what is free dining?

[leahjade]

Could someone explain the free dining offer? Is it free food for everyone who buys the unlimited hopper pass along with a hotel reservation? What meals are included? Is there a limit? Thanks

 

[izzyBandlivismom]

I believe that free dining was offerend in August and September last year and has been offered to a few who were there in December/Jan for return trips. to my knowledge it has not been offered to the public yet. And we really don;t know if it will be.

I think that last year it was the Disney dining plan but it was free and came with your hotel resevation and park tickets.

 

[EmptyCinema]

As izzyBandlivismom said, it was the standard Disney Dining Plan, just at no charge. It was offered as a free portion of a standard package: i.e., you had to buy tickets and on-site resort stay for the same time period as you wanted the dining.

 

[TDC Nala]

You do not have to buy tickets for the length of stay to qualify to purchase the dining plan. You can if you want to.

Free dining is a promotion to encourage attendance and onsite stays at traditional low attendance times, specifically targeted at the height of hurricane season (mid-August through September), which scared off a lot of potential travelers after the seasons of 2004 and 2005. If you called Disney and purchased a package including an onsite room at regular rack rate, plus a minimum of a one-day base ticket, they would throw in the standard Disney dining plan, originally priced at $39.99 per night of your stay for anyone over 10 years old and $10.99 for children under 10, at no extra cost. Everyone staying in the room had to have the same package and buy the same type of ticket.

I am not going to go into the particulars of the dining plan here, there are plenty of posts on the dining plan board that will help explain.

For 2007 it has currently been offered only to visitors from overseas and anyone who was able to book a trip while actually staying at a WDW resort in November and December.