PDA

View Full Version : ? about "free" dining



brivers222
06-23-2011, 01:51 PM
I know its not always free but I am holding out for the possibility that "free" dining is offered for our vacation.

I am in the process of changing trip from 12/10 - 12/18 to 12/9 - 12/19

We found awesome deal on airfare and the best rates are adding a day to each side of our trip.... not a bad thing :)

my question is really what happens if free dining gets offered but only for part of my stay?

For instance does my check-in day control the discount?

Like if it says free dining from 12/1/11 to 12/15/11... does that mean that i am grandfathered in for the whole vacation bc my checkin is on 12/9?

Conversely, what happens if free dining is offered from 12/10/11 - 12/18/11? My check in before its offered and checkout is after it ends... so the mid section of the trip is qualified for free.

This is a big question because the tickets for airfare are non-refundable lol

Strmchsr
06-23-2011, 04:20 PM
You would need to check with Magical Journeys to make sure, but generally whatever discount is available on the start day of your trip is what you have for the entire trip. So, if you checked in before the discount began, you wouldn't get the discount. If your check out day falls after the end date you usually (it is sometimes different) get the discount for the entire trip. What you would do if your date fell before the start is do a second reservation if "free" dining really was the best deal for you. I think room only discount and paying OOP for dining can often be the better deal, especially at the moderate and deluxe levels.

brivers222
06-23-2011, 04:24 PM
You would need to check with Magical Journeys to make sure, but generally whatever discount is available on the start day of your trip is what you have for the entire trip. So, if you checked in before the discount began, you wouldn't get the discount. If your check out day falls after the end date you usually (it is sometimes different) get the discount for the entire trip. What you would do if your date fell before the start is do a second reservation if "free" dining really was the best deal for you. I think room only discount and paying OOP for dining can often be the better deal, especially at the moderate and deluxe levels.

OH i see what you are saying... splitting it up never occurred to me... I mean we are on the Deluxe Plan regardless if its free or not so i am probablly better off with the 35% deluxe resort discount. only time (and disney can tell) haha

Figment104
06-23-2011, 04:25 PM
From what I understand you would get free dining for any dates that it's offered that your trip falls into. So if it's offered only for the last few days of your trip you'd only get it for the last few and vice versa if it's available at the beginning of your trip but not all the way through it. For those days it isn't being offered for you would pay the regular dinning plan amount.

Hope that helps.

Figment104
06-23-2011, 04:28 PM
Whoops, looks like Strmchsr beat me. I'd follow his advice and ask MJ. I know it used to be that you would get grandfathered in if it was for at least your check-in, but I thought they had changed that. MJ will help you out though.

Good Luck!

Strmchsr
06-23-2011, 05:44 PM
OH i see what you are saying... splitting it up never occurred to me... I mean we are on the Deluxe Plan regardless if its free or not so i am probablly better off with the 35% deluxe resort discount. only time (and disney can tell) haha

Yeah, if you're doing the deluxe dining plan regardless and staying at a deluxe resort you are MUCH better off taking the room-only discount. The "free" DDP means you pay full rack rate for the room and that is not a good deal at all at a deluxe resort. On top of that you'd have to pay the upcharge from the Basic "free" DDP to the deluxe so you'd end up much better with the room only.