Why so much dislike for free dining?

[disneymomma2010]

For me and my family, we will always try to go during the free dining plan dates! It's the only thing that makes since. It's hard enough for us to save to pay for the trip alone when you have all your everyday exspenses and bills. The free dining plan means that it is at least $600 that we wont have to come up with to pay for our food. Which means more money for shopping and we can use that money to stay at the beach for a few days after disney which is wonderful (we live in tennessee!).
Also, the free dining plan lets us experience great places to eat (ts) because if we were paying out of pocket, all we would be able to afford is counter services.
We also love to be able to actually set down and enjoy a nice meal and relax after we have been playing all day in the parks.
And you dont have to bounce around from place to place to eat. You just need to give it a little thought and choose which days you are going to which park and choose your ts adr for a place that is in or nearby that park. I know that if you are a spontanious person that its not fun but im a planner and planning my trip is half the fun!

[Dsnygirl]

I don't like it because it really does ruin spontaneity for locals.

Now, there's something I hadn't thought of -- I can imagine how that makes those quick trips/meals even more difficult. I'll cross my fingers for you that maybe because there are more "free" dates next year, it will open things up a bit!

That being said, I refuse to go when they're offering free dining. The reason? All the good restaurants are filled up with people who would not usually be there. It makes in hard to get good or any ADRs. That means I don't get the really good meals I want. That means my trip is a little less magical. So you see, it's selfishness that drives my hate for Free Dining. Simple enough.

Now, I wouldn't call that selfish -- if you like certain meals/foods/restaurants, esp. some of the nicer ones, and b/c of the Free Dining, masses of people are there that wouldn't normally pay for it, I'd just say you're discerning. And honestly, it's one of the things I'm a bit worried about, although we arrive the day before free dining starts (on a "resort only ressie", a separate "free dining package" starts the next day...) and should be able to do all our meals easily online. (At least that is the hope) But if we were arriving further into the time frame, and I was told that I couldn't get into Kouzzinas, Le Cellier, Cali Grill, etc., etc., I'd not be happy, either. Our "special" meals are a big part of our trip, and while we don't want to spend an excessive amt of time travelling to restaurants or eating, we do like to have some downtime in our favorite nice spots, and it'd definitely take away some of the magic if that was missing.

[Granny Jill A]

For a party of two, I've found that we come out ahead with a room discount and paying for food out of pocket.

I ran the numbers and found I saved money with my room discount and my AAA park ticket discount. Plus, I don't want to spend my whole vacation running from one meal to the next.

That said, I do miss the serendipity of popping into a restaurant and trying something new without having to reserve 180+days prior.

I don't know what I will be hungry for that far in advance, and it sort of takes the fun out of my trips.

I wouldn't cry if they did away with "free" dining.

[Melanie]

I'll cross my fingers for you that maybe because there are more "free" dates next year, it will open things up a bit!

I like that idea!

[joonyer]

We have tried the DDP, back when it included appetizers, and TIPs, and we enjoyed eating at places we wouldn't have otherwise. But it included way more food than we would have ever ordered otherwise. We spent more $$ for the DDP than we would have spent for food using our normal eating habits.

The valid comparison for me that convinced us not to us the DDP anymore was this:

Compared to what we would have paid for all the same food we got on the DDP if we were paying OOP, the DDP costs us less money . . . . BUT

Compared to what we would typically order for meals (NOT 4 appetizers for a family of 4) at our favorite restaurants, we normally spend less money for meals at WDW than what the DDP cost us.

We have also compared the cost of the trip with the free dining, but higher room rates, vs. paying for our own meals and getting big room discounts. Given our eating habits, we save more money with the room discounts, so even the free dining doesn't pay off for us.

That being said, I don't hate the "Free Dining", but we avoid going to WDW during free dining promotions because it is so much hassle getting a table at the few table service places we choose to enjoy. And we rarely plan WDW vacations more than 6 months out, which you MUST do if you want to dine at TS restaurants during free dining offers.

Free dining puts more money in Disney's pockets. But it is not really a good deal to save money as a consumer. They do a good job at making you feel like you're saving tons of money, when all you are doing is paying less for food you never would have bought without the offer. But the bottom line is that you are spending more.

[crltkcagle]

We did free dining in 2007 and paid for DDP in 09 and 10. We are doing free dining in 11.We love it and have not found any difference in wait staff or availability of reservations during free dining or not. We always make our reservations 180 days out and get the restaurants we want. Guess its all a matter of personal opnion.

[Bellerella]

I absolutley LOVE the dining plan! Here are my reasons:

1) We enjoy taking a break in a comfortable, air conditioned atmosphere with good food.
2) Table service meals are quite pricey, which are the meals we enjoy the most.
3) We really feel it saves us money. We tried the deluxe dining plan this year, which included an appetizer, entree, dessert, and beverage per person. These meals added up to over $100 each on average, so over $300 per day. We also were given 2 snacks per day and a free resort mug.

So I think it really depends on what type of dining experience you prefer. No one is right or wrong- people just like different things. We like to have some relaxing time on our trip, and for us the table service meals help us do that without necesarily having to leave the park.

[Goes4FastPass]

I hate "free dining" for a few reasons:

1. It makes the restaurants SO crowded. It makes it almost mandatory to make your reservations 180+ days out, which I HATE doing. I like to do walk ups sometimes, which it never a problem, UNLESS it's "Free Dining" time, and then there's no hope

2. They are doing it too often. It was fine when it was a once a year thing, in Aug/September. However, now, they are offering it the WHOLE year at various times, and that makes it annoying for people regarding ADRs.

3. I just hate the dining plan altogether. It was sort of okay at first (the one time I used it) because it really was a great deal (included apps, entree, dessert, drink, AND tip at TS places!). It's not really a "deal" anymore. It's a way that Disney makes people THINK it's a deal, and causes inflated pricing for people paying OOP, to further boost the claim of real savings. Quality and menu choices have declined significantly since the plan arrived, and prices have continued to go up. In addition, I hate being "tethered' to my ADR's and found the one time we used the DDP, we spent so much time getting to and from ADRs, and coordinating where we needed to be, that the trip became all about that, and not so much about being in the parks and having spontaneous fun.

Further, it's not "free". You are giving up a room discount in lieu of the dining plan being given.

Brer was just entirely 100% point by point right.

[TheVBs]

Free dining puts more money in Disney's pockets. But it is not really a good deal to save money as a consumer. They do a good job at making you feel like you're saving tons of money, when all you are doing is paying less for food you never would have bought without the offer. But the bottom line is that you are spending more.

Sorry, but for us this most definitely is not the case. The savings of a discounted room at ASMu is far less than the savings of the 2 CS & 2 snacks per day that we get free. That's food that we absolutely would be buying with or without the offer. So, yes, we'll actually be getting free meals on this plan. Now, we would not normally buy the refillable mugs for each of us. Usually I'm the only one that buys one for my morning coffee. So don't know how to factor that in. But, while Disney certainly does do this to bring people in and make more money, we are still, without a doubt, getting food for free that we would have paid for otherwise, even factoring in the higher room cost.

[ILoveLegos]

I don't like it because it really does ruin spontaneity for locals.

Cast in point - I just made an ADR at Le Cellier for February. Just a random Sunday afternoon in February, which was the first one I could get. This because my DS has been wanting to eat there forever, but with our weekend/day trips that are sometimes planned that very week or day, it's not possible.

Ditto.

[PopPhan]

I can only speak for my DW and myself, but we truly enjoy "Free DDP" trips.

Since we stay at Pop Century, and have been lucky enough to get the STANDARD DDP "free" every year since it's inception (2005,) we have found a number of things:

1) It saves us money.

• The "Free DDP" has always been a greater savings than the % discount (typically 20% - 25%) off the room
• the 'bills' for meals have always been quite close to the daily cost of the plan - avg. $8.50 lunch entree + $2.79 drink + $2.79 dessert = ~$14 lunch; avg. $15 dinner entree + $2.79 drink + $7 dessert = ~$25; avg. $3 "snack" ==>> ~$42, which is about the same price as the DDP per day. But remember, these are AVERAGE prices off menus, we tend to eat higher priced items just because we can. (Yes, I know...."You wouldn't eat like that OOP." No, we wouldn't. We probably would only eat one CS per day and snack the rest of the time, but that adds up quickly in itself!)

2) We eat at places we wouldn't pay for if OOP. We would never have tried Flying Fish, Kouzzina, Le Cellier, Tutto Italia, 'Ohana, Jiko, Boma, etc..... We just wouldn't justify the OOP cost for them.

3) Whereas a lot of complaints have been lodged that the selection and quality have suffered, we have not found this at all. We have actually thought that over the past couple years, with the advent of new restaurants on property - Kouzzina, Sanaa, The Wave, etc. - the selection has actually become much more diverse and enjoyable, and we have never had an issue with quality.

4) Having Park Hoppers every trip, we have found that park planning has not been a concern. We go wherever we want during the first half of the day, go back to our resort to clean up/freshen up/revive ourselves, then head out to our planned dinner, whether it be in a park, another resort, or DTD. Yes, going resort-to-resort takes some planning, but it can also be a lot of fun.

5) Over the years, we have found that we don't need to use our CS credits every day, so on our last day (travel day) we still have a "free lunch" before leaving for the airport and whatever credits are left after that go to "trade" for snacks to take home with us. Not the best usage of CS credits I know, but having some WDW at home for a few days really allows the trip to last longer for us.

I fully understand some of the negative points brought up -

• Excessive planning
• lack of spontaneity
• no 'walk ups'
• difficulty getting ADR even at the 180 (+10) mark

and I can empathise with you all, but for those of us on budgets, who can only make one visit every 12 - 24 months, this is a major godsend.

Also, understand that prior to the start of the 'Free DDP' offerings, the time frame - mid to late August thru the beginning of October - was a huge money drain on the park budget (yes, I know - this is another thing "locals" don't like - loss of 'private' park time.) Disney needed some way to entice visitors during this slowest of times.

Hopefully, with the opening of the two new (OK, one new, one major rehab) restaurants in World Showcase; the forthcoming restaurants in the FLE project; and the new options in DTD; this will spread out some of the dining congestion, but that still remains to be seen.

One last point....If this wasn't a money making endeavor for Disney, it would not have been continued for so long and would not be offered for so much of the coming year.

Sorry for the soapbox ......Now back to your regularly scheduled responses....

[Dsnygirl]

But it is not really a good deal to save money as a consumer. They do a good job at making you feel like you're saving tons of money, when all you are doing is paying less for food you never would have bought without the offer. But the bottom line is that you are spending more.

I have to disagree with this... we are very frugal when we plan our trips, and as we always do ADR's ahead of time for our TS meals, we usually have a good idea of where our CS meals will be, as we don't park hop just for meals. (We do hop, just not for that)

Because of that, I always have created a budget before we go for our food, and know pretty much when we're eating breakfast in our room, etc., that sort of thing.

Seeing as we're a family that always gets a CS and a TS meal per day, and we always get a snack at some point during the day, free dining saves us a ton... I never budget less than $100/day for our family of 4, and usually it's more like $130 or $140/day, as we do like some of the pricier spots now & then.

Compared to any of the other discounts out there, for us, we are spending WAY less by far than we would be otherwise, and we aren't eating more than we normally would -- we're eating pretty much exactly the same.

I can see how this would be different for smaller families, though -- just wanted to clarify that for larger families, esp. who's kids are eating more, to not have to pay for dining really is a considerable amount of savings, esp. if you're a family that enjoys CS/TS meals every day.

(btw, PopPhan and theVB's... I couldn't agree more -- we must have exactly the same travel style! )

[elmjimmlm]

I love the dining plan and love free dining more...A room discount is not better for us because we have 5 in our family and our older 2 kids are considered adults... If we are going to a TS and have to pay out of pocket for 4 adult and 1 child meals it will cost us almost as much as a full day of dining combined... With the dining at 47. a day per adult and 11. for a child, it works better for us... For the 5 of us it's costs at least 50.-60. to eat a CS meal... Dining cost us about 1200. for the week and if we can get it free then I will take that over a room discount any day...

[angua85]

I used the free dining my last trip to WDW, and enjoyed it. I dont like carrying extra money around and dont like charging too much to my room key. So having it preset this way was helpful.

It was more food than we could eat, but we did enjoy the option of having a snack if we wanted.

We didnt do ADRs, as I don't like being pinned down like that. Rather, we just stopped by the concierge desk in the morning and asked what was available in the park we were headed to. We ate at places we normally wouldnt consider, and discovered we enjoyed them. Great fun!

I have booked a trip for early December and it has the Quick Service DDP again. Counter service is fine!

[Scar]

We would never have tried Flying Fish, Kouzzina, Le Cellier, Tutto Italia, 'Ohana, Jiko, Boma, etc..... We just wouldn't justify the OOP cost for them.

Would you pay OOP for these restaurants now, after you have tried them?

I only ask this question because if someone recommended a restaurant to me (and I mean any restaurant, not just at WDW,) I would give it a shot.

[PopPhan]

Would you pay OOP for these restaurants now, after you have tried them?

I only ask this question because if someone recommended a restaurant to me (and I mean any restaurant, not just at WDW,) I would give it a shot.

Very possibly - one per trip, as we are generally on a tight budget.

[lightyearfan]

But when Disney is giving you two square meals a day, plus a snack, for free -- what's not to like?Just curious -- I realize this is a VERY personal opinion for everyone...

i completely agree, and yes the dining plan thing has been a huge debate on this site, when we first started going we paid out of pocket and had to subsiidze seperate money just for eating, which frankly was a pain, so then we heard about the dining plan, and we haven't looked back. me and dw have been doing the ddp every trip since 06 and we wouldn't do wdw without it, on the deluxe ddp, which is what we used to do, 3 meals anyway u like plus snacks and mugs, the regular plan is nice as well and on our upcoming sept trip we are doing the free qs ddp dining, just so we can change things up a bit, but let me back up a little , pre-paying for our meals before we arrived was a perfect thing for our family, we used the estimator sheet provided and it estimated that we would save up to $250 and guess what when i got back home and tailed up all of our receipts we saved close to $300, so for us thats a huge savings, like i said we never looked back and would never do wdw again without it. as you can see we LOVE the DDP

Victor

[Basket Mommy]

I don't like the dining plan because we're DVC members and can't take advantage of free dining. We do like to eat at the restaurants in WDW, though, and find it extremely difficult to get ADRs at our favorite places because of all the people filling up spaces because they have the free dining plan. I think free dining was introduced to make the restaurants busier - but honestly, if they'd lower the prices a tad and offer better quality meals across the board, people would be more interested in dining in the parks.

[ShanPooh]

I love the dining plan and love free dining more...A room discount is not better for us because we have 5 in our family and our older 2 kids are considered adults... If we are going to a TS and have to pay out of pocket for 4 adult and 1 child meals it will cost us almost as much as a full day of dining combined... With the dining at 47. a day per adult and 11. for a child, it works better for us... For the 5 of us it's costs at least 50.-60. to eat a CS meal... Dining cost us about 1200. for the week and if we can get it free then I will take that over a room discount any day...

Exactly the same as our family!

We've only had the DP during "free" dining.
We probably wouldn't have gone as much (once a year for a few years) had it not been for the "free" dining.

[TheVBs]

(btw, PopPhan and theVB's... I couldn't agree more -- we must have exactly the same travel style! )

I think we do!