Will staying onsite at Disney ever be affordable again?

[2point]

One element of the Dibb that I find infuriating is the constant 'free dining' chat. It was an incentive, a hook, an extra, a bonus.

We first stayed onsite at SSR. Why? Free dining. It was years back and the discount was something like 67% or something crazy. We took it with both hands and kicked the backside our of it. Would we pay full price? Not in a million years. When 'free dining' didn't work for us (we simply took the pricing offsite and worked out that 'free dining' in some cases is a just 'pre paid' dining).

2nd time onsite was at AoA, one night, two days parking at the parks and 4 magic bands. We and £60 for the room. Yes, £60, Disney were literally paying us to stay there.

Again it was a bonus, a glitch, something to take advantage of. Someone somewhere was paying for that.

3rd time onsite was DVC after we ran the figures for about the millionth time. We get to stay at Disney now for years for a known price. Is it cheap? Nope. Do we get one off amazing hookin deals? Nope. Do we know what we will be paying for the next 10, 20, 30 years? Yep. Can we sell it and come even or a profit? Yep.

[GillyD]

Some of us are new to the Disney experience and havent yet had an opportunity to take advantage of free dining or any other dining plan offer so far so if it infuriates you to read posts about this, just skip over them and dont waste your time reading. I was hoping that someone with previous experience would know if the offer of approx $850 dining credit for a 14 night stay at CB for 2 people was comparable to the previous free dining credits. Additional to the $850 is a $200 gift card and a further gift valued at $109 so basically the offer is approx $1150 discount. The room is £3542 for the 14 nights (August 2022). For those of you who have good memories, how does this compare to previous years.

[Claudette]

Originally Posted by GillyD

Some of us are new to the Disney experience and havent yet had an opportunity to take advantage of free dining or any other dining plan offer so far so if it infuriates you to read posts about this, just skip over them and dont waste your time reading. I was hoping that someone with previous experience would know if the offer of approx $850 dining credit for a 14 night stay at CB for 2 people was comparable to the previous free dining credits. Additional to the $850 is a $200 gift card and a further gift valued at $109 so basically the offer is approx $1150 discount. The room is £3542 for the 14 nights (August 2022). For those of you who have good memories, how does this compare to previous years.

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To add to my previous reply to your query, no the current dining offer is not even remotely comparable. It is $68 per day max which would not feed a couple, previously we would have got one quick service, one table service and two snacks per day, so were well fed. A family will still only get $68 max as it is fixed, whereas free dining would expand to cover the number of people in the room.

There was always a gift card with free dining too, so that is not an addition, although depending on when you booked the gift card might be $200 or could have been $100.

You would need to say which resort for anyone to comment on how £3542 roughly compared to previous years as there are options to suit many budgets.

[gjdjud]

Originally Posted by GillyD

Some of us are new to the Disney experience and havent yet had an opportunity to take advantage of free dining or any other dining plan offer so far so if it infuriates you to read posts about this, just skip over them and dont waste your time reading. I was hoping that someone with previous experience would know if the offer of approx $850 dining credit for a 14 night stay at CB for 2 people was comparable to the previous free dining credits. Additional to the $850 is a $200 gift card and a further gift valued at $109 so basically the offer is approx $1150 discount. The room is £3542 for the 14 nights (August 2022). For those of you who have good memories, how does this compare to previous years.

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In all honesty it’s rubbish compared to previous years. Our first trip in 2006 we missed free dining and to be honest didn’t even know about it so as two newlyweds we found it expensive eating at Disney. Fast forward 6 years to our next visit. 2012 we has 2 kids and our in laws with us. We stayed in 2 bedroom deluxe Villa discounted at OKW, 14 day tickets and free Disney dining plan, $200 giftcard. With Flights and Universal, Seaworld tickets it was around £10,000 which is an awful lot but it was 6 people in a deluxe Villa. It was more food than we could eat. I can’t even dream of how much that would cost now and with probably a quarter of the food.

But I still love it. I’m the sucker Disney loves. Still going back with less deals and paying more money. To be honest I’m ok with it. Because it’s what we love. I work hard to go(like everyone) I’m getting a slight deal and better than I actually expected. Works out with gift cards we get about a $100 a day for the four of us. That a quick service meal and a couple of snacks. It’s no way as good a deal as in previous years but it what it is. I could go offsite and pay cheaper if I wanted to but I don’t.

[alvin_purple]

I’m afraid cost in Disney will only go one way, up! Covid, although costly, has shown Disney that demand is greater than supply, even with all the perks removed.
They now know they can fill their hotels and parks without perks.
Don’t get me wrong, there will always be offers, just like the current dinning credit one, but the days of massive perks are gone.
Next thing to go will be free Fastpasses. Universal charge, so Disney are bound to do the same.
Latest rumours put the Disney fastpass price at $100 to $300 a day, on top of the ticket price!

[GillyD]

Originally Posted by Claudette

To add to my previous reply to your query, no the current dining offer is not even remotely comparable. It is $68 per day max which would not feed a couple, previously we would have got one quick service, one table service and two snacks per day, so were well fed. A family will still only get $68 max as it is fixed, whereas free dining would expand to cover the number of people in the room.

There was always a gift card with free dining too, so that is not an addition, although depending on when you booked the gift card might be $200 or could have been $100.

You would need to say which resort for anyone to comment on how £3542 roughly compared to previous years as there are options to suit many budgets.

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This quote is for the Caribbean Beach resort arriving 10 August 2022

[Claudette]

Originally Posted by GillyD

This quote is for the Caribbean Beach resort arriving 10 August 2022

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Sorry missed that.

If your £3542 is room only then that is about £250 per night. For comparison I stayed at CBR in September 2019 for five nights without tickets and paid £165 per night. So quite an increase but unfortunately that is the norm for 2022 (and 2021) pricing.

By the way, not sure where you are getting £3542 from, but if you book directly, you can shave a little off this for your dates it is comes out as £3402.

[Shooby doo]

GillyD I think the old saying "you can't miss what you never had.." will prove true in this case. The direction of Disney in recent years is to chase the $$$$, look up D32 club or look at After Hours events, removal of Extra Magic Hours,no DMe from the airport, rumours of paid for FP+...& the list goes on & on. FD was only ever a way to fill beds & TBH it's lasted a lot longer than many predicted & unfortunately IMO they no longer "need" it. As stated the "new offer" saves them a fortune!
How about if I told you that we once had flights for £69 & paid an extra £30 to upgrade! & our Hotel was $29/night Those were the days!
SD

[GillyD]

Originally Posted by Claudette

Sorry missed that.

If your £3542 is room only then that is about £250 per night. For comparison I stayed at CBR in September 2019 for five nights without tickets and paid £165 per night. So quite an increase but unfortunately that is the norm for 2022 (and 2021) pricing.

By the way, not sure where you are getting £3542 from, but if you book directly, you can shave a little off this for your dates it is comes out as £3402.

See more...

It's gone up to £3612 - I can see the room for £3402 but that one doesnt qualify for the $854 dining credit or the $200 gift card which if deducted from the total room cost makes the room approx £200 per night so still on the high side. It also ties us to eating in Disney so I think I will gamble on them lowering prices once they open a few of their mothballed hotels - if not then we may look at an offsite hotel or spend more time at Universal. Thanks to everyone who took the time to respond.

[loves2plan]

Originally Posted by GillyD

It's gone up to £3612 - I can see the room for £3402 but that one doesnt qualify for the $854 dining credit or the $200 gift card which if deducted from the total room cost makes the room approx £200 per night so still on the high side. It also ties us to eating in Disney so I think I will gamble on them lowering prices once they open a few of their mothballed hotels - if not then we may look at an offsite hotel or spend more time at Universal. Thanks to everyone who took the time to respond.

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Disney don't tend to lower prices - I've never known it happen. They set them for the year, and that's it. The other hotels may be slightly cheaper than CBR, but if you want to stay at CBR then those will be the prices. You could just book it for 1 person and pay a £50 deposit for a bit of security. Disney are pretty good at moving resorts and dates. The only thing that may happen, but no guarantee, is that later on this year or early next year Disney have a different offer for 2022 stays. Normally it's free nights, so that could work out better for you.