Free dining survey

[disneyseniors]

THANK YOU!! My thoughts exactly but others seem to skip tons of meals, buy 2 meals to feed 4 people, don't buy any snacks, and drink only water. Our thought is, we are on vacation, let's eat what we want to eat, we are ok with possibly a week of eating more than normal.

You are wrong in your assumptions of only : skipping meals, buy 2 meals to feed 4, don't buy snacks, drink only water". I never said that at all.
We are seniors who naturally don't eat like a young family. We eat absolutely when and what we want, including my daily ice cream fix We don't just drink water, give me a break. You are taking things to an extreme and making up situations. Only 2 meals to feed 4, give me a break.
Please don't put all of us who have different eating habits in your "box".

 

[YesterDark]

THANK YOU!! My thoughts exactly but others seem to skip tons of meals, buy 2 meals to feed 4 people, don't buy any snacks, and drink only water. Our thought is, we are on vacation, let's eat what we want to eat, we are ok with possibly a week of eating more than normal.

Just remember, for free dining at a mod, you're upgrading from a QS plan (more money) and you're forced to buy hoppers on all your tickets (more money).

 

[tguz]

You are wrong in your assumptions of only : skipping meals, buy 2 meals to feed 4, don't buy snacks, drink only water". I never said that at all.
We are seniors who naturally don't eat like a young family. We eat absolutely when and what we want, including my daily ice cream fix We don't just drink water, give me a break. You are taking things to an extreme and making up situations. Only 2 meals to feed 4, give me a break.
Please don't put all of us who have different eating habits in your "box".

I'm not wrong in any of my assumptions because through out this thread people have said they, 1. skip meals, 2. drink only water, 3. don't buy snacks. 4. share meals. I didn't QUOTE you as saying you did all of those. I'm not sure why you would have taken it that way. In my post where I laid all of that out (based on what others said earlier in the thread), I quoted nothing as it wasn't meant to be attributed to a single person or post....it was a summary of the things people have said they do at Disney. And, I have boxed nobody in nor have I made anything up....Next time, I'd suggest, before attacking someone with "you are wrong" and "I never said that at all", make sure what was said was attributed to you in the first place which clearly what I wrote wasn't.

 

[tguz]

Just remember, for free dining at a mod, you're upgrading from a QS plan (more money) and you're forced to buy hoppers on all your tickets (more money).

Good points but I thought now even mods get Qs on free dining? And the part hopper.....we always buy that no matter if we are on meal plan or not but it is a very good point by you that it would be extra $$$ if a family typically does not buy park hopper.

 

[rteetz]

Good points but I thought now even mods get Qs on free dining? And the part hopper.....we always buy that no matter if we are on meal plan or not but it is a very good point by you that it would be extra $$$ if a family typically does not buy park hopper.

Yes mods gets the QS plan.

 

[YesterDark]

Good points but I thought now even mods get Qs on free dining? And the part hopper.....we always buy that no matter if we are on meal plan or not but it is a very good point by you that it would be extra $$$ if a family typically does not buy park hopper.

I think when I went in 17 and I got a DDP at Coronado in August, but since then it's changed.

 

[mcd2745]

I always argue this with friends that travel to Disney as often as we do. Free dining always wins for us. We usually stay mod, and even if there was a 30% room discount, that saves what? Maybe $70 on a $225 a night room? (And mods don't normally get 30% off rack rate).

Jeez, one counter service meal for a family of 4 is more than that. Add in the snacks, two meals, etc., you are saving a boat load more with the free food.

There were times (nothing recent, more like 7-8 years ago) when they were offering 40% off some deluxe resorts. So if you were staying at one of those, and had kids under 10, you could do better with the room discount over free dining. But those instances were in the minority.

 

[disneysteve]

I mean, we get a few that are unique to there .... but also just bring granola bars and stuff with us rather than pay Disney prices for whatever is around when we/the kids get hungry

I was kidding. We actually do the same. We bring most of our own snacks. Granola bars, nuts, and other things that we get offsite or bring from home since we usually drive down. Prices for snacks at Disney have gotten ridiculous so even the things we used to enjoy, we don't buy anymore. The only thing we do get regularly is the frozen lemonade slushes. DW loves those.

 

[rotlex]

THANK YOU!! My thoughts exactly but others seem to skip tons of meals, buy 2 meals to feed 4 people, don't buy any snacks, and drink only water. Our thought is, we are on vacation, let's eat what we want to eat, we are ok with possibly a week of eating more than normal.

This is us too. Dining is part of the vacation for us. We don’t want to cut corners on food, skip meals, or God forbid have to cook, LOL.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

This is us too. Dining is part of the vacation for us. We don’t want to cut corners on food, skip meals, or God forbid have to cook, LOL.

Oh, Dining is a huge part of our vacations as well - but sometimes it will be the appetizers that appeal to me more than entrees, and don’t like wasting food.

I will say that now that they added an alcoholic drink that does make things a bit more appealing. We don’t drink soda (whether on vacation or not) and usually have wine or beer with dinner (whether on vacation or not) so previous the including beverage didn’t help us - but now at least this would include what we would want to order as a drink

 

[Tom P.]

For these folks, I always suggest "pre-paying" by putting the cost of the DDP on a Disney gift card (with tax and tip added) then use the gift card to pay! But I get what you are saying.

Psychologically, this doesn't work for me. I know, I'm weird.

But if I have the money on a gift card, I know I could spend it on any number of other things. I'll still be thinking about cost of things, and thinking that I shouldn't splurge because I could use that money elsewhere.

If I have the dining plan, it's all paid for and I'm only spending credits that I can't use for anything else but food. That "feels" different to me than a gift card.

 

[YesterDark]

Psychologically, this doesn't work for me. I know, I'm weird.

But if I have the money on a gift card, I know I could spend it on any number of other things. I'll still be thinking about cost of things, and thinking that I shouldn't splurge because I could use that money elsewhere.

If I have the dining plan, it's all paid for and I'm only spending credits that I can't use for anything else but food. That "feels" different to me than a gift card.

I'm the same way. A giftcard is still cash to me and I'm treating it as such. The dining plan takes away my mental processing of looking at the costs.

One of the psychological things I was discussing with my wife about professionals in different careers that applies to this is the mental capacity for making decisions. The higher up a profession you get whether it's middle management or a CEO is that you get paid to make decisions. In order to support those people, you have people that take the menial decisions away from them which is why they have personal assistants or other support structures surrounding them.

Now to bring that back to Disney is that the less decisions I have to make the more mental capacity I have to enjoy myself and push myself into the Bubble more. Worrying about the cost of lunch for not only myself but my three kids kind of ruins the magic a bit. Less stress more fun.