Is free dining really free???

[CurlyJo224]

What I don't understand about the DDP (and thus Free Dining) is what you do for a third meal. For a family like us, who eats maybe an average amount for three meals, the DDP is not feasible for us. Overall, I think it would be a waste for us.

As far as DH and I, when we have the dining plan we eat a good sized breakfast, have a snacky sort of lunch, and our second meal for dinner. We still budget some money for food, but not nearly as much as we would have to otherwise.

 

[jenjie]

Let me put it this way. The cost of my vacation package was much less with free dining than without it. We pushed our trip back 5 days just to fall into the FD window. If we had kept things the way they were I would have a higher payment plus food costs. we actually received free QSDP and paid the difference for DDP. As was mentioned earlier, we'll be feeling it with the tips.

Free dining worked to our benefit this time. Next time may or may not be a different story.

 

[brenarmywife]

I really depends on the family I think. We love character dining and there are two table service restaurants that are "must do's" for us every trip. We are military and free dining is still cheaper for us even with the discounted tickets and room discount. I always run the numbers, but when you start adding the "must do" table service and each of the three kids pick their favorite character dining that is five table service meals and out of pocket it gets way too pricey. Those things for us are part of our "Disney Experience" and we simply can't do without them, so free dining makes it a sweet deal. We aren't big breakfast eaters, so I have cereal, shelf stable milk, muffins, danish and other breakfast type foods ordered from Amazon and delivered to the room so out of pocket breakfast is only about $40 for 7 days. My best advice is to look at the menu's and figure out what it costs for each scenario. Every family is different.

 

[rainynight]

Every family is differant but The regular DDP is more food than I normally eat in a day. I usually do a bagel or muffin for brfst and eat ts lunch or dinner without dessert most of time. Occasionally I'll do a CS but not everyday. somedays I may eat Muffin for brfst, grab a pretzel w cheese for snack and eat ts dinner. I'd be fine with a TS and snack or 2 per day.

Same here. The regular plan seems like a ton of food. My hubbie and I are one meal a day people, a nice dinner. We rarely eat during the day. Even 2 meals a day seems excessive. I will never understand how anyone stomaches 3 meals plus snacks everyday. I would feel horrible with a stomach that is constantly full. In fact, sometimes one a meal a day is too much for me and I will go a couple days without eating, of course I've always been able to notice the difference between appetite and hunger, and only eat when real hunger hits, which can be days between meals. It runs in my blood I guess, everyone in my family eats like that.

Of course on vacation I eat much more than normal, but even 2 meals a day is too much after a couple of days eating like that. We upgraded to the regular dining plan from the free quick service just for the sit down dinners, but there will be many missed quick service meals and snacks.

 

[hollygolitely93]

The way I look at it is as a discount. "Free" Dining usually saves us about $1000 for a family of 4. Depending on the room discount at the time/resort you are staying at, there may be better options.

In the end, run the numbers and find out what gets you there on your budget. The key is make sure it works for you.

We've gone with free dining three times. Each time I anticipated saving that much for my family of four...based on the total package cost of my booked trip prior to free dining release...where I had no room rates (had same deal all three times...Magic your way with dining package). Then when I call to apply the free dining (everything stays the same) it never discounts to the amount of the dining package...usually the bill comes down about 300-500. Which is still nice but clearly not the total cost of the dining plan. As the magic package is not itemized...it is hard for me to discern why the deiscrepency...

This time also to get free dining we had to upgrade our room for standard to garden...the other two times we were at WL (wood view) and GF (standard).

Not complaining as it is still a discount but feel it is a bit of a misrepresentation to call dining "free"...more like a discount!

We also ended up changing to room discount the two times we stayed deluxe when it finally came out as it was a better deal for us!

 

[TDC Nala]

Free dining is absolutely free - if you stay at least 3 nights, pay rack rate for the room and buy at least 2 day tickets.

What one has to ask oneself is do they have other discounts available that may be more valuable to them than the free dining.

What I don't understand about the DDP (and thus Free Dining) is what you do for a third meal. For a family like us, who eats maybe an average amount for three meals, the DDP is not feasible for us. Overall, I think it would be a waste for us.

Afraid I don't understand this...if one looks at the DDP as covering certain meals each day, they would get free dining if it covered three meals, but not if it covers two? It does make perfect sense if you're not going to eat the way the dining plan nudges guests into eating to get the best value, in that case it might make sense to go for a room discount if you can get one. I won't get the dining plan at all, free or not, even if I'm staying at a regular resort rather than on DVC points, because I don't like being on the dining plan. That's a consideration sometimes too.

 

[Nancyg56]

Maybe a better question would be, "Is "free dining" a "good deal," financially?"

Exactly. Nothing is free but there are discounts and promotions. You just need to decide which promotion is the best value for you.

Seems like once you've done the DDP two or three times you realize it's not really a value... You're always better off with a room discount or Tiw..

Not in my family's case. We do the math, DD is an accountant and numbers swirl around her head. We always choose the best value for our family and so far "free" dining is less expensive for us.

Being frugal....I know I would try to skimp on meals, if we didn't have free dining. For us, we love that it's all paid in advance and we can get what we want for meals. Plus, we don't eat out very much at home....so it becomes part of our vacation excitement, to be able to do so!

We like that "all inclusive" feel as well. We do choose the DDP when we vacation in Disney because dining is part of our vacation. My DH always always states upfront he wants a "cheap" vacation. What he means is that we need to plan ahead to make sure that we have scheduled good meals and that for the most part they are included in the budget we set.
There is no way he would agree to CS meals throughout the trip and he always stops for snacks with my DGD so in the long run this works best.

In our family it is me who would try to skimp and DH who would want more meals and extras at dinnertime so we just factor it in all at once.

What I don't understand about the DDP (and thus Free Dining) is what you do for a third meal. For a family like us, who eats maybe an average amount for three meals, the DDP is not feasible for us. Overall, I think it would be a waste for us.

There really is plenty of food. My family ends up splitting CS lunch or breakfast or using a snack credit. We like to stop to eat but cannot eat three full meals a day. This year my DGD is a Disney adult and she will enjoy her own CS meal. Which we will help her eat. Last time my DD told me she would once in a while have her order from the adult side and she would get the children's meal. for herself.

Yes, Free dining is indeed FREE, IMHO. I don't know what kind of discounts and deals the average person is getting on Disney rooms, but many of those discounts are available only to military, AP holders, Florida residents, etc. I don't qualify for anything like that, and can't get a TIW card to save on dining costs.

If I stay 6 days in a moderate hotel next week (during the Free Dining promo), it would cost about $1200 for the room. If I'm lucky enough to get a 25% off pin or code, that would save me $300. So, I suppose if our party of three could eat for $16.67 per day, that room discount would be the better deal. But seriously - I'd rather pay the full $1200 and get 6 days of free dining without having to worry about the price of every last morsel that passes my lips. We are planning to go to Hoop-De-Doo, Le Cellier, Liberty Tree Tavern, 50's PTC, and Teppan Edo plus a CS place every day. How am I losing by doing this rather than having a smaller room discount?

I won't argue that free dining is a good value for some..it sure works for my family. I will say that I never travel to Disney without a discount. I think the discount can be more for a family is they stay at a deluxe and get an awesome code.

 

[beansmom]

like religion, FD is a personal choice. Sometimes we use it, sometimes we don't. Generally if only the two of us (dh and me) are going, then we don't use the DDP.

This trip, however, we are taking gs and ds so we are doing the FD--we have to buy tickets for both of them and we will keep our 2 day passes to use against our AP renewals. DS is sort of a big eater and gs is a pure 'kidsmeal' eater so everyone will be happy.

We paid only about $300 more for the package for the 4 of us than room only was at CBR and, as no room only discount has been announced for the fall, we think this is a pretty good deal for us this trip.

 

[hoosierfan1979]

It certainly works for my family. We have 2 DD myself and my DW. Since the kids like character meals it sure saves us money. We have yet to get a different type of discount so i'm not sure what deals are the best, but the savings for 4 people are pretty good with fd.

 

[bookgirl2632]

LOL. no that means the cost of the dining is absorb in the higher room rates.

Right. And even with a discounted rate, those discounts don't work for us. So we opt to pay the rack rate and get the Free Dining plan. So, as I said, it is free for us.

 

[lynypixie]

We're planning on taking the Deluxe dining plan anyway (we want to do caracter meals every days), so if there is a discount on dining, we'll take it for sure! We'll be staying in a value resort, so we'll just pay the difference of price between the QS and DxDP. We are two adults and 3 kids (one is under 3), so it will make a huge difference.

We like the idea of going in a "all included" Disney vacation, we want to me worry free, so we plan on taking a package deal no matter what.

 

[KittyKat1978]

I also stay value and FD is best for me. I have been considering going in May next year and FD is rarely ever been offered in May. So it's not likely I will go in May but stay with Sept to get FD.

 

[fanofWD]

Being frugal....I know I would try to skimp on meals, if we didn't have free dining. For us, we love that it's all paid in advance and we can get what we want for meals. Plus, we don't eat out very much at home....so it becomes part of our vacation excitement, to be able to do so!

exactly how we feel! Even though there's only three of us, we still enjoy having it all done for us ahead. yes, I realize we are "paying" for it but it doesn't seem like it when just rolled in with all the other vacation expenses. DH loves the idea I won't be hounding him everytime he wants a snack or I won't be telling him to get water at dinner because it's cheaper!

 

[bookgirl2632]

exactly how we feel! Even though there's only three of us, we still enjoy having it all done for us ahead. yes, I realize we are "paying" for it but it doesn't seem like it when just rolled in with all the other vacation expenses. DH loves the idea I won't be hounding him everytime he wants a snack or I won't be telling him to get water at dinner because it's cheaper!

Yes, this! I love that it is paid for in advance. This, by far, is the thing I love the most about it. Yes, we are Free Dining people all the way.

 

[SMorgan711]

I'm a financial analyst so I love doing the math!

We saved $2400 off two rooms at BWI for four people. We will spend maybe around $1200-1400 on food for 7 days, eating at Rose & Crown, Tony's, Captains Grille, Cape May Cafe. We do not stress over how many snacks we eat or what we eat at dinner. We get what we want, when we want. We are pretty healthy so we usually get water when we eat anyway and we are not big drinkers. We also LOVE being at Disney so we prefer to enjoy all entertainment Disney has to offer. I could not imagine eating 2 or 3 TS meals a day, several days in a row. We like to graze so we always stop at the grocery store and get snacks to bring in.

If I had the FD, I feel like I would NOT be doing what I want but what I can to maximize free dining. Then I'd be like.. OH get that snack because it's more expensive that that one. Oh get a soda because it's free. What a headache.

but really, it's all up to what kind of vacation you want. For some people it works, for others it doesn't. Hakuna Matata!

 

[jenjie]

The percentage off discount increases along with your room pricing. Value-moderate-deluxe. Value resorts only offer a 20% room discount when they are being, offered. Of course a room discount on a deluxe will be a better deal.

We are staying at AoA on free dining right now. DH is amazed at the food choices. "I can get ANYTHING on the menu?" And being that the snack credits are not limited to popcorn and Mickey bars, that increases his dining pleasure. however we are not worried about prices, we eat what we feel like eating.

 

[lightmoonstone]

Trying it out for the first time this November...I probably wouldn't do it if it wasn't free, but I hope to save some money this way...for souvenirs!