FREE Dining - What do you do?

[crazeedizneefinatic]

Okay, this year is the first year we are able to utilize the free dining. I fretted over what restaurants and how much was this and how much was that. I stopped myself and laughed because I became so obsessed with trying to squeeze every dollar out of the plan. My husband called me crazy we both laughed and booked where ever we wanted without looking to see what the best deal was. We booked a bunch of character buffets for our son and some really nice restaurants for the adults like Le Cellier, coral reef etc.. Can't go wrong with buffets though, everyone has a choice and everyone is happy. I have read so many posts about "wasting" credits on this or that. I suppose if I were paying for it I probably would still be calculating but since it's free I chose what I thought was best without considering price. Question is:
If you participate in the DDP do you choose your restaurants differently when you pay for it on your own as compared to when it's offered for free?

[SBETigg]

I wouldn't change the way I ate just to make the most of the dining plan. It turns out that we enjoy a light (or no) breakfast, a cs lunch, and a ts dinner, so the dining plan is great for us. But if I preferred breakfasts or lunches, or didn't usually eat a lot of TS meals, I would probably not purchase the dining plan. And if I had the dining plan added to my package for free, I most certainly wouldn't obsess over where I spent my credits. I would just enjoy WDW my way, and be happy for the savings.

[AvonleaCF]

I made all of my ADRs for my September trip before free dining was announced. I'm not changing a thing. Those were the places I wanted to eat at all along, and I won't change just because it's free now. I also won't order the most expensive items on the menu just because I "can."

[starrmomof2]

Last year was my first experience with the DDP and we had it free during our stay. I read a lot of comments about certain places being a better 'value' for your dining credits over other places. We just decided to eat where we wanted to knowing that we didn't have to pay for any of it. Granted, it was an easy decision since it was paid for, but even If I had to pay for the DDP (and I would if it were not offered for free), I would still choose to eat where I liked versus trying to squeeze out more 'value' and eating some other restaurant I may not enjoy as much. My thinking was that we had saved our money to make the trip, I wanted to be able to eat without thinking of the money factor while on vacation. Just my :twocents:

[TBY2225]

I also think fretting about getting your money's worth isn't worth it. We also had planned to pay for the dining plan OOP before free dining was announced. Until we went last year during free dining, I had only eaten in CS locations in the World. I wanted to be able to enjoy the food and ambience and not have to worry about what I could or couldn't get because of our food budget. Even if you pay for the dining plan you know up front and can save ahead and when you go to Disney you don't have to worry about how much you have spent on food and how much you have left. I highly recommend it!

[mrp4352]

We looked at Free dining as an opportunity to try new restaurants without having to worry if we're "wasting" money on a restaurant we might end up hating...

We're about 80/20 - 80 % 'old favs'/20% new places

[Dopey's Girl]

We are kind of a mix...we have 4 ADR's for our 5 night trip. 2 (Le Cellier and LTT) we have eaten in before, love, and would have eaten there no matter what. And 2 (Boma and Brown Derby) that we have wanted to try, but haven't wanted to splurge on in the past. So having the dining plan for free, made eating at a couple of places we may have never had the chance to try, possible!

[LuckyMum22]

We used the free dining package last year and took the opportunity to do things we wouldn't splurge on otherwise,like the Hoop Dee Do for 2 TS and Narcoossee for 2 TS and we are NOT sorry! We have two kids and we catered to them when choosing places to eat when we were paying out of pocket on previous trips - which meant a lot of buffets. With free dining the kids showed us that they too can appreciate a place like Narcoossee. They loved it and they were soooo polite and appropriate! We had a window seat and we put them by the window. They colored, played games in the activity book and watched the lights change on the castle as it got dark. They ate and enjoyed their meals, the younger one munched on the delicious rolls with seasoned butter. All the while my DH ate surf & turf and I enjoyed a scumptious appetizer (I never get an appetizer or dessert at a fancy place!) We would have never splurged like that on ourselves! The meal would have been over $300! (We paid part of the cost thanks to my $24 per glass wine choice!) Overall I am very happy we tried it and everyone has such great memories of such such a fine experience! The kids are asking to eat there again! We haven't told them about the upcoming trip yet but we made ADR's for California Grill this time!

[Seasonscraps]

We don't change where we eat b/c of the dining plan. To get the best value we won't use the DDP for breakfast but we generally have TS every evening & one signature dining meal each trip anyway.

[Crow]

well i said no, but
i am eating at some places i havent, and at a 2 TS credit place each time
i might use cs on breakfast or lunch or a place that isnt the most exp cs place.
but i am still eating at places i want to.
just not the buffets i might do to save if not on the plan, and eating dinner more than lunch

[Pop Centurion]

We eat at the places we like best without worrying about the best value.

[psychotekkie]

To me, the wonderful thing about the dining plan (payed for or free), is that we don't have to worry about prices, tips and all that stress. We usually try to throw in one or two character meals, and base the rest of it on what type of food we will enjoy the most.
I'd rather eat a steak that is worth $20 than escargots or caviar that are worth $30, just because steak makes me happier. :)

[tinksmom02]

The DDP (paying for it or not) allows my family to visit restaurants we normally wouldn't pay OOP for. We LIKE sit down restaurants, but if we had to pay OOP for all of them, we would probably only do 1 or 2 each trip (probably a character breakfast and lunch in Epcot).

Having the DDP on our plan allows us to try all kinds of new places, w/o worrying about the cost. Yeah, we had a couple on our trip that we may have "wasted" TS on, but then we would've had to eat somewhere else to use that saved TS, and, honestly, we just didn't have the stomachs for it! :ack: Basically, we ate at places that we thought would be enjoyable for our family.

Now that we're going back during FREE dining, it's that much more of a bonus!