Attitudes Towards Free Dining

[KELLY]

I love the dining plan at least the QSDP. I'm ok with the regular plan also. Have done both free and not free. When we were booked under the kids play free promo we added the QSDP. So when FD was re-released yesterday it saved me another 268.00

Our total package price 2018.36. So if you break it down by days and number of people. That is around 55.00 a day to stay,play and eat. IMO that is a nice deal. I even get a photoboook(I know we paid for it).

We did the math and might upgrade to a moderate and we are still looking at around 77.00 a person to stay,play and eat. The truth is we will probably upgrade so in the end Disney will end up with more money from us. The only thing holding us back is we pefer the QSDP.

 

[MellieluvsDisney]

We love the FDP promo. We've gone in September 3 times and it was fantastic and saved us money. In 2012, we will be there in May and we will surely use the promotion that will be valid during that time which will probably be the discounts on rooms. And we will add the DDP as well, as we all like it when everything is paid for before we go.

A promotion is a promotion. You might save on dining, on rooms or with kids but it is what it is a promotion. You choose the one that saves you the most money and you enjoy it!

 

[Rylee]

Something I've noticed a lot on these boards is people looking down on the FD deals and people that use them because "free dining is not free".

Free Dining CAN be a good deal or even the best deal for people depending on the resort and number of people. I understand that people are annoyed with the food quality, but I don't think the blame can be placed entirely on this promotion anyways (and that's another topic for another thread ).

Yes, free dining is a marketing ploy, just like all Disney's other discounts, just like DVC and just like most things Disney does. That doesn't mean people who use/enjoy free dining are idiots falling for simple marketing, unless we consider EVERYONE who goes to Disney to be the same type of idiot.

/end rant

Totally agree with your post.

I've seen many threads here, asking... "Will You Still Go if You Don't Get a Discount?" A least half of the posters declare they will still vacation at WDW without a discount. So, that means they are willing to pay "rack rates."

So, when people carry on about Free Dining not really being "free" because of paying rack rates for the room, it seems pointless.

 

[Faldred]

Something I've noticed a lot on these boards is people looking down on the FD deals and people that use them because "free dining is not free".

The "free dining isn't free" comment is supposed to point out that free dining may or may not be the best option; that other possible discounts should be looked at and compared to see what the best deal for a particular traveling party is. Pretty much the same idea as doing a DDP vs. OOP (possibly vs. TIW as well) comparison to see what the best option would be for those who don't use free dining.

I don't think I've seen anyone being "looked down on" for choosing free dining as a discount relative to other discounts. On the other hand, I've seen people "looked down on" for using free dining period because people blame free dining for degraded restaurant quality and hard-to-secure seating. (Of course, these people never use any discounts when they go to WDW, I'm sure. /sarc)

Some of that antipathy actually extends toward anyone who uses the DDP, free or otherwise.

 

[canadianmommyof2]

Here is my thoughts on the DDP and FD;

We have been to Disney mulitple times and have stayed off site, on-site with the dining plan, on-site without the dining plan and on-site with free dining. Basically we book the package that will save us the most money! I like the convenience of the dining plan and paying everything off over time instead of having a big bill at the end of our vacation but that is mostly due to how expensive it is for us to travel to Florida. Just for flights alone from Canada it usually costs us $2400 for our family of 4! We plan our vacations almost a year in advance and that gives us time to save and pay off our vacation, and we have priced it out and it worked out to be about the same if we paid OOP or used the DDP so we just go with the DDP because then we have time to save for it without putting it on our credit card and paying interest.

One thing that I think should change with the DDP and FD that may help with the difficulty of getting into TS restaurants is if Disney made it mandatory to hold your reservation with a credit card and that you couldn't have more reservations at restaurant then you have credits for. EX. If you have the regular dining plan then you should only be able to make ONE TS reservation for that day for either breakfast, lunch, or dinner. I have heard so many talk about booking multiple restaurants and times because they are not sure when they will want to eat and where and then some will cancel or just no show up. If they make you hold it with a credit card then more people would cancel their unneeded reservations because of fear of being charged on their card. They already do the credit card hold at some of the restaurants so it must work for them. Like someone mentioned, you can sometimes get a seat as a walk up but if you phoned last minute for a reservation you would probably be told that there is nothing available because of all the reservations. Just my opinion.

 

[squirrel]

My only beef with the DP is that it has been too successful. I remember when you could get a reservation at King Stefan's Banquet Hall (CRT, now) the same day. In fact, you couldn't get reservations ahead of time.

We like having everything already paid for ahead of time without having to worry about budgeting. On the downside, we are tired of "Disney" food by the third day. We also found that DP trips tend to center around our dining reservations rather than being able to do what we want.

Like everything else, there are pros and cons.

When was that? I know in 1999, I was up at before 4am to book breakfast at King Stefan's Banquet. I remember walking past the morning we were going to eat in the castle and I heard a man talking to the CM. He couldn't get a same day reservation.

 

[sydneysmom]

here's my take on the whole thing.... who cares who has what discount ??

When all is said and done, and you're eating in Le Cellier (for example) is the person next to you going to know you're getting the dining plan for free? No, you show your key to the world card, they post your dining credit, you're off on your merry way. People seem to like to complain that free dining is making the restaurant quality go down. Maybe the new chef just stinks. Or maybe the waitstaff was off that night. Maybe it's just like any other restaurant.... it's not perfect all the time. Personally, I don't think free dining makes the restaurant quality go down any more than I believe that the resorts could fall into disrepair, or Mousekeeping won't care about cleaning, if I'm staying in a room that's at 40% off.

If you can get free dining for your trip.... fantastic. More power to you for getting a discount and getting to take your family on a dream vacation. The same goes if you get a room discount.... I was doing cartwheels down the street the day we got a 40% off room pin. (my neighbors thought I was nuts... ) But you know what ? we're not made of money, so the discounts are VERY welcome in our home.

So you know what ? don't let someone else steal your sunshine. Be grateful that you can go to Disney....be excited that you're getting a discount....and go have some fun and make memories !!!!!

 

[book_junkie]

We've used the dining plan in the past with packages that had it included, and it was fine. Last year we didn't use it for either trip, and that worked out fine as well because we had a different discount and it didn't fit what we were doing.

My problem with Disney in relation to the dining plans currently is that it seems that every time I call Disney about something this year with our trip, they are hard selling a dining plan, any dining plan, down my throat. I had my hubby book our mother/daughter trip while Mom & I were still at Disney (the bounceback offer in the room was free dining and I knew that wouldn't work), and when we got back surprised her with our trip this year.. Bonus points for me!

Then in January I got a PIN and we upgraded resorts- and they wanted to add dining to that. Nope, thanks though.

Then in March my mom (in a completely different state so we're long distance coordinating and things get a little scrambled) made the full payment over the phone, and they told her we had the dining plan added to the reservation so she, thinking I was trying to surprise her, paid it, thinking to surprise me. And it was the DELUXE at that! It was a surprise all right. We didn't add it, it was no where on the paperwork.

Called Disney to correct it, first person said they couldn't take it off as it was part of the Free Dining package I booked. Um, no, check again please. Then it was, but you save so much money! Um, no, we don't. Others might. Then it was but we have so many wonderful places to eat in Disney. Yes, and we'll probably eat at a few, but I don't want your dining plan. Please take it off. Oh, well, I have to get guest services for that. Thanks for wasting 40 minutes of my day.

Guest services gets on the line. Oh, why do you want to take off the dining plan? Have you ever been to Disney before? PLEASE PLEASE listen and take this off. We didn't ask for it, my mom paid for it by mistake, we need you to take it off.

Finally after 90 minutes on the phone it got fixed. But if they're selling it this hard to people, how much profit are they making?

 

[Feralpeg]

When was that? I know in 1999, I was up at before 4am to book breakfast at King Stefan's Banquet. I remember walking past the morning we were going to eat in the castle and I heard a man talking to the CM. He couldn't get a same day reservation.

I first brought my daughter when she was four. That was in 1992. We did not have reservations. I went up to the podium for King Stefan's and was seated about 15 minutes later.

Things have changed so much with all the info on the message boards. People do intense planning for their trips. I don't believe this was always the case. I didn't do any planning when we started visiting other than to read a copy of Birenbaum's. I didn't have any reservations and we manage to, pretty much, eat where we wanted to each day. Now, people plan every detail of their trips and make reservations for many of their meals. With free dining, many are eating at table service places they may not have visited prior to free dining. It makes a huge difference.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

I first brought my daughter when she was four. That was in 1992. We did not have reservations. I went up to the podium for King Stefan's and was seated about 15 minutes later.

Things have changed so much with all the info on the message boards. People do intense planning for their trips. I don't believe this was always the case. I didn't do any planning when we started visiting other than to read a copy of Birenbaum's. I didn't have any reservations and we manage to, pretty much, eat where we wanted to each day. Now, people plan every detail of their trips and make reservations for many of their meals. With free dining, many are eating at table service places they may not have visited prior to free dining. It makes a huge difference.

My first trip was an adult in my 20's. In 1988 or 1987. I remember walking up to make our King Stefan's ressie in the morning. And I used the Birenbaum book too. And remember when you would go wearing the shoes and clothes you currently owned? And didn't worry about finding the perfect park bag? And I'm one of the folks who do go on the perfect clothes/shoes/bag hunt now. Man, I feel old sometimes. LOL

I don't usually do any dining plans because they don't fit the way we eat but I'm sure they work for folks. I priced out the QSDP for my upcoming weekend trip thinking I may try it but it was break even so I decided not to do it.

 

[Pooh Fan]

Since we are DVC members we can't take advantage of the Free Dining offers. We have used the Dining Plan before and for our family using the Tables in Wonderland works out better. We found that we wasted way too much food using the DP. I think that each family needs to figure out what is best for them when deciding which deal to use. The only thing we don't like is that the restaurants are too hard to get into now that they offer Free Dining so often...

 

[aggordon2]

My first trip was an adult in my 20's. In 1988 or 1987. I remember walking up to make our King Stefan's ressie in the morning. And I used the Birenbaum book too. And remember when you would go wearing the shoes and clothes you currently owned? And didn't worry about finding the perfect park bag? And I'm one of the folks who do go on the perfect clothes/shoes/bag hunt now. Man, I feel old sometimes. LOL

I don't usually do any dining plans because they don't fit the way we eat but I'm sure they work for folks. I priced out the QSDP for my upcoming weekend trip thinking I may try it but it was break even so I decided not to do it.

I remember when epcot first opened and we had to go to innovations to make dining reservations. You would walk up to a bank of computer screens and have a conversation with a cm on the computer screen about your reservation. This was my first time with touch screens and video conferencing.

And we use the free DDP whenever we can, including the one coming up in August.

 

[disneysmyhappyplace]

The free dining plan makes our annual trips to Disney world possible! There are five us, and at Disney we are 4 adults and 1 child. We generally go for two weeks and have free dining for the entire time. We save over three thousand dollars with free dining. There is no way we would be able to do the dining plan and stay on Disney property without the free dining plan! We absolutely love the free dining, and fear for the day when they do away with it! As it will force us to have to stay off property and find cheaper eating.

 

[DisneyScraps]

I have done free dining and paid out of pocket. For my family paying out of pocket works better for us. We are military and can usually get one free park hopper and really cheap park tickets for me and my DD. I don't drink anything except water, wine and an occasional Starbucks coffee. So that brings the value down slightly for me.

I never eat dessert. My DBF does not either. My DD does when we let her.

We like signature restaurants and will only eat counter service at a few places during the week. I refuse to eat fast food so it's Wolfgang Pucks or The Earl of Sandwich only.

My 10 year old and I usually split and entree when we go out to dinner. It's all the food we need. I have learned to stop eating when I feel full and that is almost always at half a sandwich, half a entree.

So it's just more food than we would normally eat.

For having it paid ahead of time if I needed that I would figure out what it would cost us. It's easy to do the menus are on the web and the restaurants almost never offer specials so it's pretty easy to look at a menu and know what we would most likely order. Then I could put that money on a Disney gift card.

I don't care of someone pays more for it or not, it's your money....spend it how you want to I don't care

 

[Cin]

I love the free dining plan because it saves me a considerable amount of money on my trip. Now with free dining being offered I can afford to lengthen my trip, add MNSSHP and a character meal to my plans and still be within my original budget. No "savings" as far as OOP, but because of it I can get a lot more Disney for my money. So yay for free dining!

 

[seals]

My attitude is if FD works for you, have at it. I haven't found it to work for us so that's why we don't book it (not because I am not smart enough to realize how great it is, which is the opposite attitude sometimes expressed).

But on to another marketing ploy -- the week before Easter they had coupons in the times guides and elsewhere that one could save 25% on a counter meal at a couple of CS restaurants in each park if one ate before 11:30 or between 3-4:30. We took advantage of that and were through the counter by 11:30 on our 3 park days saving about $10 per meal (5 people). I couldn't believe the number of people getting in line at 11:40 and thus not getting the 25% off. Maybe they didn't know about it, but it was in every times guide.

 

[jbuey22]

My opinion is this: Yes I think that the free dining offers have altered menus and may have ruined a few things. Disney uses their promotions to keep the parks and restaurants full. Everytime we go to Disney we are amazed how much business this place does. Disney is the MASTER when it comes to marketing.... NOW if Disney didnt offer these promotions and were not the MASTERS of marketing, I'm sure attendance would drop. If attendance drops, the same changes would be made. They would raise prices, they would reduce portion size, they would resrtict substitutions, etc... So by offering the promotions they keep the parks full and the restaurants packed and hard to get into. But things could be worse if Disneys attendance were to suddenly drop. Who knows what kind of cutbacks we would be in store for. just my opinion.

 

[pooch]

I first brought my daughter when she was four. That was in 1992. We did not have reservations. I went up to the podium for King Stefan's and was seated about 15 minutes later.

Things have changed so much with all the info on the message boards. People do intense planning for their trips. I don't believe this was always the case. I didn't do any planning when we started visiting other than to read a copy of Birenbaum's. I didn't have any reservations and we manage to, pretty much, eat where we wanted to each day. Now, people plan every detail of their trips and make reservations for many of their meals. With free dining, many are eating at table service places they may not have visited prior to free dining. It makes a huge difference.

the real problem is... THE DIS!!!!!

 

[goofy4tink]

A quick example...
I have eaten at Coral Reef many times. The absolute worst meal I have had there (and it was bad!!) was during free dining. I chose a later ADR...figured that the vast majority of families would have eaten and headed home. Oh, contraire!!! That place was packed to the rafters. I have never seen so many large families there. It was about 8:30pm, figured most would be out staking out a spot for IllumiNations. I was soooo wrong.
It was so noisy in there that we couldn't carry on a conversation. There were screaming babies and toddlers. There were kids running all over the place, shoving into small spots so as to get right up to the tank...they didn't much care that they shoved into chairs, causing people to spill drinks. The parents of the kids didn't seem to much care about what the kids were doing. I actually overheard one mom sayiing that 'Oh man....the boys are having such fun down at the tank. Just as long as they let me eat and drink in peace!!!' Seriously???
Our server was really stressed out. He brought our meals out after a 25 min wait. My steak was badly overcooked. We had looked forward to dessert but figured since our server never came back to check on our meal quality, he wouldn't be back to take a dessert order either!!! Never got refills on our drinks. We gave up and left.
But every other time we have eaten there it has been wonderful. Yes, there were kids there, there were families there. But it wasn't the same 'frenetic' atmosphere as during free dining.

Many have come out and said that they don't normally eat in some places simply due to the cost unless they get free dining. And that was very evident that night. So yes, free dining does impact the entire experience.
Do I look down my nose at those getting free dining? Of course not. That's just plain silly.