Kids stay and play or free dining??

[hanly2]

I need some help, I can't decide what to do. I have a reservation for 6 nights with kids stay and play free, but I just got a pin for free counter service dining plan. We have 2 adults and 2 kids under 6 and 9. Is there anyway to combine some discounts and really make it work for me?

 

[playjar]

No, you cannot combine discounts. You'd need to run the numbers and see which is a better deal for you. With the kids stay/play free, remember they are already free when staying in the same room with you, so you are only saving on the price of their ticket. With the free dining, you would be saving on food for all 4 of you. For me, with only 1 child aged 5, the cost of the ticket does not save us near as much as FD would, but with 2 kids, you might come closer. Like I said, you just have to run the numbers and see which saves you more, or you can call and the CM on the phone can compare the prices for you.

 

[momto2inKC]

No, Disney does not allow stacking of discounts. You'll have to price out free dining and see how it compares to your current discount to see which comes out a better deal.

 

[Disney Dukers]

I'm new here but I believe it's one promo or the other. We are doing the kids play free promo. The free dining plan was offered to us but not when we can go. It's $650 for me to add the quick service dining plan (me, dh, dd, dd). We aren't going to as we didn't plan on spending $650 on food. I know I can feed my family of four for less. So I think for us kids play free worked out better. That's not to say one day I won't try the free dining!

Good luck with your decision!!!

 

[boufa]

Well, I have roughly the same mix of people. So instead of telling you to do the math, let me do the math for you. These numbers are all estimates, but they are close enough to make the point.

Stay & Play Free... 2 kids tickets approx $220 each.. total saving $440.

Free Dining 6 days ... $34.99 for the adults (69.98 total) and 11.99 for the kids (23.98) = $93.96 per night savings x 6 = $563.76 savings.

On the surface it looks cheaper to use the free dining. Some would say that they can do food cheaper themselves. If that's the case then you need to plan out your QS meals using the dis menus and see if you can pay cash for the meals and beat the free ticket price.

Let me show you what I mean....

Taking 3 things into account to check the value of any discount (Room, tickets and food) We will disregard room, since in this case the amount will be the same no matter which way you go.

Example 1 (free dining)
Tickets $950 (approx)
Food $0

Example 2 (Stay and play)
Tickets ... $500
Food $450 cash or $75 per day total

So if you can spend less than $75 per day in QS food, then stay and play is your best bet. The more days you stay the better the FD value is. The savings go up $93 per day, but ticket savings increases only about $10 per day.

In my case we are staying 7 days, currently on kids stay/play and paying for QS dining, but I am hoping for free dining. The saving/cost of not being on the plan is so small, that the convenience factor of having is all pre-paid and done is well worth it. I don't want to have to be worrying about budget and controlling spending every time I want a snack or meal.

One more thing to note... if you are going during Food and Wine, the snack credits become a HUGE!!!!! Value. Instead of $3 popcorn, you can use them on $5 and up items at the food and wine booths. We figure with 56 snack credits, we plan to use approx 20 of them at food and wine. So if we get the FD package we are going to call it snacking around the world for free.

 

[hanly2]

Thanks boufa, I figured about the same thing that the dining was saving me like $65 difference. We are going in June so no food wine thing. I was hoping that you could still use credits toward ts meals but apparently you can't do that and we would have liked to have ts at least 2 places while we where there so I am still trying to decide. Heck I don't even like to eat lunch anyway so I might just say forget it but I will still be at the mercy of the wife and kids who love to spend money and not even finish their plates.

 

[hannahdrewmom]

Did you ask if you could upgrade the dining to regular dining? That would be a great savings , IMO then.

 

[Amy&Dan]

As Boufa nicely calculated it comes down to how much you think you'll eat. Make sure you figure in tax when you calculate the cost of meals, the QSDP includes the tax.

I don't get this "stay" free part of the deal. Kids always stay in their parents' room for free. So basically its the cost of two tickets vs the cost of four people eating for free right?

Some kids will eat way more than others. A four year old's ticket is the same as a 9 year old's, but they don't typically eat the same!

It is amazing to me how much food at Disney is costing these days, even since October, some things have gone up. So make sure the menu's you are looking at aren't old ones. Some of the ones on allearsnet are two years old.

 

[ccgirl]

Did you ask if you could upgrade the dining to regular dining? That would be a great savings , IMO then.

When I received free QSDP, I upgraded to the basic dining plan. The cost was $10 per night per adult and $3 per night per child. Not sure if that is an option you would like or not.

 

[1girln3boys]

Did you ask if you could upgrade the dining to regular dining? That would be a great savings , IMO then.

We did the free dining, orginally had kids stay and play free. We did upgrade our dining plan and it cost around $11 more for adults and less than that for kids to upgrade. We took the savings we saved for the free dining and booked another day.

 

[Lots-O]

I need some help, I can't decide what to do. I have a reservation for 6 nights with kids stay and play free, but I just got a pin for free counter service dining plan. We have 2 adults and 2 kids under 6 and 9. Is there anyway to combine some discounts and really make it work for me?

I was in same boat as you - but knew I wanted the free DDP if it was offered........got the PIN code on 3/2 and switched over.

I crunched and crunched #s for 2 adults 2 kids (8,6) - 6 day base tix, 7 night stay. We knew we wanted a sit down meal each day - so using the pin code for free quick svc and upgrade to reg plan ($180) was a no brainer. Ultimately price went from stay / play value $1600 to Pin code upgrade to reg dining plan for $2300. Cost me $700 but we were budgeting $1k for food (sit down at CRT, Chef mick's, Via Napoli). So essentially a $300 savings.

Only problem was that POP (where we had already booked) was not taking anymore of the offers - so we just took the potential savings and rolled into a moderate room at Coronado Springs.

Bottom line you will just have to run numbers for your particular situation - if you were just going to utilize quick service dining w/out upgrade - I would just stick to Stay and play based on my research online.

 

[mjohnson96]

We are sticking with Stay and play, mainly because since we did that we are keeping my niece with us and BIL is doing a room only discount to help him save money. If we switched to free dining I did not see a huge savings for , I also don't really like regular dining since I don't want the table services. I like having the 2 snack credits on the QSDP instead of 1 and I like the mug

I also liked the idea of upgrading to an AP if we wanted to. That offer would save alot on a kids AP pass and then you could use it to come back another trip

 

[boufa]

Despite all of my math above (and thanks for the tax part of the calculation, I had considered tax, but was unsure where each amount got taxed. Its a slightly better value when you figure in tax)

Dining plan should not be looked at as a money saver, but simply as a convenience. My advice to everyone is If you are planning on buying the dining plan (I am ) then jump on the free dining. If you were going to do stay and play and pay cash for the meals, then you are most likely better off with the stay/play plan.

Of course the longer your stay and the more adults you have in your group the more the free dining is the better deal.

Also, something that many have not talked about. Its free dining, not required dining. If Disney is going to GIVE you dining credits for free, it is actually o.k. not to use some of them. This is especially true if it is your only discount option. Lets say you use the Free dining on 75% of your meals, then you receive 75% if the savings, in most cases you are still better off. Now if you are paying for the dining plan and you don't intend to use them all, now you are wasting money.

 

[Amy&Dan]

boufa, those are all good points. The tax adds up, I think the current rate is 6.5%. I do know that in October when we had free dining, we left without using about 6 credits. I was okay with that, before when I "paid" for fd, no way was I not using every single one!

I won't buy the ddp, but my situation is different than most on this thread, my kids are teens so I pay for four adults. I seldom can justify that cost esp given my small 14 year old dd's eating habits. But if its free, its always my best discount.

What almost always makes the dining plans not that great for me to buy is the desserts. Those are figured into the plan cost and we would never all order dessert, esp with two cs meals given you get two snacks. But if its free, I am all over it!

If only my "kids" qualified for some of these kid offers, I'd have even more options to consider!

 

[carrielovesdisney]

does anyone know how much per person per day it is to upgrade from QSDP to the Delux dining plan?

 

[dpy1000]

The DDP seems to be priced very close to the actual cash value. Everyone trys to calculate the savings but it's not much of a price difference.