florida is hot and muggy, the kids are back in school so fewer families are traveling. It's been so successful in the past, and I suspect so many people already booked vacations during the "traditional" free dining period this year hoping for the announcement, that Disney decided to scale it back a bit, maybe as an experiment to see what happens? If the resorts are already pretty full during August, why would they offer free dining if they don't need to? If their slow season isn't "slow" this year, I would not be surprised to see Disney scale back even further next year, or not offer dining free at all -- maybe some other incentive. Who knows? The only thing certain is change

I'd love to have free dining -- it's our first trip to WDW, and we couldn't find a break on the plane tix (until AFTER we already paid for non-refundable tickets so it was too late), we paid rack rate for our room (because we went with a non-AAA travel agent who couldn't get us our AAA discount), and paid full price for the dining package. But if we could have gotten a break on anything, we might have been able to get a room at a moderate, rather than a value. We had to decide where we could reasonably trim the budget, and the hotel room was our best shot -- we'll probably only sleep there 6 hours a night anyway...

But even so, we are finally going to WDW, and so of course I'm happy about that -- better to go paying full price, than not to go at all. Next trip though, I'll know a lot more before I start planning, and will be better informed on what discounts might be out there.

 

[Nancyg56]

I too am a little disappointed with the dates the FD is offered this year. I would have liked to take my DGD for a little before trip and the FD was an incentive for an extra but I can't take her out of school the first week she is back. We started after Labor Day when I was a child and have never understood starting before, but it is what it is I guess.