Disney World continues free dining promotion

Walt Disney World has announced that it is extending its free dining promotion through December, albeit with slightly modified terms. Originally scheduled to end on Oct. 3, the revised promotion will run until December 17, with a four-day blackout period around Thanksgiving, the Orlando Sentinel reports. The promotion will be less charitable to those booking rooms in the resort's cheapest tier "Value" resorts, which include Pop Century and the All-Star properties. The report contends that the deal may help sustain attendance through the final three months of 2009, which also happen to represent the first fiscal quarter for the Walt Disney Company. Disney chose not to run any significant promotions during the final months of 2008, and saw a five percent decline in attendance at its Florida-based parks.

Rich Greenfield, an analyst who follows Disney for Pali Capital, wrote in a recent post on the firm's research blog, "Given that Disney did not have a formal discount running [then]...extending a major promotion into the December quarter this year would have a notable impact on profitability year-over-year."