Discount Code vs Free Dining

[AnnaNonamus]

I see a lot of people posting that free dining is not worth it, and that they save more on room discounts. I'm trying to figure out how that works. This is my first time booking, and to me, $675 off dining, vs $250 off my room seems uneven. What am I looking at wrong to not see the benefit to the room discount.

As I understand it, the room discount is for the room only, or does it discount the tickets?

I'm not going until October, but I would like to know which one would work better IF free dining is even an option then.

For the math, we are staying 6 nights at POR, 3 'adults' (17, 11). We are currently booked for TS dining $1000.62)

 

[aaarcher86]

Some people save more on dining and some save more on the room. It's dependent upon where you stay/how long/what you're getting/ages...

No, room only does not discount tickets.

 

[danceintherain]

I see a lot of people posting that free dining is not worth it, and that they save more on room discounts. I'm trying to figure out how that works. This is my first time booking, and to me, $675 off dining, vs $250 off my room seems uneven. What am I looking at wrong to not see the benefit to the room discount.

As I understand it, the room discount is for the room only, or does it discount the tickets?

I'm not going until October, but I would like to know which one would work better IF free dining is even an option then.

For the math, we are staying 6 nights at POR, 3 'adults' (17, 11). We are currently booked for TS dining $1000.62)

Everyone will have different results, because they have different needs and expectations. A room discount will often beat out Free Dining for us, because of the way we eat. When you calculate out what we would actually order vs. what is included with the dining plan it just doesn't match up.
If we can get a good percent off (30% or more) then it often makes more sense for us to go with the room discount and have a bit more flexibility where dining is concerned.

Since room only discounts tend to be tiered, people often do save more at the Deluxe resorts, especially if there are only two in their traveling party.

The other reason Free Dining doesn't work for us is the ticket requirement. As of now, we can get the Armed Forces Salute tickets, so it doesn't make much sense for us to buy other tickets.

In short, if your savings work for you, then don't be bothered by what other people end up with.

 

[Sandisw]

Family size and the resort you choose will really determine the best discount. As mentioned, if the dining plan fits your needs and you have several people as part of your reservation, especially at adult prices, it can be better savings than a room discount. You just have weigh all your options and go from there.

 

[DreamingPink]

I see a lot of people posting that free dining is not worth it, and that they save more on room discounts. I'm trying to figure out how that works. This is my first time booking, and to me, $675 off dining, vs $250 off my room seems uneven. What am I looking at wrong to not see the benefit to the room discount.

As I understand it, the room discount is for the room only, or does it discount the tickets?

I'm not going until October, but I would like to know which one would work better IF free dining is even an option then.

For the math, we are staying 6 nights at POR, 3 'adults' (17, 11). We are currently booked for TS dining $1000.62)

How did you get that quote? Does it include tickets? And by TS dining you mean dining plan? We are also going in October and staying at POR. And with tickets plus dining it was 2800. Not sure what I am doing wrong.

 

[LONES]

It really is dependent on how your traveling party eats. We always stay moderate. We have 2 adults and 2 children in our party. Last year, we had the option of either 30% off room, or free dining. We know that there are a certain number of table service that we are going to do regardless. We were definitely going to go to Ohana, Akershus, and Cape May. There were also other table service that we wanted to do, but could have lived without. In the end, free dining worked out to be a much better deal for us.

However, if we were just 2 adults that wanted to stay deluxe, and eat mostly counter service.... the room discount likely would have been the way to go.

 

[pjhootch]

It really does depend on your family, which resort you book, and how you eat- or want to eat!

Last trip in 2011 we had a 30% off applied to a family Suite at the All-Stars. It saved a nice bit of money. But when free dining came out, I switched over to CSR regular room rate, crammed all 4 of us in 1 room (2 parents and 2 adult kids) and took free dining.

Overall I paid more for CSR than I would have for the Family Suite either w/discount or with free dining. The value resorts had the quick service plan, and CSR had the regular plan with 1 table service credit a day per person.

Then we booked reservations (something else I don't usually do) for table service restaurants. We did the Brown Derby, Tusker House, Les Chefs des France and the Crystal Palace.

The dining plan under those circumstances saved us a lot of money on food compared to the room only discount. We used the dining plan to full advantage after doing a bit of research.

However, we don't normally like to make reservations and have our day revolve around being in a certain place a certain time, and I will rarely pay that much money to eat in a Disney restaurant when using cash.

So for the type of trip we took and the way we used the dining plan it all worked out great. If we had eaten or normal way, we wouldn't have saved any money at all and could have done the trip much cheaper by just staying at All Stars and doing breakfast in the room and value grazing around the parks! BUT it was nice to do things differently, try something new, and still not spend a fortune or more than I was comfortable with.

If you prefer eating at quick service places and being spontaneous about meals, and know how to maximize value at the quick service places, the dining plan is rarely a money saver for a small family or only 2 people to a room.

 

[fla4fun]

You really have to do the math for every offer that comes along to see which one is the best deal for your family. An adult staying solo at a deluxe will save more with a room discount than a package, and a family of four (with both kids 10+) staying at a moderate with a free dining package will generally save more than going with a room discount. No two families are the same when it comes to savings.

Most of the time, either the dining or the tickets will be discounted in a package, but not both. However, that is not always the case either. So if you are comparing a free dining package with full price room and tickets to a special offer that maybe offers the adult tickets and dining plan at the child price, make sure you include all components for both sides so you are comparing apples to apples.

I have an AP and travel solo most times, so generally a room only discount is the best deal for me. But there have been a few times that the package offer, even taking into account a minimum ticket purchase, was the better deal. You just don't know until you do the math.

 

[shell8558]

I agree it depends on your family. For my family of four- both kids are over 10, so considered adults , it's better for us to get free dining and stay at a value or moderate .

 

[StrwLady]

You need to look over the menus and calculate your food cost considering how you and you family will eat if not on a dining plan. Then subtract that amount from the cost of the dining plan. Then compare the savings on food vs the savings with the room only discount.

 

[FigmentChick]

As others have said, different people will get different results. We save more on dining because we are a family of five staying at a moderate resort. However, a family with two adults and one child staying at a deluxe is better off with the room discount.

As for the room discounts, it does only discount the per night rate, not the cost of the tickets. I suggest that if you are leaning toward a discount to get your park tickets through Undercover Tourist with the mousesavers code. You will save more money that way.

Hope this helps!

 

[Kristibo42]

The other reason Free Dining doesn't work for us is the ticket requirement. As of now, we can get the Armed Forces Salute tickets, so it doesn't make much sense for us to buy other tickets.

In short, if your savings work for you, then don't be bothered by what other people end up with.

Free dining is based on nights staying not park tickets. If you stay 6 nights but only buy 4 day park ticket the didning is for all 6 nights.

 

[robinb]

There are 2 additional variables that may come into play: dining and tickets.

IF you are planning to buy the DDP anyway, then it's easy. In October the DDP is $55.59 per person per night. The cost of the DDP for 3 adults would be $166.77 per night. Compare the $166 with whatever room-only discount you would get. When it comes to a moderate, it's a no-brainer in October is approximately $180 per night ($200 with taxes) so FD is about an 80% discount. You won't find a better discount than that.

If you are NOT planning to buy dining, then you should compare the price of the room-only discount with rack rate. Can 3 adults eat 2 meals at WDW for the difference? For instance, right now POR is 25% off. (180 - 180*.25)*1.11 = $150 with taxes. Can you eat 6 meals for $50? Nope, I don't think so. Three CS meals will set you back about $10-$12 each, even if you just drink water. Free dining wins against a 25% discount.

One more variable is tickets. You can buy tickets that are discounted at places like Undercover Tourist but you save, at most, about $20-35 per ticket. IMO that small amount is not really worth taking into account. If your kids are planning to attend YES (Youth Education Series) and you are planning to buy tickets through them, then you will have to calculate your total costs including YES tickets and Disney ticket prices. I know that a 5-day YES ticket is $100 less than a Disney Park Hopper, so you would have to take the daily cost difference into account too.

 

[Shaden]

There are 2 additional variables that may come into play: dining and tickets.

IF you are planning to buy the DDP anyway, then it's easy. In October the DDP is $55.59 per person per night. The cost of the DDP for 3 adults would be $166.77 per night. Compare the $166 with whatever room-only discount you would get. When it comes to a moderate, it's a no-brainer in October is approximately $180 per night ($200 with taxes) so FD is about an 80% discount. You won't find a better discount than that.

If you are NOT planning to buy dining, then you should compare the price of the room-only discount with rack rate. Can 3 adults eat 2 meals at WDW for the difference? For instance, right now POR is 25% off. (180 - 180*.25)*1.11 = $150 with taxes. Can you eat 6 meals for $50? Nope, I don't think so. Three CS meals will set you back about $10-$12 each, even if you just drink water. Free dining wins against a 25% discount.

One more variable is tickets. You can buy tickets that are discounted at places like Undercover Tourist but you save, at most, about $20-35 per ticket. IMO that small amount is not really worth taking into account. If your kids are planning to attend YES (Youth Education Series) and you are planning to buy tickets through them, then you will have to calculate your total costs including YES tickets and Disney ticket prices. I know that a 5-day YES ticket is $100 less than a Disney Park Hopper, so you would have to take the daily cost difference into account too.

Aarcher really is right, its very dependent.

For the 2 of us, the dining plan is 1100, we saved $700 off the room/tickets under the current plan @ 25% @ POR plus discounted tickets.

But then I imagine getting 30% some rooms at a Deluxe would make a much bigger difference in savings, where as saving a bit off a value room is very little.

 

[robinb]

Aarcher really is right, its very dependent.

For the 2 of us, the dining plan is 1100, we saved $700 off the room/tickets under the current plan @ 25% @ POR plus discounted tickets.

But then I imagine getting 30% some rooms at a Deluxe would make a much bigger difference in savings, where as saving a bit off a value room is very little.

The OP asked about her specific circumstance: POR for 3 "adults" in October. That was what I covered. Not every combination of adults & children, value to deluxe. If the question was a general one ("Is free dining always better than a room-only discount?") then of course the answer is "it depends".

 

[Shaden]

The OP asked about her specific circumstance: POR for 3 "adults" in October. That was what I covered. Not every combination of adults & children, value to deluxe. If the question was a general one ("Is free dining always better than a room-only discount?") then of course the answer is "it depends".

Right, but they aren't going til October and we don't know what specific deals will be offered, then. Your math was really good, I wasn't shooting it down. Was just chiming in, its very dependent on % discount, Number of people, how much you will eat, if you are flexible on your resort, etc. Will you actually use all of your TS meals (if not, DDP might not be worth as much) etc.

I actually really liked your post btw, was just offering my thoughts.

 

[AnnaNonamus]

There are 2 additional variables that may come into play: dining and tickets.

IF you are planning to buy the DDP anyway, then it's easy. In October the DDP is $55.59 per person per night. The cost of the DDP for 3 adults would be $166.77 per night. Compare the $166 with whatever room-only discount you would get. When it comes to a moderate, it's a no-brainer in October is approximately $180 per night ($200 with taxes) so FD is about an 80% discount. You won't find a better discount than that.

If you are NOT planning to buy dining, then you should compare the price of the room-only discount with rack rate. Can 3 adults eat 2 meals at WDW for the difference? For instance, right now POR is 25% off. (180 - 180*.25)*1.11 = $150 with taxes. Can you eat 6 meals for $50? Nope, I don't think so. Three CS meals will set you back about $10-$12 each, even if you just drink water. Free dining wins against a 25% discount.

One more variable is tickets. You can buy tickets that are discounted at places like Undercover Tourist but you save, at most, about $20-35 per ticket. IMO that small amount is not really worth taking into account. If your kids are planning to attend YES (Youth Education Series) and you are planning to buy tickets through them, then you will have to calculate your total costs including YES tickets and Disney ticket prices. I know that a 5-day YES ticket is $100 less than a Disney Park Hopper, so you would have to take the daily cost difference into account too.

Ok, this makes sense to me. Yes, we are planning to do ddp regardless of whether or not it is free. I prefer it to having to figure out how much we will spend specifically at each meal. We may not always normally go for desserts, but I know my youngest will always ask for one. It just makes more sense to me that we pay up from, instead of factoring it into our spending budget as a semi unknown factor.