Free Meal Dining Discount for Summer 2016

[Amy]

Has anyone else seen the latest promotion from WDW?

Enjoy a FREE meal at a quick-service location per person, per night when you buy a non-discounted 4-night/5-day room and theme park ticket package at a Disney Value Resort hotel.

I suppose it is better than nothing, but it doesn't scream value to me if you are paying full price for your room and tickets. One quick service meal per person? I wonder if this will displace the previous offering of a quick service meal, snack and beverage mug offer if it sells well?

Worth noting, it doesn't have to be a 4 night, 5 day stay

A minimum 3-night length of stay is required.
The purchase of a minimum 2-day Magic Your Way base ticket purchase is required.
No refillable mug or snack credits are included

[cy1229]

Cue Len or someone else who likes to "do the math." BigYowski?

[Amy]

Cue Len or someone else who likes to "do the math." BigYowski?

No doubt they could do it ~ I'm thinking the general consensus is a room deal is almost always better than a free dining deal so I really can't see where just one meal per person per day would be a better deal.
I did see a comment on one of the blog posts that indicated they thought it was a decent deal for their family of 4. They said saving about $40 per day on meals for the 4 of them was equal to a normal room discount ~ they had a percentage but I don't remember what it is now.

[cy1229]

Cue Len or someone else who likes to "do the math." BigYowski?

No doubt they could do it ~ I'm thinking the general consensus is a room deal is almost always better than a free dining deal so I really can't see where just one meal per person per day would be a better deal.
I did see a comment on one of the blog posts that indicated they thought it was a decent deal for their family of 4. They said saving about $40 per day on meals for the 4 of them was equal to a normal room discount ~ they had a percentage but I don't remember what it is now.

Oh, I see you're secretly a number cruncher, too!

I can't imagine for the life of me how one meal per day would entice me to want to plan a vacation. And I have a family of five. Six, if you count the cat, but he can't go, so...

[Wizzard419]

Didn't they always go for high/near high-season pricing with the offers? The goal being give you cheap food, stiffing servers out of tips, but keeping more money coming in during the slower times.

[cy1229]

Didn't they always go for high/near high-season pricing with the offers? The goal being give you cheap food, stiffing servers out of tips, but keeping more money coming in during the slower times.

They typically offer free dining in late summer / early autumn, which offsets the high room rate for families. But one free counter service? Nah.

Even off season rates are high.

[theBIGyowski]

I saw this deal...and it's borderline laughable.

But you have to look at everything involved to make a real judgement on it. First off, it's for Value Resorts, so the difference between full price and discount is minimal compared to other Disney resorts. Second, you are forced to book a package just like every other meal offer, so nothing new here. There are a few more factors to think about. Summer rates are typically some of the highest during the year, so paying full price means paying a little more. Just as with any version of the dining plan or meal offer, you have to look at how much you would save via the offer versus either paying out of pocket for meals or by taking a room discount.

I'm not sure if there are currently room discounts for the same dates, but it seems to me that if you wanted to save money you would opt for the room discount and then just pay cash for all of your meals. A QS meal would probably run you between $12-$20 max...if that much. So if you have 4 people in your room, you would save between $48-$80 per day. Does that outweigh any other savings you could get? Maybe it does. If there are just two people in the room, then it more than likely won't save you more than a room discount one.

If you have a moderate resort booked, and think to yourself that you'd rather save a little more money by going down to a value and getting the free QS meal, then I say go right ahead. There are always cheaper options for going to WDW than any kind of meal deal. It just comes down to where you want to sacrifice and how much you value convenience over cost. I do think this deal will be good for some people, but I think for most it is just a gimmick to get people in the value resorts because they're clearly not filling up the way Disney projected.

[cy1229]

... It just comes down to where you want to sacrifice and how much you value convenience over cost. I do think this deal will be good for some people, but I think for most it is just a gimmick to get people in the value resorts because they're clearly not filling up the way Disney projected.

I can see why this is. I have stayed at a value resort twice - once in 2001 when the girls were small (All Star Movies, in October, before Food & Wine) and it was quiet, we had a great time, and the girls enjoyed the movie characters all over (they were 7 and 3). The second time it was just me and the girls, they were 13 and 9, we went early in June, stayed at Pop! Century and it was noisy. I was not impressed, and decided I wouldn't stay at a value resort again if I could at all help it.

Now, mind you, given the choice between going to WDW and staying at a value resort or not going, I'll take the value resort. But I probably would, before that, look at staying off-site. If I was a college kid or in my 20s and had not yet developed the need to have peace, quiet, and better service and be willing to pay the price for it, I would probably go to the value resorts. But I'm not. I'm 48 and I'm all done with that. When I have grandkids I still won't stay at a value resort. Unless, again, our kids can't go and stay anywhere else. Then again, I'd be likely to do as was done for us, and buy them a trip so we could all have a good time together.

What were we talking about again? Oh yeah.

As far as saving $50-80 a day with this dining plan, yeah, it still wouldn't be worth it to me.