Vacation Kingdom Know How:: SPECIAL EDITION:: Free Dining

Let’s not bury the lead:

FREE DINING at Disney.

Yes, something FREE at Walt Disney World. Crazy, right? Let me caution you to not get too excited.

The story of the Free Dining promotion goes a little something like this: after 9/11 happened in 2001, people weren’t traveling and Disney had empty rooms (and slow periods..those don’t really exist today).  In order to fill these rooms, the company introduced a promotion that offered free dining for folks who stayed on property at a WDW resort. Sounds groovy, right?

Like all awesome things, they change and evolve over time. Some families found Free Dining to simply be a perk of visiting in the off season, some families began depending on this promotion for their trip planning (kind of tricky to do as they don’t announce Free Dining until almost last minute planning).  As the years have gone on, Disney has pulled back on what they offer for this promo; they’ve cut down the number of rooms available and added what you have to purchase in a package to get this free dining.

For the Free Dining that was announced for 2017, the package has to be between 3-14 nights on property (regular room rate, mind you) and include a (minimum 2 day) park hopper ticket for each member of the party.  There’s also a list of resorts that don’t have Free Dining connected to their rooms (including  All-Star Movies, Bay Lake Tower, Port Orleans Resort French Quarter, Fort Wilderness campsites, Art of Animation Little Mermaid Rooms, all 3-bedroom Villas, viillas at Disney’s Grand Floridian, and standard rooms & bungalows at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort. Port Orleans Riverside is included for August-September dates).  One big change this time around is the fact moderate resorts are only given a quick service free dining plan.  You can always pay to upgrade the plan to the regular (table service) plan, but then it’s not free- thus defeating the purpose of FREE DINING.

So even if you spend the time and make it through the wait on the phone with Disney or the website works for you without much issue (good luck…the Disney site is infamous for having issues, especially on large release dates), do yourself a favor and do the math.  Look at the total savings of Free Dining versus a room discount- much of the time the room rate is worth more than the Free Dining.

Just do your homework, friends. I just want you to be able to save the most money for a few extra Dole Whips, an extra drink at Trader Sam’s or a few Tsum Tsums at the Character Warehouse (keep an eye out for more on that later!).

So, what do you think? Are you in the Free Dining club or do you think it’s pointless at this point? Share your thoughts in the comments!