I didn't say it to be condescending; I truly believe nothing in life is free. You "pay" for it somehow or someway always. Call me glass half empty....
Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that you had sinister motives behind what you said, but I've seen the kind of attitude I was describing for years on this board. It's implied people are suckers for falling for
free dining, because if they knew any better they'd know it's not actually free. Fact is, it can be a very good discount at times, it can be far and above the best one depending on certain factors.
No one is saying that the line item for "dining plan" isn't 0 if you get free dining. But it can very well be (and often is) that the better bargain is to take a room discount and pay al a carte for dining at Disney,
hence the more prudent thing to do, if one is looking for the best bargain, is to not use free dining.
From the perspective of what one would pay total for a trip that includes a room with free dining or one that is a discounted room, "free" dining is not free - the total is more, not less, for many, many people, even if that one line item is set at "0" because the cost is made up in the price of the room.
Say you went to
Walmart and bought your kids a toy that requires 8 batteries. You can pay $50 for the toy and get the batteries thrown in for free, or you can pay $30 and buy the batteries separately for $15. Are those batteries actually free or did you just transfer the line item of the cost (and pay a bit extra)?
I said myself that
sometimes free dining is the better deal, meaning not always. Sometimes the room discount is the better deal, just like you said. The part I bolded in your post is absolutely and totally false. Free dining can be the best bargain available, depending on your resort, family size and eating habits.
Pricing out our February trip we had a free dining pin. We are 5 Disney adults. If we were to stay 2 rooms at a moderate, the room discount was 25%. The total package price for FD was about $6500. The cost of room & tickets with the room discount was just under $5200. Our trip is 10 nights long, so dividing that $1300 by the number of nights and people, we get $26 a night. That is barely enough to eat 2 CS meals per person per night, let alone a TS each night like we enjoy doing. FD is a no brainer for us in that situation. If we were only 4 Disney adults, the per night amount the 25% discount provides us is $12 a night. You cannot eat on $12 per person per night at Disney.
The numbers worked out for us to use FD instead of a room discount for any rooms up to I believe rooms with a rack rate of about $700 a night, using the appropriate discounts for each level. It's different for everyone, but it's absolutely not true that the room discount is always the best option for saving money. It completely depends on your family make up and your preferences. So, the total cost can be much less for FD, there is not one right answer. That's why I hate seeing people being told all the garbage about free dining not being free, sometimes it is your best bet.
The battery example is silly and not comparable. There is no situation in which that can work out better in the long run for the customer. A better comparison is a buy one, get one free sale. You have the choice of paying full price for an item and getting a second similar item free or paying 70% of the cost for a single item. If the item all cost $100, paying $100 is the better deal for someone who wants $200 worth of items but paying $70 is better for someone who only wanted $100 worth. BoGo is the better deal for people who were already planning on getting that second item, but it is not the better deal for people who just wanted one.
The word free is just semantics. Whether you believe it is free or not, free dining can work out better for some families.
