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Free Disney Dining Plan Is Here!

Tusker House Animal Kingdom

Disney has released a late summer/fall free dining package promotion for select dates starting on August 31st. This free dining promotion allows you to get the Disney dining package when you book a full price (non-discounted) room along with a magic your way ticket.

The free disney dining plan 2014 may sound like a great deal but the caveat is that you have to purchase a full price package. We’ll take a look at the numbers later but first the details of the package.

Disney World Free Dining Offer 2014 Details

Book by August 8th with a minimum of 3 nights, 2 day park tickets – the free dining offer is for valid dates arriving:

  •  8/31/14 – 10/3/14
  • 10/26/14 – 11/1/14
  • 11/9/14 – 11/20/14
  • 12/12/14 – 12/23/14

The important note is that your check-in (arrival) date must be within the dates listed above. If you check in outside of those dates you won’t be eligible for the free dining promotion. The good news with this is that if your stay extends out of the promotion period you get to keep the free dining.

Tip: You are able to “split” your vacation into parts to take advantage of the free dining for the dates that overlap. Let’s say for example you are heading down to the World from November 9th to the 15th but you already booked your flights so you can’t move your arrival date.

free disney dining 2014

Rose & Crown is a good option for full service dinner

You could split your stay so you “check out” on the 9th but then “check back in” again on the 9th which would allow you to take advantage of the free dining for the remainder of your vacation.

The free dining promotion is only available at the following resorts: 

Value Resorts
Quick service plan is included (upgrade to regular plan for $18.65 per person per day)

  • All-Star Music Resort
  • All-Star Sports Resort
  • Art of Animation (Family Suites)
  • Pop Century Resort

Moderate Resorts
Regular plan included (upgrade to deluxe dining plan for $48.89 per person per day)

  • Caribbean Beach Resort
  • Coronado Springs Resort

Deluxe Resorts
Regular plan included (upgrade to deluxe dining plan for $48.89 per person per day)

  • Animal Kingdom Lodge
  • Yacht & Beach Club Resorts
  • BoardWalk Inn
  • Contemporary Resort
  • Grand Floridian Resort & Spa
  • Polynesian Resort
  • Wilderness Lodge

Deluxe Villa Resorts
Regular plan included (upgrade to deluxe dining plan for $48.89 per person per day)

  • Bay Lake Tower
  • Animal Kingdom Villas
  • Beach Club Villas
  • BoardWalk Villas
  • Old Key West Resort
  • Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa
  • The Villas at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge
  • Fort Wilderness Cabins

Excluded resorts:

  • All Star Movies
  • Mermaid Rooms at Art of Animation
  • Port Orleans French Quarter
  • Port Orleans Riverside
  • Campsites at Ft. Wilderness
  • Villas at The Grand Floridian.

Important Details

  • The number of rooms allocated for this offer is limited so book soon.
  • Some table-service restaurants may have limited or no availability at time of package purchase. If you are planning on purchasing this package be sure to make your restaurant reservations as soon as possible!

What is the Disney Dining Plan?

The Disney Dining plan is an add on to the Magic Your Way packages which allow you to pre-pay a fixed rate per day that includes all of your meals. The Disney Dining plan was introduced to help people control the costs of their vacations and make them easier so you don’t have to worry about paying for your food as you go.

You pay an addition fee per person per day on top of your Magic Your Way package to add in the dining package (with this promotion you’ll be getting this for free).

Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe Magic Kingdom

Cosmic Ray’s is One of My Favorite Quick Service Restaurants

There are three tiers of the Disney Dining plan, value, regular and deluxe.

Value Dining Plan – normally $41.99 per person per night

  • Two quick service meals
  • One snack
  • One Resort refillable drink mug

Regular Dining Plan – normally $60.04 per person per night

  • One table service meal
  • One quick service meal
  • One snack
  • One Resort refillable drink mug

Deluxe Dining Plan – normally $109.53 per person per night

  • 3 meals total, any combination of quick or full service
  • 2 snacks
  • One Resort refillable drink mug

As you can see the dining plans can be fairly pricey, even the value dining plan. There is quite a bit of debate on when it becomes worth it to purchase a Dining plan which I’ll get into another post but with this promotion the Disney Dining package will come free!

Should I Get the Free Disney Dining Plan?

The main question everyone will have is whether it’s worth it to go with the free dining package. While free dining sounds great it does require that you purchase a full price, non-discounted package which will make things a little more costly. Generally the full price dining packages are not worth the cost.

Coral Reef Epcot

Dine with the Fishes at the Coral Reef Restaurant in Epcot

We’ll take a look at a hypothetical vacation in late September to see if the current 30% off room offer or free dining would be a better offer. I’m a big fan of the Pop Century resort so we’ll use that – I’ll check in on 9/13 and out on 9/23 for a total of 5 nights.

  • The current 30% room rates offer will give us the room for $93.44/night for a total of $467.20.
  • The full price room would be $116.80/night for a total of $584.

Now if we were to book the free dining package we would have to pay the higher, $116 rate so we would pay an extra $23.36/night or $116.80 total. That shows that the free dining package is “costing” us about an extra $23.36/night which is still well under the full price of $41.99 for the value dining package.

Only paying $23.36 per person per day for food is well worth the cost in my book, I find it hard to justify the full prices of the packages. All of these prices is assuming 1 adult too, if you have two adults in the room your per person cost drops down to only $11.68 – even better.

Even though you’re forced into paying the non-discounted rates you are still getting a pretty good deal with the free dining package.

Conclusion

The Disney dining package for free provides decent value for your vacation as long as you meet the criteria as well as take full advantage of the food that you get. You should still look at your particular vacation/eating style to see if it’s worth going for the free dining or trying to save on food and using the discounted room offers.

Rooms will be limited which means they will for sure fill up fast, after you make the decision to go with the dining plan be sure to make your dining reservations as soon as possible as well.

2 comments… add one
  1. If you have a trip to Disney World all ready booked in advanced for the same date’s as the free dine when it come’s out do you get the free dine?

    Reply
    1. You will have to call to have your reservation switched over

      Reply

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