Am I the only one who DOESN'T care about free dining?

[Bugdozer]

Nope, OP you are not alone

1. It's not FREE! You pay rack rate for the room. Since IMHO the rooms at Disney are VERY overpriced FREE means "we marked up something else to give you the deal"

2. It's not good to overpay for a room that will include more food then I need or want. That's just wasteful. (And I don't buy the "you don't have to eat it all" Folks on here will force themselves to eat it because "it's free" or "we paid for it " LOL!)

3. It's Disney Dining. With some exceptions it's not that outstanding. I live in a major city and can eat better!

I admit I just dropped into this board this morning to watch the frenzy!

We always stay At Pop Century. We are 2 moms with 2 16 yo boys- my husband hates Disney so I go with a friend. We are hardly at the rooms and the boys love Pop. I don't call $82 a night very overpriced at all. I think it is very reasonable and works great for us. That is what I am paying with the free dining $82 a night for the hotel.

We do not force our selves to eat it because it is free. That is silly. I am not a dessert person and many time I pass on it.

I'm not all that thrilled by it either, but we may be giving it a try this year. I'd much rather have a 40% room code.

I did receive a 40% room code, however, we are going for 12 nights and only 6 of them fall in the valid dates for the 40% off. Originally we had an AAA 20% off discount for the first 6 days and 40% pin code for the last 6. So, when free dining was announced I crunched numbers and for us it seems like a larger savings than the 20% off, but not the 40% off. We decided to do the free dining for the first 6 nights and keep our 40% off for the last 6.

We don't usually do sit down meals, just counter service. While I'm looking forward to trying a couple of new places to eat, I don't like being tied down to a reservation each day and missing out on time in the parks when I could be doing rides and shows. I might switch back to room only if disney offers 30% off or more. I don't know yet.

We usually go for 9-11 days so we have plenty of park time and don't mind taking the time to eat at sit down. My son LOVES the restaurants and says to him it is part of the Disney experience eating in different themed restaurants. We allow the boys to choose where they want to dine, then we get the park calendar and roughly figure out a general game plan. It works for us.

Why would you do that?

We've paid for the plan in the past. We only order what we know we'll eat. I don't worry about trying to max out the plan.

That steak or lobster isn't a good value if what you really want is a salad or chicken.

We skipped many appetizers and dessert during our last trip. What's so hard about ordering what you know will eat, and saying no thanks to the rest?

I agree 100%


Bug

 

[Princess Disney Mom]

Well I do care about free dining but not enough to plan a vacation during that time.

 

[Tink561]

Well I do care about free dining but not enough to plan a vacation during that time.

LOL, I don't usually but this year it is helping our bottom line. I would much rather go in Nov/Dec.

 

[a*lil*bit*goofy]

i would love the free dining, but i won't change my vacation by a month to have it.

we do the dining plan. i like that i can have everything prebudgeted, have money for any oop meals. and not worry about having enough money to last the week.

I like to make budgets and to stick to them. the DP makes it easier.

plus we like the character meals. and there are savings with the plan when we do that.

 

[poohgirl6]

We dont' do free dining. Instead try to utilize discounts for room only...that works better for us. I think it is a great value for those families who are booking rack rate anyway and would be purchasing the DP...how can you not like free? But, I DO hate what FD has done to dining in general at Disney....I feel it has "dumbed down" the menus, created major hassles in getting ADRs and made dining the focal point of the trip for many. I long for the good ol days when you could decide what to eat for dinner that morning and make a same day ADR or just walk in to any TS restaurant. Picking a TS place used to be an adventure and something to look forward to, along with some decent (and sometimes really fine) food. Now, it's something we try to avoid because of all the FDers and go offsite instead. Although it's not something my family uses, I certainly don't begrudge other families that use it and love it

 

[Madformickey]

WE are going this year for FD. Booked a BB in octobor for 8 of us. Love that we can go to so many resteraunts and sit down together,try new places and not worry about the price. But i agree since the DP started it is almost impossible to walk up anywhere and get a seat. Not impossible, but hard. So it has its pro's and con's, but all and all its a good deal for free, but a pain if your are not on it or did not make ADR'S. I know in june ill bew on the phone to make my ressies, but what sux is that if we get busy one day and want to make a change, it might be impossible to do it last minute, but that just one of those things.

 

[PrincessTiffany]

I do not know if you are the only one, but I will say this DDP is the best innovation at Disney since the FastPass. While I have kids I will never visit the park without it, if I have to pay or if it is free. I am a believer, to those who do not understand it; I do not know what to say it is a pretty simple system. To those who have food left over unless you get the premium, I do not understand as we ran out of credits by our last day. To each his own, but when you add the fact that it is free in the month that we normally go to Disney-- it is like manna.

I agree!!! I agree!!! The Disney Dining Plan is the best thing WDW has come up with in a long time. We are a family of 6 and we always get 2 connecting rooms at a value resort for 8 nights. The 40% off discount saves us $637.00; the 4/3 deal saves us $750.00 and the Free Dining Promo saves us almost $1,600.00. So our 8 day trip for our family of 6 with two rooms on property with our meals is about $3,000.00. That's a huge bargain for us - HUGE!

I also don't get the comments about the DDP being hard to use? My young children understand how to use it - it's easy. Also, don't most people eat at least two meals per day? How is that too much food? We don't think it "takes away" from the parks either. The hour or two that we spend at a Character meal is just one less character line we have to stand in at the parks. We have eaten at the WDW restaurants many times before and since the DDP was introduced and we enjoy the food now, just as much as we ever did.

 

[MHTeacher]

I feel like such an oddball. I have no desire to do the dining plan at Disney, even for free. I've seen so many people have issues with what they have left, what they've used, not understanding how it works.

I used the free dining for the first time last year. It was easy to get worked into the excitement of it. We had never even purchased the plan. It was nice to have all the food taken care of up front. However, when paying OOP we don't touch the price it would cost for us to pay for the dining plan. I have 2 disney "adults" who are picky eaters. This year we decided to use our 40% PIN code and will pay for about 3 or 4 table service meals OOP. Even in doing that, we won't be close to the $1k it would cost for us to purchase the plan.

 

[Informer1906]

I was willing to give it a try to see what it was all about until I realized we are booked in a deluxe with 40% off and that's a MUCH larger savings than the FD would be for us. I'm not willing to downgrade to a mod for our stay since this is a special trip for us (even though we go several times a year) this is my big 30th bday and our 5th anniversary so might as well live it up.

How did you get 40% off.

 

[VBsHustla]

I would love a 40% off pin, or for the 4/3 deal to be extended into September, but right now, the only offer available for us for September (the only month we can go to WDW) is free dining. So we have 3 adults booked at a deluxe resort with free dining. Not ideal for us in the least. Probably the worst deal we've ever booked at Disney, but unless we are sprinkled with some pixie dust, we'll be taking the free dining! If the 4/3 deal happens to be extended or we do get a pin code, I probably would add on the dining plan. We like to go to at least one TS restaurant a day, where we easily spend at least $30 each. If we add in something small for breakfast and a CS lunch, that definitely puts us over $40 each a day. But if we didn't like going to a TS meal each day, I would definitely not pay for the dining plan.

-Jen

 

[Disneefun]

No, OP, you're not alone. We take the motorhome to FW, so we eat in the camper a lot. And FD isn't offered on the campsites. But even if it were, eating in the MH is so much cheaper for us and, now that Disney's food has gone down the drain (IMHO), I think we eat much better tasting food. I save far more with an AP discount on the site and eating my own good food than I ever could with FD in any resort.

 

[sharadoc]

We weren't interested in the Dining Plan at all - too much structure. HOWEVER, we are taking Free Dining in August over a 20% AAA discount. Our total for the trip - 9 nights, 10 day base ticket and free dining in a Family Suite is $2845. With a AAA discount, 10 day ticket and OOP for food, our cost would be around $3000, and that included CS every day, and two TS meals, plus eating in the suite.

SO, with free dining I am saving money. Plus, the CM this morning told me that I could use any TS credits for CS, so we're NOT stuck with TS every day.

I can understand the OP's feeling though. Eating at Disney World was never a priority for us. Then we went with kids

 

[bartleby1]

We weren't interested in the Dining Plan at all - too much structure. HOWEVER, we are taking Free Dining in August over a 20% AAA discount. Our total for the trip - 9 nights, 10 day base ticket and free dining in a Family Suite is $2845. With a AAA discount, 10 day ticket and OOP for food, our cost would be around $3000, and that included CS every day, and two TS meals, plus eating in the suite.

SO, with free dining I am saving money. Plus, the CM this morning told me that I could use any TS credits for CS, so we're NOT stuck with TS every day.
I can understand the OP's feeling though. Eating at Disney World was never a priority for us. Then we went with kids

Can anyone confirm the bolded info? I thought they had done that a few years back because the restaurants were so overbooked, but I thought that was a one time exception. Has anyone done this recently? We just might do that if it is allowed.

 

[PrincessTiffany]

Can anyone confirm the bolded info? I thought they had done that a few years back because the restaurants were so overbooked, but I thought that was a one time exception. Has anyone done this recently? We just might do that if it is allowed.

The past two years they have done that, let people tradein CS for TS credits, because of the overbooking and full TS restaurants. But, they don't usually put out the info or confirm that info until right before free dining starts.

 

[bartleby1]

The past two years they have done that, let people tradein CS for TS credits, because of the overbooking and full TS restaurants. But, they don't usually put out the info or confirm that info until right before free dining starts.

Thanks! I guess I'll keep my ears open when it gets closer to my trip.

 

[wdwmom0f3]

It saved me 1367.44, so yes it's worth it. I was planning on going with the dining plan anyway so this just made it so much better for we. Plus, I could not have saved that much money with a room discount.

 

[bonybroad]

I'm DVC, and not eligible, so I could care less about FD

 

[LisaNJ25]

40% for us just isnt as good of a deal.. with 2 rooms at pop I would save approx $74 a day. I know my family of 6 will easily eat more than $74 a day on food while on vacation.

If your a small family or no kids and staying at a deluxe I could see how the 40% off room would much a much better deal for you.

 

[Mary T in PA]

I agree with OP, I don't care about Free Dining.

I am glad the option is out there for the folks that want to take advantage of it!! It's just not for us and the timing of it always falls during a time of the year when we just don't care to visit.


Mary

 

[krissy2803]

We are a couple with no kids. Only our first trip was without the dining plan. We have paid for it every year except this year. Allready had a trip planned and just added free dining to it.
I see it this way..For us relaxing in a nice restauarant is part of the vacation. I see the dining plan as convienence. Not having to worry about enough money for food is a huge plus. We never concern ourselves about "getting the most out of it". We eat where we want and get what we want.
As far as having to plan everything in advance. I have discovered over the years that there are plenty of options available once we are down there. Sure we book the places we REALLY want to eat early, but we have never had any problem getting an ADR for the same night or day once we are there.
Again..for us it's about being able to budget the cost of food into the reservation and pay it off ahead of time. The fact that it's offered free for this trip is great and you bet we took advantage of that!