Category — Disney Specials, Deals and Discounts

FREE WALT DISNEY WORLD DINING: A GOOD DEAL FOR MILITARY FAMILIES?

(Updated to reflect Shades of Green’s new 40% discount.)

Inspired by this post on MilitaryDisneyTips.com, what follows tries to guide military families intending to travel to Walt Disney World to the best deal possible during the period that free dining is available.

It’s a tricky question because there’s a bunch of other deals also available during this period, some of which can be combined

• Disney’s offer of heavily discounted Military Salute 4 day tickets
• Its Military Salute offer of discounts of 30-40% off of Disney World resort hotels
• Shades of Green, which is always a deal compared to Disney deluxe resorts, and usually one compared to its moderates (and where you can combine lower-cost hotel rooms with the discounted Military Salute tickets). Shades now has discounts of 40% off during the free dining period, making it an even better deal

Here’s the basics:

• The discounted tickets are $138/person for 4 days.  That’s almost half price.  But they can’t have days added to them, so for longer trips, there quickly becomes no savings. The discounted tickets plus a regularly priced day is still a small bargain, but a normal Disney 6 day ticket is cheaper than a military salute ticket plus 2 regular days.  So longer trips yield less or no savings
• The room rate discount percentage is higher for deluxes (40%) than for moderates (35%), and higher for moderates than for values (30%).  Since deluxe prices are much higher, savings are much greater the more expensive the room.  A $400 a night deluxe room saves $160 a night at 40%, while a $125 a night value saves only $38 a night at 30%.  These savings occur for every night of your trip, so longer trips increase savings
• Dining plan savings also happen for every night of your trip, and are the same if you stay in a deluxe or a moderate.  They are less if you stay in a value, as what you get for free in a value is the “quick service” plan, not the regular dining plan. You save more per night with a larger family, and less the more of your family is under 10.
• Shades of Green gives you value for money every night, but is dull compared to alternatives.  At its 40% discount, it is a remarkable deal

Sadly, you really do have to do the math for your own family, because of savings differences in both the ticket deal and the dining plan based on how large your family is and how many are younger than ten at the time of your visit, differences in the length of your stay, and the specific prices of the resort types you are aimed at. 

But if your family looks like my example family of two adults and two kids, one younger than ten and one older, and is taking either a three night or an eight night trip, I can give you an exact answer:

• For shorter trips, staying at Shades of Green and using the salute tickets is the cheapest option.  If you don’t want to stay at Shades, answers vary.
• For longer trips, Shades is the cheapest option if you’d otherwise stay at a deluxe resort, but free dining is the better deal if values or moderates is your alternative

[Read more →]

Update July 9: for rumors of a Fall 2012 free dining deal, see this.

FREE DISNEY WORLD DINING

Walt Disney World has opened its free dining promotion for late August to late September 2012 to the general public.

Eligible arrival dates are August 25th to September 29th 2012.

The deal must be booked by May 18, 2012.

DETAILS ON WALT DISNEY WORLD FREE DINING

As in the past few years, those booking Value Resorts will get the “quick service” plan for free, and those booking Moderate Resorts, Deluxe Resorts, or Disney Vacation Club Resorts will get the regular dining plan for free.

As is also common, grand villas, suites and The Campsites at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort are excluded. (The Cabins at Fort Wilderness Resort are eligible.)  Disney’s new Art of Animation Resort is also excluded.  Update: crack commenter Joanne notes that Art of Animation is in the deal.

For some reason, All-Star Music Family Suites are also not eligible.

For Disney’s page in this deal, click here.

For other current Walt Disney World special offers, deals and discounts, see this.

Update July 9: for rumors of a Fall 2012 free dining deal, see this.

The Mouse For Less is reporting here that Disney will be releasing free dining for 8/25 through 9/29/2012 on Monday March 5.

DEAL AT WALT DISNEY WORLD HAS BOOKING DATES EXTENDED

A Disney World promotion offering discounts of 15-30% off of room rates for most arrival dates from April 13-June 14 2012 has had its booking window extended.

This deal’s booking window was to be closed on February 28, but Disney World’s website now shows booking available through March 31, 2012.

See this for more.

Meanwhile, one of my readers has heard rumors that late summer free dining at Walt Disney World will be offered by 3/5…see this for an apparent confirmation.

A couple of quick points:

• Disney’s current major Disney World discount available to the general public needs to be booked by February 28th.
• Multiple sources, including Mark Goldhaber at MousePlanet.com, are noting that Disney World will be upgrading its reservation systems beginning early in the morning Thursday 2/23. 

In the past, this upgrade has led to a bit of a mess, including trouble “with dining reservations records, dining plan credit records, and other resort systems.”   So bring paper copies and don’t expect to be able to use the systems the 23rd and perhaps even the 24th…

• Finally, I’ve been ill most of this week, so have gotten behind on new posts and on responding to comments…I promise to do better!

My friends at Destinations in Florida Travel have a deal where if you buy your Universal tickets from them, you can use, for free, their shuttle service from Disney World hotels to Universal and Harry Potter.

For more, and to get your Universal tickets that provide this free deal, see this.

For more on getting to Harry Potter from Walt Disney World, see this.