Which do you usually choose -- Free Dining or a room discount?

[durangojim]

I'm curious, with the frequency of both free dining deals and room discounts occuring which do you usually choose, and what type of resort do you usually stay in -- value, moderate, deluxe, dvc?

I always choose a room discount as we are APs and most often stay at a deluxe resort, the savings is more than that of the free dining plan.

 

[durangojim]

Well as someone who has tried both......even though only one was offered at a time, so it wasn't a matter of choosing one OR the other, I would still pick the free dining over the room only discount. It makes no sense to me why someone would pick the room-only discount over the free dining (considering the cost of food and the restaurants in WDW).

We have a family of 2 adults, one 3 year old and 1 one year old. Adding the dining plan to our reservation would cost $90/day. We're staying at the Beach Club with a 40% AP discount for a savings of $155/day. We're staying for 7 days. We also have Tables in Wonderland giving us 20% off food and alcohol. DDP doesn't include tip or an appetizer and we don't have a desert with lunch and don't always want to eat at a TS restaurant. You ask, why take the room discount? $450, that's why. If you only stay at values or moderates, then I can understand, but if you ever stay at a deluxe, then it should be obvious.

 

[mariepapa]

Room discount. Never bothered with the dining plan, and never will. I always read it's too much food, and the aggrivation I feel from standing behind people in line who have no idea what they're doing is not something I wish to make others experience.

This is mostly Disney's fault I think. They state on the literature that you are only allowed a few items as snacks but from what I understand when you get down there most items under $4 are eligible. Thank goodness I have read the boards and know this or I would be one of those people! I will just hang back and wait until I know what I want and then jump in line
Marie

 

[JEANYLASER]

I voted for a room Discount in Moderate!

 

[elizs77]

It makes no sense to me why someone would choose the free dining over a room only discount at a deluxe, assuming they had an option for either.

But it all depends on the math in the situation. Like I said prior, when we had a choice, it was a $200 savings on the room at Wilderness Lodge, or take free dining and save $600 instead. This was a no brainer for us!

 

[RobnRachal]

It all depends on what the greater value is. With my family of 5 at a value free dining wins out every time. As the resort level increases and/or the party size decreases then the lines become a little more blurry.

I'm with you. . our youngest is 10 so we pay adult prices for everything. . free dining is HUGE savings for us. I think if it was just the two of us, a room discount at a deluxe might be the better value. But, traveling as a family, staying at a value resort, free dining is awesome. I actually means we get to go every year.:sohappy:

 

[RiversideBunny]

It probably does all come down to the math and you have to include the factors of how much the room discount is, how many in your party, what level of resort you are using, your eating pattern, and the normal room rates.

At one extreme for instance, four people staying in a Value resort room and getting free dining could be receiving more than the cost of the room. At least that was the case when full free dining was used.

At the other extreme, two people staying in a Deluxe resort who don't always eat a lot could come out better with a good room discount.

IMHO
:king:

 

[ceverette]

I voted for a room Discount in Moderate!

I did too. I laugh at people who say only the deluxe hotels are worth room only discounts. If you're an AP holder you still have to purchase a 1day ticket. Even though you can keep it for future upgrades (ex AP Passes) its still annoying. At a mod resort you usually can expect a $50-60 discount per day. Multiply that by x days and I don't see the point to bothered with the dining plan. To me it balances out. I called for a price quote with the Free Dining plan and the package would have cost me an additional 525.00 for 2 adults 4 days (including the two 1 day tickets I could use in the future).
525-150=375.00 more for the meal plan even though its "free." to me doesn't make sense.

 

[ZuzuPetals]

Huh?

Uhhh yeah, that's basically my thought on it...

It has nothing to do with people's opinions of themselves, it's a matter of math and where you choose to stay. There's no such thing as "Free Dining." To get "Free Dining" you need to pay full price for your room. Disney does, at times, heavily discount a deluxe room. Moderates and values aren't discounted as much, so to pay full price and get "free dining" can be a good discount. But if you want to stay at a deluxe the room discount is a better deal. In my experience you can eat at all the restaurants you like to and still save money on the price of the dining plan because of what's included, what's not and your personal eating habits.

Yeah...I wasn't saying anything about which resort level we stay at (we've stayed at all three) so I was a bit confused about that poster's comments....moving on... It does depend a great deal about your personal eating habits, which brings me to...

Well as someone who has tried both......even though only one was offered at a time, so it wasn't a matter of choosing one OR the other, I would still pick the free dining over the room only discount. It makes no sense to me why someone would pick the room-only discount over the free dining (considering the cost of food and the restaurants in WDW).

Well, we would not be purchasing the dining plan anyway. So for us, we will save the money on the room (in some cases a couple hundred $$ a night at a deluxe) and then just eat 3 or 4 table service meals for the week. We also don't order dessert with every meal and without the tips being included, I tend to find the dining plan not that great a deal if you wouldn't be doing those table service meals anyway.

But it all depends on the math in the situation. Like I said prior, when we had a choice, it was a $200 savings on the room at Wilderness Lodge, or take free dining and save $600 instead. This was a no brainer for us!

But if you're someone who wouldn't be doing the dining plan anyway, it isn't saving you money in that respect. We have done the dining plan once. We prefer to only eat 3 or 4 table service meals over a 7-8 day period. So for us, the extra cost of the plan (we wouldn't spend that much money on food per day without the dining. So while you get more than what you pay for, we wouldn't be paying that much anyway) plus the fact that you are paying $20 in tips every day (not to mention your % of tips is higher because of things like dessert that you wouldn't normally order.) We found the dining plan was wayyy too much food for our family (dessert with every meal? I love dessert but come on.) and that while you're getting more than you pay for, we wouldn't usually be spending $40 (plus tips) every day on dining.

I guess I should edit myself and say that it depends on eating habits. But to us, not being fans of the dining plan, we save much more money by taking the room discount. How was it only a $200 savings at the Wilderness Lodge and a $600 for dining? I'm not sure I can follow that math, is that per night or for your stay? With our 40% off pincode, we were saving over $100 a night at the Wilderness Lodge. Guess it depends on how many are in your party, as well. I would be curious to see after you added up your cost in tips for the week, how much that $600 savings comes down. Just something to consider.

 

[pixiesteno]

I would concur that it depends on each situation. DH and I will often share our meals, for instace, the Flaming Tree BBQ we get a 1/2 chicken meal side of fries and slaw with our drinks for less than $15.00 and we split the meal and still have plenty to eat. We have often split the adult breakfast platter as it is just too much food. Our first trip in 2004 for 3 days we did the "gold' dining (ie, 3 TS each day) can you say "roll us out of here":ROFLOL:Although, DS at 15 was very happy with the plan.
The following year we took DM-I-L, DH, DS, and myself and paid out of pocket. We did curtail the number of TS meals but generally went with eating what we wanted. When pricing out the difference that we would have paid to have the plan that covered the meals we had, we saved half over the dining plan to cover 4 people. Granted, we did two TS meals a day to give DM-I-L all the character meals that we could; but still, we did it at half the price and didn't have to worry about what credits we had left.
I think for our family the continued break-down of all the levels and "you can get this but not that" is just too much of a pain. We make the ressies that we want, we know about what our meals are going to cost, we use the Visa Reward Points and off we go. So in a nut shell, give me the room discount any day.

 

[reptar77]

I always choose a room discount as we are APs and most often stay at a deluxe resort, the savings is more than that of the free dining plan.[/quote]

Same for us. I actually did the math and even with eating every meal at table service it was still cheaper.

 

[STLDisneyFan]

My last two trips the free dining has been the deciding factor. I'm able to order things I might not be able to order if I were paying out of pocket. It's really a treat for me! We always stay at the value resorts so we don't really spend much on rooms anyway!

 

[elizs77]

I guess I should edit myself and say that it depends on eating habits. But to us, not being fans of the dining plan, we save much more money by taking the room discount. How was it only a $200 savings at the Wilderness Lodge and a $600 for dining? I'm not sure I can follow that math, is that per night or for your stay? With our 40% off pincode, we were saving over $100 a night at the Wilderness Lodge. Guess it depends on how many are in your party, as well. I would be curious to see after you added up your cost in tips for the week, how much that $600 savings comes down. Just something to consider.

This was 2006, and tips were included with DDP. It wasn't a 40% off discount, either, it was less - there wasn't anything in the OP that said we had to stick with a 40% discount on this discussion. I don't think you meant to have a bad tone in your original post, but I just got a bit riled by the "It makes no sense to me why" part. I was just saying that it's not just crazy people who take the free dining.

 

[lighteningqueen]

We have never gotten a pin code or anything to help us out for any of our other trips prior. But we are going to stay at POP for a few hours everyday. Why pay 2-300 a night for a deluxe and then food on top of that. Our room will be 838.00 for 9 nights and the dining was 720.00 for the week. So this was a no brainer. They would never give us our room for that much discount and we would spend at least 50.00 each per day on food out of pocket as we did last year. No desserts either. This is a heaven sent discount for us and we can eat at some table service restaurants more this year. We did only 3 dinners for 8 days last year and did Breakfast late so we wouldn't eat until late a counter and not miss any fireworks etc. I think we did great on this offer for us and will be trying POP for the first time. I think this is great for Value users. Maybe sometime when I go to sit in my deluxe room more than go to the parks I will try this but for now Value it is!!!!

 

[marcriss]

I just compared what all of the discounts mean for my family of 4 (kids 3 & 7) for a 10 day stay at the YC in December.

We got a pin code for around 40% off the room and we're sticking with that.

To do the free dining it would cost us $1800 more, which is way more than we'll spend on food and we do a lot of TS meals.

To book separately using the room only discount, buying 10 day park hoppers separately we are saving $1100 by not going with free dining. This is where how you eat comes into play. $1100 is probably closer to what we could wind up spending on meals, but we wouldn't necessarily eat what we want (like ordering appetizers, etc.) and we'd likely have more food than we really need. Plus we could certainly save money on food if we wanted to.

So you really have to explore all the options. The room only discount and free dining are close enough to give it serious thought.

Anyway, just thought I'd share sine I was going through this exercise for my own planning sanity. I'm finally settled on my package.

 

[DisneyJunkie]

Unless you had a car or were staying at a deluxe. Then it makes perfect sense to take the room only. Every family is different and has different vacation needs and wants. Although it makes no sense to you, it could make perfect sense to another family. I will say if you are stuck with no car the dining plan could be a good deal, but I bet a person who was diligent could figure out a way to eat for less or equal to the plans daily cost.
I buy my tickets through Undercover tourist and I rent a car every time, so I would always take the room only deal over free dining. I too like to use my disney reward points for food and recreational activities. The packages just aren't my thing. If I could just get the dining plan without buying a package I would think about it, but even then, it would be a stretch.

Well it works just fine for us, with or without a car. But at the very least, the free dining affords you the chance to eat at places you may otherwise never get to or would every consider because it's normally too expensive. We always take advantage of that. Otherwise if they do the room only, for many people their only option then would be to live at the counter-service places (not that that's bad in itself), and would miss out on some of the better stuff.

 

[mickey2008.1]

we've always done the free dining at crb. We love it. Its already paid for and you can eat anywhere except for two places. The mels are big, but at TS you can split it and they dont care. Just cant do it at luau, fantasmic, hoopdee, ect.... One of the best things is going to wolfgang pucks express, now theres a meal worth the free dining. You just have to know how to use it. And as for the person who complained about waiting in lines, whether you pay cash or free dining, you still have to wait in the same line, you still have to make ADR's. There in Septmeber 2009!!!:wave:

 

[KnK]

Otherwise if they do the room only, for many people their only option then would be to live at the counter-service places (not that that's bad in itself), and would miss out on some of the better stuff.

We do the room only discount, and we eat mostly TS options. Still ends up being about $500 cheaper for us. Also, people need to remember that you are still paying for the tip. Be sure to figure that cost in when you do the math difference between free dining and room discount.

Aslo, we tend to share and app and dessert. This is not an option on the DDP. They really have made the DDP not as easy as it once was. Aslo, we tend to eat at at least 3 'signature' dining spots during our trip. Thus cost 2 sets of table service.

I will say this, if you are a family of 4 or more, and budget rarely allows you to enjoy TS meals, then yes, the free dining is a wonderful experience for those folks to take advantage of. It also would be more cost effective.

It's all a question of taking time to do the math. I save every reciept and place in a envelope at the end of the day. I include every little thing we spend money on during the trip.

When I get home I place it all in a spreadsheet. I break down how much the meal was based on alcohol, food, tip, all the snacks we ate. Everyway I looked at it the discount I got for room only was much higher than what I spent on food, plus alcohol, plus tip, plus all the Mickey bars and dole whips my husband has to enjoy each trip!

For me it's the math that makes it work. Each family has different needs and different ideas of how they want to spend the vacation.

 

[gettingsmaller]

There are 5 of us, and we stay at POR. Free dining works out way better or us. Even if DIS gave us 50% off the room, that would be $75/day. It is NOT difficult to spend $75/day on just counter service. With something like table service at Ohana costing about $100-$130 for our family (I don't recall the exact amount), Free Dining is a no-brainer.
As everyone has said, it really comes down to math and what you think you'll eat, etc.. I can see how two people in a Deluxe could easily save more with a room discount, but it's a pretty easy call for our family (though it was certainly better with tip included).

 

[cabihler]

so many good replies and so many options to choose

i usually try to calculate this myself to see what is the better deal. i had a reservation for 8 nights starting sept 27th with the free dining. unfortunately due to health concerns i had to cancel this trip. i have made a 7 night AP reservation for dec 11th without the free dining and hoping health issues will permit this... but below some thoughts on choices

in the past i would say free dining but not so much anymore... WHY??? because of the difficulty in getting the ADRs for the nights i want to. most of the sit down places i like are in epcot so it means using the free dining plan for dinner i must end up each night in epcot... so this sort of restricts my freedom. i love doing certain places, le cellier and tepan edo, during my trip but i really prefer to be more spontaneous with what park and how long i stay as well as where to eat. in years pass you could make a same day reservation but now forget doing that for le cellier. funny thing is i had all of my ADRs in place for my sept trip and looked forward to it but again i found myself scheduling my park days and times in each to cordinate with my ADR. now if free dining or refuced rate dining is offered with the AP for december then i will take it up .... but, and this is the final thought, i still like the spontanaity and freedom of roaming the parks on my schedule and not tied to the ADR time and i also really like eating at the quick service places as much as if not more than the sit downs (for the most part) AND YES i do know about the quick service dining plan.

thank you if you read my entire LONG message

 

[cabihler]

typos

i just read my post and saw all of the typos/misspellings so please overlook them and forgive me, i usually do not reread a post or spell check them as you can obviously see from my post A B O U V E.....:hammer: