Tips for first time free dining packages. Getting the most out of your dining experience

[Tmesser]

Thanks for all the replies... Yea the initial post was started for tips everyone used to get the most out of the free Dining plan.. I should have made it more clear in my initial post about please make comments on how to maximize dinning options so we did have irrelevant post about just enjoy disney and not worry about dining (which is also important but irrelevant on what I was aiming for in the thread). I'm sure everyone has different things they enjoy about going to disney but I just wanted tips and some opinions on how people get the most out of their dinning credits and that was all.. Thanks for the great replies

 

[Tmesser]

The last time free dining was worth it for us was when the appetizers and tips were included.

We only eat very few table service meals because I don't like deciding where to eat 180 days ahead of time. I just decided what we are having for dinner 15 minutes ago for tonight! We also get tired of QS meals very quickly. We have been going for food and wine, so many of our meals are the snacks we get at the booths.

Neither of us drink soda or coffee, so the mugs are wasted on us.

I am very frugal and I feel like I get more bang for my buck in an off-site condo. I got a 2 bedroom condo for what I would be paying for one night in any of the rooms left when I checked into free dining for our dates. I got my tickets at parksavers before the price increase and am using the savings to spend at the f&w booths!

I have never packed my own lunch to take and will never do yoga because I am in a wheelchair, but I do like my water and sushi and wasn't bashing anyone, just explaining why the dining plan isn't for us.

I would really like to sit down and crunch the numbers on food, tickets and staying outside the park... Just forcing people to buy a Hopper ticket with the Free Dining adds around 60 dollars a day vs a regular ticket for 3 people. I Will definitely take this years price for my family and crunch the numbers vs staying outside the park next year.

 

[neatokimmo]

For us, we share a lot of quick service meals. If you are lucky enough to go during food and wine, you can swap out those qs credits for three mushroom fillets at the Canadian booth

We always get ice water and a bottled drink. When you are overheated and feel puny a bottled sugar drink in the backpack comes in handy.

If it is still allowed (it was last year) we would swap qs desserts for extra sides or another bottled drink. At BOG we ordered French onion soup instead of the cupcake. We got onion rings at flame tree.

In the food court in the morning, we would order two bounty platters and split them. We would use our mugs and take the two bottled drinks with us.

I also made the family read the menus before we left. Nothing worse than being in the order line and hearing I don't like any of this stuff from the 9 year old. They didn't have to choose the exact meal, we just crossed out certain restaurants.

 

[Tmesser]

We share a lot too. We generally only get the QS plan because we stay at Values, but we always share meals to maximize credits (we're 2 adults and an 8-year old, so we generally use 2 credits per meal). To do that the most effectively, I research the places with the biggest meals. We love to take a break at the Contemporary and their meals are huge.

I think a kid QS is still the same as an adult QS. Last time we went though I paid to "upgrade" our kiddo to an adult just so I didn't have to worry about it. We only had 3 day passes so I think the difference was less than $20. I realize it wasn't necessary, but it eliminated any possible ethical issues.

Thats a good ideal... Next time we book I might try to find a room discount and add the QS dining onto our plan. That will definitely save some money if you can find the right meals to share. I know Cosmic Rays has a great QS meal 1/2 Chicken & Rib combo that is a great value after a certain time like 4pm

 

[Tmesser]

For us, we share a lot of quick service meals. If you are lucky enough to go during food and wine, you can swap out those qs credits for three mushroom fillets at the Canadian booth

We always get ice water and a bottled drink. When you are overheated and feel puny a bottled sugar drink in the backpack comes in handy.

If it is still allowed (it was last year) we would swap qs desserts for extra sides or another bottled drink. At BOG we ordered French onion soup instead of the cupcake. We got onion rings at flame tree.

In the food court in the morning, we would order two bounty platters and split them. We would use our mugs and take the two bottled drinks with us.

I also made the family read the menus before we left. Nothing worse than being in the order line and hearing I don't like any of this stuff from the 9 year old. They didn't have to choose the exact meal, we just crossed out certain restaurants.

I have never tried the three mushroom fillets, onion rings or french onion soup at Disney? Do you recommend all of these items?

 

[neatokimmo]

I have never tried the three mushroom fillets, onion rings or french onion soup at Disney? Do you recommend all of these items?

Yes!

During food and wine they let you swap a qs credit for three snacks. In Canada, the mushroom fillet is a sample size of the fillet in the restaurant. So you can get three of those for lunch

The onion rings at flame tree are the big huge ones. And the French onion soup at BOG is good and different than what you would normally get at a theme park lunch

 

[katyjeka]

I wanted to add, don't forget to budget the tips. I know with our group of 8 the bill is quite expensive. "Free dining" can get a little expensive. Keep in mind the tipping is based on bill total. A meal inside the gates is a lot more expensive than a typical chain. We always tip 20% but wow meals are expensive so 20% adds up to a hefty sum. We don't love WDW meals and find the snacks better.

 

[mickeyfan9194]

Free dining is the best discount for a lot of people. However, the people that don't like it do tend to bash the people who use it ("I'd NEVER eat that much food!", "You're there for the parks, not the food", or "You be better off with a room discount.") I say, if it works for you, ignore all the comments from the Free Dining haters. They seem to think we're all fat and so stupid that we can't figure out whether it's to our benefit or not. For my group of (healthy and not overweight) 5 adults that took advantage of it last year, it was the best deal we could find (saving us over $500 from the next best deal. We've also been so many times (and without children this trip) that trying different foods during the Food & Wine festival and dining at hotels was a priority for us over the parks/rides. Free Dining can be a great deal and very enjoyable.

 

[Hikergirl]

Our first trip we did FD and I felt like I was just working around eating (what, when and where) and it just felt too scheduled to me. It was also my first time and I had no idea whether it was the best deal financially for us, but it sure seemed like it was LOL. As a family we've never used the DDP since.

I just booked a FD room for F&W but then found that a room discount was better so I switched. I did end up adding the DDP to my reservation (still saving $200 over the FD offer) because I just don't want to have to worry about. Its just dh and me. We have 4 ADR's for dinner and after adding them up, and figuring the 2-4 cups of coffee we'd drink a day that was already over half of what the DDP would cost us. I don't think we'll have a problem during F&W "spending" the other half. Even if we don't, I'm not worried about it, we aren't taking this vacation to save money, we are taking it to treat ourselves.

 

[willowsnn3]

My advice:

• You're there for the theme parks and not the food. Make them your primary focus.
• Eat whatever you want, when you want.
• Remind yourself often that you already got this food for *free*, so don't over-complicate things by trying to get the very most from your credits at every meal.
• Enjoy your trip!

Yes, I agree.
Free or not we love the DDP. But if I really want the $20 sandwich instead of the $50 steak, then that is what I'm going to order and not feel guilty about not maximizing, lol.

 

[mefordis]

Yea I agree you do already have the food for free but your paying full price for theme park tickets and hotel. So for your free food your not getting any discounts on hotel/tickets like they usually offer.

I enjoy the dining and the experience so rather than bringing zero to the conversation like you did about enjoying your dining package you should just ignore my topic. It would be better off to take the discounted rooms or ticket promo's than the free dining if you really aren't worry about getting the perks with it

I got no free dining AND I'm paying rack rate because the rooms at my resort were sold out already!

 

[lady_hlh]

Free dining is great discount for us because we are 2 teens and 2 adults. With teens I have found that we are better off eating some of our TS at lunch time because the teens would rather be riding the rides at night. At quite a few restaurants the lunch and dinner menu are the same so you're still maximizing the dining plan. We also do grab large snack items to bring back to the room for breakfast the next day and split CS or snacks.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

I find the resort mugs almost completely useless, whether you pay for them or not. We don't spend enough time in the resorts for them to be super useful. Unless you carry the mugs around with you in the park, you have to go back to your room, get the mugs, then fill them back at the quick service place in the resort. Such a giant pain in the neck!

We have used them because they are included in the dining plan. I wouldn't buy them outright otherwise.

 

[Ava]

One tip I haven't seen mentioned -

At resort QS locations that sell full-size pizzas, you can get a large pizza, 2 drinks, and 2 desserts for 2 QS credits. This easily fed our family of 2 adults and 2 children, using our refillable mugs for additional drinks.

We would also get something like a bagel, muffin, or yogurt as "dessert" with our QS dinner and save it for breakfast the next morning. There are a lot of snack credit items at resort QS that can serve as a light breakfast. (Or if you are staying at AoA they have a create-your-own yogurt parfait that is big and delicious and available for a snack credit.)

 

[maxiesmom]

Thanks for all the replies... Yea the initial post was started for tips everyone used to get the most out of the free Dining plan.. I should have made it more clear in my initial post about please make comments on how to maximize dinning options so we did have irrelevant post about just enjoy disney and not worry about dining (which is also important but irrelevant on what I was aiming for in the thread). I'm sure everyone has different things they enjoy about going to disney but I just wanted tips and some opinions on how people get the most out of their dinning credits and that was all.. Thanks for the great replies

I have a suggestion for you: Stop trying to control who posts what. It doesn't work, and will only make you frustrated. And just ignore the posts you don't find worthwhile. Thread posts almost always go off in more than one direction, it is just the nature of message boards.

My one tip to maximize dining is to do a late character breakfast. If you schedule a buffet late enough you will be able to sample both breakfast and lunch. Plus you can eat enough to keep you full until dinner time, with a little room left for some Mickey Ice Cream Bars, of course!

 

[momtosam]

My advice is use it for what you want, no matter the price. On one trip we just wanted a pizza at our resort one night. I didn't want to "waste" credits on a pizza so I paid cash. Some of the snacks the kids wanted were less expensive, so again I didn't want to waste credits on them. On our last day -- you guessed it -- we had credits left. The thing I ended up wasting was some cash.

 

[mmouse1239]

I'm not sure if everyone realized this, but for this FD package, you can purchase 2 day water park tickets as an option if you don't want hopper tickets. I'm going to explain why FD worked so well for us this time.....We originally rented an RV and a preferred site at the fort. Our total cost for those two things was close to 1800. That's just about 300 per night for 6 nights. We could have waited to hopefully get less expensive hotel rooms, but we are traveling with our daughter, son in law, and grandbabies and it was very important for us to all stay together. We loved the idea of the fort, because our two little grandsons are outdoor lovers. So, when this FD option came out, we are only paying a bit over 300 for one of the cabins per night. We would be purchasing the tickets anyway, so the food is pretty much an added bonus. We were going to purchase the dining package anyway. SCORE! I have done many trips with dining, and many packages without dining. For this trip, especially, it appeared to be a good idea. We will be doing several character dinners, and we love the idea of going there and not worrying if we saved enough to get what we want.
I agree with previous posters, that it does take a bit of planning if you want to "get your money's worth". That being said, adding character meals, "treating" yourself to meals that you might not otherwise purchase, and having the adventure of trying new things without worrying about the cost, could be some reasons why people like the dining plan. We rarely eat dessert at home any time we eat out. However, when we are walking 4 or 5 miles every day, we take that plunge So, if you like the idea of having everything prepaid, go for it. If you are really worried that the dining plan costs too much, you won't enjoy your food anyway, so don't do it

 

[pittsburghmom]

Tips we found useful for maximizing the dining plan (we had the QS dining plan on both of our trips):

1. If we ate at the food court at our resort, we would use our refillable mugs for drinks during our meal and pick up a bottle of orange juice or milk as our "meal" beverage and then tuck it away in the room mini-fridge for breakfast drinks.
2. Instead of getting a "dessert" item while dining at our resort, we would select a muffin or other breakfast pastry as our "dessert" item and stash it in the room for breakfast as well.
3. Many of the QS meals are huge portions and can easily be split between children and adults alike. We did this many times and ended up with several QS dining credits that we used for breakfast. For our family of five, we spent zero $$$ out of pocket on the QS dining plan and we certainly never went hungry!
4. I made a small binder of menus of all the QS dining locations in each park as well as snack kiosk menus. When we were in line or taking a break, we could peruse all the menus at the park and decide where we wanted to eat. If someone wanted an ice-cream float or mickey pretzel, all I had to do was consult the binder to see which kiosk to head to. No wondering around the parks tracking down a specific snack and the binder fit easily in dh's backpack. This was a HUGE help and timesaver.

 

[MomToOne]

Thanks for all the replies... Yea the initial post was started for tips everyone used to get the most out of the free Dining plan.. I should have made it more clear in my initial post about please make comments on how to maximize dinning options so we did have irrelevant post about just enjoy disney and not worry about dining (which is also important but irrelevant on what I was aiming for in the thread). I'm sure everyone has different things they enjoy about going to disney but I just wanted tips and some opinions on how people get the most out of their dinning credits and that was all.. Thanks for the great replies

Honestly, if you had just ignored the second post and let it go by, the thread probably would have stayed more on the track you wanted. (As I tell DD15 often: you can't control other's behavior, the only real control you have is over yours!)

Like others, I have found over time that a room discount is more valuable for us than free dining. But if free dining is all that is available, then it's a better deal than no discount, so of course we take it! When we have been on free dining, the best thing I've found to do is to use snack credits for breakfast - grab a muffin or something similar with them if you are not a huge breakfast eater. We usually travel in the summer heat, and that kills our appetites, so we end up not snacking as much as we thought we would - using the snack credits this way ensures we use them on something we would actually pay for otherwise, instead of running around on the last day buying Mickey rice crispy treats to drag home with our extras!

 

[buzz2400]

We usually get the free dining with only the counter service but this is how we got the most out of it. We use our own car and went to other resorts, like poly and contemporary, where the food was better and hardly any lines since they mostly get table service. We were able to score lobster rolls. We would also bring our mugs to get the soda and then for our drink we would pick an orange juice or something like that for later. Second, when we got food at the all stars, we would get the trail mix for the dessert and ate it throughout the day and brought all uneaten bags home with us. We also liked to get the drinks (as snacks) at starbucks.