Free Dining Question

[rkskpluvdisney]

We are planning a trip in December and are staying at AoA. Since this is a value resort, we get the QSDP free. Is it worth the upgrade to the TSDP? I mean I don't think we will use 2 QS meals but it is free so I was signing up for it. We have 3 college kids and 2 adults so meals will be costly.
Thanks!!

 

[BearcatsFan]

Firstly, to the DIS!

As far as "worth it" goes, only you can decide whether it is worth the additional cost. Do you think you will prefer the TS restaurants over the QS ones? How does your family eat? Could you eat OOP (out of pocket) cheaper and pick and choose the TS restaurants you want as opposed to being tied to an ADR every single day just to get the value from upgrading? All questions you should ask yourself when deciding whether it is worth it to you.

HTH (hope this helps) some in your decision!

 

[kissy]

We are staying at ASMu and upgraded. Our family likes to have the one sit down meal a day. It's nice for us to either start the day out with a good breakfast or end the day with a nice dinner. I can tell you, the first year we had this, DH hated it. He didn't like being tied down to the ADR's. Every time we've gone, we've figured out more about our "touring habits" and what times to eat are best for our family for each park. Maybe since you haven't done DDP before you could stick with the QSP and just make one or two ressies to see if next time it would be worth it for you to upgrade.

 

[smitch425]

With most TS meals, you will need to make reservations well in advance, as in MOTHS in advance (these are referred to as ADRs). Will your party be splitting up a lot? Is everyone going to want to meet up for all TS meals? Is everyone in your party even going to want to go to the same park each day? It might be easier given your party make up to stick with the QSDP to allow for more freedom and less time constraints. There QS meals offer a very wide variety of meals. I would suggest visiting allears.net and looking through the menu listings to see if the QSDP would work for you before upgrading.

 

[KELLY]

We stay at a value just so we can get the QSDP free. I don't want to be tied down to 11 days of adr's. We are paying for Hollywood and vine for Jake for my youngest. We may also do rainforest because I have a 25.00 credit and some .99 coupons for the kids. But the QSDP is plenty of food for us.

Just remeber that adr's take up park time. The last time we ate at CP we were there almost 2 hours. Most places was 1 1/2 hours. But by the time you walk to your adr check in. Wait hopefully only a few minutes and then get seated, eat and get your check it can get long. I would just rather be on our time to eat. I don't want to say oh we can't ride this because we have to be at so and so in 30 minutes.

 

[Valgoof]

I have been crunching numbers on this all day. We are staying at POP and I did pay for the upgrade, but now I am not sure I want to keep it. DH doesn't want an ADR everyday. I have chosen my 7 TS and can easily give up 2 or 3, but would want to keep and pay OOP for the other 4. Decisions, decisions.

 

[smitch425]

I have been crunching numbers on this all day. We are staying at POP and I did pay for the upgrade, but now I am not sure I want to keep it. DH doesn't want an ADR everyday. I have chosen my 7 TS and can easily give up 2 or 3, but would want to keep and pay OOP for the other 4. Decisions, decisions.

Not sure if this will help you, but you are allowed to use a TS credit for a QS meal, so all you need to do is figure out your approximate cost for the TS meals that you for sure want to keep, and then you'll see if they add up to more than the cost of upgrading. If they do, stick with the upgrade and just drop the ADRs you don't want and get QS meals instead.

 

[redoschi]

I was thinking along the same lines. Hoping that Free Dining is released for January!

I'm wondering if it would be worth it to upgrade, but we're staying for about 10 nights in 4 adults (me, my fiancee, her mother and her teen brother) and we'll go to off-site parks for 3 days also (SW, US, IOA) so we would have to concentrate ADRs on the disney park days.

I believe I'll stick to the QSDP as then we use some credits for breakfast, others for QS at parks and pay for the few ADRs out of pocket (planning on Ohana for breakfast, Teppan Edo, Sci-Fi, Be Our Guest and maybe Yak/Yeti).

 

[Valgoof]

Not sure if this will help you, but you are allowed to use a TS credit for a QS meal, so all you need to do is figure out your approximate cost for the TS meals that you for sure want to keep, and then you'll see if they add up to more than the cost of upgrading. If they do, stick with the upgrade and just drop the ADRs you don't want and get QS meals instead.

THANK YOU!!!! This does work for me. I can do the 4 TS that I want and have flexibility the other nights and come out ahead. Awesome!!!! My DH thanks you too.