MouseBuzz.com - View Single Post - Before choosing free dining, "check" the $

leslieh · 04-09-2007

I called first thing this morning at 7:05 am, and was on hold until 8:40 am. I knew to expect a long hold time, so that's fine. The CM was nice and helpful.

But.... "free Dining" really isn't the best deal for everyone. If you have AAA (since AP rates aren't out yet), the room discount you get may be greater than the cost you would pay for free dining. I see this especially true for couples or two friends sharing a room. For example, the rack room rate with free dining for us for 4 nights at the Contemporary was $1,658. With a AAA discount, the room only was $1,150. The dining plan cost for 2 adults and 2 children is $400. Total cost: $1,550. This isn't even considering that AP rates are usually very good compared to AAA. The only reason we did it is that the base ticket cost ($71 per adult) can be used towards our APs. That is what pushed us over the edge.

We eventually had to change from the Contemporary

to the Wilderness Lodge

because this four day trip with "free" dining was getting very expensive! We love WL, so that's fine, too.

Just food for thought (pun intended).

04-09-2007	#1 (permalink)
leslieh Mouse Meister Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Not close enough to WDW Posts: 1,376	Before choosing free dining, "check" the $ I called first thing this morning at 7:05 am, and was on hold until 8:40 am. I knew to expect a long hold time, so that's fine. The CM was nice and helpful. But.... "free Dining" really isn't the best deal for everyone. If you have AAA (since AP rates aren't out yet), the room discount you get may be greater than the cost you would pay for free dining. I see this especially true for couples or two friends sharing a room. For example, the rack room rate with free dining for us for 4 nights at the Contemporary was $1,658. With a AAA discount, the room only was $1,150. The dining plan cost for 2 adults and 2 children is $400. Total cost: $1,550. This isn't even considering that AP rates are usually very good compared to AAA. The only reason we did it is that the base ticket cost ($71 per adult) can be used towards our APs. That is what pushed us over the edge. We eventually had to change from the Contemporary to the Wilderness Lodge because this four day trip with "free" dining was getting very expensive! We love WL, so that's fine, too. Just food for thought (pun intended). __________________ Leslie Avatar: My other home is BCV! 1974,1998,1999,2000- offsite 2001- offsite, Caribbean Beach Resort 2002- offsite, POR 2003- offsite, Coronado Springs 2004- Pop Century, Fort Wilderness, POFQ 2005- off-site 2006- Pop Century, offsite, Pop Century again 2007- Wilderness Lodge, Fort Wilderness, offsite, Wilderness Lodge 2008- Pop Century, Animal Kingdom, BW, offsite, Poly, BCV My Disney Countdown Counting down to: Free Dining at the POLY! 35 days 20 hours 59 minutes