No Such Thing as "Free Dining" ?

[Dreams0308]

Ok, so I found this article and I thought it was really interesting as I have thought about this topic as well.

http://blog.touringplans.com/2011/02/18/there-is-no-such-thing-as-a-free-dining-plan/

What do you guys think? There is SOOO much hype about "Free Dining" on these boards. I have never actually done a "free dining" promotion as I've always traveled with my parents who are DVC members.

I'm curious about what people have found, or if they saved money doing the "free dining" or ended up spending more without realizing it. I was reading the Free Dining 2014 Thread and people are talking about scheduling their vacation around when free dining is offered. It sounds logical at first, but then I was thinking about how maybe it's less expensive for the room at a different time of year.... or maybe it's less expensive to just book the room and dining not in a package deal like free dining (at a different time of year).

I would like to know what some of your experiences have been, or if you have ever considered calculating it out and seeing if the "Free Dining" actually is saving you money.

 

[TDC Nala]

Whether you save money will completely depend upon your party, the resort you choose, what other discounts are available at the time, or whether booking a package with 2 day tickets will actually cost you money you would not have spent otherwise (like on tickets if you have an annual pass).

It's helpful to "do the math" no matter what, especially if you are a small party staying at a deluxe resort.

Just to note, threads of this type usually end up in a tussle between the forces of pro-dining-plan and anti-dining-plan and end up getting closed.

 

[disneynewbee]

I always do the math and we always come out better with free dining. Yes in the end it's not totally free since we pay rack rate for the room but it's still a great deal. We stay value and get 2 rooms. The rooms for our time of year are $105 so we are looking at $210 a night. The discounts for room for value are 20% or less, usually only 15% but I'll use 20 for this calculation. 20% of $210 is $42, I know I can't feed our family of 6 on $42 a day. So by this calculation we get the dining plan for 6 people for $42 a day. Now we don't upgrade the plan but even if we did it would still be a better deal for us than the room discount. Now if we stayed deluxe and there were only 2 of us it would be different. I'm sure everyone who makes the decision does the math, I don't think people just blindly assume that free dining is a great deal.

 

[Dreams0308]

Whether you save money will completely depend upon your party, the resort you choose, what other discounts are available at the time, or whether booking a package with 2 day tickets will actually cost you money you would not have spent otherwise (like on tickets if you have an annual pass).

It's helpful to "do the math" no matter what, especially if you are a small party staying at a deluxe resort.

Just to note, threads of this type usually end up in a tussle between the forces of pro-dining-plan and anti-dining-plan and end up getting closed.

Ohhh.....well that's frustrating. I tried to search this topic and didn't find anything, maybe that's why. I'm not trying to start a massive debate I just wanted to know if people found it was a better deal than other discounts Disney offers.

 

[kaybird]

FD is always a better deal for us, but we love food!!! The rack rate still saves us money over the very minimal amount of food we would buy, and at least once a year makes us feel very wealthy eating at the best TS! If you are a "pack the cereal and peanut butter, and make sandwiches" the whole trip, you may be better off with a room discount. It is all in what you like. We like to eat.

 

[deakam]

I do free dining because I like to go at the time of year it is offered and because dining is so expensive at Disney. I actually saved receipts one year and the dining plan really isn't worth the money for our family. I think it came out to we didn't pay for the snack credit. It is just the 2 adults these days but I like having everything already paid for before we leave. Also with the dining plan I am less prone to order less than what I really want to eat just because it is cheaper.

We stay at one of the resorts that rarely gets a deep room discount. Max is 20%. That comes to about $65.00 a day. That would cover maybe dinner for the 2 of us so lunch and snacks are free. Plus I really do use my refillable mug which is now $15.00 but is included in the free dining.

I think now that we are both watching our weight and trying to eat healthier we would probably not get a dining plan if it was not free. We do not need 2 desserts per day. I would like the whole thing a lot more if they would allow you to choose an appetizer or a dessert. That way one of us could order an appetizer and the other dessert and then we could just share.

 

[GMU MOM]

For our family of 4 ( 2 adults, 1 Disney adult and 1 child) free dining is always the better deal because we stay at either a value or moderate resort so even a 20% discount off rack rate will not even buy us a dinner. We are also the type of family that likes a nice sit down dinner every day of the trip and the type of meals we would normally order (whether we are on the dining plan or not) are on the more expensive side. And since we share meals most of the time, we are able to stretch our credits to cover all 3 meals of the day with minimal supplement OOP which is usually a meal we are better off paying OOP rather than credits such as Via Napoli.
Any time a new promo comes out, I price out a package for our family and free dining so far has always been the better deal. I think the term "free" can be misleading so I just look at it as a discount off my total package.

 

[LisaTC]

Free is a misnomer, obviously. It is basically a trade-off, room discount or dining plan...that said, we've done it twice and it was an enhancement for us, not necessarily because of any cost savings, but it was convenient having most everything prepaid. However, I will say, you do end up paying something every meal for Table service because you have gratuity and any incidentals (cocktails, appetizers, etc.) Tip is included on a few character, prepaid meals. There are some calculators out there regarding the dining plan... Here's one that I found quickly: http://www.distripplanner.com/

The math for us was close, so we jumped on the dining plan deal. We paid more, but it was only a few hundred and I know we couldn't eat on that for a week.

TDC Nala is correct, at one time this was a very heatedly debated topic, but I think FP+ has taken the throne at the moment...

ETA: I'd peruse the menus, see what you like to eat. It is a lot of food. If I had the boys going and we were doing buffets, we'd definitely get our $$ worth. Price out some meals, add it up, and see.

 

[mickeynut1]

Ok, so I found this article and I thought it was really interesting as I have thought about this topic as well.

http://blog.touringplans.com/2011/02/18/there-is-no-such-thing-as-a-free-dining-plan/

What do you guys think? There is SOOO much hype about "Free Dining" on these boards. I have never actually done a "free dining" promotion as I've always traveled with my parents who are DVC members.

I'm curious about what people have found, or if they saved money doing the "free dining" or ended up spending more without realizing it. I was reading the Free Dining 2014 Thread and people are talking about scheduling their vacation around when free dining is offered. It sounds logical at first, but then I was thinking about how maybe it's less expensive for the room at a different time of year.... or maybe it's less expensive to just book the room and dining not in a package deal like free dining (at a different time of year).

I would like to know what some of your experiences have been, or if you have ever considered calculating it out and seeing if the "Free Dining" actually is saving you money.

We have done FD twice and it has saved us money, but everyone needs to do the math between a RO discount and FD as it's not always cut and dry as to which is the better deal. We are a family of 4 (all adults) and we stay deluxe. I always run the numbers when FD is offered along with a RO discount and sometimes the RO discount is the best deal, sometimes FD comes out to be the better deal. As a pp said, it depends on the number in your party, your resort/room type, time of year, etc. Some are quick to say that FD never saves money and is not a good deal (especially if you stay deluxe), but for us, that has not been the case. With that said, every situation is different and what works for one family won't necessarily work for another.

 

[Zooey72]

Whether it saves money or not is kind of irrelevant to me. I get it because once I get to Disney I do not want to think about what I want on the menu. It has been taken care of and I just get what I want.

Take Sci Fi for example. I go there and order a cheeseburger and drop 15 bucks? I could not do it. I would walk in, order a water and a breath mint and leave if not for the DDP.

My biggest complaint is that the tip is no longer included. Raise the price, or make another plan where the tip is included. When I get there I don't want to have to worry about money. I want it to all be paid for and have nothing to worry about. The truth of the matter is that I still tipped even when tipping was included. A few years back our party of 12 left a $75 tip at whispering Springs on top of the tip being included. The waitress was amazing and gave us all a memory we will always cherish.

 

[Robertfam08]

I ran the math on every scenario for our trip before we booked, and free dining was the winner by far for us. (Hope we get it!) I was worried that by the time we would pay tips at all of the TS restaurants that it wouldn't end up being that much better than a room discount at a moderate resort. But I was wrong. Still won by a landslide.

But what I also learned after putting it all on paper was that FD would offer my young family an entirely different vacation experience. With it, we will book a character meal for my little ones nearly every day. We would only do one or two if we were paying oop. This is huge for us. Because my kids are so young, there will be a ton of rides and attractions we will have to skip this trip. Character dining would be a huge highlight each day. Crossing my fingers for early September!

 

[2girlsmomma]

We did deluxe two years ago and came out ahead on snacks. But for us, like a lot of folks, it's about having it paid for. I don't inwardly groan when my husband wants the most expensive thing on the menu. I don't debate about my daughters sharing something. It makes our trip even less stressful, so I don't care if we lose a few bucks. It's worth it for my piece of mind.

 

[shoney]

We booked free dining for 7 nights back in feb 2012. If we would have taken the % off the room offer instead of free dining, it would have saved us $450.

7 days of free dining plan for a family of 4 Disney adults was worth it to us.

there is no way we would have only spent $450 on food.

 

[seenellie81]

This is something that i have gone over in my head over and over. I often see that people say its not really "free", or that the room discounts are better. I am by no means a math wizard, however i do figure out the prices for my family to see what works best.
We are a family of four, 2 adults one disney adult and one child. We usually do one sit down meal every day no matter if we are on the dining plan or not. We do order water, and some snacks to be delivered to our room from the grocery store. We do have some days where i dont book any ADR's just because i like to have like 2 days where we dont have to worry about making a reservation on time and we can kinda go with the flow, so those days we eat quick service or if we can get into a table service on walk up we do. Ok so here is what i figured..
Daily the QS plan would cost my family 142.00 per day and the basic plan would cost 199.35. Now if i had to decide between a room discount and the dining plan i would always pick free dining. This is because we like the dining plan free or not. Plus the room discounts would have to be HUGE to save us more then free dining saves us. Examples: Mid Sept Preferred pool view room at POP mid week we would have to get a room discount of 95%, thats for the quick service that you get with FD in a value. Caribbean beach resort 80% room discount to equal the basic DP. Contemporary 46% to equal basic DP cost for my family.
Doing about 1 TS per day for each of us plus one QS per day for each of us i find it hard to feed my family for under 180-200 per day. If we were to do 2 QS per day for our family I find it hard to feed us for under 120 per day. With that being said and the prices even if i were to pay out of pocket and not use the dining plan, disney does not ever offer a room discount big enough that it would off set what we pay to feed our family. So it just works better for us to take free dining.
Maybe there is more to it then that. I dont know, thats just how i figure it for my family.

 

[SEA333]

Free dining was better for us by far, even staying offsite. I think that when I did all the math and even being conservative with eating off-site at places like Subway and Pizza hut/Applebee's/Sweet Tomatos/etc, staying offsite and not having free dining would theoretically have saved us about $11.00.

POR and free dining for 4 nights/5 days, 3 day park tickets ran us $2100 last November for 5 people (4 Disney adults and 1 child). The last thread I wrote this in, I was told "sure, if you want to 'stuff' your family into a room at POR, it could be seen as a good deal' LOL, but I assure you...the five of us fit just fine, we loved everything about POR, and we loved free dining! I'm no math genius either, but it's not hard to estimate a 20% off room rate (about $260 total) vs. almost $1000 worth of free dining at places I would never let us eat at if I was paying out of pocket. All four of our TS meals cost well over $200, closer to $300, and that is not even counting CS and snacks.

FWIW, I would never pay for the dining plan. We would have shared and gone to Walmart on our vacation and brought stuff to the room, etc...but for the reduced promo of way more savings than the 20% room discount, I am all for taking the dining plan.

 

[Melanie B]

We enjoy the deluxe plan so it really depends on what resort we are staying at. This past Nov we stayed at All Star Music and we could have a room discount or free dining. In this case it worked out that free dining was the better deal. On our trip in Aug 2010 we had the same offers and the room discount was the better deal because we stayed at POR. The room discount varies depending on what resort you stay at.

 

[MomTo3PrincessesInNJ]

Like others have said, it all depends.

We are a family of 5 -- 2 Disney A, 3 Disney C (for another 2 years).

We do 1 character meal a day (I hate waiting in lines at the park to meet characters), so that 1 meal more than covers the kids dining plan cost -- not counting a CS meal, snack and mug.

We stay at POR so the room discount hasn't worked out to save us more money that free dining . It will be even more important to get "free" dining when our oldest is a Disney adult because paying OOP for 3 Adult DDP isn't something we're interested in doing, considering she will still want to order from the kids menu. We would probably start bringing cereal and fixings for sandwiches if we had to pay for that.

 

[mom2AidanAndEli]

We are a family of 4 Disney adults (DS11 and DS13). We go to either a Value or Moderate resort. We like to have one sit-down meal a day---to us it's part of the Disney vacation experience.

So let's do the numbers....

If we stay at POFQ and the rack rate is, for sake of argument, $200 a night (which is probably a little high for the time we go, but a round number!). If I get really, really, really lucky and get a 25% room discount, that's going to save me $50 a day.

Now, I dare anyone on these boards to feed my family of 4 (did I mention DS13 eats me out of house and home???) for a day at Disney, including at least one TS, for less than $50. What I get in dining credits for the day is worth WAAAAYYY more than $50.

Now some of the arguments I've heard....

You get food you don't really need. Yes, we probably wouldn't order dessert every meal. But it's a special treat! And we'll often order something at QS that we can then save for a snack later on.

You have to pay a tip on an overinflated dinner bill. Yes, probably so. But the 20% I pay on maybe that extra $30 or $40 I might have saved paying OOP isn't all that much! Like I said, we're doing TS every day anyway. Maybe our bill would be a little lower without all the desserts and sodas, but it's not a huge difference.

We could save money by eating in the room and carrying lunches. Sorry---it's vacation! Yes, I'll bring snacks and quick breakfast grab-and-gos, but I'm not cooking! And I'm not eating PB&J for lunch!

It's silly to pay rack rate for a room. Well.....it's silly to pay for food when you can get it for free! I look at it as the price of the whole package. How much would room, food and tickets cost me for our trip? For us the total comes out a whole lot less with "free" dining.

So some people will call be gullible, a sucker, dumb to pay rack rates, etc., etc. I've seen it all on these boards. But I've never seen one who could refute my calculations and prove to me it's not the best deal FOR MY FAMILY.

 

[kaybird]

Here is my example...

The grocery store offers two specials. One is buy one can of beans, you get the 2nd free.

The other special is you get a coupon for a certain percentage off of a can of beans.

In either case, you can't use both offers. It is up to you whether you want the coupon, or the extra beans.

Each family is different, each family is taking advantage of an offer. We love beans.

 

[sharonabe]

Here is my example...

The grocery store offers two specials. One is buy one can of beans, you get the 2nd free.

The other special is you get a coupon for a certain percentage off of a can of beans.

In either case, you can't use both offers. It is up to you whether you want the coupon, or the extra beans.

Each family is different, each family is taking advantage of an offer. We love beans.

But no one in my family eats beans, so we don't want either one of your discount offers. On the other hand, we love MREs, so we'll take the military discount on room and tickets and eat like kings and queens on our own dime, thank you.