Want to Know if Will Free Dining Really Save You Money Over Your Existing Discount?

[robinb]

I posted this to another thread, but I thought it really needed it's own thread .

The real question is: given a particular discount, how much would the rack rate need to be to "break even" on getting the free DDP? To find this out, you need to calculate the number of adults and children in the room and how much the DDP would be if you had to pay for them. That's your discount on the room. I know that you cannot buy the DDP on a discounted room, but I had to calculate the discount based on the DDP.

For instance, 2 adults would be $78. If you had a 20% AAA room-only discount you would have to book a room with a rack rate of at least at least $390 to get that $78 in savings ($390*.20 = $78).

I did a quick table with every variation of adults and children along with 20%, 30% and 40% discounts.

Enjoy

Edited to add a single adult. Sorry!

 

[Seahunt]

Thanks for posting this!

It's too late and I need some sleep so my mind is not working right now , but I was wondering if the charges for the extra adults (on the rooms with more than 2 adults) would affect this also?

Yawn, DIS at night - I'm off to bed!

 

[Ziggy]

Thanks Robin but it works out differently for me as we would have to buy 4 extra one day passes to qualify too as we would already have bought passes for days we are there for the previous week. For us it worked out $140 more than the AAA rate and as we don't usually have table service everyday its not for us.

 

[SqueakyMouse]

We have APs and DDE, so this would be very different for us -- especially with an AP room discount (which there always has been in August). Free dining has NEVER been a good deal for my family of 5.

 

[kinggoofy]

We have APs and DDE, so this would be very different for us -- especially with an AP room discount (which there always has been in August). Free dining has NEVER been a good deal for my family of 5.

Im with you. On a sunday ( after football season of course ) when we had NOTHING to do or watch on TV, we crunched the numbers.

We will be at CBR from aug 8 - 19th. 11 nights with the water view AAA rate for now at 1584.00. We booked the bounce back offer in November and it would have been 2291.00.

However, we dont need to purchase 2 extra passes, as we have the AP's and the DDE card. With an AP Rate for August-water view it will be 1381.00.

It would be a +/- 900 difference. We have no kids and we usually dont eat breakfast and 99% of the time we split lunches. Dinners, we are on our own.

It would cost us +/- $200 more to be on free dining. We would rather have the AP room disount. Also, WAY TOO much planning for us to do. ADR's and so on. Plus, we like to have a "beer or 2" at dinner and alcohol is not included.

So for us, We would rather have AP Room discount.

KG

 

[DizGeek]

My room at Pop is 82 per night x 9 nights = $738
It includes free dining.

If I were to get a room at Pop for $59 (havent seen it lower than that anywhere in years) x 9 nights = $531

So basically, I'm spending $207 more for 9 days worth of meals for 4 people.

I'd probably spend about $150 per day on meals for the 4 of us if I had to pay out of pocket.

I'll take the free dining anyday.

 

[almacdonald]

It's going to end up costing us $2000 more than no free dining because without free dining we wouldn't be going at all!

 

[corndog]

Does Disney not charge extra for more than 2 adults in a room?

 

[lillygator]

well for us ----

We have AP's and DDE as well...so if we stayed on room only code...
$82 rack rate value resort, value season
less $15 (it was a flat rate last August) times the 13%tax for All Star Resorts = $75.71 per night.

$75.71*4 nights = $302.84

We reserved the free dining for $576.45 but we always have at least one table service meal which are all usually in excess of $100 each. And this total includes one day base tickets which we can use when we renew our AP's. The one day tickets are $71.36 adult, $59.64 child - so that is $202.36 going towards our AP's....

ETA, so really subtract the one day tickets and we are paying $374.09 for 4 nights at a value with the free dining.

 

[taximomfor4]

We have to get 2 rooms (2 adults, 1 J, 2 C). The AP discount, if $40 on a moderate, saves us $80. (I have an AP, the rest of the family doesn't). We save about $26/ticket. So about $130. We have the DDE, so sae 20% on food.

Would the Free Dining be our best option? Monetarily, yes. But not by as much as it seems. If we added our dining receipts from last year's free dining, it would look like we saved TONS of $. But we don't, in reality, eat like that. We even left TWELVE CS meals unused, and bagged 8 snacks for the road.

The math is less simple than it seems!! That said, we would have done 2 value rooms with free dining...but it starts the day dh goes back to work. With AP discount, we are considering upgrade to mod (I LOVED it when I stayed -- my family has never stayed at one).


Beth

 

[JennyMominRI]

Does Disney not charge extra for more than 2 adults in a room?

The key here is that while rooms consider you an adult at 19 the dining plan does at 10(I think it's 10) so the list above with the numbers 3-4 means 3-4 people 10 or older paying adult price on the DP.....It's not refering to being an adult when it comes to room size.

 

[Lewisc]

Your chart is good starting point but you also have to take into account park tickets. Guests getting dining have to buy at least a one day base ticket. Guests with an AP don't need the ticket. Guests who need tickets could otherwise buy discounted tickets.

You're assuming dining is worth what Disney charges. Most of us find the value of dining, paid or free, exceeds the charge. Guests who are looking at a room discount that won't allow them to purchase dining might value dining at the approximate cost of the meals they'll be paying out of pocket. For many guests that amount might exceed the price of the dining plan.

 

[ExPirateShopGirl]

It's a great chart for people like us who purchase length of stay tickets when we visit. We don't factor in anything but room price and dining plan components, as the park ticket portion remains the same. Thanks Robin!

 

[rstamm]

Free Dining works best if you stay at a Value, we are staying 10 nights ASMo.

Value $82 AAA disncount $65.60 $16.40 X 10 = $164.40
Free Dining 2 Adults plus DS 10 3 X $39 = $117 X 10 = $1170
So I am saving $1006 for my trip.

It was such a good deal we booked two trips when we were there in December using the bounceback program!

 

[dzorn]

It's going to end up costing us $2000 more than no free dining because without free dining we wouldn't be going at all!

Yep, same for us.

Denise in MI

 

[Ziggy]

With an AP Rate for August-water view it will be 1381.00.

Are the AP rates out for August? I think I have missed them .


I guess free dining works for some and not for others, it has to be considered against the amount of money that would usually be spent on meals not on what they offer, we don't have table service every day nor do we have three courses - others may do though and good luck to them I hope they have a bargain .

 

[robinb]

My chart would work for the vast majority of people, but not for everyone. In fact, it wouldn't have worked out for me the last two years out of the box as we had APs.

For people who have to buy one-day one-park basic passes simply add up the the cost of the passes ($71 Adults, $60 kids) and divide it by the number of days you are staying. Subtract that from the DDE savings and that is your new discount break-even point. That assumes that you would simply throw that pass away and not use it. Many people will use that pass to upgrade at a later trip to either a longer pass or an AP. I have done both with my free dining passes I had to buy.

Assuming you would throw away the passes, Here's a worse case scenario with a 3-day stay:

Here's a 5-Day Stay:

Here's a 7-Day Stay:

Here's a 10-Day Stay:

If you're in between those charts you can guestimate your break-even point.

For the people with extra adults, simply subtract the extra cost ($25, right?) for each extra adult over 18 from the "rack rate" and you'll get your new break even point.

Of course, for those who don't even want the Disney Dining Plan it won't work out for you at all.

 

[kelscross]

This is the first time we've had the dining plan..free or not. We always have one sit down meal per day (most character meals for the kids) and a counter meal per day and of course grab a snack here and there. Some of our sit down meals have cost over $100 for the one meal easily with the tip.

I crunched the numbers from the restaurants that we normally eat and the free dining plan saved us approx $1200 for a 8 night stay!

Looking over the AP discount that we have gotten in the past, it was usually around the $80/night (deluxe) range, which of course justified paying for the AP.

We decided that we would grab this offer and wait and see what the AP discounts are this year...if it's a better deal, then we'll use that. I don't think it will beat $1200 though.

 

[robinb]

You're assuming dining is worth what Disney charges. Most of us find the value of dining, paid or free, exceeds the charge. Guests who are looking at a room discount that won't allow them to purchase dining might value dining at the approximate cost of the meals they'll be paying out of pocket. For many guests that amount might exceed the price of the dining plan.

You are right, I am assuming that the DDP is worth what Disney charges. I would disagree with you that "most" people do not. "Most" is such a subjective word. Have we had a poll recently? Look at how many DISers out there buy the DDP! Many, many people do think it's worth the price. Of course, many people do not think it's worth the price, so the vast majority of my calculations would not work for them. They are happy with their AP discounts and DDE card.

After two trips with free dining, I actually *gasp* paid for it on my last trip in December. We had the DDE card (which paid for itself at V&A's) and I crunched numbers on the some of the restaurants where I had ADRs. I even cut back to one appetizer and one dessert for my comparison *and* I included some 2 credit restaurants for fun. The DDP came out better for me even when we had to pay for it. Of course, my scale hated me when I came home, LOL!

 

[Lewisc]

I think you missed my point. I think most guests get more food then the price of the dining plan. I don't have a poll but Disney says dining guests gets up to a 40% savings. I don't recall reading a single post from a DIS member who said the value of the food they received from dining didn't exceed the cost of the dining plan.

In other words a guest might value "free dining" at something greater then the price for paid dining.

The price of "paid dining" is only a starting point. Most (okay some guests) should increase that figure to reflect the value of food they'll be getting with the dining plan and others (not many) should decrease that number. A guest that decides that they will only eat CS meals should value dining lower then the cost to purchase dining. Such a guest would never pay for dining.

You are right, I am assuming that the DDP is worth what Disney charges. I would disagree with you that "most" people do not. "Most" is such a subjective word. Have we had a poll recently? Look at how many DISers out there buy the DDP! Many, many people do think it's worth the price. Of course, many people do not think it's worth the price, so the vast majority of my calculations would not work for them. They are happy with their AP discounts and DDE card.

After two trips with free dining, I actually *gasp* paid for it on my last trip in December. We had the DDE card (which paid for itself at V&A's) and I crunched numbers on the some of the restaurants where I had ADRs. I even cut back to one appetizer and one dessert for my comparison *and* I included some 2 credit restaurants for fun. The DDP came out better for me even when we had to pay for it. Of course, my scale hated me when I came home, LOL!