What is the best thing about Free Dining?

For my family of 3 over 12+ it is a great deal. We share meals and it covers all of our food. We have done both Qs and regular...
 

Any "catches" are in the purchase, for instance,having to add park hoppers.

Once you have the free dining, there are not a lot of catches. There are not a bunch of places or meals that you can't eat or anything. It's very clear what you are getting. For us as a family of 5, it is the best discount available when you consider how much we would spend on food and snacks in a theme park
 
It can be a big money saver.

We went last summer with park hoppers + dining plan. We're going at the same time this year with free dining and paying about $800 less with an upgraded room category.
 
Well the most obvious answer to the question..... Its "free". Of course it isn't free and you are paying a higher room rate to get the "free" dining. You just have to do the math to determine if it is a good deal or not.
 
for us, its more a case of once the holiday is paid we kinda know other than tips its all taken care of, so it just gives us one less thing to worry about, as others have said the money saving point has been discussed before andit may work out cheaper, but for us its just the convenience of not worrying about were we eat and the costs. ie if we was OOP then i suspect we wouldnt have many sit down meals etc HTH
 
A catch for me is that you are stuck sting Disney food all the time you are there. Can't go offsite and get something else which we much prefer to do
 
As far as catches on dining, there really isn't much. The biggest catch is you have to pay rack rate for your room and you have to buy at least a 2 day park hopper ticket, for AP holders like us, that's a BIG catch. It can be a very good deal if you like to do a lot of TS meals.
 
I just thought there will be lots of catches !

like restrictions most times you do not get something for nothing. I find the best way to get something free is to be loyal to a place , be polite

This type of question is best posted on the Restaurant Forum, not here on the Resorts Forum.
I agree with the PP, you should read the dining info on the Disney site
 
Yes, there are "catches". You have to pay full price for your room and purchase at least a 2-day ticket with the park hopper option. It's a good deal for some (usually larger families sharing a room) and not for others (never works for us). Generally, for smaller families or couples, a room-only discount comes out to be a better deal. It's always best to do research and crunch the numbers on all promos and discounts before booking any room or package.
 
We have 7 people on our next trip at BC this summer with free dining. I saw that I could get a 2 bedroom at Saratoga for significantly less than our two standard view BC rooms - when I did the math (I'm a math teacher - I checked every possible option), I simply can't beat the free dining and staying put. It is over $2200 in value. (Not to mention that I LOVE BC!)
 
Yes, there are "catches". You have to pay full price for your room and purchase at least a 2-day ticket with the park hopper option. It's a good deal for some (usually larger families sharing a room) and not for others (never works for us). Generally, for smaller families or couples, a room-only discount comes out to be a better deal. It's always best to do research and crunch the numbers on all promos and discounts before booking any room or package.
This is definitely true. As a couple, we "winged it" and only scheduled 1-2 TS meals that were important to us. Free dining would not have been a great deal.

As a family of four with kids under 10, we do a lot of character meals and like to sit down for a break each day. We save money with the DDP and getting it "free" this year is pretty awesome!
 
It definitely depends on the number of people and where you are staying. We had FD a few years ago at POR for my family of 5. We definitely saved more money than we would have if we booked a discounted room.
 
I just thought there will be lots of catches !
There are catches but that doesn't mean it's bad.
You have to eat to fit the credits on the plan. Like the QS plan. That's only QS meals. If you never eat many QS meals then it's not a particularly beneficial plan for you. So there's your catch
 
It's s big money saver for a large family. With six Disney adults we saved much more than with s room package deal
 














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