Dining plan

[Cherrypie]

Heard from the travel agent that dining will be offered next year but free dining is a thing of the past 😭
Would you consider paying? What were latest costs?
I think they should let you buy credits which you can use flexibly
CP

[Seaworldfan]

If they offered discount room rates would certainly consider it but not at rack.. more likely to go offsite in 2022 if there are no offers.

[sully301]

They don't know that, this kind of bull in the past has been told to customers by TAs in the past to try and get them to book.

[GoldenAvalanche]

If the room rate was reasonable I would consider paying, but if it's full price and the prices I've seen I don't see much benefit to being "in the bubble" so will probably look offsite with more flexibility in food choices. But waiting to see if they do any kind of offer for next year.

[catki11]

I take a lot of what TAs say with a pinch of salt. They don’t know anymore than we do at this stage. I think it’s unlikely they’ll offer free dining next year, but I’ve read that people think there’s a chance it will. If no free dining I’m hoping for free nights. We’ve got to have something to justify staying onsite!

[Bondy007]

I'm in the "would consider buying" camp, have done before and will do again. Can't remember how much it was last time we paid for it - i'm talking 11 years ago!
I've got what I feel to be a reasonable price for 14 day tickets and All Star Movies for August 2022 (2 addluts and 1 child), so to add the Dining Plan onto that I will certainly be considering. It's this update that I am waiting for to make my mind up about flydrive or flight only!

[Gill H]

Nobody knows until Disney say, certainly TAs don’t.

I doubt free dining will happen for a year or so, what with the 50th celebrations.

We have paid before and would again. We don’t drive and don’t really go offsite, and we eat at lots of Signature restaurants. But you just have to crunch the numbers and find what works for you.

[Theming]

Originally Posted by Cherrypie

Heard from the travel agent that dining will be offered next year but free dining is a thing of the past 😭

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Unless this travel agent also happens to be incredibly well placed in the Disney corporation they don’t truly know whether free dining will be offered again or at what point. They will however (understandably) be desperate for people to book something with them and not hold off for months in the hope they can get a better deal. Until Disney categorically states what is happening with dining, offers or any other incentives going forward I would take everything else with a big pinch of salt.

[dx4100]

I think it would be hard to justify the cost of the holiday.

I would want the 1 TS / 1 QS plan at least and the cost would be hard to stomach I would imagine.

I don't see Disney World offsite as being appealing - ever. Might never return to World sadly.

[sprocket]

Free dining has never really existed and any decent TA would know this. Free dining is offered on inflated rack rates, so you end up paying somewhere. Some people prefer the free dining offer, other prefer the 20% discount and others the free nights offer.
Its no different to supermarkets who inflate a price to then offer half price or bogof. At the end of the day its the same thing, but depends what suits you best. If you only want one cabbage and end up with 2, then you are spending more. Same with free dining, you could actually end up spending more, thinking you are saving.

So when the Dining Plan comes back, then free dining will return. Its only paused due to social distancing and reduced capacity in the restaurants. Until social distancing is changed, then no one will know when DP will return. Considering that Disney booking is currently available through to the end of 2022 without any sign of dining, then I would assume it will be returning no earlier than 2023.

Disney want to bring the DP back as soon as possible, reason is they make money from it, a lot of money. They have played with the DP extremely well and like a buffet restaurant, the winner is always them. What is better for them is they know that visitors think they have a good package, so everyone is a winner (but really the winner is Disney).