Free Dining at DisneyWorld. It is one the most sought after promotion Disney has released in the past.There are also a lot of questions that arise from it and a lot of wrong information out there about it. So here are some of the Frequently Ask Questions I get about Free Dining at DisneyWorld.First let me say, I do not have inside information. I am going on experience and fact. Based on that I can give you some educated fact and opinion.
What is Free Dining at Disney World?
Free dining was/is a Promotion that Disney began to use to promote their dining plan and to get people to DisneyWorld in the lower crowd times of year. It was also designed to make it so that visiting DisneyWorld would make it more probable for you to stay on site and not stray to other attractions in the area. The promotion and the dining plans have changed since they were originally released. The dates in the past few years have been limited to the fall months but when it was first was released it was it was available in the winter months. Basically, free dining is as follows: 1) stay on-site at one of the qualifying Disney Resorts for a specific length of stay and ticket length and 2)get a Dining plan for everyone on your package for Free. The dining plan would be based on the level of resort that you say at.
Is Free Dining really Free?
This is a question that people struggle with. The simple answer about free dining being free is yes it is.
The more difficult answers come from how far in advance you have booked your package. There have been years when if you booked as early as possible and the annual price increase hit, if you applied the Free Dining Discount, the package actually cost more. That sure doesn't sound free to me. Booking early did save people more money than those that waited for the actual release of the free dining promotion. Now to save money for those early booking people, the room only discount was able to be applied and it did save them some, but not much money.
There are some that also argue that Disney takes the room rate to full price for Free Dining promotion and they make up their cost there. What do you mean takes the room to full price? When Disney list their rooms rates, they will say rooms starting at $89 a night to $199 a night. $89 a night would be the seasonal slow rate and full rack rate would be the $199 a night.
In my opinion even doing with the room at full rack rate, you can still come out a head with free dining depending again on how early you have booked**This is especially true if you book the room without a dining plan and your agent applies the promotion and there is no cost change in your package!( It can and has happened!) This will depend on room option, resort, and number of people traveling with you and their ages. This leads to the next question!
**What a lot of people don't realize and are not told is, if you book early and a price increase hits when applying the discounts or promotion your package now becomes subject to those price increases. So sometimes leaving the package alone is a better savings than applying the discount. So if you can book as early as possible!
Who saves the most with Free Dining if it is offered?
The more adults( people 10 and over) you have staying in the same room and the longer you stay(usually you can get free dining up to 14 days) the more you save. Again it depends on the resort level and room type you are staying in. For example a Family of 5 adults staying in a Moderate resort could save about $61 per person per night with the current dining plan pricing if they are given free dining. If there are only 2 people in the room, the saving is obviously less or if there are children under 10 since the child cost of the Dining plan is considerably less. Now a good travel agent would compare offers or opt to leaving the package alone if there were multiple offers out there to see what would save a family and have no difficulty explaining that to a client.
Last year(2014) I had a client booked for Arts of Animation Little Mermaid rooms with no discount paying for the Dining plan with a family of 5. Arts of Animation is a value resort and the Little Mermaid rooms have not yet been part of any promotion. When the offer came out, I compared the deals, saw that moving to the Suites would cost them more money but thinking outside the box, looked at Coronado Springs resort and got them a larger room at the Moderate resort and saved them over $1000 to give them truly FREE dining!
Is Free Dining Guaranteed?
ABSOLUTELY NOT! There are many reasons why free dining is not guaranteed. First and foremost the head honcho of Disney Bob Iger has publicly stated that they want to start to ween people off discounts. Secondly, Disney reserves the right to limit the time frame a promotion is offered and the number of rooms at each resort. Last years promotion saw a huge change to the free dining promotion by reducing the number of dates and the number of rooms on the promotion. One of the main staple resorts for a family of 5, Port Orleans-Riverside, was not included and there were agents guaranteeing that resort would be available.
My Travel Agent said they would automatically apply it to my reservation, so that means it IS guaranteed right?
Again ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!!!!! If you have a travel agent that is guaranteeing you free dining or any promotion, DROP THEM ASAP!!!!!! As a Travel Agent myself, I promote discount monitoring. Just because I offer it doesn't mean you will get a discount. It really depends on how many rooms are offered in a promotion, the dates, the restrictions, and if it is truly a deal for you.
NO travel agent gets priority on a discount. When a discount is offered, we all call in and we are all thrown in line. Each phone call get answered by a cast member and we take time to see if the offer is good deal. Sometimes by the time we get through, the rooms are already full at the resort our clients are staying at. It is just luck of the draw. I will continually try back to see if for some reason there is a cancellation to see if I can get it applied all the way up to my clients travel date. Many agents give up after the first attempt.
I tell my clients to be comfortable with Non-Discounted Package Price they are booking and look at a promo or discount that is released as bonus if they qualify for it . If they are really dead set on getting the offer, I tell them to be extremely flexible in their travel and resorts they are willing to stay at. This may require them to wait on airfare if they are flying and doing so may cancel out any discount that is applied to a package.
Just this Week(April 1st, 2015) Disney released an function for travel agents to make changes to a package online. If you do not have a good agent that knows what they are doing, this can cause them to really screw up your package and trip if they don't understand the discounts and go in and just apply the discount.
Trust me there are a lot of agents out there that have no clue what they are doing! Shop around and look at testimonials of agent! Interview the agent, after all they are working for you if you book with them!
My Agent says they are EarMarked and have a special line to call in to get the Discounts so they have priority right?
ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!!!!! They have special number to call alright... any Disney Travel Agent that knows it can use and every single agent no matter what phone line they use get put in the same line no matter what line they call. Plus an EarMarked agent does not mean you are getting the best agent possible, more on that another time!
I got a Pin Code for Free Dining so yep I am getting free dining right?
Nope. Pin codes are codes that Disney will send to you to try to get you to come to Disney during a specific time with some enticement. Sometimes they are released before an offer is open to the public, sometimes at the same time, other times weeks after the promo. There are usually a broad range of dates and many black out dates with it. If you get it before a promo is released to the public you have a better chance of getting the promo, but again it might not be the best deal for that travel time. Disney wants your vacation dollars so they are "personalizing" an offer for you and it really isn't random either. You have signed up for something Disney and you matched their magic algorithm to get the offer.
There is this guy on Facebook, in a forum, on this website that says they have inside information on what the hotel capacity are and when, how many rooms, the magic express laying people off, and what the offer details are; why don't you?
Easy answer... This "Guy" is full of s***. Disney does not go around bragging about how many people are in rooms to the general public or even to many cast members that aren't at management levels. Why? Because Disney is a public owned company that has to answer to shareholders on wall street and having some loose cannons saying we don't have a high attendance or rooms filled to a certain level could cause investors to loose confidence in the company. We do hear about how room capacities have been/are during shareholder meeting and quarter earnings. Plus it is illegal to release such data before those meetings and earning reports.
So the magical express is laying off people.It was a big news story because of the amount of people they are laying off. This is an outside company that contracts with Disney. They do more than just the Magical Express. They may have been top heavy and had to shed some people to keep their company in the green.They maybe loosing the contract to do the Disney Magical Express. They may be loosing business in is other areas because of the SunRail. It may or may not be associated with the attendance at Disney parks..... based on the numbers Disney has been sharing with Wall Street, I doubt this has little or anything to do with attendance at the parks and hotels. I would look more at the amount of people flying in to Orlando compared to those deciding to drive.
AS far as the promotion dates and details.... it is easy to guess when the offers will be released based on historical releases of past deals. There are a few sites out there what will throw dates out and then constantly change them until they get it right. When called out about it, ban you from their Facebook page, mailing list, etc.
In the last few years, all agents have been lucky to get 24 to 48 hours notice about a promotion. Occasionally an over zealous District Manager will prematurely release information to an agency then get a huge smack on the wrist for doing it..... if not loosing their job. Again, that "guy" with inside info posting it on all over the world wide web is full of s***. That person(s) are just trying to get you to go their business so they can get your business. If you are going to use a Travel Agent, do not use them because love to post rumors. Use them because they are good at what they do and know what they are doing!
Will Free Dining be released this year?
Possibly with a heavy lean to more than likely. Historically the signs point to yes. You will know just about the same time I will know.
When will it be released and what will it be?
Historically right around the end of April to June is when it has been released. It will be when Disney is ready to release it. What it will be we, won't know until Disney officially releases details of the offer. One of those "guys" last year released a bunch of wrong information before the official details were released and caused a lot of problems for their clients. When they were raked over the coals they blamed it on their clients and changed or deleted all of their post with the wrong information.... Sorry once something is out there on the web.... someone is gonna find it!!!
More than Likely Disney Visa Card Holders will get first shot at the deal for a few day before the general public gets the offer.These offers may or may not be the same.
Be patient, be flexible, and most of all be comfortable withe price you book your vacation as no promotion is ever guaranteed!
Thanks for reading!