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Walt Disney World

Walt Disney World Free Dining Offer for Select dates this fall

  • Last Updated:
  • May 21st, 2017 7:28 pm
Jr. Member
Nov 23, 2013
178 posts
604 upvotes

Walt Disney World Free Dining Offer for Select dates this fall

Deal Link:
Expiry:
August 31, 2017
Retailer:
Walt Disney World
Walt Disney World has released one of its most popular promotions. Free Dining was announced this morning. Offer details:

Book Through
August 31, 2017
Valid For Arrivals Most Nights

August 13 through September 30, 2017
November 14 through November 20, 2017
November 25 through November 27, 2017
December 8 through December 23, 2017
Package Includes

Room
Theme park ticket(s) with Park Hopper or Park Hopper Plus Option
Dining Plan (Disney Quick-Service Dining Plan with Value and Moderate Resort hotel packages; Disney Dining Plan with Deluxe and Deluxe Villa Resort hotel packages)
Important Details

The number of rooms allocated for this offer is limited.
Advance reservation required.
Tickets and options must be used within 14 days of first use.
Children ages 3 to 9 must choose from the children’s menu, if available.
Some table-service
Ticket Requirements

Minimum 2-day Magic Your Way ticket with Park Hopper or Park Hopper Plus Option
Offer Restrictions

Cannot be combined with any other discount or promotion.
Excludes alcoholic beverages and gratuities.
Everyone in the same room must be on the same package.
Offer excludes the following room types: campsites, 3-bedroom villas, Disney’s Art of Animation Resort – Little Mermaid Standard Rooms and Bungalows at Disney’s Polynesian Villas & Bungalows.

Note: You CAN NOT combine with the Canadian Ticket Discount promo. So you need to do your math to see if it is worth it for you and/or your family.

Also note, that I believe Canadian's get some extra days over the US (Canada specific dates are August 13th-20th).

Good luck!
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Jan 31, 2004
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Finally!!
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Curious if anyone has done the math on discounted tickets (option 1) vs paying full price but getting a meal plan (option 2)? It's about $900 difference for us (family of 3), I think, for 8 days. Will I spend more than $110ish/day on food for 2 adults and a 3 year old if I pick option 1?
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We are a familly of 3 with an 8 year old and I beleive using the Canadian discount offer is better than using the free dining plan offer.
I think we will just pay directly for each meal instead of buying a meal plan.
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Nov 23, 2013
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You have to crunch the numbers. The rule of thumb is, more people, in cheaper resort, makes free dining a better deal. Very rarely does free dining work out better at a deluxe resort, for example.

I have a family of 4 (2 adults and 2 kids (but adults by Disney standards)). We priced out the Canadian Ticket + room discount at a value resort. For us, we figure we come out ahead with free dining. We calculated that a family of 4 eating as cheaply as we could in Disney would cost us at least $100/day (total) and that is eating pretty frugally.

Everybody is different and everybody eats differently so you have to crunch the numbers for yourself.
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Nov 23, 2013
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mself084 wrote: Curious if anyone has done the math on discounted tickets (option 1) vs paying full price but getting a meal plan (option 2)? It's about $900 difference for us (family of 3), I think, for 8 days. Will I spend more than $110ish/day on food for 2 adults and a 3 year old if I pick option 1?
We typically pay out of pocket at the parks for food. For us that works better. This year, though, free dining +room + tickets makes more sense versus what we would pay OOP for food + discounted tickets + discounted room.

But you have to do the math for your situation.
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Mar 27, 2006
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Sudbury
It would also depend on what you plan to eat. 1 table service a day will add up fast but if you eat all quick service ....
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Interesting. We went 6-7 years ago but I didn't pay attention to the meal prices, because we had a dining plan. I'll see if I can find any links with actual menu prices.
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mself084 wrote: Interesting. We went 6-7 years ago but I didn't pay attention to the meal prices, because we had a dining plan. I'll see if I can find any links with actual menu prices.
Nice, let us know if you find menu prices :)
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When I get the meal plan I also change my eating ... I'll eat the $35.00 Grilled Strip Steak instead of the $21 Layered Ratatouille at Be Our Guest. :)
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Nov 21, 2013
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mself084 wrote: Curious if anyone has done the math on discounted tickets (option 1) vs paying full price but getting a meal plan (option 2)? It's about $900 difference for us (family of 3), I think, for 8 days. Will I spend more than $110ish/day on food for 2 adults and a 3 year old if I pick option 1?
Unless you want to eat at quick service restaurants (AKA fast food) you better book a value resort and pay the extra for the Deluxe dining plan. That's what we've done back in 2011. I looked at the meal prices, and by example the lunch and dinner prices at Crystal Palace (buffet style restaurant) is $42,00 for adults... don't forget that kids over 10 are considered adults at Disney... so for a party of 4 adults it's already $168 saved, for only one lunch/dinner... what we've done back then is taking snacks as breakfast, and the quick service meal at lunch time and the seated services at dinner. Food at the seated restaurants was very great, and the free meal deal is an awesome value IMHO

Edit: forgot to mention to take in consideration the 18-20% tip at table service restaurants, wich is NOT INCLUDED in the dining plan
Last edited by DoorCrasher on Apr 24th, 2017 9:25 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Aug 24, 2011
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cbrunett wrote: Room
Theme park ticket(s) with Park Hopper or Park Hopper Plus Option
Dining Plan (Disney Quick-Service Dining Plan with Value and Moderate Resort hotel packages; Disney Dining Plan with Deluxe and Deluxe Villa Resort hotel packages)
Minimum 2-day Magic Your Way ticket with Park Hopper or Park Hopper Plus Option
No sit down meal unless you're staying at a deluxe resort and now they're forcing the park hopper option on you at extra $$$.
Last year moderate resorts qualified for sit down meals and park hopper was a choice.
Now they've removed October bookings all together. This event gets less and less enticing every year.
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Nov 23, 2013
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countysat wrote: No sit down meal unless you're staying at a deluxe resort and now they're forcing the park hopper option on you at extra $$$.
Last year moderate resorts qualified for sit down meals and park hopper was a choice.
Now they've removed October bookings all together. This event gets less and less enticing every year.
I think a lot of people are booking the Value resort and upgrading to the "regular" Disney Dining Plan (which includes 1 Table Service/day). Getting a Value Resort + upgrading to the DDP is similar in price to a Moderate resort with just the Quick Service Dining Plan (Counter service meals) under the current promotion (depends as well on number of people in your party). Keep in mind that Value resort rooms are much smaller in size than Moderate Hotels. If you plan to only sleep in your room after long days in the park, Value might work for you. If you plan to spend more time at the resort, than Moderates might be better.

There is a lot of construction going on at Moderate Resorts. Caribbean Beach Resort and Corondo Springs have lots of rooms out of action. With fewer Moderate Rooms, I think Disney feels they won't have as many vacancies this year in this category.

Also word is Disney would love to get ride of this promo. Each year it becomes a little less enticing. I suspect this is Disney's way of phasing it out.
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Mcklain wrote: Nice, let us know if you find menu prices :)
You can see menus and pricing on the official Disney World website. I would assume the prices are most up to date here as well.

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/dining/
MTHead wrote: When I get the meal plan I also change my eating ... I'll eat the $35.00 Grilled Strip Steak instead of the $21 Layered Ratatouille at Be Our Guest. :)
Same here. Without the dining plan I'm usually questioning my choices like: "Do I really need this venti frappuccino?".
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cbrunett wrote: I think a lot of people are booking the Value resort and upgrading to the "regular" Disney Dining Plan (which includes 1 Table Service/day). Getting a Value Resort + upgrading to the DDP is similar in price to a Moderate resort with just the Quick Service Dining Plan (Counter service meals) under the current promotion (depends as well on number of people in your party). Keep in mind that Value resort rooms are much smaller in size than Moderate Hotels. If you plan to only sleep in your room after long days in the park, Value might work for you. If you plan to spend more time at the resort, than Moderates might be better.

There is a lot of construction going on at Moderate Resorts. Caribbean Beach Resort and Corondo Springs have lots of rooms out of action. With fewer Moderate Rooms, I think Disney feels they won't have as many vacancies this year in this category.

Also word is Disney would love to get ride of this promo. Each year it becomes a little less enticing. I suspect this is Disney's way of phasing it out.
How much extra is it to upgrade to the "regular" dining plan from the free/included quick service one? Any ideas?
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mself084 wrote: Curious if anyone has done the math on discounted tickets (option 1) vs paying full price but getting a meal plan (option 2)? It's about $900 difference for us (family of 3), I think, for 8 days. Will I spend more than $110ish/day on food for 2 adults and a 3 year old if I pick option 1?
Depends on where/what you eat. Prices range quite a bit at various resort restaurants. Quick service meals (which is what this covers) ranged around $13-17 per adult when we were there a few weeks ago, if memory serves (though you can check prices on the website, as mentioned above). For table service meals, you could quite easily spend over $110/day. But you'd have to do the math, factoring up the upgrade price to the regular dining plan, to see how much per day it would work out to.
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Dec 7, 2007
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Just booked over Christmas - the heads up is much appreciated OP.

I know its a gong show there over the holidays but its a bucket list thing.
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mself084 wrote: How much extra is it to upgrade to the "regular" dining plan from the free/included quick service one? Any ideas?
they charge the difference between the quick serve dining plan and the table service dining plan, so, if you think that you will spend all day/night in the parks, it worth it to take the value resort IMHO, and pay the upgrade. Don't forget that if you plan to make advanced reservation at the restaurants, plan to be in that park that day, unless you have the Park Hopper option, wich is a must if you have the table service dining plan...
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mself084 wrote: How much extra is it to upgrade to the "regular" dining plan from the free/included quick service one? Any ideas?
I don't have the precise number but it is about $21/day/adult to upgrade from Quick Service Dining to the "regular" Disney Dining plan. Kids (9 and under) is $4/day/kid. So the upgrade isn't too expensive, particularly if you want to do table service meals.

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