Stay, Play and Dine, are my calculations correct?

[JohnDaleswife]

I am hoping that Disney will release the Play, Stay and Dine promo for early next year. Of course I would love free dining, but I figure that this promo has a better chance.

I will have 4 "Disney adults" with me. So please correct me if I am wrong, but my calculations come to (with this years numbers) the regular DDP came out to around $58 a night and the kids came out to around $19. So I would be charged the kid's price and save around $40 per person a night. So, I would have saved around $160 a night on the dining portion?

I hope I am figuring this right.

 

[wendybeth75]

Adults dined at Children's prices and I think that you saved on tickets as well. I don't recall if there was an room discount or if you had to pay rack rate for it or not. Sadly we have not been able to take advantage of these.

 

[aaarcher86]

Disney recently upped the DDP pricing, so I'd use the new numbers for a more accurate idea. But the way you're doing the calculations seem correct.

 

[TeamBlack]

We are thinking of going early 2015. Assuming they will offer S/P/D again. How do you come up with a ballpark figure for our stay. Which pieces are discounted and how much. Were thinking of AoA suite or POR for 8 days, 2 ad and 3 kiddos 4,5,8.

 

[mom2cgj]

We used S/P/D last year and I believe adults paid child prices for the dining plan and tickets, and we paid rack rate for the room (AoA suite). Hope that helps someone!

 

[DisDayz]

For the last several years we have gone in WDW in September and had Free Dining. This year our trip is pushed back a few weeks into October and it seems rumors are the Stay, Play and Dine Discount may be what is available during that time. I was trying to calculate costs both ways to make our plans and ended up pretty confused so I'm hoping someone on this thread can help me out.

We typically stay at a Value resort and pay to upgrade from Quick Service to standard Dining so we can enjoy several sit down meals. This upgrade is typical just under $20 per person per night. What I am reading about the Stay, Play and Dine is that it offered rack room rates (same as FD) but charged adults the child's price for tickets and dining. If I look up the cost for the standard dining plan for a child it is $19.23 per night. Add on top of that the discounted ticket price and it would seem that in our case the Stay, Play and Dine discount is a better option than FD. Am I missing some piece of this or is SP&D really a better discount than FD at the Values and paying to upgrade?

 

[Lollicollins]

For the last several years we have gone in WDW in September and had Free Dining. This year our trip is pushed back a few weeks into October and it seems rumors are the Stay, Play and Dine Discount may be what is available during that time. I was trying to calculate costs both ways to make our plans and ended up pretty confused so I'm hoping someone on this thread can help me out.

We typically stay at a Value resort and pay to upgrade from Quick Service to standard Dining so we can enjoy several sit down meals. This upgrade is typical just under $20 per person per night. What I am reading about the Stay, Play and Dine is that it offered rack room rates (same as FD) but charged adults the child's price for tickets and dining. If I look up the cost for the standard dining plan for a child it is $19.23 per night. Add on top of that the discounted ticket price and it would seem that in our case the Stay, Play and Dine discount is a better option than FD. Am I missing some piece of this or is SP&D really a better discount than FD at the Values and paying to upgrade?

Values still get quick service with SPD, and youd have to pay the difference between quick service and regular (the adults price difference for the 2 adults) if you wanted regular dining.

But on the bright side it seems like FD should be offered into dec again this year. Check out the Free Dining Discussion.

 

[aaarcher86]

For the last several years we have gone in WDW in September and had Free Dining. This year our trip is pushed back a few weeks into October and it seems rumors are the Stay, Play and Dine Discount may be what is available during that time. I was trying to calculate costs both ways to make our plans and ended up pretty confused so I'm hoping someone on this thread can help me out. We typically stay at a Value resort and pay to upgrade from Quick Service to standard Dining so we can enjoy several sit down meals. This upgrade is typical just under $20 per person per night. What I am reading about the Stay, Play and Dine is that it offered rack room rates (same as FD) but charged adults the child's price for tickets and dining. If I look up the cost for the standard dining plan for a child it is $19.23 per night. Add on top of that the discounted ticket price and it would seem that in our case the Stay, Play and Dine discount is a better option than FD. Am I missing some piece of this or is SP&D really a better discount than FD at the Values and paying to upgrade?

You pay child's pricing for the dining plan attached to your resort tier, but you pay the DIFFERENCE between the adult plans to upgrade.

So basically, calculate the upgrade the same as you would with FD. SPD is not better than FD because instead of getting the initial plan free you have to pay the child's price.

 

[lucy2222]

What consists of the Stay/Play/Dine discounts? I'm new and haven't heard of this.

 

[jenins121681]

What consists of the Stay/Play/Dine discounts? I'm new and haven't heard of this.

I too would like to learn more about this

 

[aaarcher86]

It's just a package discount. It's easiest calculated by giving adults in the party the child price for tickets and dining plans.

 

[jennibug]

So, if I am understanding this...if we are staying at a moderate we would pay the child's price for regular dining and then would need to pay the differences in the adult prices to upgrade to deluxe dining?

Would that be 109.53-60.04 + 19.23 for a total of $68.72 per person per night?

Trying to figure out all of this for 12 people this year! I think I might go a bit crazy!

 

[manateesmom]

Keep in mind that, historically, when S/P/D has been offered, so has room-only discounts as an alternative. So, you should still keep in mind the need to compare the value of the room-only discount against the discounted food and ticket prices.

Based on calculations I've run and seen others run, which is more cost effective for you depends upon the size of your party, resort, length of stay, and eating habits, and you may be surprised. Running the comparison on this fall's FD versus room-only for us, in Wilderness Lodge, the estimate is that room-only (with food and tickets out of pocket) would SAVE us from $300-400 on our stay versus FD (trying to decide between 7 and 9 nights for a January stay, so ran those both under FD vs. room-only. I know that FD is not likely to be offered for Jan. 2015).

Last time we considered booking in Jan. 2013 (trip got canceled due to work), we similarly found that room-only was cheaper for us than S/P/D.

It's a bit harder to do run the dining calculators with S/P/D, but consider finding a free dining calculator online and running it to see estimates for your out-of-pocket on a room-only discount, then doing the math yourself to compare to your S/P/D rates. You may be surprised.

ETA: Keep in mind that tips are not covered by the dining plan, and can be a couple hundred $ extra over the course of a week.

 

[Hitchhiking Ghost]

ETA: Keep in mind that tips are not covered by the dining plan, and can be a couple hundred $ extra over the course of a week.

Last time we went down on free dining, every time I left a sit down TS with free dining (2 adults - 3 kids) I was dropping no less than a $20 tip each time, 9 night stay and we are talking an add'l $200 to our "free" dining. More painful is the reminder that gratuities, as well as appetizers were once included as part of the DDP.

With my family of 5, one child is an adult for the food plan. If we can get free dining and lock into a moderate (meaning POR) then free dining does provide better value for us compared to a RO discount. However, if we want to try get into a deluxe for the first time, I would most definitely take a 30-35% RO discount over free dining any day.

 

[manateesmom]

The thing is, for us, DS4 may not eat full meals (WILL NOT eat full meals, I should say). We also don't usually feed him chicken nuggets and hot dogs, he eats a wide variety of food and is used to eating what we do, and we don't often eat at places that have a different menu for kids (vs. kid-sized portions of "regular" food). So, we'd rather get an appetizer and share that plus our food with him, or get him an adult meal and DH eats whatever might be left. I'm not crazy about the restrictions on how we could feed DS on the dining plan. Not crazy about the plan excluding appetizers, because we'll often do an app in lieu of an entree for DS or for me.

The math can work differently for you, though, that's why I think it's important to look at how you actually eat and how the math breaks down.