Free Dining Plan breakdown/Hope this helps

baleeve

"I want adventure in the great wide somewhere -- I
Joined
Nov 8, 2004
Based on the menu cost for my ADR's for 2 adults and 2 children (5 and 8)

7 table service meals (with holiday surcharges)

Garden Grill character dinner $104
50's Prime Time lunch $80
Crystal Palace character lunch $80
Hollywood Vine character lunch $80
Liberty Tree Tavern dinner $90
Donalds Safari breakfast $80
Chef Mickeys Breakfast $85

Plus I have Via Napoli and Sci Fi dinners planned. (not factored in)

APROX TOTAL $599

And 7 counter service (aprox $40 - 50 each, entree, drink, dessert)

Some we plan are

Sunshine seasons
Pizza Planet
Wolfgang Pucks
Earl of Sandwich
Yakitori House
Everything POP
Cosmic Rays

APROX TOTAL $297

Add (7) snacks at aprox $3.50 = $26 (rounded)

We come out at $922

I paid $264 to upgrade from QS to TS which means I save.....

Are you ready for this......

SAVING A WHOPPING $655 IN MEALS

So basically I paid $264 and that covers my counter service. I got 7 table service meals and 7 snacks FREE!!

I think that is MAGICAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you Walt Disneyworld!!!!! This Mom to three boys thanks you for making it affordable to take my boys to WDW over Christmas holiday and eat at some great places we've never tried before!!

*note: Last time we went I ate kids meals and we ate at all counter service places. I paid about $600 in food for one week. BUT I ate kids meals and WE ATE AT ALL COUNTER SERVICE PLACES....that got kind of old after awhile!
 
Yep..I did the same math.. 10 days, 4 adults, 3 kids, paid $440 to upgrade ( we have 2 ressies) and we are def going to make out well. Considering when we can travel , the amount of us, and just not having to worry about food it's win win for us.. the best will be not having to tell my DH and teenage son we can't go to buffets because they are too pricey..
 


That's only calculating 1 snack/FAMILY/day not 1 snack/PERSON/day....so it looks like your savings is slightly higher.

Oh my gosh you're right!~!!

Happy Dance now with the Happy Moon walk!!! :banana:

:dance3:
 
LOL.. oh and for us it's nearly priceless not to have to carry food cash around with us.. we are a debt free house so no credit cards to charge back to the room on..
 
To be fair, you need to subtract the cost of paying rack rate for your room (which you need to do to get free dining) versus the discounted cost for your room (which you could have done, had you not taken the Free dining offer).

You'd still come out ahead, but just for others using your math.
 


rack rate of $85 a night per room is not exactly costly.. ( $95 on the weekend).. 2 rooms 10 nights is $1000 per room for us... I did take it into account.. it still leaves us in the win column!
 
Don't forget to add $15-20 a day for tips. You might have a case of water sent to the resort as well. Then you can save some snacks for light breakfast food and not extra drinks.

You should have great fun at all of those resturants. I would mention that you might consider not upgrading and paying for just three TS meals OOP. You will still be ahead in OOP costs and you will keep the two snacks a day and refilable mugs. With your boys this might work out better and be more cost effective in the end.

One of these three would probably be plenty as there is some overlap in characters:
Garden Grill character dinner $104
Donalds Safari breakfast $80
Chef Mickeys Breakfast $85

This place is OK, can be fun or not too fun, kind of depends on the server:
50's Prime Time lunch $80

I really like the food at the buffet, your kiddos are a little old for the characters but will probably enjoy the exp still:
Crystal Palace character lunch $80

Skip this place for food and characters both won't wow you or your boys:
Hollywood Vine character lunch $80

I haven't eaten here so no advice but would probably be fun at Christmas:
Liberty Tree Tavern dinner $90

So say you pay OOP for Chef Mickey, Crystal palace, and LTT. You would pay $255 plus and tips (which you would have to pay anyway). You would actually save money from the tips you don't spend on the other meals but gain more meals and snacks.

Just an idea of what works for us, YMMV.

Monica
 
Based on the menu cost for my ADR's for 2 adults and 2 children (5 and 8)

7 table service meals (with holiday surcharges)

Garden Grill character dinner $104
50's Prime Time lunch $80
Crystal Palace character lunch $80
Hollywood Vine character lunch $80
Liberty Tree Tavern dinner $90
Donalds Safari breakfast $80
Chef Mickeys Breakfast $85

Plus I have Via Napoli and Sci Fi dinners planned. (not factored in)

APROX TOTAL $599

And 7 counter service (aprox $40 - 50 each, entree, drink, dessert)

Some we plan are

Sunshine seasons
Pizza Planet
Wolfgang Pucks
Earl of Sandwich
Yakitori House
Everything POP
Cosmic Rays

APROX TOTAL $297

Add (7) snacks at aprox $3.50 = $26 (rounded)

We come out at $922

I paid $264 to upgrade from QS to TS which means I save.....

Are you ready for this......

SAVING A WHOPPING $655 IN MEALS

So basically I paid $264 and that covers my counter service. I got 7 table service meals and 7 snacks FREE!!

I think that is MAGICAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you Walt Disneyworld!!!!! This Mom to three boys thanks you for making it affordable to take my boys to WDW over Christmas holiday and eat at some great places we've never tried before!!

*note: Last time we went I ate kids meals and we ate at all counter service places. I paid about $600 in food for one week. BUT I ate kids meals and WE ATE AT ALL COUNTER SERVICE PLACES....that got kind of old after awhile!

AWESOME!!!!! :banana::thumbsup2
What great savings!! We're doing the same thing-upgrading to DDP. We were going to keep the QS, but we wanted to do a breakfast and either Biergarten or Ohana. Well, CP breakfast and either dinner was going to be about $175, and it was only about $150 to upgrade. No brainer for me! More TS meals (which we LOVE)!

And I'm sorry to rant, but it's frustrating to hear people say it isn't Free. I'm not paying for it, so it is FREE to me! Disney doesn't HAVE to give us any kind of discount or incentive. When we started going in 2005, before the Free Dining promotions came about, we paid rack rate for the room, DDP, tickets, etc. We were surprised they offered us Free park hopper passes. We didn't expect it, but it was a great bonus! So I'll take any kind of FREE Disney wants to offer me if I'm wanting to go! This is my first FREE Dining experience (we always pay for the DDP and LOVE it), so I'm excited and thankful to Disney for offering it!!
 
Exactly..it's free to me.. who's to say I'd get a discount on a room? Who's to say I'd be able to travel when the lower room rates are out? For me the DDP cost $440 for 7 people ( only because we chose to upgrade)... and since we are doing Hoop Dee Doo which would be $312 for us..there is MOST of the upgrade cost right there! And we would do the show DDP or not..
 
Exactly..it's free to me.. who's to say I'd get a discount on a room? Who's to say I'd be able to travel when the lower room rates are out? For me the DDP cost $440 for 7 people ( only because we chose to upgrade)... and since we are doing Hoop Dee Doo which would be $312 for us..there is MOST of the upgrade cost right there! And we would do the show DDP or not..

Especially when staying value. I think at most I've seen 20% off rack rate for values which is aprox. a whopping $20/night/room.
 
OP, I think that you did good. This is my family first trip, & we are going doing free dining as well. I have done the math so many time. I have young kids that love characters. They are so excited to dine with their favorites. That been said, we are saving $750 with free dining. We are glad about it even if we paying rack rate to stay in the moderate.
 
we just did the same thing. Had QS for free dining and figured we'd do HDD and maybe 2 buffets (which I find for us are cheaper since the kids can eat whatever they want) it was a no brainer to upgrade for $270. Wish I'd of done it a couple of months ago though...finding reservations on our days was brutal! We're not hopping this time and it was difficult for us to find places, since most of our faves are in Epcot!
 
we just did the same thing. Had QS for free dining and figured we'd do HDD and maybe 2 buffets (which I find for us are cheaper since the kids can eat whatever they want) it was a no brainer to upgrade for $270. Wish I'd of done it a couple of months ago though...finding reservations on our days was brutal! We're not hopping this time and it was difficult for us to find places, since most of our faves are in Epcot!

Don't give up on ADR's. Check online daily. I just scored Le Cellier and California Grill for dinner next week!!
 
Somewhere, a Disney marketing department is giving each other high-fives.
 

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