A Journey With The Jones': Last Chance

If you have been thinking about taking a trip to Disney World, now would be a good time to price out a fall/winter vacation!!!

Until this Friday, August 8th Disney is offering FREE dining. They've been running this special each summer/fall the last few years. It advertises a 6 night/7 day package, but you can actually go as few as 2 nights.

***If you stay in one of Disney's Value Resorts (All Stars, Pop Century and Art of Animation), you get the Quick Service Dining plan free.

***If you stay in one of Disney's Moderate/Deluxe resorts, you get the Dining Plan free.

This is the sweet deal Hardy and I are using for our trip in November. We booked a 4 night stay at All Star Sports + 4 day base tickets. So remember in order to get this deal you have to book a resort + ticket package. You can increase or decrease the amount of days you want to visit the parks. You can select a base ticket (1 park per day) or upgrade to park hopper option (multiple parks per day). Since All Star is considered a value resort, we paid an additional $100 to upgrade to the Disney Dining Plan instead of the basic Quick Service Plan.

All of these packages include a resort souvenir cup that you can refill for free at your resort during your entire stay up until midnight of the day you check out. I believe they have a chip in the bottom of the cup that tells the soda machine whether or not to dispense. ****You cannot refill resort cups inside the parks.

Disney Dining...in a nutshell

Each person in your party (3yrs and above) gets meals/snacks based on how many nights you stay at a Walt Disney World resort hotel. So if you book 3 nights you will have 3 days worth of meals....if you book 7 nights, you will have 7 days worth of meals. If you skip a day and don't redeem your vouchers, it rolls over until that last day of your stay.

Disney offers a few dining options. Their basic plan is the "Quick Service Plan". this gives you 1 snack and 2 quick service meals per person/per day. The most common "snacks" are ice cream, popcorn, fruit. 20oz beverage, bottle of water, cookie, prepackaged snack, anything considered a "single serving"...etc.

You can always look for the dining plan symbol to see if the store/kiosk/restaurant you're at accepts the dining plan. As a rule, when you purchase food they always ask if you have a dining plan. But if you want to bank some of your snacks, meals until a certain day, you can always pay out of pocket and tell them you'd rather not redeem anything at this time.

What's the difference in Quick Service and Disney Dining?

Quick Service Plan includes: 1 snack, 2 quick service meals - per person / per day

Disney Dining plan includes: 1 snack, 1 quick service meal, 1 table service meal - per person / per day

A quick service is basically your "fast food" options. This is where you walk up to the counter, order food and find a place to sit.

Table service is more like Chili's or Olive Garden. You sit at a table and you're waited on like a normal restaurant. These can also roll over if you don't use every voucher in one day.

The last time we went, Hardy got a dole whip and I got a root beer float and we were able to use our snack.

If you are used to packing your own food anytime you vacation - that's fine. But if you're like us and trying to pack your food every day would just throw you off, you really can't beat the price of the dining plan. Some restaurants are DELICIOUS, but pretty expensive if you pay out right. We are able to eat somewhere like Liberty Tree Tavern which is a family style experience (they bring large bowls of sides/entrees and keep refilling upon your request) as part of our dining plan. If we had walked in and paid for it as a single meal it would have been approx $70.

Offer Details Per the Disney website:

Book Through
August 8, 2014

Valid Arrival Dates

Select Disney Deluxe Villa Resort Hotels:

Aug 31 through Oct 3, 2014
Oct 26 through Nov 1, 2014
November 9 through November 20, 2014

Dec 12 through Dec 23, 2014

Select Disney Deluxe Resort Hotels:

Aug 31 through Oct 2, 2014
Oct 26 through Nov 1, 2014
Nov 9 through Nov 20, 2014
Dec 12 through Dec 23, 2014

Select Disney Moderate Resort Hotels:

Aug 31 through Sep 13, 2014
Sep 23 through Sep 26, 2014
Nov 20, 2014
Dec 12 through Dec 23, 2014

Select Disney Value Resort Hotels:

Aug 31 through Sep 20, 2014
Oct 30 through Nov 1, 2014
Nov 20, 2014
Dec 12 through Dec 23, 2014

Package Includes

6-night non-discounted room stay
7-day non-discounted theme park ticket
Disney Quick-Service Dining Plan (if you book a select Value Resort) or Disney Dining Plan (if you book a select Moderate, Deluxe or Deluxe Villa Resort)

Important Details

The number of rooms allocated for this offer is limited.
Some table-service restaurants may have limited or no availability at time of package purchase.

Ticket Requirements
Theme park tickets must be used within 14 days of first use.

Offer Restrictions