Free Dining upgrade question

[Jeffnewc]

Does anyone know what would be the difference in upgrading from the standard 1QS and 1Tableside dining with snack to 3 meals? I want to know if it is worth doing it or not. Thanks for the help.

 

[4butlers]

Here is the thread with all the upgrade costs.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2772063

 

[Jeffnewc]

Thank you

 

[Jeffnewc]

Wow looking at the price per person to upgrade:

Regular to Deluxe

Adult non-peak: $33.98 per night
Child non-peak: $8.77 per night

It is not worth it to me at all. I was thinking of doing it to cover our breakfast but I can get a great breakfast for 33.98 per person. Not sure how Disney thinks this makes sense. Am I missing sommething here?

 

[deakam]

The deluxe dining plan offers you 3 sit down meals per person per day if you choose to use it that way. It also gives you the appetizer with each meal. It might be cost effective if you plan on doing a whole bunch of signature dining which uses 2 dining credits per person. It may also be good for people that just love to eat.

With the cost of the dining plan continually going up I have been considering whether the regular dining plan is even cost effective. I really don't need a dessert with every meal and more than likely would not order one if it were not included.

The quick service dining plan is no longer worth the cost for me. I think Disney has even reduced the stated amount saved to 10%. That is less than the cost of the dessert that we really don't eat.

The only good part of any of the dining plans is the addition of the refillable cup. However, if you are at one of the overly large resorts or you do not spend much time at the resort, this could be just another thing that you need to stuff into a suitcase at the end of the trip.

 

[4butlers]

Wow looking at the price per person to upgrade:

Regular to Deluxe

Adult non-peak: $33.98 per night
Child non-peak: $8.77 per night

It is not worth it to me at all. I was thinking of doing it to cover our breakfast but I can get a great breakfast for 33.98 per person. Not sure how Disney thinks this makes sense. Am I missing sommething here?

If you look at it with the perspective of only getting a breakfast for $33.98, then it's probably not worth it. But if you look at what you're actually getting; 2 additional TS meals (or one signature meal), appetizers and an additional snack. Can you get all that for $33.98 per day? Can you get 2 additional meals and a snack for $8.77 for a child?
For us, to upgrade from regular FD is a no-brainer. I guess it really all depends on what you want from the DDP.

 

[TheRatPack]

If you look at it with the perspective of only getting a breakfast for $33.98, then it's probably not worth it. But if you look at what you're actually getting; 2 additional TS meals (or one signature meal), appetizers and an additional snack. Can you get all that for $33.98 per day? Can you get 2 additional meals and a snack for $8.77 for a child?
For us, to upgrade from regular FD is a no-brainer. I guess it really all depends on what you want from the DDP.

Unless you're eating off property or bringing in stuff for a fridge you won't find too many ways to budget a meal at Disney. I agree with the post above....you're looking at the upgrade cost for 1 meal. Look around on All Ears and check out the TS prices. You'll be paying 34.99 for Garden Grill, and other buffet or family style meals are just as expensive. You can get a plate at a QS counter for 10.00-15.00 then add in a drink and a dessert if you wanted one and you're in the 20.00 range for just one QS meal. Some of the snacks we had were almost 4.00.....pretzels, frozen Fanta drinks...etc so really the upgrade fee (if you're going to eat a lot of TS meals or Signature meals) is very worth it.

We have went twice with the QS meal plan.....but ended up paying for some TS meals as well because we wanted some nice sit down meals. We really feel that the regular dining plan fits our family, since we don't do a lot of signature restaurants and usually 1 table service a day is PLENTY for us.

 

[TheRatPack]

Never mind

 

[angierae]

The way we looked at it was thus:

We were originally paying $54 per day for DDP. (Spring Break pricing.) We could have gotten all of that for free. (No room discount was ever offered for our time period, so there was no question of whether or not a % discount would be better.)

Our upgrade price was $34 a day.

So, instead of paying $54 a day per person for one TS, one CS and one snack, we are now paying $34 a day for 3 credits a day and two snacks. We were able to add in three signature meals and a dinner show. We had already budgeted the $54 a day, so while we cut into our savings, we also are getting way more food/experiences.

Now, had we budgeted from the start for free dining, then I'd probably be less likely to want to pay the upgrade charge. But we scheduled our trip knowing it was Spring Break and that we would probably have to pay full price rack rate for everything.

 

[DisDaze]

In my opinion, upgrading the QS to the Regular DDP is worth it. Upgrading to the Deluxe plan is not worht it.

 

[LiveToTravelNicely]

The way we looked at it was thus:

We were originally paying $54 per day for DDP. (Spring Break pricing.) We could have gotten all of that for free. (No room discount was ever offered for our time period, so there was no question of whether or not a % discount would be better.)

Our upgrade price was $34 a day.

So, instead of paying $54 a day per person for one TS, one CS and one snack, we are now paying $34 a day for 3 credits a day and two snacks. We were able to add in three signature meals and a dinner show. We had already budgeted the $54 a day, so while we cut into our savings, we also are getting way more food/experiences.

Now, had we budgeted from the start for free dining, then I'd probably be less likely to want to pay the upgrade charge. But we scheduled our trip knowing it was Spring Break and that we would probably have to pay full price rack rate for everything.

DW and I viewed our upgrade to the Deluxe plan the same way as this previous post. Total price for us per day was $34/person for everything the Deluxe had to offer. We got to experience a lot of signature restaurants and dinner shows that otherwise we wouldn't have been able to do in one trip. However, we wouldn't have upgraded had we had to pay for the Regular plan.

A lot of people say that for the deluxe to be worth it, we had to eat all meals as TS; however, since we got the regular for free and upgraded to deluxe for 34/each, I figured that as long as one meal a day cost that much each we were ahead. Therefore, we didn't mind using 3 or 4 credits that week on QS meals to save some time. So, using a few credits as QS and more at the dinner shows and signature restaurants, I don't feel like we wasted a lot of time on the Deluxe plan.

It was a lot of food for us, but it was nice for one experience. On our next trip, we are just going with the free regular dining and skipping the upgrade. We figure on this plan, we may have to pay out of pocket for one or two snacks everyday and/or stop by the grocery/hire garden grocer.

 

[poohbear13]

I guess my question would be are you going just for the food ? Some people like to do deluxe because they can pretty much eat at any place they want and know that they will just have tips to pay.

If you are going to be going with kids and want to get lots of stuff in, I would recomend regular dining because if you go deluxe you will be running to reservation to reservation with very little free time inbetween.

Just my thought and experience last time I had gone deluxe

 

[mommyof3princess27]

We are going Deluxe for our trip and hope for FD. I have planned on a sitdown breakfast and a sitdown dinner. $34 a day per adult for 2 sitdown and one cs(thats how we chose to use our credits) with 2 snacks, is quite a deal for us! FD alone will save us $900

 

[wuzzy6]

I want to know if it is worth doing it or not. Thanks for the help.

This is a very subjective topic, and there is no one-size-fits-all response. I can tell you why upgrading from the regular DP to the DxDP is worth it for me and my family, but it may be different for everyone else.

We are taking our two youngest children in August - staying in a TP view room at the Contemporary, and we upgraded the Free Dining Plan to the Deluxe. The cost for us to upgrade was $680, but our total savings on the dining plan alone was nearly $1100. (Had we taken all four of our children, we would have saved almost $1600!)

Now that the "savings" part has been addressed, I can tell you the reason why it's a great value for us...

We love food. All of us - the whole family - we are a bunch of foodies. We absolutely will eat $34/day per person in wonderfully delicious food. (The $34 number is what it cost per person, per day, to upgrade from the regular FD to deluxe.) To us, that's like paying OOP for one fabulous meal per day and getting two extra fabulous meals per day PLUS two yummy snacks per day for FREE! That's a great value to us, and it's totally worth it!

I will admit, too, that I'm really excited about not having to budget meals while we're there.

Anyway, hopefully I haven't bored you to tears with my ramblings. The bottom line is you have to do what you think is best for you and your family. What is valuable to me may not be of any significance to you - doesn't make it good or bad, just different!

 

[nene0182]

We also upgraded from the DDP to the DxDP. For us, it came down to the fact we started planning for the trip with a budget in mind. When we first planned our trip, we priced what it would be for 6 nights/7 days with DDP at the resort we wanted to stay at and were prepared to pay that amount. When FD was released with the savings, we were able to add 1 more day onto our stay and upgrade to the DxDP for around the same amount. My husband is a huge eater and I'm not far behind him in that aspect. So, for us paying that $34/day extra wasn't a big deal. Plus, I know some say its more budget friendly to not use the DDP at all and that you are constantly worrying about "getting your money worth" But, for us personally we didnt want to worry about anything at all.

It really is a personal choice though that each person needs to make for themselves and base it on their own personal eating and spending habits