Disney Free Dining gone by 2020

[skeeter31]

I wish they would get rid of the dining plan all together. The menu choices have suffered greatly since the introduction of the dining plan and I’d love to see it go back to the way it was prior to that. I miss having a lot of distinct choices on the menu rather than every restaurant only having 5-6 entree options due to not wanting to lose money because of the dining plan.

 

[ChipnDale79]

All of these promos will be back in the near future. Sure Star wars and toy story are opening, but all of these promos are based on a strong US economy. There is going to be another economic downturn in the future, and when it hits, Disney has set themselves up with all these price increases to have to offer steep discounts again.

 

[WDW_Ding]

Disney might have to give away free dining in 2020 to keep people out!

 

[Networth]

Maybe than food quality and variety would go back up... one can dream.

 

[Devil13]

Love, love, LOVE free dining! Works great for my situation.

Actually hoping they get rid of all RO offers and just have different levels of dining deals. Clear everyone out of the parks for me!

 

[Disneymom1126]

Free dining is good for some families depending on how you like to vacation. If park hopping and table service meals are already things you know you want to do, then free dining can save someone a little money. The word "free" hardly ever truly means "free." You are saving some money, but you are also paying more for your room (rack rate vs. discounted rate) and for park hoppers if you weren't already planning to park hop. For example - I ran the numbers for a family of 4 (2 adults, 2 children) staying at Port Orleans Riverside for 5 nights with 4 days of park tickets (not sure of this resort is excluded this year, but the numbers would be similar at another moderate). I've also assumed the family wants to upgrade to the full dining plan. Here's how it shakes out:

FREE DINING
Room ~$270/night (average of low and high end rate for this time of year) x 5 nights = $1,350
Tickets 4 day park hoppers for 2 adults & 2 kids = $1,780
Dining upgrade to full dining plan from quick service = $270.50
TOTAL COST: $3,400.50

ROOM DISCOUNT OFFER (typically 20% off at Moderates in the fall)
Room ~$216/night x 5 nights = $1,080
Tickets 4 day, 1 park per day tickets for 2 adults & 2 kids = $1,480
Dining plan (if purchase the full dining plan) = $1,012.90
TOTAL COST: $3,542.40

So the free dining offer for a family of 4, saved a total of $142.40 by doing free dining...the dining plan is more food than most families actually need to eat (as a family of 2 we save about $200 each trip by not doing the dining plan and will save even more now that my daughter is 10 and doesn't eat adult-size portions), the room discount offer is a better deal by far.

 

[Devil13]

Absolutely a very personal situation on what works for your situation. For me, with 4 Disney Adults in a single room, it is the best option.

I just love the hate that it gets.

Thinking the food will improve or other offers will take its place are long shots at best.As far as I’m concerned, the more discount options we can get, the better.

Use what works for you but to dismiss it on the whole seems a bit short sighted.

 

[BabybetterDisney]

I’ve used the free dining promotion on our maiden trip and felt like we saved a ton of money. However, having now enjoyed a few trips to WDW and learned all the tricks from fellow disboard members... I now don’t get the fuss over free dining. It works out cheaper to rent points at a deluxe, buy your preferred tickets and even pay OOP for the dining plan.
I think the promotion in 2019 may be more widespread than the last few years, September may be empty if families hold their trips back for SGE to open.

Free dining should still be good for September because Star Wars Land isn't supposed be ready till November or so. But that would mean no free dining for November or December.

 

[BabybetterDisney]

All of these promos will be back in the near future. Sure Star wars and toy story are opening, but all of these promos are based on a strong US economy. There is going to be another economic downturn in the future, and when it hits, Disney has set themselves up with all these price increases to have to offer steep discounts again.

You have a point there. If the economy goes bad, Disney might be forced to get free dining again to fill the hotel rooms in September, so instead of getting rid of free dining completely, they might just offer a scrape during the good years and make more decent offers when times are bad.

 

[ChipnDale79]

You have a point there. If the economy goes bad, Disney might be forced to get free dining again to fill the hotel rooms in September, so instead of getting rid of free dining completely, they might just offer a scrape during the good years and make more decent offers when times are bad.

disney has set themselves up to almost require them to offer the same level of discounts they offered back in 08-09. They almost paid us to go in 09. We got buy 4 days and get 3 days free plus a $500 gift card.

With the increase in overall prices since then, if we hit another economic downturn, the discounts are going to be pretty steep.

 

[disney-inspired]

If it works for you great. Bounce backs tend to be a bit different than regular public free dining. Many times the room discount works out as a better deal.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to book my first bounce back offer if it's available when I go in January 2019. I'll actually be financially able to swing consecutive trips. we'll see if it's available and where...

All of these promos will be back in the near future. Sure Star wars and toy story are opening, but all of these promos are based on a strong US economy. There is going to be another economic downturn in the future, and when it hits, Disney has set themselves up with all these price increases to have to offer steep discounts again.

I'm sort of banking on this, those initial discounts after the recession in 2009 were huge.

Absolutely a very personal situation on what works for your situation. For me, with 4 Disney Adults in a single room, it is the best option.

I just love the hate that it gets.

Thinking the food will improve or other offers will take its place are long shots at best.As far as I’m concerned, the more discount options we can get, the better.

Use what works for you but to dismiss it on the whole seems a bit short sighted.

I find it funny how many people hate on the dining plan. I think it has improved this year since alcohol is now includedI find it a good deal for adults sharing the cost of the hotel room.

 

[tlmadden73]

2020?

If SWGE opens in August or Sept, I doubt you would see it in 2019 or beyond. If SWGE is set to open later than that . .may just see it for August/Sept.

They will still probably offer it at various times in limited ways (like just QS dining plan for certain packages, etc.).

Free dining is so limited now, it doesn't even feel like a promotion (a promotion whose goal is to fill resort rooms). It just feels like a nice gift to those who already plan on going to WDW during the times it is offered. How many "new" reservations does free dining pull in versus people like us on the forums that already booked a vacation and just modify it to get free dining?

 

[Disneylover99]

How many "new" reservations does free dining pull in versus people like us on the forums that already booked a vacation and just modify it to get free dining?

Hard to know really. But every year on the free dining thread there are many first timers posting to ask questions on how to get it. So I imagine it does pull in a decent amount of new reservations.

 

[AtlantaDisneyDreamer]

Free dining was a great deal- when we stayed in a moderate standard view room and had 4-5 people and only had to buy a two day base ticket per person.

Then it became worse. Then worse. Then worse.

With the current ticket upgrade requirements and taking away the regular plan from mods and often only offering free dining on the more expensive room types, it has completely lost its appeal for us.

But I agree that it will come back in full force if Disney needs to fill rooms. Disney will offer what they need to offer in order to fill rooms. With typical ups and downs in the economy, we can expect good discounts at some point in the future. Especially at times when many of us can’t afford to go.

 

[portcityw]

We tried FD the first couple of years. We were always rushed to make the reservations, for below average/ average food. I understand that it works for some though. By looking at the crowds, they don't need to offer any discounts. With everything coming online soon, they definitely wont need it. Unless the economy requires it.

 

[KYMickey]

I wish they would get rid of the dining plan all together. The menu choices have suffered greatly since the introduction of the dining plan and I’d love to see it go back to the way it was prior to that. I miss having a lot of distinct choices on the menu rather than every restaurant only having 5-6 entree options due to not wanting to lose money because of the dining plan.

Definitely True! It doesn't matter which restaurant you're going to the food the same everywhere, unlike you used to be. Even the better restaurants have dumbed down menus significantly.

 

[Rowab]

I wonder how this will play out in international markets....Free dining in the UK for example is on offer year round outside of easter and christmas for trips booked for the following year.

 

[BrookieM2001]

You must eat a ton because it rarely comes out where you save money off of it. They wouldn't sell it unless they at least brake even.

We crunched the numbers and DDP saves us a TON of money. And that is excluding alcohol because i wasn't sure which restaurants offered them and whether they would be drinks DH or I would choose. If we were traveling as a couple, DDP would cost us more than OOP would, but only by about $20. But if you figure in our girls, who are both Disney Dining kids, that switches to saving us several hundred dollars. Yes, we tend to order expensive items, and we tend to visit expensive restaurants. We like seafood and so do our kids, and we also like character dining options, and buffets. So that makes it that we are saving a VERY significant amount of money on our girls' food, particularly since they can order adult meals from CS places.

I dont know why, but there is this school of thought out there that DDP is always more expensive than OOP, and people are just too lazy to crunch the numbers and figure it out. But thats definitely not the case if you dine the way we do, and if you have kids and they like to eat. My girls are competitive athletes and those kids can EAT. I think more than anything, it depends on your traveling party as to whether it is a money saver or not.

 

[ChipnDale79]

I dont know why, but there is this school of thought out there that DDP is always more expensive than OOP, and people are just too lazy to crunch the numbers and figure it out. But thats definitely not the case if you dine the way we do, and if you have kids and they like to eat. My girls are competitive athletes and those kids can EAT. I think more than anything, it depends on your traveling party as to whether it is a money saver or not.

For anyone interested, and i wont share it in the open forum, i'll be glad to send the link to your inbox, but there is a website that has a tool that will calculate the estimated cost of a restaurant on Disney property and will show you if the DDP makes sense for you or not. It'll break down how much it costs to pay out of pocket and what it would cost per dining plan option.

We were going to go with OOP this time, but after doing the research, it made sense for us to purchase the DDP.

As if free dining is worth it vs the room discount. It depends on where you stay, but its always been a better deal for us. I just booked free dining for early august, and against the room discount we already had booked, it saved us around $400 for a family of 4. I dont get the hatred for free dining, its a really good value for some people.

 

[tlmadden73]

For anyone interested, and i wont share it in the open forum, i'll be glad to send the link to your inbox, but there is a website that has a tool that will calculate the estimated cost of a restaurant on Disney property and will show you if the DDP makes sense for you or not. It'll break down how much it costs to pay out of pocket and what it would cost per dining plan option.

We were going to go with OOP this time, but after doing the research, it made sense for us to purchase the DDP.

As if free dining is worth it vs the room discount. It depends on where you stay, but its always been a better deal for us. I just booked free dining for early august, and against the room discount we already had booked, it saved us around $400 for a family of 4. I dont get the hatred for free dining, its a really good value for some people.

I think the hatred comes from the DINING PLAN itself. On its own, it costs too much for what you get. (For MOST, the cost of the dining plan is not really saving money, it is just letting you pre-pay for your dining for the convenience of not whipping out your wallet, but sacrificing flexibility). Personally, I feel if you are pre-paying for something, you should get a bit of deal. The dining plan is the opposite.

What I think what most people don't calculate in the free dining calculation is this. Sure .. getting free dining probably saves you money over a RO discount and then buying the dining plan yourself. But I feel most people would save even more if they got the room only discount, and then just paid for dining out of pocket. "Most" people probably will spend less money on out-of-pocket dining expenses than just paying for the dining plan. There are days you just aren't hungry, there are days you don't want a $45+ table service meal, there are days you don't want a $5 snack. Etc.

So, yes, .. there are a lot of families that free dining (or the dining plan itself) makes sense. But the hate isn't really for "free dining" . .but hate over the dining plan itself.