Free Dinning Announced!

wdwannabe · Post by **wdwannabe** » Mar Tue 31, 2009 8:43 am

Well Free Dinning is back! August 16th - October 3rd.......

see www.disboards.com or www.wdwinfo.com for full details

Who is going?

Have you used it before?

Do you like the plan if you had to pay for it?

What would you do if you had control to change it? (and not free all the time)

No, and yes, in September of 2006, loved it! Of course then, tip and appitizer were included. Boy, would love to still have that plan. It still get's me into places I know we would or could not afford to try, we would probably just goto one place not one every day. So I say it's a good deal for us!

emnbensdad · Post by **emnbensdad** » Mar Tue 31, 2009 4:17 pm

If we could go that time of year (wife is a school teacher, kids will be in school) we would definitely take advantage of it. We usually buy tickets seperate from our stay (park hopper, no expiration add-ons) so we can use them whenever we want. But, if we were otu of days on our current tickets and wanted to go during the late summer, early fall, we would do it.

theBIGyowski · Post by **theBIGyowski** » Mar Tue 31, 2009 5:05 pm

Yeah, I really want to take my g/f to WDW since she hasn't been since she was a little mouseketeer. Problem is that she is a teacher...so we would be limited to the summer and December. I am hoping I can take her down there next year though. Heck we might even be married by the time we can get back down there!

DisBeamer · Post by **DisBeamer** » Mar Tue 31, 2009 6:07 pm

I'd take free dining if it was offered during a time I was going, but I don't think I'd pay for it. We've never used it ourselves, but traveled with friends on the plan in Dec 07. To get their money's worth we seemed to spend all day eating. And even then, their mini-fridge was full of desserts and stuff they didn't eat. I don't think it'd be worth it for me to pay.

boilerbabe · Post by **boilerbabe** » Mar Tue 31, 2009 6:11 pm

I would take the free dining like DisBeamer said, but to pay for it, no. My DH and I bought the Dining Plan when we honeymooned in WDW in '06. It was pricey and way too much food for us! So, if they wanted to give me the DP for free, great, but I wouldn't pay for it again. We ended up with snacks left over and just bought random stuff to use up our credits. I'd spend the $ somewhere else! There's my two cents!

spodie · Post by **spodie** » Mar Tue 31, 2009 9:39 pm

Yeah, I'm with the consensus here. There's just waaaaay too much food offered. When we used it last time, we started out with 14 snack credits. By the end of our trip, we still had 10 left to spend, so we just bought fudge from the Confectionary, most of which we ended up throwing away. I have no clue how the Deluxe DDP-ers do it! Like everyone has said, I would do it for free, but I wouldn't pay for it. I also didn't like how tied down we were to our reservations. Most people like eating at TS restaurants at Disney, but I like to "grab and go."

DisBeamer · Post by **DisBeamer** » Mar Tue 31, 2009 11:57 pm

spodie wrote:I have no clue how the Deluxe DDP-ers do it!

I've often wondered about that myself. I suppose if you're dining a lot at places that require two sit-down credits - the 'signature' restaurants - that'd eat some of them up. I don't know. I don't think I could make it work for myself. The friends we were with gave us some of their snack credits and they still went home with some leftover. It must be a real cash cow for Disney... people paying for food they never eat (or even order).

wdwannabe · Post by **wdwannabe** » Apr Wed 01, 2009 12:15 pm

DisBeamer wrote: It must be a real cash cow for Disney...

Captain Schnemo · Post by **Captain Schnemo** » Apr Wed 01, 2009 12:22 pm

DisBeamer wrote:I'd take free dining if it was offered during a time I was going, but I don't think I'd pay for it.

boilerbabe wrote:So, if they wanted to give me the DP for free, great, but I wouldn't pay for it again.

spodie wrote:Like everyone has said, I would do it for free, but I wouldn't pay for it.

Uhh...

Hmm.

DisBeamer · Post by **DisBeamer** » Apr Wed 01, 2009 5:34 pm

Captain Schnemo wrote:
DisBeamer wrote:I'd take free dining if it was offered during a time I was going, but I don't think I'd pay for it.

boilerbabe wrote:So, if they wanted to give me the DP for free, great, but I wouldn't pay for it again.

spodie wrote:Like everyone has said, I would do it for free, but I wouldn't pay for it.
Uhh...

Hmm.

I think what it comes down to is people who've been before know better and people who haven't (like my friends) figure it's part of 'the whole thing', or get suckered into it by their reservation person on the phone. And before anyone writes to me, yes I'm sure there's a percentage of repeat guests who pay for it and love it and I think that's great; I still don't think you're the majority of the people paying for the plan.

It's kind of a disingenuous 'freebie' on Disney's part. If the majority of people don't get their money's worth on the plan then they're claiming to give a discount that people don't take advantage of. I mean, sure, if you take free dining you'll save some money on food, but I doubt many people save as much as Disney is advertising.

Captain Schnemo · Post by **Captain Schnemo** » Apr Wed 01, 2009 5:54 pm

DisBeamer wrote:I mean, sure, if you take free dining you'll save some money on food, but I doubt many people save as much as Disney is advertising.

I don't know anything about the program, but it sounds like they've already scored a major victory if they've got people calling something they're paying for "free".

DisBeamer · Post by **DisBeamer** » Apr Wed 01, 2009 6:04 pm

Captain Schnemo wrote:
DisBeamer wrote:I mean, sure, if you take free dining you'll save some money on food, but I doubt many people save as much as Disney is advertising.
I don't know anything about the program, but it sounds like they've already scored a major victory if they've got people calling something they're paying for "free".

Well, it is. At least to some degree. Usually to get the dining package, you add a certain amount per night, per person to your hotel+tickets package (I can't remember what it is, because I haven't used it) and you get, I think, one sit down meal, one counter service and two 'snacks' per night of your package. "Free Dining" gives you that add-on without that per night charge.

I'm sure it's built into the cost somewhere, and they've actually reduced the amount of stuff you get with the dining plan - it used to include appetizer, entree, dessert and tip, now I think it's just entree and dessert. So ... I suppose it's less free than it used to be.

They've always used it as a gimmick to fill hotels in off-times of the year (usually Sept-Oct). I suspect they make more off of filling hotel rooms than they lose by effectively not charging people for some meals.

Edit: And now that my brain has finished processing this... I meant I wouldn't pay for the dining package at all, but I'd take it during free dining. Not that I'd pay for free dining. I'm a good consumer, but I'm not that good.

Captain Schnemo · Post by **Captain Schnemo** » Apr Wed 01, 2009 6:37 pm

DisBeamer wrote:I meant I wouldn't pay for the dining package at all, but I'd take it during free dining.

Ah, OK, I get it.

I thought people were saying they wouldn't pay for the free dining program, which was making my head asplode.

When people continued to take it seriously and I didn't see any references to April 1, I thought I might have woken up in an alternate (but not interestingly so) universe.

sherabby · Post by **sherabby** » Apr Thu 02, 2009 8:10 am

We had a free dining pin code starting the second week of August. I calculated both buy 4 get 3 free and a free dining trip and our buy 3 get 4 free cost me $31 more to go in June instead of mid August. I kept our trip in June. We do take advantage of the dining plan. Our breakfast is usually in our room or we pay oop for counter service if we are up really early. We always counter service our lunch around 11am and do dinner around 5pm. It always makes a nice break for us to sit down and take a rest.....also we do a lot of character dining for my son.

pixiesparkles · Post by **pixiesparkles** » Apr Thu 02, 2009 8:58 am

I used the Dining Plan when I went to WDW last year with my husband and three "older" kids (beyond the 3 chicken nugget/fries dinner). The plan was awesome, because we were able to eat at great restaurants (i.e., Le Cellier, Le Chefs de France) and order dinners that we would not have ordered if we had to "pay" for them out of pocket...(filet mignon, lobster tails...). The dining plan allows you to pick anything from the entree menu...why chose a salad when you can have lobster for the same price? Trust me...I am one of those people who plans everything out on spreadsheets to see if I am getting my money's worth...including looking up prices on menus for the restaurants and counter service where we would like to eat. I determined that we easily saved $600+ for the eight days we were there. Regarding the WDW dining plan, I really believe that the most important consideration when determining if it is worth your while (or not) is how you eat when you are on vacation. If burgers and fries or multiple snacks are your thing, the plan is not worth it. Also, if you have really young kids who don't eat much, you are paying for food you won't eat. Everyone vacations differently, which is why the plan works for some and not for others.