Arguing with a "know it all" about dining

[Disneyfalcon]

Hi everyone. A friend of a friend is a know it all Disney expert. She goes 3 times a year, yada yada. I consider myself pretty knowledgeable about all things Disney, but I wanted confirmation before I argued (and came off as a know it all myself:ROFLOL: ).

Here's the question. We're waiting anxiously for the announcement of a free dining plan before we book our trip. She claims they've gotten free dining every year since 2001.

Am I missing something? Has the dining plan even been around that long? I'm fairly postive they have only had free dining in 2005 and 2006. Is there some other way she could have dined for free?

 

[Disneyfalcon]

Oh yes, she also claimed that you could absolutely get a AAA discount with the free dining plan. I had already told our mutual friend she couldn't. Who is right on that one?:brick:

 

[MPitzen]

You are correct on both accounts. If you want further proof you can go to mousesavers.com where they have a listing of all of disney's historical discounts, just do a search for it.

 

[Disneyfalcon]

Well you learn somthing new every day! I thought I knew mousesavers inside and out but I had no idea they had a historical discount page! I'll check that out, thank you mpitzen!

 

[bgraham34]

Mousesavers knows all...........

 

[Rob562]

Actually, I believe you're only right on half of the issues.

Your friend was wrong in that the Free Dining promo has been around that long (the new Dining Plan was only introduced in May of '05).

But I have read on here and other groups that a AAA discount is the *one* discount that can be applied to the Free Dining packages. That is, if there's a AAA discount available for your time frame.

-Rob

 

[Disneyfalcon]

Hmm interesting Rob. Thank you for that date the dining plan started - I've been searching everywhere to find it! Does anyone know if there's any other kind of plan she could have gotten free dining on?

I did just find on mousesavers that AAA discounts only work on full price packages. So I would think that rules out free dining? But maybe you're right on that one. I'll have to search some more!

 

[Disneyfalcon]

Okay, I have searched and searched. From what I understand you can get an AAA discount on magic your way plus dining. BUT you can not get a discount on magic your way plus FREE dining. You have to choose the AAA room discount or free dining. You can't have both.

I'll stop replying to myself now!!:lol:

 

[CAPTAIN HOOK]

I'll stop replying to myself now!!:lol:

Talking to yourself is the first sign of madness !!!

 

[Disneyfalcon]

I'd be thrilled if I only had the first sign!!:lol:

 

[RonAnnArbor]

You're doing a good job with research. You can tell your know it all friend that they are wrong about free dining since 2001. They introduced free dining two years ago as a way to increase attendance at the resorts during dead month (september) (you must stay in a WDW resort to get the dining) and had amazing success with it. In fact, their success was so overwhelming that they might not repeat it this year. Attendance at their resorts and parks is way way up over the past year, and they will only repeat any free dining plan if they can't fill x-percentage of the resort rooms in the moderate resorts by a certain date that they set. While the package has been available to people that stayed in any of the resort categories last year, they might limit it only to a specific range this fall, or offer none at all. Nothing has yet been announced.

They did offer a special this winter if you stayed at the resorts in December and rebooked a trip while you were still staying at the resort for January, that you could get free dining. That was exclusive to only those people already staying in the resorts at the time (i.e. to get bodies into the resorts a few weeks later during January off-peak).

Nothing is certain about free dining, if any, for this coming fall.

Note that there MIGHT have been some special small-scale free-dining offered during the lean years between 2002 and 2005 as the parks and resorts struggled with attendance. If they did indeed do any of those small-scale packages, none of them were publicly anounced. It is not unusual for WDW to market a target audience with a specific special that the rest of the country does not hear about. Similarly, they will often ofter special package deals to people living in Europe that we can not get here. Or they will offer specials to people living in Florida that will not be offered to anyone who is not a FL state resident. Similarly in the past, living in Michigan, I have gotten targeted mailings from WDW to "escape the snow" and come to Florida with deeply discounted resort rates at the Value Resorts during january and February - targeted offers that do not extend to anyone living outside of the specific zip codes that they market that special too.

So to say point blank that they have never offered free dining before is not necessarily true. But they have NOT offered accross the board free dining before the 2005 September promotional.

 

[shoppingnut]

I'd be thrilled if I only had the first sign!!:lol:

Get in line on that one.:ROFLOL:

 

[800Miles2Magic]

I don't know if this is the same or not, but I got the free dinning with a Honeymoon package booked in 2002 for a trip that took place the first week in September of 2002.

 

[Disneyfalcon]

Thanks for the replies everyone! 800miles2magic that's interesting. What kind of free dining did you get? I was wondering how it would even work if they didn't have the dining plan then?

 

[typhoonguy]

Just a side note, there are no AAA discounts when booking a package directly through Disney, but only on room only reservations (which are not eligible for free dining or any dining for that matter). This is booking directly through disney...

 

[unkadug]

Maybe she considered it free dining because she was putting it on someelse's credit card. :lookaroun

 

[Disneyfalcon]

Maybe she considered it free dining because she was putting it on someelse's credit card. :lookaroun

:lol: :lol:

I've decided maybe she got a discount on a package that included dining and therefore considered the dining free?? I'm not familiar with packages that included dining before the dining plan came along though.:veryconfu

 

[Aurora23]

When we went on our honeymoon back in 1989, we had a package that included dining. Now, some may say that it was a "dining plan" of sorts. But, we paid for it as part of our package. Maybe she has that mixed up with free. Since, by the time you go, it's all paid for. :shrug:

 

[tnemgif]

I think you are both right actually. The dining plan is a fairly recent thing, but your friend may be thinking of a promotion Disney has been doing since the early 90's. The deal was something along the lines of: if you stay at Disney, you would receive passes for character meals, snacks, etc. This isn't the "dining plan" but it was very similar.

 

[Disneyfalcon]

That's interesting Drumbum! I've never heard of anything like that!

Aurora, how did your free dining work? Were you given passes to restaurants? I went on my honeymoon in 89, but no dining!