With all the fuss over free dining...

[Get me to Disney!]

Do you really realize what this means?? Not only will we be eating amazing food at amazing places for FREE but it means we don't have to set the table, cook a stitch of food, clean up the dinner table, wash a single dish or put anything back in the fridge or cupboard. This makes me extremely happy and looking forward to this trip more and more..........

 

[tami82]

I know its going to be great. I am so obsessed with these dining boards, it almost seems like the only thing i am looking forward to is all the great food I do have some great ressies and just so thrilled that i got everything i wanted. I cant wait to eat

 

[monkeyknuckler]

I dunno where all this great food is gonna come from. Wasn't there last time I went. And uh... its not free, you just pay for it with the price of your room.

 

[Montog]

I LOVE free dining. We've only got to do it once, but it was the best experience. Once we had the ADRs it was all just worry free and so much fun. We're looking forward to our next trip in Sept, and I'm obsessing over the dining boards too. Its too much fun.

 

[Montog]

I forgot to say, we didn't have a single bad meal either, so I did think the food was great.

 

[jenfur]

I dunno where all this great food is gonna come from. Wasn't there last time I went. And uh... its not free, you just pay for it with the price of your room.

Ugh, you sound like my mom. It IS free, you just can't use any other discount on your room- which is great for us because we usually pick a room catagory that doesn't have a discount available.

 

[catne]

it's not completely free, but it certainly makes for a very good discount on your total package if you are staying in values or mods.

If your preference is deluxes or villas, sure, the percentage off discounts will usually give you a better deal.

And we love the dining plan (free or paid-for, we do both at different times of year) As PP said, it's wonderful to not cook/clean up for entire vacation...when my kids were young, we did the budget vacations with groceries & staying in a suite with kitchen. Not much of a vacay for the mom! Love going out to eat and ordering whatever I want.

 

[GraceLuvsWDW]

Yeah, sorry. Don't want to burst your bubble. Not really FREE when you're paying rack rate on room. But I get what you're saying. It's nice to about getting a discount. Just realize, depending on the size of your party you may be paying more than some of the other discounts. If you're staying Value with say a family of 4 (2 A 2 C) then you're getting a discount right around 55% discount. At a moderate with the same family you're getting 40%. So FWIW, if you're not staying standard Moderate or less, the values can be greater with another discount and the hype of FREE dining can be deceiving.

But good for you on enjoying and feeling GOOD about (not so) FREE dining! I'm not being snarky I really get where you're coming from, just wanted to clarify.

Have a great trip! Any discount is a GOOD discount! And what room category doesn't get a discount???

 

[PaulaSB12]

I had the free dining plan but they came out with a deal in the UK book a 14 night stay and only pay for 10 days so I could afford The Grand Floridian with the deluxe dining plan . As for cooking what is this cooking? that is a word (when on holiday) I do not understand

 

[hrh_disney_queen]

I dunno where all this great food is gonna come from. Wasn't there last time I went. And uh... its not free, you just pay for it with the price of your room.

 

[monkeyknuckler]

Ugh, you sound like my mom. It IS free, you just can't use any other discount on your room- which is great for us because we usually pick a room catagory that doesn't have a discount available.

Your mom sounds like a smart woman.

 

[gonzo76]

I was just going to post that!!!!!

 

[fredflintstone]

Sure I am indirectly paying for it...but I want to live in my own little Disney Bubble...and FREE dining is in my Disney Bubble! This is my first trip and to be honest it is really cheap!!! I thought this was going to cost us a lot more..so I am totally loving my Disney Bubble!

 

[ROEDISNEY]

I love Free Dinning .

 

[MarkinNM]

I dunno where all this great food is gonna come from. Wasn't there last time I went. And uh... its not free, you just pay for it with the price of your room.

Hummmmmmmmmmm, ok discounted food........

Rake rates, who cares, to me this offer is a HUGE discount, saved me about
1K+ with this not so free discount! One nice offer Disney keep giving them....

 

[aubriee]

Hummmmmmmmmmm, ok discounted food........

Rake rates, who cares, to me this offer is a HUGE discount, saved me about
1K+ with this not so free discount! One nice offer Disney keep giving them....

Depends on where you are staying and how many people are in the room. I had free dining for my upcoming Sept/Oct trip at CSR (thanks to last Sept's bounceback program), but gave it up last week when the AP discount codes came out. I'm going solo for my fall trip and the AP code gave me 40% off during the week and 42% off on weekends, so beat free dining by a mile. With the money I saved I was able to upgrade to the DxDDP and Disney still owes me money back. Plus I didn't have to buy another one day park ticket I didn't need.

Now for my Dec trip I'm in the opposite boat. I have a room at CSR again, but used a 40% off PIN code that I got for certain dates in 2009. My husband and mom are coming on that trip and I'm desperately hoping that free dining will be extended or that the Chase Visa free dining offer will be offered again. With three adults in the room, free dining would beat my 40% code.

 

[ehartman4]

Same here! I'll be there right when the deal starts in August and I know I wouldn't be eating at some of the restaurants if this deal didn't exist. I love free food, especially when it saves us a BUNCH of money on vacation!

 

[bluejasmine]

I have had FD almost every yr since they started it including during my honeymoon last Sept! I know many ppl hate it and blame bad service or menu changes but honestly its a huge help for my family of 4 otherwise we would be eatting almost all CS with 1 or two TS thrown in! While I do miss appetizers and tip included I am ok with the changes over the yrs. I just hope they dont keep taking away our snacks! LOL

 

[pooch]

has been going on for years. Is it free? Is it a good deal? Could you get better? Are we looking thru Mickey-colored glasses? You pick. For me, Free Dining in Sept has turned into our annual Mother/Daughter Trip. My wonderful, now 24 yr old, DD has become a believer too. This will be our third Sept M/D trip (and the year before that, the whole family went). We stayed at WL on the family trip and ate our way through $1900 worth of food. For this, we gave back our AAA discount of $300, the only discount available to us. Since then DD and I have stayed at Pop, POFQ and back to Pop this year.

Maybe it's a marketing ploy. I don't care. It's now our Disney tradition and I LOVE IT!!!@

 

[MarkinNM]

Depends on where you are staying and how many people are in the room. I had free dining for my upcoming Sept/Oct trip at CSR (thanks to last Sept's bounceback program), but gave it up last week when the AP discount codes came out. I'm going solo for my fall trip and the AP code gave me 40% off during the week and 42% off on weekends, so beat free dining by a mile. With the money I saved I was able to upgrade to the DxDDP and Disney still owes me money back. Plus I didn't have to buy another one day park ticket I didn't need.

Now for my Dec trip I'm in the opposite boat. I have a room at CSR again, but used a 40% off PIN code that I got for certain dates in 2009. My husband and mom are coming on that trip and I'm desperately hoping that free dining will be extended or that the Chase Visa free dining offer will be offered again. With three adults in the room, free dining would beat my 40% code.

I guess that’s true, we are a family of 4 ( 2 have left the coop) and my 12yo eats more then I do and he’s as skinny as a bean pole, my 16 yo DD does eat good at dinner, thus why I choose to make our ADR's for dinner. This FD deal saved me $1K+ by NOT having to pay for the lunches & dinners OOP and if I were buying the DDP alone!! This is a HUGE savings for us as I allowed us the opportunity in staying onsite AND eat onsite AND stay at a moderate resorts....THANKS DISNEY!!