Discussion:End Of Free Dining Forever

[Moorlandman]

Originally Posted by POR34

I'd like to see the end of the DDP both free and paid for. Hopefully then, the quality of food and choices in some of the signatures would go back to the 'old days'.

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But would people be prepared to pay $200+ for a family meal or go off site? It’s a risk for Disney

[DisneyStarwars]

I am sure they are looking at how people are reacting to the current issues and what decisions are being made. Though there are a number of factors people are considering over the decision making process surely it will give them an idea of possible impact if it was removed. An opportunity to test the water ?

[catherinesian]

I don't think we've seen the end of it.

When you can go offsite and get a full meal + tips for less than just the tips cost dining onsite I fail to see how they are losing money. OK for QSDP you don't pay tips but I would wager most people upgrade to DDP anyway.

Plus, I imagine an awful lot of people wouldn't stay onsite at all / not for nearly as long if there were no free dining. I am one of them. Thus they are losing people from the bubble and all the other associated spending, plus the inflated hotel fees.

[Guest]

It doesn't seem as though they're losing money with the DDP, as I'm sure it costs them very little for the food they're giving you, even at the better dining locations. Food in general here in the US is very inexpensive and the markup at the retail/restaurant level is high in comparison.
I think where the problem lies with the DDP is that it's a pain for them to deal with administratively.
I can see Disney going with a system where you can load money onto your Magic Band, sort of like a debit card, and just use it onsite for whatever you want, whether it be meals or souvenirs.
I'm sure there are ins and outs of that method, but that's just my thought.

[jimmy-google]

I don't think we'll see the Dining plans for most of, if not all of 2021. There maybe some offers for 2022 but they probably won't be available to book until 2022. I'd be surprised if free dining is back to the way we've known it before booking for 2023. I expect it will be back but this is a long road back to normality for WDW.

It could well be over a year until they can open up to full capacity and it would take very low numbers of cases or a vaccine to realistically bring back character dining in the way it was.

[Hannah]

Originally Posted by sully301

Just another thought... why would they bring out a new tier of dining plan and allow people to upgrade to it if it was for the scrap heap?

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Good point!

[ely3857]

When introduced it was to fill hotel rooms and keep people on site. You can’t spend money on the gift shop on Main St if you’re at McDonalds or Walmart. However it does seem it became a victim of its own success and Disney perhaps got to the point where they didn’t need it anymore but were unsure of the implications of removing it. My gut instinct is that now they’ve removed it it won’t be back.

[Hannah]

I think it might be back in some form ... but for holidays in 2022.
Perhaps they'll water it down even more so at Moderates you only get a free breakfast (like at Values now), QSDP at Deluxes then you would have to pay to upgrade to the full DDP from there.
On one hand I'd like free dining (I wouldn't pay for it as I don't eat enough to make it worthwhile), but I also liked our Universal/SW/BG holiday last year when we didn't have to decide where we wanted to eat 6 months before and book all our FastPasses 2 months before. It was very freeing!

[nth09]

It's really pretty simple from an economics point of view - the relationship between demand and capacity (in this case desired capacity) assuming that each additional person increases profit.

If, due to economic, or other, factors the demand is not there to get the parks to desired capacity offers will appear. It could be free dining or something else. If they can get to their desired capacity without it there will be no need to introduce offers.

The only tricky thing in this case, from a business perspective if that the "desired capacity" may well be a moving target over the next 12 months.

[lizzie145]

i think the only reason it has been pulled is because of the social distancing guidelines - they just cannot safely have everyone in the restaurants at the same time. They can only have 50% for example.

So how else can they do it - first come first served, luck of the draw? Far easier to cancel everyone and refund them or compensate them. Guests can then decide where they want to eat but will probably have to book and then pay out of pocket. Some will and some wont - their choice.

DDP will be reinstated in the future as they make money from it - easy money