DINING PLAN

[Giraffeitis]

I'd say that what would probably happen is that they would probably get rid of it for a year, but if attendance declined a bunch that year, they would probably bring it back the next to fill up the empty rooms like other posters were saying.

Basically if Disney could make as big a profit as I'm sure they do during their busy season without it, then yeah, I'm sure they would get rid of it, but until they officially announce it, it's all just speculation and guessing.

 

[Nancyg56]

Yeah, if you always order dessert it does make more sense. We are folks who never order dessert, even at Disney (always too full from meal) and always order alcohol when it's offered (gotta take advantage of not driving) and never want the beverage included. I've found it close but never opt for it so I have more freedom. Just yesterday 2 of our group of 4 ordered appetizers for their meal. Not an option on the dining plan. I realize it would be a nightmare for them to figure out the way to make that work but often a meal out of appetizer is cheaper than an entree so it's a shame they won't let you do that on the plan. It would make a huge difference.

We tend to have dessert and coffee, and some always order soft beverages. We order alcohol as well, but as I said earlier, we like that TS meal nightly as part of our vacation.

If I tried to make DH order appetizers for dinner, he would be Hangry! For a man who will often skip breakfast and will only eat one sandwich for lunch at work, he wants three full meas on vacation.

 

[maxiesmom]

True. A better statement would be to not assume Free Dining is the best deal you can get. Always run the numbers and always figure the intangibles, like tip cost differences if you order to maximize your dining plan vs. what you truly want to eat, that type of thing. There are many intangibles to figure when working on Free Dining vs. OOP.

I ran the numbers before the price hike, and with the sit down dinners my nephew and I wanted to book, it was almost a toss up. And now, after the price hikes, I'm very glad I went with the dining plan.

For us eating out is a huge part of our trips together. Le Ceiller? check. The Crystal Palace? check. Be our Guest? check. Even being at WDW for 8 days I had a hard timing choosing which ADRs to make and which to skip. Very glad I booked with the dining plan this trip.

 

[AngiTN]

We tend to have dessert and coffee, and some always order soft beverages. We order alcohol as well, but as I said earlier, we like that TS meal nightly as part of our vacation.

If I tried to make DH order appetizers for dinner, he would be Hangry! For a man who will often skip breakfast and will only eat one sandwich for lunch at work, he wants three full meas on vacation.

Oh, no one ever makes anyone order anything but what they want. Both that ordered them wanted that as their meal. I like having the choice at times myself. There are some can good appetizers out there a couple of them are great meals when combined. That's what we had yesterday, soup and anther app made a great lunch

And we do mostly TS meals on our trips anymore. We are less and less fans of QS but for few select choices.

Mostly just mentioning there are many options and ways to make dining work, both on a plan and OOP. When the dining plan fits your way is great. When it doesn't is not. Even if it saved us money it wouldn't be a benefit if we had to change what we want to order

 

[Nancyg56]

Oh, no one ever makes anyone order anything but what they want. Both that ordered them wanted that as their meal. I like having the choice at times myself. There are some can good appetizers out there a couple of them are great meals when combined. That's what we had yesterday, soup and anther app made a great lunch

And we do mostly TS meals on our trips anymore. We are less and less fans of QS but for few select choices.

Mostly just mentioning there are many options and ways to make dining work, both on a plan and OOP. When the dining plan fits your way is great. When it doesn't is not. Even if it saved us money it wouldn't be a benefit if we had to change what we want to order

I absolutely agree! I knew you were not making anyone order food that they did not want. I don't either.

The first time I tried not to book extra meals, planned well. My DH tossed that plan right out the window! We ended up going to ts dinner every night. So now I know!

 

[Huff]

True. A better statement would be to not assume Free Dining is the best deal you can get. Always run the numbers and always figure the intangibles, like tip cost differences if you order to maximize your dining plan vs. what you truly want to eat, that type of thing. There are many intangibles to figure when working on Free Dining vs. OOP.

If a couple without kids stays at a DLX and there is a 40% room discount it can easily be better to take that deal than FD. However, we are a party of 4 and stay at the values. FD is easily the biggest discount Disney has ever made available for us. We did go once when a package deal for room and tickets saved almost as much as FD. This allowed us to go in the winter when FD was not available. Without such large discounts there is no way we could afford to go at all.

 

[Kimly]

Touché. I am truly glad some people can get a "deal". I should have realized this would be a touchy subject. Going to Disney as often as we do (living 2 hours away), the idea of paying rack room rates to get DDP for free, even with four children, seems ludicrous to me. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

 

[disneyfav4ever]

They should, it's really not a "deal".

It's a deal for my family and for many others as well.

 

[JFox]

Taking my kidlet entourage for Thanksgiving. The QS plan will definitely work for us. I like the idea of paying up front and having food availability for my oldest two when they are exploring on their own without having to carry cash. The sharing possibilities, options to trade desserts and credits also allows for additional flexibility.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

I ran the numbers before the price hike, and with the sit down dinners my nephew and I wanted to book, it was almost a toss up. And now, after the price hikes, I'm very glad I went with the dining plan.

For us eating out is a huge part of our trips together. Le Ceiller? check. The Crystal Palace? check. Be our Guest? check. Even being at WDW for 8 days I had a hard timing choosing which ADRs to make and which to skip. Very glad I booked with the dining plan this trip.

We totally benefitted from this too! When I ran the numbers back in Nov, we would save between $50 and $150. I was on the fence because we don't eat like the dining plan but it allowed us to do an extra character meal so I went ahead. Well after 3 price increases with our locked in DP cost, we're looking at saving $200 to $400. And that's without doing anything out of our way to maximize the plan. Sweet!!

 

[Lindaland]

When my adult DD & I go for food & wine, we stay at the values & get free quick service dining (hopefully). It is a great deal for us since we stay at value resorts and there is no tipping with QS, and you can use the QS credits at the food booths. Its a great way to enjoy food & wine without paying so much oop. Then if we want a TS, we can schedule one or two if we want. However we didn't like the DDP, because we spent more in tips, and didnt like the "we have to leave to make our reservations" feeling. Also, there are great QS places that are available anytime, no reservations needed.

 

[Nancyg56]

Touché. I am truly glad some people can get a "deal". I should have realized this would be a touchy subject. Going to Disney as often as we do (living 2 hours away), the idea of paying rack room rates to get DDP for free, even with four children, seems ludicrous to me. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

But it is not an opinion that for many families, paying the rack rate and getting free dining is a better discount that taking a RO discount. It would be ludicrous to take the RO discount.

I know that for my family we generally do better with the dining discount than with the RO, even at Deluxe Resorts. I have never gotten a 40% discount though, and if that was offered I woudl run those numbers, just as I run them to compare every discount offer we get. I will tell you that with 4 kids, if you plan to take them to the character meals, you best run that FD number. You may be surprised.

 

[Minniesgal]

I did read that UK Fd offers are for QS not TS this year

 

[Lisa F]

I ran the numbers before the price hike, and with the sit down dinners my nephew and I wanted to book, it was almost a toss up. And now, after the price hikes, I'm very glad I went with the dining plan.

For us eating out is a huge part of our trips together. Le Ceiller? check. The Crystal Palace? check. Be our Guest? check. Even being at WDW for 8 days I had a hard timing choosing which ADRs to make and which to skip. Very glad I booked with the dining plan this trip.

haha me too. 7 night split stay, deluxe plan first 4 nights so 2 TS meals + snacks a day... still didn't fit everything in. The struggle is real.

 

[Lisa F]

They should, it's really not a "deal".

Like anything else, you have to run the numbers to see if it's a "deal" or not. I am paying out of pocked for the deluxe dining plan going to there restaurants I really want to go to. paying $577, saving over $200. $785 worth of food for $577 sounds like a deal to me

 

[TheRustyScupper]

Probably not this year, but most people think it is on its way out.

1) We hear that WDW wants to eliminate Free Dining.
. . . they have already cut down the number of resorts that offer FD
. . . in the resorts that still offer FD, the number of rooms available have been significantly reduced
2) It was invented to bring people into the resorts from off-site hotels.
3) It served its purpose.

NOTE: There is no true Free Dining. The room rates have been increased to cover the cost of the "free" dining. The resorts pay for FD, not the food division, nor the park division, nor "corporate". The individual Resort General manager can determine how many FD's will be open, as they are still responsible for the resort's P&L. If they can fill rooms to an acceptable occupancy load level, they cut down or cut out the FD's.

 

[TheRustyScupper]

Its def a deal for my family!!! With 3 "adult" kids (13, 16, 18) and an 8 year old, plus my husband and myself, "free" dining may not be essentially "free", but it does allow us to have character meals, counter service, and a nice choice of snacks!! We would be paying upwards of $400 a day for food alone.

1) Food is expensive, but such is life in the big city.
2) However, people are still going to WDW and still eating there.
3) If they are willing to pay, better profit for Disney/ABC and Ogre (I mean, Iger).
4) If people can't afford to go to WDW due to food pricing, others will take their place.

 

[Lisa F]

1) Food is expensive, but such is life in the big city.
2) However, people are still going to WDW and still eating there.
3) If they are willing to pay, better profit for Disney/ABC and Ogre (I mean, Iger).
4) If people can't afford to go to WDW due to food pricing, others will take their place.

or people will just make different choices. You don't NEED to spend $400 a day on food... you choose to. There are less expensive options that while less luxurious than a TS or two a day will get you fed and still be able to enjoy the parks. I am going all out on my upcoming trip but it's just one adult and one kid and I can't go more than every 2 years which gives me plenty of time to save. but if the choice were to go or not go (going every year is not possible, more for the cost of EVERYTHING ELSE than the food) I'd do all QS and share meals and still have a great time. For me the bigger cost of the trip is everything else besides food.

 

[Kimly]

We stay Deluxe 90% of the time (we own DVC), the other 10% we stay club or at POFQ. We also get 40% off RO since we are AP holders, Florida residents and Acitve Duty Military. We are going down for 7 days in a week, staying at the poly and paying OOP for the dining plan. With four little kids, I've used the DDP calculator and the DDP is "a deal" for us, because of our children's ages. This may change with their appetite as the years go by.

We usually go to The World 60 days a year on average. I might not post a lot, but I'm not a Disney Spring chicken. Free Dining was a great idea and deal when it was first introduced in the 2000s. But it was introduced when The World actually had down times. As a previous poster states, over the years Disney has increased prices so free dining isn't free. This is all I was saying, if free dining saves people money because of their situations, that's awesome. But all the Madness that goes on every year for something that is mostly smoke and mirrors, just seems silly to me. Again, I realize everyone is different and I'm sure I do things that others may find silly.

 

[AngiTN]

When my adult DD & I go for food & wine, we stay at the values & get free quick service dining (hopefully). It is a great deal for us since we stay at value resorts and there is no tipping with QS, and you can use the QS credits at the food booths. Its a great way to enjoy food & wine without paying so much oop. Then if we want a TS, we can schedule one or two if we want. However we didn't like the DDP, because we spent more in tips, and didnt like the "we have to leave to make our reservations" feeling. Also, there are great QS places that are available anytime, no reservations needed.

Just making a mention here that you do realize that 3 items at the F&W booths would cost you less OOP than that 1 QS credit costs you if you break down the QS DP cost by credit.
All but for 1 or 2 items that is. Most F&W food items are $5 maybe $6. That means you would have spent less than $20 for those items OOP but you spend more than $20 for the credit rolled in to the dining plan