40% off room only or free dining

[Crazy4Disney06]

what would you do? Utilize 40% off room only (AKL) or free dining (POFQ)?

I would run the numbers. For my family FD @ a MOD saves us $927! Pretty big discount. Even 40% off at WL would not be as big of a discount.

 

[diamondpixienc]

Depending on the travel dates of the promotion or pin code. I have found the % off room offers have been less expensive than Free Dining. For example I have traveled during value season and w/ a % off room pin it was cheaper than the free dining offer they had at the time. But as some of the previous posters have said. Do the math and see which is more cost effective for you. Regardless, I hope you have a magical trip.

 

[AJA]

I like staying at POFQ better than AKL. POFQ is closer to everything and I enjoy the boat to DTD. If you have 3 or more in your party my choice would be free dining at POFQ.

 

[kerplop]

We eat a lot and our dining style meshes well with the DDP, so for us free dining would be a better deal. Plus, we don't really plan on staying at the deluxes and in the end it would still cost us more than we would want to pay even with a discount.

 

[TandLMommy28]

I never understand why people say DP is too much food. It only covers too meals per day, afterall. Granted, we had four people and only 3 sets of credits (little guy missed the cut off to get his own dining plan by 3 days) and we had just enough food. Maybe if had a DDP for all four of us, I would've felt that way. I don't know.

But anyway, I'd still pick POFQ over AKL. I love POFQ.

 

[micknme]

We don't even find the deluxe dining plan to have too much food...we do a breakfast or lunch daily and end off with a signature or dinner show ADR. Two meals a day is fine for us. As for all the snack credits (2 per day), we use them for bottled water while at the parks or for treats to take home for the neighbour's children.

 

[Funky Chicken]

My basic rule of thumb is that "Free Dining" works best for parties of 3 or 4 staying at a value. You need to run the numbers on the moderates, and on Deluxes the room discount works better most of the time.
Our last stay at AKL was at 40% off and we paid for the regular dining plan. Worked out great for 2 adults and 1 child. The other advantage to having a dining plan is using your TS credits for Character Meals-they may not be the best meals you can eat at WDW but tell that to your 6 year old Daughter. Character Meals are as much a part of my daughter's WDW experience as anything else and the DDP is the most affordable way to do them.

 

[TandLMommy28]

You gotta run the numbers. I am hoping that both FD and 40% off are available for next fall. We are doing a week at WDW for just our immediate family, a short (non-Disney, unfortunately) cruise with extended family and then 2 more days at WDW with the extended family. For the 5 nights pre-cruise, we are hoping for free dining at Pop because that is what will save us the most money.

But for the 2 nights post-cruise, 40% off would save us a TON of money because we could do a CL suite at WL for a very reasonable. Since we'd be splitting the cost with my parents, we'd each be paying $200 more than we would at Pop, but with all the CL perks.

So it really, really depends.

 

[HallsofVA]

We just returned from our WDW vacation yesterday. We'd originally booked it using free dining promo back in December, then received a pin code with a 40% discount, and found it was cheaper to switch to the discount and pay for the dining. We'd originally booked AKL, which is where we did the comparison of the 2 offers, but switched to the Poly which made the 40% off discount an even great savings for us (since the dining cost doesn't change as you change resorts.)

 

[hollywoodpc]

We just returned from our WDW vacation yesterday. We'd originally booked it using free dining promo back in December, then received a pin code with a 40% discount, and found it was cheaper to switch to the discount and pay for the dining. We'd originally booked AKL, which is where we did the comparison of the 2 offers, but switched to the Poly which made the 40% off discount an even great savings for us (since the dining cost doesn't change as you change resorts.)

Great deal and congratulations !

 

[boydstcher]

I agree. Last year we used the 40% off at the Poly and paid for the dining plan, and we are a family of 3, it worked out better than the free dining promo for us. This year we are staying at a moderate and with free dining, I had a pin code for 25% off a moderate and we saved more with free dining. Work the numbers and see what works best for you financially.

My basic rule of thumb is that "Free Dining" works best for parties of 3 or 4 staying at a value. You need to run the numbers on the moderates, and on Deluxes the room discount works better most of the time.
Our last stay at AKL was at 40% off and we paid for the regular dining plan. Worked out great for 2 adults and 1 child. The other advantage to having a dining plan is using your TS credits for Character Meals-they may not be the best meals you can eat at WDW but tell that to your 6 year old Daughter. Character Meals are as much a part of my daughter's WDW experience as anything else and the DDP is the most affordable way to do them.

 

[havoc315]

what would you do? Utilize 40% off room only (AKL) or free dining (POFQ)?

The real question that nobody has asked... How did you get 40% off for Feb 2012??? Or are you just speculating about possible future discounts? To my knowledge, there have not been any Feb 2012 offers yet, except for free dining.

 

[vinotinto]

The real question that nobody has asked... How did you get 40% off for Feb 2012??? Or are you just speculating about possible future discounts? To my knowledge, there have not been any Feb 2012 offers yet, except for free dining.

There's a discount on Disney Special Offers page for members of the military, so I'm guessing the OP is military.