"Free" Dining Plan Price Increase 2021

[Memories4You]

Originally Posted by HeresYourEars

I agree. Disney is losing money like mad. Wouldn’t be surprised if freebies go away for a while.

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I was actually thinking the other way around! With so many Americans experiencing unexpected financial difficulties I think many will not be able to afford WDW for a while, so Disney will need to work hard to get butts on seats so to speak.A lot of company owners just want to keep their business alive and cover costs, and a lot of people will need an incentive like free dining or room discounts to decide to part with their $$.

[MrsSevSpaghetti]

I assume the free dining thing is to get you to stay totally on site and spend all your money on site! Without it there’s no reason to stay on Disney property. It’s much better value to stay off site really.
Everyone I know that goes to Florida only stays at Disney for the dining. I’ve met lots of Americans staying on site, they generally only seem to be there for a few days. It’s the Europeans who go for 2 weeks.
I assume their business model is based on full occupancy which is easier with people on longer stays.
If flights go up in price there’s going to have to be some incentives to offset the cost for us.

[Guest]

Originally Posted by Memories4You

I was actually thinking the other way around! With so many Americans experiencing unexpected financial difficulties I think many will not be able to afford WDW for a while, so Disney will need to work hard to get butts on seats so to speak.A lot of company owners just want to keep their business alive and cover costs, and a lot of people will need an incentive like free dining or room discounts to decide to part with their $$.

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That might very well be true. But even with the terrible economic turndown in 2009, Disney was still running at full capacity and had no problems filling their parks and hotels with mostly Americans. I just read an article in the Orlando Sentinel that says that international tourists comprise 18 to 20% of Disney's business, and the rest are from the US.
Still, it's a guessing game. It will be interesting to see what they do. Hopefully they keep the dining offers!

[jonsgirl80]

Originally Posted by Memories4You

I was actually thinking the other way around! With so many Americans experiencing unexpected financial difficulties I think many will not be able to afford WDW for a while, so Disney will need to work hard to get butts on seats so to speak.A lot of company owners just want to keep their business alive and cover costs, and a lot of people will need an incentive like free dining or room discounts to decide to part with their $$.

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I agree. I think they'll want to encourage people to stay onsite and, because it costs so much more, they'll have to have some serious incentives to encourage people to do that - especially as money is likely to be tighter for many.

In terms of the costs to Disney, I think offering the free dining plan probably makes good business sense because I'm thinking they'll make far more money from it than they'll lose.

I know that, although we love staying onsite, we couldn't do it without free dining as it just wouldn't be good value for us if we had to pay out for food on top. I would think a lot of families would be in a similar position

[disneymummy]

Free dining is a complete deal breaker for us, if it’s not offered for next year we may even look to holiday somewhere else. I couldn’t justify the cost of onsite hotels and certainly not the restaurants if we were paying OOP for them.

[MrsSevSpaghetti]

Originally Posted by disneymummy

Free dining is a complete deal breaker for us, if it’s not offered for next year we may even look to holiday somewhere else. I couldn’t justify the cost of onsite hotels and certainly not the restaurants if we were paying OOP for them.

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Snap. My better half says we won’t go next year unless they offer it.

[Nemesis]

Originally Posted by MrsSevSpaghetti

I’ve moved a booking from this week to next year, same time. It’s £500 cheaper next year. If they add dining I am fully expecting the price to go up!

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Beach Club has gone up in price for our dates in September 2021 (last visit was 2017) by £150 per night. Im still hoping for free dining

[Nemesis]

Originally Posted by MrsSevSpaghetti

I assume the free dining thing is to get you to stay totally on site and spend all your money on site! Without it there’s no reason to stay on Disney property. It’s much better value to stay off site really.
Everyone I know that goes to Florida only stays at Disney for the dining. I’ve met lots of Americans staying on site, they generally only seem to be there for a few days. It’s the Europeans who go for 2 weeks.
I assume their business model is based on full occupancy which is easier with people on longer stays.
If flights go up in price there’s going to have to be some incentives to offset the cost for us.

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Location, location, location for us. Agree that its far too expensive to stay on property especially without free dining. Currently though we think the walkable locations make it worthwhile.

[Nells77]

Originally Posted by disneymummy

Free dining is a complete deal breaker for us, if it’s not offered for next year we may even look to holiday somewhere else. I couldn’t justify the cost of onsite hotels and certainly not the restaurants if we were paying OOP for them.

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Same here, I am desperate to go next year but there’s no way we will go without free dining. We already have to pay the massively over priced school holiday prices!

[disneymummy]

Originally Posted by Nells77

Same here, I am desperate to go next year but there’s no way we will go without free dining. We already have to pay the massively over priced school holiday prices!

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This is us too. We have school age kids so are restricted to school hols. We’ve been lucky to have had 5 visits in the last 8 years and that is thanks to free dining making it easier for us.