"free" dining

[momz]

I don't know if I'm putting this in the correct forum. But, I could not easily find the information I'm looking for. There's so much that is different from the last time we stayed onsite (2005ish).

We are looking into a trip this October. Comparing offsite with onsite.

My husband and I were both playing around on the booking site. I was able to find a room for our dates without dining for just over $1700. My husband found the same room with "free dining" for just over $2300. (tickets included in both of these)

So...What's "free" about that? Is "free dining" really "free"?

 

[Missytara]

With free dining, you are paying full rack rate for the room and receiving "free" dining for everyone in the room.

It works well for people who are traveling in larger groups, especially like a family of 5 at POR AB.

It also allows families to move up from value resorts to moderates, and people off-site move to the values. I saw one year on my week (the week after Thanksgiving) in 2010, when free dining was released, the resorts filled up within weeks and off-sites hotels were offering up to 45% discounts to entire people to stay there - they were basically empty.

So it does pay for some.

However, with a solo traveler like myself or someone who goes deluxe, "free" dining does not pay; I am much better off with a room discount because I am essentially paying 175% of double occupancy. I also prefer to sit at lounges and graze on solo trips rather than TS dining.

You have to run the numbers and figure out what works best for your party size.

 

[gluvsmickey]

The dining is free but the room is rack rate. I booked a trip with a "free dining" package last year at AOA and after found out had I booked room only the difference was around $1000, and there is no way we ate that much in food so I would have been better off without "free dining". So just figure out if the difference is what you would spend in food or not, sometimes it's a good deal sometimes not do much

 

[simonsayz]

i concur. it's all about playing with the numbers.

I personally will be doing the DDP with just me and my gf. Did it twice already and I do think it's a pretty convenient thing to have.

The places that we TS at are quite expensive and we take advantage of it.

I go to Disney for the food

If you don't care for the food so much, then the dining isn't necessary.

I suggest going to the menus and pick out what you would eat and take the price and see how much you would spend. Then do the comparison.

 

[DznyCrzy11]

i concur. it's all about playing with the numbers.

I personally will be doing the DDP with just me and my gf. Did it twice already and I do think it's a pretty convenient thing to have.

The places that we TS at are quite expensive and we take advantage of it.

I go to Disney for the food

If you don't care for the food so much, then the dining isn't necessary.

I suggest going to the menus and pick out what you would eat and take the price and see how much you would spend. Then do the comparison.

Yep, I agree with this. Last year my DH and I received a FD bb offer at the Poly. When RO discounts came out in June for our dates they were offering 20% off for RO. We end up getting a better deal with the FD bb offer than the RO discount. My DH and I do the more expensive TS places so this works out great. You just have to work out the numbers and look at the menus of the places you want to eat at. This is the first time we've been on the ddp and I'm excited about it.

Sent from my Galaxy SII

 

[shyjade]

For us, a family of 2 staying at a value, the free dining is worth it because I wouldn't save $75/night off the rack rate with a room discount, which is what I'm saving with the QS free dining plan.

For our trips, I don't look at what I'm not saving on the room, but what I'm not paying for food & drink. We prefer QS over TS and don't drink alcohol at Disney, so I pay NOTHING for food or drink while at Disney. That's huge!

 

[melissafox18]

As 2 adults travelling, it doesn't make sense for us to do FD promotions. We also don't like to eat in the constraints of the dining plan. I'd almost always go RO discount over FD offer if they were both available at the same time.

 

[msjprincess]

I don't know if I'm putting this in the correct forum. But, I could not easily find the information I'm looking for. There's so much that is different from the last time we stayed onsite (2005ish).

We are looking into a trip this October. Comparing offsite with onsite.

My husband and I were both playing around on the booking site. I was able to find a room for our dates without dining for just over $1700. My husband found the same room with "free dining" for just over $2300. (tickets included in both of these)

So...What's "free" about that? Is "free dining" really "free"?

Were you checking under a room only discount?

 

[Shaden]

As 2 adults travelling, it doesn't make sense for us to do FD promotions. We also don't like to eat in the constraints of the dining plan. I'd almost always go RO discount over FD offer if they were both available at the same time.

Same here, although I guess it would depend on the resort and the RO % ...

20% off a value, we would probably still actually "save" more if we took the FD, and just ate how we like, paying OOP for some stuff.

30% off a mod or deluxe, it becomes much more clear that the RO is more beneficial.

Add in APs and a TiW card, and RO's become much more attractive.

 

[Belleandtinker]

The thing I don't like about the newest FD offer is that you won't find much TS available. We booked less than 180 days and had a horrible time getting all the TS we wanted. I try almost every day for Tusker House for breakfast and still haven't gotten it.

People who are thinking - great my son can have breakfast with Mickey is sadly mistaken.

 

[msjprincess]

The thing I don't like about the newest FD offer is that you won't find much TS available. We booked less than 180 days and had a horrible time getting all the TS we wanted. I try almost every day for Tusker House for breakfast and still haven't gotten it.

People who are thinking - great my son can have breakfast with Mickey is sadly mistaken.

Really? I'm going in less than 3 weeks and I just booked breakfast for 8 at Tusker house.

 

[Shaden]

Really? I'm going in less than 3 weeks and I just booked breakfast for 8 at Tusker house.

Yes, but that might be either just luck, or perhaps you are going at a less busy time ...

 

[Belleandtinker]

We booked ADRs in May fir out mid-October trip. We are staying for 11 nights so had a lot to make. I tried TS for a Tuesday morning. At first I could get seating at around 10 am and that doesn't work for our touring plan. We wanted 8 am - no luck...still.

I will continue to try but think I will have better luck as our date gets closer.

 

[simonsayz]

The thing I don't like about the newest FD offer is that you won't find much TS available. We booked less than 180 days and had a horrible time getting all the TS we wanted. I try almost every day for Tusker House for breakfast and still haven't gotten it.

People who are thinking - great my son can have breakfast with Mickey is sadly mistaken.

I see where you are coming from. I always book less than 180 days, in fact usually half of those allot days, but I don't give up trying to keep booking. Eventually something will open up. It has happened to me multiple times. You just have to keep trying.

 

[Ashleyfaz]

I think it also depends on what time you are going. We booked for the week of Thanksgiving when there are no RO discounts, so FD saved us a lot. We do a lot of TS and character meals because we have small children.

It actually costs us $43 less to do FD at AKL over POR RR with dining. We couldn't get POR RR with FD so we upgraded

 

[Shaden]

I think it also depends on what time you are going. We booked for the week of Thanksgiving when there are no RO discounts, so FD saved us a lot. We do a lot of TS and character meals because we have small children.

It actually costs us $43 less to do FD at AKL over POR RR with dining. We couldn't get POR RR with FD so we upgraded

Yea, the more people you add, the better FD generally looks, on paper at least.

For 2 people, FD is very easily not as good a deal as RO discounts that are offered.