What is 'Free Dining'?

[JennyN]

Ok I've seen mentioned in various posts 'free dining'. What is this? I feel I'm missing something.

 

[PinkBudgie]

Did you see this on the DLR boards? If so, I've missed something too. The only place I've seen this offered is at WDW.

 

[disneymom0104]

Disney Destinations sent out promo codes through e-mail. As far as I know it was just random as to who got them. It was never available on the Disneyland website.

The promo was for travel between Aug. 22 and Oct. 12. If you booked a room at one of the 3 resort hotels, you got the dining (voucher) plan for each night of stay (max. 5 nights). The vouchers give you one character/sit down meal, one counter meal and one snack per day. They have a dollar amount on them- which is different than at WDW. Getting the dining plan free means you are paying rack rate for the hotel room. We still thought it was a pretty good deal!

 

[skiingfast]

Free Dining = not so free dining.

Often raved about as a great or the best promotion ever on the WDW boards. Some people won't visit without it.


As mentioned to get these deals you often pay a higher room rate. That's where the math needs to come into play. When I did this I saved $10 with the "Free Dining" promotion over the cost of room+tickets+dining package. $10 is not a lot of savings over multi thousands when visiting WDW. At least I saved something, some do better some do worse. It really depends on family size, trip length and resorts choice.

 

[larina]

What skiing fast said. You have to take everything into account and crunch the numbers to see if it works for you. A lot of people swear by it.

I could have sworn that the offer was on the Disney site under special offers for a quick minute earlier in the summer, but who knows?? Maybe I just got the offer in my e-mail...

 

[skiingfast]

I could have sworn that the offer was on the Disney site under special offers for a quick minute earlier in the summer, but who knows?? Maybe I just got the offer in my e-mail...

"Save up to $450 when you purchase a 4-night hotel/3-day Disneyland Resort vacation package — and a FREE Character Dining experience is included! Offer valid for arrivals most nights from August 14, 2011 through September 28, 2011 when you book by September 24, 2011.."

I saw some people who found this on Cosco, AAA and other third party sites. It caused some initial excitement. It seems they confused it with a free dining plan for Disneyland when it is just one meal.

 

[disneymom0104]

It is a pretty good deal for us. I agree at WDW it is less of a discount- and there are many ways to work it. For us we will pay $250 per night at PP and "get" $166 per night in vouchers. We are people that would have eaten one character or table meal per day. It will be our first time to DL as a family. I cannot get an on property room discount that is as good as this. We were originally looking at staying off site- and while that is cheaper- once we added in the meals (not all of them being at Disney- but most)- this comes out better. Plus we will get all the perks of staying on site, which can't be put in to a $$ amount. Staying at GCH with free dining would not be as good of a deal- I am sure you can get a better room discount.

We have done WDW with free dining and without. Free dining certainly isn't something we must have to go, nor do we choose it every time. But- this seemed like a pretty good deal to us for Disneyland (since there is no savings on the dining plan there anyway- where WDW claims 20% savings). Anyway- I totally get that it is not for everyone- but I wouldn't say it is a bad discount, either.

Our total package was $2100 for 6 days/5 nights at PP with all meals included. I don't think that is bad at all. If we were spending $1700 off site without meals- we would easily spend $400 on meals over 6 days since we would be doing a lot of character dining anyway. I don't think I could stay onsite for that price without free dining