Free Dining--Really Free?

[kittyninja]

Okay so we've pretty much already come to our own decision but I wanted the opinion of the DISers!!

We got in the mail a free dining offer and for the first time ever it correlated with our plans!! OMG!! So immediately I call to see if it can be added to our Shades of Green ressie...it can't. Which is understandable because it's military (taking DGM who has ID card from our GF).

Then we think--wait! What if we stayed at a different resort and got free dining? Would it be cheaper!! And it would if we could stay at a Value and get the regular Dining Plan for free. When we called back we were told we would have to stay at a Moderate resort to get anything other than QS DP (we want to eat at BOG for dinner).

So I guess my question is: is this how they get you with the "free" dining plan? To get the better "free" plan you have to stay in a more expensive resort? Or would it look better if we weren't getting an awesome room rate from Shades of Green? Has anyone been able to get really good deals with the free dining?

Kind of just a question just out of curiosity!!

 

[kittyninja]

Been on this site for forever and just saw the place for the dining plan!! Gonna go snoop around there...sorry!!

 

[greengeen]

I think "free" dining is a misnomer. To get "free" dining you have to pay rack room rates, regardless of the resort, and get park tickets too. No room discount of any kind. For most people, getting a room discount and paying OOP for food is a better deal. I'm pretty sure your military perks are far better than "free" dining.

 

[Hootch]

free dining is cost effective depends on the individual groups specifics. It is typically offered when discounted rooms are the norm. You have to pay the normal rates for the room which offsets the dining benefit.

I don't see any way that two adults staying at the Grand Floridian would be better off with free dining. Four Disney adults might be if staying at a moderate. It depends on where and what they eat. At one point the Values were included in the regular dining plan. Disney figured out that four adults at the Values was hurting their bottom line.

Typically, if you stay at a Value you have the option to pay for an upgrade to the regular plan. The difference is something like $20 for an adult per night and something like $3 or $4 for kids. (You can even upgrade to the deluxe plan for a little more.) I don't know if that helps you or not.

You are doing the right thing in comparing costs. The hard part is looking at the menus and estimating the cost of your meals. If you are like us and have reduced sit down meal to increase park time, the dining plans never make sense.

 

[Kristibo42]

I was booked for a December 3rd to 10th trip with dining. We are staying at POP so we did the dining plus. After calling Disney and finding out I have a free dining code. My TA changed it so that I'm only paying the difference for quick service to plus. Only paying $18 a day. So yes it is free.

 

[Malibustyle23]

You also have a couple of options you may not of thought of to consider.

1. You can stay at a value and get the QSDDP and do lunch instead of dinner at BOG as that is considered a counter service meal.

2. Can anyone verify can you combine 2 CS meals to redeem for 1 TS meal? If so you could do that to stay on QSDP *free* at a Value and still have BOG dinner.

 

[Disneylover99]

2. Can anyone verify can you combine 2 CS meals to redeem for 1 TS meal? If so you could do that to stay on QSDP *free* at a Value and still have BOG dinner.

Unfortunately no, you cannot redeem 2 quick service meals for one table service meal.

 

[darnheather]

When I checked for my family 3 adults one child it was about $750 cheaper to do the free dinning in a moderate rather than 20% off the room and pay for the DP OOP. Good deal for us.

 

[amomma23]

We have 2 adults, 1 "Disney adult", and 2 children. We stay at POR, the least expensive option for 5. During our trip, the room only promo is 25% off. At POR, that would save us $338.05 for a 6 night stay. The dining plan for the same number of nights would cost $1206.54. So yea, for us it's free.

 

[Shelli_5]

IMHO, I think you'll be better off staying at Shades of Green & paying OOP for food, but it all depends on what your priorities are. The rooms at Shades of Green are large & very comfortable - WAY better than the value resorts. You can also eat a few meals there to save money. Their prices are fantastic! I love Shades of Green.

 

[SEA333]

We are a family of five, with a 13 year old "adult" and 9 and 7 year old adventurous eaters. It was cheaper to stay at POR than a value suite, so free dining to us is the regular dining plan in a hotel that we have to stay in anyway. We are pulling off a 5 day trip, with roundtrip airfare from Chicago and free dining, for $2700, using (gasp!!!) Spirit Airlines. If we were to add food costs into the equation, we would be adding at least another $500-700. So, even though we could have gotten....what? 20%, MAYBE? from our room rate, paying rack rate and getting free dining was the clear winner. Plus, we get to try some really cool dinners rather than the normally-frugal me urging everyone to order the chicken and rib combos so we can share to save money. So, to us, yes free dining is "free".

 

[kittyninja]

Thanks to everyone for replies!! I think it definitely depends on your family and priorities!! There may be a night that we would rather grab a popcorn for "dinner" especially if we did a TS lunch! When we're at Disney eating really isn't our priority!!

I am very glad that a lot of people get good use out of it!! It's a wonderful offer!!

We've done the calculations a few times and have decided it's going to be better overall to stay at Shades of Green, there we have 2 queen beds and a pull out so we all get our own bed!

My sister and I are also doing one day at Universal where our grandmother will stay at the resort for a rest day (she is 76 years old after all!) so we would have OOP dining that day anyway!!

Like I said, thanks for all the responses and I am very glad that it works out for some people!! Just isn't the best option for us!! We're planning on moving to Orlando within the next couple of years anyway so this will be our last "big" Disney vacay and we wanted to get the best deal!!

 

[siskaren]

I think "free" dining is a misnomer. To get "free" dining you have to pay rack room rates, regardless of the resort, and get park tickets too. No room discount of any kind. For most people, getting a room discount and paying OOP for food is a better deal. I'm pretty sure your military perks are far better than "free" dining.

If you don't pay for something, it's free. Why should they allow you to stack discounts and get a room discount as well as get the dining plan for free? I don't know if a room discount is a better deal than free dining for most people, but as darnheather and amomma23 pointed out, it is definitely a better deal for some people.

 

[davedmaine]

Okay so we've pretty much already come to our own decision but I wanted the opinion of the DISers!!

We got in the mail a free dining offer and for the first time ever it correlated with our plans!! OMG!! So immediately I call to see if it can be added to our Shades of Green ressie...it can't. Which is understandable because it's military (taking DGM who has ID card from our GF).

Then we think--wait! What if we stayed at a different resort and got free dining? Would it be cheaper!! And it would if we could stay at a Value and get the regular Dining Plan for free. When we called back we were told we would have to stay at a Moderate resort to get anything other than QS DP (we want to eat at BOG for dinner).

So I guess my question is: is this how they get you with the "free" dining plan? To get the better "free" plan you have to stay in a more expensive resort? Or would it look better if we weren't getting an awesome room rate from Shades of Green? Has anyone been able to get really good deals with the free dining?

Kind of just a question just out of curiosity!!

Free dining is NOT free.

 

[darnheather]

Free dining is NOT free.

I love how people come on this board, state an opinion and just leave it at that. How about explaining why you believe it isn't free? I stated my case as did others why it really is free for my family and saves us a lot of money over taking a room discount.

 

[pooh4evr]

We are another family with 2 kids who qualify as adults now, so for us anyway free dining works out as a better deal than a % off the room rates. But at this point I will take any deal for our Oct trip! Dang Columbus Day blackouts!

 

[Kristibo42]

You can stay in value and pay the difference between QSDP and basic DP. We are doing that paying $18 a day. It is free QS if we didn't bump up to basic DP they would have dropped the price of the QSDP which is what we had. We wanted some TS meals so that is why we are getting the basic DP. It's saving us $263 a person. So for our room we are saving $526.

Okay so we've pretty much already come to our own decision but I wanted the opinion of the DISers!!

We got in the mail a free dining offer and for the first time ever it correlated with our plans!! OMG!! So immediately I call to see if it can be added to our Shades of Green ressie...it can't. Which is understandable because it's military (taking DGM who has ID card from our GF).

Then we think--wait! What if we stayed at a different resort and got free dining? Would it be cheaper!! And it would if we could stay at a Value and get the regular Dining Plan for free. When we called back we were told we would have to stay at a Moderate resort to get anything other than QS DP (we want to eat at BOG for dinner).

So I guess my question is: is this how they get you with the "free" dining plan? To get the better "free" plan you have to stay in a more expensive resort? Or would it look better if we weren't getting an awesome room rate from Shades of Green? Has anyone been able to get really good deals with the free dining?

Kind of just a question just out of curiosity!!

 

[Cheshire Figment]

Occasionally there are some offers for free days, or kids stay and play free, or free dining. This is all marketing hype!

Disney World has three main profit and expense centers: the Parks, Food & Beverage, and Resorts (including transportation). Each of these has to make a profit. (Actually there are more, such as merchandise and sports, for example, but they don't really count for this discussion.)

The Parks, including the theme parks, water parks, Disney Quest, get their money from ticket sales. It does not matter if these tickets are sold at the gates, by phone or online, by the Resorts, or by wholesalers such as AAA, The Disney Store, or authorized resellers.

Food and Beverage is all dining locations property-wide, including from Victoria and Albert's down to the ice cream or other snack carts. All money taken in by the Dining Plan (any level) goes to F&B and then down to the individual locations depending on use by Plan Guests.

The Resorts have the most flexibility as far as prices are concerned. If they are offering free tickets, they still have to pay Park Operations for the tickets they sell. If they are offering free dining they still have to pay F&B for the dining plans. The only way they can do this is by adjusting the price of the rooms. And they do not stack discounts. So if you are getting "free dining", you are actually getting a discounted price on the room but paying for the dining.

This is why a person making a discounted reservation at an AP rate cannot get free dining,l the Resort still has to make money.

 

[darnheather]

@cheshire figment I'm sure that Disney is still making a profit on free dining offers. However, that isn't really the question here. The question is whether it's a better deal for the OP than staying in SoG and paying OOP for dinning. Having run the numbers for my family we come out far ahead by doing the free dining rather than the room reduction. Could I have saved more money by staying off property and eating sandwiches every day? Of course, but that isn't my idea of a Disney vacation. I have the means to stay at SoG like the OP but decided against it as spouse just came back from a one year deployment and would like to get away from the military vibe for vacation. Would it have cheaper for my family to stay there and pay out OOP for food? I don't know because it didn't make sense for my family this trip.

tldr: Disney makes money, families have to do what's right for them.

 

[Fyrecat]

Hi,
This will be our first time to Disney together. We got the same offer-but when we explored it, we found that the difference, staying at the PO Riverside was 802.00 with the hotel discount. With free dining it went up to $1600!

Thats double!

Now, while it would be nice to have 'free' dining, not at that price. We figure by eating breakfast in the room on occasion, and eating early dinners and maybe snacks later, it will work out to be a bit less expensive.

My friend went last year to Disney and had the DP. She enjoyed it, but found it confining, as it took time out of touring the parks, and also you had to leave where you were to get to where you were dining.

I don't know if we're doing the right thing, or making a mistake, but we're hoping we don't come back too thin! (right! )