Free dining - would it lure your back?

[Mrspeaks]

we are planning our first trip off property at Bonnent Creek. We are traveling with my parents and I can't beleive how much money we can save. I'm looking at renting off vrbo. We are going in September and historically that's been a free dining promotion. Would a free dining promotion be a big enough value to pay resort rack rates? We were probably looking at a moderate around $200 a night. Big difference than splitting ~$120 with my parents. Thanks!

 

[powellrj]

We have been going to the food and wine in September and have still found off-site to be a better buy for us.

 

[loves to dive]

No, I don't do the dining plan, free or otherwise since we just don't eat that way and normally the discounted rooms come out better for us. Now we don't stay off property unless you count Dolphin/Swan but it never factors into my decision.

 

[Amanda999]

Not for us. I've done the math - using cost for the meals/desserts/snacks we'd actually want to eat (dessert with every meal just isn't us, nor getting steak - I like chicken or a cheap salad!) - and even staying onsite with room only discount works better for us. And we rarely need the park tickets. Also, DH refuses to stay in one hotel room for the 4 of us, so we have to book 2 rooms if onsite anyway (with FD we once did a 2nd room with a huge bounceback discount, and still we didn't save money, and had to worry if the rooms would be connecting. Don't have that issue with a townhouse or condo offsite).

But I can see other families - who share one room happily, and eat enough of the food to equal the room only discount - who would love FD onsite.

 

[Amanda999]

We were probably looking at a moderate around $200 a night. Big difference than splitting ~$120 with my parents. Thanks!

Check the rack rates for Sep at mousesavers: in September POR pool view (I think that was the cheapest they had for FD last year, but I could be mistaken) is $240/$263 with tax weekday/weekend Sep1-17 (higher afterwards). If you stack the Orbitz 15% discount on the likely fall room discount (and I have Orbitz Visa so another 10% or so in Orbucks), you get to around 45% off. If there are only 2 in the room, that's about $130 off. If you were going to buy park tickets anyway, that could work financially. But to be at Bonnet creek in a multi-bedroom condo, with washer/dryer, full frig for beverages/leftovers/your parents own bedroom (no worry about connecting rooms)? Might be worth passing up FD.

Oh- the point I was trying to make was that I doubt you can get a FD mod for room (rack rate) for $200 (with tax) a night. They seemed to limit FD rooms to the categories above the cheapest 1 or 2 categories.

 

[Bete]

If you stay in the same Disney room with your parents then free dining would get me to stay onsite. That would be 4 adults with free dining. I believe you will get a slight up charge for four adults in the same room, but it's nominal.

The cost for 4 adults on the regular dining plan would offset the cost of the Disney room. Then, you have to consider you get to do fastpass plus reservations sooner being an onsite guest. Add to that you have use of Disney transportation to get back and forth from the parks. You will pay a parking fee being an offsite guest getting into a Disney park. Also, you get extra magic hours to the parks. Next, you get to enjoy the Disney dining experience. I find it fun to dine at Disney. Even as an older adult I like the character dining. Now, you still have to consider a gratuity with your table service meals. Your parents would probably appreciate a rest in the park by enjoying a table service meal each day. Finally, you get to have the total Disney experience being onsite.

If your parents don't have your energy it will be much easier for them to go back to resort if you are staying onsite.

 

[momof2gr8kids]

Most likely the FD promo will require you to add on Park Hopper or WP&M option as well. If that's not something you normally would get, then might not be worth it.

Go to the Disney site and price out a package for all of you at a MOD in a garden or water view with tickets and hopper option. Add the tip amount then compare to WBC with tickets you could get at a discount from undercover tourist, rental car, parking, food. It probably will work out close to the same - will just depend what kind of vacation you want.

Our last two trips were with FD and when I did the math it was cheaper for us onsite (especially with 4 Disney "adults", but not by much. However, not having to look at the prices on menus during FD was awesome! And we definitely wouldn't have done character meals or Yachtsman's, Ohana's, etc. without it. My regular life I have to watch our budget closely, say no to kids lots for things they want, we very rarely go out for dinner as a family. At Disney with FD it was a true vacation to me mainly, to leave that existence and not worry about a $200 dinner bill! Not having our own space for our Disney vacations wasn't too much of an issue as we are usually so zonked everyone's going to bed at same time!

For me, it probably would entice me to stay onsite, but for dh he'd rather have Bonnet Creek. But then he's not the budget guy ... or the main cook .... or travel planner. So for him either is a great vacation.

 

[lindsmom]

We appreciate the space too much to even been in the same price ballpark as on property - at the least, we would need a villa, and the cost of that would not be balanced by free dining.

 

[KristinU]

It really depends on whether or not you would eat at restaurants breakfast, lunch, and dinner if you were staying offsite. Being high maintenance eaters, we really value having a kitchen when we vacation and only eat at restaurants a handful of times. We've done the dining plan a few different ways in the past and it just never makes sense for us. But that's us. Your dining habits may be entirely different.

But if you're thinking 4 adults in a single hotel room with free dining compared to a villa with separate bedrooms and paying for meals OOP, I think it really is an apples and oranges comparison since the accommodations would be vastly different. We really like having space to relax and unwind that doesn't involve sitting on a hotel bed.

 

[kandb]

We are a family of 5 (2 adults, 2 Disney adults and 1 child). We got free dining with a bounceback for this coming August. Yes, it saves us a bundle, yes, I know we are paying rack rate (which I think is under $200/night for CBR) BUT for us to feed 5 people everyday, it is a GREAT DEAL. I know it might not be for everyone but it is for us. We love going to Ohana's, BOG, Cape May Café etc. These sit down dinner's alone, cost us over $200, so getting a counter service for each of us and a snack (the kids get large Starbucks frappacinos' that cost around $6 with their snack credits) and our free mugs is a great deal. WE LOVE FREE DINNING. I know some say it's not free, but it is free for us. Even $200/night for a moderate staying on site is NOT outrageous.

 

[TamaraQT]

Yes it would lure me. At least lure me enough to take a look and calculate the cost. But of course that would be based on a 10 day vacation. I would spend
4 days/3 nights onsite with Free Dining offer. Then I would spend the other nights off-site and No Disney at all. This is what works for me and my family. Disney only gets a few of our vacation days. There is far too much fun in Orlando to spend it all on Disney only. So yes, Free Dining would justify using 4days/3nites of our vacation.

 

[halfpintpeggy]

No, we would much rather have the space that Bonnet Creek provides...& it's a gorgeous resort!

 

[TigerlilyAJ]

It's a tough problem, in that my family of six (two adults, one full-price junior, two children, one toddler) is getting to the point where the price of DDP exceeds any room discount. And we want to lots of character meals and Hoop Dee Doo, so *IF* staying at a Disney property, we should pay rack rate and get free dining, rather than take a room discount and pay OOP for food. Our junior definitely eats more than enough to get our money's worth (unlike a friend whose 11yo daughter wouldn't eat enough even on the kid's plan).
But again, we are *six*. So we need space and a separate bedroom to put some to sleep before others. I'm starting to feel crazy for considering paying 2.5x more per night (almost $200 more with tax!) to stay in the Cabins at FW to get a DDP instead of pouncing on the Doubletree 2-bdrm suites that are twice the size of the Cabins and no one has to sleep in the living room.
Parking for non-Disney* hotel guests is only $20/day, and you have in/out privileges. It also amuses me to see people in FD or Disney/Non-Disney hotel discussions always talk about Disney transportation like it's the best ever, when in plenty of other contexts (including DLR vets like me trying out WDW) people talk about lots of frustrations with delays and just the raw time using the system eats up in a day.
I don't understand the idea of not looking at prices on the menus as gratuity is NOT included in most cases. So, I need to calculate the $30-40 I need to pay OOP at every TS meal.
There is opportunity in FD, and I would definitely crunch some numbers.

*Considering how Bonnet Creek and other hotels like Doubletree are within the Disney perimeter, I refuse to call them "off site," like they're a longer distance away and require mmore time and effort to get to the parks. You can see DHS fireworks from some buildings! WBC is right next to CBR! That's not "off site." It's just non-Disney.

 

[dja14]

I really, really tried to make it work for us. We are a family of 5 and the kids are all adults and big adults at that. We would have to have two rooms or scruntch into a deluxe room or cabin. With most of the family being over 6 ft, we really need space. Still, if I could have gotten it to make sense money wise they would be scruntched. I just couldn't do it.
For one, I wasn't positive free dining would be when we are going. I was afraid my offsite choice would be gone by when I knew. (which it would have, the condo is completely booked, so I would have had to search more, hoping for a deal) For two, we don't normally eat sit down every day anyway. A few sit downs in 10 days is okay. We snack a lot. For three, when we stay we are about 5-10 minutes from Animal Kingdom (closer to 5) It's a little further to MK but since we pass lots of Disney hotels I figure it is not much further anyway.
In the end the price difference was a hundred dollars or so if I remember (even with parking). Having a set place I knew was a good deal in advance was worth more to me. In the end this time we decided to go to Universal, so really glad we went offsite anyway.
It has made money sense for my SIL and a close friend both. One was a family of 4, 3a1c, and they stayed in Movies. They eat sit downs everyday anyway and are only in room to sleep. The kids did say no one slept well, they were crowded. The other friend is a family of 5, 2a,1small disney adult, and 1child, 1 baby. They stayed in a value as well. They typically vacation in a rv. She found it great for free food, but they would never eat that way usually. I don't see them even going back.

 

[MommyinHonduras]

The new price for tickets for 5 day non hoppers for our party of 8 about $280, adding park hoppers about $600. That is before adding in cost of room difference and giving up kitchen with three beds/two bath to rent maybe two value rooms and that adds about $100 a night to our ten night stay so $1000ish and then to upgrade from QS,....yea it will take a lot more than "free" dining.

 

[JenB1104]

I am trying to decide on this as well. We have an off site rental (3 bedroom house with pool) in December for 1400.00 for the week for my parents, DH, DD and I. With free dining we would require two rooms at a moderate. The issue with us is that we have APs already so the extra ticket needed for the package is a waste unless we use it to renew our AP next time. I have both options booked right now while we decide.

 

[quagmire0]

Until our kids are old enough for all of us to crash in a room together, I'd probably never consider staying onsite. Offsite condos/houses just offer way too much to pass up, especially if you have kids or are in a larger group. Besides, controlling your own dining allows you to make decisions on the fly. I've heard many stories of people not using up their DDP, or having lots of leftovers, etc. If you're staying offsite, you can pretty much make cheap breakfasts and lunches and order out for less expensive dinners, and you can actually keep your leftovers and use them later. Much less waste.