|
ADR's, Dining, Food and Restaurants Anything and Everything to do with Eating. |
|
Thread Tools | Search this Thread | Display Modes |
4 Jan 18, 08:41 AM |
#61
|
|
Imagineer
Join Date: Jun 16
Location: God's Own Country
|
||
|
4 Jan 18, 09:51 AM |
#62
|
|
Very Serious Dibber
|
Dis unplugged is of course an American podcast so when it talks about the demise of Free dining its looking at it from the American perspective. In fact Disney’s perspective and reasoning for offering free dining differs between Brits and Americans.
Disney loves the Brits. No language difficulties and because Florida is a big ticket holiday we book looong in advance and for looong stays. Our advance bookings and long stays are the key to this for Disney. Like all big companies they owe the banks a fortune and every year have a tranche of long term debt bonds to repay. Except rather than repay, like all big companies, Disney would prefer to refinance. Gaining that support requires good future projections and nothing strengthens such projections as real rooms booked up a year in advance! You may notice, free UK DDP is only offered between May and Oct one year for the entirety of the following one (exempting Easter and Christmas). Our bookings greatly help Disneys long term future cashflow. The free DDP only comes out of the bottom line at the end, after we've eaten it! Conversely USA guests stay for shorter periods and book much later, as for them it's a domestic holiday. DDP is offered to US guests but on much shorter notice and used to entice bookings to fill up remaining inventory. This is what Dis was talking about, that with Star Wars and the 50th anniversary Disney vacancies will sharply reduce thereby reducing or even eliminating the need for free DDP. Be under no illusion, FDDP is expensive to Disneys bottom line and it would dearly like to end the blanket UK DDP promo, but it's on a treadmill, it's early bookings are compared by bean counters year on year, so Disney either has to replace FDDP with another too-good-to-refuse offer to continue to entice the extreme early bookers or accept the hit to its figures and the inevitable extra finance costs that brings with it. And Disney is more highly leveraged than ever before with its massive Shanghai costs and the enormously expensive improvements they’re making to WDW for the 50th anniversary, Disney needs its financing more than ever. That’s not to say they won’t do it to us, but that the motivators are different, American free DDP is about filling in gaps in demand. UK free DDP is about rolling over debt financing. Very different motivators drive the DDP offerings and it’s easy to see why Americans are nervous about the survival of the last minute gap-filler free DDP promo. |
|
|
4 Jan 18, 11:07 AM |
#63
|
|
VIP Dibber
|
We can only see what April brings when we would normally expect the offer for the following year. The discounts on OKW and SSR are reducing year on year and as long as Disney keep them cheaper than the other deluxe resorts they can continue to reduce the discount.
|
|
|
4 Jan 18, 11:35 AM |
#64
|
Imagineer
Join Date: Dec 12
|
I can't remember a year, in the last 6 or 7 years, when there was not a rumour about free dining being ended.
so it went when they removed the tips from the DDP, changed from 2 snacks to 1 (now back to 2 but without dessert at CS) long story short, each year there will be a rumour about no free dining soon ... makes me think of the critter yelling "we're all gonna die" in "the nut job" movies. well if it goes away, it goes away, and we'll cross that bridge when we get there now the considerations about SWL coming to town, and all, it's a good point but you need to see the big picture. Right across the I4 (so to speak) Universal is builiding thousands of new hotel rooms, and those rooms are all in the "value" range. (aventura across VB and 2 large hotels on the former Wet'n'Wild site) That will hit hotels on Idrive and that will probably drive some offsite prices even further down. so, yes, SWL will fill the Disney rooms, but there will also be a very large pressure coming from "the north" (or "beyond the Wall" if you will ...) Disney prices are very expensive, and even with the appeal of Star Wars, let's not forget that Universal is building hard, and will offer accomodation at a lower price. Disney will probably still need to give some incentive to fill their hotel rooms, and if the only incentive is being able to get FP+ (probably for just one ride, as tiering will surely be in effect) for a SW land ... it might not be enough to compete with prices that are "half off" compared to Disney rooms even after parking fees. |
4 Jan 18, 11:40 AM |
#65
|
|
VIP Dibber
|
All very good points. The reality is that everyone assumes Disney can afford not to have any deals on their rooms once SW land opens but unless you’re an insider at Disney and know all their finances everything is speculation. As you say, if it comes to an end we’ll all deal with it in our own way. Not much we can do about it anyway.
|
|
|
4 Jan 18, 11:50 AM |
#66
|
|
Very Serious Dibber
Join Date: Jan 17
|
Be careful about US articles about the DDP as it’s far more restrictive in terms of dates etc
Even on that DIS show mentioned, the very experienced people there seemed to think it was only for ‘quiet’ periods while in reality for Europeans, the plan is ‘free’ for all summer etc Also the ‘rack rate’ argument isn’t strictly true. I tracked the figures for a year before booking and the best deal (if you wanted some sort of dining plan) was the free DP option Prices can and do fluctuate but it’s still a good deal if you can get it at the right price
__________________
|
|
|
4 Jan 18, 12:06 PM |
#67
|
|
Thread Starter
VIP Dibber
|
I didn't know that! So all TS are Landry? The Landry card only gives you discounts on certain restaurants within Disney though doesn't it?
__________________
|
|
|
4 Jan 18, 12:47 PM |
#68
|
|
VIP Dibber
|
|
|
|
4 Jan 18, 01:06 PM |
#69
|
|
Thread Starter
VIP Dibber
|
__________________
|
|
|
|
DIBB Savings |
AttractionTickets.com
Get £10 off each Disney Ticket with the code ATDIBB10 Get up to £50 off per room at Disney or Universal with the code DIBBHOTELS |
theDIBB Blog |
Guests can book their 2025 Hotel and Ticket package early to enjoy Free Dining &... Read More »
The iconic 1900 Park Fare restaurant is opening its doors once again at Disney’s Grand... Read More »
One of the the five worlds found in Epic Universe, How to Train Your Dragon... Read More »
|
theDIBB Menu |
Exchange Rates |
US Dollar Rates
Euro Rates |
DIBB Premium Membership |
Did you know you can help support theDIBB with Premium Membership? Check out this link for more information and benefits, such as... "No adverts on theDIBB Forums" Upgrade Now |