Free Dining, why do some NOT like it?

[Lil ole moi]

I am beyond grateful that Disney offers free dining. It saves us so much money and allows us to vacation at Disney every year. Without out it, I'm not sure we could go yearly. THANK YOU DISNEY!!! I can't imagine why people think the quality has gone downhill because of it. We have been going since 1990 and we continue to love and appreciate our table service dining experiences.

 

[quandrea]

I have used FD several times..,.the first time we were at POP and it saved us a whopping $230...better than nothing. The next time I used it I was staying at Pop, again, and by myself. It was almost a wash, saved about $50, but did it basically for convenience.

But truly?? Have you ever been to WDW for the first week of summer free dining? It's a nightmare. The first time it happened to me, I had already booked my DVC stay at BWV...over 10 months prior. Then, at about 3 months before our departure day, Disney came out with the free dining offer. It wasn't that I was peeved that I couldn't get it. It was the fact that I had planned my stay to be ending when free dining started, but Disney upped the start date by a week....I arrived the day before it started. The parks and restaurants were zoos..hugely crowded.
Last year, I had to book my stay to start the end of July in order to avoid that happening again...as it was, FD started the day before we left.

Because guests tend to eat at places they wouldn't normally eat at (due to costs), the menus changed. More and more people ordered the highest priced items. But, everyone still says that isn't so....but why haven't the lower priced things been taken off the menus??

Free dining does make it harder to get ADRs...for the above reason. People that would have been happy eating an occasional table service meal are now booking one for every day, rather than eating counter service meals with one or two TS meals. Does this mean they are a 'lower class' type family? Absolutely not. It means, though, that those who normally (for whatever reason) wouldn't book ADRs are now booking them. Which, in turn, makes it harder to get ADRs unless you book waaaaay in advance.

I am not saying that free dining in the devil incarnate...it isn't. And I am not saying that it isn't a good value...for some families it is.
It all depends on the size of your family, your eating style, and the level resort you are staying in.

The dining plan, as a whole, has changed dining at WDW. And free dining changes things when it is offered. Doesn't mean it's all bad, but it does change things.

This is what just happened to us. We are DVCers heading down in Sept and Dec. Both our trips will fall during free dining now. We planned 11months out for a quieter period. We've made our ADRs and will use our TIW discount. I'm not looking forward to the crowds now, nor the busier restaurants, where we'll be rushed out. We're thinking of moving a few of our meals to non dining plan restaurants and using DVC discounts and AAA discounts instead of the TIW just to avoid some of the mayhem. We'd never get the dining plan b/c I'd never eat all that dessert, I like signature dining and my toddlers and dd 7 don't like the kids' meals. They often order adult food or apps and share. Too many limitations. Disney wouldn't be pushing the dp if it didn't make them money.

 

[JMLBrats]

Please forgive me if this kind of response has been posted before...I only read the first page of response....
Anyway I think for me the main reason at first i didn't like "free dining" is because it used to be that the end of the summer into september was completely dead and I mean DEAD at the parks...you could just walk onto any ride. That doesn't happen any more because free dining brings enough people to make the parks at least a little bit busy...: ) Selfish to think and feel that way, maybe but it's true...Nice job to Disney for figuring out how to bring people in during the slowest time of the year....

Also, I do feel that the whole restaurant experience is not what it used to be..not just the food being worse (or not quite as good) but you used to be able to pick up the phone an hour before you wanted to eat and get a reservation at nearly all the on-site restaurants. Forget that now. I mean who really wants to plan dinner months ahead of time? But now to eat any where decent you kind of have to....

Anyway, I'm over it now, but that was initially my feelings about the whole thing. Thats not to say that we haven't done free dining cause we have and have enjoyed it....but it did get kind of annoying after a while and now we just feel that it's not worth it for the stress that it brings. We'd rather wing it and take our chances or actually (omg) go off property to eat! It's just less stressful that way.

 

[SnipsNSnails]

Saved us $200+ and my parents and grandparents $750 combined. How do I figure that? Easy, we would have bought the DDP anyway. Why? Because that's how WE want to spend OUR vacation $$. So when FD came out, I called and the price was $200+ less than the previous price which included a 30% room discount pin + we got the memory book. So obviously I'm going to choose to pay less to get more than I was getting before.

 

[k5thbeatle]

We don't like Free Dining because it is Disney canabalizing what had been really nice dining experiences in order to fill rooms.

It used to be, for example, that Hagen-Daz ice cream bars were offered at quick service places as a dessert option. When has anyone seen that since free dining and DDP started? The only dessert option at any quick service place is a gross cake in a cup. Even if one wanted to pay for a Hagen-Daz ice cream bar, one can't. Why? Because then Disney would be offering things for OOP payment that can't be had on DDP and Free Dining.

Because of all the free snack credits, the chocolate chip cookies have almost no chocolate in them anymore.

Because of free dining and DDP, what used to be a lovely and romantic dining experience at CG is now a joke with yokels in cargo shorts and flip flops and misbehaving kids everywhere.

The list goes on.

I agree with what I believe this post is trying to get at. It's not necessarily a dollars and cents issue for us and posters like this. It's the overall decrease in the quality and experience of dining at Disney now.

...Also, I do feel that the whole restaurant experience is not what it used to be..not just the food being worse (or not quite as good) but you used to be able to pick up the phone an hour before you wanted to eat and get a reservation at nearly all the on-site restaurants. Forget that now. I mean who really wants to plan dinner months ahead of time? But now to eat any where decent you kind of have to....

Another good point...now you have to have your whole trip planned around dining reservations if you want to eat at a ts restaurant. Who knows what one wants to do or how plans might change but now you must plan this out 180 days to eat at a ts.

 

[KB24]

I know there's a lot of reasons to down FD - but I will say this to put things into perspective for a lot of folks on this board who only know Disneyworld as a Disney experience.

The food and options at Disneyworld, even as it is, even with the changes in quality, availability, and other factors is LIGHT years ahead of what we have in California at Disneyland.

 

[PrincessTiffany]

Princess Tiffany, thank you for responding to my post. Your figures are a great example of what is confusing me. How did free dining reduce the price of your 2 rooms from $5000 to $3800 (which I assume is how you computed $1200 savings)? Free dining just gives free food, not room reduction.

We are a family of 6 and we always get 2 connecting rooms at a value resort for 8 nights with 7 day tickets. Rack rate/full price for us for a vacation of this type at WDW is roughly $5,000.00. With a FD discount it is about $3,800.00. Ever before there was a Disney Dining Plan, let alone free dining, we always at at least 1 table service/character meal per day - yes, even dessert, gasp! And, also, I'm one of those women that isn't going to cook on vacation - I'm a stay at home mom and cooking and cleaning is my full time job and WDW is my vacation from that. So . . . .

Free Dining saves us around $1,200.00

4/3 deal saves us around $740.00
Room only discount saves us around $650.00.

Seems to me that free dining costs you about $300 more in room rack rates for 2 value rooms for 8 nites (I picked random dates in October) rather than a special offer on room reduction. Not a lot of savings for a family of 6 vs free dining.

So, it appears to me that your $1200 is what you are counting as OOP food costs if you did not have free dining - is that how you are computing the $1200?

Actually, the computation would require subtracting the $300 higher room costs due to free dining, which reduces your "savings" to $900, which if divided by 8 days = $112.50 per day food costs for OOP, divided by 6 people = about $20 per person per day (I rounded up for easy division!). $20 a day per person for food is easily done, but I agree, not what I would want. So, I can see that free dining is the best value for your family. However, I still can't get to the $1200 savings?

I think your math is the only thing confusing here. If I book a WDW vacation for my family it's roughly $5,000.00, with a free dining discount it's about $3,800.00, so we are saving $1,200.00 over rack rate. I am going to purchase the Disney Dining Plan, free dining or not, and the cost of the DDP for my family is about $1,400.00 and with free dining at the values I have to pay almost $200.00 to upgrade - therefore the savings is $1,200.00 off my package - not just my room. A room discount barely saves us half that amount. If you want to talk about paying for your food out-of-pocket vs. DDP, then we are saving money there also. It's not hard to understand.

As for your comment about people knowing if there are other vacation destinations out there other than Disney, well, yes, I'm perfectly aware of other vacation destinations. What makes you think that my family, or any other family on these boards, don't take other vacations? We take at least three 7 to 10 day vacations per year and two or three "long weekend" vacations per year. Disney is only one of those vacations each year and getting an incredible discount on my Disney vacation each year with free dining leaves me more money to budget for our other vacations.

In the last couple of years, not including our annual WDW trip, we have been to, Mexico, Seattle, Gatlinburg/Smokey Mountains, Washington D.C., Atlanta to see the King Tut exhibit and the Georgia Aquarium and Southern California and right now we are planning a trip over Thanksgiving to either Hawaii or Jackson Hole, Wyoming. And for the record, I've been to Europe twice and I can't even purchase our airfare to Europe for the price I can take all 6 of us to Disney for 8 nights with resort, room and food included.

Also, to everyone complaining about food quality/choice, we just returned from WDW and we ate at Ohana, Tusker House, Mama Melrose's, Crystal Palace, Chef Mickey's, 1900 Park Fare, Coral Reef, Boma and Whispering Canyon. We had great service, plenty of menu/food options and tasty food

 

[disneygal58]

Yikes! I don't understand critiquing other's vacation choices and the money that they do or do not spend upon them. When my daughters were growing up we visited WDW once a year - I was a single mom on a tight budget. Those trips were magic to us. For the amount of money that we payed, we would not have been able to travel to Europe. As they aged we mixed it up a bit and cruised to the Caribbean. I am fortunate that I have been able to travel extensively at least twice a year since seeing them through high school and college. This autumn we are returning to Disney to celebrate two college graduations, the fact that they are now in their "grown-up" jobs - nursing and teaching, a marriage to a wonderful man for me and an engagement for youngest DD. We chose Disney because it represents all that is magical and holds so many great memories for us. It is more than just a vacation destination for many. And I am extremely grateful that my daughters never grew tired of vacationing with me.
As far as Free Dining goes, I am thrilled to try it. We paid for the dining plan on our last visit 5 years ago and I realize that it has changed, but the savings is helpful and it affords us the opportunity to try more TS restaurants than we would have without it.
So, enjoy your Disney trips. Enjoy your lives. Enjoy our differences and that which unites us.

 

[Shih-Tzu]

We have been there and had the free dining plan, and last year we took the room discount instead...Although we enjoyed the free dining, we found it easier not to be tied to reservations/timings. Another reason we changed last year is becaue DH is diabetic, and getting ADRs for times that he has to eat wouldn't work well (i.e. needs to eat between 5 and 6pm but I knew from previous experience that sometimes we couldn't get ADRs until 7:00/7:30) so we would have had to get a snack to keep things balanced before the meal and then part of the ADR meal would have been wasted. Eating too early also throws sugars, etc out of balance. I remember there were one or two ADRs that we had when on the DDP where we had to wait quite a while past our ADR time (Coral Reef was one, can't remember the other) so we play safe instead of sorry.
The DDP would be ideal for families as it was easy....

 

[su_A_ve]

I have an off site condo booked, air, rental car, food and tickets for $3200. I just looked for on site and for 2 queen beds it will be $3200. Now I have to add air, rental and MVMCP tickets for a total of $4200. Now way can I justify staying on site.

gas, tolls, parking, and worse - time to get to/from the parks...

You can save even more, if you stay at a $40 room outside in the 'maingate' area....

 

[GinnyEmma]

gas, tolls, parking, and worse - time to get to/from the parks...

You can save even more, if you stay at a $40 room outside in the 'maingate' area....

Some offsite properties are closer to some parks than on site. The buses suck and are always slower than driving even if staying on site. Gas is negligible. I don't pay tolls on any of the roads we travel on. What is there? One toll road? Parking is $14 a day. One year we paid $169 for a beautiful 2 bedroom condo for a week where we could see the illumination fireworks. I think that made up for parking.

 

[fla4fun]

I can't speak for anyone else, but I don't book free dining, because as a solo, a good room discount will always be cheaper than free dining. However, this is not the case for everyone. It really pays to run the numbers for all the offers available when you want to book and see which one really is the best deal for your family. There's no "one size fits all" when it comes to booking a WDW vacation!

 

[aubriee]

I can't speak for anyone else, but I don't book free dining, because as a solo, a good room discount will always be cheaper than free dining. However, this is not the case for everyone. It really pays to run the numbers for all the offers available when you want to book and see which one really is the best deal for your family. There's no "one size fits all" when it comes to booking a WDW vacation!

Same here! For a solo or couple the room discounts at a moderate or deluxe will pretty much always beat free dining, plus I'm an AP holder so don't need those 2 day park tickets or the $99.00 Memory book that is required for free dining. I currently have trips book for Sept and also for Nov/Dec that fall within the free dining dates. I am not using free dining for either trip. Instead I'm using the bounceback deals I booked when I was there this past May. I get 35% off my moderate resort and am using the TiW card to get 20% off my meals. For me it's a much better deal than free dining.

 

[GinnyEmma]

We also tend to rent points when staying on site, which far exceeds the discount. Disney food is average at best, so it isn't a motivator here. I mean how many little choc. and carrot cakes does a person need in a week?

 

[2manypets]

We'd like to try the non-DDP restaurants this trip, so a room discount works perfectly. Besides, the basic DDP is not right for us, we prefer an appie rather than a dessert. The deluxe DDP also doesn't work, too much food for us. I gained 10 pounds on our last trip!

 

[goofy4tink]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again......it's a no brainer. Sit down, run the figures. Compare apples to apples though. You have to have a set list of where you will eat, and your expected costs to eat there. You need to compare costs of park passes.....you may not need them, or want what is part of a pkg. You need to compare rates for the room...you may get a cheaper, non-free dining offer. When you are comparing dining costs, be sure to include the tips you are going to be paying with the dining plan. It always amazes me to find how many people forget that item...and it adds up.

When you get to the end of your 'study', then, and only then, can you make an educated decision. I do it every single time I go...I compare my dining costs with DDP or oop with my TiW card. Or, in your cases, with the free dining vs discounted room rates and regular dining.
No one plan is going to work for 100% of the guests, 100% of the time. Just because someone takes advantage of free dining doesn't make them an idiot or a cheap-skate. Or, just because someone chooses to pay for dining doesn't make them stupid.

All I know is that since the dining plan, as a whole, came into being, the dining experience has changed for me. I go to the same restaurants on every trip. I do add and subract from my list each time. But there are some that we do every single time.....50's, Crystal Palace, Boma, Goofy's breakfast at BC. I used to do CMs every trip but not anymore. In fact, I just cancelled my CMs ADR in Oct.....it just isn't the same anymore. So, with my going to the same restaurants on every trip, since '99, I can pretty much know if the experience has changed.....and it has. Food options have been narrowed. Some of my more expensive favorites are no longer offered. I find the quality has suffered... not a ton, but somewhat.

So, even though there are some of you who say that dining hasn't changed at all, I have to disagree, based on my own, personal experiences. And that's all I can say......what has been my own experience. Obviously, others are going to have had different experiences. BUT...if we see a vast preponderance of people posting pretty much the same type experience, then we have to give it some credance.

 

[GinnyEmma]

Nice logical post! I agree wholeheartedly. You have to compare everything. We don't usually eat dessert or drink anything but water. So those things don't figure into our savings. Everyone has different experiences.

I also agree with your statement re. the change in disney dining.

 

[WaltD4Me]

My biggest thing with the DDP or FD is I just don't want to have to go around worrying about getting my money's worth. Even with FD, if I'm paying rack rate, I'll want to make FD worth it and we just don't go to WDW that way. I make a few ADR's when we go, but I also will cancel them if it doesn't fit into our plans when we get there. For example....we had an ADR at O'Hana's one time, the kids just weren't all that hungry and were having too much fun at MK and didn't want to leave. I called and cancelled and we ate on the patio at Casey's. Another time we had an early ADR for Tusker House, but we slept in a little longer and no one wanted to rush over to AK. We had muffins and fruit in the room and everyone was a little happier with a bit more sleep time. I like that flexibility. If I was on DDP or had FD I would have made everyone run out the door and would have probably wound up with a bunch of grumps the rest of the day.

 

[Missytara]

When I go by myself, a room discount always pays out better in more ways than one.

I get a better discount with room, then free dining for one.

I don't feel the need to have to go to dinner every single night; I can catch munchies at the bar instead and have a much more leisurely experience like I did last year. I did an eight day, no parks, all resorts trip last year.

This year, FD makes a lot of senses, because I am traveling with two young couples and their two young children; with the money savings from the free dining promotion and two rooms, it makes perfect sense as far as savings - and they are happy their meals are essentially already paid for.

I didn't get them the PH pass, which saved more money and did a one park/one resort dining each night - with a character meal to end off the week. It worked out perfectly!!!!

 

[Don Disney]

We've never been on free dining (never fits our schedule), but I do believe that if the park has attracted customers for free dining, the quality of the food has to be down since its free!! Only makes sense - why buy quality meats at 2.99lb when you can get discounted meat for .50lb when you're giving it away for free anyway.

Not so sure of that. If you buy 30,000 pounds of quality meats,a substantial discount is more than likely;so ,the MORE that is bought,the more the discount!What supplier would'nt want to sell such a massive quantity of product-meat or otherwise?Ask the people who supply Disney-I can assure you,they are making big bucks,and Disney is saving big bucks! As for our family of 4,We love FD!The TS meals especially are just part of the whole experience.We have done 10 nights x3 during FD,and are'nt tired of it yet.The thing with us is,and many others,is that we have to eat,but don't have to sleep in "deluxe"quarters.So FD is the better deal to us!