How bad was the 2017 'free dining' deal?

[mommymanda]

We've made three trips to Disney over the years. All at the end of August and all with Free Dining. The first two were values with a bump up to the Disney Dining Plan, the last was a moderate that included it. Obviously the cost has risen dramatically each trip.

We are a family of 5. Two adults, one Disney adult and two kids.

My family said they were done with Disney and wanted to try something new next trip so I really didn't follow this years changes and promotions. Now however my parents have requested we look into a generations trip to Disney summer 2018. I just don't know if I can make it work financially this time.

From what I remember when I briefly checked 2017 deals, in order to get the DDP you had to book at a deluxe or upgrade, but being a family of 5 my room choices were limited. I think it ended up being cheaper for me to book the room discount and then add DDP. We are open to splitting the family up into value rooms if we have to. We love the DDP and I really don't know if I can plan a trip without it, for us it is just part of the vacation now.

Just wondering if others who travel and use DDP often found the savings still worth it or if you chose a different deal? That way I know what deals to watch for when booking 2018.

 

[avic77]

Value and Mod got QSDP with a package that included at least 2 day park hopper tickets. You had to get the hopper ticket.
For my family we are 4 "Disney adults" (2 real adults and a 15 yr old and 17 yr old). It worked out to be a good deal for us. I checked several different deals and always came out cheaper to do the Free dining promo and stay at POP.

 

[peg2001]

Yes, as a party of 4 Disney adults that stays in a single value room, the 2017 Free Dining with QSDP was the best deal for us by far. You have to crunch to numbers for your particular party, number of adults/children, resort, etc.

 

[missbrooke06]

We have 3 paying (plus an under 3yo). I booked CBR for last week of November and upgraded the free QSDP to DDP.

I tried to book when room only came out but I couldn't get anywhere near that price. Now granted, CBR is the wildcard and maybe the construction rack rate was more heavily discounted in April than July but I came out ahead.

 

[mommymanda]

So you all stayed with the QSDP? I know we'd want to bump up to the DDP, but for that sense we've always eaten our moneys worth at the table service. Its also harder since being a family of 5 we are bumped into higher more costly room categories. No real value choices as ASMU doesn't usually qualify and AOA is higher priced that CBR. I'm thinking it was those options that left me concerned with the 2017 pricing. Since we are able to split into a family of 4 and a family of 3 it opens up more value options and I may see better options. Thank you.

 

[DisMommyTX]

We booked two rooms at a Mod on Free dining. Upgraded one room to Deluxe and kept the guests in the other room on QS. All of the dining plan info says you can share credits as long as one adult from the room with the correct plan pays and children order child's meals. This is a ridiculously good deal for us! Switching to the room discounts couldn't come close to saving the cost of feeding 8 people, even when we factor in the upgrade cost to Dx. I will say that availability on room only discounts seems unusually low for recent offers, so it helps if you are open to different resorts and have a bit of flexibility in dates.

Anything could happen with free dining next year, but the fact that the free dining bounceback is currently available is a good sign for you that the trend for next year is likely to continue as in years past. Good luck!

 

[elaine amj]

We had a party of 7-8 (the 8th joined us for half the trip) for our 2017 trip. I crunched the numbers in every possible way. I did the calculations for a party of 7 (6 Disney adults, 1 Disney child) for a 14 night trip.

Stay at Values with free QSDP: $7320.12
Stay at Values with free QSDP, upgraded to DDP for everyone: $9154.54
Stay at Values with free QSDP, upgrade 3 people to DxDDP, the other 4 as QSDP: $9217

It was a wash, so I decided regular DDP for everyone would be less complicated than juggling a combo of deluxe and quick service credits between 2 families.

I also calculated an offsite stay:
Stay offsite ($120/night in a 2-4 bedroom condo/house) w/ tickets, meals (eating cheaply, cooking in the villa with a handful of TS meals), parking, rental cars, uber: $8466
Stay offsite (same conditions as above but with DDP-equivalent meals): $10,812

We ended up getting a better deal through the UK (helped when the value of the pound dropped dramatically by something like 30%) and stayed at a 2 bedroom at Saratoga Springs for 14 nights with regular DDP for US$9961. We had access to this deal as my brother lives in the UK and was joining us for the trip.

This year was a LOT more expensive than our 2012 trip where our family of 4 stayed at Pop for 12 nights with free dining upgraded to DDP for $3200.

 

[peg2001]

So you all stayed with the QSDP? No real value choices as ASMU doesn't usually qualify and AOA is higher priced that CBR. .

We've stayed with the free QSDP when we've gotten it. We will sometimes pay OOP for a sit-down meal but usually just study the menus before we go to ensure a nice variety of meal choices at QS.

Actually, All Star Music (ASMu) is usually eligible for the free dining offers. I'm pretty sure it is All Star Movies (ASMo) that is usually excluded.