Free DDP coming to an end?

[dx4100]

Yeah, 2018 dinning plan includes alcoholic drinks and special milkshakes etc...

I think the benefits of staying onsite so far have been proven to be some what weak. If you didn’t get free dinning then I would certainly not stay onsite in the future.

Booking resturants 180 days out only proved so useful. Yeah I got everything I wanted at any time I wanted. But even checking now with 150 days to go I can still get anything I want just not at “perfect” times.

We will have a car so the benefit of Disney transport is only so useful to us. Free parking is nice.

We won’t be using extra magic hours as the early morning benefit because of a negative when the parks get busier during the day due to the extra hotel guests swelling the numbers.

Free magic bands are nice but not expensive to buy yourself.

Photopass is nice but you can get that with lots of tickets anyway.

Booking fastpasses 60 days will no doubt win me around a bit.

All in all - my trip is up to 14k by staying onsite and I could have booked a similar trip for about 7-8k staying off site. If we didn’t have free dinning as part of it all I think it’s very doubtful we would stay onsite.

We have the benefit of staying at the Beach Club and being next door to Epcot and being in that disney bubble but I don’t think its really worth an extra 6k is it.

[Clamshell]

It’s funny how this rumour always does the rounds a couple of months before the next free dining offer is released...

[DisneyDaffodil]

With Disney including some off site hotels in the 60 days FP booking perk soon (I believe I have heard, please correct me if this was just a rumour) and considering taking away free dining, it is hard to see many benefits in an onsite stay.
Early/late openings are nice, so is being close to the parks with Disney transport for easy access but I don't think these perks would be enough to justify the cost of an onsite stay for me. Especially with Uber and Lyft being so easy to use and cheap now, we would stay off-site and use Uber. We would probably eat more off-site then too so I think Disney would lose quite a lot of money as not only would people not book the resorts, less food would be bought in the parks.

[JessBlu]

Would not stay on site without it.
It's fab to have, but back to the villa of stopped as I just could not afford it on site without.

[MrsBC]

We'd go back to offsite if we were paying for all food and drink. We've had some fab villas and there are lots hotels out there to try!
I feel that Disney would be shooting themselves in the foot as many people (ourselves included) only book onsite knowing that all food and drink are already accounted for.

[loldis]

SW land will bring a lot of people to the parks, but not necessarily to the resorts, especially with them extending FP booking and EMH benefits to the good neighbour hotels.

I think they'll continue to offer it, but I can see it coming with a lot more blackout dates similar to the US offer which is only valid a few months a year. If it was stopped, I would still stay on site but I'd expect a room discount like the free nights offer or rent points instead. I wouldn't pay rack rate at a deluxe (the resorts I like) without some kind of incentive, the rooms simply don't hold up to their price on their own merit.

[Bozza]

Originally Posted by MrsBC

many people (ourselves included) only book onsite knowing that all food and drink are already accounted for.

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That's impressive if you stick to that.

Even when we have free DDP we'll spend a significant sum on food and drink - third courses at the table service places, wine with dinner, beers and cocktails in the parks. We'll still spend a 4-figure sum on stuff to go in our mouths.

[MrsBC]

Originally Posted by Bozza

That's impressive if you stick to that.

Even when we have free DDP we'll spend a significant sum on food and drink - third courses at the table service places, wine with dinner, beers and cocktails in the parks. We'll still spend a 4-figure sum on stuff to go in our mouths.

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Hmm this is true, last trip we did the Highway in the Sky dine around, and bought a fair amount of alcohol over the course of 2 weeks. Perhaps it should read 'most' food and drink.

[Guest]

From a personal point of view ( DVC and MVC owners ) i hope they stop the free DDP ( we have had it a few trips, also paid for it )

[Shooby doo]

The DDP isn't going to last rumour has certainly been doing the rounds for at least 10 years, if anything it's expanded year on year. DDP doesn't influence our stays one way or another, I certainly wouldn't "buy it" & we probably only eat on-site (apart from park days) maybe 4-5 times across a 3 week holiday.
I'm not sure how much SWland will impact stays & dining, as even now what was traditionally off-peak is busy, gone are the days of being able to walk on rides without any lengthy queues.
SD