When you get FD, do you then upgrade your resort or room?

[CarrieR]

Nope. We do upgrade the dining, but we stay at the same resort.

We are typically 3-4 adults in a value room. Even at $150/night, a 20% room-only discount only nets us $30... and you better bet it costs more than $30/day to feed three or four adults! LOL!!! We have run the numbers every which way (including off-site) and FD usually makes the most sense for us. It's not "free," but it is pften the least expensive of our options.

 

[DizneyNutz]

Believe me you're not saving with free dining...

Its only for those trying to justify it. :thumbsup DISNEY DOES NOTHING FOR FREE PEOPLE. Go and have fun.

 

[DisneyHardin]

When FD was released for this Oct., I had to upgrade from standard view to garden view to get it, but my total still went down by $300.

 

[canopynut66]

we stay value POP and then upgrade our FD to MYWD so we have the TS and CS so but is still less than any discount on the value room

 

[LRHOH]

Unless your whole family is a group of big eaters, I don't see how you can make out on the FD.

 

[Mousemommy1]

Its only for those trying to justify it. :thumbsup DISNEY DOES NOTHING FOR FREE PEOPLE. Go and have fun.

It's not about justifying it, it's about the bottom line for what people have to pay. And sometimes, a free dining package comes out to be the lowest bottom line than any other discount.

I think just about everyone on the Dis realizes that free dining isn't really "free". It's about the lowest bottom line.

 

[TwoAtDisney]

LRHOH, I agreed with you the first time we did free DDP. However, then DH & I learned "how to do it".

Snacks - We rarely eat a snack at Disney; maybe we split a Pineapple Dole Whip Shake once, & split an ice cream once. We take the snacks home - usually POR Magic Cookie Bars. After our last trip, we still had some bars left 2 weeks after arriving home!

CS - We usually split a CS each day for lunch.

TS - We each use our TS credit for dinner.

Breakfast - At home, we don't eat breakfast. On DDP, if we have any leftover desserts from TS or CS, we share those for breakfast. We don't usually eat dessert with our meal.

Leftover CS credits we use at POR pasta & Starring Rolls sandwiches. We always have an "after Disney" stay. So, we store the pasta & sandwiches in the hotel fridge & eat for "free" for a few days.

We also learned after our first free DDP of 14 days, to only do a short DDP. This Nov it will be 6 nites, then we go to FtW cabins without DDP.

Works for us. Would never pay full price for it though. Only paying $80 for free DDP above the Room Special Offer. So, we figure those TS dinners are worth the $80 - especially the nights we stuff ourselves with crab legs at CMC!

 

[mousefan73]

We just got back from a FD plan at FQ. 5 nights I kept all receipts and it totalled around 925.00 not including tips. This was including snacks, free soda, the never ending water, juices from Ts meals ( we saved that for breakfast in room). We were 2 adults 2 kids. Granted we ordered high end off the menu at TS.

I am more than happy to pay rack at a moderate and get the 925.00 "free" in food. Had we paid OOP of course we wouldnt have eaten so many snacks or high end. I see F D as a nice way of forcing some of us penny pinchers ( when it comes to dining atnhome) to sit back and enjoy a vacation without worrying about the price on the menu.

I also dont think any room only % will give us 925 in savings for 5 nights and then still have no meals. I have been pricing out packages for 2 yrs now and FD has always worked best for us. The only way for us to save even more signifcantly would be staying at an offsite motel and brown bagging it. Not my cup of tea.

 

[Masonmj84]

I agree but acting like free dining is a deal without realizing the 'rack rate' is a ripoff is bizarre

I think this is an overly broad generalization.

For deluxe resorts, I generally agree. Rack rates at those are insane (even during value season). So free dining generally isn't a good deal at those (as compared to a room discount) unless you're staying a a lower priced room category, have more than two "Disney adults" per room, and plan to eat a lot of table service meals (whether you're on free dining or not).

For mods and values, it's a different story. With the exception of peak season prices (when there usually aren't alternative discounts anyway), I honestly don't think rack rates at these resorts are that outrageous.

For example, we recently stayed at CSR with free dining during value season. Rack rate was something like $170 per night. I'm from New York, where hotels are generally pretty expensive, and CSR was far nicer than just about any place I've stayed in-state for $170 a night (this includes upstate).

Now, one could argue that a better comparision would be an off-site Orlando hotel, where, perhaps, there are comparably nice places to CSR for less than $170 per night during value season (or places nicer than CSR for $170 per night). But you also have to factor in the benefits of staying on-site that also provide real cost savings vis a vis staying off-site (e.g., Magical Express/not having to rent a car and pay to park, etc.).

Throw in free dining (which we upgraded to deluxe), and we felt like we got terrific bang for the buck. We had three Disney adults and one Disney child in the room. So free dining was about the same per night as rack rate on our room (basically equivalent of stying in the room for free in exchange for buying a dining plan - and we had a grand time eating in all those signature restaurants).

In short, in certain circumstances, I think free dining can represent a good deal for people.

 

[clanmcculloch]

Believe me you're not saving with free dining...

You failed to consider the mark up on the hotel which is worth about half of what Disney charges. So to get FRRE you pay

If you came across a concrete block exterior corridor hotel with the 'service' Pop provides anywhere else it's a $60 a night room. 5 nights is $300.

I agree but acting like free dining is a deal without realizing the 'rack rate' is a ripoff is bizarre

I really don't understand blanket statements like these. Sure, I get that some people like OCC believe that staying onsite is rediculous and nobody should pay these rates. Fine. People are entitled to their opinions on this. It has nothing to do with whether the free dining promotion is a valuable discount for some people. I also see how basic numbers can be refuted showing that free dining is a good deal for some people if they want to stay on site regardless. Sure, it might be cheaper to stay off site (when we choose a value resort vacation during value season, even that's in question once adding in rental car, parking, gas, tolls) but not everybody even wants that option. If you'll be staying on site anyway, a discount to the insane rack rates is still a discount. No, free dining doesn't reduce the cost of the hotel but it does reduce the cost of the overall vacation. That being said, it definitely isn't always the best deal even for families of 4 Disney Adults like mine. We do much better with room discounts when we stay deluxe but when we stay value and often moderate we do better with free dining. If free dining is the only discount then at least is SOME kind of savings to the overall trip cost.

My family always stays on site. It's a given for us. We don't like driving at WDW and shuttles from offsite are nothing like onsite transportation. We like DME. We like the theming. While obviously some don't like the service at WDW resorts, we do. We just like onsite. I'm free to feel how I feel about this just as others are free to feel that onsite is a wrong choice. I'm willing to pay extra for location. So what is most important to my family is the best overall price for the resort at which we want to stay. I've stayed several times without dining plans and will never pay for one because I can eat the way I want for cheaper than it costs to buy the plan. I figured out based on past trip receipts that it costs us an average of $145 per night OOP to eat the way we want which actually is more TS and less CS than the DDP allows. I compare this amount to the room discount I need in order to make a room discount more attractive to us. If the room discount is even close to this then I'll take the room discount. But, at a value and even a moderate, it's hard to find a room discount anywhere near that, especially now that discounts at values are usually 20% and moderates 25%. Even at 30% at a moderate during a high season like Christmas when there aren't discounts (but for the sake of arguement I'm choosing the most expensive time), that's only $87 per night discount. That's a better discount how? If I have APs or want to sign my kids up for YES class then that also lessens the value of free dining but it doesn't mean I ignore the math. I ALWAYS do the math to figure out which available discount will save me the most money while still giving me my choice of vacation.

Absolute blanket statements just don't make sense. Yes, that was a blanket statement. LOL

 

[nikki7680]

I guess "Free Dining" only helps those who are planning on purchasing the DP regardless. Of course if you aren't planning on purchasing the DP, then yes, a room discount is the way to go. But for those planning to pay for DP, then "Free Dining" is the bigger money saver. Our past 4 trips to Disney have all been when Free Dining was offered. We like the character meals and the buffets and to buy those out of pocket can get very expensive. There is no right or wrong way to book your trip! All depends on the family or person traveling. Personally, I enjoy anything that makes my bottom line a little sweeter!!

 

[btk2333]

I guess "Free Dining" only helps those who are planning on purchasing the DP regardless. Of course if you aren't planning on purchasing the DP, then yes, a room discount is the way to go. But for those planning to pay for DP, then "Free Dining" is the bigger money saver. Our past 4 trips to Disney have all been when Free Dining was offered. We like the character meals and the buffets and to buy those out of pocket can get very expensive. There is no right or wrong way to book your trip! All depends on the family or person traveling. Personally, I enjoy anything that makes my bottom line a little sweeter!!

Everyone has to do the math for themselves. I would agree that it's a good option for people who are planning to do DDP regardless; however, I would urge people to do the math themselves as to whether DDP is worth it and whether that's really how you would like to eat. (We prefer AP and TiW since it allows us the flexibility to eat what we want, when we want it). That being said, there's some value in almost any option as long as you do your homework and know what you're buying!

 

[robinb]

When Disney stopped offering the regular DDP at the values, I upgraded to moderates (twice) to receive the regular DDP instead of the QSDP. It was just a tiny bit more to upgrade at the time to the moderate and get the better DDP than to stay at the value resort and pay for the upgrade to the dining plan. We were then at a nicer resort with a bigger room and better pools & other amenities.

 

[clanmcculloch]

I guess "Free Dining" only helps those who are planning on purchasing the DP regardless. Of course if you aren't planning on purchasing the DP, then yes, a room discount is the way to go. But for those planning to pay for DP, then "Free Dining" is the bigger money saver. Our past 4 trips to Disney have all been when Free Dining was offered. We like the character meals and the buffets and to buy those out of pocket can get very expensive. There is no right or wrong way to book your trip! All depends on the family or person traveling. Personally, I enjoy anything that makes my bottom line a little sweeter!!

Actually, even if you're not planning to buy the DDP regardless, free dining can be a good deal. As I said, we average around $145 per night for our family when paying OOP. If the room discounts for where we want to stay don't come close to this then free dining is a better deal for us. Yes we do change how we eat when we have the DDP vs paying OOP but that's ok by us. We do more of the expensive fixed price meals and eat more CS than we would when paying OOP but we also enjoy that as well as the more TS but menu based restaurants. We go often enough that we like a bit of variety in the way we do things from trip to trip and we just let one of the deciding factors be whether we used a free dining promotion or a room only promotion and therefore pay for dining OOP be a deciding factor on that.

 

[Belle & Ariel]

Believe me you're not saving with free dining...

I priced our December stay with a room only discount and added the park tickets we are getting with free dining.
Our package for 7 nights is $165 more with the free dining. We would spend almost $50 with tax for 3 mugs bringing the difference to $115 since the DDP includes them. We could eat about 3 meals for that--we get 14 each plus 7 snacks so those are what we are getting free. We will save a few hundred dollars over room discount and get more than if we were paying OOP.

 

[KELLY]

Nope we stick with the QSDP at the values.. If we Wanted the RDP we would probably stay at a moderate but 11-14 days of ad's would make me nuts.

 

[AliceIn]

Believe me you're not saving with free dining...

We do FD and then upgrade the deluxe dining plan for 2 adults and 3 children (one of whom counts as an adult), and we find that we would have spent far more out of pocket because of the way we like to use the plan. We do character breakfasts in the park early mornings, and then do signature dinners. For us, it works out because we generally order a lot of seafood and steak. For folks who usually order chicken or pasta, I can see where you wouldn't get as much out of it. Once all the kids are counted as adults, we might rethink things. We end up using the snack credits to buy candies to bring back as gifts. It works for us.

 

[Sacgirl]

Hello everyone,

I spoke with Disney yesterday and made reservations at a deluxe resort for December.
I was quoted room rate only with discount.
Then she checked the "free" dining, which also requires a 2 day base ticket.

When I take the room only rate and then add the cost of the dining plan plus a 2 day base ticket I come up with a little over $200 savings for the free dining vs the room and add ons.

So in terms of comparing apples to apples. I "think" that I got a better deal by doing the free dining. Did I miss something?

Thanks!

 

[Mousemommy1]

Hello everyone,

I spoke with Disney yesterday and made reservations at a deluxe resort for December.
I was quoted room rate only with discount.
Then she checked the "free" dining, which also requires a 2 day base ticket.

When I take the room only rate and then add the cost of the dining plan plus a 2 day base ticket I come up with a little over $200 savings for the free dining vs the room and add ons.

So in terms of comparing apples to apples. I "think" that I got a better deal by doing the free dining. Did I miss something?

Thanks!

Nope, you're not. The Free Dining made your bottom line lower for what you wanted to book. Congrats and enjoy your trip!!!

 

[robinb]

Hello everyone,

I spoke with Disney yesterday and made reservations at a deluxe resort for December.
I was quoted room rate only with discount.
Then she checked the "free" dining, which also requires a 2 day base ticket.

When I take the room only rate and then add the cost of the dining plan plus a 2 day base ticket I come up with a little over $200 savings for the free dining vs the room and add ons.

So in terms of comparing apples to apples. I "think" that I got a better deal by doing the free dining. Did I miss something?

Thanks!

Maybe yes and maybe no. You called for a room-only reservation and were upsold to a package. Did you really want a package? Did you really want the DDP? Did you really want to buy passes from Disney rather than from a place where you could get a discount (like Undercover Tourist where a 6-day PH will save you $31 per adult)?

If you usually don't purchase the DDP, an easy way to see if Free Dining is "worth it" is to look at how much your room only discount would be plus park passes with NO dining and compare that with the same resort and #of park passes with "free dining". That difference is how much you are paying for the DDP. Would you be able to feed your family for that amount? If it's a bit more, is it worth the 'splurge' to be able to book into restaurants you normally would not book?