If you turn down free dining.....

[ElizabethB]

We stay at deluxe hotels and club level, so a room discount makes more sense for us from an economic standpoint than free dining. Add to that the fact that we don't like counter service dining and we do not snack (except for MK ice cream sandwiches that I think are now off the snack credit list anyway), the dining plan doesn't make sense for us. On top of that, for dinner at a signature restaurant, we sometimes like to make a dinner out of an assortment of appetizers and a really good bottle of wine. All in all, the dining plan is not well suited to our style of dining, even if it were free. We much prefer Tables in Wonderland, which includes discounts on appetizers, wine and cocktails.

Also, there was a time when free dining was a real value -- when meals included appetizers and service tips -- and food quality and choices had not been pared down to a level where the free dining reimbursement from Disney lets a restaurant make a profit. We did free dining the second time it was offered. Counter service places (which were pretty tasty at the time) had desserts like Hagen-Daz ice cream bars! Now, the dessert is an unappetizing and rather flavorless piece of cake in a cup. The one time we did free dining (back when it first started), I left thinking -- for once, I feel like I "took" Disney, instead of the other way around, which is how I usually feel. It's been a long time since the dining plan could make me feel that way!

Now, the dining plan has been cut back so much, I certainly would never pay for it and, would only accept it for free if I were paying rack rate for the room, anyway, and free dining happened to be the only available promotion. Even then, I would upgrade to deluxe dining. Otherwise, the counter service credits would go unused. And, most of the snack credits would definitely go unused.

Finally, we now have pretty much given up dining at restaurants that take DDP -- even the signature ones. The quality has declined -- and the desserts are a joke if one is paying out of pocket for them.

We prefer much prefer Shula's, Blue Zoo, Il Mulino and Fulton's. Since they each take TinW, it works much better for us.

 

[aubriee]

I do not understand why someone would pass up the free dining plan. Me and my family (three of us total) saved nearly 200 dollars a day with free dining. An over the counter meal, a snack, and a sit down meal was more then enough to keep us stuffed the entire day. I felt like we never stopped eating and we even had credits to spare at the end of the trip! We were able to eat at fancy, more high end restaurants we would never be able to afford. We ate a $150 dollar meal in Canada (even though that requires two credits now) and Italy. I love free dining plans. However, I would never pay for the dining plan because I feel like that would not be beneficial at all.

As an AP holder the AP discounts at a moderate or deluxe usually beat free dining easily. I take my mom and/or husband down there maybe once (sometimes twice) a year, since they are not as big a Disney fan as I am. I then go solo several times a year. As an AP holder I can always pretty much get 35% off the Moderates and 40% off the Deluxes, plus I have the TiW card that gives me 20% off just about all TS and some CS meals. I'm usually down there at least 2-3 times a year during the times free dining is being offered, so if I went with free dining I'd have to pay rack rate for the rooms, plus buy two day park tickets for each trip that I don't need. (I'd only be able to use one of those two day tickets to upgrade to an AP each year, so they'd accumulate quickly.) Plus the fact that I don't care for very many CS restaurants down there and am not a snacker. I prefer an early TS lunch, then a later Signature restaurant for dinner. I also prefer an appetizer to a desserts. The basic DDP gives me too many CS and snacks, but not enough TS credits, plus I have to pay for appetizers OOP anyway. The DxDDP gives too many meal credits and way too many snacks. Using my TiW card, I can get 20% off my meals (plus any alcohol) and eat exactly what I want and can even eat at a few restaurants that don't even accept the DDP and still get my discount. I can eat exactly what I want (two appetizers, appetizer and entree, just an entree, etc). I don't have to worry about having to use all my credits or running short of credits. I can get 35% off my moderate room, plus 20% off my meals, whereas with the so called free dining I'd have to pay rack rate for the room and buy two day park tickets I don't need several times a year.

Unless you are staying at a value or have a bunch of people in the room, the room discounts and TiW work out cheaper than free dining. Several years ago I got 45% off a courtyard view room at WL plus 20% off my meals with the TiW card. No way free dining could touch that. I usually figure out where I want to eat, figure the prices including tips, and then just buy gift cards for that amount, plus some extra. That way everything including tips is prepaid and I order exactly what I want without ever looking at the prices down there. I refuse to skimp when I'm on vacation, but using the AP room discounts, TiW card, and the prepaid gift cards, always comes out alot cheaper than if I had paid rack rate, bought two day park tickets I don't need, and used the so called free dining plan.

 

[NLD]

I turned down the dining plan for our January trip.

2 adults, 1 child for 6 nights in a standard view room at Wilderness Lodge during the value season (January). We took a 35% room discount, saving us $634 dollars.

The price of the regular dining plan for the three of us would be $708.60.

So getting the dining plan for free would have been a bigger discount, but we still chose the room discount.

Why?

Three reasons:

(1) I don't like the DDP for reasons already mentioned in this thread.

(2) Even though on paper free dining is a better deal for our group, in our circumstances.... it doesn't necessarily mean it will be so. For one thing, the DDP credits are based on number of nights we're there, not number of days. Since we arrive in the afternoon and leave in the evening, we've got more meals to eat than credits offered by the DDP. So even if we got the DDP, we'd still pay out of pocket for at least a couple meals. Plus whatever additional OOP expenses we rack up with extra snacks, coffees, sodas, fruit, or breakfast items, or whatever.

(3) By NOT being on the dining plan, we might eat for less than the cost of DDP + those out of pocket expenses. This is in fact probable. WHY? Well, we're likely to eat more CS and fewer TS when we go OOP. This isn't a negative to me, so it's not like I'm "losing" something by paying OOP instead of doing DDP--I PREFER fewer TS. Also, dd and I tend to drink water for meals. And I don't want a combo meal at every CS--just the sandwich is fine. Sometimes I can make a whole meal from a bagel and water. That's a whole lot cheaper than the estimated cost of a CS meal on the DDP.


So. I won't know for sure until the trip whether we actually save more with the room discount or would have saved more with free dining.

I suspect it will be a wash....

And it's quite possible free dining would have been the better discount in the long run. Again, on paper it already is the better discount.

But I don't like the DDP. My family doesn't eat like the plan, and I don't like al the time tied up in TS restaurants. Because of this, I suspect we WILL be better OOP + the room discount than with free DDP + other OOP dining expenses + rack rate room.

But even if we don't come out ahead? Even if it ends up costing us an extra $50-100 or so by rejecting free dining and using the room discount?

I'm okay with that. Because we'll have gotten to eat the way we want to eat. Order anything on the menu, don't worry about credits, don't worry if someone gets sick and we lose credits ($$) by skipping a meal, don't worry about maximizing the plan by ordering the steak when we really want the salad. Don't take those fries and the brownie dessert at CS just because they're included and stuff ourselves too full. Don't look at the clock worrying about making it to all our ADRs on time. Don't pull ourselves away from an attraction we're enjoying just to sit in a restaurant that we can't cancel becaues then we'd be "down" a credit and scrambling to make it up.

So yeah. Count me as one of those people who, at least on paper, actually chose against the better discount just because that discount was free DDP.

But take note: free DDP only comes out SLIGHTLY better than the room discount, and that's for a standard view at the cheapest deluxe in value season.

So for a LOT more people, when staying deluxe, a room discount is going to come out better no question.

 

[nkereina]

I have friends that DO NOT LIKE THE DINING PLAN (I personally love it), and they said even if its free, they would rather be responsible for their own food and would take money off their room instead.

Can you do that? Get a percent off your room instead of taking free dining, if its offered? I never heard of that (but I love free dining so I have never had a need to ask!)

You can't "trade in" free dining for money off your room, if that's what you're suggesting. If free dining is the only offer at the time, it's take it or leave it. If there is a room offer out at the same time or they get a pin code for a percent off the room, they can opt for whatever discount they want. But the discount is what it is - it's not flexible for those who don't want the dining plan, etc.

 

[elainesj]

Like others pointed out, whether free dining is a good offer depends on you and your family, time of year, other discounts, etc.

For our family of 4 who stay at a value, arrive at midnight and leave by 11am, free dining is the best deal possible. You could give me a free room and it's still cheaper for me to pay rack rate and get free dining. But if we're talking mod or deluxe, calculations can be a whole lot different.

Plus psychologically, my hubby LOVES free dining. I did calcs for an offsite trip with rental and eating mostly offsite and it worked out pretty comparable to free dining (because we would change the way we eat). But I haven't even brought it up as a viable option to hubby. I've discovered (to my astonishment) that he loves the Disney bubble. e.g....his love for Ohana's. There are MUCH better places than Ohana's elsewhere. We went to Texas de brazil in Detroit and I felt the quality was way better there and the style of food is similar and definitely MUCH more variety with 10-12 different meats. Plus, we scored a buy one gret one free coupon so at $25 pp, it was CHEAP! But...guess which he prefers? Ohanas is still all he talks about. *sigh*

 

[I loveStitchnippyjon]

Our trip with free dining was our worst ever. Being tied down to TS ADR's cost us valuable park time.
Furthermore, after 10+ trips to WDW, we've realized that there are very few TS restaurants that we actually like! Now I take the room discount and make one or two ADR's for our week's stay, and do CS or snack at our own schedule.
Much more enjoyable for us!

 

[niccikatie]

For us the math looks like this:

No Discounts:
Room: 1286
Dining: 827
Tickets (8d PH): 1034
Total: 3147

Free Dining:
Room: 1286
Dining: 0
Tickets (8d PH): 1034
Total: 2320
Savings over no discounts: 827

Room Discount:
Room: 955
Dining: 0
Tickets (8d PH): 611 - through YES individual enrollment
Total: 1566
Savings over no discounts: 1581
Savings over "free" dining: 739

So, for us, the advantage of not having to buy tickets with our package AND the room only discount really gives us a huge savings. More than enough to eat on for 8 days and we're not locked into the dining plan.

ETA: We are 2A 1C(7yo) and staying at POR during value season.

 

[bookgirl]

I also prefer the RO discount to the DDP. My mom and I often will split meals at resturants or do multiple small snack/meals instead of formal sit downs. Price wise there's just no way we'll eat over 80.00 to 120.00 a day in food. Also TS is the exception for us so OOP for those few meals is better than trying to find a TS everyday that we like.

I think your friends could find some kind of discount (don't forget AAA discounts you have to call in for them they don't show on the website) that is a better deal than DDP.

 

[North of Mouse]

I will join the ranks of those that do not like the DDP. My DH and I never eat that much food per day, plus we like the freedom of doing what we want at the spur of the moment or changing our plans according to our feelings, the weather, whatever-----We usually eat a few TS meals, but not every day - some days we just feel like snacking - I know, but it's vacation . We also don't like to be tied to a certain park or place at a set time - and especially now when you are charged $10.00 per person if you don't cancel the res a day in advance . I can see it might be worthwhile if you have two or more hungry teenagers!!! They can EAT - we have experience that .

 

[Sue M]

You do have to do the Disney Math We stayed at BC in Aug, and room discount + paying for DDP was cheaper for us then the free dining. There were 2 of us. Me & adult daughter.
This Jan we are staying at WL, again with room discount, 40%. And again cheaper then free dining, even paying for the DDP. But we decided to try without DDP this time. We still plan on 1 CS & 1 TS, but think we'll save because we really only order water with meals, not pop drinkers, and won't have dessert after every meal, lunch & dinner. I'll get a resort mug for my hot or ice tea, coffee, hot choc and lemonade.

 

[hammie59]

When we went last spring, we went with the ticket package discount over the free dining. They offered a kids stay/play for free which overlapped with a free dining offer. We're not huge fans of the dining plan either and chose to save money by controlling our own food costs. We were there for 11 days, so the ticket discount paid off.

 

[Jing]

We booked CL at AKL at the 35% off promo rate online rather than take the free dining plan. I then called vacation planning to add on the Deluxe Dining Plan and still saved almost $200 than if I had taken the free regular dining plan option. I have no idea if the DxDP will be worth it, especially staying CL, but since we splurge on food when on vacation, $86/day/person sounds about right for our habits.

 

[canopynut66]

I have friends that DO NOT LIKE THE DINING PLAN (I personally love it), and they said even if its free, they would rather be responsible for their own food and would take money off their room instead.

Can you do that? Get a percent off your room instead of taking free dining, if its offered? I never heard of that (but I love free dining so I have never had a need to ask!)

If they have discount promotion going at same time can take one or the other but have never so far---seen the discount be better deal yet..so I agree with you free dining my choice.also have a friend who is so against free dining BUT she cannot plan nothing a head of time and I think that is her problem as she never knows when or what she going to do at any given time and then comes back from Disney mad she could not get into eat anywhere???? and it cost so much???? I do realize some don't care for the free dining and i do remember the days years ago when one could just walk up and make a ressie out front for that evening but those days are long gone with or with out free dining. as some think the free dining has packed the restuarunts but all those people have to eat somewhere regardless if they on free dining or not so I do not get that statement...

 

[disnut8]

I do not understand why someone would pass up the free dining plan. Me and my family (three of us total) saved nearly 200 dollars a day with free dining. An over the counter meal, a snack, and a sit down meal was more then enough to keep us stuffed the entire day. I felt like we never stopped eating and we even had credits to spare at the end of the trip! We were able to eat at fancy, more high end restaurants we would never be able to afford. We ate a $150 dollar meal in Canada (even though that requires two credits now) and Italy. I love free dining plans. However, I would never pay for the dining plan because I feel like that would not be beneficial at all.

You just said exactly why I do NOT like the dining plan, free or not. My husband and I could never eat a counter service meal AND and sit down meal in one day. Plus a snack? Our usual is a snack and maybe a counter service meal. If we did a table service, then we would have a snack later but maybe not. We're just not big eaters. And we aren't the type would enjoy the fancy, more high end restaurants. We would waste so much food and even if it's free, I am very uncomfortable doing that.

 

[toodycat]

Our family, me, DH and DS (17) often visit during free dining, but never take advantage of it. On our last visit, we booked with a code for 40% off room only and paid $285/weeknight (and $315/weekend night) at the GF for three nights. We purchased our park passes at AAANY a few years ago and bought three passes with the maximum number of non-expiring, water park included, park hopper days. That was about $1500 for 10 days or $50 per person per day. So, we weren't buying park passes which is required for the free dining package. Lastly, we saved points earned with our Disney Visa Card and used the Disney dollars we got for lunches and snacks at the Epcot Food and Wine Festival. For breakfast, we would buy one or two of the big platters at Gasparilla's and split it three ways. Frequently, we still had food leftover from those oversized platters; even with coffee and juice, it was still less than $10 per person. For dinner, we ate at Captain's Grill, Boma, Grand Floridian Cafe and Wolfgang Puck's. Each dinner was at most $100 for the three of us. We don't really drink and we'd usually rather have Mickey bars than formal desserts. Let's say, with breakfast and snacks, we spent about $600 on food. The room was about $1100 with taxes. Our 2009-purchased AAA passes, for three days in the parks, were $150 per day or $450. The same trip, with the magic your way and free dining, is around $2495. My total comes out to $2150. The difference is roughly the cost of one plane ticket from JFK to MCO.

 

[Natalie's Mommy]

When we went last spring, we went with the ticket package discount over the free dining. They offered a kids stay/play for free which overlapped with a free dining offer. We're not huge fans of the dining plan either and chose to save money by controlling our own food costs. We were there for 11 days, so the ticket discount paid off.

this is us as well. what you "save" by doing free dining i can feed my family on less than that so i'd rather have a room discount or a promo like this one which we used when we went in september and it worked out great!

 

[Hooves]

Of course there's always the British way- 40% room discount and a free dining plan with $150 spending money too!

 

[aubriee]

Of course there's always the British way- 40% room discount and a free dining plan with $150 spending money too!

Hey, don't be a smart butt! You guys travel alot further, pay alot more for airfare, must plan your trips alot longer, usually stay longer, and spend alot more money than us Americans. You guys deserve the extra perks. As an AP holder, I go several times year, each trip is usually 8 nights/9 days, and because I go so often, seldom find anything to buy down there anymore. Since I already have my park ticket and seldom buy souvineers anymore, usually get an AP room discount, and have the TiW card which gives me 20% off most meals, Disney doesn't get as much of my money anymore.

 

[Hooves]

Hey, don't be a smart butt! You guys travel alot further, pay alot more for airfare, must plan your trips alot longer, usually stay longer, and spend alot more money than us Americans. You guys deserve the extra perks.

Even with all the extra perks it's still expensive!

 

[nkereina]

You just said exactly why I do NOT like the dining plan, free or not. My husband and I could never eat a counter service meal AND and sit down meal in one day. Plus a snack? Our usual is a snack and maybe a counter service meal. If we did a table service, then we would have a snack later but maybe not. We're just not big eaters. And we aren't the type would enjoy the fancy, more high end restaurants. We would waste so much food and even if it's free, I am very uncomfortable doing that.

You don't HAVE to eat a snack, QS and TS meal each day. If you're on free DDP, you should have no qualms about skipping a meal since you are not paying for it. If you did pay for it, then that's different because the the DDP is not a good value anymore. For people like you, I agree that a room only discount is better, but I can't understand why someone would pass up free dining if it's the only promotion out.