Is it likely there will always be free Disney dining?

[BarryL]

Originally Posted by Nimbus

Yes. At least here in the UK.

The number of UK travellers going to Orlando has been dropping in the last couple of years. WDTC (a UK company) will want to keep attracting UK guests otherwise it looks like it's failing. Therefore, I still think UK guests will be offered free dining.

However, it might not cover October 2021 when the anniversary actually happens. Which is similar to 2020 albeit the free dining will possibly stop a couple of weeks earlier (mid-Sept) than it does in 2020.

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That's my thinking too. UK guests who stay on property for 1-2 weeks are a relatively small but important market. As it becomes comparatively more expensive for us to travel I think that Disney will still offer their most popular incentive.

With the US economy booming they could easily keep hotel occupancy at near full levels without foreign markets but still offer the free dining plan at the moment

[Bellasmummy]

Originally Posted by BarryL

That's my thinking too. UK guests who stay on property for 1-2 weeks are a relatively small but important market. As it becomes comparatively more expensive for us to travel I think that Disney will still offer their most popular incentive.

With the US economy booming they could easily keep hotel occupancy at near full levels without foreign markets but still offer the free dining plan at the moment

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This year we’ve seen more Brits than ever in resort and parks.

We checked in for a dinner reservation a couple of nights ago and the lady commented that the last 10 families she’d checked in were from UK and was there anybody left there as they’ve been so busy with UK guests the last few weeks. She said she has family working in the parks that said the same thing.

[Shooby doo]

FD was never meant to be a long term fix & as early as 2008 there were reports of it's imminent demise Current disney ethos appears to be garnered towards the rich cash cow but plenty of predictions out there that another crash is on the way & the US bubble is about to burst which is a very roundabout way of saying I see it perhaps disappearing for '22 but will make a return when their numbers plummet!
TBH as nice as FD is, & we have a week this year & next, I'm not a fan- the food generally is ok but vastly over priced, way too much planning involved & really not enough places that we want to try over our regular eateries IYKWIM
SD

[Nimbus]

Originally Posted by Shooby doo

TBH as nice as FD is, & we have a week this year & next, I'm not a fan- the food generally is ok but vastly over priced, way too much planning involved & really not enough places that we want to try over our regular eateries IYKWIM
SD

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I agree that the food is vastly overpriced - if you are paying OOP. But as it's "free" then I find it's very good value for money.

Yeah, ok, I know it's not actually free and that you pay for it in the room price. But, as it's included when you book an onsite stay it means I don't have to worry about the actual price of each meal. And we only do the QSDP and don't book ADRs so there isn't any planning to do.

As a marketing ploy, the free dining offer has successfully convinced us to stay onsite 3 times.

[Nells77]

Originally Posted by Nimbus

I agree that the food is vastly overpriced - if you are paying OOP. But as it's "free" then I find it's very good value for money.

Yeah, ok, I know it's not actually free and that you pay for it in the room price. But, as it's included when you book an onsite stay it means I don't have to worry about the actual price of each meal. And we only do the QSDP and don't book ADRs so there isn't any planning to do.

As a marketing ploy, the free dining offer has successfully convinced us to stay onsite 3 times.

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For us the ‘free’ dining plan made us so more relaxed over food! My daughters would order something a hardly touch it (to hot to tired!) but we didn’t stress because we weren’t paying for it! Also then when they were wanting snacks it didn’t seem bad and we would pick the biggest most expensive thing for us to share 😁

[dixonsontour]

It was introduced as a way to get Brits out of villas and to stay (and spend) in the bubble. When we first started going to Florida in 1997 it was either villas or packages with hotels in Kissimmee or I drive. I never heard of anyone staying onsite. Then people began doing it because of the offers. Once you’ve done it with the dining plan it would be hard to go back. I think the offer will continue but more limited dates and resorts. The uk special offers like free breakfast may be expanded.

[Nimbus]

Originally Posted by dixonsontour

It was introduced as a way to get Brits out of villas and to stay (and spend) in the bubble. When we first started going to Florida in 1997 it was either villas or packages with hotels in Kissimmee or I drive. I never heard of anyone staying onsite. Then people began doing it because of the offers. Once you’ve done it with the dining plan it would be hard to go back. I think the offer will continue but more limited dates and resorts. The uk special offers like free breakfast may be expanded.

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We also first went in 1997 and I'm sure there were package holidays that included staying onsite.

I agree that it was used to convince more Brits to stay onsite. It was noticeably more expensive to stay onsite and therefore people tended not to do it. It still is more expensive to stay onsite but the free dining helps convince people to spend more money to stay there, which in turn means Disney makes more money. Unless Disney replaces it with some other, similarly-appealing offer I don't see it going away soon.

[dixonsontour]

Originally Posted by Nimbus

We also first went in 1997 and I'm sure there were package holidays that included staying onsite.

I agree that it was used to convince more Brits to stay onsite. It was noticeably more expensive to stay onsite and therefore people tended not to do it. It still is more expensive to stay onsite but the free dining helps convince people to spend more money to stay there, which in turn means Disney makes more money. Unless Disney replaces it with some other, similarly-appealing offer I don't see it going away soon.

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Yes there must have been packages including onsite but it must have been expensive. Certainly not my budget then, we used to use teletext and travel city direct before they were well known. It wasn’t a thing to stay onsite for regular people until free dining arrived. The free dining offer must have vastly increased the number of brits onsite. It must be one of the most successful promotions Disney has done.
Will be interesting to see if October stays off the deal or comes back as British half term bookings onsite must be down.

[Nimbus]

Originally Posted by dixonsontour

Yes there must have been packages including onsite but it must have been expensive. Certainly not my budget then, we used to use teletext and travel city direct before they were well known. It wasn’t a thing to stay onsite for regular people until free dining arrived. The free dining offer must have vastly increased the number of brits onsite. It must be one of the most successful promotions Disney has done.
Will be interesting to see if October stays off the deal or comes back as British half term bookings onsite must be down.

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When they opened up free dining this year, Disney’s website was so busy that they instigated a queue system just to get onto the website. And the virtual queues were a couple of hours long. Imagine people willingly waiting an hour or two just to get onto a website to book their hotel stay. I’d agree that the free dining promotion was, and still is, extremely successful.

[Shooby doo]

I think we were just under No. 10,000 & I'd logged on near enough straight away. I wonder how many of those that waited, change there minds when they found out that certain categories etc weren't in the deal ?
We never entertained on-site, why would we when you could get the Comfort Inn for $29/night! Then when DS came along we always stayed at suites or family rooms & it wasn't until '08 before our first onsite stay & tbh we weren't that impressed. We now own DVC but without it, not even Free Dining would entice us onsite but then we have never been that bothered about eating Disney food, without FD how many people would pay $100 for a meal for 2, when you can spend half that by walking 15 minutes offsite?
SD