The Free Disney Dining.

[crispy]

We usually try to book around free dining since it gives us the best bang for our buck over the other discounts that are usually offered. Knowing I have booked all those fun resturants makes vacation planning even more fun!

 

[Sweet Melissa]

It's extremely important to us that we NOT have dining. The dining plans exclude some of our favorite restaurants and none of them suit our eating habits. Luckily, we've always been able to get some kind of room only, package or PIN discount on our trips. If our choices were free dining or nothing, we'd probably rent points or stay at the Swan/Dolphin instead.

 

[luv]

Free Dining cost too much. I never used it.

 

[littleroo]

We have been pretty stubborn about staying at POFQ. This year we chose this resort discount over free dining. For us, it was not worth it! We are foodies!!! Lucky for us, we booked before we left so we have free dining at POFQ for the third week of August next year!!!

 

[Dad 2 M & M]

Room-only discounts save as much or more for us depending which resort we stay at [Values are about break-even]. AP discount and TiW on one 8-night trip at a Deluxe saves enough on the room to pay for my AP, the TiW card, my son's hopper and everything we eat while we're there. Having "free" dining would cost more and force me to eat the way the credits are set up rather than the way I want.

There are only two of us and we always manage to get room discounts, if we were travelling when there aren't discounts it might be different, but I'm not sure they offer free dining then either.

I just ran the numbers both ways (using both the free dining and room discount)for Pop in December. Both packages have the following:

1) Standard room
2) 8 day park hopper
3) Upgrade dining to Deluxe
4) Air fair

Using Room Discount $3287.76
Using Free Dining $2966.76

Port Orleans came out cheaper with the Free Dining as well....

This of course is using the DDP instead of TiW

 

[Monty]

I just ran the numbers both ways (using both the free dining and room discount)for Pop in December. Both packages have the following:

1) Standard room
2) 8 day park hopper
3) Upgrade dining to Deluxe
4) Air fair

Using Room Discount $3287.76
Using Free Dining $2966.76

Port Orleans came out cheaper with the Free Dining as well....

This of course is using the DDP instead of TiW

How many in your party?

The reason I ask is for two of us it's always be about even. You're about $320 difference over 8 days, which is not as even as we see, but close. With an AP discount [so one less hopper but an AP instead] on resort and shopping, the difference would be a bit more or maybe less depending on how much shopping. Add in the 20% discount with TiW, which basically covers tips and you're probably better off with the room discount.

 

[Dad 2 M & M]

How many in your party?

The reason I ask is for two of us it's always be about even. You're about $320 difference over 8 days, which is not as even as we see, but close. With an AP discount [so one less hopper but an AP instead] on resort and shopping, the difference would be a bit more or maybe less depending on how much shopping.

Party of 2...I wonder if this is a glitch in the system?

 

[Monty]

Party of 2...I wonder if this is a glitch in the system?

No, your numbers seem about right, I added a bit to my previous post. If you drop the Deluxe dining and pay OOP for food with the TiW discount, it edges in favour of not using free dining in my view. But at $40/day total difference with the numbers you have, that's close to breaking even.

 

[luvtink]

I booked under free dining but called WDW reservations when the room discount came out since I have heard that it's typically better to uses the reservation discounts. Well in my case free dining proved to be so much better for us. We have three adults so even if we cancelled our ADR's and did all QS we were still going to be paying much more to use the room discount. So we will get to experience all of the great food an restaurants we had reserved!

 

[Dad 2 M & M]

I booked under free dining but called WDW reservations when the room discount came out since I have heard that it's typically better to uses the reservation discounts. Well in my case free dining proved to be so much better for us. We have three adults so even if we cancelled our ADR's and did all QS we were still going to be paying much more to use the room discount. So we will get to experience all of the great food an restaurants we had reserved!

The numbers we ran (and booked today) also showed a much better price (almost 10% less) using the free dining!!! Even when we ran the numbers for Moderates, the free dining came up cheaper than room discount, packages were "apples to apples".

 

[Dad 2 M & M]

No, your numbers seem about right, I added a bit to my previous post. If you drop the Deluxe dining and pay OOP for food with the TiW discount, it edges in favour of not using free dining in my view. But at $40/day total difference with the numbers you have, that's close to breaking even.

Some day I will look into the TiW program and see what it's all about. I'll send my questions your way when the time comes! Thanks for the info...

 

[luvtink]

The numbers we ran (and booked today) also showed a much better price (almost 10% less) using the free dining!!! Even when we ran the numbers for Moderates, the free dining came up cheaper than room discount, packages were "apples to apples".

Free dining is the way to go. Since we're staying at POP, I knew that the discounts wouldn't be as great as if it were at a deluxe but since we are upgrading to reg dining from QS I thought it might be closer. The resort discount was only $170 for seven nights. Well, three adults can spend that in one meal at a nice table service restaurant! Yes it's a whole lot more food than what we would get but we get the experience of trying all of the different dishes that I would never pay for OOP!

 

[real mad hatter]

It's extremely important to us that we NOT have dining. The dining plans exclude some of our favorite restaurants and none of them suit our eating habits. Luckily, we've always been able to get some kind of room only, package or PIN discount on our trips. If our choices were free dining or nothing, we'd probably rent points or stay at the Swan/Dolphin instead.

Very curious.What restaurants that are you favourites that are not on DDP?

 

[Lucky]

Some day I will look into the TiW program and see what it's all about. I'll send my questions your way when the time comes! Thanks for the info...

They key thing is you need an AP to enroll in TiW. We go once a year at most so have never bought an AP.

 

[Alison1975]

If we didnt get free dining we would not be able to go to Disney.. with 7 of us it's hands down the best deal for us!

 

[Sweet Melissa]

Very curious.What restaurants that are you favourites that are not on DDP?

Bluezoo, Il Mulino and the other Swan/Dolphin restaurants. They're probably among the best Disney restaurants simply because they don't take the dining plan and haven't had to adjust their offerings to make those dining credit reimbursements profitable.

The other part if the puzzle is that the dining plans are not friendly to the way we like to dine. If we want to do a sit-down breakfast, which we do at least a few days each visit, it's a terrible use of a table service credit. The breakfast entreés are too inexpensive to "waste" a credit on, and we'd definitely forego the dessert that comes with the meal. At dinnertime, we most often dine in the lounges of signature restaurants and share appetizers rather than ordering a full meal. Our apps and drinks wouldn't be covered at all on the standard plan, and we wouldn't require all the food to which the deluxe plan entitles us. It's just too much.

 

[real mad hatter]

Bluezoo, Il Mulino and the other Swan/Dolphin restaurants. They're probably among the best Disney restaurants simply because they don't take the dining plan and haven't had to adjust their offerings to make those dining credit reimbursements profitable.

The other part if the puzzle is that the dining plans are not friendly to the way we like to dine. If we want to do a sit-down breakfast, which we do at least a few days each visit, it's a terrible use of a table service credit. The breakfast entreés are too inexpensive to "waste" a credit on, and we'd definitely forego the dessert that comes with the meal. At dinnertime, we most often dine in the lounges of signature restaurants and share appetizers rather than ordering a full meal. Our apps and drinks wouldn't be covered at all on the standard plan, and we wouldn't require all the food to which the deluxe plan entitles us. It's just too much.

Well there you go.I've never heard anyone rave about these restaurants that are your favourites.As far as breakfast goes,we are coffee & croissant people so we just pay for these and keep our credits for lunch & dinner.

 

[Silver Figment]

I had never had free dining until May of 2011. I went back down in January of this year and recieved free dining again. With money nowadays getting free dining makes going down drastically easier for me and my girlfriend, but i'd still want to go down without it. I'm waiting for free dining dates in 2013 so I can possibly book my next trip.

 

[Crush Dude!]

Well there you go.I've never heard anyone rave about these restaurants that are your favourites.As far as breakfast goes,we are coffee & croissant people so we just pay for these and keep our credits for lunch & dinner.

Some of the best spots in wdw are at the Swan & Dolphin but you dint hear too much about them as so many people are on the DP

 

[real mad hatter]

Some of the best spots in wdw are at the Swan & Dolphin but you dint hear too much about them as so many people are on the DP

Must admit even if I was staying at the S&D I still like to eat at lots of other restaurants.