This morning I had an email stating that free dining is being offered during the time we will be there in July. We have plans to stay at POFQ which is not included. Would it be worth it to stay somewhere else for the dining option? And, if so, where? We stayed at POR last year and loved it but wanted to try something new this year.
You have to do the math. If there are several of you going, then the free dining plan has a greater value. Did you get any kind of room discount for POFQ? If so, then you might still be better off saying at POFQ.
I think the only way to know is to play around with the reservation and see what the price difference is.
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Do you have a dining plan at FQ?
Going to check on it right now. I am assuming I can get on Disney’s website without logging in and do this without affecting our current reservations. We already had purchased the park hoppers so that won’t make a difference at least. And there are only three of us going.
That will make the value minimal, but worth checking out.
If necessary, use “Private” or “Incognito” mode of your browser.
Well, I’ve tried on my laptop and my phone and all I get is the picture of Stitch stating that “someone ate the page…”
Disney IT at its finest! I tried, and get the same thing. Appears they are being overwhelmed by folks trying to get Free Dining deals? I’d try again in a little why.
Yep - getting a little frustrated. I might call them, but I know from phone experience with them that the quality of information is dependent upon which CM answers the phone. I also noticed on their website that they now have 30% off select room prices for the time we will be there as well, so I am sure they are overwhelmed at the moment!
There are two discounts available. One is a room discount. Make sure you check both when the website starts working again.
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Yes! I just replied to Ryan about that! Our favorite resort prior to last year was the Contemporary due to view of and proximity to Magic Kingdom, but with price hikes and kids getting older we switched to POR last year and did absolutely love it. So, I will see what the room discount offers as well.
Usually when it says it is “up to 30%” you will find 30% for some deluxes, 20% or so for moderates and 10-15% for values.
You did not respond if you had dining on your reservation? The free dining is QS for moderates and rumor is that unlike past years you cannot upgrade.
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To make a fair comparison, you have to take the percent discount you are getting on the room (assuming you are getting that) and then compare that to the amount you would save by the dining plan. HOWEVER, realize that, depending on how you expect to eat, the amount you save on the dining plan is NOT the same as the cost of the dining plan.
In other words, if you would spend, say, $130/day on food (including tax/tips) per person, and the dining plan costs $152/per person (on top of which you have to add tips), you can see that the value isn’t as high as the actual cost UNLESS you have more people. The more people, the more the free dining “pays”.
For us, when my wife and I calculated out the dining plan versus what we expect to actually eat, we found we’ll save a couple hundred dollars by NOT getting the dining plan. YMMV.
I know it’s a different offer, but we were able to upgrade with UK free dining.
I looked this morning to compare to our MVT offer and it let me upgrade to deluxe dining for CSR. I didn’t check out, so maybe it wouldn’t have worked, but I was able to add it to my cart fine.
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Thanks Ryan. I had previously used the dining plan calculator (not sure if that’s exactly what it is called but found a link on here awhile back), and the cost for the middle of the road dining plan came out slightly advantageous for us because of some of the TS meals we wanted. Upgrading to deluxe would not be cost effective because it is simply too much food. So, we definitely want the disney dining plan but not the deluxe. I just tried calling them as well, and I get a recorded message saying “all circuits are busy and to please try back later.” Grrr…I hope this doesn’t mean that all of a sudden the crowd levels are going to surge for the dates we have planned! 
Unlikely. Probably just folks like yourself wanting to apply a discount to a reservation they already had, OR making a reservation now to get the discount that they were already planning to take.
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We currently have the disney dining plan booked for our trip, and the offer does allow for upgrades for an extra charge from the quick service. So, I’m thinking that if we opt to stay at POFQ we will probably still come out ahead or at least even than by switching resorts in order to get the “free” dining. Still trying to contact Disney in any way, shape, and form, and all circuits are overloaded!
I suspect that, to the Disney call center, the release of free dining plan dates is a lot like the Black Friday store workers as they get ready to open the doors!
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I’m sure! 
Thanks! It was posted in chat but there were a couple of posts that it wasn’t really free dining so it was hard to follow.
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