"free" dining

[MickeyGs]

I see lots of people saying "free" dining, implying that it's not free. Is there something I am missing?

I have priced out the same vacation for my family using free dining and a time when it's not offered and the difference is about $700. this was for 10 days, family of 4 (one baby who is free) 2 adults, 1 child- at POP with the disney plus dining and 9 days non hopper passes.

the discounts on the value rooms are not nearly the equivalent to free dining, am I right?

 

[Good Morning Dewdrop]

people call it "free" because by selected the free dining discount you are giving up any other kind of discount that Disney might be offering (room only, stay, play discount; buy 4 get 3 free etc).

I run the numbers every trip - depending on how your family eats and where they stay often free dining is the best discount. However, you do need to take into account - would you normally eat that much food ? If you would normally buy the dining plan no matter what you can base your savings on the amount the plan would regularly cost you - but if you would pay less eating OOP you should take that into account (IMO) when figuring out your savings (vs another discount)

If you 'upgrade' to the regular dining plan (when staying in a value) you have to also calculate in tips and the upgrade charge into what you're paying. You can't

 

[Cafeen]

I see lots of people saying "free" dining, implying that it's not free. Is there something I am missing?

I have priced out the same vacation for my family using free dining and a time when it's not offered and the difference is about $700. this was for 10 days, family of 4 (one baby who is free) 2 adults, 1 child- at POP with the disney plus dining and 9 days non hopper passes.

the discounts on the value rooms are not nearly the equivalent to free dining, am I right?

You are right, for the most part.

Many (I'd even venture to say most) who claim the Free Dining promotions are not truly free have an agenda against the promotions and/or the dining plans themselves. So long as the plans work for your family and/or situation, and they are saving more money than the room discounts (which, at a value is nearly a given!), they're going to be the better deal.

The promotions are simply another discount, one that shifts the focus off of the room rate and onto the dining package. Instead of your room being cheaper, your food is. When everything is packaged up though, it doesn't matter exactly where you're seeing savings, so long as you are.

Of course, working the numbers before committing to any package is best (though, you can almost always switch later anyway). But to say "Free dining isn't free!" is just nonsense. If you run the numbers at rack rate with the same tickets and add no dining plan, the you run the numbers at rack rate with the same tickets under the FD promotion, there will be (virtually) no difference.

Room discounts can be better than free dining in a few cases:
1 - The dining plans don't work for you AT ALL
2 - You're staying for a short stay and don't need the tickets
3 - Small group and/or staying at high level deluxe (the higher the base cost of the room, the more the room discount has an effect)
4 - Solo and have a 40% code for a moderate

 

[goofyintoronto]

You are right, for the most part.

Many (I'd even venture to say most) who claim the Free Dining promotions are not truly free have an agenda against the promotions and/or the dining plans themselves. So long as the plans work for your family and/or situation, and they are saving more money than the room discounts (which, at a value is nearly a given!), they're going to be the better deal.

The promotions are simply another discount, one that shifts the focus off of the room rate and onto the dining package. Instead of your room being cheaper, your food is. When everything is packaged up though, it doesn't matter exactly where you're seeing savings, so long as you are.

Of course, working the numbers before committing to any package is best (though, you can almost always switch later anyway). But to say "Free dining isn't free!" is just nonsense. If you run the numbers at rack rate with the same tickets and add no dining plan, the you run the numbers at rack rate with the same tickets under the FD promotion, there will be (virtually) no difference.

Room discounts can be better than free dining in a few cases:
1 - The dining plans don't work for you AT ALL
2 - You're staying for a short stay and don't need the tickets
3 - Small group and/or staying at high level deluxe (the higher the base cost of the room, the more the room discount has an effect)
4 - Solo and have a 40% code for a moderate

well said!! It drives me nuts when i hear ppl say "well it really ISNT free". How do you figure its not free? Price it out and you will see. price out a pkg with the DP, then another without. There is a savings.

As mentioned above, those staying in a delux might save more money if they took advantage of the 40% room discount.

Either way, I know for a fact that free dining is cheaper and a great savings.

 

[Cafeen]

well said!! It drives me nuts when i hear ppl say "well it really ISNT free". How do you figure its not free? Price it out and you will see. price out a pkg with the DP, then another without. There is a savings.

As mentioned above, those staying in a delux might save more money if they took advantage of the 40% room discount.

Either way, I know for a fact that free dining is cheaper and a great savings.

I'm going to start responding to those people with "Well, the room discount isn't really a discount because you pay full price for food!" It makes as much sense (which is very little, but that doesn't matter much to some people )

 

[MickeyGs]

I do factor in the dining plan upgrade- we did a trip with free dining this Feb and had a great time and hope to do a longer (10 day) trip again in Feb 2013. I am hoping they offer free dining again at that time because to US it seemed the best discount. We are on a budget and have had a few unexpected high cost things pop up recently that affect our vacation fund If it all works out we can do the trip still though.

 

[sukhakuli]

It's a fad on the Dis to hate the dining plan. I get that it won't work for every family, individual needs are so different. But some people are really in a mission to put down everyone who gets it, and to tell them that they were basically scammed by Disney. I don't get it. For instance, on our last trip we had free dining and were staying at the Cabins which were about 350 a night. We had 4 Disney adults and 2 kids. Just one character meal was nearly the entire cost of the cabin for a night. I've never seen an 80% off pin code (although that would be great! lol). While we would probably not eat as many counter service meals and snacks, we would do the character meals and other table service we did, and just one table service meal was more than any discount we could get on that room. I paid for the plan during our YC portion of the trip, and we got 40% off the room, and I think the FD discount was more. All of our meals were over 150, some of them were 300.

We were able to definitely travel on a smaller budget and eat almost no food in the parks before, but that was mostly because we didn't have much money and had to. Now that we have a larger vacation budget, I don't want to travel that way. So the dining plan is great for us. Plus we have small kids that need to eat something every couple of hours. When we were 2 adults, we could eat breakfast in the room, go all day without eating again, and eat a sandwich in the room. But we can't/won't travel that way anymore.

Not everyone has to love the dining plan, but I don't get why some people think that every one should hate it. We loved it, and I'm bummed that we may not be getting it if we stay at SoG for our next trip. If FD comes out, we will definitely stay at the cabins again.

 

[canopynut66]

I see lots of people saying "free" dining, implying that it's not free. Is there something I am missing?

I have priced out the same vacation for my family using free dining and a time when it's not offered and the difference is about $700. this was for 10 days, family of 4 (one baby who is free) 2 adults, 1 child- at POP with the disney plus dining and 9 days non hopper passes.

the discounts on the value rooms are not nearly the equivalent to free dining, am I right?

about the best discount on a value is 15% so free dining offer best for us. even when we stayed in deluxe it was still better for us fo do free dining. now in value you only get quick service and we upgrade so that we have the TS each day as part of vacation is going to places we normally do not go to at home. we to have became POP fans and will be there 12 nights this October late.. so far though no free dining for then..one can only hope

 

[kandb]

I think free dining is always the best deal when staying at value or deluxe resorts. If you are staying at the poly or GF or another deluxe, the room discount might be better then. We love free dining!

 

[goofyintoronto]

I'm going to start responding to those people with "Well, the room discount isn't really a discount because you pay full price for food!" It makes as much sense (which is very little, but that doesn't matter much to some people )

haha I love it! im gonna respond that way too. that should shut them up quick.

 

[Amanda Esmeralda]

I'm glad to see this thread because I have never done the DDP and I am toying with doing it this time. Our package is already booked for 11/1-11/7, but I am thinking of adding dining and I notice a lot of people have nothing but negative things to say about it. For me, the convenience of having most of my food pre-paid is worth a lot in itself! My only worry is that my husband and I are going on our own package, but some other family members have booked a separate package and they will not be doing DDP. I am wondering if that will cause confusion.

 

[Cafeen]

I'm glad to see this thread because I have never done the DDP and I am toying with doing it this time. Our package is already booked for 11/1-11/7, but I am thinking of adding dining and I notice a lot of people have nothing but negative things to say about it. For me, the convenience of having most of my food pre-paid is worth a lot in itself! My only worry is that my husband and I are going on our own package, but some other family members have booked a separate package and they will not be doing DDP. I am wondering if that will cause confusion.

Have no worries, it's easy as pie to handle different setups. Mmmmm.... pie....

Ahem, when dining, simply let the server know that you and your husband will be on the dining plan and will require a separate check (which, since you'll be on the plan, you'll need anyway). Ideally, doing this before you order is best, as the servers have to enter things in a certain way, but they can split it up later if you forget.

They get this sort of thing all the time and are very used to splitting groups up as needed.

 

[CanadianPaco]

I ran the numbers for AKL and free dining this Aug then for the 30% discount for room only. I calculated off of All Ears Menus and took into consideration, tips for out of pocket meals etc. I ran every scenario for meals for 8d. With free dining, we are eating at TS restaurants. With the room only, I calculated CS only. It was THE SAME - within $25 difference in favour of room only. So we're going with Free Dining and eating at the TS restaurants we want. Maybe a 40% would change my mind, but there is only 30% this summer, that I can see.

 

[disneychic2]

DH and I love the dinning plan. We usually stay at a moderate and even crunching the numbers on a % off our room, the dining plan gives us a better value. Because when we're on vacation, we love to sit down to a nice meal every night and we DO eat differently there. I agree that if we were getting 40% off a deluxe room, that would be the best value. The cs meals are large enough that we split those every day, so we even have left over cs credits to grab a couple of sandwiches to eat at the airport. We really enjoy it!

 

[Faldred]

Unlike some, when I point point out "free dining isn't free" motto, it isn't a slam against the dining plan (or even free dining) at all, but rather a caution on two lines:

1) It's potentially more expensive than other package discounts available, depending on your resort and party size. Always price out all of your options to make sure you're getting the best deal -- the free dining offer is often the best deal available (if you value having a dining plan), but not always.

2) To point out to those with other discounts or DVC stays that Disney isn't in the business of simply handing out free food. A surprising number of DVC members (or renters) come by asking if they can get in on the free dining.

In both cases, it just helps to look at "free dining" for exactly what it is: a resort package discount on room + tickets + dining plan that happens to equal the cost of the dining plan.

 

[DJFan88]

I'm glad to see this thread because I have never done the DDP and I am toying with doing it this time. Our package is already booked for 11/1-11/7, but I am thinking of adding dining and I notice a lot of people have nothing but negative things to say about it. For me, the convenience of having most of my food pre-paid is worth a lot in itself! My only worry is that my husband and I are going on our own package, but some other family members have booked a separate package and they will not be doing DDP. I am wondering if that will cause confusion.

This is a whole different conversation. Free dining involves your food at a discount, which is being debated against having a room discount instead of it.
Or, as simply receiving free dining vs. no discount.
There are many threads, recent ones, debating the value of purchasing the dining plan vs. buying your own food --- which the answer basically boils down to many different factors, depending on each individuals needs/wants debated on these threads.

 

[Amanda Esmeralda]

This is a whole different conversation. Free dining involves your food at a discount, which is being debated against having a room discount instead of it.
Or, as simply receiving free dining vs. no discount.
There are many threads, recent ones, debating the value of purchasing the dining plan vs. buying your own food --- which the answer basically boils down to many different factors, depending on each individuals needs/wants debated on these threads.

Yes, I understand what is being debated in this thread. What I meant is that I was glad to see people who had good things to say about the dining plan in general.

 

[dismommom]

My husband asked me what I ment when I said "I got the free dining for only $300." We are booked into POFQ in August. I had a 30% room only discount. When free dining came out I switched. Paying $300 more for rack rate for a week is a lot cheaper than paying for food and snacks for 4 people for a week.

 

[alicia080979]

A couple weeks ago was our first trip withOUT being on the DDP. We have now used the FD promotion 3X, paid OOP for the DDP 1X and paid for food OOP 1X. Like most have mentioned, it all depends on your needs as a family. We love the convenience of the DDP. I put $500 on a gift card before we left for our last trip to use for all of our food. We bought a TIW card for 20% off and planned to eat like we do on the DDP. We found that we were much more "worried" about how much we were spending and passed on snacks and other things we might have gotten on the DDP. At times it was almost opposite of the DDP because with that, you sometimes look at the menu and get the most expensive to get the best bang for your buck and this last time, we would choose the least expensive.

In the end, we came home with over $125 left on our gift card but did eat 6 TS meals and a number of CS meals with that. We also packed our lunch one day and went off-site a couple of times. It worked well for us because we got a great deal on the condo we stayed in and allowed us to squeeze in an extra week at Disney. That said, we are going back to POFQ in September with Free Dining and I can't wait! We have 3 adults and one child (3) going and the AP discount doesn't come close to touching the FD discount for us.

There is no one way to do Disney or the Dining Plan that is right for everyone. Run the numbers and make an informed decision based on your family. I see no reason to hate on the DDP (or for that matter think it is the end all be all of discounts), the end goal is to get to spend more time on vacation making memories with the best deal available to fit your needs.

 

[Sencybil]

I think the 'free' dining plan is a fantastic option. I know the discounts offered here in the UK are a whole different deal, but i have calculated very carefully what we might spend on food if we didn't have it - making sure the gratuities are properly accounted for. While it doesn't add up to what it would cost to purchase the DP, it IS significant, and all in all reduces the room part of our room/food package to being equivalent to staying offsite, albeit in larger, but much lower quality accommodation. Having the DP, we'll worry less about costs when we're there, eat in nicer places, enjoy snacks and treats we wouldn't otherwise indulge in, do some character stuff we wouldn't do otherwise, and maximise our time in the parks by not going offsite to eat cheaper.
However, its also a great deal for disney - because we'll pay all those gratuities, cocktails, beers, glasses of wine and extra appetisers here and there into the pockets of the mouse, whereas otherwise they'd be going elsewhere!
Win win I'd call that!

Sencybil x