No Such Thing as "Free Dining" ?

[kaybird]

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.

 

[2Pirates2Princesses]

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.

Agreed. When our family stays onsite we need two rooms or a suite, so therefore our budget limits us to the value resort level accommodations. Even if we upgrade from the quick service plan to the regular dining plan and take into account how much we would also pay for gratuities, free dining still saves our family more than just getting a 15%-20% discount on two value resort rooms or a suite. A couple of our favorite meals are breakfast at Chef Mickey's which cost us $180 and dinner at 'Ohana which cost us $214 on our last trip, then add to that the cost of counterservice lunches, favorite park snacks, and other reserved table service meals. The cost of meals at Disney will be even higher for us when my middle daughter and youngest son become Disney "adults" like my oldest two kiddos and also once the baby turns 3. Yep, we'll take free dining

 

[wdw4rfam]

If offered FD will save us $2800, I'd like to see a discount even half of that!!!

 

[MillauFr]

Seems to me if you have a larger family then yes free dining is a great deal. For two people it is not. The smaller groups are subsidizing the larger groups.

 

[2Pirates2Princesses]

Seems to me if you have a larger family then yes free dining is a great deal. For two people it is not. The smaller groups are subsidizing the larger groups.

I'm sorry but comments like this seem a bit unnecessary to me. A Disney World vacation is certainly not a cheap trip for most, so you find the deal that works best for you and your group/family whether that is a general public room only discount, free dining, military discount, pin code offer, etc. While being a member of these boards for the past few years, I've read trip reports and threads where groups of just 2 or 3 people have felt free dining was a great deal for them based on their dining preferences and planned their trips around that deal.

 

[mom2AidanAndEli]

Seems to me if you have a larger family then yes free dining is a great deal. For two people it is not. The smaller groups are subsidizing the larger groups.

No, the smaller groups tend to take advantage of room only discounts instead of free dining, if that works for them.

The larger group also, on average, may have to spend much more on a trip. My family of four spends twice as much on tickets as a couple--even when my kids were only 10 and 12 and considered "adults". At a buffet, I have to pay an adult price for a 10-year-old who eats pizza and chicken nuggets. If someone is traveling with their college-age children, they're paying extra to have them in a room, because there are more than 2 adults.

There's all sorts of ways that all sorts of parties may be "subsidizing" others. But I tend to look at it as we're all paying our share and hoping to get the deal that works best for our individual situations.

 

[cteddiesgirl]

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.

Thanks for the calculator. It's now made it definite that I really don't need FD because I doing mostly QS and eating breakfast in my room, and I am in a standard room. From what I understand, I would have to upgrade to preferred to get FD anyway. My current room is an avg $78.40 per night (discount trough Orbitz) and the calculator has the QSDP "costing" almost $70 extra. Def won't be worth it for me. OOP is the way to go for me.

 

[aaarcher86]

Thanks for the calculator. It's now made it definite that I really don't need FD because I doing mostly QS and eating breakfast in my room, and I am in a standard room. From what I understand, I would have to upgrade to preferred to get FD anyway. My current room is an avg $78.40 per night (discount trough Orbitz) and the calculator has the QSDP "costing" almost $70 extra. Def won't be worth it for me. OOP is the way to go for me.

You can't add any deals or dining to an Orbitz reservation anyway, so at least it all works out.

 

[cteddiesgirl]

You can't add any deals or dining to an Orbitz reservation anyway, so at least it all works out.

Exactly. I'd have to end up paying rack rate on my room just to get the "free" dining.

 

[North of Mouse]

Disney is 'dumb' like a fox!

They know that there are a lot of people out there that could care less if it saves money - they want convenience and no worries. Most will freely admit that. Disney 'provides' what people want.

There may be cases with large families of 'Disney children' (under 10) that 'do' benefit from the 'free' dining that do a lot of character meals. We aren't huge eaters and have saved our receipts and don't spend near the cost of 'free' dining versus room discount.

Just remember that Disney is in the business of making money and they would not offer it if 'they' are not the ones coming out ahead.

It is a 'pet peeve' of mine though to hear it called 'free' when it is nowhere near that. It's just $$'s off like room $$ discounts.

I've also heard posters say they fool their husbands/wives by tricking them into thinking it really 'is' 'free' and not telling them about an optional room discount instead! They take them at their word and don't bother checking for themselves.

To each their own!

 

[GM24]

My husband and I stayed at POFQ in December 2012. The room discount was so small that by taking the free dining (DDP) instead we ended up paying only an additional $120 or so dollars (can't remember exactly but it was right around that number). We were there for six nights so we really did come out ahead with the free dining. That being said, we would never pay for any dining plan. We normally share meals for lunch and dinner, or I end up getting a child's meal - I always want to make sure that I have room for dessert!

 

[scrappinginontario]

My 5yo DD and I travel in the early fall and stay at a value resort. We booked a bounceback last year with Free Dining for this fall. I upgrade us to the basic plan and for us it works perfectly! We share our 2 quick service credits as there is more than enough food to feed us and then enjoy the 3rd meal at a table service location using 1 credit each. Snacks fill in the gaps.

Since we're at a value resort and we enjoy the table service dining at either the fancier restaurants or the character dining, the FD works well for us.

Last year we went for 2 days and I paid OOP for meals and it wasn't fun (at least for us.) I found myself looking at prices rather than what we actually wanted to eat.

For us, weighing in the convenience of the DP and not needing to looka t priceds is an important factor too.

 

[sully7]

My advice is to fill the room! We always save money with FD. We have 6 people in a FW cabin. If you have the max amount of people in the room/cabin you will save the most money! If I pay $300 a night for the room and get free dining for two people it may not be worth it ($150/person) but if I spend the same $300 for 6 people it is much more worthwhile ($50/person.)

 

[JimmyV]

As I posted on the "Does Anyone Save Money With The Dining g Plan" thread, OOP cost us around $1300 and FD would have cost us close to $800 for a difference of around $500 for a 5 day trip. So the math is easy. If we could save $100 per night off of rack rate on the room, then OOP wins. If we could not save that much on the room, then FD wins. We are a family of 3 so FD rarely works best for us. And even when it is close, we go OOP because we prefer not to have to worry about what we order. OOP is so much more liberating and less complicated. If it's on the menu and we want it, we get it.

 

[davedmaine]

Many of you know that I'm not a proponent of the dining plan in any form, free or otherwise. Here are a couple of my thoughts:
When comparing costs, keep in mind it's not an apples to apples formula. For example, I doubt very seriously a family would all get desserts at a QS restaurant, yet many people figure those into their formula.
Also, keep in mind the gratuities. Because most people try to maximize the value of the plan by ordering the most expensive items on the menu, your gratuities are going to be higher than had you paid OOP.
Many people on these boards also like that their meals are prepaid on the dining plan - even though they know that they're paying more by being on the plan. The convenience factor is that important to them. In that case, I simply say to take your dining plan money and put it onto a Disney gift card; any money left over is money left over.
Some here also say that even though they're on the plan, they still get kids meals for the "Disney adult" children. This makes sense on the surface; a 10-year-old may prefer mac 'n cheese instead of a steak. The reality though is that this approach is really taking it in the financial shorts. Don't do it.
The plan used to be great. It was inexpensive; gratuities included, apps and desserts. Slowly Disney has chipped away at it. The price I believe is now about twice what it used to be and it offers a lot less than what used to be on it. For some odd reason though, people still look at it like the bargain it used to be..

 

[mom2AidanAndEli]

Many of you know that I'm not a proponent of the dining plan in any form, free or otherwise. Here are a couple of my thoughts:
When comparing costs, keep in mind it's not an apples to apples formula. For example, I doubt very seriously a family would all get desserts at a QS restaurant, yet many people figure those into their formula.
Also, keep in mind the gratuities. Because most people try to maximize the value of the plan by ordering the most expensive items on the menu, your gratuities are going to be higher than had you paid OOP.
Many people on these boards also like that their meals are prepaid on the dining plan - even though they know that they're paying more by being on the plan. The convenience factor is that important to them. In that case, I simply say to take your dining plan money and put it onto a Disney gift card; any money left over is money left over.
Some here also say that even though they're on the plan, they still get kids meals for the "Disney adult" children. This makes sense on the surface; a 10-year-old may prefer mac 'n cheese instead of a steak. The reality though is that this approach is really taking it in the financial shorts. Don't do it.
The plan used to be great. It was inexpensive; gratuities included, apps and desserts. Slowly Disney has chipped away at it. The price I believe is now about twice what it used to be and it offers a lot less than what used to be on it. For some odd reason though, people still look at it like the bargain it used to be..

If you look back at post #18 in this thread, you'll see I actually already addressed many of the points you raised here. Would I pay for the DP? I don't know. I'd have to really sit and do the math and think about it. But when it's free dining--or whatever you want to call it--it's a savings that can't be beat for my family!

 

[MrInfinity]

I doubt very seriously a family would all get desserts at a QS restaurant, yet many people figure those into their formula.
Also, keep in mind the gratuities. Because most people try to maximize the value of the plan by ordering the most expensive items on the menu, your gratuities are going to be higher than had you paid OOP.
Many people on these boards also like that their meals are prepaid on the dining plan - even though they know that they're paying more by being on the plan. The convenience factor is that important to them. In that case, I simply say to take your dining plan money and put it onto a Disney gift card; any money left over is money left over.
The plan used to be great. It was inexpensive; gratuities included, apps and desserts. Slowly Disney has chipped away at it. The price I believe is now about twice what it used to be and it offers a lot less than what used to be on it. For some odd reason though, people still look at it like the bargain it used to be..

Would you still be against the DDP for those cases where it does save you money? While I agree it doesn't in general, in some cases it still does. On our upcoming trip for example, our 7 TS points are going toward high-cost buffets. And we didn't book the buffets to get the cost up, we just picked where we wanted to go, then analyzed the costs of DDP vs OOP. We are saving about $150 (10%) on the DDP. We have, I think 11 restaurants, but putting the DDP TS credits toward the priciest ones, we come out ahead by having it.

I also consider, like you, that typical DDP vs OOP sites expect you to buy the most expensive desserts -- which we would practically never do. So I estimate a conservative $13 for QS points. And then I also only consider $4 on snacks -- not the inflated $5 or $5.50 that some sites think you can average. Even with these conservative values, I still come out ahead. It really depends more on the mix of restaurants you wish to dine at.

In our case, all your examples above including the "gratuities being higher" (which I agree with) are non-issues, because at a buffet your meal cost and gratuity are fixed.

Anyways, you seem to imply it can never benefit you... I tend to think more along the lines of it doesn't usually save money, but with the right mix of people and meals, it can. And for most ppl, if their cost would be "about a wash" then having it is a huge convenience, frustration saver, and vacation enhancer.

Also you have to factor in that the DDP can be prepaid with Target gift cards. Whereas I am likely to do this (and did so)... I am less likely to bring 30 gift cards with me on vacation for paying OOP or charging to the room and visiting the front desk to apply GCs. I have better things to worry about while on vacation. So this is an extra 10% we saved. So for us, our $1496 DDP price got us about $1650 worth of "what we would actually pay intead" dining, and we only paid $1350 for it. We easily got a fam of 5's meals paid for, at expensive restaurants, for $1350 -- and, we get a TON of extra food that we wouldn't buy otherwise (bottles of water and cookies with QS meals we can carry w us to give the little kids in emergencies!).

We also get mugs that we wouldn't buy (also not factored in for OOP).

I think each person should do their math and assess the value to their family, as the DDP, tho not the bargain it once was, is still useful in many cases.

FREE dining will almost always be better than an equivalent room discount if you max out the room. If you only have 2 ppl in the same room, the room discount would be better.

 

[Melany502]

Free dining is like any other discount. If free dining and a room discount are offered you need to figure out which is a better deal for you. For my family of 5 at a moderate, free dining would save us the most money. I wouldn't get the dining plan otherwise.

 

[aaarcher86]

Many of you know that I'm not a proponent of the dining plan in any form, free or otherwise. Here are a couple of my thoughts: When comparing costs, keep in mind it's not an apples to apples formula. For example, I doubt very seriously a family would all get desserts at a QS restaurant, yet many people figure those into their formula. Also, keep in mind the gratuities. Because most people try to maximize the value of the plan by ordering the most expensive items on the menu, your gratuities are going to be higher than had you paid OOP. Many people on these boards also like that their meals are prepaid on the dining plan - even though they know that they're paying more by being on the plan. The convenience factor is that important to them. In that case, I simply say to take your dining plan money and put it onto a Disney gift card; any money left over is money left over. Some here also say that even though they're on the plan, they still get kids meals for the "Disney adult" children. This makes sense on the surface; a 10-year-old may prefer mac 'n cheese instead of a steak. The reality though is that this approach is really taking it in the financial shorts. Don't do it. The plan used to be great. It was inexpensive; gratuities included, apps and desserts. Slowly Disney has chipped away at it. The price I believe is now about twice what it used to be and it offers a lot less than what used to be on it. For some odd reason though, people still look at it like the bargain it used to be..

I like my meals prepaid, but using a GC wouldn't work for me. I'd still be aware that I have a limit/cap so I'd be orders ring the same way as if I were paying cash. Right or wrong... I just would.

I order what I want. I've never tried to order the most expensive things. We also do lots of character buffets where that becomes irrelevant. We would be eating at these places regardless, so we aren't planning more meals because we have a dining plan.

My kids are Disney kids.

I've run the pen and paper numbers (those spreadsheets seem off to me) and compared when we came home to the receipts. We save money with the DXDP when we get a deal. Doing it OOP before the price increase we would have been within $100 or so. When calculating, I go by what we order and not what's included with a credit.

I only paid more in tips at a fee places - Coral Reef, Teppan Edo, Mama Melrose. So the extra $30 or so in tips there is pretty negligible for me.

I totally get that YOU clearly don't like the DP... But since it saves me money and can save others money it's best for people to figure it out for themselves. And at the end of the day if what someone does makes their vacation better it really doesn't matter if someone seek thinks they're "suckers" or not.

We are doing the TIW card next trip because it's a better deal than paying full price for dining. I don't think most people blindly go with the DP on these boards.

 

[Amanda999]

Also you have to factor in that the DDP can be prepaid with Target gift cards. Whereas I am likely to do this (and did so)... I am less likely to bring 30 gift cards with me on vacation for paying OOP or charging to the room and visiting the front desk to apply GCs. I have better things to worry about while on vacation. So this is an extra 10% we saved.

FYI fuzzylogicllc: Just last month Target stopped permitting the pharmacy extra 5% off on Disney gift cards. So, instead of 9.75% off (it was calculated as 5% off with your Target Redcard, then 5% off that result for the pharmacy reward, so a bit less than 10% off), it's now just 5% off with the Target RedCard.

Not that the 4.75% will change the math much, but just so you aren't surprised. There are threads on the budget Disboards forums on this - several people have reported this change at Target.