Long Time Disney Dining Fan Officially Done With Disney Dining

[goofyintoronto]

I agree with you. Personally, I love the DDP, but then we have always gotten it free. Travelling in August and staying at a moderate, even if we got a 30% off rack rate for our room, that would be a savings of maybe $50 a night (however, I'm not sure how I would ever be able to get 30% off since I'm not an AP holder or Florida resident and can't get military tickets, etc.).

So, for three people staying 6 nights, that would be discount of $300. Now if I could eat at WDW for $16.66 per person per day, only at that point would the room discount would be a better value than getting free dining.

Exactly what i was trying to explain! Lol! And there's definitely no chance in us getting an AP. Sadly. So we'd never be able to take advantage of the TiW.

 

[havoc315]

So, for three people staying 6 nights, that would be discount of $300. Now if I could eat at WDW for $16.66 per person per day, only at that point would the room discount would be a better value than getting free dining.

It can be done easily, though I admit it would be a more.. ummm... economical trip. But if you have a $9 CS meal (drink tap water, skip dessert) and get $7 worth of garden grocer items per day, you'd eat just fine. ($126 worth of groceries -- plenty for breakfast, snacks and lunch for 3 people/6 nights).

That said, I agree with the sentiment, that free dining is a better value than room discounts for big families, and moderate/value resorts. It's usually not even close in those situations. While you conceivably *could* eat for $16.66 per person, per day, I don't think most people would want to eat that way on a resort vacation.

The opposite is true is you have a part of 2 staying in a deluxe hotel with a possible 30+% off room rate.
We have a family of 4, staying concierge level with a 40% off--- much better than free dining for 2 adults and 2 children. We can eat quite well for less than the $200+ per night that we are saving.

 

[nadira36]

I've never used the DDP, our December trip will be the first time. I always preferred OOP so I knew exactly what I was spending.

When I booked our trip they offered free quick service dining. I explained to the rep that my wife had celiac and it's easier for us to do all sit down meals. They offered an upgrade to deluxe, along with a room upgrade, for a price I couldn't pass up since it came in under what i was budgeting for food (and I was also getting the room I wanted out of the deal).

I'm curious to see how much we like it. It seems many are saying the plans are on the decline in value, but coming into it as a first time user I don't have a baseline yet to judge. I do know that I will enjoy not doing covert bank checks on my phone to try track food costs through the week

We're a family with celiac's and we love the DxDP - best thing ever. A QS meal takes almost the same time as a TS meal so no savings that way. Most QS meals are the same from place to place - and frozen entrees at best, but TS is great - we dine at many signature restaurants each trip, character dinning, and even a couple QS meals. We don't bother worrying about what we order as we don't have a lot of selection, but we usually save upwards $1000 off what we would have ordered if paying OoP - in order to pay OoP, we'd likely skip drinks, few appies (but we LOVE appies) and few desserts - seriously, if I can get desserts, I eat desserts!

Nope not for everyone, but it works great for us. Thought mind, I do wish they still covered gratuities! We pay a lot in gratuities over the course of 2 weeks.

 

[beachta1]

When I went with my family as a kid, we never did the DDP. We also never stayed on site either. We'd eat breakfast at our hotel, pack a lunch and buy a snack while at the parks. We had some dinners at the park and some we did not. Before booking my trip, my parents told me they didn't do the DDP because they didn't want to commit to anything.

When I booked a trip with my boyfriend last year, we did the DDP because it was "free." Since neither of us had been to the parks in years, it was nice to have the option to eat at a variety of restaurants we'd never been to before. I think when we go back, we won't do the DDP unless it is free. There were many times we could have split a meal and bought more from the Garden Grocer to survive on.

 

[DisneyKidds]

....we love the DxDP - best thing ever.

We have also enjoyed the DxDP in the past. This year it was up to $85 per person, and there was still some potential value in that. Figure your two snacks are worth a total of $8 on average, so your three meal credits are costing you $77. We generally would do a sit down breakfast and a Signature dinner per day. Not much chance you could eat like that for $77 per adult, per day, even without ordering surf and turf at Narcoossees! After a $38 character breakfast your Signature dinner is costing you $39. You can't get an app, cheap entree, desset, drink/coffee and tax for that in any Signature location. I might have continued to use DxDP at $85, even if the eroded value irked me.

Alas, the DxDP is up to $100 per person in 2013. Take off your two snacks at $8 and your meals are costing $92. Subtract that characted breakfast at $38 and your Signature dinner is costing $54. Disney isn't stupid. They keep moving the dining plans closer and closer to break even, which is about where you will come out in 2013 on DxDP unless you consistently order the most expensive item on the menu. And if you happen to want to get a couple of QS meals when on DxDP you really hose yourself.

No, after 20 plus years of always having one dining plan or another, we are now OOP people.

The terrible thing in all this is what I observed in the other thread regarding 2013 DDP prices.....which is a post by someone who has stayed at Disney resorts in the past and used DDP, who will now consider off-site resorts and pay out of pocket. The raising of pricing and eroding of value driving people away......Walt is turning in his grave.

 

[mjr0483]

Agreed, DDP is done. It's time has come and gone. I don't need that stress on vacation to constantly try to not leave anything on the table. It once was you could skip snacks and counter service and still come out ahead.

Now if you skip a couple of entitlments, you will actually loose money as the line is so thin that if you want to come out ahead, you really have to work at it.

 

[denise5374]

We have done the DDP for the past 3 trips, this year going OOP. Using a spreadsheet I found here(thanks Cafeen), the math comes out to about a 10% savings if going OOP.

It was nice getting the DDP when it was free but having to pay for it this year, just doesn't make financial sense.

I will know for sure when we get back.

 

[DiscoMinnieMouse]

We're doing "free" dining this year when we had a 30% room only discount at first. I always look at how much "free" dining costs us by doing the numbers and keeping the room only discount. We'll be staying at a moderate and after doing the math, the "free" dining cost only $30 a day for each adult and $15 a day for my daughter. So it was totally worth it to do the "free" dining this time - especially since we do a few character meals (about $40/adult), Ohana ($35+/adult), and Hoop-De-Doo ($65+/adult over 2 credits). My daughter definitely eats $15 of Disney food each day.

Like a lot of others said, we don't worry about maximizing credits either. Too stressful! But you have to see if it works for your family after taking into account any other discounts.

 

[mom2princesses2]

Perhaps one of the scariest things for Disney I saw last week.......was hostesses trying to get random people to come into the Castle to have breakfast with Cinarella, on a Saturday in the summer season. Is it possible that the combination of higher prices, more required credits, more required credit card guarantees, etc., etc. are cathing up to Disney? There was a time when Cindarella's Royal Table was the hottest ticket in town and was impossible to get...........

While I won't argue against the devaluation of the DDP (we've used it for 12 yr now, paying for it only in 2000), this situation may be more attributable to the addition of princesses at CRT dinner and their increased availablility throughout the parks. When breakfast at CRT was the most popular, that was the only place you could interact with them. Then came Akershus and lunch at CRT. Then meet and greets in Toontown Fair. Then came princcess at CRT dinner.

Don't quote me on the timeline but all those have happened since CRT breakfast's heyday.

And also happening since then...the need of 2 TSM credits for any CRT dining which means for people like me, breakfast on the DDP (even when free) doesn't make good cents. That does support your arguement.

 

[JLS]

This is one of the best posts I have read on the DDP, and I have read many. I totally agree with the OP's points. We are long-time DDP users and we also just got back from a long trip. I went around and around on this, but I have finally concluded, to my surprise, that I no longer want to get the DDP. We are ideal for realizing savings on the DDP because we have two kids and most of our must-dos are expensive all you can eat places like O'Hana, Boma, CP, etc. After my last several trips I had saved every receipt because they used to itemize the cost of everything you "purchased" (not paid for) that you got on the DDP, so I added all of that up, compared to the price of DDP and was very pleased with my "savings." But I have finally realized that as much as I love the pre-paid aspect, and the idea of just ordering the most expensive thing on the menu with no worries, that we really are not realizing any savings because we would never order all of this stuff if we were paying OOP. We love desserts, but there is no way that all of us would order a dessert at every sit-down restaurant. Normally a single dessert is plenty to share. And we would NEVER order the pre-packaged desserts - usually not very good - at counter service places, but we load up on them (one for everyone!) while using the DDP. I feel like it is excessive, particularly for desserts. For drinks, again, I would have a sip of my husband's soda but I am usually fine with water. I get the drinks on the DDP because they are included, and have calculated them into my "savings" formula, but it really isn't a savings if you would not have ordered it in the first place.

Another thing I have grown to dislike about the DDP is the lack of flexibility. There were a couple of nights that we were really tired and I would have been happy to just grab something quick at CS and take it to the room, but I knew that there was no way we would use our TS credits before we left if we did that, so we went to the sit-down.

Add to the lack of flexibility is my desire while on the DDP not go to less expensive TS places like Beaches and Cream because it is a "waste" of a TS credit. I actually got mad at my husband for going with my son to B & C and paying OOP. That's really crazy. Foregoing the DDP and going to a few less expensive places like B&C or Sci Fi, Plaza, etc. would be a great way to still have sit downs and save a lot of money over the DDP price.

So my big learning is that it is not accurate to factor in a "savings" on stuff that you would not have really ordered in the first place. That's perfectly obvious, but it took me years to get around to that way of thinking. That, coupled with the increased flexibility by not having to track and spend all of your credits, is the reason that I think I have done my last DDP trip.

I will say that I have always wanted to do the DxDDP but I just cannot rationalize spending that much, even with the increased savings per TS credit, and I don't think I want to spend that much time on dining during a drip.

 

[ExtinctDino]

Yikes....I just looked at the 2013 dining plan prices and they are up significantly, again.

Double Yikes.....I looked at the QSDP and I can't see how, other than for convenience of not paying out of pocket, anyone could see that plan as a value.

The price increases are astonishing. QSDP now costs about what the
regular DP cost just a few years ago.

 

[bookgirl2632]

I agree with you. Personally, I love the DDP, but then we have always gotten it free. Travelling in August and staying at a moderate, even if we got a 30% off rack rate for our room, that would be a savings of maybe $50 a night (however, I'm not sure how I would ever be able to get 30% off since I'm not an AP holder or Florida resident and can't get military tickets, etc.).

So, for three people staying 6 nights, that would be discount of $300. Now if I could eat at WDW for $16.66 per person per day, only at that point would the room discount would be a better value than getting free dining.

The room discount never works for us either. Free Dining is much more beneficial to us. So if it's offered, we will take it over a room discount anytime. We love the DDP. We are a family on a budget with Disney trips few and far between. When we are finally able to afford Disney, we want to make the most of it. This includes eating at some of our favorite restaurants and trying some new ones. And while doing that, we like the ability to order whatever we want and the convenience of it being prepaid.

Now, would we pay for the DDP at the current prices? No, probably not. Disney is quickly pricing the plan out of people's wallets, I think. Going forward, I think the only way I'd pay for the plan would be if they added some features, like a drink mug in the parks, an additional snack, appetizers, or tips included. But since that is extremely unlikely, Disney will probably see a marked decline in DDP sales. Something's gotta give.

 

[bookgirl2632]

I just love that line "is free dining really free"? Lol. The same can be argued about the room discount. Is the room discount really a discount? Because you still have to pay for your food right?

I hear what youre saying. But im not an annual pass holder, so the TIW card wouldnt work for me. The DP does. Esp when its free! As I mentioned before, I really dont think paying out of pocket would work for us. There's no way.

Exactly! I would love the opportunity to get the TIW card. But our trips to Disney are few and far between, so an AP is a ridiculous concept for us. I would gladly pay for a TIW card to get those discounts. But since that's not an option, I wait for Free Dining. Hopefully, it'll be offered again next September when we are planning to go. If it's not offered, I'm afraid that we may have to forgo a trip yet again. Disney is too hard to afford for us without it.

 

[PolyLover]

How about the fact that you have to practically pull out your hair making ADR months in advance. Then you have to be in that park for that ADR--what if you don't want to be in that park that day? Its too much planning ahead.

We got a free dining offer several years ago and it was worth it because I didn't feel we overpaid for the Polynesian at the time. I felt we ate SO much food. And I got food poisioning at Kona Cafe on that seafood bisque that they no longer have but that's a whole other story.

And now with the credit card deposit requirement on the popular restaurants you really have to make sure you get there. This is a vacation, remember?

 

[disneyfav4ever]

I feel the same way. I think the current DDP was a great deal the year it was released. And free dining was a no brainer. In 2007 it was $1,500 for two people for eleven days, this year I'm paying $1,900 for thirteen days, but for only one person, and less is included. That's a pretty big price difference.

 

[Q-man]

To reach that up to 20% savings you have to go to the most expensive qualifying restaurants, order the most expensive qualifying available item every time, always get the very average dessert, and use every snack credit.

The room discount for deluxe properties is usually the better deal than rack rate and free dining. But depends on party size as to the value.

I make 20.5 meals a week(that is eating out twice a month) plus snacks. Not having to cook for that week is a huge part of vacation for me and I'm willing to pay for that treat. But, we no longer purchase the dining plan and always crunch room discounts vs free dining numbers.

Anyone wonder if Disney got themselves in a pickle with all the free dining and are trying to kill it via economics instead of discontinuing it and facing a huge backlash? Or thinks they got everyone used to it and can now raise the price w/o most customers noticing?

 

[bedogged]

We have also enjoyed the DxDP in the past. This year it was up to $85 per person, and there was still some potential value in that. Figure your two snacks are worth a total of $8 on average, so your three meal credits are costing you $77. We generally would do a sit down breakfast and a Signature dinner per day. Not much chance you could eat like that for $77 per adult, per day, even without ordering surf and turf at Narcoossees! After a $38 character breakfast your Signature dinner is costing you $39. You can't get an app, cheap entree, desset, drink/coffee and tax for that in any Signature location. I might have continued to use DxDP at $85, even if the eroded value irked me.

Alas, the DxDP is up to $100 per person in 2013. Take off your two snacks at $8 and your meals are costing $92. Subtract that characted breakfast at $38 and your Signature dinner is costing $54. Disney isn't stupid. They keep moving the dining plans closer and closer to break even, which is about where you will come out in 2013 on DxDP unless you consistently order the most expensive item on the menu. And if you happen to want to get a couple of QS meals when on DxDP you really hose yourself.

No, after 20 plus years of always having one dining plan or another, we are now OOP people.

The terrible thing in all this is what I observed in the other thread regarding 2013 DDP prices.....which is a post by someone who has stayed at Disney resorts in the past and used DDP, who will now consider off-site resorts and pay out of pocket. The raising of pricing and eroding of value driving people away......Walt is turning in his grave.

This is pretty much our position as well. We have a bounce back with DXDP booked for December and feel that will be our last hurrah for the dining plan as much as we have enjoyed it. We are also visiting the Bonnet Creek threads.

 

[fuzzlekins]

Has the free dining plan always been around or more of a recent phenomenon? I'm assuming it doesn't go far back but I don't actually know since our first trip was in 2010. Perhaps Disney wouldn't have to offer so many free dining promos to entice people if their DP were more reasonably priced in the first place. It's definitely not a "great" value - marginal at best. For us, we're comparing a stay off-resort through our vacation club with OOP dining costs to staying on-resort with the free dining plan, because paying for the dining plan would be HUNDREDS of dollars more for us. Even with the free DP, staying on-resort will cost us one to two hundred dollars more than staying off-resort and paying OOP. Having said that, we will go with the on-resort free DP option if it comes available. Our reasons: 1) staying AT Disney for a change - new experience; 2) convenience; 3) not having to worry about entree costs, cost of a dessert (some are OUTRAGEOUS), and not stressing about how many times our daughter asks for a snack. Although I think Disney should give people the option of an appetizer or dessert (really, I can't imagine what difference it makes to them when they're generally similar in price), I do always prefer dessert so that's not a problem for me. If they did allow the choice, one person could get an appetizer to split and another could get a dessert to split - that would be optimal and cost the same for a couple or family.

 

[JLS]

Has the free dining plan always been around or more of a recent phenomenon? I'm assuming it doesn't go far back but I don't actually know since our first trip was in 2010. Perhaps Disney wouldn't have to offer so many free dining promos to entice people if their DP were more reasonably priced in the first place. It's definitely not a "great" value - marginal at best. For us, we're comparing a stay off-resort through our vacation club with OOP dining costs to staying on-resort with the free dining plan, because paying for the dining plan would be HUNDREDS of dollars more for us. Even with the free DP, staying on-resort will cost us one to two hundred dollars more than staying off-resort and paying OOP. Having said that, we will go with the on-resort free DP option if it comes available. Our reasons: 1) staying AT Disney for a change - new experience; 2) convenience; 3) not having to worry about entree costs, cost of a dessert (some are OUTRAGEOUS), and not stressing about how many times our daughter asks for a snack. Although I think Disney should give people the option of an appetizer or dessert (really, I can't imagine what difference it makes to them when they're generally similar in price), I do always prefer dessert so that's not a problem for me. If they did allow the choice, one person could get an appetizer to split and another could get a dessert to split - that would be optimal and cost the same for a couple or family.

Once Disney decided to eliminate the appetizer AND dessert from the regular DP, there were very specific reasons why it kept dessert and not appetizer or choice of app or dessert. They know that when people sit down at a meal they are hungry and appetizers are always enticing. But once most people get to the end of a large meal it would be very unusual for everyone at the table to order a dessert, and many tables would skip it altogether (or at most order one for the table to share). If an appetizer came with the DDP, Disney would make very little extra money on OOP ordering of dessert, but many diners are willing to pay for appetizers OOP. Disney does not - and likely will never - offer the choice of appetizer or dessert because in that scenario a table of 4 would likely share 2 appetizers and then share 2 desserts - leaving Disney no profits at all from OOP ordering.

The free dining is favored by Disney because it achieves one of their stated (internally) goals of having a much higher percentage of guests paying rack rate at the resorts. They fill resort rooms at high rack rates during times of the year that typically have lower attendance, and they get all of the guests into the restaurants where they may be eating "free" but will order appetizers and alcohol - and may be more inclined to do so because of the perception that they are eating "free". And guests love and and are happy. So the whole thing is a win for Disney. It makes sense why guests love free dining, but the old adage "There Ain't No Such Thing as a Free Lunch" could not be more true here. In many cases available room discounts will outweigh the cost of the dining plan, particularly with only 2 in a room. And for those people who may not have been inclined to eat at a lot of expensive sit-downs and order desserts with every meal and lots of snacks, the "savings" of free dining really becomes questionable.

 

[fuzzlekins]

Jenn - Interesting. I have to say I'm amazed that anyone on the DP (free or otherwise) spends ANY money OOP in the restaurants. That, to me, would defeat the whole purpose. I definitely see what you're saying though. A shame nonetheless. For us personally, room discounts mean nothing. We've not stayed at a Disney hotel because our Caribbean vacation club is affiliated with a resort in Orlando, so we get our lodging dirt cheap ($99 for a wk in 2010 and $155 for a week this past Feb). The ONLY thing that would make us stay at a Disney hotel would be the free DP. And even then, it would be a bit more expensive than our alternative b/c we would probably stay value and upgrade to the regular DP. I'm still debating it b/c I'm concerned about the volume of food we'd feel obligated to consume - not so great for my diet. What I've found in making my own detailed cost comparisons b/w OOP and the DP is that if I'm paying OOP, I'm more likely to drop off some restaurants and scale back wherever possible. (I'm a cheapskate at heart ) The nice thing about the DP is it alleviates my natural instinct to try to cut costs. It would be rather liberating for a change.