How much do you think "free dining" is worth?

[My2CrazyGirls]

I am curious to see how much you all think free dining is actually worth for a 7day vacation. Specifically for 2 adults and 2 children (5 and 7). I am thinking it is worth about $700- $800. What do you all think?

 

[Diegosmom]

Not sure I can answer how much it is worth but we are going for 8 nights and there is DH DS4 and myself. I figured the price with Free dining and without but using the room only rate (25% off value) and the difference of price is $277 more for the free dining (with the room only rate just being room and tix at undercover tourist and NO dining). We would buy the mugs for at least hubby and I either way and I know that we will each eat at least 1 $3 snack a day so after you subtract that out the difference is $177. So that comes out to $22.13 as day for the 3 of us to have 2 quick service meals a day each. No way I could buy 6 meals for $22.13 a day...even if we packed some meals and ate off site...just dont think we could do it. Or it would be really tight. So it is worth it to me.

 

[skier_pete]

"Free dining" is a discount worth $45.99 per day per adult, and $12.99 per day per child. So based on what your showing - assuming you are staying at a mod or deluxe - the discount itself is $117.96 per day. Over 7 days, that is $825.72.

Also, if you use the Free Dining properly (i.e. use all the credits), you can expect an extra 20-25 % saving versus OOP pricing. (Last trip I did the math, and we actually saved almost 40 % with free dining, though our choice of TS restaurants were more expensive than most and we used our snack credits for Food and Wine which really optimized those as well.)

So, if you are conservative and we say 20 % over OOP - that's $991 worth of free food for free dining - though truthfully your really only saving the $825 since you could just buy the free dining on your own and save the 20 %.

If you are staying at a value, you only save the amount of the QSDP - though you can pay the difference to upgrade to the regular DDP - and the savings would be $34.99 / $11.99 or $93.96 a day or $657.72 for 7 days.

Did I go too far?

 

[mommyof3princess27]

Well my trip next year, I am hoping to get free dining. We estimated FD at $981 versus a 25% room only discount $281.

This is for 8 days/7 nights and 2 adults and 2 kids (4 and 8)

 

[mommyof3princess27]

"Free dining" is a discount worth $45.99 per day per adult, and $12.99 per day per child. So based on what your showing - assuming you are staying at a mod or deluxe - the discount itself is $117.96 per day. Over 7 days, that is $825.72.

Also, if you use the Free Dining properly (i.e. use all the credits), you can expect an extra 20-25 % saving versus OOP pricing. (Last trip I did the math, and we actually saved almost 40 % with free dining, though our choice of TS restaurants were more expensive than most and we used our snack credits for Food and Wine which really optimized those as well.)

So, if you are conservative and we say 20 % over OOP - that's $991 worth of free food for free dining - though truthfully your really only saving the $825 since you could just buy the free dining on your own and save the 20 %.

If you are staying at a value, you only save the amount of the QSDP - though you can pay the difference to upgrade to the regular DDP - and the savings would be $34.99 / $11.99 or $93.96 a day or $657.72 for 7 days.

Did I go too far?

Very well laid out!

 

[tink15823]

You need to do the math . For my family me dh ds(13) dd(13) Ds (7) . We would save about $1700 . A room discount is about 700 less.

 

[My2CrazyGirls]

"Free dining" is a discount worth $45.99 per day per adult, and $12.99 per day per child. So based on what your showing - assuming you are staying at a mod or deluxe - the discount itself is $117.96 per day. Over 7 days, that is $825.72.

Also, if you use the Free Dining properly (i.e. use all the credits), you can expect an extra 20-25 % saving versus OOP pricing. (Last trip I did the math, and we actually saved almost 40 % with free dining, though our choice of TS restaurants were more expensive than most and we used our snack credits for Food and Wine which really optimized those as well.)

So, if you are conservative and we say 20 % over OOP - that's $991 worth of free food for free dining - though truthfully your really only saving the $825 since you could just buy the free dining on your own and save the 20 %.

If you are staying at a value, you only save the amount of the QSDP - though you can pay the difference to upgrade to the regular DDP - and the savings would be $34.99 / $11.99 or $93.96 a day or $657.72 for 7 days.

Did I go too far?

Good analysis. The rates are even higher in 2012

■Adults (Ages 10+) : $51.54 per day (regular season) / $53.54 per day (peak season)
■Children: (Ages 3-9): $15.02 per day (regular season) / $16.02 per day (peak season)


.....but you also get the refillable mugs. For us a 40% room only discount would save us 1100 so that will be the best deal if it becomes available. But free dining would be a savings of $924. However we would not choose to purchase the dining plan so I don't think of it as exactly a $924 savings...does that make sense? I see it being worth about 700- 800. I would like to order pizza at the pool (wouldnt be covered in dining plan) and do some other dining that the plan does not cover and that freedom is worth a price to me.

But I really want a discount so if it is free dining I may go for it and stay at Beach Club. No discount means staying at the Dolphin and I am good with that too! I just really want to try Beach Club and cannot without a discount.

 

[cme37]

I also include the fact that I don't have to worry every time we sit down to eat about the cost of what everyone is ordering. And this time my oldest qualifies as a Disney adult and can eat more. For us, I think the dining plan is a huge savings of money as well as the non worry factor of what the dinner bill will be each night.

 

[beth_cam]

Ahhh...the problem here lies in semantics I believe. You used the word 'worth'. Worth is often a very subjective value.

My very subjective view of its 'worth' for my upcoming vacation

I can pay approximately 1100 including 3 days free dining for 3 adults. OR I can pay approximately 850 using a room discount and no free dining.

The free dining is 'costing' me about $250.

I know I know, I am comparing a plan with dining to one without. I will get there I promise.

Dining plan only includes mugs with quick service I think. But lets say it does either way. That may be the mugs may have cost me around $40 if I had bought them. But I would have only bought one for souvenier purposes, it probably won't be filled handful of times. We typically dont eat at our resort and don't really drink fountain sodas much. So the only 'worth' to this would be something like $13.

 

[skier_pete]

Good analysis. The rates are even higher in 2012

■Adults (Ages 10+) : $51.54 per day (regular season) / $53.54 per day (peak season)
■Children: (Ages 3-9): $15.02 per day (regular season) / $16.02 per day (peak season)


.....but you also get the refillable mugs. For us a 40% room only discount would save us 1100 so that will be the best deal if it becomes available. But free dining would be a savings of $924. However we would not choose to purchase the dining plan so I don't think of it as exactly a $924 savings...does that make sense? I see it being worth about 700- 800. I would like to order pizza at the pool (wouldnt be covered in dining plan) and do some other dining that the plan does not cover and that freedom is worth a price to me.

But I really want a discount so if it is free dining I may go for it and stay at Beach Club. No discount means staying at the Dolphin and I am good with that too! I just really want to try Beach Club and cannot without a discount.

The base Disney Dining plan doesn't cover everything anyways. Even if you get it, you usually have to spend SOME money out of pocket, such the occasional pizza by the pool or dinner @ T-Rex (not cover on the DDP), so it isn't perfect for everyone. However, I do still think it's worth is more than it's cost. For instance, you can use once or twice for 2 TS restaurants, and then just eat less TS meals - not "cost effective" necessarily, but less of a concern when it's free. Then utilize the QS meals better by buying some of the QS kids meals out of pocket and using the credits for adult meals, as QS credits are not split into adult and child meals, and instead of getting 7 QS meals out of it, you get 9 or 10. (Before I get flamed,yes this IS against the "rules" even though there is no way the system can see that you are doing it, so others will tell you not to do it and that I am immoral for suggesting it.)

 

[beth_cam]

Ugh don't know what happened.

So if I purchase a mug
No Free Dining = 865; Free Dining = 1100 => Free Dining is costing me 235

Either way we would be bringing poptarts and cereal, but they would be a definite part of the plan everyday if no dining plan. And we would be bringing our own snacks from home, no park snacks. Either way any sodas will be brought from home so I am going to ignore them altogether (the cost being the same for both senarios)

Breakfast and snack = about $25 if I bring it from home, I would spend about half that anyway (cereal, milk, granola bars, gummy candy, pop tarts, oatmeal, not all of which will get eaten but it covers my bases)

No Free Dining = 890; Free Dining = 1112 => Free dining is costing me 222

So that leaves us to the meals that ddp would provide. If I wasn't getting the dining plan at all, I would be looking for places wherewe could eat cheaper, share food, etc to keep costs down. We would probably do one nice meal if no dining plan would cost around $110. And I would be looking for shared meals to cost no more than $25 per sitting(5*25 =125), lets go well above my estimates and make that a total of $300 I spend.

No Free Dining = 1190; Free dining = 1112

At this point, in dollars Free Dining is worth $78 (using my inflated food budget). However - free dining means I am not scouring the menus, I'm not trying to see what we can share, I am getting three nicer meals instead of 1. The other two are older children who would resent sharing and having their choices made for them. In the end, DDP or in this case Free DDP has its most worth in the fact that my vacation is less stressful because of it. I have often decided that the DDP or Free DDP has actually cost me more money than I would have spent, but its worth was great.

 

[NYDisneyKid]

"FREE" dining? right.

 

[SteelerCountry]

For us, it was an adult trip. We upgraded to DXDP, we do signature meals nightly. For example, Narcoosees for 3 adults was $350 for dinner, that included NO alcohol. California Grill was $300 for 3 adults, no alcohol. So just for dinner, upgrading to the DXDP from FD was worth it for us. We usually ate a sit down breakfast.....for example, Boma for 3 adults was $70+, so it's a no brainer for us!
As for snacks, we didn't use them, but family and friends all got great edible souvies from Goofy's Candy Inc! We used the mugs a lot!

 

[ugadog99]

"FREE" dining? right.

Exactly! "Free" dining is the precise reason I switched back to my AP.

 

[aubriee]

Exactly! "Free" dining is the precise reason I switched back to my AP.

Considering that I go several times a year, paying OOP and TiW card works alot better than free dining. With the AP I usually get 35% off the moderate resorts, don't have to buy two day park tickets I don't need, and am guaranteed 20% off most of my meals, and I get to eat where and exactly what I want. I'm not a fan of most CS restaurants, so always round up paying OOP for at least a couple of TS meals, plus there are times I want two appetizers or an appetizer and entree and no dessert. I go at least four times in a 12 month period so will get at least four trips out of the TiW card. It will easily pay for itself several times over. I use Disney gift cards to pay for meals, gratuities, and any odds and ends I might want, so my trip is still prepaid and I always come home with money left over on the gift cards to use on my next trip. Plus I'm not running around on my last day trying to use up extra meal and snack credits. I refuse to skimp on vacation so always order exactly what I'm in the mood for at that meal regardless of the price. With the DDP I always felt like I needed to order the most expensive things on the menu in order to max it out. With the TiW I order steak if I want it or pizza if I want it. I'm not a soda drinker at home, but always felt like I needed to order soda down there if I was on the DDP. Now I order water if that's what I really want. If I want one of those appetizers for two I can get it.

 

[ugadog99]

Definitely, aubriee. We go several times a year, and now with my DD starting the WDWCP in January, we will go even more. The AP discount is much better for us. I use my TiW card and even eat offsite some . In the end the percentage of rack rate plus not having to purchase the base tickets is much more cost effective for us.

 

[skier_pete]

Different discounts work differently for everyone. And you can make fun of "free" dining all you want - but it IS a discount. There are plenty of people that pay full price (rack rate) to go to Disney, simply because they don't know any better.

"Free" dining is a savings versus rack rate on a package, no different than a room discount offer is. For us, we have 3 adults and a child in the room. We could only get FD for 8 of our 10 days, but the free dining savings at a mod is almost $1200 versus rack rate. The only other discount that I got was a 25% off PIN - which would've been slightly less than a $400 savings at best. When you consider the full price of the package (tickets, food, dining) would run about $4000 at rack rate, that's "Free" dining is a 30 % discount for our family, which is pretty damn good. Honestly without it, we would be staying at a value and spending MORE.

We also love the dining plan as it works very well for our family (or at least we make it work very well). In particular, we found it is wonderful during food and wine, when you can use those snack credits for items as expensive as $7, you don't have to go into Epcot with $100 per person. (Only $50 for the alcohol!)

 

[MikeSF]

For me it was a "do the math" situation.

I had the option of 30% off room rates (which translated to about $50 a day) or free dining. Between the two of us we could easily eat $50 a day worth of eating, a dinner entree and water would probably cost $20 each maybe more, lunches between the two of us easily costs $10-15, being as the quick service might not have the "free water" I'd most likely need to buy a beverage or drink my own bottled water. And we always have a tradition with Disneyland to get a churro (thank the Simpson's for the crack about the $14 churro ), so that costs about $7 between the two of us.

Now, we could skrimp and save and NOT spend $50 a day on food as well. Either eating quick service meals for dinner, or leaving the property for off site food ($5 footlongs shared between the two of us might get old fast). Bringing premade snacks into the park, etc. But we want to enjoy our vacation, do something other than eating sandwiches or hamburgers for dinner. With the free dining plan we get not only sit down services but we get deserts and drinks (which often are the largest rip off, 10 cents worth of soda costs you $3). So this just made more sense than getting 30% off room rates.

With 2 kids in tow who are a little less understanding about searching for values when they're hungry, probably makes even more sense. Now I wouldn't ever buy the dining plan, except maybe just for the kids if it's only $14/kid, and the kids menu does add up really quickly too. And I wouldn't book a trip just because there is free dining unless I was planning on going. Also if I was for some reason going by myself, I would probably opt more towards the room discount, and get tickets from UT or something.

A room rate discount is a fixed value on a room, whether you have 1 or 4 you're still only in one room, where as free dining has a value that increases as the number of people that use it increases. Now if you're in a deluxe room that's normally $400/night, then 35% discounts would make WAY more sense, even with 4 people in tow... like I said in my first line, something you need to do the math with.

 

[krb2g]

We do the math on the free dining v. room only discounts, but if they come close, we take the room only discount. We tend to stay club level, so we're already eating breakfast and some variety of snacks/drinks/desserts at the hotel every day. We find the dining plan has us eating more food than we want, and honestly I find it stressful trying to calculate credits and eat enough food to make the meals a good value (e.g. by ordering the most expensive thing on the menu every time). For other families, free dining is a great deal.

 

[dmband]

for my family free dining would be good because it is free, but to buy the dining plan its not even close to a good deal.
when my kids get older and we eat at "better" places then i am sure it will balance out some but for us taking a room discount is much better overall