Free Dining vs. Room Discount

[ninahbear]

I think I have seen some people say they feel a room discount is a better deal than free dining. Can someone please explain the reasoning?

 

[ratlenhum]

I think it depends on the size of your travel party, the length of your stay, and what level resort you stay at. Last year we were 2 adults and one child as far as the dining plan goes. There was a public offer for free dining, but I got a PIN for 40% off a deluxe. We were originally booked at a mod, but after the 40% pin we were able to book AKL for just a small amount more than what POR would cost. The savings from free dining didn't even come close. We were there 10 days.

 

[Lynne G]

Everyone has their own preferences and life situations. Most of us do the math, can we eat the way we like with a room discount that is the same or cheaper than rack rate with free dining? Most of us choose the lower priced package of these 2 on site choices: OOP meals and discounted rooms and maybe even discount tickets versus free food, rack rate room, and at least a 2 day not discounted ticket.

For me, unless the room discount is around 40%, I would take the free dining discount. Though I can get slightly discounted tickets, The free dining discount works for our family, and is a good discount on the overall package of room, tickets, and meals.

 

[TheRatPack]

Some people don't mind paying a bit more to avoid free dining crowds too. Free dining makes it almost impossible to get a dining reservation. Our resort of choice isn't available for free dining this year.....over the past 7-8 years we've always been able to get it during the FDing promotion

Disney did send us a PIN code this year though.....our first one ever!!! So we priced out paying for our own dining plan, and going later in the fall and it came out to be only 400.00 more.....so we booked it. Free dining would have been cheaper, but really not by that much with our 30% PIN.

 

[litlpixie]

Some people don't mind paying a bit more to avoid free dining crowds too. Free dining makes it almost impossible to get a dining reservation. Our resort of choice isn't available for free dining this year.....over the past 7-8 years we've always been able to get it during the FDing promotion

Disney did send us a PIN code this year though.....our first one ever!!! So we priced out paying for our own dining plan, and going later in the fall and it came out to be only 400.00 more.....so we booked it. Free dining would have been cheaper, but really not by that much with our 30% PIN.

Same here! I'm just glad I got the 30% - it's better than nothing. We'll be going a week BEFORE FD starts, so I'm hoping that will possibly help with crowds

 

[patty57]

Another factor is where you stay. 30% or more off on a Deluxe ends up being a better discount than free dining usually. I think free dining works better for Values and Mods.

 

[MartinaC]

I agree with a lot of the above answers. There is a lot of reasons one would be better than another.
For my family DH, DS16, DS17 and myself free dining is a better deal. Because at there ages they are considered adults in ticket prices and meals. So to pay for 4 adult meals at one of the WDW restaurants is pricey. The price of the discount of the room will be lower than what we could save in meals. Now when they were 9 and under and considered children and ordered off the kids menu the room discount was the way we would go. So it really depends on the size and ages of your party as to which is better for your party.

 

[Zim]

For me, it's just two of us. I signed my DD up for the YES program for the discount tickets and did the value resort with AAA and saved that way.

I could still get "free dining" by adding two base tickets on my hotel purchase to save for later... but that would be to the tune of $430. With a couple days in Sea World, and wanting a few TS meals the QS package won't offer it doesn't make dining entirely free for us for the 7 nights we'll be there. I don't think it warrants the cost, so we'll stick with hoping they release discounts off the rack rate that might better our AAA rate.

I'm envious for all the rack rate discount pins people are getting!

 

[focusondisney]

It is only my DH & I traveling. We stay @ YC in a lagoon view club level room. We booked with the 30% off promo. We are saving $188 per night Tues - Thurs & $200 on Fri night. So $764 total for 4 nights. Free dining wasn't offered then, but if it was, we would have saved $103 per night ($51.50 per person) or $412 for 4 nights. So for a small party in an expensive room, the per cent off discount is better. YMMV.

 

[corndog]

I definitely do not favor "free" dining. In addition to the reasons stated above, it is quite a different thing to look at the cost of the dining plan compared to what the "retail" cost is of what you can get under the dining plan, versus the cost of the dining plan compared to what we would normally expect to spend on meals.

Yes, if we all get an appetizer and dessert with every single meal, then maybe you can say you are saving something, but who does that?

 

[TheRatPack]

Appetizers don't come with the meals anymore....so that's not even included in the cost. I find that the dining plan has really changed what we see as 'budget Disney'. We don't eat out a lot at home and when we do it's somewhere low key like Applebee's where we usually spend 60.00-70.00. So when we paid OOP for our favorite sit down meals last year it was a real eye opener. Our meal at Garden Grill was 270.00!!!! It was good but not that good....so unless you're on the dining plan, it's almost impossible to afford these sit down meals, even if you can afford them, they are way overpriced for what you get. So while the dining plan may not be a great deal if you're just looking at the 30.00 a day or 50.00 a day.....whatever plan you're on.....it is a great deal if you consider what Disney charges for these meals. I realize they are out to make money, it's a business....but some of the buffet prices are way out of hand.

We were watching a cruise show last week and they were talking about the 'expensive' restaurants on this one cruise. Saying it was roughly 20.00 per person.....and I just laughed, at Disney you can't get a QS meal, drink and a dessert for that.

 

[dhardawa]

I was considering buying the dining plan this trip so I did a ton of math. I compared what we would actually eat (i.e. no desserts, packing snacks and breakfast, etc.) to the cost of the plan and determined that I would save about $50 buying the dining plan. We are staying at POFQ for 8 nights with three adults and one child. The dining plan cost would have been $1343.68 whereas a 30% room discount (which I didn't have, but assuming I got one) would have been around $480. So, for us, the free dining was way better.

 

[DisDaze]

I definitely do not favor "free" dining. In addition to the reasons stated above, it is quite a different thing to look at the cost of the dining plan compared to what the "retail" cost is of what you can get under the dining plan, versus the cost of the dining plan compared to what we would normally expect to spend on meals.

Yes, if we all get an appetizer and dessert with every single meal, then maybe you can say you are saving something, but who does that?

It's all about the numbers. A free dining discount saves us about $1,500.00 off rack rates and a room discount at a value resort with 2 rooms, where we mostly stay, is going to save us about $700.00 (and that's assuming you can get the 40% off code for values, everthing in the recent past for the values has been 25% off room discounts or less, so that would only save us about $250.00 vs. a $700.00 FD discount). I know that our family is going to eat more than $700.00 (let alone $250.00) worth of food during a 8 or 9 night stay. We don't split meals and we like dessert. It's a no brainer for us.

 

[JustCallMeMommy]

I have had it work out both ways - on a 14 night stay during peek season, free dining at a moderate saved us a bundle (no room discounts were available, so I can't compare prices). On our next trip, we had a choice and went with the room discount on a club level deluxe room. We would never have paid rack rate for that room. We did still pay for a dining plan out of pocket.