Is free dining really free???

[iadis58]

I have tried to figure some numbers based on Disney prices with free dining verses room rates with paid dining. It sure seems to me all Disney does it plays with the numbers. To get free dining you pay full undiscounted rate for the rooms. Not that this is wrong, after all Disney is there to make money. Kudos to their marketing department. It may also depend on value verses delux. Am I missing something. This is based on room, park hopper tickets and basic dining.

 

[disneylovinfamily]

I have worked the numbers because we are eligable for the 40% off room rates for the military. After you add in the dining, and tickets ect the free dining is a MUCH better deal. I also looked at the 40% off and us fending on our own for the meals. To break even with the cost of free dining for our family of 4, we would need to be able to eat on $21 a day total. I think it is a great deal!

 

[EthansMom]

With Free Dining, you pay full rack rate for the room and full price for the park tix, but you get the dining plan completely free (well, you have to pay tips for the table service meals, but otherwise free).

When we went last year, I priced out a Moderate with the AAA discount versus Free Dining and it was a better deal to take the Free Dining. Plus, we ate like kings for the week! Did a lot of meals I NEVER would have planned (like, Hoop-de-Doo) normally.

Just a thought, too: Last year, for the first time, we bought tix WITHOUT the hopping feature. I planned accordingly and new that if we needed to we could always go to Guest Services and pay to have the hopping feature added. In the end, it saved our family of 4 around $200 to do without hopping. And other than having to plan a little more we honestly never noticed the difference.

 

[newtodis]

I think it depends on where you want to stay, when you plan on staying and how many are in your family. For our family it's a good deal and a chance for us to "splurge" on the Disney meals that we normally wouldn't pay out of pocket for (maybe one or two/visit instead of every day for example). I think to find the true "cost" of the dining plan, you should check out menus for the places you want to eat and see what a meal would cost for a sit down, counter service and a snack each day then add that number to the cost of your hotel to show you the savings between staying on site and eating at Disney and staying on site and free dining plan. That personally helps me to see how much the dining plan will save us.

Good luck with whatever you decide. You might also want to check out the "restrauant" (sp?) board here - I think they have a whole "sub board" devoted to just the dining plan.

 

[clowe247]

If you have not been to disney before there are some cost one wouldn't think of. On free dining You have to pay for tip at the table sevice. To avoid this cost many people turn there TS into CS. When they do that disney gives you a voucher for 2 free snacks from the snack list or a gift. One yr was a lanyand and pin. Last yr it was a mickey mesh type string bag. The table service tips are calculated on your check. both 18% and 20%. If I pd 20% at each TS. I would pay close to 35-50$ Thats much more then I get a hr and I'm a nurse. The free dining lets us eat at a nicer resturaunt and try food we would never be exposed to.

 

[Darcy03231]

I went last October and had a PIN (40%). I found for me it was less expensive to go then and pay for DDP than it was to take advantage of "free dining". I called when free dining was announced and priced it out.

 

[disprincessatheart]

It depends on your party size, where you want to stay and the time of year you want to travel, not to mention how much food you eat. DH and I do not have kids and travel just the two of us. We went in the fall for 6 nights with free dining at CS and then ended up adding a night at the AP rate. The full price nights with "free" dining were $160 per night, and the AP night was $99 - same room. While eating all of our meals for $60 a night was a good deal, it was more food than we would normally eat in a week and the meals we did were more than we would normally care to do anyway. At the end of each free dining trip - we've done 3 - we have more and more credits left over.

On our trip later this month we're doing 6 nights at SSR and decided that there's no way we'd want to do a full week of TS meals again and that even the QS plan is more food and money than we would spend otherwise. We dont' search out the cheapest options, but if we're doing mainly CS we also don't spend $10 plus each per meal on every meal.

 

[princess&her4princes]

We had a trip booked for September at Pop for 5 days with 3 adults for roughly $1600 (basic dining, basic park tickets (no hoppers), room) with free dining it's down to $1128! I think it definately can save you some money...plus you get to try places you never have before and be a bit more adventurous!!

 

[penguingirlie]

I had a trip booked with a 40% off pin that I got. I rebooked that trip when free dining came out and saved us over $300! I say it is a great thing that saves us a lot of money!

 

[CarolA]

I have tried to figure some numbers based on Disney prices with free dining verses room rates with paid dining. It sure seems to me all Disney does it plays with the numbers. To get free dining you pay full undiscounted rate for the rooms. Not that this is wrong, after all Disney is there to make money. Kudos to their marketing department. It may also depend on value verses delux. Am I missing something. This is based on room, park hopper tickets and basic dining.

We have a winner! It's not FREE. It's kind of like if the local store marked up Ceral to $10 a box and gave you a "free" quart of milk. You have to decide if that "free" milk is a better deal then going someplace else and buying ceral and milk seperate.

I figure that the only way to say if I am REALLY saving is to add up what I would NORMALLY spend and see. Since I don't want (or NEED) a Disney sitdown once a day it's generally too costly for me.

I have gotten to the point where I am pretty much either using my DVC points or staying off site. Disney pricing is for the quality they provide.

 

[NeverlandClub23]

In our last 5 or 6 trips to WDW we've always had some sort of a discount (mainly a public released room only discount). Last November we had a 40% room only discount code and they offered to Disney Visa members the free dining package. We stayed at WL and it would've been about $50 more to go with the "free dining" than the 40% off (we also get our tickets through the mousesavers.com link to undercovertourist.com). Sometimes I think people on the DIS act like WDW is giving away free trips when free dining is released . We usually eat at only TS meals when we go to WDW (only done the dining plan once). That being said the dining plan doesn't really work for us.

For some people free dining does end up being a good discount against other discount but unless you're completely oblivious to any WDW discounts, comparing free dining against rack rate/full price everything is like apples to oranges, IMHO.

 

[maggiew]

As stated above, it depends on how many people in your party, where you are staying and if a discount code is available to you at all. Paying full price for room at Pop with free dining is different than paying full price for room at Beach Club with free dining. If you only had 2 people, the free dining might be less of a savings than you may have received with some sort of discount code on the room.

Everyone needs to calculate out all options before you decide.

Maggie

 

[Ava]

I figure that the only way to say if I am REALLY saving is to add up what I would NORMALLY spend and see. Since I don't want (or NEED) a Disney sitdown once a day it's generally too costly for me.

My problem with doing this is that if I am paying OOP I will always choose a less expensive meal. That $30 steak might sound REALLY good, but I would never order it because it's just too much money for one meal. However if I were on the DDP I'd probably go for the $30 steak, since it's already paid for (except for tip). It's hard for me to compare things "apples to apples" because I would eat differently if I were on DDP than if I was paying OOP.

We've never done the DDP before, but are considering trying it next trip.

 

[mickeymaker2003]

Free dining is the best deal for us (by FAR). We are a group of 4 adults and a 2 year old staying in one room at Pop. Our room rate will be $104 per night... the dining plan would cost us $160 per night if we were paying for it. So, unless Disney wants to pay me $50 a night to stay, free dining is the best deal for us. If we didn't have free dining, we would take food from home, make sandwiches, and eat a few counter service meals and go as inexpensively as possible (but feel like we were being cheap and missing things). With free dining, we get to do all the expensive character meals we would not have done without it. I won't pay $100 for us to eat breakfast at Crystal Palace, but I'm willing to pay the tip...

 

[smiles&grins]

We went last year and had booked before the free dining came dates came out. We had purchased the dinning plan aleady so we called and switched to free dining and saved about $700. We had planned on doing alot of charcter dinning so it worked out great for us. If your going to do alot of sit down dining or character meals I think it's a great deal. If you don't plan and what to wing it - it may not be worth it for you. My cousin's family didn't make any ressies and we had trouble getting them in.

 

[TheLittleRoo]

Here's how I look at Free Dining:

For us, it's a discount of $140/ day to get the dining plan. We are 2 adults, one teen, and 2 children ($39x3 + $11x2) We stay in a Moderate (rack rate is $167 including tax). We always stay in a Moderate, and wouldn't go up to the extra $100/nt for a deluxe.

So, I can tell you that Disney has never offered a 90% off code on rack rates when you buy the dining plan so the only way I can score anything near a 90% discount on lodging - - is to book free dining!

The more people in a room, the better free dining is for your family. If you can stay in a value without going stir crazy (2A, 2C maybe), so much better the savings.

If your party is only 2-3 people, you'd only save between $89-117 with Free Dining, whereas if you had a 40% off code on lodging and you like to stay in Deluxes, that code would save you upwards of $120.

That's my take, in a nutshell. Bigger families staying in one room - free dining. Smaller families or couples staying in higher end resorts - 40% off code. Or people who don't like to be bothered to spend all that time eating and getting to/from the restaurants and being tied to ADRs made 90 days in advance.

 

[PrincessTiffany]

We are a family of 6 and always get the DDP and always get connecting rooms at a value for 8 nights. The cost is roughly around $4,700.00, paying full price with no discount.

The 40% off code saves us $637.00

The 4/3 deal could save us $750.00

The Free Dining promo saves us $1,600.00

There is NO better discount for our family than the Free Dining promo.

 

[Resseda]

I look at free dining as Disney is paying us to come and eat. I went with my husband and 17 year old son in 2007. The thought of feeding my two bottomless pits was enough to make the dining plan worth it. I doubt I would ever pay for it oop because, as another poster said, I wouldn't generally eat a sit down meal every day. However, we did eat like kings! I am going this fall with my mom, niece and her friend, and we've been several times. After doing the parks in the past, it's nice to check out other resorts and visit restaurants we'd never dream of paying oop for.

Ress

 

[mafibisha]

I have tried to figure some numbers based on Disney prices with free dining verses room rates with paid dining. It sure seems to me all Disney does it plays with the numbers. To get free dining you pay full undiscounted rate for the rooms. Not that this is wrong, after all Disney is there to make money. Kudos to their marketing department. It may also depend on value verses delux. Am I missing something. This is based on room, park hopper tickets and basic dining.

We have a winner! It's not FREE. It's kind of like if the local store marked up Ceral to $10 a box and gave you a "free" quart of milk. You have to decide if that "free" milk is a better deal then going someplace else and buying ceral and milk seperate.

I figure that the only way to say if I am REALLY saving is to add up what I would NORMALLY spend and see. Since I don't want (or NEED) a Disney sitdown once a day it's generally too costly for me.

I have gotten to the point where I am pretty much either using my DVC points or staying off site. Disney pricing is for the quality they provide.

ITA with these two posters.

It is NOT free. And yes, their marketing department is likely the BEST in the WORLD. (its commonly studied in college marketing classes)

The expression *There's no free lunch* comes to mind.

Attendance is wayyy down at that time of year.
(anyone who's been knows the humidity you can cut with a knife, the whining, exhasted children, people passing out - and thats all just in my family! )

So Disney brilliantly created something FREE and VOILA, attendance is (somewhat) back up.

The cost of food (to them) is minor. (think buying in MASSIVE bulk)
But the cost for guests to pay for everything else is wayyy more than compared to a pin code or discounted room at other times of the year - and WDW gets many of their rooms filled under the guise of a *free lunch*.

It all balances out but the BIG difference is being grossly uncomfortable in the never-ending heat and humidity. You can't put a price on that!!

Absolutely brilliant marketing and great for WDW but not so much for guests, IMO.

 

[TheLittleRoo]

It all balances out but the BIG difference is being grossly uncomfortable in the never-ending heat and humidity. You can't put a price on that!!

Absolutely brilliant marketing and great for WDW but not so much for guests, IMO.

I don't know if I agree with this... I've been to FLA in April when it was 90, been in June/July when it was 92, and Aug/Sept when it was 90-92. I really don't think there's a difference between June/ July/ August/ Sept. Add in the year-round humidity level of 40% and hot is hot is hot. I'll take hot with free dining, over just hot!

And when we go in the heat of Free Dining (which is the same as anytime between late April - late Oct) we know enough to leave the parks when the sun is worst, book ADRs for the hot part of dinner (5'ish) to sit in the cool A/C and head back into the parks 1.5 hrs later when it starts to get (a little) cooler. But to each her own!