Please help need to know if dinning plan is worth it?

Theman95356420

Earning My Ears
Joined
Jan 15, 2020
I have a family of 4 3 adults and 1 child are going on may 29-june 6th and they are offering free dining but we have to add hopper passes but we don’t think we will use hopper that much would it be worth it for the dinning plan?
 
I have a family of 4 3 adults and 1 child are going on may 29-june 6th and they are offering free dining but we have to add hopper passes but we don’t think we will use hopper that much would it be worth it for the dinning plan?
Everyone needs to do the math for themselves when it comes to the dining plans. Some people are able to get quite a bit of value from *free* dining. Others tend to do better with a good room-only discount, tickets from a third-party vendor and paying OOP for meals.
 
As the other poster said it really depends on the family. We always get hoppers, that's just something we use and budget for so it's not an additional cost for us. Normally a room discount is the best deal for us. We usually stay in moderates and the last few trips it's just been my husband and I. Niether of us eat that much. So we take the room discount and pay for food out of pocket. This next big trip we are taking our then 18 year old son. We went ahead and booked a free dining reservation. With three of us eating, one who can eat a fair amount, the discount of not paying for the majority of our food was better than the room discount.

Generally if you are planning on stay in a value hotel or staying in a moderate with more than two people the free dining promotion is a good deal. If you stay in a deluxe the room discount is a better deal.


Just do a few mock trips, use a dining calculator to see what you might spend on food based on your preferences and figure out what the best plan for you is. Remember though the free dining promotion has to be booked by Jan. 16th (I believe)
 


You mention you are going May 29th to June 6th. The free dining plan is for arrivals June 27th/28th, some July/Aug/Sep dates. The kid's free dining plan is the one I see available for your nights (and the Sun & Fun offer). So no, not a good deal for you.

If there is another offer that I am missing that does include everyone -

It would be $80 more per person for the PH so that is $320. It's true that the free dining is a good deal for some but if you have to pay for something you do not want (the PHs) then I don't see it as such a good discount.

Where are you planning on staying? Values and moderates get the cs meal plan. Deluxes get the DDP . You can upgrade from QSDP to DDP but that is eating away at the discount. Are you planning on character/buffet/family style meals? I think those are the best value for the DDP - especially for kids.

Personally I would get it if I was already planning on getting the PHs and there was no other discount available. I get discounted tickets and hotel room through 3rd party vendors and buy discounted Disney cards for food. Math is not my friend but I make sure to do it when it comes to Disney planning ;)
 
You mention you are going May 29th to June 6th. The free dining plan is for arrivals June 27th/28th, some July/Aug/Sep dates. The kid's free dining plan is the one I see available for your nights (and the Sun & Fun offer). So no, not a good deal for you.

If there is another offer that I am missing that does include everyone -

It would be $80 more per person for the PH so that is $320. It's true that the free dining is a good deal for some but if you have to pay for something you do not want (the PHs) then I don't see it as such a good discount.

Where are you planning on staying? Values and moderates get the cs meal plan. Deluxes get the DDP . You can upgrade from QSDP to DDP but that is eating away at the discount. Are you planning on character/buffet/family style meals? I think those are the best value for the DDP - especially for kids.

Personally I would get it if I was already planning on getting the PHs and there was no other discount available. I get discounted tickets and hotel room through 3rd party vendors and buy discounted Disney cards for food. Math is not my friend but I make sure to do it when it comes to Disney planning ;)
Ive seen 3rd party ticket vendors but what are 3rd party room vendors???
 


I've run the numbers several times and the only time I think it's worth it is when we get DDP and are doing a character meal every day. I don't think I really save money, it's more of a wash. I just like that I've prepaid the meals.
 
Personally, I love hoppers, so that wouldn't be the issue for me.

I thing the dining plan is debatable based on your family's eating habits.

Do you tend to drink soft drinks over water?
Do you tend to eat desserts?
Do you want to take the time for a sit down meal each day?

I like the convenience of the dining plan, but... we tend to prefer to drink water and would rather have appetizers than desserts. It got to the point that two full meals a day (with drinks and desserts!) were just way more than we'd eat. Back in the day, however, it was great!
 
Years ago,, free dining was always a good deal. I agree, price out you rmeals and see if FD is a better deal than a room discount.
 
As others have said, it really is a matter of math, I know I hate to do it too. Look for discount hotels and tickets and then look at menus and sort of what you think you would eat. Add it up, spreadsheets are your friend here. The dining plan doesn't work for us. We do tend to eat at least one TS a day but we are all over the place as to what we eat at them. I don't eat large meals so I tend to get a couple of appetizers, maybe share dessert with my son and have a refreshing adult beverage or two. We rarely snack between meals, other than refreshing adult beverages, I usually only drink water or coffee. There are days we just sort of grab things while walking around or do things like chips/guac and salsa at LaCava or a cheese plate at the wine bar in Italy. When I do eat a meal at TS it's usually chicken or pasta, I'm not a huge fan of heavy meats. We do always get hoppers but I have never paid rack rate for a room and get my tickets at discount dealers. When I eat QS, it's usually a kid's meal.
 
I’ve never used a dining plan. We always do a Starbucks like breakfast followed by two sit down meals. And it still was more expensive. We don’t do deserts or appetizers for lunch. The reality is that when we walk around a lot we’re not as hungry. And we don’t do soda either.

It really depends how you eat. I’d do a menu review as part of figuring out your ADRs.
 
We stay at the value resorts and I find that free dining is always the best option. The room discounts on values is so small that I will pay way more than $20 in food. I do upgrade to the DDP, but even with that, it’s a better deal. Eating at Disney is extremely expensive. I was looking at one buffet and it would be over $100 for my 12 year old and me. 😳
 
Free dining is only available for certain resorts and you need to be checking in during the dates specified, so before you even decide about hoppers, you need to be sure your resort and dates qualify. Changing your dates can change your overall cost, for better or worse, depending on the dates involved, and same for the resort change if needed.

So basically what I would do is put in all your info for the trip you were planning on taking and get your total. Then add in the estimate you have for your food...remember to only include the food that would be covered by the dining plan. (For values or moderates you will get the free Quick Service plan, not the standard one, so if you want the standard plan, you'll have to pay the difference.)

Then, if changes are necessary (dates, resorts, hoppers, an upgrade if you want it), recalculate a toal based on the new plans, without adding in the food costs, and compare them.

For us, it's a savings hands down. We were already there for the right dates. We already were booked at one of the participating resorts (and it was a value resort, where room discounts do very little for a person). We already had hoppers. AND we were already planning on dining QS only. So every penny of food Disney covers instead of us is pure savings.

But if we had to make various changes, it may have negated the savings completely or made them so low that it wasn't worth it to us to make them at all. And that's why everyone will tell you that you have to figure it out for your own specific trip. :) Good luck and hopefully happy saving!
 
With on site trips we tend to stay at value resorts so free dining usually ends up being the better deal for us.
Also, I love the freedom of park hoppers so unless we're squeezing in an extra trip and trying to be very economical we always get park hoppers.
But if we're debating between on site or off site then sometimes we'll go with offsite/discount tickets with hopper/pay for food oop because it's often cheaper for us than on site value resort/full price tickets with hopper/free dining. We're not big eaters on vacation, it's the one time I have no problem eating light, lol. I'm too busy doing stuff and then too tired to want to eat much at the end of the day.
 
Echoing the others - it depends how you eat and where you plan to stay. If you are staying with four people in a value room, free dining will likely give you a better deal than a room only discount. If you are staying deluxe, a room only discount might be better if you don't think you'll take full advantage of the dining plan offered with deluxe resorts (which is different than the dining plan usually offered at value resorts, although you can pay to upgrade the free plan). You can look at menus on the DIS or on allears.net to see what you might order and how much it would cost to pay out of pocket. If you plan to eat at a character meal each day, particularly for dinner, the DDP can be a good value. If most of you usually order an alcoholic drink at dinner (or another meal), it might be worth it for you.

We have done it both ways, and usually, a room discount is better for us. But on our last trip, we had six people in a DVC villa and free dining was a much better value than the available room discount. Even with free dining, you still need to pay tips and pay for appetizers and anything else that isn't covered.
 
The dining plan isn't a value for us, so we never get it.

You could rent DVC points or get a room discount, buy tickets from a 3rd party seller and pay out of pocket for meals. Price that out and compare it to the deal you found. It's really the only way to know which is best.
 
The dining plan isn't a value for us, so we never get it.

You could rent DVC points or get a room discount, buy tickets from a 3rd party seller and pay out of pocket for meals. Price that out and compare it to the deal you found. It's really the only way to know which is best.

This is what we are doing. Originally I booked at free dining package at POFQ but we ended up renting points at the Poly. Once I buy tickets and add in food it will only cost about $300 more than the POFQ package for a nicer resort. And the best part is I can go with the dates I originally wanted instead of having to go with the free dining dates.
 
This is what we are doing. Originally I booked at free dining package at POFQ but we ended up renting points at the Poly. Once I buy tickets and add in food it will only cost about $300 more than the POFQ package for a nicer resort. And the best part is I can go with the dates I originally wanted instead of having to go with the free dining dates.
That sounds like a great plan!
 

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