YOU Don't Get Free Dining, And YOU Don't Get Free Dining!

[Jadyreen1282]

Same folks that complain about the young girls in cheer groups making memories of a lifetime and the scooter invasion. To each to his own I say.

I also say if you can't afford Disney sell a kid or go to the Dells. It helps our local economy.

 

[verleniahall]

I'm not going to delay booking my vacation so you can have free dining. 180 plus 10 is good. You getting a discount is none of my concern.

We book bounce back to avoid the pain.

I agree - we know when we watn to go and if we get a discount, great, if not, no biggie to us. If you are having THAT hard of time making it to disney without FD - maybe you should take a year off or reevaluate your budget and expenses. I am not going to put off booking MY vacation becuase someone might not get FD.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

What you do is what you do. It's not much use saying that failing to achieve free dining is the fault of other persons who went ahead and booked their reservations because they weren't even thinking about getting free dining.

 

[Nancyg56]

What you do is what you do. It's not much use saying that failing to achieve free dining is the fault of other persons who went ahead and booked their reservations because they weren't even thinking about getting free dining.

I agre, but I think it is a little hard to read the complaints of all those folks who booked on the premise that they would simply change their reservation when FD came out, and then found out that it is not that easy any more. Now they are peevish with Disney, but we all told them the more errors booked, the less opportunity there would be to apply FD to their current reservation.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

Well, you can change your reservation when it comes out, but only if that same reservation is available with free dining. If you've been reading here long enough, you know that availability on the promotion is narrowing year by year. And the reason that availability is narrowing is that more people are booking WITHOUT a discount. Just because you did it last year does not mean you will be able to do the same this year.

WDW doesn't offer free dining because it "loves" its customers. It does so to encourage persons who haven't already booked a resort stay to book one.

 

[isaboo]

I don't recall anyone telling everyone else to put off booking their vacation if they were going no matter what. What I've seen is people suggesting that if you are only willing to go if you get free dining that you should wait until the promotion actually drops. I've always wanted to see Disney at Christmas! We normally go during the summer, stay at BC or YC with a room discount and pay for food out of pocket. We needed this to be more of a budget trip, so we're staying at a moderate with free dining. We were not going to go if that didn't happen, so I waited to book. We have five Disney adults in a room at CBR, so the savings is big!

 

[Nancyg56]

I don't recall anyone telling everyone else to put off booking their vacation if they were going no matter what. What I've seen is people suggesting that if you are only willing to go if you get free dining that you should wait until the promotion actually drops. I've always wanted to see Disney at Christmas! We normally go during the summer, stay at BC or YC with a room discount and pay for food out of pocket. We needed this to be more of a budget trip, so we're staying at a moderate with free dining. We were not going to go if that didn't happen, so I waited to book. We have five Disney adults in a room at CBR, so the savings is big!

I had booked a BB but thought we may need another room. I waited til FD and then booked the second room.

 

[Lisa F]

If Disney truly loved you, the way you love Disney, free dining would not be so limited.
But alas, true love is hard to find.

disney doesn't love you. they love your money. if you're gonna give it to them anyway, no need to take you to dinner before they screw you

 

[celina14]

Maybe I'm missing something but I guess I don't understand why having an existing reservation is any different... I mean couldn't you just have booked a new reservation and cancelled the old one. If it wasn't available for your room that you had booked then it wasn't available for that room for new bookings by that time anyway right? I had a reservation booked already and luckily my TA was able to change my reservation to get FD but we had to change resorts completely. We were going on the trip regardless so I made my reservation months ago at the resort I preferred to stay at. That resort was not included in FD so we have to settle for a different resort but now we get FD so it's worth it to us to make those changes. I don't feel like I was at a disadvantage because of already having a reservation. Nor do I think I should have had an advantage because we were already booked. I would have still gone on our trip w/o free dining but this is an added bonus. I think I was just lucky since it was showing sold out online but my TA was able to get through on the phones and find availability.

 

[Nancyg56]

Maybe I'm missing something but I guess I don't understand why having an existing reservation is any different... I mean couldn't you just have booked a new reservation and cancelled the old one. If it wasn't available for your room that you had booked then it wasn't available for that room for new bookings by that time anyway right? I had a reservation booked already and luckily my TA was able to change my reservation to get FD but we had to change resorts completely. We were going on the trip regardless so I made my reservation months ago at the resort I preferred to stay at. That resort was not included in FD so we have to settle for a different resort but now we get FD so it's worth it to us to make those changes. I don't feel like I was at a disadvantage because of already having a reservation. Nor do I think I should have had an advantage because we were already booked. I would have still gone on our trip w/o free dining but this is an added bonus. I think I was just lucky since it was showing sold out online but my TA was able to get through on the phones and find availability.

It would be fine if you could get the days you wanted at the price point that was in your budget. But for many, their days were locked in, so no adding or dropping days.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

It's not that you were at a disadvantage...but you did have to change resorts. If the resort meant more to you than the discount, no FD for you this year. That's what the complaint is about; that some are used to getting free dining at their preferred resort, even if they booked it ahead. No reason not to book it ahead if it is the resort you really want and you'd stay there with or without free dining, but no guarantees that you'll get free dining at your preferred resort anymore (if there ever were guarantees).

 

[disneyAndi14]

We don't do FD because it just is not cost saving for us. I looked for fun at the packages with free dining and to me it looks like the packages are very expensive, maybe because the park hopper is a must with the FD but packages for Value and moderate resorts just seem so high. I would really crunch numbers because it looks like you may save more not doing FD and maybe doing room discounts especially with Orbitz or some travel offers that really give deep resort discounts. We are going in August and our 7 night trip for GF is such a great deal, it is magical. I will have much extra money for all the dining we want OOP.

 

[Kimberly9701]

Thanks! I have no clue how that happened! Mind you, I'm in no way saving the kind of money other people are saving by staying at a mod or value. I guess because originally I was paying rack at a deluxe and full price for the dining plan? When I switched to club level to get FD, the price difference between my standard room and a club level garden room must have been less than the cost of the dining plan. My new reservation is $272 LESS than my original one! Yes, please, I will stay CL and get free dining! Lol....we are at the Poly in September.

Wow that's great! FD doesn't benefit me so far that I've seen, last year or this year. 9 nights at Poly paying for the DDP myself, I saved $1100 over what free dining would have saved me. We were in a tpv room and RO discount was @ $200 per night. But we are a travel party of 2- me and a 6 year old.
We are staying at CR tpv this year and I'm hoping that maybe another RO comes out for those dates, but doesn't look likely at this point.

 

[Lisa F]

Wow that's great! FD doesn't benefit me so far that I've seen, last year or this year. 9 nights at Poly paying for the DDP myself, I saved $1100 over what free dining would have saved me. We were in a tpv room and RO discount was @ $200 per night. But we are a travel party of 2- me and a 6 year old.
We are staying at CR tpv this year and I'm hoping that maybe another RO comes out for those dates, but doesn't look likely at this point.

I think it only works out as a deal if you have a lot of disney adults and put them all in moderate or value resorts. the more expensive the room and the fewer the people taking advantage of free dining, the less of a percentage of the room rate the savings is.

 

[AngiTN]

This thread offers some great examples of yes, on the surface Free Dining is a bargain. When you crunch the numbers for real, maybe not. Many factors to consider, that's for sure.
What I found really telling is at CBR. What started out as a $600 savings dwindled fast if you made slight changes. The important part to note here is these comparisons include if you still bought the dining plan, not changed what you ate. But if you also consider that if you don't get the free dining plan you open up the option to purchase discounted tickets (yes you can still pay for the dining plan if you do this) or if you opt to also purchase discounted resort stay at Orbitz (which eliminates your ability to buy dining plan). It would easily give you exactly the same trip and not save you any money to skip free dining.

http://www.disboards.com/threads/fr...y-discount-a-by-the-numbers-analysis.3505188/

Thanks! I have no clue how that happened! Mind you, I'm in no way saving the kind of money other people are saving by staying at a mod or value. I guess because originally I was paying rack at a deluxe and full price for the dining plan? When I switched to club level to get FD, the price difference between my standard room and a club level garden room must have been less than the cost of the dining plan. My new reservation is $272 LESS than my original one! Yes, please, I will stay CL and get free dining! Lol....we are at the Poly in September.

That would probably be the case if you paid full price for Deluxe dining but got regular dining for free, even with rack rate for the room.

 

[BusyP76]

Wow that's great! FD doesn't benefit me so far that I've seen, last year or this year. 9 nights at Poly paying for the DDP myself, I saved $1100 over what free dining would have saved me. We were in a tpv room and RO discount was @ $200 per night. But we are a travel party of 2- me and a 6 year old.
We are staying at CR tpv this year and I'm hoping that maybe another RO comes out for those dates, but doesn't look likely at this point.

Well my kids are now both considered "adults" at Disney. So that's 4 adult dining plans. Maybe that's part of the discrepancy? This is our first time at the Poly so I'm excited to see what CL is all about. We stayed at CR for our first family trip and it was awesome! The rooms were great and even though this was in the middle of referb and the beginning of BLT being built it was still a magical trip. If you haven't stayed there, you are in for a treat and if you have, you already know that. We love Cali Grill and you should give it a try if you haven't yet. We are actually having my DD's 16 birthday dinner there in Sept. Her dream resort is the Poly. We've been to 'Ohana twice and Kona for breakfast and she has just always wanted to stay there (I'm partial to the GF now) so we are surprising her with a stay at the Poly. Neither kid knows about the trip at all so I'm really looking forward to September! Hope you and your little have an amazing time at the CR!!

 

[Kimberly9701]

That would probably be the case if you paid full price for Deluxe dining but got regular dining for free, even with rack rate for the room.

I didn't understand and just double checked. A Garden View Club Level is a little bit Lower Price Point than a TPV Non Club Level ($80 per night) and about the same as Lagoon View- Non Club Level.
If either of those categories then it makes sense... if it went standard view to cl garden view then seriously it is amazing!!!

This is the FIRST case of free dining where I see that someone really did get a great 'deal'.lol

 

[Kimberly9701]

Well my kids are now both considered "adults" at Disney. So that's 4 adult dining plans. Maybe that's part of the discrepancy? This is our first time at the Poly so I'm excited to see what CL is all about. We stayed at CR for our first family trip and it was awesome! The rooms were great and even though this was in the middle of referb and the beginning of BLT being built it was still a magical trip. If you haven't stayed there, you are in for a treat and if you have, you already know that. We love Cali Grill and you should give it a try if you haven't yet. We are actually having my DD's 16 birthday dinner there in Sept. Her dream resort is the Poly. We've been to 'Ohana twice and Kona for breakfast and she has just always wanted to stay there (I'm partial to the GF now) so we are surprising her with a stay at the Poly. Neither kid knows about the trip at all so I'm really looking forward to September! Hope you and your little have an amazing time at the CR!!

How Fun!!! Thanks you too!!!

 

[BusyP76]

That would probably be the case if you paid full price for Deluxe dining but got regular dining for free, even with rack rate for the room.

I just double checked my confirmation emails. My original reservation had me paying rack rate for a standard view room at the Poly and full price for the regular dining plan for four adults (my kids are 15 and 11 yr old Disney "adults" lol). To modify and apply FD, I had to switch my room to a Club Level Garden View room at the Poly. My new reservation now has the CL room and the free regular dining plan for four adults. My savings was $272 and change. A regular dining plan for 4 adults for 5 nights is in the $1200 range (I'm ball parking). If the cost of the room difference is less than that then it makes since to me how that happened. Either way....yay for us!! Now I'm contemplating bumping up to Deluxe dining...we LOVE Disney food!!

 

[Kimberly9701]

I just double checked my confirmation emails. My original reservation had me paying rack rate for a standard view room at the Poly and full price for the regular dining plan for four adults (my kids are 15 and 11 yr old Disney "adults" lol). To modify and apply FD, I had to switch my room to a Club Level Garden View room at the Poly. My new reservation now has the CL room and the free regular dining plan for four adults. My savings was $272 and change. Now I'm contemplating bumping up to Deluxe dining...we LOVE Disney food!!

Nice!!!!!