2010 Free Dining Discussion-Free Dining released for everyone (see 1st post)

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heartsy77 said:
Ok I have a dumb question as this is my first time doing free dining. We are staying @ POP so the qsdp was free; we upgraded to regular. Do we still get the refillable mugs for free as they were a part of the free plan? We have 6 people so it would be nice not to spend 80$ on mugs!
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It would be nice, but no. Once you upgrade to the reg dining plan, you no longer get what was included in the qsdp, you completely switch over to what is included in the DDP. :)
 
DisneyMomm said:
It would be nice, but no. Once you upgrade to the reg dining plan, you no longer get what was included in the qsdp, you completely switch over to what is included in the DDP. :)
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This is another reason for us to stick with the QSDP. The mugs and tips add up. Plus being on the RDP is great if you haven't done it before or love it. WE have done it the past 3 years. I'm glad disney offers the QSDP now.
 
KELLY said:
This is another reason for us to stick with the QSDP. The mugs and tips add up. Plus being on the RDP is great if you haven't done it before or love it. WE have done it the past 3 years. I'm glad disney offers the QSDP now.
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I would have also kept QSDP if it was my usual family of 4 but we are taking my step kids ( their 1st Time) and our dear friends ( magical grand gathering). We also have the Epcot/ Illuminations dinner/ dessert experience booked and we can use RDP credits for that! They way I look at is this: I could not feed 4 teenagers and 2 adults in WDW for 7 days for $360, even with tips etc. Plus all my kids have 100$ plus each they have saved so I guess they can buy their own mugs!;)
 
heartsy77 said:
I would have also kept QSDP if it was my usual family of 4 but we are taking my step kids ( their 1st Time) and our dear friends ( magical grand gathering). We also have the Epcot/ Illuminations dinner/ dessert experience booked and we can use RDP credits for that! They way I look at is this: I could not feed 4 teenagers and 2 adults in WDW for 7 days for $360, even with tips etc. Plus all my kids have 100$ plus each they have saved so I guess they can buy their own mugs!;)
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We are still doing 3 ts meals but one isn't on the dining plan anyway. So it works out for us to stick with the QSDP this time. I'm actually excited about it.

Yeah the free dining is still a great deal when staying at a value resort and doing the upgrade. We just thought we wouldn't have to do to may adr's this time around. Dh thought 10 days of it would be to much.
 


I did a really in depth breakdown of expenses on the DDP and the QSDP and it comes out cheaper for us to keep the QSDP and pay OOP for the 6 TS meals we have scheduled. The mugs, tips, extra CS meals we end up buying, extra snacks we end up buying and the upgrade fee really added up. I'm glad we're getting to try the QSDP too....we've always had the DDP so this will be nice having those 2 snacks for F&W festival LOL
 
They leave out the campground because rather large parties can use one campsite. If they all got free dining it would do Disney no good.

They leave out DVC because DVC members are coming to WDW anyway.

The free dining is here to get people to book full price resort rooms at WDW at a time when they normally wouldn't think about going, and that's all it's for. It is not a reward for loyal guests.

Plenty of DVC members book cash resort rooms to get free dining. They have a LOT of options. They can bank the points and use them for a larger room or a longer trip next time or a cruise. They can rent the points out and use the proceeds to pay for that rack rate resort room with free dining. There were even some instances of DVC members who booked two reservations - a DVC room, and a value room on free dining. They would stay in the DVC room and use the dining credits they got with the value room - they would just never stay at the value room. (Personally I think that is too much trouble to go to for free dining.) They can even sell their DVC points, if they want to book only one trip every year with free dining and are anticipating that free dining will last forever.
 
TDC Nala said:
They leave out the campground because rather large parties can use one campsite. If they all got free dining it would do Disney no good.
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Well, I priced out a premium campsite this morning with QSDP and tickets and it comes out to about 300.00 more than what we're paying for free QSDP....so it's not that much cheaper to stay at the campsite. Although I would be saving the kennel fee back home....still I don't want to cook on vacation so it would be nice if they offered it with the purchase of tickets or something to the campers.
 


I will have to say that that it was a difficult decision to upgrade to the RDP. The price of the upgrade, mugs and tips are expensive but the bulk of it is free so I am not complaining. I don't like that when I pay for dining, I have to purchase mugs because I believe that they should be included in ALL dining plans but that is just me. In the future, when our children are older, we will probably stick to the QSDP because of the mugs, tips and the RDP really puts you on a schedule. As for now, my children are young (5 and 1) and we LOVE character breakfast. We are HUGE breakfast fans so we tend to schedule brunch and then eat our CS meal around 2 or 3pm. That leaves an early evening snack (we also take small snacks in with us). Right now we only have to buy 2 mugs because my children only drink water. Like I said, when they get older there is no question in my mind that we will purchase the QSDP on our trips. I think it is just easier when you have teenagers.
 
E&E Mom said:
I will have to say that that it was a difficult decision to upgrade to the RDP. The price of the upgrade, mugs and tips are expensive but the bulk of it is free so I am not complaining. I don't like that when I pay for dining, I have to purchase mugs because I believe that they should be included in ALL dining plans but that is just me. In the future, when our children are older, we will probably stick to the QSDP because of the mugs, tips and the RDP really puts you on a schedule. As for now, my children are young (5 and 1) and we LOVE character breakfast. We are HUGE breakfast fans so we tend to schedule brunch and then eat our CS meal around 2 or 3pm. That leaves an early evening snack (we also take small snacks in with us). Right now we only have to buy 2 mugs because my children only drink water. Like I said, when they get older there is no question in my mind that we will purchase the QSDP on our trips. I think it is just easier when you have teenagers.
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We don't do breakfest often. But our out of pocket Ts meals are
Rainforest
Garden grill
Princess Norway breakfest We figure with tips we are around 300.00 here
WE may also do Tusker house breakfest not sure ion this one yet.
Add this one in the 350.00 range. It would have cost us 200.00 to upgrade the plan for 9 nights and 250.00 in tips and mugs.
 
E&E Mom said:
I will have to say that that it was a difficult decision to upgrade to the RDP. The price of the upgrade, mugs and tips are expensive but the bulk of it is free so I am not complaining. I don't like that when I pay for dining, I have to purchase mugs because I believe that they should be included in ALL dining plans but that is just me. In the future, when our children are older, we will probably stick to the QSDP because of the mugs, tips and the RDP really puts you on a schedule. As for now, my children are young (5 and 1) and we LOVE character breakfast. We are HUGE breakfast fans so we tend to schedule brunch and then eat our CS meal around 2 or 3pm. That leaves an early evening snack (we also take small snacks in with us). Right now we only have to buy 2 mugs because my children only drink water. Like I said, when they get older there is no question in my mind that we will purchase the QSDP on our trips. I think it is just easier when you have teenagers.
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We are doing 4 character meals--mostly for a later lunch. (average to be about 1:30. I want to be at RD most days==so by 1:30 we will be needing that break. For us to get to the bus by 7am for a 8am breakfast will be mighty hard-- i figure that extra hour of sleep will be better. Breakfast in the room while we are getting ready and then food court for something to have on the run.

Our tips will run about 40-50 a person for the week. I dont want to be carrying mugs around or get something to drink then have to run the mugs back to the room.
 
I am so happy everyone got what they were hoping for and I am sure by now ADRs are all settled. I just want to advise those of you who are toying with the idea of going next year too, to book a bounce back... Rumour from the English Travel sites is that next year the dining plan may not be including desserts! Mind you, this is just rumor. But the travel brochures from some very reputable British companies are not listing desserts on any plan, nor mugs on the quick service plan. Ouch!
 
I haven't reviewed all 207 pages but I do have a question. Has anyone booked FD during 10/1-10/9? Is it possible?
 
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