Or it might be. Let’s face it – we all get excited at the sound of “free dining”. I mean, who doesn’t like a free meal? But it’s too easy to get caught up in the name and not look into what you’re actually getting. In many cases, Disney’s “free dining” offer isn’t the best one available. Here’s why “free dining” may not save you money on your Disney vacation.
What is “Free Dining”?
Over the past few years, Walt Disney World has offered a special promotion during select times of year that includes the Disney Dining Plan for free when added to a Disney vacation package. Thanks to social media it has become extremely popular.
The offer has typically been available for select late summer and fall travel dates. Last year’s terms included a free Disney Dining Plan for stays at Deluxe or Deluxe Villa Resorts and a free Quick-Service Dining Plan for stays at Moderate or Value Resorts. Certain hotels are excluded from this offer.
What You Need to Know About “Free Dining”
Disney’s “free dining” promotion comes with specific minimum requirements. Last year’s offer required:
- Minimum 3-Night/4-Day Magic Your Way Package
- 2-Day Park Hopper or Park Hopper Plus Tickets
The “free dining” offer requires you to pay full price for both your hotel accommodations and your park tickets in exchange for the free dining plan.
In the past, Disney has released a room discount at the same time they release their “free dining” offer. Last year this discount ranged from 10-30% depending on the travel dates.
The “free dining” offer is only available on a select number of rooms at select Disney Resort hotels. Disney only discounts the rooms in their inventory that they haven’t sold yet. This means that the more filled up a hotel is before the offer is released, the fewer discounted rooms will be available.
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When “Free Dining” Won’t Save You Money
As a travel agent specializing in Disney Destinations, I work with a lot of different packages to compare special offers. I’ve certainly seen situations where “free dining” can save a family money, but I’ve also seen situations where it would cost them hundreds, even thousands, of dollars.
Here are a few cases where “free dining” could cost you big time.
Notes on the Numbers
Because I’m a numbers-person, I’ll show you some of the math so you can see how these play out. I’ll use a family of four (two adults and two children aged 5 and 10) looking for five nights and four day park tickets for these examples. They’re looking at Pop Century Resort (Value), Coronado Springs Resort (Moderate), and the Grand Floridian Resort (Deluxe) for travel in September 2018.
When calculating for the Value and Moderate Resorts, I’ll include the following upgrade (per night) to get the Disney Dining Plan with the “Free Dining” offer: $23/adult and $4/child (3-9).
One final note: these are estimates. I’ve based them on real prices, but these do not guarantee future discounts or availability.
Military Families
We’re an Air Force family, so I truly appreciate the special offers that Disney provides military families throughout the year. These include large discounts on Disney Resort hotels and park tickets. However, the tickets are only offered through military offices and cannot be included directly in the Disney vacation packages.
For a military family to take advantage of the “free dining” offer, they’d have to forego both their room discount and their discounted park tickets. A set of 4-Day Armed Forces Salute Park Hopper tickets would cost the family $904.00. Here’s what it looks like:
Military Offer + Military Tickets:
Grand Floridian (40% Room Discount): $4,148
Coronado Springs (35% Room Discount): $2,949
Pop Century (30% Room Discount): $2,690
“Free Dining” Offer:
Grand Floridian: $5,219 (Lose $1,071)
Coronado Springs: $3,486 (Lose $537)
Pop Century: $3,030 (Lose $340)
Annual Passholders
If the family has an Annual Pass to Walt Disney World, chances are they’re not going to want to add tickets to their vacation package. For the sake of these calculations, I’ll assume they already purchased their annual pass earlier in the year for use in other trips.
Last year there was a 25-35% room discount available to Annual Passholders in September.
Here’s what it looks like:
Ticketless Package:
Grand Floridian (35% Room Discount): $3,409
Coronado Springs (30% Room Discount): $2,106
Pop Century (25% Room Discount): $1,787
“Free Dining” Offer:
Grand Floridian: $5,219 (Lose $1,810)
Coronado Springs: $3,486 (Lose $1,380)
Pop Century: $3,030 (Lose $1,243)
Florida Residents
Florida Residents also get special discounts on tickets, and occasionally on Disney Resort hotel rooms too. If this family lives in Florida, they can purchase 4-Day Park Hopper tickets for $1,120.
Last year there was a 25-35% room discount available to Florida residents in September.
Here’s what it looks like:
Florida Resident Package:
Grand Floridian (35% Room Discount): $4,529
Coronado Springs (30% Room Discount): $3,226
Pop Century (25% Room Discount): $2,907
“Free Dining” Offer:
Grand Floridian: $5,219 (Lose $690)
Coronado Springs: $3,486 (Lose $260)
Pop Century: $3,030 (Lose $123)
How “Free Dining” Compares to Room Discounts
Disney has been a little sneaky the past few years and released a room discount at the same time they released “Free Dining”. Last year this discount ranged from 15-30% for August-September travel.
This is a public offer, so you don’t need any special affiliation or tickets. Whether or not this offer saves your family money over “Free Dining” completely depends on your travel dates and the makeup of your travel party (ages, number of people).
Let’s take a look at how it works for this family:
Package with Room Discount:
Grand Floridian (30% Room Discount): $5,491
Coronado Springs (20% Room Discount): $4,142
Pop Century (15% Room Discount): $3,816
“Free Dining” Offer:
Grand Floridian: $5,219 (Save $272)
Coronado Springs: $3,486 (Save $656)
Pop Century: $3,030 (Save $786)
Yay! We finally found big savings with “Free Dining”.
But wait: What if the family didn’t want to pay for a Park Hopper ticket? They would save $319 by downgrading to base tickets (1 park per day). They can only do this with the room discount, since “Free Dining” requires Park Hopper tickets.
Package with Room Discount with Base Tickets:
Grand Floridian (30% Room Discount): $5,172
Coronado Springs (20% Room Discount): $3,823
Pop Century (15% Room Discount): $3,497
“Free Dining” Offer:
Grand Floridian: $5,219 (Lose $47)
Coronado Springs: $3,486 (Save $337)
Pop Century: $3,030 (Save $467)
So you can see that in this case, if they want to stay at a Deluxe Resort they’d actually lose money by choosing “Free Dining”.
Here’s one last example for you. What if the family only had one child (age 5)? Here’s how it would look with those base tickets:
Package with Room Discount and Base Tickets:
Grand Floridian (30% Room Discount): $4,388
Coronado Springs (20% Room Discount): $3,039
Pop Century (15% Room Discount): $2,713
“Free Dining” Offer:
Grand Floridian: $4,733 (Lose $345)
Coronado Springs: $2,885 (Save $154)
Pop Century: $2,430 (Save $283)
And by the way, if you weren’t planning on including the Disney Dining Plan in your package, you will most likely be better off with the room discounts overall.
How to Make Sure You’re Getting the Best Deal
As you can see, sometimes “Free Dining” won’t save you money. And sometimes it will. It all depends on when you’re traveling, who you’re traveling with, and what’s available.
Does all of this seem confusing? It can be. This is why you want to book your trip with a travel agent that specializes in Disney Destinations!
At Ears of Experience, we work with these offers all the time so we know how to find you the best options for your vacation package.
When offers like “Free Dining” or the room discounts are released, we automatically check all of our clients’ packages to see if we can save them money. We also compare those special discounts such as military rates or Florida resident deals. We test all the combinations so we can be confident our clients are getting the best deal.
And in case you’re wondering, we wake up REALLY early! As soon as we get the word that new discounts are released we jump on our computers and set up our phones so we can grab those limited rates while they’re available.
Why sort through all these deals and wait on the phone for hours when you can have someone with experience do it for you?
Oh, and did I mention that when you book your package with us you get this service for free?
I hope I’ve got you excited! If you want to take advantage of this “Price Watch” service and all of our other great offerings before any fall discounts are released, you can request a free Walt Disney World quote using the button below.
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I’d love to help you plan an incredible, stress-free Disney vacation for your family!
