Survey from Disney re: Free Dining - interesting...

[PrncesKMW]

Hi all - as I've stayed off-site or bought "a la carte" rather than purchasing pacakges in the past, I found this survey from Disney interesting (though I'm sure many of you have had experience with this already). It looks like they are gauging whether free dining made an impact on the choice to stay on property and affected the time of year of your visit. They are also looking at the effect of the quick service vs. full service and if it made a difference in the choice of resort (for instance, did you upgrade to moderate because the full service plan was included). Finally, they asked where you heard about Free Dining, and any other influences that made you choose this package, and Disboards was specifically mentioned in both options (along with allearsnet) - go Disers!

It looks as if free dining may be here to stay as a yearly event. I know that Pete and crew didn't seem too fond of people "expecting" free dining. What do you all see as the cons of Disney offering this yearly?

As a side note, I am still not convinced as to the value of the package, even if my dining is free - especially after I received a pin code for 30% off our room, but only if I dropped the free dining. You can bet I will be posting a trip report with my final answer!

 

[WaltD4Me]

Personally I would rather have a room discount. I've never done the Dining Plan, free or otherwise. I'd be too worried about using my credits and all that, it just sounds like too much extra work to me, plus I hate paying rack rate, so a room discount is just more appealing to me.

 

[*NikkiBell*]

I just got a postcard from Jambo House with a survey web address and code. I noticed the past two trips they've sent me one.

 

[rhyeck]

I would rather have the room discount promotions. In the past... I've paid for the dining plan (when appetizers were included), had free dining plan and paid out of pocket for each meal. I would rather pay out of pocket. My husband and I feel as though we received better table service when paying out of pocket. When using dining plan (when we paid or free), we felt as though we were given the 'newer and/or inexperienced' waiters and seated near kitchens and high traffic areas. Also, during free dining... can't get ADRs.

 

[goldbutterfly64]

I have just returned from another Disney trip via the bounce back. We received the free dining after paying for a one day base ticket. I noticed last year and this year too that as soon as the "free dining" option kicks in the type of park visitors takes a drop. I do not want to sound like a snob and am all for discounts so more people can enjoy the parks. While staying at the Pop Century a family can get a room for 5 nights and have free quick service dining for slightly over $800 after paying for one day base tickets for three people. I overheard a family saying they would only go to the parks for one day and just use the shuttles at the entrance to MK to go to other resorts for pool hopping and to use their cafeteria style meals for their quick services. I do like having the meal plan but I feel that some people are just taking advantage of this at Disneys expense. I do not appreciate being with my family having to listen to a lot of people using foul language (mostly older teens) because they dont know how to conduct themselves in a crowd. I did see that Disney is offering free dining if you now purchase a two day base pass which is a little better because some people will not be just pool hopping and eating for free because it will cost more. I know some are complaining because they are annual passholders, as I am, but I believe it will be better overall.

 

[dansyr2514]

I may be in the minority but I don't mind free dining. We usually get the dining plan whether it is free or not. It just works for us. We usually do the deluxe dining and if free dining is going on at the time we visit we use that and upgrade it to deluxe.
My only pet peeve during free dining is not being able to get all your dining reservations as easily. But since I am usually planning my trip as soon as dbf will agree to going again, I'm usually able to get what I want.
I think it is a great idea and allows alot of people to go to Disney who wouldn't normally be able to afford it. Let's face it...the prices of the rooms are definitely not a bargain and not even at 40% off.
My opinion is keep the free dining or lower the prices of the rooms.

 

[auroralark]

I'd rather have the room discount. Honestly, I'm not a big eater, so we would never pay for the dining plan. (Again - we did once. So much food!) DH and I tend to share a counter service meal usually and we don't eat too many table service meals since we tend to prefer quicker meals. So I don't even think we'd consider the QS plan. But that's just what works best for us.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

Unfortunately, many people on the DDP, whether they pay for it directly or paying a higher rate for their room and getting "free" dining, look to the highest price items on the menu. This is based either on the attitude of "I paid for it and can get whatever I want" or "as long as it's free, let's get the best items".

For example, at Le Cellier there is a $22.50 difference in price between the lowest price adult lunch entree and the highest price dinner entree. Each restaturant receives a fixed dollar amount credit for each meal sold under DDP. Each restaurant has to make a profit.

As food costs go up it takes more money to operate a restaurant.

So as things progress more and more of the higher end cost items will vanish.

Also, one of the reasons the price of buffets has gone up is to maintain the aveage income of the restaurants. Since the income from DDP is fixed, they have to increase the cost for people paying OOP for the same income level. If basic DDP is done away with the average actual income will increase to allow either an actual lowering of prices or, more likely, a long delay in increasing prices.

The signature restaurants do not have so much of a problem as they get paid double the regular restaurants.

If they ever do away with the Basic DDP within about six months you will find a lot more high end selections at all the restaurants.

 

[Minnie Lor]

I don't ever get the dining plan either. Now if I had a truck load of kids it might be worth it but it's not worth it for me and one other guest. I crunch the numbers before hand and i come out better without. I'm more of a snacker anyways so I'd buzz thru those snack credits in a few days.

 

[kbelle8995]

We never got the dining plan because my family especially my sister viewed it as a waste. And it's confusing plus we are never there for more than a long weekend so it doesn't make sense.

I can also see some of my relatives especially my father trying to spend every food credit. He would be the guy leaving the last day with just waters. Just like that guy is Theresa's report.

 

[doconeill]

We are likely (not 100% sure, 95% sure but I need to rerun some numbers) that we will be on the standard DDP for our December trip. We've become TS eaters...previously we've done it under the DDE/TIW cards, but we were only doing perhaps half as many TS as days we were there.

We were considering the QSDDP (I'd bet that this doesn't have the negative impact of the others), but for an extra $80, we could get 8 table service credits. Since we were planning a signature meal for DW and I, and a signature meal for my in-laws, it was pretty much paid for.

But I haven't evaluated it directly against expected costs yet. I still need to do a lot of math.

 

[Tarheel girl 1975]

Honestly, we weren't planning on getting the dining plan this trip, but when I added up what we would be likely to spend on food for our trip (including 5 table services meals) it was only $40 more to do the DDP. When they announced free dining we took it. Even if we don't eat the most expensive thing, we'll still be coming out ahead and it saves us more money than the room discount.

 

[eeyorethegreat]

Count me in as one who would rather get a room discount than free dining. HAvent ever used the dining plan it doesnt appeal to me. I'd happily see the free dining go away in favor of room discounts. And I think Cheshire Figment makes a good point.

 

[mainegal]

My next trip will be a week with the dining plan because my roommate wants the dining plan. I will be eating about half my meals solo.

To get my "money's worth", I am studying the restaurants and the menus. I am tempted I many cases to order the most expensive item on the menu. I will order a diet soda and dessert at every meal, which I would not do if I was paying cash. I will make sure I use all my snack credits, assuring that I eat more snacks that I normally would.

 

[basketlacey]

We are getting ready to do FD for the first time. After we come back, I will definitely post my opinion as to whether it was worth the hassle. Financially, it was a no brainer. We have a 6 night stay booked and the package with FD was only $300 more than the package with the room discount. We definitely would spend more than $300 for the week for food for my family of 5.

I think we will do more TS on FD than we would if we were paying OOP. We loving sitting down to a meal but on our previous trips, I have only had about 3 ADRs. We tend to want to stop and eat when and where we are hungry rather than having it preplanned. This will be a change for us but I am hopeful that I have planned well and everyone will be happy.

 

[luke]

I enjoyed free dining this past trip, a lot!
Before this we'd always stayed offsite and never eaten at a TS restaurant onsite at all! The prices were just to prohibitive, for 'what you get', if you know what I mean?

So this time we got to sample lots of retaurants we would never normally have!

However we were lucky in the uk as we also got 42% room discounts along with the free dining (okw and ssr were about $150 per night for a studio)

 

[doconeill]

The more I think about it, the more I detest this type of accounting.

The restaurants are expected to maintain a certain quality level, but they've taken to income away from them and basically said that no matter what a customer orders, you get credit for $X, even if it cost more than that and therefore they are "losing money". That is basically DP&R thumbing their noses at food quality and basically continuing the generic-ization of food to be as cheap as possible.

Eventually they will be driven to "underperforming" and closed.

What is interesting is this is in some ways the opposite of what happened to Pleasure Island. Originally, there was a cover charge for the whole island - there was no per-club accounting (beyond things like paying for drinks at the bars, etc.) Then they changed to per-club admittance, so profits could be directly attributed to the club in question. Clubs that cost more to operate like the AC suddenly had a thin margin, not helped by being more expensive to go to than most of the others (you had to get the multi-club ticket to go to AC). Although I'm sure at some level that the WPFM "plus" options were likewise accounted to the clubs similarly - someone using a plus option to go to the AC probably resulted in the AC getting a small fraction of the income from a cash customer, and probably less than the per-head income they needed to achieve.

The big difference I can think of is that you can't easily vary costs at the clubs like the AC beyond cutting back the performers, which would seriously affect the quality of the show. But you can vary the quality of a dinner more easily.

So, with DP&R ramming the DDP down people's throats, how do the restaurants compensate? They need to bring in more cash customers somehow - but they can't because you can't get seating with everyone needing to use up those credits.

I understand WHY the DDP came about. We probably would have seen some restaurants close, at least during slower times, if it didn't get more people into the seats. But at the same time it is having an effect on the desire for some guests to fill the seats.

 

[doconeill]

However we were lucky in the uk as we also got 42% room discounts along with the free dining (okw and ssr were about $150 per night for a studio)

(we need a :jawpdrop smiley...)

 

[sjs314]

I am another one who has never used the DP free or paid for. I do prefer a room discount since I prefer to stay deluxe and pay OOP for our meals.

I do see where people staying at the value resorts make out quite well with FD but not so if you stay at the deluxe resorts and have to pay rack rate.

 

[LMO429]

Add me to the many who would much rather have a room discount than a free dining promotion.