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what kind of deals do we get as dvc members on the dining plan? is
- Thread starter mjem216
- Start date
GoofGoof
Premium Member
No price break on the Disney dining plan, but you can still buy the dining plan at full price without buying a package (room, park tickets and dining). This is kinda like a discount since you are not locked into park tickets and all of the extras they make you buy with a magic your way package. You still need to buy the dining plan for all nights of your stay and all party members.
You are eligible for a tables in wonderland card that gets you 20% off at a bunch of different restaurants. The cost for the card is $100 for a year so you have to plan on spending at least $500 to break even (easy to do at WDW). 20% off includes alcohol too.
http://tablesinwonderland.com/
There are also additional restaurants that offer 10% off for DVC members for certain meals. These are subject to change. Here is a list:
http://allears.net/pl/disc_dining.pdf
DVC members are exempt from the higher "peak season" pricing on the dining plans. We always pay the lower of the two rates.
TiW card is $100 for DVC members or $75 if an Annual Passholder. The card is typically valid for at least 13 months due to the manner in which it is dated at purchase.
Some of the DVC restaurant discounts to up to 20%. They change frequently and I wouldn't rely on the link from Allears being correct. DVCMember.com has links to the current "Portable Perks" brochures which should be accurate.
TiW card is $100 for DVC members or $75 if an Annual Passholder. The card is typically valid for at least 13 months due to the manner in which it is dated at purchase.
Some of the DVC restaurant discounts to up to 20%. They change frequently and I wouldn't rely on the link from Allears being correct. DVCMember.com has links to the current "Portable Perks" brochures which should be accurate.
kucarachi
Active Member
Yeah that is one thing i don't understand. As the most loyal and long term customers that disney has...why does the general public get this incredible perk and we don't even get a few free meals out of it. The food cost more than the park itself somedays and its almost like you are being punished for being a member. I don't want to see them make everyone pay but at least throw us some bones on dining..at least a free refillable mug from your resort!
wilkeliza
Well-Known Member
They already know you are coming so they don't need to offer you discounts. The discounts on food are a way to lure people into booking a vacation. They already have you for the next 50 years (or whatever you DVC contract) is for so there is no benefit to offer you discounts. Also almost every DVC room has a stove or at least a kitchenette and Disney allows you to bring food into the parks. This makes them feel like if you don't like the price of food you can go to your resort and cook or you can pack meals for the day. Resort guests do not often have this luxury. If you want free dinning they will tell you that you have to book a regular room with out using DVC points or DVC discounts and you have to pay for at least 2 days even if you have an annual pass. So that free dinning isn't really so free especially if you are an AP holder and DVC member. You would have to pay rack rates on the room and buy a 2 day ticket you probably don't need. They say the dinning is free but it is just like getting a room percent off discount. You pay full price somewhere else to get the discount they give you.
kucarachi
Active Member
yeah i understand that..which was a big debate over the decision to buy the property. But we don't have to go during hurricane season anymore to save which is nice and actually save more money for the trip because we are not paying a few thousand for a hotel since its already paid...you do get discounts on tours, AP and such so it sort of balances out if you do those things.
GoofGoof
Premium Member
Free dining is really not free at all. Its a marketing gimick that Disney rolled out to "trick" people into staying on property longer. In order to get free dining you have to book a magic your way package which includes rooms at full rack rate, length of stay passes and other throw in's like photo pass all at full price. If you booked your room with a discount (which depending on the season could be as high as 40% off) and paid cash for the dining plan you would probably pay the same or more likely less in total for your package than when you get free dining. You would also have the flexibility to eat off property or at other parks like Universal or Sea World. If you are there for a week and book the free dining you will have a 7 day park pass and 7 days worth of meals. There is an economic disadvantage to going to other parks or eating off property. A great way for Disney to keep people on property.
Jumping over to DVC. They can't charge you more for your room so they have no way to make up for offering free or discounted dining. As tjkraz pointed out you don't pay the peak season price for your dining plan so that is a small advantage. If you do the math, the dining plan is not really a great option vs paying cash. It's good for budgeting. If you get the TIW card and use those 20% discounts instead of the meal plan you will probably save money.
I don't understand why people see free dining as a 'perk'. They're not giving the dining plan to the non-DVCers because they love them better. They're using that promotion to pry rack rate out of customers who think they must be getting a deal because it says 'free'.
So....the last time I stayed in a savannah view studio at AKV, my cost as a member, figuring purchase price/MFs, was about $100 a night. If I would have added the basic DP, it would have brought my cost to around $150/night.
In order to get the free dining plan, I would have needed to pay rack rate for that studio. Currently around $400/night.
Not seeing how that's a good deal.
BCVTalsJam
Active Member
If your going to eat at the big restruants then the dining plan is great and def worth the money. But if your going to eat quick meals and make your own food it's not worth it. We live getting the dining plan cause it allows us to relax and eat at a big restaurant every day...which to us is part of the trip 
honestly I propably spend more than 53.00 a day on food if I got 2 quick meals and snacks all day. But again it depends on how your go to Disney and how you want to spend your vacation.
honestly I propably spend more than 53.00 a day on food if I got 2 quick meals and snacks all day. But again it depends on how your go to Disney and how you want to spend your vacation.
kucarachi
Active Member
Im not saying we should get anything for free just for the sake of getting it free...but i don't see what refillable mugs, or at least one free meal voucher per person, per trip would hurt. I know nobody forces you to get these time shares, but when you say rack rate, most people that plan their trips have no option to go other than the time they go and are getting almost 3 to 4 hundred in food for free per person depending on length of trip. You can't at least give us free bagels? they even do that at motel 8...just saying
But DVC is a timeshare.....it's not a hotel. Who's going to pay for the bagels, or the mugs, or the free meals? Motel 6 isn't giving away free bagels as presents to their guests and absorbing the cost, they're adding the cost to the room rate. We, the owners, pay the operating costs of the DVC resorts.
You're looking at DVC as if you were still a hotel guest. Timeshares don't work that way. Hotels must compete for your business. With a timeshare, you buy it, you own it, you use it, you pay for its operation and upkeep. If the numbers work out right, your lodging costs are substantially lower than they would be for a comparable hotel room. That's the benefit, that's why you buy. Not for little token goodies like free bagels, or a voucher for a hot dog, or a free mug.
It might help to look at things from this angle. Condos and timeshares are very different animals, but some of the process is similar on the surface. You buy a new condo from a real estate developer. Once the purchase is done and you've closed, the developer is out of the picture. You don't deal with them anymore. They've made their sale, they move on. You pay your monthly fees to the Homeowner's Association, which covers your share of the upkeep and operation of the building. You won't expect the developer to give you goodies for the duration of your ownership of the condo, right? Free grocery coupons, free sodas? There's just no business reason for them to do that. If you want to have free bagels available in the lobby every morning, the homeowners association - meaning you - is going to have to pay for it.
When you buy a DVC membership, you buy from the real estate development division of DIsney - Disney Vacation Development (DVD). You buy the contract, you close, you're done with them. You pay your maintenance fees to a management company to pay your share of the upkeep and operation of the home resort. Again, there's no business reason for DVD to give you bagels or mugs or anything else, and I don't think you'll find that the membership wants to pay for it.
I understand that you're used to having hotel companies fighting over your business, and giving you little 'freebies' to make you feel appreciated. You're not going to find that in a timeshare. You'll need to figure out whether the value is there for you without that.
BCVTalsJam
Active Member
Well if you book the meal plan you each get a refillable mug...does that make you feel
Better!! woo free mug!
Better!!
woo free mug!Well, when you figure there are about 3000 DVC rooms at WDW alone, most holding up to 9 people, the cost is not insignificant.
Let's take 3000 rooms times an average occupancy of 4 (probably low) and an average stay of 7 nights (52 stays per room, per year.) That alone is 624,000 meal vouchers or refillable mugs. Give each person a $30 meal voucher and we're talking $18 million dollars per year in DVC member giveaways.
Not bloody likely.
Refillable mugs are what, about $12 each? That would be about $7.5 million in revenue lost.
And again, they are paying staggering amounts of money for the room rates just to get the "free" food.
I priced a free dining package today to satisfy my curiosity. 2 adults, 2 kids, 7 nights in a One Bedroom at Saratoga Springs plus park hopper tickets. Under the "free dining" promo the quote was over $5400!!!
When I add up the dues paid on DVC points for that same stay, park ticket cost and even the cost to buy the dining plan, I'm only paying $3200 as a member. Over $2000 less than a cash guest for just the one stay.
I understand that we members pay a lot of money up front and have continuing dues payments. But what I think people lose sight of is how much we stand to save in the long run. My numbers have always demonstrated savings of 60-70% off rack rates over the long haul. That savings is the reason why people buy into DVC.
You may view yourself as one of Disney's most loyal customers, etc. But when Disney has already given us a vehicle for saving 70% on room charges, I don't think it is realistic to expect them to add free meal vouchers, refillable mugs and other costly perks to the mix.
But as another poster said, who is going to pay for it? Members would. Do you really want to foot the bill so that some of your fellow members can stuff their pockets full of "free" bagels every morning?
Phonedave
Well-Known Member
That is the key right there. Some items are indeed free. Things like discounts on watersports are, I believe, free. WDW realizes that DVC people are the demographic that are likely to use the watersports (visit often so are not "park commandos", have free time, and have available cash) so WDW watersports offers the discounts to DVC as a way of enticing DVC member to use the watersports.
Then there are other things that are not free. Valet parking was an example of this. WDW did not offer free valet service to DVC. DVC footed the bill for the free valet service its members used. My guess is that the number of members using this service were small compared to the number of people paying for the service (in their dues) so it was removed.
If every (or lets say 90%) of the member base wanted a free continental breakfast and expressed an interest in one, then DVC might include one. But it would not be "free", it would be reflected in the member dues. The only bargin in that scenario is that the continental breakfast would be charged back to the members at the actual cost to provide it, as opposed to the cost + markup you would pay when eating in the parks. - TANSTAAFL (or in this case, bagel)
-dave
Meeko's Mom
Member
I
You may view yourself as one of Disney's most loyal customers, etc. But when Disney has already given us a vehicle for saving 70% on room charges, I don't think it is realistic to expect them to add free meal vouchers, refillable mugs and other costly perks to the mix.
It would be nice to recieve other perks as a DVC Member. I'm not saying "Free Dining" because as you stated we all know "Free Dining" certainly is not free. Maybe 10% off the DDP or so, nothing unrealistic. I understand that they are in the business for profit. I am also aware that we do recieve discounts on AP's but maybe a slight discount off Park Hoppers for those who will only need a 7 Day Ticket vs. an Annual Pass. It just seems as of lately that DVC is losing their Customer Appreciation. I often hear people make the statement "they don't care, they've already got your business". However, I disagree with the statement that "Disney has already given us a vehicle for saving 70% on room charges. While we do in fact save approx. 70% of room rates, it certainly wasn't "given" as we as members have paid for that benefit.
You may view yourself as one of Disney's most loyal customers, etc. But when Disney has already given us a vehicle for saving 70% on room charges, I don't think it is realistic to expect them to add free meal vouchers, refillable mugs and other costly perks to the mix.
It would be nice to recieve other perks as a DVC Member. I'm not saying "Free Dining" because as you stated we all know "Free Dining" certainly is not free. Maybe 10% off the DDP or so, nothing unrealistic. I understand that they are in the business for profit. I am also aware that we do recieve discounts on AP's but maybe a slight discount off Park Hoppers for those who will only need a 7 Day Ticket vs. an Annual Pass. It just seems as of lately that DVC is losing their Customer Appreciation. I often hear people make the statement "they don't care, they've already got your business". However, I disagree with the statement that "Disney has already given us a vehicle for saving 70% on room charges. While we do in fact save approx. 70% of room rates, it certainly wasn't "given" as we as members have paid for that benefit.
If you are hung up on the word "given", I'll re-phrase:
Disney has offered us a vehicle for saving 60-70% in return for an up-front payment and we accepted the terms of that offer.