Is free dining really free

[poppypetal]

Last year when we went, we only pay OOP once and that was at AK, we didn't feel it was justified using our credit for a 25.00 bagel breakfast. Being as we have little ones we do the character meals, so this totally helps us out in that term of pricing.
And 2 meals a day totally sustained us last year. We did a heavy lunch to fill us, and then we ate dinner around 5 sometimes later because we were still full. Barely even touched our snacks last time. But cashed everything out when we left, brough home about 12 bags of candy lol.
This time, we are letting the kids pig out abit more then, then bringing it all home. We find doing buffet makes it easier to survive on 2 meals.

 

[sunsetbeachgal]

We just did quick service dining plan and basically spent nothing more out of pocket...used the two counter service meals for lunch and dinner, and had a light breakfast using snack credit and coffee in our refillable mugs. And with starting off with a light breakfast we ate lunch early which works out much better when the parks are crowded!

 

[blondietink]

For this family of 4, all adults, it saves us money to take advantage of the free dining if it falls in the time frame when we want to go to WDW. We stay in a moderate, and with the extra charge for the extra 2 adults in the hotel, it figures out to be the same price for just the hotel as the dining plan. So, we figure that either the hotel is free or the dining is free.

Otherwise, we use our DVC points to stay in a villa and cook our meals, with an occassional counter service thrown in. We just can't justify the cost of the adult DDP for 4 people, when we can just get some groceries and save tons of money.

 

[BuzznBelle'smom]

So it appears, it’s a case by case basis, but everyone does have to pay for tips and other items not covered by the dining plan. I wonder if Disney ever considered an all inclusive price, where everything is covered and you would truly not spend a penny on food/ drinks, and including tips as well. I wonder if people would be willing to pay extra for that. Where you would just get an arm band or something, just show that at any restaurant and that’s it, and maybe exclude signature dining and special character meals. There would no more keeping track of credits or anything. I am sure there is a reason why they don’t.

They used to have a couple plans like this, back before the current DDPs emerged. The Premium Plan included 3 TS meals a day, including appetizer, dessert, fancy drinks, and tips. It also included free motorsports rental, free golf, etc. The Platinum Plan included alcohol, as well.

We stayed on the Premium Plan a few times, about 10 years ago. While it was really nice to have all those things included, compliments of my MIL, doing three TS meals a day cut seriously into touring time. There was just so much food! And it seemed so wasteful! But, that's probably just my cheap side showing. In addition, it was fun to do the water mice, and my kids really enjoyed parasailing. Oh, and one time, they had a choice of special perks--a massage, etc. We got a half hour private session with a WDW photographer, who took us to special places in MK and took family photos. We got to keep the negatives, too (dating the visit, there, aren't I?). That was really nice, since I usually wield the camera and don't show up in the photos. Obviously, this was before Photopass.

I don't know if WDW still offers the Premium/Platinum plans. You might want to inquire. I'm sure my MIL got them through AAA.

 

[TDC Nala]

They used to have a couple plans like this, back before the current DDPs emerged. The Premium Plan included 3 TS meals a day, including appetizer, dessert, fancy drinks, and tips. It also included free motorsports rental, free golf, etc. The Platinum Plan included alcohol, as well.

These plans still exist. They are not Disney Dining Plans - they're a completely different program, and they include a great deal more than just dining, but they do have a dining component similar to the Deluxe Dining Plan. The big exception being that all meals are one credit, even signatures. I also believe they no longer include alcohol (except at dinner shows) or tips.

 

[disneychristmasx3]

For my family of 5 free dining is very very worthwhile. We have never received any discount offers whatsoever except for the one year we were fortunate enough to go with a free dining offer that was available to the general public. There are a lot of people on these boards who would never think to pay rack rate because they get frequent discount offers, but for the large majority of us rack rate is the only rate available. We don't live in Florida. We don't have AP's because we can only visit once every 18 months - 2 years (and usually only for 7 days at a time) due to the cost. Despite 5 Disney World trips and a Disney cruise we have never once received a pin code by mail or email - even with doing everything people suggest. We have ordered DVD's, and saved trips in the system. We have tried all the tricks, but never once received a discount offer.
So free dining is indeed a very big discount. It's hard to read here that "free dining is not really free" because for my family it really is free and will determine whether or not we can go this year.

 

[TDC Nala]

There are a lot of people on these boards who would never think to pay rack rate because they get frequent discount offers, but for the large majority of us rack rate is the only rate available.

There are actually general public room discounts on a pretty regular basis. There's one right now for room-only discounts (can be applied to a package) for 4/13-6/14. A site like mousesavers.com will let you know all the discounts currently being offered and if your stay might be eligible. These may or may not turn out to be a better discount than free dining, and there aren't any room discounts out yet for the August/September timeframe.

 

[lucyem]

I think it depends on the family as to whether it is a good deal or no. We prefer a room discount to free dining. But then again we save nothing on the dining plan at all. It does not work for us.

 

[disneychristmasx3]

There are actually general public room discounts on a pretty regular basis. There's one right now for room-only discounts (can be applied to a package) for 4/13-6/14. A site like mousesavers.com will let you know all the discounts currently being offered and if your stay might be eligible. These may or may not turn out to be a better discount than free dining, and there aren't any room discounts out yet for the August/September timeframe.

Yes I agree that is true for families fortunate enough to be able to take their kids out of school to go. I have 2 kids in college, so I can't get away with that. My dates are generally restricted to the exact weeks when discounts offered to the general public are not available - such as Christmas week. That is why free dining is very much "free" for us.

 

[DCLbrideSept2009]

We went in August 2009 during free dining. There were 7 of us total... 2 actual adults, 3 "Disney adults" and 2 "Disney kids." We had 2 rooms at Pop, $82/night per room (the cheapest rack rate at the time). We got the free DDP (not the QS they do now) for all of us. The cost of the DDP at that time far exceeded the $164/night we were paying for the rooms. So definitely a good deal for us then!! Now we are DVC, so we don't get free dining staying on points. DH and I did do a kid-less trip during F&W this past November with FD at ASMovies.

 

[tndisneyfan]

Thank you for your feedback everybody, once thing still kind of confuses me though. The standard Disney dining plan covers one table service and one counter service per day night. For the people they don’t spend anything on food when they have free dining, what do they do about the third meal, do they just skip it. I assume they aren’t including tip either. For my family, 2 adults and a 7 and 11 year old, we may have a sit down breakfast or just bagels coffee or juice in the hotel coffee shop, depending on how we feel that morning, than quick service meal at lunch and a table service for dinner. So for us I think we would still pay a 150-200 for a week stay out of pocket if you include breakfast and tips. So for me, I would add about $200 even though I am getting free dining. That’s the point of this thread I guess.

I have read on the Dis about people using snack credits for breakfast items. We are not big breakfast people, so we pack pop tarts and cereal from home and eat in the room before we leve for the parks. It is still a cost even though we bring everything from home, except for milk of course.

I would think you could easily add up to $200 for tips and extras. So no it's not totally free. Also we always seem to run into a few things here and there that aren't on the plan like mixed drinks, bags of caramel corn, or appetizers at the TS if the mood strikes us.

 

[disneyred]

Ummm. After reading thru this thread it got me thinking.. Did I miscalculate??? I helped 3 families calculate and decide if free dining was a better deal or not ... Each family of 5 , disney adults, was staying at deluxe and using their resort discount of 30 to 35% off, we came to conclusion room discount saved more money..yet I am reading here it fd is more worth it?

 

[SnipsNSnails]

When we went last September we had the free dining. It was the best discount for us because we would have bought the dining plan otherwise.....mostly because my grandparents were going with us and we wanted to eat decently for the week, not CS the whole time which is how it would have ended up if they'd have had to actually plunk down the money for their meals each time! Anyway........the only things we paid OOP were the tips (which you have to pay DDP or not) and a pair of suckers that my DH bought the first day because he didn't understand that he could use the snack credits for them and a pair of refillable mugs. We didn't bring any food with us either. We had 6 adults and 1 child and 1 under 3. Personally I can't eat a whole CS meal for lunch and then eat a TS meal for dinner. So my mom and I shared a CS meal at lunch and my grandparents did as well. My dad and DH had their own CS meal for lunch and everyone their own TS at dinner. My boys shared the child's meal and bits of other people's meals and we always had way more than enough food. We did not use any CS on our arrival or departure day (well sort of we did end up using some yo grab breakfast for the last day beause we had some leftover). We had it figured out that with people sharing lunches and those extra 6 CS credits, we had enough for 3 adult CS meals for breakfast for the 6 full days we were there and 1 extra child CS meal. Then it quickly became apparent that we didn't even want that many CS meals each morning necessarily and sometime used a couple snack credits for muffins or pastries along with using the mug for something to drink because we also weren't hardly using our snack credits. And then on our MNSSHP night we did TS lunch and I think only one CS credit was used in the evening for a meal, everyone else used a snack or two. It was just way too much food, even sharing. We were never hungry the whole trip. At the end I think we had 1 CS meal that wasn't used and we used a ton of snack credits for things to take home. I do think that the larger your group the easier it is to share etc. and have enough food. I wouldn't consider myself a light eater either.

So that's how we did it without paying hardly anything out of pocket. We all agreed that it was great, we had as much as we wanted to eat, it was easy and worry free. I'd definately do it again.

 

[Mstarprincess]

Hi Everyone!

I think the QSDP is a great value and really is the only way that my mom and I are able to visit WDW. With the QS we use our meals primarily for lunch and dinner. We bring instant oatmeal from home and mix it in our refillable mugs with hot water, and this works really well for breakfast. Overall we spend about $50 on food for 11 days which is so cheap!

 

[DisneyLoverUSA]

What have people's experiences been with free dining. How much have people spent on food amd drinks even though they have free dining. My theory is that you still pay a significant amount even though you have free dining. Plus you pay a higher hotel rate if I understand it corectly. Am I totally wrong.

You are always going to have ppl tell you FREE DINING IS NEVER FREE since you pay rack rates for the rooms. But it is free and I will tell you why.

Last year around February or April we booked our 10 day family vacation staying at the All Star Music family suite with 5 day tickets for October. (we had days at IOA and US too not just Disney) Our trip was paid for. We didn't have any room pin discount code or any public offer that would have saved us money. But we we re planning on coming anyway and we booked the trip we could afford and didn't look back.

I looked into BUYING the dining plan but for us, there were 5 of us and all 3 kids are considered Disney adults, so even for just the QSDP it would cost us $200 a day TIMES 9 days $1,800. That's what it would cost us to pay for the QSDP for 5 ppl for 9 nights/10days. We decided we could eat out of pocket a whole lot cheaper than $1,800 for 9 nights so we didn't add it to our package.

However, over the summer last summer a general public offer came out for free dining that perfectly lined up with the dates we were going to be there. The family suites were included in the free dining promo so I called and had it added on to my existing reservation and got FREE QSDP $1,800 worth that I would have otherwise had to pay for anyway since we didn't have a room discount either.

We knew we were going to pay rack rate for the room whether we got free dining or not, so when it came out and we were able to get it, we were thrilled. That technically saved us $1,800. SO for us, it really was FREE.

We enjoyed the QSDP and didn't want to upgrade to the DDP because we didn't want to be tied to ADRs and have to plan our days and nights around eating reservations. I loved the freedom of the QSDP. We didn't really use the resort mugs they give you to use for free. We might have used them once or twice while sitting out by the pool.

I wish they hadn't taken the second snack away from the QSDP but I suppose they did that to keep from raising the rate on it.

So to answer your question, yes free dining is really free. Especially if you have 4 or 5 ppl in your party or if your kids are 10 and over and considered big kids who can eat off the adult menu, free dining will always be the better discount over a room discount. A 20% off PIN code would have saved us $46 a night off our room. We got $200 worth of dining plan free every day. It was very obvious which savings was the better savings.

Disney is never going to let you stack discounts, so you have to price your room and see how much a %off discount would save you per day and how much the free dining would save you per day and take whichever discount is the better deal. But for 5 Disney Adults, the free dining is always going to be the best discount even if you were staying in a deluxe, you save more not paying for 5 adults ddp than the percent off the room.

As for how much we still spent on food even after getting the free dining, we went to Walmart our first night in and bought breakfast items, snacks for the room and drinks and bottled water. We spent about $200 at Walmart on all the groceries (half of which we ended up taking home because the QSDP gives you a lot of food) We went out to eat at Planet Hollywood one night and paid OOP for that $100 for 5 ppl, and one night we went out to eat at CHili's $100 for 5 ppl. The nights we didn't use our dinner credit at Disney we used it the following morning to have a hot breakfast in the resort food court. On the days we went to US and IOA and had to pay OOP for our lunch there, we used those lunch credits for breakfast at the resort food court as well. So most of the days we were suppose to eat our breakfast groceries in the room we were having hot counter service breakfast meals anyway and took a lot of breakfast items back home after the trip.

 

[hotcarib]

We love DDP for a few reasons but foremost is me : *I am CHEAP!
If I'm on DDP I eat with reckless abandon but if paying OOP I eat like a bird. That behavior drives DH mad, so for us DDP makes sense;-) Yes, I know it's entirely psychological but, oh well
Also, when we have a room *discount and buy DDP or have free dining and pay rack *(for us, 2 adults/no kids) the costs come out in not the same then in the ballpark*

 

[Phatoomch]

Thank you for your feedback everybody, once thing still kind of confuses me though. The standard Disney dining plan covers one table service and one counter service per day night. For the people they don’t spend anything on food when they have free dining, what do they do about the third meal, do they just skip it. I assume they aren’t including tip either. For my family, 2 adults and a 7 and 11 year old, we may have a sit down breakfast or just bagels coffee or juice in the hotel coffee shop, depending on how we feel that morning, than quick service meal at lunch and a table service for dinner. So for us I think we would still pay a 150-200 for a week stay out of pocket if you include breakfast and tips. So for me, I would add about $200 even though I am getting free dining. That’s the point of this thread I guess.

I haven' read the whole thread, I just wanted to share how we used the plan.

We would use the CS meal for breakfast - with that you get a meal, drink & dessert. We would have a full breakfast and use our refillable mug, we would then get a bottled drink and for dessert a muffin or something - these we would take to the parks with us. After a big breakfast, we wouldn't eat lunch, we would snack on our (huge) muffin and drink from the morning. We would then have our TS meal at around 6pm. The snack credit we would use on ice-cream or another drink. We were never hungry.

Yes, you have to factor in tips but thats the same wherever and whenever you eat out be it a paid meal or free through a coupon or something.