Free Dining 2017 Version

Well, Disney has released the Free Dine Offer for 2017 dates. There is one major change - Values AND moderates now get counter-service and only deluxe get the regular dining plan

PUBLIC OFFER:

Get a FREE dining plan when you purchase a non-discounted 5-night/6-day Magic Your Way package that includes a room at a select Walt Disney World® Resort hotel and ticket with a Park Hopper® or Park Hopper Plus Option Aug. 21-Sept. 30, Nov. 14-20, Nov. 25-27, Dec. 8-23, 2017 when they book April 24-July 7, 2017.

When you stay at a select Disney Deluxe Resort or Disney Deluxe Villa Resort, you get the Disney Dining Plan with a variety of delicious dining options! When you stay at a select Disney Value Resort or Disney Moderate Resort, you get the Disney Quick-Service Dining Plan that allows you to enjoy a quick bite!


Booking Window: April 24-July 7, 2017
Travel Window: Aug. 21-Sept. 30, Nov. 14-20, Nov. 25-27, Dec. 8-23, 2017

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DISNEY VISA OFFER: Same as above but dates are

Travel Window: Aug. 13 -Sept. 30, Nov. 14-20, Nov. 25-27, Dec. 8-23, 2017

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Excludes the following room types and Disney Resort hotels:
•Campsites
•3-bedroom villas
•Disney's Art of Animation Resort – The Little Mermaid Standard Rooms
•Disney's Polynesian Villas & Bungalows – Bungalows
•Disney's All Star Movies Resort
•Disney's Port Orleans Resort – French Quarter
•Copper Creek Villas at Disney's Wilderness Lodge
•The Villas at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa
•Bay Lake Tower at Disney's Contemporary Resort

Additional exclusion for Nov. 14-20, Nov. 25-27 and Dec. 8-23, 2017:
•Disney's Port Orleans Resort – Riverside

The number of rooms allocated for this offer is limited. Tickets and options must be used within 14 days of first use. Cannot be combined with any other discount or promotion. Ask about packages of other lengths of stay. Advance reservations required. Offer excludes campsites, 3-bedroom villas, Bungalows at Disney's Polynesian Villas & Bungalows and Disney's Art of Animation Resort-The Little Mermaid standard rooms. Dining plan excludes gratuities and alcoholic beverages. Children ages 3-9 must order from children's menu, if available. Some Table-Service restaurants may have limited or no availability at time of package purchase.

Contact us today to book! Your support of Magical Journeys supports Intercot!

Nanc

I gave up on Free Dining a while ago, but WOW. The ENTIRE month of October is excluded? There are going to be a lot of unhappy folks.

Dang! Misses my date of arrival by two days. I arrive on Nov. 29 (Wednesday)...Wonder why the weekend following Thanksgiving IS included, but not the full week after Thanksgiving...

Oh well, guess I'll have to decide if I want to (can) shift my dates by a couple days....

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Originally Posted by PopPhan

Dang! Misses my date of arrival by two days. I arrive on Nov. 29 (Wednesday)...Wonder why the weekend following Thanksgiving IS included, but not the full week after Thanksgiving...

Oh well, guess I'll have to decide if I want to (can) shift my dates by a couple days....

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Probably because of Pop Warner. According to their website the 2017 dates at ESPN at WDW starts Saturday 12/2 and ends Saturday 12/9.

If I recall the rules of free dining, your check in date has to be in the "offer period". So by excluding 11/28 to 12/7, they effectively block out anyone coming down for Pop Warner from getting free dining, unless they were to come down 4 or 5 days early.

One thing that did surprise me, there appears to be a Disney Visa component, that is a separate offer from the General Public offering. This is at least the second time now that I've seen an offer that includes Disney Visa and yet I never received the email from Disney Visa stating the offer, which normally Disney Visa card holders get a 2-4 pre start over the general public.

Doesn't surprise me though that they knocked the Moderate level users down a notch to Quick Service. They've slowly been excluding moderates from the offer anyway (both Port Orleans resorts) which means if you are a family of five you get to fight for the few CBR rooms or upgrade to Deluxe.

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Originally Posted by The Hitchhiking Ghost

One thing that did surprise me, there appears to be a Disney Visa component, that is a separate offer from the General Public offering. This is at least the second time now that I've seen an offer that includes Disney Visa and yet I never received the email from Disney Visa stating the offer, which normally Disney Visa card holders get a 2-4 pre start over the general public.

Doesn't surprise me though that they knocked the Moderate level users down a notch to Quick Service. They've slowly been excluding moderates from the offer anyway (both Port Orleans resorts) which means if you are a family of five you get to fight for the few CBR rooms or upgrade to Deluxe.

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The last few offers, that had a Chase Disney Visa component, did not have a pre-release email. Heck, they didn't even have a day-of release email. I think Chase is slipping of late.

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Originally Posted by PopPhan

The last few offers, that had a Chase Disney Visa component, did not have a pre-release email. Heck, they didn't even have a day-of release email. I think Chase is slipping of late.

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Strangely, I just checked my e-mail and just this minute got a notice from Chase with the free dining offer.

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Originally Posted by PopPhan

The last few offers, that had a Chase Disney Visa component, did not have a pre-release email. Heck, they didn't even have a day-of release email. I think Chase is slipping of late.

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I actually just got the email from Disney Visa (Chase), 90 minutes after I posted and several hours after the offer was released.

I missed one of the big changes, so from what I can tell there are two major changes and a 3rd that impacts us:
-dropping moderates down to QSDP instead of regular DDP
-requiring the purchase of a Park Hopper option
-and for us, the exclusion of POR, which for a family of 5 is our moderate of choice


I have to say, the Park Hopper requirement basically negates some of the savings of getting free dining. We generally do a 7-9 night stay and normally we do not add on park hoppers. Having the park hopper might be nice for ease of dining choices and we might use it once or twice to do multiple parks in one day, but overall, we don't get the value out of a park hopper, so that really negates $400-500 of the value by forcing us to buy something we wouldn't normally use.

There is still good value in the offer because our kids have aged out and are now 10 and 12 and 14 year old "adults" so the savings is greater, but not so much as it was in 2012 the last time we had free dining.

Hmm, this is not what I wanted to hear.
1) We never park hop. There's enough to do in each park for one day that there really isn't any use for it for us.
2) While I realize that free dining has usually not been the best "deal" financially, I normally take people with us who could not afford a trip. Having the credits on their ticket to use as they please let them feel better than coming to me and asking me to pay for their food when they got hungry. Going from a moderate to a deluxe for a large group and adding on the park hopper option is a huge jump financially when I can get us each a timeshare for $115 for a week per couple. That probably saves me more than enough money to pay for everyone's food and rental cars and still have extra money left over while having a larger living area to relax in during non park times. Time to do some math.
3) Having the Chase Disney card only added 9 days in August without any added benefit of booking earlier. I like Chase, but I don't really see the benefit of having their Disney card.

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Originally Posted by Cinderelley

3) Having the Chase Disney card only added 9 days in August without any added benefit of booking earlier. I like Chase, but I don't really see the benefit of having their Disney card.

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Like any reward program, the benefit is if you use its rewards. The Disney Visa card is for the most part, benefit wise, limited to earning Disney $$ for us, although I do like the flexibility that I can book any airline travel with the card (Disney or not Disney trip) and I can use the rewards dollars to pay for the airfare. But beyond that, the benefits are pretty minimal unless you are in the parks themselves.

The old Disney card used to give you promotional periods where you could earn Disney $$ at a higher level, but that has largely been discontinued now that its Chase. I did sign up for a recent offer that gave you higher earning rewards if you put your utilities and such on the credit card. Unfortunately everything they were rewarding for me is already auto-deduct from the bank and not worth while for me to mess around and change everything.

I do like that my card says "Card member since day 1" and "Charter Cardholder" not that that gets me any add'l benefits, other than the occasional "that's cool" from an attentive cashier.

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Originally Posted by faline

Strangely, I just checked my e-mail and just this minute got a notice from Chase with the free dining offer.

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Originally Posted by The Hitchhiking Ghost

I actually just got the email from Disney Visa (Chase), 90 minutes after I posted and several hours after the offer was released.

I missed one of the big changes, so from what I can tell there are two major changes and a 3rd that impacts us:
-dropping moderates down to QSDP instead of regular DDP
-requiring the purchase of a Park Hopper option
-and for us, the exclusion of POR, which for a family of 5 is our moderate of choice


I have to say, the Park Hopper requirement basically negates some of the savings of getting free dining. We generally do a 7-9 night stay and normally we do not add on park hoppers. Having the park hopper might be nice for ease of dining choices and we might use it once or twice to do multiple parks in one day, but overall, we don't get the value out of a park hopper, so that really negates $400-500 of the value by forcing us to buy something we wouldn't normally use.

There is still good value in the offer because our kids have aged out and are now 10 and 12 and 14 year old "adults" so the savings is greater, but not so much as it was in 2012 the last time we had free dining.

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Yep, got the Chase email a couple hours after the offer was released.


Just a side thought....If "Free" dining is such a bad deal, why is it the only offer that completely swamps TAs and Disney's reservation system IMMEDIATELY upon release? In my mind, it is like your local "Gas-and-Go" (in my area Sheetz, Rutter's, Royal Farms, etc.) --- convenience. Knowing that you can have most of your trip pre-paid can take a lot of the stress of budgeting WHILE you are there away. Whether you actually save anything depends upon your travel group size and level of accommodations, but it is always nice to know you are covered.

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Originally Posted by PopPhan

Yep, got the Chase email a couple hours after the offer was released.


Just a side thought....If "Free" dining is such a bad deal, why is it the only offer that completely swamps TAs and Disney's reservation system IMMEDIATELY upon release? In my mind, it is like your local "Gas-and-Go" (in my area Sheetz, Rutter's, Royal Farms, etc.) --- convenience. Knowing that you can have most of your trip pre-paid can take a lot of the stress of budgeting WHILE you are there away. Whether you actually save anything depends upon your travel group size and level of accommodations, but it is always nice to know you are covered.

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I don't think people think that Free Dining is a bad deal. I think that confusion comes from people starting with the preconception that free dining is an annual discount offering that is always available for this time period. I'm not saying that is a correct assumption, but that is the base level that people are starting from, that Free Dining is always an option. So when the offer does get released, the comparison isn't to rack rate or full dining costs, its in comparison to previous offerings. So in one sense a person can say its a bad deal (compared to what they paid for and received in 2010) but in comparison to rack rates and no discounts, its still a good deal.

Now that my family technically meets the adult standards for dining, it would cost me $350 per day to buy out of pocket the DDP. So if I can get into POR for that period and get free dining, that's a $3,000 savings for an 8 or 9 night stay. But under the new release POR isn't offered, I'm sure CBR is limited, which means I'd have to probably go Deluxe, in which case the savings drops considerably. So in the sense of comparison, I can say its a bad deal, while in reality its still a good deal.

I agree about the prepaid aspect of the dining plan. My wife would agree with you even more, because she knows I'd be looking at every price item and looking for ways to share if we went down without it. The dining plan does keep peace in the family. I just would never pay oop for it, not at $350 a day for two grown adults and three kid "adults".

I also found during our last trip that the exercise of scheduling ADR's 180 days out and then trying to feather in MagicBand fast pass choices 60 days out and trying to sync the two up, not to be that enjoyable after a while.

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Originally Posted by BriarRose0708

I gave up on Free Dining a while ago, but WOW. The ENTIRE month of October is excluded? There are going to be a lot of unhappy folks.

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Agreed, Nikki! I have an annual pass, so it is not something I would consider. Many people, including probably some folks going to ICOT 20, are not happy with those dates.

Worked it out mathematically. While it isn't the best "financial" option, I think we'll go with a value resort
when we go next year. There isn't really any incentive to get a moderate now that they changed the dining plan. It will be about $1600 more than all of us to staying in a timeshare, but the mental benefits are worth it to me for that particular trip.
When we go this year for their wedding planning trip though, we'll be staying offsite.

Serious question..maybe I am missing something as I have never taken advantage of the deals. The deal says:purchase a non-discounted 5-night/6-day Magic Your Way package that includes a room at a select Walt Disney World® Resort hotel and ticket with a Park Hopper® or Park Hopper Plus Option Aug. 21-Sept. 30, Nov. 14-20, Nov. 25-27, Dec. 8-23, 2017 when they book April 24-July 7, 2017.

How do you get a 5 night/6 day package November 25-27? Would your meals be free only those 3 days? What am I missing?

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Originally Posted by bdm@pga

Serious question..maybe I am missing something as I have never taken advantage of the deals. The deal says:purchase a non-discounted 5-night/6-day Magic Your Way package that includes a room at a select Walt Disney World® Resort hotel and ticket with a Park Hopper® or Park Hopper Plus Option Aug. 21-Sept. 30, Nov. 14-20, Nov. 25-27, Dec. 8-23, 2017 when they book April 24-July 7, 2017.

How do you get a 5 night/6 day package November 25-27? Would your meals be free only those 3 days? What am I missing?

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As long as your check in date falls within one of the promotional periods (and assuming availability) then you get the discount or package deal for the entire length of your stay. So if you book an 8 night/9 day ticket package, arriving Nov 27, you would receive the free dining for your entire 8 night stay, even though 7 of the 8 nights fall out of the promotional period.

It doesn't work the opposite though, If you booked the same package but arrive November 23rd instead, before the promotional period start date, you would not receive it even though your dates crossed into the allowable period (unless you booked a split-stay vacation, meaning two ressies).