FREE DINING, NOT REALLY FREE at all...

[longing4disney]

I booked 11 nights at the Contemporary TPV with regular plan at rack rate. When free dining came out, Contemporary TPV was not available. But Poly TPV was. So we switched to Poly TPV, applied FD and saved $1400. A Poly TPV would have cost us $1000 more than Contemporary TPV at rack rate.

When GP 30% room discount came out, I priced our package again at Poly and Contemporary and both are more expensive then our Poly with FD. I think this is probably because we are a party of 5 with 4 Disney adults and so are using FD to it's max. I am now thinking of upgrading DD to a Disney adult so that she will have more food option. It is only going to cost us about $19 more for her park ticket. And with 5 Disney adult dining plan, the savings is definitely quite a bit.

 

[TeresaWen]

There is a cost associated with the dining plan that I have not seen mentioned - the freedom you give up. If you take your discount through the dining plan then if you miss a meal or do not order desert you are not getting the full value. I love the freedom of being able to eat when I want, what I want and where I want. If we are not up to a table service meal, we can get apps at a bar, get a snack, or eat at a counter service. Most times we get apps and drinks and skip desert. Once in a while we share a desert. Sometimes we leave after dinner and get ice cream for desert an hour or more later . Try THAT on the dining plan.

We have a 45% discount at the beach club and a TIW card so we eat and drink how ever we want. That is a vacation to me.

Given how hard it is to get an ADR these days you are almost forced into what you picked 6 months ago or you "loose money" on the dining plan. Since we do not pre-pay for our meals, we have freedom and choices.

 

[disneychristmasx3]

With the general public room only discount plus tickets our package was $3400. Rack rate room/ticket/free dining was $3900. We have 5 adults, and would be hard pressed to feed everyone for $500 for 7 days. That's only $100 per person for the entire week. Can't pull that off no matter haw many meals we share, or appetizers we get instead of an entree. Plus now we don't have to try to talk 20 and 16 year old "boys" into eating "lighter". We can't do TIW, so no possible discount there. I would have to miss alot of meals to lose that $500 value. Your way works for you but free dining is the best possible discount for a lot of us.

 

[LisaTC]

There is a cost associated with the dining plan that I have not seen mentioned - the freedom you give up. If you take your discount through the dining plan then if you miss a meal or do not order desert you are not getting the full value. I love the freedom of being able to eat when I want, what I want and where I want. If we are not up to a table service meal, we can get apps at a bar, get a snack, or eat at a counter service. Most times we get apps and drinks and skip desert. Once in a while we share a desert. Sometimes we leave after dinner and get ice cream for desert an hour or more later . Try THAT on the dining plan.

We have a 45% discount at the beach club and a TIW card so we eat and drink how ever we want. That is a vacation to me.

Given how hard it is to get an ADR these days you are almost forced into what you picked 6 months ago or you "loose money" on the dining plan. Since we do not pre-pay for our meals, we have freedom and choices.

That holds value to you to be able to eat the way you described. Some don't always equate $ to that type of choice, so I think number crunchers probably view it differently, but I get you. I don't see many 45% discounts, so you are fortunate. Wow, what a nice discount!

I can't speak for others, but I was really on the fence about the dining plan and didn't think I'd go for it until I did it. However, I probably look at it differently than some and chose to view it as a convenience in many ways. I planned our ADR's in advance to avoid missing out on places I wanted to try. I use the sit downs as a chance to relax, reflect on our day, etc. We have meals together at home and didn't want to be eating on the fly at WDW or just counter and we're going at a busier time this year. There were many available ADR's last year when we went...even 'Ohana!

I understand just wanting an appetizer or salad. After a few days of indulging, you get a bit weary of it. However, I don't feel guilty or shorted if I don't eat everything or skip out on a use of it. Some might. We're staying at POR and the discount wasn't as high for room only and adding tickets in, we were able to get the dining plan for only a couple hundred paying rack for the room. We can't eat on a couple hundred for a week and we have a DD8 so we have a couple character meals/shows (Akershus, HDDR & Crystal Palace) and it works for us. As a rule, I NEVER get my $$ worth on any buffet and I don't try to. If it were just my DH and I, we may not do it.

One thing nice about Disney is that there's something for everyone. I think it's like everything else on this board, works for some, not for others, some of us are "in-betweeners." I love AK, some hate it. I'm "eh' on DHS, some love it. I think the same holds true for the DDP. If I could stay at Beach Club or GF or BWI for 45% discount, I'd forego the DDP, too! Kudos. It's a grand to fly us there, so saving on dining was a no brainer for us. If I lived in FL, TIW and discount would be a no brainer.

 

[raraavis]

There is a cost associated with the dining plan that I have not seen mentioned - the freedom you give up. If you take your discount through the dining plan then if you miss a meal or do not order desert you are not getting the full value. I love the freedom of being able to eat when I want, what I want and where I want. If we are not up to a table service meal, we can get apps at a bar, get a snack, or eat at a counter service. Most times we get apps and drinks and skip desert. Once in a while we share a desert. Sometimes we leave after dinner and get ice cream for desert an hour or more later . Try THAT on the dining plan.

We have a 45% discount at the beach club and a TIW card so we eat and drink how ever we want. That is a vacation to me.

Given how hard it is to get an ADR these days you are almost forced into what you picked 6 months ago or you "loose money" on the dining plan. Since we do not pre-pay for our meals, we have freedom and choices.

we can still vacation exactly how you describe since we're on the qsdp. we weren't interested in the regular dp because we didn't want to bother with adrs and wasting time sitting in a restaurant.

 

[bookgirl2632]

I see some posters bring up the TIW card often. I would love that option. But I go to Disney every few years. Annual passes are not an option, so therefore the TIW card is out. If they gave me an option to purchase one without an AP, I'd be all over it. But alas, I cannot. So I wait for Free (and yes, it's free) Dining.

 

[goofy78]

I see some posters bring up the TIW card often. I would love that option. But I go to Disney every few years. Annual passes are not an option, so therefore the TIW card is out. If they gave me an option to purchase one without an AP, I'd be all over it. But alas, I cannot. So I wait for Free (and yes, it's free) Dining.

I am in the same boat but I did estimate upgrading my ticket to an AP, then estimating how much we would spend on food for the week, subtracting the 20% from the total and adding a RO (30%). It still came out less of a savings than FD (yes I agree it is free ) but it would give us a little more "freedom" of what we ate. (We would rather order a few apps than get dessert for all of us).