Free Disney Dining Plan offer now available for booking summer 2019

[wdwmagic]

https://www.wdwmagic.com/resorts/wa...fer-now-available-for-booking-summer-2019.htm

 

[RustySpork]

Oh the rooms will fill up, but from a transactional point of view, every minute that website is 500, that's lost $$$$.

I don't think so, nobody is going to say "Darn, Disney's website is down we're going to the Grand Canyon instead!". They just book later, or over the phone. If shopdisney.com was down, that would be lost $$$$ for every minute that it was unavailable.

 

[monothingie]

No matter how much capacity you plan for, it's rarely enough for demand when you're at their scale. Even if you do plan it well, that doesn't mean it'll get funded either because these outages tend to be related to bursts and someone counting the beans may have decided that burst outages are acceptable business risk.

I would agree, however the entire WDW MDE Web presence is known for its poor reliability. For the amount of money and development that went into it, it lacks the robustness to handle a spike in traffic, or a busy time at WDW, or a rainy day...

I don't think so, nobody is going to say "Darn, Disney's website is down we're going to the Grand Canyon instead!". They just book later, or over the phone. If shopdisney.com was down, that would be lost $$$$ for every minute that it was unavailable.

I think we're saying the same thing. The money will come in, but todays sales numbers will be will be much lower than yesterdays numbers. It's an opportunity cost that was lost by the website being down.

There may also be some people that were solely planning their trips based on discounts at certain locations. The lack of access today may mean that later on when they try for their desired accommodation, it may not be available. Bottom line I think we all agree on, is their website outage did not help them.

 

[RustySpork]

I would agree, however the entire WDW MDE Web presence is known for its poor reliability. For the amount of money and development that went into it, it lacks the robustness to handle a spike in traffic, or a busy time at WDW, or a rainy day...

It is definitely not the most reliable site, but for the amount of traffic they must get it does ok. I don't think they've scaled out into the cloud yet (I could be wrong here), so they may even be bottlenecked by some sort of physical constraint.

I think we're saying the same thing. The money will come in, but todays sales numbers will be will be much lower than yesterdays numbers. It's an opportunity cost that was lost by the website being down.

There may also be some people that were solely planning their trips based on discounts at certain locations. The lack of access today may mean that later on when they try for their desired accommodation, it may not be available. Bottom line I think we all agree on, is their website outage did not help them.

I think we kind of are, but think about it this way. If a guest tries to make a reservation and they can't, and they come back later to book and the rooms are no longer available, that means Disney has still made the sale. They haven't lost money. The guest certainly lost out, but Disney got their money either way.

The outage certainly doesn't help, they are taking a reputation hit every time people see Stitch.

 

[HauntedPirate]

It is definitely not the most reliable site, but for the amount of traffic they must get it does ok. I don't think they've scaled out into the cloud yet (I could be wrong here), so they may even be bottlenecked by some sort of physical constraint.

I think we kind of are, but think about it this way. If a guest tries to make a reservation and they can't, and they come back later to book and the rooms are no longer available, that means Disney has still made the sale. They haven't lost money. The guest certainly lost out, but Disney got their money either way.

The outage certainly doesn't help, they are taking a reputation hit every time people see Stitch.

Disney IT lackey - "We have come up with a plan to alleviate the capacity problems and stop the 500's on the website."

Disney IT manager - "Will it cost money?"

Disney IT lackey - "Ummm... of cour..." "NO."

 

[DisneyJoe]

It is definitely not the most reliable site, but for the amount of traffic they must get it does ok. I don't think they've scaled out into the cloud yet (I could be wrong here), so they may even be bottlenecked by some sort of physical constraint.

I do know that at least part of their systems use AWS, but I don't think they know how to use it in the best way...

I think we kind of are, but think about it this way. If a guest tries to make a reservation and they can't, and they come back later to book and the rooms are no longer available, that means Disney has still made the sale. They haven't lost money. The guest certainly lost out, but Disney got their money either way.

Where Disney does lose money on days like today is with existing reservation modifications - reservations made months ago that had Disney Dining Plan on them (or not) - that today were modified to add Free Dining.

 

[RustySpork]

I do know that at least part of their systems use AWS, but I don't think they know how to use it in the best way...

Doesn't seem like they're using it for scale.

Where Disney does lose money on days like today is with existing reservation modifications - reservations made months ago that had Disney Dining Plan on them (or not) - that today were modified to add Free Dining.

Is that a loss for Disney though, if people have to pay for their dining plan Disney makes more money! What if the crash is intentional! /s

 

[lentesta]

I believe this "free dining" offer is unprecedented in a couple of ways:

1. It's bookable very early (it's normally announced 3rd week of April)
2. It's offered for travel dates in July (starting July 5) versus a normal late-August start

A July 5 start date covers what - 75% of summer vacation?

This is on top of the very, very low Priceline rates for the All-Stars, POR, AKL, Coronado, and Beach Club.

Disney's either hedging bets on a recession; they're seeing the effects of global warming on summer travel; or they're worried about pre-Galaxy's Edge crowds. Or some combination.

 

[Tom P.]

I believe this "free dining" offer is unprecedented in a couple of ways:

1. It's bookable very early (it's normally announced 3rd week of April)
2. It's offered for travel dates in July (starting July 5) versus a normal late-August start

A July 5 start date covers what - 75% of summer vacation?

This is on top of the very, very low Priceline rates for the All-Stars, POR, AKL, Coronado, and Beach Club.

Disney's either hedging bets on a recession; they're seeing the effects of global warming on summer travel; or they're worried about pre-Galaxy's Edge crowds. Or some combination.

While I get your logic, I think this *has* to be coming from Galaxy's Edge.

I can't imagine that Disney is going to start reducing profit margins just because an economic downturn might happen at some point in the future. Sure, they'll roll out the discounts the moment the economy turns soft, but there's simply no economic reason for them to do that right now.

And central Florida during July and August was already roughly as hot as walking on the surface of the sun. If global temperatures have crept up an average of a degree or two, that might be bad for the planet overall, but I can't imagine that it really has an impact on people's decisions to visit Walt Disney World.

No, I think this is all based on their projections concerning Galaxy's Edge. I bet bookings are already light this year due to anticipation over its opening. And I think they know that before too long, they're going to have to start getting more specific with the opening date, and once they announce that, bookings may just crater. I think this is an effort to get people committed to vacations prior to GE's opening now, before more details about it drop.

 

[DisneyGigi]

While I get your logic, I think this *has* to be coming from Galaxy's Edge.

I can't imagine that Disney is going to start reducing profit margins just because an economic downturn might happen at some point in the future. Sure, they'll roll out the discounts the moment the economy turns soft, but there's simply no economic reason for them to do that right now.

And central Florida during July and August was already roughly as hot as walking on the surface of the sun. If global temperatures have crept up an average of a degree or two, that might be bad for the planet overall, but I can't imagine that it really has an impact on people's decisions to visit Walt Disney World.

No, I think this is all based on their projections concerning Galaxy's Edge. I bet bookings are already light this year due to anticipation over its opening. And I think they know that before too long, they're going to have to start getting more specific with the opening date, and once they announce that, bookings may just crater. I think this is an effort to get people committed to vacations prior to GE's opening now, before more details about it drop.

We have done free dining every year that we didn’t have APs since 2007- (2016, and this year) it is hotter than blue blazes in August-September, it has not gotten any hotter over the years. I don’t see that being a difference. Maybe Star Wars, or something they know we don’t recession wise. I know I always had to wait to at least April to book it though, so something seems up. And crazy it is offered for July. Had many CMs we talk to each year, tell us summer was also dead this past year. Slowest they had ever seen. Who knows? I know, I am going as much as I can before the insanity that Star Wars will bring.

 

[larryz]

12 hours later, and the page that comes up...

 

[Rteetz]

Disney's either hedging bets on a recession; they're seeing the effects of global warming on summer travel; or they're worried about pre-Galaxy's Edge crowds. Or some combination.

Combination. This offer only excludes AoA little mermaid rooms, and things like cabins/bungalows. The last few Free Dinings have also excluded resorts like POR.

I have also heard from a resort manager that bookings before Fall (SWGE) are some of the lowest they have seen in years.

 

[beertiki]

There has to be thousands of once a year, or once every two year visitors who are not booking until they know they will be able to visit SGE. I could not imagine going in August and seeing the visible parts of the new land, but knowing that it would have to wait until next trip. There will be some serious domestic disputes when some family member asks "Why are we here NOW?! Why didn't you choose our dates when THAT would be OPEN?!"

I will admit to being cheap sometimes, but even I would not be able to handle the regret of peering through the gates at the new land and wondering if a few dollars saved and some free food was worth it.

 

[DisneyJoe]

There has to be thousands of once a year, or once every two year visitors who are not booking until they know they will be able to visit SGE.

There are! but there are also many that are booking speculatively so that they have a room for when they expect SW:GE to be open - therefore, making rooms in November/December already difficult to get at some resorts while making July-Sept bookings very low, thus this offer.

 

[HauntedPirate]

A friend who has a stay already booked in early June said the discounts for the non-free-dining deals were focused mainly on CBR and Coronado. He would have had to upgrade his room at POR to get the discount, and his overall cost would have risen as a result. He may rebook at CBR and save potentially $600.

TL-DR: I think this is Disney trying to entice people to stay pre-SW:GE.

 

[draybook]

No, Disney's system is not okay. Not by a long shot. I seriously cannot think of one single time where I've gone to Amazon and it's been down. Imagine how much traffic they get. There are plenty of other examples but that's probably the best one. Disney is extremely lacking in their IT/website department and there's really no excuse for it.

 

[RustySpork]

No, Disney's system is not okay. Not by a long shot. I seriously cannot think of one single time where I've gone to Amazon and it's been down. Imagine how much traffic they get. There are plenty of other examples but that's probably the best one. Disney is extremely lacking in their IT/website department and there's really no excuse for it.

In a lot of ways they are two completely different things. Amazon is "never down" because they built a globally scalable multi-tenant cloud solution that also hosts their ecommerce product at a cost that is many orders of magnitude more expensive than traditional IT models. Those costs are offset and actually made profitable by the nature of their service being multi-tenant. There are a few other players that operate this way as well, Microsoft, Google, Rackspace, etc.

 

[DisneyJoe]

In a lot of ways they are two completely different things. Amazon is "never down" because they built a globally scalable multi-tenant cloud solution that also hosts their ecommerce product at a cost that is many orders of magnitude more expensive than traditional IT models. Those costs are offset and actually made profitable by the nature of their service being multi-tenant. There are a few other players that operate this way as well, Microsoft, Google, Rackspace, etc.

BUT many companies host their systems using Amazon's AWS or Google's Cloud Services - Netflx, Airbnb, NASA, and many others - Disney has moved some of its internals to AWS, but from my experience, not nearly enough and not properly to make it handle their load. I also believe they do not test their systems nearly well enough to handle load.

 

[RustySpork]

BUT many companies host their systems using Amazon's AWS or Google's Cloud Services - Netflx, Airbnb, NASA, and many others - Disney has moved some of its internals to AWS, but from my experience, not nearly enough and not properly to make it handle their load. I also believe they do not test their systems nearly well enough to handle load.

You're absolutely right.

 

[Brooklin Disney Dad]

Thing is, this isnt really free dining. Its just a discount unlike last year it previous years. You save about $600 this year while in previous years it was $1500.

I haven’t done the Stay play and Dine for a few years. Last time we did it we saved close to $1200 IF we were to only eat at Disney and with no PH option. Don’t like how you are forced to buy the Park Hopper options. That takes away the savings too.

 

[eb3257]

I believe this "free dining" offer is unprecedented in a couple of ways:

1. It's bookable very early (it's normally announced 3rd week of April)
2. It's offered for travel dates in July (starting July 5) versus a normal late-August start

A July 5 start date covers what - 75% of summer vacation?

This is on top of the very, very low Priceline rates for the All-Stars, POR, AKL, Coronado, and Beach Club.

Disney's either hedging bets on a recession; they're seeing the effects of global warming on summer travel; or they're worried about pre-Galaxy's Edge crowds. Or some combination.

Do you also think this has something to do with all the recent price increases? Parking at the parks, resorts, snack prices being raised, ticket prices, etc or do you think all of this has to do with Star Wars opening?