Free QS to TS Upgrade is my math correct?

[fozziepitysthefool]

Ok we are two "adults" me and DS (16) stay at AsSpo from Dec 18 - Jan 1 and took advantage of the Free QS Dining. I upgraded to TS because we may want a break from the crowds. However it seems a bit scammy...

At $20 per person ($40) for one TS meal a day... I am not convinced it is worth my while. Especially now that you don't get an appie with the deal. Here's my reasoning:

1) My QS free meal that has been upgraded to a TS is about ($15 (maybe even $20) per person with drink, entrée and dessert) x 14 days = $420 that Disney is saving in food we are not eating at the QS because we have chosen a TS upgrade.

THEN

2) We are then paying $40 ($20 x 2 people) x 14 days for the one TS upgrade = $560 (for us to break even each of our entrées needs to be at least $20 (our choices aren't all that pricey necessarily from the menu choices we have made) and we need to take dessert. With the entrée portion sizes, we don't always.

PLUS

3) About 15% in tips increases our expense by about $130

SO

In theory we are tossing $420 in free food to only spend another $560 for the upgrade + $130 in tips, so that comes to $1100 for 14 meals.

Am I right??

And if I am, why would I keep the upgrade??

 

[MakiraMarlena]

I'm not getting it. You're getting the regular dining plan for about half its normal price. That is beneficial if you want to do enough table service dining. Yes, you would have to pay tips if you did any table service. Not sure I can count that something like a scam.

If you dont want all that table service dining including desserts and you are happy with QS, then keep the QS and book a few TS meals to pay out of pocket, much better deal than the upgrade.

 

[Nezumi Fan]

In theory we are tossing $420 in free food to only spend another $560 for the upgrade + $130 in tips, so that comes to $1100 for 14 meals.

Am I right??

And if I am, why would I keep the upgrade??

Hi there,

No expert here, but I faced a similar dilemma. I had booked Pop Century to take advantage of the free dining. While on the phone with a cast member, I let them upgrade me to the table service dining (from the "free" quick service dining) and paid about the same amount as you for the upgrade.

In thinking about it later, I started to worry that I'd made a mistake. I looked at and read reviews of Pop Century, and no longer felt good about the resort price plus the $500 or so extra for the dining upgrade.

In the end, what I did was book Coronado Springs -- which comes with table service, unlike Pop, which includes quick service -- cancel Pop...and, lo and behold, was spending about the same amount of money, only now, instead of a value resort and added-on table service, I had a moderate with the same level of dining. I'll be interested to hear what others have to say.

Nezumi Fan

 

[lam0037]

DBF and I are staying at Sports December 14-22. When I looked, I believe the value with upgraded to regular dining plan was a couple hundred dollars cheaper than at a moderate. If you are wanting to do more than 2-3 TS meals it is definitely worth it

If you strategic with your dining credits, you can come out way ahead on the dining plan. Take for example: Narcoossee's. If one TS is $20 a person with the upgrade and a restaurant takes 2 credits then it's a $40 meal per person. You can get a $70 entree and dessert with just that $40. Not bad in my opinion

 

[Mikie]

I would really only count the $560 upgrade difference plus maybe your tips as your food costs and not include the $420 worth of CS meals you're not eating as a true cost to you. If you don't choose entrees at menu TS locations that cost at least $20 on average AND you only drink water AND you never get dessert, then your upgrade isn't a deal for you.

However, if your drink soda, tea or lemonade with your meals, even occasionally get dessert, ever get entrees that cost more than $20 (easy to do) or eat at ANY buffets (prices all $36 and up) then you come out well doing the upgrade. If you could upgrade to a moderate hotel for $560 or so, you'd get a nicer resort and the standard dining plan free. I didn't count the $130 tips as you'd still pay those and didn't count the false savings of $420 QS dining plan you're giving up.

Really depends on how you eat and where you'd like to stay! Sure, you don't end up eating "free" nor are you saving money compared to your kitchen at home or casual dining outside the parks, but it's still a large discount vs. full price disney meals.

 

[fozziepitysthefool]

Hi there,

No expert here, but I faced a similar dilemma. I had booked Pop Century to take advantage of the free dining. While on the phone with a cast member, I let them upgrade me to the table service dining (from the "free" quick service dining) and paid about the same amount as you for the upgrade.

In thinking about it later, I started to worry that I'd made a mistake. I looked at and read reviews of Pop Century, and no longer felt good about the resort price plus the $500 or so extra for the dining upgrade.

In the end, what I did was book Coronado Springs -- which comes with table service, unlike Pop, which includes quick service -- cancel Pop...and, lo and behold, was spending about the same amount of money, only now, instead of a value resort and added-on table service, I had a moderate with the same level of dining. I'll be interested to hear what others have to say.

Nezumi Fan

Yeah, I don't really want to spend any more money either way, I think... I just don't think we can handle all that food. Sometimes I find it hard fitting in a QS dessert. I totally get your dilemma though. I hope you enjoy your stay at CS!

 

[mgsquared]

I just had to make the same call with the free dining and staying at a value. Even when we added the TS option it was still significantly less than staying at a moderate (about 400$ less). I looked at the menus and even for vegetarians, a TS entree is around 20$ without a drink added (the dessert is unnecessary, sure, so I'm not calculating that) and even just drinking ice water- the buffets are like 36$ per person. Sure the free QS is a better value but I do think the TS upgrade is a decent deal too. We were still at a great price with the upgrade, well under a moderate, and will really enjoy these restaurants we get to go to. Keeping the QS DDP and just paying for two TS meals OOP would be a big savings though.

 

[lauraleh]

We faced the same choice and decided to just stay with the QS plan, although I didn't think it was a bad deal to upgrade. Tips do add quite a bit though. We are going to do a couple of TS but I couldn't get most of my ideal reservations and I didn't want to do TS everyday at places that I didn't really want to go to.

I'm also traveling with a 3 year old and a 9 month old so we didn't want that many TS meals that took time away from the parks. Plus after long days at the park, bed time will probably come pretty early for them and I wanted to spare other diners meltdowns.

Maybe it was just the week that we were traveling but upgrading to a moderate was significantly more expensive. Just upgrading the dining plan would have been way cheaper.

 

[OasterP]

Hi there,

No expert here, but I faced a similar dilemma. I had booked Pop Century to take advantage of the free dining. While on the phone with a cast member, I let them upgrade me to the table service dining (from the "free" quick service dining) and paid about the same amount as you for the upgrade.

In thinking about it later, I started to worry that I'd made a mistake. I looked at and read reviews of Pop Century, and no longer felt good about the resort price plus the $500 or so extra for the dining upgrade.

In the end, what I did was book Coronado Springs -- which comes with table service, unlike Pop, which includes quick service -- cancel Pop...and, lo and behold, was spending about the same amount of money, only now, instead of a value resort and added-on table service, I had a moderate with the same level of dining. I'll be interested to hear what others have to say.


Nezumi Fan

I ran the math very similar to this when we were planning because I was hoping for the same - that the Moderate would be similar in price to what I was paying with the upgrade. Sadly for us that wasn't the case, and we stayed at Pop. NOT that I'm saying anything is wrong with Pop - I've never been to any so I'm just thrilled! But I was really hoping the math would work out closer.

My point is that this is a great idea to at least run the numbers, b/c depending on when you are going, number in your party, kids vs adults etc - I've seen MANY people say it was only a couple hundred more to upgrade to moderate and have the "free" regular plan. For a couple hundred - I would have made the move!

I forgot to add we did the upgrade b/c we moved on site once we found out about "free" dining JUST so we could do more character meals for our (will be then) four year old, so it will really depend on how you intend on eating. We plan on going back next year or the year after, most likely renting DVC points at Boardwalk Villas and have no intention on getting a meal plan. It's definitely more food than we typically eat, and we will never eat our "money's worth", but we thought for our first trip - it'll be fun!

 

[OasterP]

We faced the same choice and decided to just stay with the QS plan, although I didn't think it was a bad deal to upgrade. Tips do add quite a bit though. We are going to do a couple of TS but I couldn't get most of my ideal reservations and I didn't want to do TS everyday at places that I didn't really want to go to.

I'm also traveling with a 3 year old and a 9 month old so we didn't want that many TS meals that took time away from the parks. Plus after long days at the park, bed time will probably come pretty early for them and I wanted to spare other diners meltdowns.

Maybe it was just the week that we were traveling but upgrading to a moderate was significantly more expensive. Just upgrading the dining plan would have been way cheaper.

This with us too. Possibly because of the much cheaper price of the children's dining plan. But yeah - it was almost 800.00 more (I think) to upgrade.

 

[mgsquared]

I just checked out of curiosity. Would have been 550 more for us (My TA gave me a quote for both options). That's a LOT of souvenirs and fun things in the parks! I would much rather bring home something nice. Don't care so much where I sleep as long as it is clean and comfy. I do hear amazing things about Pop though so quite excited!

 

[Nezumi Fan]

My point is that this is a great idea to at least run the numbers, b/c depending on when you are going, number in your party, kids vs adults etc - I've seen MANY people say it was only a couple hundred more to upgrade to moderate and have the "free" regular plan. For a couple hundred - I would have made the move!

Absolutely. And I only pulled the trigger on the switch from Pop to CSR because I'd read so much, both here and on other sites, about "doing the math" on the dining plans.

For us, we're not so much into the deserts -- which tend to be disappointing, in my opinion (like, four different kinds of cupcakes at BOG, the Grey Stuff, and THAT'S IT) -- but being able to use the credits at places like character meals such as the Sci-Fi Diner and Jedi Mickey's during SWW was awesome. We never once felt guilty about "blowing" those dining credits, as compared to if we'd paid OoP.

It's definitely more food than we typically eat, and we will never eat our "money's worth", but we thought for our first trip - it'll be fun!

Neither will we. In fact, we were so parsimonious during our first trip last month that we ended up LEAVING credits -- boy, did that burn. On the way out of ASMo on that last day, Mister Nezumi ran back into the food court and grabbed every last snack he could find, just to use up the snack credits. Still burns that we might have had another table-service dinner or two if we hadn't been so "careful"...!

 

[Nezumi Fan]

...Oh! And also! I didn't find out that I could have used my snack credits at the bloody Starbucks until the last day! $#!?!

 

[lam0037]

I ran the math very similar to this when we were planning because I was hoping for the same - that the Moderate would be similar in price to what I was paying with the upgrade. Sadly for us that wasn't the case, and we stayed at Pop. NOT that I'm saying anything is wrong with Pop - I've never been to any so I'm just thrilled! But I was really hoping the math would work out closer.

My point is that this is a great idea to at least run the numbers, b/c depending on when you are going, number in your party, kids vs adults etc - I've seen MANY people say it was only a couple hundred more to upgrade to moderate and have the "free" regular plan. For a couple hundred - I would have made the move!

Totally agree with running the numbers for yourself and seeing what works best.

Whether that $250 difference b/w value and moderate being worth it is definitely a matter of opinion. For us, the money is allowing us to do things we otherwise wouldn't do (Memory Maker and Candlelight Processional Package) which is why we didn't upgrade. So definitely run the numbers, because what might work for others isn't necessarily going to work for you. (especially true if you are two college students with student loans )

 

[galaxygirl76]

Totally agree with running the numbers for yourself and seeing what works best.

Whether that $250 difference b/w value and moderate being worth it is definitely a matter of opinion. For us, the money is allowing us to do things we otherwise wouldn't do (Memory Maker and Candlelight Processional Package) which is why we didn't upgrade. So definitely run the numbers, because what might work for others isn't necessarily going to work for you. (especially true if you are two college students with student loans )

This is what we did. We ran the numbers between staying at POP with upgraded dining and a moderate(really just CB because CS is for some reason the most expensive resort by far on site during our stay and obviously neither of the PO resorts are part of the free dining) and it was cheaper to stay at Pop, upgrade dining, and add the memory maker. Plus Pop looks like a resort my dd2 would really enjoy staying at

 

[KELLY]

We actually prefer the QSDP but this year we were thinking of upgrading. We are there for 17 days total upgrade to a moderate with tips 1640.00. Just to upgrade the dining plan 950.00 at pop with tips. Both of those IMO are way to high. Kind of defeated the Purpose of FD. We have 4 TS meals that will come in around 400.00 with tips. We have t-Rex,Ohana's,CP and Hollywood and vine for character breakfast. 2 days we need to pay for food anyway since our package is only for 14 nights so that is when we will do t-Rex and Ohana's.

I also think the freedom the QSDP gives us is valuable. We spend a decent amount of WP time so to leave Just isn't our thing.

Our entire package at pop with memory maker is 3,655.44. We used the savings to buy villains unleashed tickets and will let the girls do PL.

 

[walukiewicz]

It definitely is not a scam but you might want to consider what is important to you. If you google "maximizing the disney dining plan 2014" you will get a table of what your credits are worth.

Table credits are easily $40 on average

14 days * 2 (1 meal each per day) * 40 (average cost of meal) = $1120

plus tax 1120 * .065 (6.5%)= $73

Plus tip 1120 * .15 (15%)= $170

total cost = 1120 + 73 + 170 = 1363

Your cost is 560 plus the 170 so you are paying $730 for what would cost you 1363 meaning you save $633

I am only going to compare that to the one meal in question on the quick serve plan because the second meal, the snack and the mug all cancel each other out.

Average QS credit is worth $15

14 days * 2 (1 meal each per day) * 15 (average cost of meal) = $420

Plus tax 420* .065 = $27

tips---no tips

Total cost is $447

Your cost here is $0

That means that the quick serve plan saved you $447
while the TS upgrades saves you $633

so you actually do better on the upgrade...assuming that you WANT to eat at all those table service restaurants.

 

[OasterP]

...Oh! And also! I didn't find out that I could have used my snack credits at the bloody Starbucks until the last day! $#!?!

I JUST found this out the other day! You can believe that a delicious iced coffee/frap/something was added to my "snacks I want" list.

 

[POOHsie]

...
14 days * 2 (1 meal each per day) * 40 (average cost of meal) = $1120

plus tax 1120 * 1.06 (6%)= $1187

Plus tip 1187 * 1.15 (15%)= $1365 (tips average out closer to $175)

Your cost is 560 plus the 175 so you are paying $735 for what would cost you 1365 meaning you save $630

Just a couple corrections. Orange Co, Florida, the location of nearly all WDW dining facilities, has a sales tax rate of 6.5%. The exceptions are the 3 All Star Resorts, which are in Osceola Co, Florida, with a sales tax rate of 7%.

When calculating tip, you calculate off the sub-total before tax. In your example, you would calculate $1120 x 15%. You don't tip on the sales tax charged.

 

[walukiewicz]

Thanks for pointing out my errors!! I edited the post so that to correct for my mistakes