Is free dining really free???

[andyman8]

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.

 

[k5thbeatle]

Dining plan (and free dining plan) is the worst concept that ever has been implemented in the history of WDW!

 

[Fire14]

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.

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.

 

[DeaverTex]

Free dining is effectively free because you don't pay for it. It's not necessarily free because you can't combine it with other discounts. But, if there ARE no other discounts -- like our October trip -- it sure beats paying for your Disney meals. Of course, there's no FD for our dates either.

 

[atp]

I think if you stay at a value resort FD will pretty much always be worth it for 2 adults or more.

I did the math and FD was way, WAY cheaper than the room discount. The room discount was 20 or 25%, I don't remember anymore. But say the room costs a 100 per night, I'd have to spend less than 30 per day on food. For one person, it's doable, I would probably spend less. But for two people? There's no way unless I buy most of my food at a grocery store and have breakfast in the room and eat cheap snacks all day long and only buy 1 meal per day. And even then it's going to be hard to do such a small budget.

Anyway, I guess for moderate resorts or deluxe the room discount would be better since it's a higher percentage and the room costs more. But for the values I really think it's worth it.

 

[alicia080979]

We have done it different ways. We have used TIW and paid OOP once, done the FD discount 3 times and paid for the dining plan once. You really do just have to sit down and crunch numbers.

I will say this, we used our TIW card in April for everything and spent less than we would have if we had paid OOP for the dining plan BUT we did not eat like we had the dining plan bc I was too consumed with not spending too much. Normally, we love to have a CS lunch or dinner and then 1 TS per day but when we were paying OOP, we rarely ate CS bc there are no TIW discounts for it, we hardly ever got snacks bc I didn't want to spend the money on them, and we almost always ordered the cheapest thing on the menu with water & no dessert. I also went to the store and got stuff so we could pack our lunches a few days.

My DH loves going to Disney and not having to worry about the food or the cost of it. I understand his point and I didn't like having to worry about how much we were spending. Tips were a moot point bc we have to pay those either way. We had APs so there were savings there. In September we are going with the FD deal and it is still a better deal with having to pay for 2 days of tickets than paying OOP for the dining plan. We also have 3 adults so the DDP OOP would be over $150 a day and the room discounts only amount to around $50 a day. Factor in $168 each for tickets (which I feel is a wash bc I am getting something to use at a later date) and we are still saving a few hundred dollars by going with FD.

Oh and because we always bring my mother, we share every meal we can and end up stretching our dining credits to get quite a few more meals.

Spend a couple of hours on allears looking at menus and start crunching numbers. It's fun! :nerd:

 

[CrabbyPatty]

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?

 

[Sheaboys]

If you decide where you are staying, how many people in your party and their ages, you should be able to decide what would work best for you, FREE dining or room discount.

We have 7 in our family, 2 adults, 3 disney adults, and 2 kids. We need rooms. We are staying at a Moderate Resort, even with the room only discount they offered (I think it was 30%, maybe 35%), we still made out better with FREE dining.

For one, no matter what we have to eat, even if I had to pay OOP for a few meals throughout the week, we still make out. WE always eat a sit down for supper, or at the very least 1 sit down per day. We would off the plan as well. So on average we could be spending about at minimum about $175 per meal, but mostlikely over the $200 mark, for sit down that is.
So for us, the room only discount would save us about $743 and the FREE Dining discount saves us about $1440 (I used the $175 per sit down), this is for 8 nights. And this is only Table Service Meals, throw in Counter Service meals, snack and free mug, It is a huge savings for us.

Do your research, decide for yourself what will work for your family.

 

[North of Mouse]

Actually, tipping ends up being more on the plan usually. For one thing, most on the DDP order the most expensive things on the menu to justify or maximize the plan,(regardless of whether you'd rather a cheaper option) plus whether you want a dessert or not, also don't drink sodas, but it's added to the meal cost, then you tip on the total.

Another thing with us, we are not dessert eaters right after a meal, so we'd rather wait and get a dessert of our choosing later (a lot of time to split).

We eat what we want and when, save our receipts, and stlll come out ahead. We would stay moderate, so definitely better to get room discount.

 

[GenevieveRaqs]

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.

We bring something small to eat in the room for breakfast. We're not huge breakfast eaters and would never bother with a TS for breakfast at WDW. With two large meals (even the CS meals are large) plus a snack every day, this is more than enough food for us.

 

[Eosphotog]

In our case our room (AoA) does not have a discount. So when the free dining was offered it was a no brainer. QS works well for our family, and the cost savings really helped seal the deal for staying on property at AoA or staying off site in a suite.

 

[Magpie]

We bring something small to eat in the room for breakfast. We're not huge breakfast eaters and would never bother with a TS for breakfast at WDW. With two large meals (even the CS meals are large) plus a snack every day, this is more than enough food for us.

Exactly! We pack instant porridge, some nuts, and some raisins in our luggage. Using the in-room coffee maker we can easily make breakfast. It's cheap and filling and gets us out the door in minutes.

And since we don't spend much on breakfast, I feel perfectly justified in booking a character breakfast buffet for one of our days.

The idea of eating Disney-style for all three meals honestly makes me feel a little queasy. It's too much food!

 

[eliza61]

What I like best about free dining is having meals paid for ahead of time .. Not having to worry about how much we spend to eat.. Probably would never pay for the dining plan because we are penny pinchers and would probably cut out desserts all together and mostly drink free ice water. My kids would rather grab a funnel cake later on instead of the chocolate or carrot cake anyways. Lol.

I find this very interesting because for the cost of the dining plan, even if we ate dessert every single day we would never spend $205 bucks a day on meals (4 disney adults).

We are the exact opposite, I count money way more on the plan. I obsessed about making sure I got the full value. God forbid I went to dinner and only wanted a ceasar salad for dinner!! I spent so much time ordering the most expensive meal instead of what I really wanted that any supposedly prepaid advantage was lost.

Basically free or not the dining plan has to "fit".

We much prefer appertizers over dessers so that was an out of pocket cost.
tips are not included so free dining still ends up costing you at least 100 bucks if you tip anywhere from 15-20%,

free dining is a discount just like any other, as a previous poster said, the better question would be what is the best discount.

 

[bookgirl2632]

It is free. Yes, you have to pay rack rate. However, the rack rate discounts rarely work for us, so we opt for Free Dining. Since we are getting the dining plan for no additional money, it is free.

 

[mking624]

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.

My husband and I are not really breakfast eaters. I usually just have a cup of tea...sometimes I eat yogurt. My husband will only eat a granola bar or a muffin. Anything more than that in the mornings, and we start feeling nauseous. So the dining plan's 2 meals and a snack works out for us. It has also given us the opportunity to try some restaurants we may not have...or a dish we might have had to skip in favor of a less expensive one. We might use the snack credits as part of our breakfast. This year I'm doing the QSDP and the counter service will be plenty for me.

 

[eliza61]

It is free. Yes, you have to pay rack rate. However, the rack rate discounts rarely work for us, so we opt for Free Dining. Since we are getting the dining plan for no additional money, it is free.

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

 

[mking624]

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

It's not really "absorbed" by higher room rates. It's rack rate. With no room discount, a person would be paying that rack rate with or without a dining plan attached. If she was paying for the dining plan, it would be a higher cost. If the room rate stays the same regardless of a dining plan addition, the plan is, by definition, free.

 

[princessmomma92]

I've stayed in a value resort 3 times with free dining, 2 adults and no kids each time. Our total cost including 7 nights, 6 day tickets runs around $1100-1300 depending on what month we go. Tickets by themselves would run about $550, so that leaves $600-700 for hotel cost and food. For value resorts, the discounts usually range 20-25% off which would only be about $20-25 less daily. No way 2 adults could eat full meals for only $25 daily, so it definitely pays for free dining. We get about $70 in free food daily. Adds up, we come out ahead. As for the question of the "third meal", we usually bring fruit or muffins. We're not big breakfast eaters anyway.

I also agree with the person who said they liked knowing their meals are "paid for" and not having to price everything they eat. I also love not having to carry $$. I don't spend a dime while at the parks.

And to reply to the person who said they don't eat dessert every meal. I swap a dessert a day for bottled water which I refill throughout the afternoon at a cold water fountain and throw the bottle away on my way out of the park. That way it saves buying drinks at the park.

Hope this helps. And again, for us, free dining is a plus and I will not go back to DW w/o it.

 

[canopynut66]

have not found a room discount that outweighs the free dining so far. but either way you go have to get your ADR'S set up or waste a lot of time waiting to eat in the TS dining places.

 

[disneynewbee]

I look at free dining as a discount not free and it depends on your situation whether it is best for you. In our situation we are going 11-9th to the 16th we have 2 standard rooms at POP with 8 day base park tickets. We have 2 Adults, 1 10 yo (disney adult), and 2 younger kids. Total for everything is $3004.06. If I was to pay for the quick service dining with that it would add 902.65 for a total of 3906.71 but we got that dining for 'free'. Because we got the dining we had to pay rack rate for the room and buy tickets. We were planning to buy tickets anyway so that was not an added cost. We may have got them slightly cheaper from an outside company but not a huge discount. If we chose to pay for our food and get the discount on the room there was only a 15% discount on values for our date. Only the room is discounted so it would have saved us about 246.375 total for both rooms. So to find out how much I really saved I subtracted the 246.375 from the 902.65 for an actual savings of 656.275 even if I would eat less by sharing meals etc it wouldn't be 656.275 less so it's a deal for our family. We are also planning to add my nephew on our ress who is also a 10yo adult so that will increase our savings to 901.205. Now these numbers are by my calculations off of other sites listings of rates and discounts because the disney site was down when I was figuring this out for you but the numbers are in line with what I found when I originally priced the trip.