Disney Plus subscriber free dining and DVC?

[CapnA1987]

Do you know if there is anyway a Disney Plus subscriber can use the Free dining plan promo for their stay?

 

[kes601]

Not if you are staying on DVC points. You've already given Disney your money, they have no reason to give you anything for free......

 

[thanxfornoticin]

Keep in mind, 'free' DDP isn't actually free (even though that's how it is advertised!!) - it's 'included' when you pay full rate for a room and buy park hopping tickets. There's no way that makes any sense for Disney to offer it to DVC guests.

 

[kilik64]

Its a very ho hum deal imo. Feel like that current half off kids tickets and dining plan is a better deal.

But yea none of this ever applies to DVC. If there happens to be another ticket deal like that 4 day 4 park one they had back last year, you can get in on that as it wasn't tied to a resort stay.

 

[CapnA1987]

So it sounds like this isn't the free dining deal of the past.

 

[Brian Noble]

Free dining was never offered to stays booked with DVC points.

 

[kilik64]

So it sounds like this isn't the free dining deal of the past.

No it basically is.

I dont recall if the park hopper ticket was required as part of it before. But the "free" dining deals were always full price resort stay, plus tickets and you got free dining. I think before you got the qs tier free and could pay a little more for the TS tier. Been so long ago details are fuzzy now lol

 

[Debbie Jean]

Not on points.

But sure, anyone with a Disney + account can book a package, pay rack rate for the room, along with mandatory hopper tickets so they get “free dining”.

 

[New Mouse]

Cue the lack of dining availability long lines for quick service thread!

 

[Genie+]

So it sounds like this isn't the free dining deal of the past.

First is the current dining plan is much harder to get a great bang for the buck than past versions. The number of ‘fantastic credit values’ was much higher - places we loved with high out of pocket costs for what we’d likely order. Plus over the years they’ve chipped away at what was included. Apps and dessert used to be included with TS, dessert or extra side used to be included with QS, we’d get 2 snacks each per day, etc. This all made a big difference in how we could work DDP. When I look at the TS and QS lists under the new DDP I’m just not able to string together days of actual usage that come out better than paying out of pocket. And DDP always gave up some freedom in meal choices, and now that it’s much less likely to save money, why bother being encumbered.

Second is the price gap has exploded between buying park tickets in a WDW package vs 3rd party broker. Used to be 10’s of dollars between choices where it is now 100’s of dollars per ticket. For free dining package the ticket expense for a family of 4 is likely $400 to $1000 more than the 3rd party broker purchase. Nevermind you may not even want or plan any use of hoppers to begin with. That gap can grow even more.

Third and most important where DVC is concerned, Free Dining is only offered on full rack rate cash rooms. There’s not much way around that part. Maybe something like this: Your party of 4 was planning on 2 DVC studios. You decide to use DVC points for 2ppl in one room and pay for a qualified free dining cash room for the other couple. The cash room has max occupancy 4ppl, so you list all 4 people in your party on the cash reservation (and buy all 4 park hoppers on that reservation), and put 2 ‘dummy’ nicknames on your DVC reservaton (with a unique separate MDE linked account). Then the 2 couples would each stay in their own room but all could get their free dining credit allotments. But it’s not really going to save money, especially if your party is 4 adults and the cash room will charge an extra $50/nt for adults beyond 2.
eta- also makes trying to access Extended Evening Hours much more difficult.

 

[pianomanzano]

No it basically is.

I dont recall if the park hopper ticket was required as part of it before. But the "free" dining deals were always full price resort stay, plus tickets and you got free dining. I think before you got the qs tier free and could pay a little more for the TS tier. Been so long ago details are fuzzy now lol

Park hoppers weren't required. First ever on-property stay in 2013 was during a free dining promo and we did a 5 night stay with a 4 day base ticket.

 

[Genie+]

No it basically is.

I dont recall if the park hopper ticket was required as part of it before. But the "free" dining deals were always full price resort stay, plus tickets and you got free dining. I think before you got the qs tier free and could pay a little more for the TS tier. Been so long ago details are fuzzy now lol

Oh yeah, I forgot about that part. Moderates used to come with the full dining plan. Each day you’d get:

1 Table service- appetizer, entree, dessert and drink (non-alcohol but some expensive options included, eg - shake)

1 Quick Service- entree (some with 2 sides), dessert (could be used other ways) and drink (also not just soda/coffee)

2 snacks - almost all EP booth options included, many large complex QS and cart options

Table Service included many ‘Signature’ restaurants that require 2 credits today, and many show package too.

Back then our family of 4 could order FlameTree full rackribs on 1 QS credit, add 1 snack credit, and have a huge meal. That would be a dozen big meaty ribs, beans, coleslaw, jalapeño cornbread, and TWO orders french fries with pulled pork and cheese (one in place of dessert, one for snack credit), plus a specialty drink like mandarin orange lemonade.
OOP cost: $40 with tax. One meal down and our family would have 4 TS, 3 QS, and 5 snack credits left that day. Similar would cost over $60 today, though they’ve done away with sharable QS portions.

Of course it took some planning to stretch that food plan but by golly you could work it. Nowadays quick service is overflowing in pulled pork and table service vegetable side is string beans 90% of the time. The food plan today gets redundant without access to appetizers or lounge menus. It’s much more limited in options and savings.

 

[kilik64]

@Genie+ hey you got a good discount site you use for tickets cause the best ive found is actually dvc rental store and its only 200ish cheaper for our dates (last week of May, 5 people (2 adults 3 kids).

The maths on the dining plan doesnt really work to save you much if any unless you have kids and plan to do a lot of character meals. The cost per day for kids basically covers the cost of the character meal (1 TS credit ones only, so no CRT or akershus dinner I think is the other) so you get a QS and snack for "free" basically for each kid. Adults are break even at best.

We are going to do it for this next trip but will be the last time as oldest will be a Disney Adult next year

 

[CraigInPA]

The dining plan has been declining in value since it was launched. In the early days, it even included the tip!

 

[tidefan]

The dining plan has been declining in value since it was launched. In the early days, it even included the tip!

Yep. I was going to mention this. This is one of the biggest cost increases it had, IMHO.

(which of course spawned the fun "Why am I tipping 18% at both Jiko and Boma when at Boma all they do is bring my drinks" threads - which, BTW, does have some merit... but I digress)