No UK Free Dining for 2020?!

Jon84 · Feb 4, 2019

OK, so there's a girl who works for TUI or Thomas Cook (can't remember which), who is a wannabe vlogger, and does some shady travel agency/planning on her own.

On her IG yesterday, she 'announced' that Disney would no longer be doing the Free Dining offer for UK Guests.

Anyone heard anything? or have any thoughts?

Pooh's-Honey-Pot · Feb 5, 2019

Haven't heard this! Hopefully not true!

starry_solo · Feb 5, 2019

I'm guessing with the opening of SW: GE, they might not find the need to do free dining for a bit.

But then again, even with Pandora opening at AK, they still offered free dining

Jon84 · Feb 5, 2019

starry_solo said:
I'm guessing with the opening of SW: GE, they might not find the need to do free dining for a bit.

But then again, even with Pandora opening at AK, they still offered free dining

Yeah it's impossible to know.

I'd assumed someone on here would have heard something at least!

saintrob · Feb 5, 2019

Personally I'd be glad to see the back of 'free' dining although I guess I'm in the minority. I've never booked this for years as I hate paying the full rack rate for rooms and prefer to book a room only deal on the USA site and take advantage of the discounts offered. I also think that some of the signature restaurants have suffered because of free dining and have downgraded some of their menus.

Pinkgirl · Feb 6, 2019

Virgin TAs in Debenhams at Metro Centre have been told to tell customers the exact same thing. Star Wars land is opening. I did point out to her that is opens this year, and we are talking about free dining for 2020. I dont see Disney having the nerve to drop it totally, but lets face it, they have been restricting room availability for free dining more and more over the last 3 years. Rooms that werent available to the UK market to book last April for this year with free dining are now plentiful on their website.

Garyjames220 · Feb 6, 2019

Pinkgirl said:
Virgin TAs in Debenhams at Metro Centre have been told to tell customers the exact same thing. Star Wars land is opening. I did point out to her that is opens this year, and we are talking about free dining for 2020. I dont see Disney having the nerve to drop it totally, but lets face it, they have been restricting room availability for free dining more and more over the last 3 years. Rooms that werent available to the UK market to book last April for this year with free dining are now plentiful on their website.

We have Free dinning at animal kingdom lodge on 29th nov for two weeks this year. We were going to wait till 2020. Glad I never now

gismo1554 · Feb 14, 2019

There's a chance they mean that there wont be free "UK" dining offered you would have to book through the US dining offer (this was the way you used to have to back in the day). This however would be annoying as we get better prices on the Disney tickets than the US dining offer. I find it hard to believe they would completely get rid of free dining but you just never know.

catherine · Feb 14, 2019

Free dining is already not available at DVC places like OKW. So we'll see!

jackieleanne · Feb 15, 2019

If this is true it is what I expected. Star Wars opens in November/December of this year. I think the US dining will also go, they have offered it this summer for US guests to try and get people to book as lots are waiting for Star Wars.

I imagine that it may be gone for everyone if it does go.

Disney Frenhines · Feb 15, 2019

Don't listen to her. My experience of TUI (Thomson, as was) is that the staff know nothing, I wanted to get info on Disneyland in my local store, they were clueless, they didn't even know where it was.
It's just a case of keeping an eye on places like Disboards and people who actually know what they are talking about.

Disney Frenhines · Feb 15, 2019

gismo1554 said:
There's a chance they mean that there wont be free "UK" dining offered you would have to book through the US dining offer (this was the way you used to have to back in the day). This however would be annoying as we get better prices on the Disney tickets than the US dining offer. I find it hard to believe they would completely get rid of free dining but you just never know.

I thought I would book my September trip via the US site. For a start the free dining disappeared like hot cakes, within days as they only have set amounts, unlike the UK site. Also, they pay taxes of 12.5% on the rooms, which we don't. Here is the figures I got
14 days Pop Century: US Disney site converted into Sterling £1980
Same room, same resort, same dates with the two days free offer on the UK site £1366, the difference more than covers the cost of dining.
In the days before the Brexit vote the exchange rate would have made booking through the US site more favourable, now, it's not worth bothering. Stick with the UK site.
Check it out and see for yourself that the UK site is cheaper than the US site for the exact same thing.

saintrob · Feb 15, 2019

Don't forget however that the USA site at various times throughout the year offers discounts on the room rates. Sometimes the discounts are only available for annual pass holders but at others the discounts are for anyone. Currently I have a room reservation for Sugarloaf at the Grand Floridian for summer with 30% off the rack rate. Hopefully an annual pass rate will come out which may even better this.

Rack rate USA pricing will be more expensive than the UK price. Once the room discounts are available the savings will be made.

jf256 · Feb 20, 2019

I am getting a wee bit stressed about this tbh. Was planning on free dining upgraded for 10 nights. 3 day cruise and one night in hard rock hotel.

We were already going to be paying about 10,000 for this..which is absolutely ridiculous but its going to be first trip once in a life time at this level trip. As we travel often in the uk and very rarely go abroad.

But it is what is is. If there is no free dining however we will likely not bother staying in a deluxe. It will either be french quarter, or riverside. Or a disney springs hotel really does depend. Just do 2 weeks there instead of a cruise as we have to save a bit and likely eat a bit less than we would on the deluxe plan.

Just a bit gutted that galaxys edge is opening this year as i would of gone before but i had exams and not enough annual leave to cover it.

Never mind.. lucky to be going but i hate this waiting game!!

On the plus side the prices went up this week online and they are nowhere near what i thought we would be paying.

saintrob · Feb 21, 2019

It can get you stressed especially for a first trip but it'll all be worth it once you get there.

I always booked a package for our first few trips as I really had no idea what I was doing! Nearly thirty trips down the line I now always go the DIY route as it suits us so much better and we've saved thousands over the years.

Remember that free dining isn't actually 'free' You'll be paying the full rack rate for the room therefore you can get the room only so much cheaper. This means you need to work out if a room only deal plus the cost of what you would spend on food would be cheaper. Once room discounts are factored into this it very often works out a lot better.

Good luck with your planning!

jf256 · Feb 21, 2019

Yeah i definitely need to just chill out! I will be 28 years young on this holiday- no kids just want to experience everything.

Hence the 3 seperate hotel stays + a cruise.

Room only discounts are way to far ahead for the UK - I don't think I would like to wait until 2020 to book it. Unless i am missing something - at the moment isn't it just rack room rate?

If we have to pay out of pocket - i will likely just get a US Dollar Mastercard and dump £1500 on that just for food as neither of us drink alcohol, but BF is a huge fillet steak fan he has it basically every day on holiday and i eat a lot of seafood so it will still likely be a big old bill at the end of each dinner. I don't think we would change our plans for food much but it might work out well as i like to have a couple of appetisers a lot of the time instead of a dessert (egg allergy - so not really used to getting dessert).

Again, i love to worry and often end up playing out strange scenarios in my head haha- it will likely be absolutely fine- might just give myself a disney detox and unsubscribe to all the youtube videos, podcasts, apps and boards until April comes around and then see what happens.

Thanks,

Jodie

saintrob · Feb 21, 2019

B

jf256 said:
Yeah i definitely need to just chill out! I will be 28 years young on this holiday- no kids just want to experience everything.

Hence the 3 seperate hotel stays + a cruise.

Room only discounts are way to far ahead for the UK - I don't think I would like to wait until 2020 to book it. Unless i am missing something - at the moment isn't it just rack room rate?

If we have to pay out of pocket - i will likely just get a US Dollar Mastercard and dump £1500 on that just for food as neither of us drink alcohol, but BF is a huge fillet steak fan he has it basically every day on holiday and i eat a lot of seafood so it will still likely be a big old bill at the end of each dinner. I don't think we would change our plans for food much but it might work out well as i like to have a couple of appetisers a lot of the time instead of a dessert (egg allergy - so not really used to getting dessert).

Again, i love to worry and often end up playing out strange scenarios in my head haha- it will likely be absolutely fine- might just give myself a disney detox and unsubscribe to all the youtube videos, podcasts, apps and boards until April comes around and then see what happens.

Thanks,

Jodie

You can only book on the USA site for 2019 at the moment.

Cruises can be really good value depending on which line you choose and type of cabin. We've cruised with both Disney and Royal Caribbean from an inside stateroom to a grand suite. Apart from a few perks thrown in such as a separate lounge with free booze, most of the other facilities on the ship are exactly the same in the inside cabin at a fraction of the cost. They are really good value and a great experience.

One night at a universal hotel is well worth it simply to get front of line access to both parks. Again discounts are available on the US site, for example for members of the AA, government employees (nurses and teachers in the UK usually qualify for this) so it's well worth a look. If you're only staying for one night then it'll certainly be cheaper to book Universal tickets on the USA site.

jf256 · Feb 21, 2019

Thanks a lot for the really detailed response.

Excuse my ignorance but how would i go about accessing the US sites - it seems to only go to UK one when i try.

Do i need to use a VPN? or is there something similar i am missing?

supernova · Feb 21, 2019

starry_solo said:
I'm guessing with the opening of SW: GE, they might not find the need to do free dining for a bit.

But then again, even with Pandora opening at AK, they still offered free dining

I was about to post the same thing about Star Wars. Although I don't think we can compare Pandora to Galaxy's Edge. Not yet, anyway. But I think SW will draw bigger crowds than Avatar. Time will tell.

JessicaRabbit13 · Feb 21, 2019

saintrob said:
It can get you stressed especially for a first trip but it'll all be worth it once you get there.

I always booked a package for our first few trips as I really had no idea what I was doing! Nearly thirty trips down the line I now always go the DIY route as it suits us so much better and we've saved thousands over the years.

Remember that free dining isn't actually 'free' You'll be paying the full rack rate for the room therefore you can get the room only so much cheaper. This means you need to work out if a room only deal plus the cost of what you would spend on food would be cheaper. Once room discounts are factored into this it very often works out a lot better.

Good luck with your planning!

Sorry to jump on someone else’s post, but where are you likely to get the best room discounts? On the UK site or US offers?

No UK Free Dining for 2020?!

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