does paying for the dining plan affect your eating choices?

[dmdelight]

so if paying for quick service,regular or deluxe dining versus having free dining-does paying affect where and what you choose to eat?

 

[aaarcher86]

so if paying for quick service,regular or deluxe dining versus having free dining-does paying affect where and what you choose to eat?

It does for us. Not every meal, but I'll definitely order steak more often than I would normally if I were paying out of pocket.

We do deluxe as well, so I'll try a few new appetizers and new deserts. I never order desert when we eat out, so that's a nice treat. If I wasn't on the DP I'd order things that are more safe and be less adventurous.

Eta: read as being on ddp versus oop

 

[JimmyV]

so if paying for quick service,regular or deluxe dining versus having free dining-does paying affect where and what you choose to eat?

Not sure I understand your question. By "paying for quick service, regular or deluxe dining", do you mean paying for the QS Dining Plan, the Regular Dining Plan, or the Deluxe Dining Plan such that these would then be compared to getting a free dining plan? Or do you mean paying out of pocket for quick service meals, for basic TS meals or for Signature meals, and then comparing that against free dining?

If you mean the former, it should make no difference whatsoever. Once you are in the Dining Plan system, your meal is pre-paid, so you order what you order. I suppose that one could rationalize ordering a more expensive entree if you "paid" for the dining plan, and perhaps ordered just a light meal if the DP was free. But remember that the dining plan is never free. Even if they call it Free Dining, you have paid more for your vacation in other ways, specifically, the room rate. So in reality, one should never conclude: "What the heck. I got free dining, so I'll just have the pasta instead of the steak." Instead, that person should be saying: "I just paid $180 for my room instead of $130, so I am going to make up for it by ordering steak."

If you mean the latter, then, yes, being on a DP always influences what you order versus paying out of pocket. When you pay out of pocket, salads and appetizers start to look very, shall we say, appetizing, and $34 entress start to look a lot less appealing. And when you are on a DP and salads and appetizers are not included, then that section of the menu looks less appealing, as those would add on to your bill and upset whatever savings you thought you were achieving.

 

[dmdelight]

Not sure I understand your question. By "paying for quick service, regular or deluxe dining", do you mean paying for the QS Dining Plan, the Regular Dining Plan, or the Deluxe Dining Plan such that these would then be compared to getting a free dining plan? Or do you mean paying out of pocket for quick service meals, for basic TS meals or for Signature meals, and then comparing that against free dining?



i did indeed mean the former-paying for meal plan-or receiving free dining, which as you correctly say, is obviously not actually "free".


If you mean the former, it should make no difference whatsoever. Once you are in the Dining Plan system, your meal is pre-paid, so you order what you order. I suppose that one could rationalize ordering a more expensive entree if you "paid" for the dining plan, and perhaps ordered just a light meal if the DP was free. But remember that the dining plan is never free. Even if they call it Free Dining, you have paid more for your vacation in other ways, specifically, the room rate. So in reality, one should never conclude: "What the heck. I got free dining, so I'll just have the pasta instead of the steak." Instead, that person should be saying: "I just paid $180 for my room instead of $130, so I am going to make up for it by ordering steak."

If you mean the latter, then, yes, being on a DP always influences what you order versus paying out of pocket. When you pay out of pocket, salads and appetizers start to look very, shall we say, appetizing, and $34 entress start to look a lot less appealing. And when you are on a DP and salads and appetizers are not included, then that section of the menu looks less appealing, as those would add on to your bill and upset whatever savings you thought you were achieving.

for all the latter was not my query, i enjoyed reading your reply.

 

[minnie mum]

so if paying for quick service,regular or deluxe dining versus having free dining-does paying affect where and what you choose to eat?

No. Once I'm on a dining plan, then I'm on a dining plan. Whether or not I've paid for it makes no difference- my options are the same.

Now whether I'm on a dining plan or paying OOP makes a BIG difference in both my restaurant selections and what I choose to eat there.

And since we have found that the DDP is too restricting for us, we now choose NOT do do a dining plan, free OR paid.

 

[bigbabyblues]

Nope. We have used the regular dining plan a few times, free and paid for, and we have used the QSDP twice (paid for), and one trip we went without any dining plan (as we will next year). Maybe we're odd, but we make ADRs where we want to eat, and we order what we want to eat at that time. Once we pay off the package, I don't ever remember looking at the menu and ordering something I didn't want just because of what we paid for the plan. We've never used all of our QS credits, always went home with extra. One trip, we ended up with QS credits after we had paid oop for a couple of qs meals. Not sure what happened there.

We are paying OOP next year, and we will probably do mostly cs with four or five ts meals thrown in. We are planning to do 'Ohana dinner, Crystal Palace breakfast, Teppan Edo, and maybe Chef Mickey's breakfast.

 

[Peachkins]

As far as the types of meals we went to, the dining plan definitely influenced that. There were some more expensive things- such as character dinners- that we may have skipped if we were paying OOP.

Now as far as the food I ordered at the individual restaurants? I don't know that I went out of my way to order the most expensive meal I could, but I definitely felt more freedom to do that if I wanted to. I do like seafood or a good steak. I think I also ate a lot more dessert than I would have without the dining plan. Probably not something I would've ordered with every single meal- especially at counter service places.

 

[dawnball]

Yup.

We have an upcoming free dining QSDP reservation. I figure that we got the room plus 8 QS meals and 4 snacks (4 dining-adults in the room) for ~$110/night. If you figure that the room is half the value, and the snacks are $2 each the meals should be "worth" about $6 each. It ends up looking like a real bargain.

That bargain means I don't begrudge us a fancy allergen-friendly cake on arrival (we have dietary restrictions, so can't eat most QS desserts). I also have a TS scheduled at Hacienda de San Angel to watch Illuminations, a mixology seminar, and I'm planning to drop into Tutto Gusto at some point. I've vascilated about adding a meal at Brown Derby when we're at Hollywood Studios, and might add one last minute if there are seats.

If I were paying full-freight for the dining plan, I probably wouldn't have planned the add-ons. There's a chance we won't use all our CS credits, but I think we'll manage to use them up, even if we take a meal to the airport to eat on the plane. Upgrading to the regular DDP isn't a good deal for us though, because our first-choice meals aren't as expensive as the difference in pricing.

 

[mariechouette]

Yes it does totally affect my choices. We are on free dining plan and I will reserve mostly character dining since there are way too expensive if I were to pay OOP. I am not at all a buffet person but we are going for the fun to meet characters.

 

[JimmyV]

Yes it does totally affect my choices. We are on free dining plan and I will reserve mostly character dining since there are way too expensive if I were to pay OOP. I am not at all a buffet person but we are going for the fun to meet characters.

The OP clarified the original question above. What is being asked is: Does having Free Dining alter the way you order as compared to paying for the Dining Plan. So comparing what you might do if paying OOP is not the apples to apples comparison here. So if you had paid for the Dining Plan, would you still do mostly character dining? Probably, right? If so, then your answer to the question would be "no" instead of "yes".