Originally Posted By Elderp I heard that now the free dinning plan is only being offered to those that are staying at a Moderate or Deluxe resort. If you go to a Moderate you will get the quick service option and if you go to a Deluxe you will get the regular option. My question is since this is normally WDW's downtime will it in anyone's opinion reduce the bookings for August-October OR has attendance increased to a point where this offer is no longer really necessary? Just curious what fans have to say.
Originally Posted By Disneymom443 Wow I didn't know that they were not including the value resorts. I guess if it's Free they can make restrictions. I hope it works out okay.
Originally Posted By NikkiLOVESMickey Where did you hear about this change, Elderp? If Disney does this, they'll be one step closer to having their own caste system. The value and moderate resort guests aren't as good as the deluxe guests. Before you know it, they'll only allow value and moderate guests in certain areas of the park!
Originally Posted By Bob Paris ^ I believe it was on Miceage - in Kevin Yee's new article. Oh and they already have a caste system. It's called kicking your paying guests out early so only hotel guests can stay on. I think THAT is beyond disgusting.
Originally Posted By NikkiLOVESMickey <<Oh and they already have a caste system. It's called kicking your paying guests out early so only hotel guests can stay on.>> I don't think there's anything wrong with that - Disney hotel guests pay for that privilege, while a guest staying on I-Drive does not. But to limit a perk, such as the free dining plan, to a set group when it was available to everyone before, is cheap and treats those who pay those extra prices to stay on site as nothing more than a dollar figure. Is this a plan set in stone, or is this one of Kevin Yee's "what if" articles, like when he talked about WDW closing parks on certain days if the price of gas continued to increase?
Originally Posted By Disney and beyond Here's the thing about Extra Magic Hours. They are offered to the people most likely satying there temporarily, who want to get as much out of the park as they can. A Majority of the others live in Florida, and can come more often than those staying in the hotel.
Originally Posted By Mrs ElderP According to our "pillow talk" last night (aren't we exciting) this is the free dining that is being offered to those booking through UK travel. In the past those booking from the UK always got free dining first, then the Disney Visa people, then everyone. I ran a little senario, for a what if. In the middle of September of '09 for 8 days 7 nights. You can get a value room and the regular meal plan for $100 less than just the room at the Coranado (granted that was the room with the king size bed, which I think is about $100 over the course of 8 days). So, essentially the deal they are making with their tourists is no longer "buy our room and we'll feed you". Now it's "upgrade to our moderate room instead of our cheap room and we'll feed you... to some degree".
Originally Posted By MPierce Personally I think this is bad P.R., but Disney can get asway with it because we, the paying customers, allow them to. Sometimes I think Disney loves providing less product, and less service, just to see how much "GUEST" will allow. Look for these cut backs to continue until folks finally say enough's, enough.
Originally Posted By hopemax As Kevin Yee's article points out this is specific to a UK promotion. The promotions targeted to the UK are different than the ones available here. This year, value resorts were excluded from free dining for the UK promo. That didn't mean that someone in the US couldn't get free dining at a value.
Originally Posted By Mrs ElderP Are you kidding!! That's what Senior Discounts are about. That's what Student Discounts are about. In Disney's case that's what So Cal or Florida resident passes are about. That's the whole point of marketing, the get the one segment of the population that you havn't gotten yet, while squeezing your established customers for all they're worth.
Originally Posted By sun-n-fun Yeah I get what you're saying about the discounts. It just seems like they are penalizing people coming in from another country. You'd think with the US dollar doing so poorly they'd be encouraging travel more. Maybe they are just trying to get foreigners to spend more money by upping to a moderate or deluxe.
Originally Posted By kennect I read Kevin's article and the only conclusion I could come to is this guy has way too much time on his hands to come up with all of the stuff he had to say...Can anyone remember when there actually a time where there wasn't a dining plan? It's not like it is something set in stone....It's Disney, it's a business like any other...I just wish someone would do an article about how much better the food is today at WDW than it was, overall, when it opened...That would be interesting to me...
Originally Posted By RobinsonCrusoeEsq Hi. In response to post #12, I don't think they are offering it only to "certan people." Anyone is eligible. They just want you to upgrade your room from Value to Moderate. (Or Deluxe.) You like the Values. They are saying to you, "Consider a moderate. It's more, but you will eat free."
Originally Posted By Mrs ElderP For now, it's only open to those booking through the UK travel agencies...
Originally Posted By fkurucz <<Does that mean they're prejudice against Americans???>> I doubt prejudice has anything to do with it. Most likely they saw a drop in UK business, and are responding with a promotion.
