A Delicious Deal – It’s Free!
Disney has just released its Free Dining Plan offer on 7 May 2014 for the general public. To our delight, our travel date falls within the offer period and we will be getting Free Dining once more!
Barely after we booked our flights to Miami, there were leaks on Disboards that the Free Dining promotion for this year’s fall will be released on 2 May for Disney Visa cardholders and the general public on 7 May. This comes as a surprise as the fall promotion usually does not happen till late July/early August. I can still remember our anxiety last year watching for this offer which was finally released on 1 August.
According to the leaks, our travel date falls within the promotion period and we can be entitled to Free Dining. We will have to make changes to our original plans but it is worth it. However, this year’s promotion totally excludes 2 moderate resorts (Port Orleans Riverside and Port Orleans French Quarters) which means that there will only be 2 other available moderate resorts. We are interested in Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort but not Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort which looks rather dated and refurbishment is only slated for this summer.
I started pricing out the vacation package ahead of the offer release and decided to stay 12 nights onsite Walt Disney World. Due to the limited availability of rooms, ZA and myself got ready to book on 7 May. Since the time of offer release was not known, which could be ranging from 12 am to 7am eastern time, we kept refreshing the website every 15 minutes or so to check. It was not so bad for us as it was our afternoon. There were many fellow Disboarders who sacrificed sleep in anticipation of the Free Dining offer.
Finally at 7pm our time, the offer was loaded onto Walt Disney World website:
Get a free dining plan when you purchase a non-discounted 6-night/7-day Magic Your Way package (includes room and theme park tickets) at select Disney Resort hotels. This special offer can be booked through August 8, 2014.
Offer valid for arrivals most nights:
- August 31 to October 3, 2014
- October 26 to November 1, 2014
- November 9 to November 20, 2014
- December 12 to December 23, 2014
The Disney Dining Plan entitles you to one quick-service meal, one table-service meal and one snack per person, per night of your stay. Table-service meals can be redeemed for Character Dining, Signature Dining and dinner shows. Plus, each person in your party gets a Resort-refillable mug.
We managed to get our reservation for Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort from 18 November to 30 November within minutes. We were really fortunate as the server crashed shortly after. We also upgraded Ashley to the adult dining plan so that we can use her dining credits and pay out of pocket for child meals which are relatively inexpensive. The Disney Dining Plan would have cost us almost USD 3000 if we were to pay for it. This is indeed a whopping discount which explains why everyone loves the Free Dining Plan offer.
Now that we have snagged our Free Dining, we are planning which restaurants to dine in for our upcoming trip. While we may repeat some of the restaurants we really liked, we are looking forward to trying the many other interesting themed restaurants Disney offers.
Credits to Joe Black of Disboards for the heads up on this offer.