Would you rather have free meals or great room only rate

[mickeyfan2]

Great room rate

 

[DisneyMom5]

You have to weigh out what is more expensive for you. If you only have 2 people staying in a room, you could eat cheaper, so a room rate would be better. If, like us, you put 8-9 (including infant) in 2 connecting value rooms, your room cost does not go up as much but your food cost is huge.
Having the free dining plan saved us A LOT of money, not b/c we would have eaten all those TS meals, but b/c no matter where we eat it is expensive.
And, we really appreciated eating GOOD food, rather than snacking a lot and eating a few CS.

If free dining is not available, a good room rate would help us have money for food.

I have yet to book a room only rate b/c they keep coming out with good package deals that benefit us. (free dining, and before that, "kids play free")

 

[SqueakyMouse]

Great room rate!!! With 3 children, TS are not as pleasant as they once were. Thus, we'd never get our money's-worth out of "free dining." The odds are pretty good that it would end-up costing us quite a bit more, since the kids tend to snack frequently rather than eat at scheduled times.

 

[Redmic]

I'd rather have the low room rate. We are not big eaters, and the idea of eating an appetizer, entree, and dessert makes my stomach hurt!

 

[indigoxtreme]

Free dining all the way, we are all foodies here! WE got the free dining last August and ate everywhere we have ever dreamed of! It was our first trip, and it was so memorable that 5 months later (now) Hubby is trying to plan another trip for jsut the two of us

Tammy and Tommy same thing here with us. We had such a wonderful time with the family and getting to try the restaurants that we normally cannot afford, plus character meals and Cindy's Breakfast. We are going back just the two of us in Feb for our 30th anniversary. I am so excited that my DH said he wanted to do this for our anniversary. Even after all these years he still surprises me

 

[robinb]

I already "voted", but I wanted to add a link to my Dining Review from August:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=898679&highlight=dde+review

We ate $1121 worth of free food for 2 Adults and 2 Children. My total reservation (including Park Hoppers) for 6 nights was $1770. Once you subract the cost of the dining, that's less that $100 per night including taxes and park hoppers for a moderate resort. To sweeten the pot even more, we saved 3 of those park hoppers (valued around $675) and applied them to our APs in December. So ... $1770 - $1121 - $675 = FREE! So, instead of eating for free, we stayed for free LOL!

 

[kizmac]

Free dining for sure! It saved us soooo much that paying rack rate for the room was nothing. We did two adjoining rooms at POR with 10 people with free dining this past September. Our diner bills alone most nights were $300 to $400 then, throw in the lunches and snacks and wholey moley did we save by paying rack rate.

It's fun to dream of another free dining promo, but I don't think we'll see it again.....at least not this year. We can keep hoping and dreaming though! You never know!

 

[Lookn4Mickey]

Free dining!

 

[PoohHappens]

Free Dinning is definately the better money saver. Look at it this way.

A really good room rate will save you anywhere from $30 to $100 a night. You are only going to save toward the high end if you save at a deluxe. Lets take a six night stay. You higest amount of savings is going to be around $600 with a great room rate (I guess once in a while you can save a little more than that in a deluxe)

Now consider your food is free. You have a family of 4. I know some of you are saying it is too much food or you do not like the comittment of a TS, but remember you do not have to order all the food and you can switch TS for CS if that is better for your family. Now if you paid for the dinning plan you may not want to do that, but remember that it was free so who cares if you do not get the best value from it.

All in all the free dinning is going to be a better savings if you stay in a value or moderate compared to what you would get in room rate savings. With a deluxe it depends on what your plans are.

My husband and I and our 2 year old once took a budget trip, we tried to save all the money we could. we had 3 sit down meals, 2 character breakfasts and fantasmic at Holywood and vine, We choose these as there was no charge for the little one and the breakfasts were cheaper than other times of the day. We made our Character breakfasts at the last PS offered and called it lunch. We ate all breakfasts in our room with granola bars etc..., the rest of the time we split counter service meals with no dessert and had 2 or 3 snacks during the week. We drank no alcohol. We still spent $500. We were staying in a value with a discounted rate. It saved us about $200.

During the free dinning plan offering We stayed at a moderate at rack rate, and ate anywhere we had wanted. We did drink alcohol. We only spent $100 or less beyond the dinning plan. This time our child was 4 and had to have a park ticket and has a big appetite. Our total trip cost was about the same or less and that included the extra cost for our child and having a much better trip in our opinion. (our total of food receipts from our dinning plan was $980 and that does not include the fact that we would have had to tip on that as well)
If they ever offer free dinning again (which I am not expecting) We are totally going. Food is a big expense on vacation.

 

[skiwee1]

Great room rate. I don't want to have to wonder if this or that is on the plan. We spend a lot of money on sit downs but we also don't stress over what's covered or not. Give me the lobster!

 

[Bronte]

Great Room Rate ... we can never eat as much food as they give you anyways ...

 

[PoohHappens]

Maybe I am not understanding what you can save on a room.
Can I eat for less than paying for the dinning plan--yes
Can I eat for less than the room savings--I don't think I can, but I may be wrong.

 

[javaj]

I'd prefer a great room rate --- and be given the option to pay for dining! We just booked a last minute trip 1st week of February since AP rates were back. It would've been nice to be able to add on dining with the AP rate (and not to have to buy hoppers). Sigh, now that they have added it on for DVC, I'm hopeful that maybe they will add it on for AP rates in the future....

 

[CallaLily]

Much rather have the great room rate. DH and I have the opposite problem of most people in that we like to eat at restaurants that require 2 TS credits, so the plan doesn't work out for us. Plus we have DDE so we can save on both.

 

[skiwee1]

Maybe I am not understanding what you can save on a room.
Can I eat for less than paying for the dinning plan--yes
Can I eat for less than the room savings--I don't think I can, but I may be wrong.

I think with a deluxe you can save around $100 a night. We stay for a minimum of 10 nights so that is $1000. There are two adults and one child in our group. I am not really sure of the DP prices but I think it would be $35 for each adult and $15 per kid. So that is $85 a day. The dining plan doesn't cover 3 meals, does it? I thought it was one counter service and one sit down. If that is the case then we will already be buying another meal as we eat 3 meals a day. We also eat at a lot of signature restaurants so we would have to worry about using two credits here or there. So we are now looking at at least one extra meal cost a day plus additional meals if we end up using 2 credits on signature meals. I also read that it doesn't include lobster among other things. Certain snacks aren't covered and so on. Truly, it just sounds like a royal pain to me. For someone on a budget I think it may well be worth it to get the plan. I don't have to budget and therefore don't want the hassle of figuring what's covered or not. I just buy it.

 

[skiwee1]

Much rather have the great room rate. DH and I have the opposite problem of most people in that we like to eat at restaurants that require 2 TS credits, so the plan doesn't work out for us. Plus we have DDE so we can save on both.

Exactly. Our DDE saves us hundreds of $$$ a trip. We also eat at a lot of signature places and don't want the hassle of figuring out credits.

 

[jjohnson]

Free dining!!! Having 3 children w/two of them over 9 the cost of the DP for us is about $165 per day. I have yet to see a promotion or AP rate that could match that.

 

[pooch]

wow, must be nice!! for the rest of us mere mortals, some type of budget, high or low, is inevitable.
We're saving about $300 w/AAA at WL the end of August with the dining plan included. The DP is costing us just over $1000 for 9 nights. If they offered free food again, we'd lose the $300 AAA discount for a net savings of about $700. All you code experts out there - what type of room discount might they offer, based on past experience, that might save me that much? Does that animal exist?
Personally I think we should all get together and ask WDW, PLEASE!!!, could we have an "Options" deal, either free food or a great room rate!?!?!?
We can dream can't we!?!?

Pooch

 

[alwayspooh]

Another vote for free dining

 

[kmkja1]

Whatever will same me the most money.