Would you consider not using your points

[PEANUT1]

Would you consider not using your points to do free dining? We are considering going for a third time this year to get full value of our annual passes. We would have to go before Oct 24th and I was consider going in Sept to do free dining and saving our points for next year. This is assuming of course that they have free dining this year. I don't even know exactly when it might be.

I've never done free dining before but thought it might be a cool idea. We would probably stay at a moderate bc we'd have to pay full rack rate. Would anyone do this?

 

[Tinker74]

We did this last year...We actually booked free dining then became members a few months later. ..Instead of cancelling free dining and booking using our points we kept the free dining package and rented out points.
This year free dining was offered again to us in the UK but we are not taking it up we are booked into BCV and VWL this August with our points.
free dining was great and Iam glad we took it up but iam looking forward to finally using our points and staying in deluxe DVC

 

[wildernessDad]

You don't have to buy tickets in order to get the free dining?

 

[chalee94]

yeah, they would have to buy at least an additional base ticket (i think) for each person in the group to get free dining. they could use the base tickets later, or maybe upgrade them or something...

just be aware that free dining does not include tips or apps like it did last year.

 

[todd222222]

maybe I'm wrong but I thought you could only use the tickets within a package during your stay....

 

[ChelleinNC]

I would think you'd be better off using your points and getting the DDE card since you have AP's. Just my 2 cents

 

[dianeschlicht]

I didn't buy DVC to pay rack rate for a moderate. No, I'd probably stay at a DVC resort with my points, and payf ror the dining plan (if that's what you want), and definitely be money ahead over paying the rack rate and the tickets.

 

[surfer_ed]

maybe I'm wrong but I thought you could only use the tickets within a package during your stay....

I thought so too. You need the whole thing, so AP would not be of use.

 

[PEANUT1]

I think you have to pay for a one day ticket for one person.....like I said, I was just considering it...possibly to save points so we can do a bigger trip next year and invite family to come with us.

 

[ldo]

you can save them and use that anytime. you can apply them to AP and even get DVC discount. You can upgrade them to more days tickets. They KEY is you cannot use any part of the ticket. I even had mine loaded onto a SEPARATE stand alone ticket--although MS at the hotel told me that it was fine to just stay on my room card---but I wanted it clearly marked as a single day ticket. If prices go up, you only get credited the amount you paid.
Free dining "saves" you $38 per day for adults and $10 or so for kids and under 3 is free anyway--so, you have to decide if that ($90 or so for 2 adults 1 kid and 1 toddler) is worth it to you.
If you would definitely use your points the next year and you are OK with a single room vs. a 1 BR, then I would probably go for it--you can use your annual passes this trip, and save the single day ticket to apply towards tickets the next year when you use your DVC points. We did 4 "free" character meals last summer---there is no way I would have "paid" for that--it was very fun!

 

[CarolA]

Keep in mind that for the UK visitors they are only offering free dining for Mods and up... No value resorts. At that point the savings are less.

 

[MinnieGi]

If you have plans already for those points and still wish to do another trip, I think going at free dining time (plus low attendance) would be fine.

Last Feb. we had already booked a trip for HHI and another week in Nov. for WDW but still wanted to take a winter break vacation. So we booked a FW cabin on AP discount and paid cash. We got to check out FW and got a nice warm-up and did not borrow any points.

 

[PEANUT1]

thanks for the replies...my husband doesn't seem too hip to the idea. he thinks it will be too hot! my feeling is that i can deal with the heat as long as the crowds aren't bad.

 

[spiceycat]

did it last year - doing it this year - last year was All stars sports - this year is Pop Century - got the bounce back while at WDW last Sept.

just rent enough points to pay for it.

you only have to buy a one day ticket - which can be used to buy your annual pass.

last year with 4 adults it was worth it.

this year with only me - don't know - probably not - but hey the trip is booked can cancel it but probably won't.

 

[bluenosemickey]

I read somewhere lately that there were changes made to allow AP holders to book DDP without having to buy the single day pass anymore. I'm sorry I can't recall where I saw it, but it was definately in the past few weeks.

You could check it out.

We did free dining last Sept. It was really hot, but I like the heat. 90 most every day. Lots of thunderstorms, but they didn't last. Found the crowds to be bad in afternoons, but less than xmas. The food venues were very busy as you can imagine.
I would denfinately go back in Sept in the future, but I would go using my points. With the tips having to be paid OOP, the hassle of getting 5 of us fed on the DDP, I just don't think the stress would be worth it.

We bought DVC right after the free dining experience! But I'm glad I have at least taken advantage of it once. And that's enough!

Cheers

 

[Chuck S]

I read somewhere lately that there were changes made to allow AP holders to book DDP without having to buy the single day pass anymore. I'm sorry I can't recall where I saw it, but it was definately in the past few weeks.

You could check it out.

We did free dining last Sept. It was really hot, but I like the heat. 90 most every day. Lots of thunderstorms, but they didn't last. Found the crowds to be bad in afternoons, but less than xmas. The food venues were very busy as you can imagine.
I would denfinately go back in Sept in the future, but I would go using my points. With the tips having to be paid OOP, the hassle of getting 5 of us fed on the DDP, I just don't think the stress would be worth it.

We bought DVC right after the free dining experience! But I'm glad I have at least taken advantage of it once. And that's enough!

Cheers

I read that, too. But it probably wouldn't apply to free dining. And you certainly wouldn't be able to get an AP discounted room and free dining, what would be the advantage to Disney?

 

[icouldlivethere]

We did the free dining last year in September. I really enjoyed it and had a really good time. I don't tolerate heat very well but surprisingly I didn't really have a problem with it with the frequent showers to cool you off a little I did just fine.

We went to the sales pitch at Saratoga Springs and saw both the SSR and AKV villas while we were there. We also went to the AKL to eat at Boma's. We decided not to buy in at the time because we didn't want to have to purchase 160 points.

After getting home I did a lot of research on these boards and we decided that 100 points resale at BWV would be the best fit for us. We just passed ROFR and are awaiting closing.

We took advantage of the bounce back offer with the free dining and booked for this September at the PC. Last year we stayed at the ASMo. Last year I got 10 day tickets with no expiration and we only used 4 days so we have 6 days left.

I think I'm going to cancel my PC trip because we would have to buy 1 day tickets for both of us and we don't need them. We are empty nesters and there would just be 2 of us going. The more people in your room the better the free dining deal is. I don't really care about the elimination of appetizers but having to pay for the tip decreases the value of the deal for us. Desserts are included but I can't eat sugar so I wouldn't normally order a dessert. We aren't big eaters and don't typically go to sit down restaurants every day.

Now that we are almost DVC owners I think we will eat breakfast in our room every morning and maybe use our DVC discount for a couple of sit down meals at lunch time and then just eat a lighter meal at dinner time.