Travel Dates: October 3 – December 21, 2010
Walt Disney World has extended the existing Free Disney Dining offer to cover dates through Decemeber 21, 2010. There are many black out periods that the discount does not cover.
New Available Travel Dates:
- Aug. 15 – Oct. 7, 2010
- Oct. 22 – Oct. 28, 2010
- Nov. 12 – Nov. 18, 2010
- Nov. 27 – Dec. 2, 2010
- Dec. 10 – Dec. 21, 2010
Please note that in order to qualify for the free dining offer, your must check in during one of the available dates above. Your stay can extend into a black out period, you will still receive the free dining for your entire stay.
Guests staying at a Disney World value resort will receive the Quick Service Dining Plan for free. Guests will be able to upgrade to either the Disney Dining plan or the Deluxe Disney Dining plan by paying the price difference. To upgrade to the Disney Dining Plan, the increased cost will be $10 per adult and $2 per child per night of your stay. To upgrade to the Disney Deluxe Dining plan, guests will pay $40 per adult and $11 per child per night of your stay.
Guests staying at a Disney World Moderate, Deluxe or Disney Villa resort will receive the Disney Dining Plan included for free. Disney World guests at moderate, deluxe and villa resorts will also be able to book the “Free Dining”, and upgrade to the Disney Deluxe Dining for the normal price difference, which is $30 for adults and $9 for children three to nine. The Wine and Dine option is also available at full price to add onto either the Basic or Deluxe dining plans.
Availability is extremely limited, and must be booked by August 14, 2010. It appears that all suites have been excluded from this offer, with the exception of the family suites at All-Star Music, which is included. All Disney resorts, including value resorts are included in the offer.
To book this special Disney World “Free Dining” vacation package, please contact our great sponsor Mouseketrips, and ask for the appropriate code:
- NF3 – Magic Your Way Quick Service Dining Plan (Value resorts only)
- TF5 – Magic Your Way Disney Dining Plan (Value resorts only)
- WG7 – Magic Your Way Disney Dining Plan (moderate, deluxe and villa resorts only)
We have already booked through DVC…Can we still take advantage of the Free Dining in December?
Melissa
No, you cannot get free dining, or any other Disney World discount, if you have a DVC reservation (using points). These discounts are only available to guests who book a Magic Your Way package including their Disney World resort and park passes, DVC reservations are excluded (though MYW package reservations at DVC resorts/villas would be included).
We have a ressie at Caribbean Beach from Nov 28-Dec 5. Would we be eligible for this? Would we have to do it as separate ressies to have discount apply? I have been watching and praying for this dicount!!
Sarah – should work fine, as long as you are checking in during an available date, you will get the dining plan free for your entire stay. This is all based on availability of course.
Hello!
is there a chance the offer will be extended to cover those black-out dates?
Thank you
Sure, there is a chance, but unlikely. It is much more likely we will see an alternate discount that will cover all dates in October – December, either a room/package discount or something akin to kids free (or both).
If an alternative promotion were to be announced, how soon do you think it could happen?
Julia – no idea. I was surprised this free dining was released so early, but I guess with all the black out dates, it really isn’t an encompassing discount. I would guess it will be a few more weeks, possibly after this offer expires on August 14.
Hello!
I am so bummed.. we have a group of 8 scheduled for Oct. 16-23rd… blackout period. We really really don’t want to change the date. Are the alternate discounts comparable at all to the amount we would save with the free dining discount?
Hey Danielle – we are experiencing that same issue. I seriously doubt anything else Disney offers will be any better. It really sucks they choose certain blackout dates for no reason.
Danielle – at this point, we have no idea if there will be additional discounts, or what they might be, we will just have to wait. If you can adjust your dates, I would suggest you do so now.
Crystal – Certainly, Disney has a reason why they chose the dates they did. Disney releases discounts to increase bookings during certain dates of the year. When things are good, fewer discounts for fewer dates. When things are bad (like they have been recently), more discounts covering more dates. Disney obviously looked at these months, they had some weeks that were behind on bookings, and are targeting those weeks.
Whether or not any future discount will be better depends on a ton of variables. In September, the free dining is only better for about 60% of the people, the other deals save you more money depending on where you stay, how long you stay, who is traveling, etc.
It is hard to believe that they have more books for 12/3 to 12/9 than 12/18 to 12/21 which is during peek season at the park. This does not make sense at all to me!
Jill – actually, the last few years, the first 10 days of December have been sold out, even at full rate, and the parks packed, much more so that during the summer. Not a surprise, look at availability for those dates, most resorts are almost sold out.
Is that because of Pop Warner? I know that has really grown in the last couple of years with them staying at all Mods and All Stars.
Jill – much of it has to do with people figuring out that early December is a fantastic time to go, great weather, all of the Christmas decoration and events, etc. Plus, all the guide books for the last 10 years have been pushing that time as the least crowded/best time to go, finally caught up with everything.
I have a qestion about the Free Dining Deal. I am a FL resident and we have the FL Seasonal Pass. I booked a trip in October for the room only rate since we have the tickets/pass already. Can the free dining be added to our reservcation?
Heidi – No, Disney only allows you to use one discounts at a time, so either the FL resident discount or the free dining, not both.
Many AP holders book the free dining with the minimum tickets, then save those tickets to use to pay towards their renewal, most likely will be a better deal for you to go that route.
Jill, you mentioned that early December has been sold out the last few years because the word is out that it is usually a low attendance period. We are planning on going 12/9-12/19 do you think that time would be crowded?
Sorry I made a mistake. It was Keith who said that. Sorry for the confusion.
Does anyone know where I can find a maintenance schedule that shows which rides will be closed down by date?
Ashley – The last few years, 12/10 – 20 has been very quite, really a great time to go, you should have a great trip. You may start to see holiday crowds the last day or two of your trip, but still not crowded at all.
There isn’t an official maintenance list, but you can see the best unofficial one here:
http://allears.net/tp/rehabs.htm
Check back often, as rides are often closed for a week or two on short notice.
Keith, that’s an interesting observation and I’m curious about what you meant.
I ran the numbers on my upcoming September trip and determined that the MYW DDP package cost $27.00 more per day per person than the room-only discount, with park tickets purchased elsewhere. That difference seemed reasonable for seven days of meals. Have I missed something or miscalculated?
First off, not sure how you can compare the dining plan with park passes purchased elsewhere, the only way to get the dining plan is as part of a package that includes your park passes and Disney resort room.
For many people, especially almost all staying at deluxe resorts, the 40% discount is better than the free dining. In September, a garden view room at the Polynesian is $365 per night plus tax. A 40% discount is a savings of $164 per night (tax included). Unless you have 4 or 5 adults (and even 4 is a wash), that is a better deal for you than free dining, as the dining runs $42 per night (4 adults would be $168 savings a night).
Again, the choice of the best deal depends on where you are staying, who is traveling, etc. Staying at a value resort, the 30% discount is small, only about $30 per night, so free dining is a no brainer there.
In September, you also have kids stay and play free, which you have to figure in at the value resorts. If you have 2 kids (3 – 9), and are staying 5 nights or less, the kids free is better than the free dining.
We should see other discounts for this time period. The fact that free dining is not available for your dates shouldn’t be the end of the world, there will be other options that may be better.
Keith, I’m sorry, I wasn’t clear in my earlier post. I have the Dining Plan for September and am very happy with the package. Your comment prompted me to compare the cost of the package to booking a room-only discount, buying park tickets and food separately. The difference in cost (the Dining Plan being more expensive) seemed worthwhile to me, so I may be the 60% for whom the package works. My apologies for the confusion.
We are considering come to WDW during the Christmas season. In order to take advantage of the free dining package – does your entire stay have to take place during December 10-21st or do you just have to arrive during one of those dates?
Michelle – No, as stated, you just have to check in on an available date, you will receive the free dining for your entire stay. So, check in December 21 or before, you will be fine.
I just booked a 6 night 7 day stay at the Port Orleans Riverside Resort for my family of 5. I was very disappointed that there are no Free Dining offers for a family larger than 4. Is there some other way to get the Free Dining plan or is there a different discount or special plan I can ask for?
Beth – That is completely false, free dining is available for a party of any size. As long as you are checking in on one of the available travel dates, you should get free dining, based on availability of course. What nights are you staying?
We’re going Nov.29th-Dec.5th. So did I misunderstand what the booking agent was saying? We’re there just no available rooms? This is our first trip and we’d like to get as good a deal as we can. I don’t think the Kids Play Free deal was available for the time we’re going but I could be wrong about that too.
Beth – Yes, looks like Port Orleans Riverside is sold out for those dates with free dining. You are going to need to either check back later to see if something opens up, change your dates, look at 2 rooms at a value resort or hope for another discount. Right now, the free dining is the only available promotion for these dates, but we should see something else in the future. It is doubtful any future deal would open up at Riverside though, you may want to look at one of the other options.
Keith,
you probably get this questions 5-10 times per day, but here i go again 🙂
Any idea when reservations for 2011 are open ?
I’m planning a trip on the first weeks of January but i still can’t make my reservations.
Thanks
Mariano – You are about right, probably the most frequent question we get right now. Unfortunately, I do not have an answer. I have heard as soon as this week, possibly next week we should see rates and packages for 2011.
Technically, you can book a basic package right now for 2011, and add dining plans or anything else one the actual rates are released. Basic packages have been available for 2011 for a few weeks now, but they are based on estimated rates. Personally, I would suggest waiting a few more days, there really isn’t any hurry at this point.
Thanks Keith.
You’re right, there’s no hurry, it’s just that we are anxious about it. 🙂
I’m from Argentina and we’re taking my little girls to Disney World for the first time (we’ve been there 4 times but the last one was in 1998).
We are looking at going Dec 1 to 8 in 2011. Now reading this site, it seems that this is not a good time to go as far as crowds go.
I like everyone else was told first week for December is very quiet.
We usually go the middle of September when there are very few crowds, we love it!
We want to have a repeat of low crowds but during the Christmas season. Right now we are flexible in our dates, please give us information re crowds the first week of December.
Jeanne – Yes, historically, the first week of December was dead, very low crowds. The last few years, as that information spread across the internet, it has gotten quite busy, and is now very similar to summer crowds. At this point, anytime between December 10 – 18 is going to be the best time to go if you want lower crowds and all of the Christmas events/decorations.