Is Free Dining Plan Really That Good Of A Deal??

[TANYABETH]

A co-worker of mine just came back from Disney World. She and her new husband were there from Sept 16 to Sept 23 They stayed at All-Star Sports and had the Free Dining Plan. She said her trip with flights cost just a little over $2000.00 Well I am going to Disney Nov 1 - Nov 8, am staying at Port Orleans French Quarter and have the dining plan (which was not free) and with flights my trip is right around $500.00 more than hers. Since we are staying at a hotel that is a little more costly than hers was, this just doesn't seem like she really saved too much if anything with the free dining plan. Also she flew Air Trans and I think her tickets were only like $200.00 a person round trip.

[Pumbaa_]

Sure :) Moved to the DDP board

[FogliaFamily]

We went this past Easter break and spent about $4,400 for our family of five staying at Port Orleans-Riverside. We just got back last Tuesday and with the free dining, value rates at POR and cheaper flights (AirTran also) we were at $2,950. A huge savings of $1,400. Not to mention the crowds and weather were so much better in September. We aren't going at Easter again and we did book the bounceback offer for next September. I also figure we had roughly $1,000 worth of free food-how can you go wrong. Have fun!

[TANYABETH]

Thanks:)

[brymolmom]

For us - it has saved us a ton. With our family - the dining plan would cost $100 per night. And we stayed 8 nights this trip - so that's $800. Now, when you get room-only deals you can save (depending on the deal and where you stay value vs. moderate vs. deluxe) - a lot off your room. So, yes, if you're staying somewhere where you're getting $100 of your room a night - you'd be saving the same as we are. But we usually stay at Values, so the max we'd save with that is like $20 a night. PLUS, we wouldn't get the dining plan unless it was free - so we get what we consider a TON of bonuses - like lots of character meals that we would never do otherwise. For my family, it has been the biggest $ saving that I have ever seen offered.

[DISNEYNY]

We just went in late Aug on the FDP. We paid 82 per nite at a value, which is probably what your friend paid. For us we thought it was a great deal. Did you get a great dael on your room?? ...FDP requires us to pay rack rate. I don't see how it would have cost $2000 for two people. Airfare $400, Room for 8 nights $750 including tax, 8 day park tickets $450 - about $1600. Did she rent a car? ...we did not. Maybe she bought alot of souvenirs.

[KKB]

And I was NOT going to do DDP...I can feed a family of 5 for less than $140/day, right??

Well, my folks convinced me otherwise. We COULD, but not without a great deal of effort, a lot of sharing and a lot of NOs...and no table service.

DM, DD9 & I are all foodies. We LOVE a good meal, and we chose ADRs based on good reviews/menus that looked good to me. It will get us to sit down for an hour or 2 a day. I LOOOVE the idea of saying YES to virtually all my children's food requests! Would we order this much food? NO. BUT we would probably spend as much for lower quality food. We don't have to eat it all...and dessert may be tomorrow's breakfast!

With the 2008 changes, it isn't as good of a value. But Dad is a cheapy and even with the changes (no appy, no tip, more limited snacks), he still feels it is a good deal! (too bad you can't choose between appy & dessert)

[mom2aredhead]

It depends on how many people, where you are staying, and how you eat.
We are a family of 3 (2A/1C), DDP for 6 nights costs about $535.
We are staying at AKL in Dec for $145/night, regular rack rate is $215, so we saved $420.00 on the room.
Essentially we would have to give up our discount of $420 (and go in Sept instead of Dec) to get a discount of $535. We prefer not to go during August/September anyway, so no, free DDP does not work well enough for us.
My friend just got back from a free-DDP trip also staying at a deluxe (maybe the Poly?) She is a family of 5 (2 adults, 2 "Disney adults" age 11 & 13, and a 5 year old.) DDP fpr her family for the week costs somewhere in the neighborhood of $1000, so for her it was worth it.

[tebookie]

Just stayed 7 nights @ Music with free dining....3 adults

Music for 7 nights
Free Dining
8-Day Non hopper Park Passes
Flights for 3 adults
Full Size car rental

Total around $1775 or about $591 per person.
If we had to pay for dining package it would have cost another $800 roughly.

[disneyfan55]

We just came back from a weeks stay at the All Star Sports. Yes, we had the free dining and feel it was worth it by staying in a value resort. I do not feel it would be worth it in a moderate or deluxe. We have received better deals on the rooms in those types of lodging. I did feel very structured on this last vacation. It seemed everything ended up being planned on where dinner was. Also, we didn't like the times that were available when we made our reservations 3 months prior. I guess we have visited Disney a great number of times and never had the reservations for dinner basically running the vacation.

[RJD]

Free food? Nuff said! Our family of 4 went last week of August. For us the dining plan would've cost over $800. We got it for free. How could you go wrong?

[prettypixie]

My family of 4 stayed at ASSp 9/14-9/21 w/free dining and our package w/o flights was around $1600. If we would have ate at all the locations we did with free dining and paid OOP it would have cost us over $1100 bucks!:banana: To the OP to truly compare the differences you would also need to consider the types of tickets your co-worker had. We saved an additional $200 + by not have the park hopper option added in.

[Luvamouse]

I don't see how free dining could not have been a good deal if you are comparing it to paying for DDP. That part is pretty black and white. The close price might be due to the fact that you are including the flights in your comparisons. That shouldn't be relevant at all. The only thing that counts is that they got $38.99 x 2 people x 7 nights (I think) = $545.86 less than you paid for dining.

You each had to pay rack at the resorts you stayed at to get free or paid DDP. If you were trying to compare free dining + rack rate vs dining OOP and getting a discount of some type on the room, that would make sense.

I am trying to figure that out for our trip right now. Get the DDP and lose my AAA discount or try to figure out what we might spend on food and pay OOP keeping the AAA discount. I keep trying and trying...:teacher:

[StrollPatrolMom]

We easily saved 50% off the cost of the trip staying at a value...next year at the deluxe its not as great a deal since you have to pay rack rate...but knowing mostly everything is pre-paid is a HUGE deal for me.

Plus we ate places and tried things we would not have been able to otherwise...I love free dining...you'll see me down there EVERY fall if they keep offering it!

[honeymo78]

luvamouse - if you book through AAA you can keep the AAA discount on the room portion of your package and still book MYW with dining. From what I understand the AAA discount is a % off the room rate - you'll get that discount from AAA as room only or one the package, but I think you must book through AAA for the package discount. Of course if its free dining, you can't combine the two. (not sure if the trip you are talking about is your stay at the poly or a stay next year during free dining). Even when disney releases a room discount code, there is usually a MYW and MYW with dining code with the same discount - just not for free dining.

[HopperFan]

You ask if FREE Dining a deal ?

Rack rate on room cost $82 per night, my AAA discount would have been @ $16.40 per night.
2 Adults on meal plan = $38.99 each for a total of $77.98 so right off the bat we have saved $61.58 per night x 10 nights = savings of $615.80.
Our room held four so if my younger kids had come, we could have doubled that savings.

Consider that we spent $16.40 x 10 extra for our room = $164.00 total and ate approximately $1000 worth of food had we paid OOP.
YES I THINK A GOOD DEAL :thumbsup2

[Luvamouse]

luvamouse - if you book through AAA you can keep the AAA discount on the room portion of your package and still book MYW with dining. From what I understand the AAA discount is a % off the room rate - you'll get that discount from AAA as room only or one the package, but I think you must book through AAA for the package discount. Of course if its free dining, you can't combine the two. (not sure if the trip you are talking about is your stay at the poly or a stay next year during free dining). Even when disney releases a room discount code, there is usually a MYW and MYW with dining code with the same discount - just not for free dining.

You are right honeymo-- but since we are going at Thanksgiving, and the room has been booked since the 500 day point, there isn't any way to switch it. None of the codes apply to us anyway due to the dates, which I pretty much knew going into this. The AAA offices around here aren't great at Disney, so I went with a TA since we have a 4 room GG. I didn't really figure we'd do the DDP, but now I think just the convenience makes it worth it. Tha AAA I may lose is the only downside - ($38.50/night= 10%). Even with the loss of the AAA discount, I still think most days we would be eating above the cost of our DDP. And that is why the calculator sits here in front of me with the printed out menus...

You are right that they do offer codes that include discounted packages with dining (even if it isn't free), I was pretty much just referring to the free dining or paid DDP w/out a code. But all of that needs to be considered when comparing packages with others. It does get confusing with codes and their requirements and blackouts and...

Thanks for the advice--

Heidi

[kaytieeldr]

All Star for seven nights = $648.62
Free dining for two people = $0.00
Total = $648.62

POFQ for seven nights = $1,141.88
Dining plan for two people = $545.86
Total = $1,665.86

So, the difference between JUST the room and dining plan is $1,017.24.

Variables which were not provided include what type of tickets they got vs. which tickets you're getting; does your rate involve a discount; how much is your airfare?

[TANYABETH]

I think I was mostly wondering if Disney puts the price of the packages up when they offer free dining because I can't understand how her trip only cost a little less than mine when she had free dining and I was paying for my dining plan and also I was staying at a more expensive hotel. It is possible she was not accurate when she told me the price of her trip.

[thunderbird1]

I think I was mostly wondering if Disney puts the price of the packages up when they offer free dining because I can't understand how her trip only cost a little less than mine when she had free dining and I was paying for my dining plan and also I was staying at a more expensive hotel. It is possible she was not accurate when she told me the price of her trip.

Nope--the package price with free DDP is exactly the same as the package would be without any DDP. Ticket prices are the same, and the room is just standard rack rate.

For us (2 adults, 1 junior, 1 child at a moderate resort) free DDP is hands down the best discount. We paid ~$160 per night for the room after taxes, and several of our TS meals were more than that. That's just the TS meal alone--we still had the 4 CS and 4 snacks each day. That beats the pants off any 20% AAA or 40% pin code offer!

[disneyfan55]

Nope--the package price with free DDP is exactly the same as the package would be without any DDP. Ticket prices are the same, and the room is just standard rack rate.

For us (2 adults, 1 junior, 1 child at a moderate resort) free DDP is hands down the best discount. We paid ~$160 per night for the room after taxes, and several of our TS meals were more than that. That's just the TS meal alone--we still had the 4 CS and 4 snacks each day. That beats the pants off any 20% AAA or 40% pin code offer!

Yes, I will vouch for that. We booked the all star sports 82 plus tax and 8 day park hoppers with the free dining and it came out to the penny!! We were there Sept 22-29 and paid 593 pp with 2 in the room. Our other room had 3 and the only additional cost was a park hopper and the 10 per day fee for the extra person. It was well worth the cost. We spent about 900-1000 for 2 of us on the dining plan that didn't cost a cent. The biggest problem I found was how structured the trip was because of reservations. The hopper option was almost not worth it. We used it only on 1 day. I think for the Deluxe hotels, maybe a 40% discount might be more than the cost of the dining plan for 2, but not at the lesser costing hotels.

[TDC Nala]

In the past it was an okay deal, but only if I stayed at Pop Century and only because it was possible to use the one-day base ticket toward renewal of my annual pass.

I did not sign up for it next year (on bounceback) because it is far better for me to use DVC points and DDE.

Althought that does mean I will avoid places like Tutto Italia because the prices are prohibitive, even with DDE.

[twinspluscade]

A co-worker of mine just came back from Disney World. She and her new husband were there from Sept 16 to Sept 23 They stayed at All-Star Sports and had the Free Dining Plan. She said her trip with flights cost just a little over $2000.00 Well I am going to Disney Nov 1 - Nov 8, am staying at Port Orleans French Quarter and have the dining plan (which was not free) and with flights my trip is right around $500.00 more than hers. Since we are staying at a hotel that is a little more costly than hers was, this just doesn't seem like she really saved too much if anything with the free dining plan. Also she flew Air Trans and I think her tickets were only like $200.00 a person round trip.

It depends on so many things. Maybe they did extra stuff that you guys aren't doing, maybe she included soveniers and photopass pictures in that $2000, etc. Maybe they got park hopper tickets,and you dont. Also--are you getting the dining plan? If not, then you'd have to add that extra amount onto your quote to have it be equal. There's just so many variables that can change the cost of things; I think it's hard to do a fair comparison.

[TANYABETH]

It depends on so many things. Maybe they did extra stuff that you guys aren't doing, maybe she included soveniers and photopass pictures in that $2000, etc. Maybe they got park hopper tickets,and you dont. Also--are you getting the dining plan? If not, then you'd have to add that extra amount onto your quote to have it be equal. There's just so many variables that can change the cost of things; I think it's hard to do a fair comparison.

We do have the dining plan and also 7 day park hopper with water park fun and more, but was are staying at French Quarter and she stayed at AS Sports. We used a code ZQH when booking which saved us a little, but I was still suprised that her trip was not very much less than ours since she had the free dining plan and less expensive hotel. It is very possible that when she was talking to me she was not correct on her price though.

[KKB]

A co-worker of mine just came back from Disney World. She and her new husband were there from Sept 16 to Sept 23 They stayed at All-Star Sports and had the Free Dining Plan. She said her trip with flights cost just a little over $2000.00 Well I am going to Disney Nov 1 - Nov 8, am staying at Port Orleans French Quarter and have the dining plan (which was not free) and with flights my trip is right around $500.00 more than hers. Since we are staying at a hotel that is a little more costly than hers was, this just doesn't seem like she really saved too much if anything with the free dining plan. Also she flew Air Trans and I think her tickets were only like $200.00 a person round trip.

Her hotel would not be more than $700 even with taxes; tickets $400-600 (base vs. hopper vs. water parks add on); airfare $400 (let's say...). That leaves $300-500 spending $..that sounds about right.

Your trip of $2500 doesn't include spending $ yet. That compares to her room/tickets/air of $1500-1700. $800-$1000 is a considerable savings. Dining accounts for about $500 and $300 for room. And that sounds about right. We are at POP and considered bumping up to POR, and it was about $300 more, per room (we need 2) DH said, naw, we just sleep & shower in rooms anyway.