You have to do the math, it's different for everyone. Free dining is never a better deal for us, we don't eat the way the dining plan works and spend much less on food.
It's going to vary from situation to situation to situation, including number of people in the room and type of resort you're considering. I'd basically look at the cost of 2 trips, one with free dining and one with room discount, and go with the better deal.
There is no right answer because it depends on your individual situation.
For me FD has ALWAYS worked out to be a much much much better discount.
I split the price of the room with 1 or 2 other people.
If the RO discount is like $30 per night its only a $10-$15 savings per night for me.
Say I stay 4 nights as I have been doing shorter vacations in recent years... $40-$60 savings is nowhere near as good as getting the QSDP for free with rack rate room prices. Even upgrading to DDP still ends up saving me more money than a RO discount.
Plus I usually get the DDP either way so might as well save money on it.
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