Anyone Else fed up with Free Dining!!!!!!

[LIFERBABE]

I would much rather have the flexibility of booking what I want when I want than a discount on sub par food. We did Free Dining last year and it was barely worth the tip, which averaged $20-$30 per meal. Very few servers were worth that either. I certainly won't be campaigning to give up anything we have now as members, to gain in the dining department.

I can do alot with $1600 and a Villa. Imo, DVC is working just the way it is supposed to. The savings is keeping me out of Value resorts. When you compare Deluxe Free Dining to Deluxe DVC with Paid Dining, DVC is a significant savings.

Plus we have so many options with DVC. We can add the DDP or not. No min stay required. etc.

The only way to save over DVC is to stay at a Value resort or offsite. Neither of which we want to do on a regular, so we are happy with our DVC.

So to answer the op, NO I am not fed up with free dining. The food is simply not worth fighting for and I wont be on the phone lines trying to secure anything except my DVC reservation.

 

[eeyoresmom]

And I think that staying in a value with 4 people and the DDP for $110 per night is a good deal. My original point is that some posters are making blanket statements that "free dining" is not a deal at all. That's not fair or correct.

 

[TDC Nala]

It's a deal if you are okay with staying in a value resort with four people.

If you're not, and you'd prefer a deluxe resort, it's not so good a deal. It's a deal if you're okay with doing what you need to do to make it a deal. Others might consider the dining plan a deal because they like the convenience of prepaying, not because it saves them any money. It's as subjective as one's opinion of a restaurant.

 

[quirty30]

I, for one, and the rest of my party of 4, am happy to be staying in 2 br villa at BLT and paying for my own dining.

 

[MiaSRN62]

I, for one, and the rest of my party of 4, am happy to be staying in 2 br villa at BLT and paying for my own dining.

same here....and not that "free dining" is a bad perk, but we really hate planning every meal of every day of our vacation. Too confining and constricting to us. But where we do get fed up with Free dining and DDP is that it can be tough to secure certain reservations at certain times. Generally we made do though.


Maria

 

[eeyoresmom]

So am I, usually. Like I said before, we don't usually buy DDP, never mind pay for a regular room. But, depending on the specific vacation you have planned, DVC members can still take advantage of promotions, and can sometimes actually save money doing so.

 

[theww228]

Free dining was never promised for DVC members and it does not make sense for Disney to offer it members. I don't understand why Disney doesn't offer more perks for DVC members that do not cost anything or cost very little. Ex. able to make ADR's a week earlier, special character meets, DVC member only turnstile at parks, etc. These are things that would not really cost Disney anything, but would give people the illusion that DVC is something special and that members get special things.

I am by no way saying that DVC members "deserve" these things (only thing we deserve are out yearly points), but from a business perspective it would give a great marketing tool. Does anyone really like cavier? Not many, but people think it is special because they have it and someone else doesn't. It is like the new "dessert fireworks" in the MK. Not many people were in the Noodle area for fireworks, but now people will crowd the area because it is special. Tell people that they can't use the bridge between BLT and CR unless they have a BLT room key and there will be people who will try to sneak in just because they were told that they couldn't.

Make DVC special, but don't up my MF's.