Can someone explain this to me. If you are paying "non discounted" or rack rates for the package, in essence you ARE paying for your dining. It is not free.
I don't think any one savvy enough or who is enough of a Disney fan to be on these boards would pay rack rate.
The only way I can figure that this is free dining is to book the package then call Disney later to apply a discount that's being advertised to the room. (Disney runs discounts year round either on their own site, "saver" fan sites or Expedia/Travelocity. Even Jet Blue runs discount Disney resort rates).
Until Disney stops running discounts for resorts I don't see how dining is free. Unless maybe the savings on food is greater than resort price? I haven't done the math for different scenarios. Has anyone done the math and reached the conclusion that paying full price and getting a dining plan is cheaper than getting a good rate on resort/airfare?
Your point of view is common, but too absolute. Yes, it is based on rack rates, and yes you must trade one form of discount for another. There are several things to consider.
1) Physoclogical impact of the offer... People often times jump on free dining because free food sounds better than a discount on a room... thats borrong.
2) Value level free dining is nearly ALWAYS a good deal. Of course it varies from person to person, the more people in your group the better it is. Rack rate discounts on a value room are in the 25% range. 25% off of a $90 room is $22. Free dining is a $35 (ish) discount per person... so free dining wins, in most cases. If you were not going to do the dining plan, or are going to spend a lot of time at universal, etc, then you might still do better with room only discount... most of the time however free dining wins easily, even if you upgrade to the regular plan.
3) Moderate levels... now its a break even. You really need to do the math. on the surface if you have more than 2 people in the room then you are better off with free dining over room discount. However, IF you were not planning on doing all that TS meals, you would have to add the tips in to the cost of the food, and now you might end up spending more money than you had thought... a lot of people forget about the tips, they add up. If you were planning on lots of TS meals, and you have 3 or 4 people in your group then free dining wins again... if not, then go with a room only discount.
4) Deluxe.... NEVER GET FREE DINING! No matter how you do the math there are very, very little chance that the free dining is worth it. Nearly every single room only discount will save you money vs free dining.
No, the food is not truly free, but nothing in life is. You CANNOT STACK DISCOUNTS so you need to do the math and see what works better for you. Free dining can be a great offer, for some people... more than you would think.
In my case (2 adults, 2 kids, pop for 7 nights with dining even if it was not free) the room only discount was $143, the kids play free offer was $496 in savings and the free dining was $658 in savings. So I was very happy to be stupid and pay rack rates. :sohappy:.
(plus with F&W during my free dining trip this year, we are banking half of our snack credits and using them at the booths... love it!)
and going at CHRISTMAS like I would like....boy its really out of the question and we know there will NEVER be a discount for that! :xmas:
