Who's worried about the crowd now because of the free dining?

[HaleyB]

I am new to this board and can't find an answer - WHAT IS AN "AP" DISCOUNT?????????????

AP=Annual Pass
There are special codes for room only discounts for annual pass holders.

Have you been to www.mousesavers.com yet?

 

[Suzanne74]

Another thing I didn't like about it is you are tied down to eating at certain restaurants, so you have to make your PS's in advance for those certain restaurants and stick to it. We like to have flexibility with our daily schedule... but we always were rushing to get to where we needed to eat. We just felt it ruled our trip.

I agree with this but wanted to warn people NOT using the dining plan because they want flexiblity or people using the dining plan and winging it - DO NOT, esp during this time period.

We were there about a month ago and there was not one restaurant that we went to that was taking walk-ups during dinner. I can't imagine many restautants, if any during this "free dining plan" time having PS's open or even two days in advance let alone walk-ups around 6pm. We were actually seated late on two PS's we had because of the crowds as they were yelling for walk-ups to not bother waiting in line - it was crazy . I would never go to Disney without PS's - esp with all of these dining bonuses happening. Those table service restaurants will be packed!!!! So with that said, even if you want flexibilty, I doubt you will truly have it during this time period. I think it is a lot less stressful to book PS's (any maybe cancel if plans change) then running around hungry and wanting to be seated at a nice restaurant at say, Epcot, only to find out they are all booked and you end up eating counter service in the heat.

So I have decided to do the dining plan as I love Disney restaurants as much as the parks. Even if I don't eat all that is offered, I still feel like I am coming out ahead. I think the AP rates, esp for deluxes during that time are mediocre at best. I think I will enjoy trying out more things this time and then doing an AP rate without a plan my next trip in Dec.

 

[eblondie]

If I had a 1 day ticket with the dining plan...would I be able to upgrade this one day ticket to a AP? I really wanted an AP as we will be visiting again so a AP would be worthwhile.

Also does each person in the party need to buy a 1 day ticket to have the free dining?

Sorry if these questions have already been answered.

 

[maxaroni]

I am not worried. We are taking advantage of the free dining but just made all of our ADR's. We were ones that have made ps's, that same morning. However, it is worth making all of our ADR's and perhaps not be quite as flexible to save $800.00. We have been the route of no place to eat (except cs)and being tired, hungry and hot....it's no fun. My thinking is that there will be so many people, in Disney that don't have a clue that they need to make the ADR's (don't read the boards) that it may be a nightmare.

 

[jjan]

If I had a 1 day ticket with the dining plan...would I be able to upgrade this one day ticket to a AP? I really wanted an AP as we will be visiting again so a AP would be worthwhile.

Also does each person in the party need to buy a 1 day ticket to have the free dining?

Sorry if these questions have already been answered.

Everyone in the package must have the same amount of park tickets so yes you have to get a 1 day base ticket for everyone. We are planning on doing the same thing by using our 1 day ticket to renew our AP in the Fall. I'm hoping that it will work okay.

 

[kona-kraft]

I've been going back and forth, STILL, on whether or not to do the dining or not. Luckily, I made a ressie with the dining for 9/5-9/12, since I can't get ahold of my TA for another week or so (she's traveling on the WEST coast).

Initially I determined that the MYW w/ Dining ($ 1625.50) would save us $285.00 over doing everything separate (discounted ROOM + tickets+dining OUT OF POCKET--$ 1910.40). My issue was having to pay for the ENTIRE package by 7/22. Since I still have to purchase our plane tickets, it would make things VERY tight financially until the end of July. It was looking like the MYW package would be impossible.

Last night, I sat for about 2 hours, looking at menus and trying to figure out out of pocket cost for meals -vs- the PLAN, and really determined that we could EAT if we had the MYW plan. We are hearty eaters when we're on vacation.....cause with all the running/walking/exercise, we like to stay fueled up!! So, I thought..... what could I do to adjust the front end of the purchase price for the package and STILL get the FREE DINING? Then it hit me... .....the TICKETS !!!!!!

Since we're planning to arrive at WDW around 1:30pm, we're planning to go to at least ONE park that day---possibly two. We also are planning to go into ONE park on our departure day, since our flight home wouldn't be until 7:30pm that night. So, why pay for 8days of PH tickets, when we really would only be park hopping for 5 or 6 days + one of the days we're planning to do Typhoon Lagoon. If we adjusted the tickets and only got a ONE day BASE ticket in the package, we could then decide later on ticket length for the rest of our trip.

So this morning I called 407-W-DISNEY, and had a ressie agent price modifying our booking to a one day BASE. It's a good thing I did, cause the original agent had booked us a STANDARD room, not a KING. So with the changes--1DAY BASE W/ KING ROOM 7nights w/ DINING--it's now $1292.56 !!! This means I can still get our plane tickets now, instead of having to wait until AUGUST.

WOO HOO, we're doing DINING !!!!!

Now, I just need to cancel my ressie w/ the TA