Which is better Fd or 40% off

[redlawyer]

Remind me. I know I've seen these threads before. But my dd is now 3yrs old and we will be buying her a ticket for the first time. We are a family of 5 so we pretty much need to stay in deluxe (POR too cramped to really consider). Does free dining or 40% off room rate save us more.

TIA from the mathematically challenged!

 

[vicki_c]

There is no one answer. Generally if you stay deluxe and don't have a lot of adults in your party, a room discount is better.

If you stay in a value and / or you have a lot of Disney adults, free dining can be better.

You have to price it out for your own family, dates, resort level, etc. to know for sure.

By the way - booking free dining ends today.

 

[texasmousketeer]

It depends on if you think you will use the dining program and be able to use all the TS credits, etc. We find that it works really well for how we eat when we stay there, so if we did not get it free, we would probably want to buy it.

Given that we would want it, it then becomes a simple algebra problem. If you were to buy the dining plan (and are going to stay between 8/15/10 and 12/16/10), it would cost you $41.99 x 2 (you and your husband) + $11.99 x 3 (for each of your children). This is a total of $120/day (I rounded).

Based on this, if you stay at a hotel that costs more than $300/night, the 40% off is better, but if the hotel is less than $300/night, the dining plan wins.

 

[dizfamily4]

so true, we much rather room rate..we really do not eat the way FD would benefit us, but others that is the way to go....my opinon room rate..

 

[jimanda44]

Call Travel Disney and ask for the rate of both and you can decided from there

 

[let'sgo]

If you are staying at a deluxe you can also book at the discount then add back in the regular dining plan (and pay the going rate for it) and most of the time save some money.

 

[padawans]

It really depends on the price of the room and how many people in party. For us 2 adults and 2 kids 1 bdr villa. A 20% AAA discount is a little better than free dining.

 

[LdnCpl]

They'll be 5 of us this time. Technically 4A and 1C. In real time, 3 adults,a 14yo and a 6yo. We're staying at POR so the DP is by far the better deal as moderates were reported at 30% off. I really hope they offer the free dining when we go (Jan 31-Feb 7, 2011) but I could live with the 4/3 deal too.

I always say ''hope for the best but plan for the worst''

 

[cinmell]

For us, the 40% is better.

 

[twoplustwins]

For us, the room discount is better. When you do the FD, you have to do the package with tickets. The cancellation policy is much better too and you don't have to pay for travel insurance, which we always do with a package. To save more money, we are going to do the room discount and then buy our tickets through UT. My kids eat very little and even less on vacation. We will spend less on dining OOP than we would on the dining plan.

 

[liholi]

I am sorry to say, but I tried this morning to do the "Summertime Savings" room only discount. The promotion is still on the website, but when you check availability it says the offer is no longer available.

Maybe they are in the process of changing over to the expected discounts for tomorrow, and we will still be able to get a discounted room rate for the same time period.

UPDATE: Never mind. Finally figured out that I needed to delete a "cookie" from my browser. The ressie went straight though - YAY!

 

[hoosiergirl7]

For us the saving 40% off the deluxe room wins for us every time. We're a family of 4 - 2 adults and 2 kids age six and under. We only spend about $100 a day for the DDP and save way more on the room than what free dining would give us. If your children all still qualify for the children's dining plan than the room savings is the way to go.

Hope this helps.

 

[redlawyer]

Thank you so much. Now all I have to do is get up early tomorrow am to see what discounts come out tomorrow!

 

[jojomoore]

Generally speaking, if you stay moderate or value- free dining is less expensive. If you stay deluxe- room discount is less expensive. Free dining definatley means you have to eat within the restrictions of the plan to save money.

 

[Crazy Kanga]

I did the math and the 40% off of the Mod rate would save us about $350 for 6 nights. The amount the food will be worth on the free dining for us with 4 adults is roughly $900. I was very careful to book restaurants we like that make the most of the dining plan so that's why it is so high. We would NEVER EVER spend that much typically, more like $600-$700 tops for that many days, but we would also then have to take a lot of snacks and stuff that we now won't have to mess with. So for us free dining won out!

 

[goofyfordisney]

I did the math and the 40% off of the Mod rate would save us about $350 for 6 nights. The amount the food will be worth on the free dining for us with 4 adults is roughly $900. I was very careful to book restaurants we like that make the most of the dining plan so that's why it is so high. We would NEVER EVER spend that much typically, more like $600-$700 tops for that many days, but we would also then have to take a lot of snacks and stuff that we now won't have to mess with. So for us free dining won out!

If we only can get a 30% discount on the room, we will probably just stay put at CSR with our FD package.

If the room discount is going to be at least 40-45% it's really tempting to change to a Deluxe and skip the FD!