News Free Dining Plan announced for Disney+ subscribers at Walt Disney World

[JD80]

It is HOW they are offering "Free Dining". When you pay so much for Disney+and get less content, plus paying full price for the room is it a bargain? To boost subscriber numbers on paper by offering this seems " fishy".

Oh man that $7.99 a month or $13.99 a month is killer. It isn't fishy, it's a typical cross promotion across different business units.

There's no caveat on how long you have to be a D+ subscriber for on the discount btw.

 

[Splash4eva]

So are they looking for more Disney+ subs with this offer, more resort guests or both? Nothing to see here folks

 

[drizgirl]

Agree with pretty much all of this.

If staying at a value resort it is almost always worth it. Moderates takes some napkin math to figure out and almost assuredly deluxe is better taking a rate discount (if available).

No! It's EVIL and you are always a schmuck of doing it.

Says the person here who stays value and loves it. It's always much better than a small discount they offer on values.

 

[monothingie]

I could see folks signing up for D+ to get this promotion.

My gut is that most people who are going to plunk down $$$ to go to WDW already have D+. I think that's why this didn't move the needle much last year and likely won't this year either.

 

[drizgirl]

So are they looking for more Disney+ subs with this offer, more resort guests or both? Nothing to see here folks

It's SYNERGY!

 

[Andrew M]

People tend to plan and book summer vacations months out. Last summer was not a great summer and I suspect they are acting preemptively to get ahead of repeating any soft booking issues.

I still would expect the usual cadre of discounts, including AP Discounts, but the new synergistic approach is to couple discounts with other Disney divisions (D+ has to make a profit right by 2024 or else...). It didn't seem to work last year, but maybe with D+ and Hulu being heavily discounted $12 for 12 Months it may draw in some people.

Either way Free Dining is a trap. Do the math first and make sure it works for you. Rack rate on Disney Hotels is almost never worth free dining.

Though with Dining Plans getting more expensive, the 'free dining' does take less to work out in your favor over the resort discount. My family of 5 with a 10yr old and 2 at the kids rate, the TS dining plan would be almost $220/night & QS at $175/night.

Of course the real question is would your meals cover the increased dining plan costs. Between the price increase and the reduction to 1 snack credit/person per day, it'll be very tough to break even. Assuming you can get $7-$10 snacks at the F&W/F&G, plus the $15 increase over the previous price, thats almost a $25/person/night swing in the wrong direction.

 

[Patcheslee]

And if you save $300 per room on a Deluxe that comes to almost $500 in savings with a room only discount.

We stay mods, biggest discount I've gotten before for 25% which saved $526 over 9 nights. Since DD is 15, she becomes an adult for meals, so the savings would be $1539 or upgrade to TS plan for $1006. It really will come down to the stipulations for us, never did the free dining before, so don't know if there is a limit on adults or if it requires kids under 10 to work.

 

[monothingie]

Though with Dining Plans getting more expensive, the 'free dining' does take less to work out in your favor over the resort discount. My family of 5 with a 10yr old and 2 at the kids rate, the TS dining plan would be almost $220/night & QS at $175/night.

Of course the real question is would your meals cover the increased dining plan costs. Between the price increase and the reduction to 1 snack credit/person per day, it'll be very tough to break even. Assuming you can get $7-$10 snacks at the F&W/F&G, plus the $15 increase over the previous price, thats almost a $25/person/night swing in the wrong direction.

It's a one size fits all approach that may not work for everyone. It is not uncommon for people to either exceed their dining allotment or underuse their dining allotment. Know your own situation and do your homework first before throwing your money at the Mouse.

Blowing 2 TS credits at Flying Fish when little Billy just wanted a slice of Pizza from the Boardwalk is a tremendous waste, conversely on your last day redeeming Little Billy's unused snack allotment for misc stuff at the resort QS is also a waste.

 

[monothingie]

We stay mods, biggest discount I've gotten before for 25% which saved $526 over 9 nights. Since DD is 15, she becomes an adult for meals, so the savings would be $1539 or upgrade to TS plan for $1006. It really will come down to the stipulations for us, never did the free dining before, so don't know if there is a limit on adults or if it requires kids under 10 to work.

I usually only book on AP discounts and favor deluxes, so I'll really never use this offer, so I see the calculus a little differently.

 

[JD80]

Though with Dining Plans getting more expensive, the 'free dining' does take less to work out in your favor over the resort discount. My family of 5 with a 10yr old and 2 at the kids rate, the TS dining plan would be almost $220/night & QS at $175/night.

Of course the real question is would your meals cover the increased dining plan costs. Between the price increase and the reduction to 1 snack credit/person per day, it'll be very tough to break even. Assuming you can get $7-$10 snacks at the F&W/F&G, plus the $15 increase over the previous price, thats almost a $25/person/night swing in the wrong direction.

Give you an idea here on cost, Satu'li canteen.

Call it $15 per adult and $9 per kid for the food. Adults get beer with it, at $13 or $5 soda. That's pretty much on par with everywhere else give or take a dollar or two.

For an adult, per day, with two quick service meals it's $56 for meals and $8 for a snack per day + the mug. If you're drinking a beer at each meal you're easily making it ahead of the per day cost of the QSDP. Otherwise you're just about even with a soda vs. beer. Kids are pretty much break even as well.

 

[JD80]

We stay mods, biggest discount I've gotten before for 25% which saved $526 over 9 nights. Since DD is 15, she becomes an adult for meals, so the savings would be $1539 or upgrade to TS plan for $1006. It really will come down to the stipulations for us, never did the free dining before, so don't know if there is a limit on adults or if it requires kids under 10 to work.

No limit on adults with free dining.

The worse offender of any dining plan at Disney is the alcoholic beverage option. It's included. But since people are adults at 10 years old, you lose out on value. My wife doesn't drink, but she can order the beer and the CM can bring it to the table and put it in front of her and I can drink it. My daughter who is 10 can't do that. You can't even wink and nod at the CM either because they can't legally put an alcoholic beverage in front of a 10-20 year old.

So the more people you have between 10 and 20, the worse value you get out of any dining plan because there aren't many places with "fancy drinks" without alcohol in them.

However - the more character dining you do, the more the DDP makes sense from a cost perspective.

 

[WorldExplorer]

Announcing Disney Plus member perks seems to happen often, and I have the service, but I've yet to see any offer that I actually end up using.

 

[JD80]

Announcing Disney Plus member perks seems to happen often, and I have the service, but I've yet to see any offer that I actually end up using.

They had a pretty decent rack rate discount last year, similar to some of their Visa discount offers. Nothing fancy or our of the ordinary.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Announcing Disney Plus member perks seems to happen often, and I have the service, but I've yet to see any offer that I actually end up using.

I am using the D+ room discount for our quick stay this coming March ... Other room discounts out there too but the D+ one was a bigger discount for room/dates we were looking at.

 

[Lirael]

People tend to plan and book summer vacations months out. Last summer was not a great summer and I suspect they are acting preemptively to get ahead of repeating any soft booking issues.

I still would expect the usual cadre of discounts, including AP Discounts, but the new synergistic approach is to couple discounts with other Disney divisions (D+ has to make a profit right by 2024 or else...). It didn't seem to work last year, but maybe with D+ and Hulu being heavily discounted $12 for 12 Months it may draw in some people.

Either way Free Dining is a trap. Do the math first and make sure it works for you. Rack rate on Disney Hotels is almost never worth free dining.

Sorry, my question was badly written

What I meant to ask was: is there still a chance they'll release other discounts (rack rate etc) for the months of april to june?

 

[monothingie]

Sorry, my question was badly written

What I meant to ask was: is there still a chance they'll release other discounts (rack rate etc) for the months of april to june?

Yes. I’d expect AP and Chase Disney Visa discounts by February.

 

[Indy_UK]

I understand why they are putting it behind a Disney+ subscription because it’s cross promoting but are they that desperate for subs that you have to pay $13 or so a month so access the offer, when they are discounting by far more?

 

[JD80]

Sorry, my question was badly written

What I meant to ask was: is there still a chance they'll release other discounts (rack rate etc) for the months of april to june?

Almost positive. Historically they almost always have had rack rate discounts for that time of year (volume and %% vary year to year). The only variable is the window for free dining, that always changes up.

 

[Lirael]

I was having this "is it worth it" discussion with some first timers the other day

It really goes down to: how much and what do you drink

If you drink a lot of soda or alcoholic beverages, it can be worth it since the refillable mug is included. Though you'd need to organize yourself to be around the places in each park where they have the refill station

As someone who doesn't drink soda and am very limited on what types of alcoholic drinks I like, the DP is never worth it for me.

 

[Stupido]

If they announced a TBA opening date in the window, I would book tomorrow.