Free dining upgrade questions.

[peimikes]

We managed to get free dining, there was very limited room selection for our dates. We ended up booking into ASM so we get 12 nights or 72 credits for QS dining for three of us. We have had DDP at moderates several times, and even POP many years ago. Last year we had FD at POP, but paid the extra to upgrade to DDP from QSDP not sure if we got our money out of the TS credits. We have been trying to figure out if the added $600 plus the loss of 36 QS credits is worth it or should we keep the free plan and just pay out of pocket for the few table service restaurants. Just wondering if any of you have done this before and how you felt it worked out. We should have kept or receipts from our TS meals last year and crunched the numbers better.

 

[ebradley23]

Enter your info in this site, and it will crunch the numbers for you. It's very accurate. I used it to double check my math (I found out about I after I had spent hours number crunching), and it gave the me the same results down to the exact restaurants we should pay OOP.

http://www.distripplanner.com

 

[DisneyArie]

I'm co-signing with @ebradley23. That site is amazing!

My family will also be using the free dining promotion. We are staying at a moderate. Honestly, we would have preferred the quick service plan and paid out of pocket for the one table meal we want (Crystal Palace...and that's only to get a pic in front of the castle early in the am before the crowds). My family is full of picky eaters so even looking through the menus trying to find something was challenging. Burgers will probably be our daily choice so the regular dining plan is a bit of a waste for us, but it was actually cheaper to book with FD than a room only discount so we are sticking with it. The good thing about the quick service plan is you don't have to stress about ADRs.

 

[SunnieRN]

The best way to tell if upgrading makes sense, is to decide which restaurants you don't want to miss going to and realistically add up the totals of what your family would eat.

We got free dining for our next trip, but realistically we never all order dessert and we never buy my 10 year old grandmunchkin an adult meal. Mainly because he prefers chicken nuggets and burgers.

 

[momof2gr8kids]

Don't forget to add in the tips when comparing the price difference to upgrade.

 

[vratiana]

We are staying at Pop in September with free QSDP. I debated upgrading as well. Here is why I decided not to upgrade:
1. We would lose half of our 56 QS credits. That is 28 credits for my family of 4 (staying 7 nights). Assuming a minimal value of only $10 per credit that is almost $300 in value we would be giving up.
2. The cost to upgrade 2 adults and 2 kids for 7 days is a little over $300.
3. For 7 Table service meals, (or 6 if we picked a signature) I estimated $120 per meal for 4 people so we would pay $25 per meal for tips. 6 x $25= $150.
So, that left me with a total "cost" of $750 for the six meals
(Upgrade+losing 28 QS credits+tips)

At this point I had to decide if these 6 meals were worth it. When I tried to decide which restaurants I wanted, I decided we really only had 2 or 3 must do table service. If I just paid for these meals out of pocket, I would pay about $100 per meal. ($30 entree + $15 appetizer or salad + $20 for 2 kids meals + $10 dessert + $20 tip= $95 ) This is because I know we would order differently if we were ordering on the DDP vs. paying out of pocket. We would share a dessert, not drink soda and my husband and I would prefer to split one entree and one appetizer (or a salad) instead of 2 entrees.

We are going during Food & Wine and we love to snack around he world. I will use QS credits for 3 Food & Wine items when it makes sense financially. I know we won't want to sit down for a table service meal on those Epcot days. Because we chose the park hopper to get Free Dining, I foresee us hopping over to Epcot several times in addition to our Epcot days. Taking all that into consideration, we have decided to stick with the Quick Service plan. At this point we only have 2 table service restaurants planned. Planning is so much easier and park touring is more flexible with fewer table service meals. I really feel a lot less stressed knowing that I won't have to worry about getting our timing right to make multiple ADRs. The only sacrifice we are making is character meals. We probably would have booked a few character meals if we were on the regular DDP. For the cost I just don't think they are worth the money OOP. We will try to make up for it by having more time for meet and greets.