Is it worth it to upgrade free dining from QS to regular plan?

[leeserw]

We are staying at the Pop this summer. Two rooms, party of 8. DH and I and 6 boys ages 16-22. We booked with free dining. The boys told me today they want us to go to a nice restaurant while we’re at WDW as a Mother’s Day gift. I’m wondering with 8 people, would it be more cost effective to upgrade to TS instead of paying OOP for 8 people? If you have upgraded, were you glad you did??
Thanks!

 

[SamFaniam]

If you’re only going to go to one tableservice restaurants on your trip, then no I don’t think it would be worth it to upgrade. I would suggest pricing out the difference, and then looking at menus of other tableservice restaurants you might want to go to, and figure out if it would be worth it.

 

[LovePug]

I wouldn't for just one TS...I want to say it's about $26/per person/per day (adult cost), so for 5 nights (you didn't say how long, so I just used this number), it would cost about $1040 to upgrade for 8. One meal isn't likely going to cost that much. If you will be doing a couple, it probably would be worth it, but run the numbers.

 

[Disneylover99]

We are staying at the Pop this summer. Two rooms, party of 8. DH and I and 6 boys ages 16-22. We booked with free dining. The boys told me today they want us to go to a nice restaurant while we’re at WDW as a Mother’s Day gift. I’m wondering with 8 people, would it be more cost effective to upgrade to TS instead of paying OOP for 8 people? If you have upgraded, were you glad you did??
Thanks!

How long are you staying?

 

[wdwrule]

We are staying at the Pop this summer. Two rooms, party of 8. DH and I and 6 boys ages 16-22. We booked with free dining. The boys told me today they want us to go to a nice restaurant while we’re at WDW as a Mother’s Day gift. I’m wondering with 8 people, would it be more cost effective to upgrade to TS instead of paying OOP for 8 people? If you have upgraded, were you glad you did??
Thanks!

Keep in mind paying OOP for tips at each TS meal and time schedule for reservations.

ETA: We have upgraded in the past when the kids were younger but now in their teens, we all enjoy not being tied down to reservation times as we love to get on one ride after the other. For our family we love the freedom and diversity of the QS plan and usually go to just one or two TS meals. Everyone tours differently though.

 

[Nebraska_Disney]

I'd pay out of pocket. Like others have said, not being tied down to reservations for a sit down meal every day is nice. In the hot summer months, we were not as hungry when touring Disney as in past trips we had made in the fall or spring, so keep that in mind. The last time we went (Late July 2017) we just paid out of pocket for all meals and ate when/where we wanted to. In the end, for my family of 4 Disney adults, we paid about $800 less on food vs even the QS plan and we had 3 table service meals in there too. A few times, we got a pizza at the Pop food court, along with a larger salad and shared between the 4 of us and that was more than enough. With a party of 8, it may be best to just let people do what they want, when they want, for food as it can be a pain with larger groups and I am assuming all 8 of you are not going to be touring together 100% of the time either.

 

[Kingdome8]

We upgraded. 5 people 9 nights. It was an extra 1000 or so. But we like sit down and character meals. Especially on pool days. Last trip just hoop de do review and chef mickeys breakfast was almost half of the upgrade price. Now we don’t have to worry about food at all.

 

[NYCgrrl]

We are staying at the Pop this summer. Two rooms, party of 8. DH and I and 6 boys ages 16-22. We booked with free dining. The boys told me today they want us to go to a nice restaurant while we’re at WDW as a Mother’s Day gift. I’m wondering with 8 people, would it be more cost effective to upgrade to TS instead of paying OOP for 8 people? If you have upgraded, were you glad you did??
Thanks!

Based on the stated fact that you only have plans for one "nice restaurant" on Mothers' Day, upgrading your dining plan will not make financial sense no matter how many days you are staying on property keeping in mind that I'm pretty sure free dining has a minimum night proviso. Just pay OOP for the meal and continue to eat your other meals as you prefer.

 

[cheshiregoofy22]

As you have two rooms, you can also consider upgrading just one room to the DDP (TS) and sharing the credits across the group. That's what we've done for our upcoming trip. Our room of three stuck with the free dining QS plan and we upgraded the room of two to the DxDP. We'll share all the credits amongst the five of us.

 

[TOBS2010]

We got the free QS plan and payed to move up to the Disney Dining Plan---however, we have younger children and planned to do at least one-two character meals. My husband and I also enjoy the break in the day to have a sit-down meal as well either for lunch or dinner. So for us it is completely worth it. However, if you only one want to one sit down meal then you are better off paying out of pocket hands down.

 

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

There are two ways to look at it.
You can figure ot the math, and figure ot if you would get your money's worth for$26/ adult/ day.

Or, you can look at what restaurants tout would choose for the ts credits though would get (you can upgrade both rooms or 1 room and split the credits) and decide if the upgraded experience is worth the cost of the upgrade. .

If you decide the upgraded dining experience is worth the cost of the upgrade, it doesn't really matter what prices are on the menu.

Two different experiences, two different prices (one being included in the resort price)

 

[leeserw]

Thank you for such great responses!!

 

[chinarider]

We upgraded to reg DDP from free QS- ( our TS include Skippers, Mama Melrose(Fantasmic), Liberty Tree,Tusker House, Morimoto, Homecomins, Boma,Chefs de France, 1900 PF, Storybook, and probably Ragland Road)- It's myself DM and DD 24- we are there for 11 nights days in Sept and enjoy our TS meals plus it gives us down time and place to sit ( without having to worry about finding a spot at QS)- we are going in Sept so it will be a nice indoor break and also not quite sure how crazy crowds will be with SWGE opening. I think it's all about what you feel would work best for your family

 

[sbd78]

We have free dining booked at CBR in July, so our package only included quick service. I've only done the standard plan in the past and was planning to try the quick service plan this time around. We just went to Disneyland in January and loved how laid back things are there and we thought no ADRs would help WDW feel more like that. But alas, there are so many new restaurants I want to try (Storybook Dining at Artist Point, Bon Voyage Breakfast at Trattoria al Forno, oh my!) that we ended up upgrading. I'm still unsure if this was the right decision, but I keep saying this will be the last trip for a while so I want to try all the new stuff. (Said that last summer and now we are going back this summer, lol.) I think it's the truth this time, I'm going to want to avoid the extreme crowds and inflated prices for Galaxy's Edge which I really could care less about! Either way, you will have a great time. There are some amazing table service experiences, but flying by the seat of your pants and not being tied down to reservations is pretty great too!