Is free dining really free?

[MOmousefan]

My question is can you get a better deal on the Magic Your Way package without any dining plan?

 

[mindync]

For us, 2 of our 3 kids count as adults so free dining ends up saving us over $1000. Thats better than any other discount I've seen.

Granted, we wouldnt eat THAT much if we were paying as we went but I do think the dining plan is just fun too...fun to think you "have" to eat dessert.

 

[missycj96]

No - free dining is not free. You have to pay rack rate for the room. To decide if it is a good deal for you, you have to determine the value of the dining plan per night for your particular family (number of adults, children, QSDP or DDP depending on your resort) and compare that to any other discount you could personally take advantage of (such as AP rate, pin code, other discount etc). For the less expensive resorts, depending on the size of the party traveling, free dining is often an excellent discount.

In my experience, for the more expensive deluxe resorts, the free dining discount (say roughly about $100 per night for my family) may be less than a 30 or 40% off discount. If you want a more expensive deluxe resort and can get 40% off, it may be cheaper to take the room discount and then just add the dining plan if you want it.

There is no one answer - it depends on the room you are booking, how many people are in your family, and any other discount you are giving up to get free dining with a rack rate room.

As a note, you also have to factor in whether you need to buy tickets. If you have an AP for example, you will incur extra ticket costs taking advantage of free dining - though you can save the ticket for when you renew your AP.

 

[dismichael]

I had doubts the first few times i did the free dining too. And each year me and my family do the math planning out each and every price for all the restaurants. Nothing comes close .
On the other hand if you had to pay for the dining plan the Tables In Wonderland (TiW) for those with an AP comes out to be about the same in price.

Hope it helps

 

[vicki_c]

There are lot of threads on this topic or similar - two just today that I participated in.

You have to figure it out for your own family's situation - whether free dining is the best deal or not depends on who is in your party and what level of resort you are staying at.

For many, a room discount and paid dining is a better deal. For many, free dining is a better deal. There is no one answer.

 

[peimikes]

Free dining dosne't have to be about $ every time. We found it was almost as much fun as the rest of the parks. We tried many new things we wouldn't have if we were paying out of pocket. For me it's hard to put a $ on the offer because it was so enjoyable not thinking of a meal budget, just go and eat as you want.

 

[disnut8]

My husband asked me why we didn't do free dining. I explained to him that we would (1) have to pay rack rates (2) get park passes for the entire time we were there and (3) eat either two quick service meals per day or one table service and one quick service meal per day. That was the end of that discussion because -

(1) I have never paid rack rate for any Disney room because (2) we have annual passes and (3) we eat one quick service meal per day at Disney World and that's it.

Free dining is just like any other package plan out there. You have to look at everything offered and see if there are going to be things you aren't going to use but pay for anyway. Personally, there is no way I could eat the amount of food offered on the dining plan. And I'm not one to get a meal just because it's "free".

 

[jannylynn]

For us, yes it was worth it. We were booked at POR with the deluxe dining plan. NO discounts applied because they hadn't offered any yet and I was pinless. When they released FD, I had to rebook my dates, but it saved us $1000 and we got an extra night. It's not like they hike up the room rates or anything like that.

You have to run it through a few different ways. It probably was a better value for us because we are a family who wanted the meal plan. I could see where this wouldn't be that great for a couple. A room discount would be better because your overall food expense per room is less.

 

[yoeleven]

I'd suggest comparing the package cost with free dining to the 40% hotel promo. You can use the menus on the Disney site to figure out how much you're likely to spend on food every day.

For us, it turned out to be cheaper to book the hotel at 40% off, and add the DxDP. We generally use one credit for lunch and two for dinner each night so the extra credits are perfect.

 

[SGMCO]

We go at Value Season (which is the lowest non-discounted time of year)
Plus we save $1008.00 for 8 nights with Free Dining--that's the best deal we can get because
I never have received the 40% off codes that others get.
We have 2 adults and 1 teen (considered an adult).
The more adults you have the better savings with FD.
We had booked the end of Oct. which is Regular Season then I decided to switch to Value season
just in case free Dining came out (just switching dates saved me $500.00) with a total of $1,508.00 savings.
If you want to eat CS for your whole trip you still have to pay close to $8--$10 per person per meal (includes drinks) but
I don't think I could take that much fast food, I like being able to have at least 1 nice sit down meal per day (plus you can order
anything on the menu without worrying how much it cost).
We don't live close enough to WDW to pay for the expensive AP passes.
With basic DP you get 1 TS, 1 CS and 1 snack per day (I don't see how people think that's to much food--most people eat 3 meals a day).
We love Free Dining!!

 

[darwinsrule]

Last year we did FD. This year we took the 40% discount at WL and then added the DDP. It was cheaper than the FD offer. Interesting note, all the ads in the newspaper here show FD for the moderate and value resorts. There is no mention of the deluxe resorts.

 

[Bernini98]

Since it is "free" it basically screws up ADR's for the rest of us

Sure,

If you aren't feeling bloated enough, get an $8 dessert

Plan your whole vacation around getting your $42 back each day

The Dining Plan is designed for people who put the whole thing on credit cards and really can't afford to pay out of pocket.

But I rant...to each his / her own

 

[cuddleworthy]

Since it is "free" it basically screws up ADR's for the rest of us

Sure,

If you aren't feeling bloated enough, get an $8 dessert

Plan your whole vacation around getting your $42 back each day

The Dining Plan is designed for people who put the whole thing on credit cards and really can't afford to pay out of pocket.

But I rant...to each his / her own

I think this is a little bit mean. Free dining allows people to see what WDW dining has to offer for free, which is really nice. Yes, I think most people will try to maximize their plans by ordering more expensive items, but who cares.

It's really nice to go there and have all your meals paid for, even if you don't need it. Plus, since DDP is quoted to only save about 20% on meals, then do you think the TiW (20% off at restaurants) card is for people who "can't afford" to eat there?

If it screws up your ADRs so much, why don't you go during non-value times since it sounds like you don't need to "put the whole thing on credit cards?" I pay OOP and enjoy free dining and any other pins I might receive because even though I have money, I also like to save it. Either way, I don't mean to take a jab at you, but I don't think this sort of elitism is necessary. Either plan to go at a different time or just deal with the situation. I don't think it's nice to generalize and say that all people who use the DDP "can't afford to pay out of pocket."

 

[MellieluvsDisney]

That was a mean comment!

It's free so why not enjoy it? What's the big deal anyway? I pay out of pocket for my whole vacation, and If the promotion doesn't come out one year, then I'll pay for the dining plan out of pocket too.

Just like any other Disney promotion, they are there to save us money and you have to pick the one that's best for you. For us, it's the free dining promotion, even if we pay full rate for our rooms. We are 5 adults, so eating free meals actually is a good deal for us.

 

[SnoWhiteRabbit]

Great Discount for Us.....We are a family of 5 - Two of my kids (DD12 & DD 10) are considered adults And we love the character meals and sit down meals. Dining is very expensive for us. We also stay at a moderate during value or regular season, so it is well worth paying rack rates (about $160 or so) for free dining. It's a great promotion for us!

 

[MOmousefan]

Thank you for the responses. I did the DDP last Sept on a solo trip. I spent the most planning time on ADRs and since I decided to go in less than 30 days the ADRs were tough to get. I can live with that. But, my entire trip revolved around the TS meals and I was stuffed the entire trip. I rarely spent more then $35/day on previous trips, so the DDP is not for me. Don't get me wrong, if you look at my picture you will see that I like to eat, but I can eat/sleep/shop when I get home. Again I appreciate the responses and I do understand other's choices when they are at WDW.

 

[baileybelle]

We're 5 adults staying at POP. Originally had a 20% of pin which would have saved us $341. We now have free QSDP which includes a free mug per person for a total savings of $1192. It works out perfect for us. We're gong to use the extra money to go to MNSSHP.

We're not upgrading to DDP because we only planned on eating at 3 TS restaurants anyway (Primetime, Tusker House and LTT, all lunches) and will pay those OOP.

We also feel the DDP takes away from park time and it's too much food. We'll be using the CS and snack credits to eat around the world at EPCOT during F&W. There are also some great CS at MK and DTD.

 

[TDC Nala]

You may be able to get a better deal, depending on the makeup of your party, the level of resort at which you stay, and the other types of discounts that might be available to you.

There could possibly be other considerations - personally I don't like the dining plan at all, so I won't use it even on a free dining package, even if that package ended up saving me money over another type of package.

 

[amshowers]

Actually before free dining was announced I recieved a free dining pin, A week later dh recieved a 40% pin. We took the free dining because it worked better for us. We are a family of 5 and staying at a moderate with free dining fo 4 disney adults and 1 child .Since I had a pin I only had to buy 1 day tickets. Other discounts would probably work better for couples or smaller families.

 

[Faldred]

My question is can you get a better deal on the Magic Your Way package without any dining plan?

Yes.

You can also do better with free dining.

It depends -- a lot -- on the number of people and what grade of accommodation you choose.

I'm not going to get into the semantics of whether or not free dining is "free". What it is is a discount on a package deal. You may be able to get a better discount using other offers.