Is "Free Dining Plan" false advertising?

[cableguynoe]

So our trip was going to get scheduled for later in the year.
But I thought that if i could save $1500 on the dining plan for a family of 4, it might be worth it to make it happen sooner.



So I followed their link and am a click away from booking the Port Orleans from 9/7-9/15.
Price i'm getting is $5891.

I priced out the exact same thing on Costco without dining, and price is $4400!!! Are you kidding me?
I can add the dining plan to Costco at full price and pay about the same as Disney is charging me with "free dining".

I will add the the 1 difference is park hopper, which we don't care for. But you can't remove it from the Free Dining deal.

But really? These are their deals?

Also, as an added bonus I went back to Disney and priced out the same trip again, but this time no dining and selected 30% off rooms.
Now I'm at $4700. Still more expensive than Costco.

I realize Costco might get special pricing, but they are definitely not giving free dining!
I'm really disappointed in the false advertising!

 

[cableguynoe]

Only thing i'm thinking at this point is maybe after i book with Costco I call Disney to see if I qualify for free dining so it can get added to my already paid trip?
I feel like that is supposed to work, but suspect it wont for some reason.

Any thoughts?

 

[FreeTime]

It isn’t false advertising. They are giving you the Dining plan for free. They just aren’t discounting the room so essentially you are saving less. If you don’t want hoppers, I wouldn’t book it. You will probably come out ahead with a discounted room rate, stand alone tickets, and meals OOP.

 

[Anthony1971]

Sorry this has been all along it is non discounted….. I think you are 2 in a room?in that case yes hard to justify however if you are 4 especially all 10 and over there is savings if you want the DP. Also chase will only allow any offer to be booked through Disney. Booked on any other site, store etc the discount special financing etc will not apply. I can not say good or bad for the DP that is personal however we could never make it work at the old prices much less the new……. Unless you go back to the start of it which we paid for as it really was a good deal and hard to lose out even with not using meal credits much less snack credits.

 

[fla4fun]

I realize Costco might get special pricing, but they are definitely not giving free dining!
I'm really disappointed in the false advertising!

It’s really two different things you are comparing.

I used to work for a third party company that sold WDW tickets and hotel rooms. The rates were contracted on an annual basis for rooms at a percentage off, and tickets were priced at a specific dollar amount per ticket (and yes, it was a pain when they went to date based pricing, let me tell you). If Costco is handled the same way, they would have received their rates for rooms for 2024 late last year and the rates for tickets at the last price increase. Our contracts stipulated that we could not sell either one for less than the net rate we contracted with Disney. So sometimes we might be able to sell for less than Disney, and sometimes more, depending on the promotions Disney was offering at the time. When comparing rack rate for rooms and gate price for tickets against our contracted rate, we would always be less because of our contracted rate.

Disney’s free dining promotion is typically set up so that the guest is paying rack rate and gate price, but not paying for the dining plan. So they are giving you the dining plan for free. There is no false advertising. But as I said before, a third party has discounts on the room and tickets, so when you compare full price to a third party discount rate, the third party will be less. The third party will not be able to offer the free dining unless they have it specifically in their contract to do so (in fact, many of them may not be able to sell the dining plan at all).

The most accurate price comparison would be to get the total for booking direct with Disney including free dining. Then get the rate for the room and tickets through Costco. Go through the menus online to get an estimate of what you will pay OOP for food if you book through Costco and add to their price. Then compare the two and book whichever one is the best deal for you. As a solo most of the time, the free dining was never a better deal for me than a discounted room and paying for food OOP. It really works best for families with children who are considered Disney Adults, all staying in one room together.

 

[focusondisney]

So our trip was going to get scheduled for later in the year.
But I thought that if i could save $1500 on the dining plan for a family of 4, it might be worth it to make it happen sooner.

View attachment 873735

So I followed their link and am a click away from booking the Port Orleans from 9/7-9/15.
Price i'm getting is $5891.

I priced out the exact same thing on Costco without dining, and price is $4400!!! Are you kidding me?
I can add the dining plan to Costco at full price and pay about the same as Disney is charging me with "free dining".

I will add the the 1 difference is park hopper, which we don't care for. But you can't remove it from the Free Dining deal.

But really? These are their deals?

Also, as an added bonus I went back to Disney and priced out the same trip again, but this time no dining and selected 30% off rooms.
Now I'm at $4700. Still more expensive than Costco.

I realize Costco might get special pricing, but they are definitely not giving free dining!
I'm really disappointed in the false advertising!

It’s not false advertising. They don’t lie or mislead about anything. It plainly says you have to book a full price room, X amount of days ticket with park hopper to get the deal. That deal doesn’t work for everyone. They don’t advertise that it’s the best deal for everyone. We haven’t booked it in years because a room discount always works better for my party of 2 at a deluxe resort. Good for you that you have access to a good deal at Costco. Not everyone does. For people that don’t have a Costco, the free dining deal might be the best they can do. W’ve been going to WDW for over 30. In all that time you always had to evaluate what discount works best for your family.

 

[focusondisney]

Only thing i'm thinking at this point is maybe after i book with Costco I call Disney to see if I qualify for free dining so it can get added to my already paid trip?
I feel like that is supposed to work, but suspect it wont for some reason.

Any thoughts?

Yea that’s not gonna work. The reason it won’t work is the advertised package includes a full priced room & tickets. Why do you think your discounted package should be eligible when everyone else has to pay full price?

 

[nighttowll]

Yep. I think only one trip the free dining was a good deal for us and partly only because we had a lot of holiday themed meals at Christmas we were planning on doing. It’s almost never cheaper, even when it’s “free”. Most people I know who use it do so because it makes budgeting easier.

 

[nighttowll]

Yes, to add, free dining almost always requires paying full price for room and must be part of the package, cannot be added later. If you call, they won’t be able to add it. It’s only for very specific deals with fine print conditions.

 

[MillauFr]

I realize Costco might get special pricing, but they are definitely not giving free dining!
I'm really disappointed in the false advertising!

It isn't really a secret that free dining isn't really free. Did you believe that Disney was give you something for nothing?

 

[HopperFan]

I've always called it "Complimentary Dining" because it's not free.

~ You have to pay FULL Price for your room.
~ You have to buy a minimum number of days tickets.
~ You have to eat within the rules of the plan.

You forfeit any discounts on rooms and buy a forced minimum of tickets, while filling a room a resort needs to fill SO your perk is free dining. Your forced spending helps cover the cost of the dining.

NOT FALSE ADVERTISING. Look at is it is the discount that Disney is offering you as long as you follow the requirements AND your Costco package is the discount they are offering you with whatever their requirements are. Two discounts from two different companies.

Only thing i'm thinking at this point is maybe after i book with Costco I call Disney to see if I qualify for free dining so it can get added to my already paid trip?
I feel like that is supposed to work, but suspect it wont for some reason.

Any thoughts?

Will not happen.

Costco is their package, Free Dining is a Disney package ... the two will not meet. You are asking to stack discounts from two different companies, and Disney will not do that, which I understand.

Even booking direct with Disney to get something "applied" what they are really doing is cancelling one package and giving you a new one IF there are any rooms left under that special pricing. Goal is fill rooms, so each resort will offer so many rooms with that discount based on their needs. Just because Disney has a discount doesn't mean you get it wherever you want to stay.

 

[halfpintpeggy]

The “free dining” promo is just a racket. Much better to eat how you prefer & get discounted room + tickets.

 

[dioxide45]

Clever marketing to make you think you are getting a deal when you really aren't. If you don't think you will spend $1500 bucks on food, then book through Costco.

 

[Micca]

I'd get the best deal on room & passes, pay OOP for food. I think the worst case is you'd pay the same as the full price package with DDP, but likely you'd come out ahead (at least a little bit.)

 

[Maistre Gracey]

Nothing is free.

 

[Dakota731]

Free dining ended up being a great deal for us when we had three teens who ate a lot of food! When I priced it out, it saved us money over the room discount. However if you are just a couple or a family of three, it’s more expensive. You had to figure out the packages and see what works for your group.

 

[Lewisc]

DME was free. It was included, no matter what you paid for your room. Room rates didn't go up, specifically when DME was added nor did they go down DME was dropped.

Years ago free dining was sort of free. Disney didn't offer other, general public discounts concurrent with free dining. You paid rack rate with, or without, dining.

Now discounted room offers are frequently offered at the time as free dining.
Of course Disney marketing is deceptive and misleading.

.

 

[tvguy]

~ You have to eat within the rules of the plan.

We did not have a dining plan and were surprised when we were asked at every restaurant if we had a dining plan. And when we said "no" the servers were visibly relieved. Finally asked and the server responded...."every item on the menu is available to you, with a dining plan there are some items that are not and I need to explain that to you"

 

[gmi3804]

They should call it the “Free ‘Free’ Dining Plan!”

 

[nighttowll]

We did not have a dining plan and were surprised when we were asked at every restaurant if we had a dining plan. And when we said "no" the servers were visibly relieved. Finally asked and the server responded...."every item on the menu is available to you, with a dining plan there are some items that are not and I need to explain that to you"

This is exactly why I don’t think we will ever do the dining plan again. The one time we did it, the things we wanted to order weren’t options. It may be different now, but before you got a dessert but no appetizers with most meals. Back then, we never ate dessert, not at home, not out. We would much rather have had an appetizer, even if it was just one to split verses individual desserts. Also, many places we would have gotten an appetizer in place of an entree which again would wasn’t possible.