Who else is dissapointed by this so called "deal"?

[MickeyMomOfThree]

The point of the deal is to get people there and fill 'seats' for a longer period of time so your'e there to drop money in the parks. It is a HUGE savings for a lot of people. They dont generally do things to save people money for no reason other than to save them money. 7 nights is usually shorter than I would stay there, so its great for me. The point wasn't to slash prices, but to extend stays.

Its not a 'so called' great deal, its an amazing deal for a lot of people. If you go on a lot of short stays, APs and room discs are often an option.

Its still a better deal than free dining if you go in the first three months of the promotion for a week compared to free dining. Also, free dining doesn't save any money, its just convenient, thats been covered quite a bit. There are a lot cheaper ways to eat in the parks than using the dining plan. This is at worst the same as free dining if you get free dining, and if you want the cheapest vacation possible, stay at a value and dont get the dining plan. Its also not at free dining times during the extemely hot and humid part of the year.

I don't disagree that this is a good deal for many, but for some people dining plans do save money. While you can eat cheaper, if you plan to eat many sit downs you can save money on the dining plan. We love it, we booked it paying full price in February. So when free dining came out we saved $1750 on our family of 5 and my grandparents. So for us, yes, free dining saved us money, without it we would have paid for it. We have 2 rooms for 8 nights, 5day tickets (we are planning on upgrading to 6 when we get there for the few bucks it will cost) and dining for $3300 for 7 people for Thaksgiving week. Tis deal is good if you can use it, but our deal is pretty good as well...

 

[ndgqccmiller]

We are going May 25-June1 MYW with dining. We looked at POR before the code now we are staying at the Contemporary for the same as POR. It did not save us anything but we did get to upgrade the hotel. We could have stayed at the POR and it would have saved us 500 off but I couldn't resist we have always wanted t stay at the Contemporary

 

[rt2dz]

I'm not really disappointed with the deal persay, but it's just not as big a deal as everybody was hyping it up to be.

That says it very well.

I think it is a good deal for those wanting a package for a longer stay, I just don’t think it is “HUGE”. I have seen some equal discounts in 2007, just bundled differently. You have to look at the whole bundle and not just one particular bundle. Maybe this is the best “package” offer in recent years, but even MouseSavers recommends buying the components separately most of the time.

I am especially irritated with the $200 gift card ending at 3/29, but the rest of the deal not ending until 6/27. End one deal then start the next. That’s insulting. We were just there over Halloween and will be back for Thanksgiving. There is no way I can pull the kids out of school again (not missing days for Thanksgiving) to take advantage of the $200 GC. Heck, that’s why I can’t take advantage of the birthday deal offer—all our birthdays are in the beginning of the year. And the October trip we just had and the upcoming trip for Thanksgiving were planned back in the beginning of this year so no adjustments could have been made (non-refundable portions). Grrrrrrrrrr

I did book an offer as one of our 2009 dates we are considering fall into the offer, saving me $1033.83 off rack rate with one-day base tickets to sit on. I still have plenty of time to cancel or change without penalty. I am definitely waiting to see if a good AP/room only offer comes out. I’ll use any discount as long as the bottom line number is the lowest one possible; I have no problem sitting on tickets to upgrade when I need to purchase new APs. Hopefully, our other date choice might have an offer come out prior to the 45 day mark. That might change it altogether for me. BTW—I don’t do free dining because my bottom line numbers are higher than paying for dining OOP with the Tables in Wonderland card.

 

[catne]

Sorry, I don't understand the necessity of comparing this promotion to free dining. Why is Free Dining the benchmark for determining the value of this new promotion?

This is a great deal for people who are taking their WDW vacation during the first half of the year...and the Free Dining is a great deal for people taking a Fall vacation. If you can't go in the Fall, all the free dining in the world won't help you. If you can't go in the Spring, free days won't help. If you have a choice of vacation times, then pick the one that works out better for your vacation choices.

(And it's a really, really great deal for people who are going both Spring & Fall...We're "double dipping" on Disney promos this year...free days in May & Free Dining in September)

 

[sdteacher]

We already have a reservation for 7 nights at POR. Does this deal apply to that resort also? IS it all resorts? Also, if we booked the vacation someone on another board said I could have my travel agent apply the new code to get the discount. Do you think this will work?

 

[rt2dz]

Sorry, I don't understand the necessity of comparing this promotion to free dining. Why is Free Dining the benchmark for determining the value of this new promotion?

This is a great deal for people who are taking their WDW vacation during the first half of the year...and the Free Dining is a great deal for people taking a Fall vacation. If you can't go in the Fall, all the free dining in the world won't help you. If you can't go in the Spring, free days won't help. If you have a choice of vacation times, then pick the one that works out better for your vacation choices.

(And it's a really, really great deal for people who are going both Spring & Fall...We're "double dipping" on Disney promos this year...free days in May & Free Dining in September)

I think people compare all their options to find out what *their* best deal is. And, sorry to say, that includes all seasons and all offers such as free dining. I think it is also because it was being touted being huge and/or as the best deal they have had since 2001 by many different websites/boards, and free dining is currently going on. It got people’s hopes up higher than normal.

Additionally, free dining used to be typically offered for August-September, but is now being offered through December. Some people were probably hoping for some type of free dining to be attached to this deal (buy 4, get 3 free). And then with the first 3 months being a better deal than the second 3 months, I can’t say that it is truly for all those staying for the first half of the year.

Wow. Just re-read that. I’m not as bitter as it sounds. Just an explanation. Personally, I find free dining to NOT be a good deal. We eat a lot of TS (child with allergies) and find that paying OOP is better price wise than using the dining plan. The DDP is full of limitations and the use of our credits would be pretty poor—i.e., signature meals. Especially considering until 12/1 we have one under 3 and a Tables in Wonderland card. I also fail to see the convenience since then you have to schedule everything around dining plans v. fitting your dining plans in.

 

[CindyCan]

I am disappointed. Because they offered the free dining in December I was hoping they'd extend that into January.

The 4/3 deal is great IF you need passes (we don't) AND you can stay within the dates (we can only be there 5 days during the promo).

We are considered 5 adults by Disney, and so the dining plan for free would save us $200 per DAY. With free dining, buying the 1 day base ticket for 5 would be worth it because the dining is worth so much to us. But, with the 4/3 deal, even if we could be there 7 days, the $400 in 1 day tickets wipes out the free nights.

Great deal if you can afford a deluxe. We can't. Anyway, I'm still hoping there will be a general room code that's better than the AAA rate.

And...Disney didn't get us to spend any more money with them: we would have added 2 nights at the beginning of our trip (staying offsite now), and we would have eaten exclusively on property. Now, we'll eat mostly off property & our own snacks.

So it works for some, not for others. Oh well.

 

[tamimouse]

It worked out good for us. We had already made reservations to stay at WL for 7 nites so this is saving us $700 plus the $200 gift card.

 

[Singinglizzie]

Wish it would have worked for us too. I booked my air in Aug. then out came the free fall dining. We would have gladly gone then, but were already locked in with our dates. We are only staying 5 nights and now after all the anticipation, our dates we have weren't available for the resort we want. We can upgrade but it will cost more! I will continue to check back, but at this point I think I have disneycheckingfatigueitis. It could be contagious!!!

 

[maverick61]

I am disappointed in the deal as it does not take into account anyone who wants a shorter stay

You clearly are missing the point of the offer. Disney is not doing this out of the goodness of their heart. they are trying to boost occupancy by encouraging longer stays 9under the belief that if you are there, you will spend $ in the park)

There is no reason for them to give a discount on short stays - it would defeat the purpose

And for those comparing to free dining, you are comparing apples and oranges. Free Dining has been offered during off peak times (Aug / Sept). Spring happens to be a peak time - and for spring, based on past history, this is a huge deal. For those who can only go in the spring, this is a great deal. For those with flexibility to go in the fall, free dining may be a better deal for some

 

[letthewookiewin]

If I had taken the deal they offered it would have cost me at least $800 more. The CM that I spoke to said that it was b/c the offer didn't include the room we have booked which is a MK view room on the Atrium club level at the CR.

 

[famy27]

I'm so happy this deal has been good for so many people. However, I just couldn't get the numbers to come up in my favor. We are exchaning into a 1 brm at OKW through our timeshare for Jan 16-23. The week will cost us less than $700 OOP for the room, so I knew I couldn't beat that. However, I thought I might cancel my exchange and book this offer instead and save my timeshare points for something else. I called tonight, and it appears almost all standard deluxe rooms are gone. The best they could offer me was a bunk bed room at WL for $3819 or a studio at VWL for $3650. Eek! That was also with 6-day hopper and 3-day one park tickets, as the free days are only for one park. Oh well. I will hope for better luck next time!

 

[mmmears]

We took the deal and I'm grateful to get a discount, but a 40% off room-only would be SO much better. I just cant figure out how to get Disney to send me that discount!

I agree with the previous posters who said the 40% is a better deal, but we weren't lucky enough to have that option.

 

[CleveRocks]

This deal was a MONSTER good deal for me!!!

We're a Moderate resort family. For our February trip, for my wife's 40th, I wanted to splurge, so we were gonna do a split stay, 4 nights at Coronado Springs and then 3 nights in a Tower - Theme Park view room at Contemporary (both room-only, both with the AAA discount).

Contemporary was pretty much sold out for my week, so there was no way I could get the code for the whole week at Contemporary. Instead, I booked a week in a Theme Park view room at Polynesian.

So, if you include the $200 gift card, for almost exactly the same cost I'm getting a Theme Park view room at Poly (package) as I was going to spend on 4 nights at CSR and only 3 at a Contemporary Tower - Theme Park room (room-only plus tickets).

EXCELLENT deal for me!!!

 

[Glampire31]

sounds like you all got a great deal... I will be booking my next trip shortly

 

[CleveRocks]

We took the deal and I'm grateful to get a discount, but a 40% off room-only would be SO much better. I just cant figure out how to get Disney to send me that discount!

I agree with the previous posters who said the 40% is a better deal, but we weren't lucky enough to have that option.

Actually, if you would be buying tickets through Disney and if would be staying for 7 nights anyway, paying for 4 nights and getting 7 nights is the same thing as a 42% discount.

 

[flickwizard]

Want to know why Disney offered its latest deal? Read the earnings release linked further below.

The key portions are:

Attendance at its U.S. theme parks is down 1 percent so far in the current quarter and that bookings for the first two quarters of fiscal 2009 are down "a little under 10 percent" from last year.

Disney's theme parks showed a 7 percent increase in revenue during the quarter, helped by higher guest spending. But operating profit at the unit fell 4 percent due to higher labor costs at Walt Disney World.

So the latest deal gets people into the parks by enticing them to take a longer vacation, knowing that once there, guests will spend at the park. Also, the higher labor costs comment gives you an idea why Fantasmic has been scaled back to just 2 nights and why you can expect to see similar cost savings measures from Disney in the future (i.e. cutabcks on the more people intensive attractions/offerings).

Here's the link:

http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/081106/business_us_disney.html

 

[tnd]

I'm just disappointed that I booked a trip from Jan. 2-9 instead of the 4-11. But it's booked now, and we have other people joining us, so it's not something we can change now. Lesson learned for next time I guess.

 

[Amy&Josh]

It is such a great deal, but I am not one of the lucky ones... I will be going to Disney on my tax return and will not be getting it back till Mid-Feb and the package has to be paid off at the end of Jan for my March trip..... oh well, maybe another deal will come out. One can only hope right??

 

[WDWorld2003]

We're in the same boat - January 2nd - 9th. We're splitting a stay between WL and using DVC points the rest of the trip. With this offer I would have used the points another time but flights are booked, etc. Maybe next time...