Would you visit Disney without free DDP?
 

Not sure if this should go in dining section or trip planning but I'm going with Trip Planning as I think it's a key part of the decision making process for some Dibbers.

This is the time of year in years gone by when Disney would release their Free Disney Dining Plan offer for onsite stays. It also came with up to $200 Disney Dollars.

It does look like free dining won't be rising like a big grey cupcake from the covid ashes. :(

My question to you is this:

If free dining isn't offered, how would it effect your decision to book a Disney onsite stay?

3 Options:

• Option 1. Not at all. It wouldn't stop me booking. Disney is more than just free food.

• Option 2. No onsite stay for me. Priced me out. I'd still visit the parks but stay off site.

• Option 3. NO, NO, NO. No free food, No Disney. There's more to Florida than Disney. OK maybe a special event like a MNSSHP.

Anyone know how we go about turning this into a poll?

Ive chose option 1 I have booked for feb 22 . Free dining would be a great bonus. But we haven't been before and I don't want to drive.

Yes. I’ve asked this question before. We will just do less onsite. We are going to do 5 days instead of 14. We are doing 9 offsite. Onsite isn’t the deal breaker. It’s a hotel. We’ve got bigger, cheaper accommodation booked for after. We still have our Disney fix and the park tickets will be valid still. I just won’t eat at Disney which isn’t a big deal. So much choice elsewhere. I don’t see any reason to say no, Disney no holiday.

I’m just going edit my answer. If no free dining I will stay for the 5 days onsite like I said BUT if they say no fastpasses or 60 day fastpasses then that’s a big loss that may make me change to all offsite.

It might stop us staying on site. We’ve done Disney from before free dining anyway and always did a mix of on and off site . We never do just Disney nowadays anyway so with the declining value and standard of dining in the sit down category I don’t think it’ll be the one factor to stop us but there are lots of other reducing magic factors even preCovid that are.
Charging for resort parking probably has more impact for us.

One of the main reason we bought into DVC last year was that we strongly suspected free dining would disappear. Previously it was a huge part of our planning and budgeting that we would get the free dining. Knowing it was likely to go away, we bought into DVC so that we could save money on dining by having the kitchen, and paying much less (longer term) for the holidays.

Ultimately, a huge part of a Disney trip for us is the food, if we get it free, brilliant, if not it won't stop us going. Even with DVC, if free dining came up we'd book a standard hotel for part of the trip just to get a few nights on DDP.

Also, in planning for our next trip, I'm really excited to try new eats that previously we missed out on due to DDP. On free dining, appetisers were a no-no, as were any snacks without that little logo!

A long winded explanation, but Option 1 :)

Yes, as we're DVC we have to pay for DDP anyway (but don't, too much food and enforced planning). We did have 2 weeks years back with free DDP then added a DVC stay on afterwards, and whilst it was a nice to just pick a 'free' restaurant every night, it tied us down, cost us a fortune in gratuities and the holidays seemed to revolve around eating.

We MUCH prefer to pay as we go, eat where we want & eat offsite more often.

We've often visited without free dining - in fact we've been far more times without free dining than with.

This includes times when free dining had been on offer but we only decided to go to Orlando or WDW quite late on, long after the offer was withdrawn.

The most extreme example of this was a trip to Orlando booked only 2-3 weeks in advance and with the intention of it being a WDW-less holiday. Then, on our last night at the Royal Pacific where we'd been to the Universal parks, we were sitting at the bar and decided we did want to go to WDW after all. I booked the Beach Club there and then, and we checked in just over 12 hours later with no tickets, no dining, no ADRs and no fastpasses.

We still visited many of our favourites - Crystal Palace, Teppan Edo, Coral Reef and Boma. We even managed a Cali Grill dinner for fireworks, although we couldn't get an ADR so arrived early for a walk-up in the lounge area.

So, in summary: we'll always stay onsite for the portion of our holiday where we intend to visit WDW parks (but we may move to a Universal hotel or villa for other parts of the same holiday) and we'll eat at onsite restaurants whether we have free DDP or not.

We would be priced off site. Option 2, I guess.

To have to face the prospect of no free dining plan after so long is absolutely devastating for us. I don't even like to think about it :blush:

No California Grill. No Narcoossee's. No Boathouse. We simply could not afford to eat at these places without the dining plan :cry::cry:

We don't like to drive on holiday because we like a drink, so the Disney transportation system offered on site is perfect for us

The introduction of the free dining plan completely changed our entire experience of our Florida holidays and Walt Disney World. Without going to these restaurants, for us, the whole experience would feel significantly less magical.

I know that so many people on here have amazing holidays off site, and that there are great restaurants on I-Drive and Kissimmee, but this is how we like to do Disney. Anything less than this, for us, would just feel like a much lesser version of a Disney holiday.

We're option 1. We have previously done 2 trips with 5 nights onsite with free DDP, and 1 trip with 5 nights onsite without it. I loved all the trips, but the one without it we loved the freedom of not having reservations, not thinking about credits, we drove offsite and had a few meals, we used our Landrys card, went to Walmart for snacks for the room, it worked out well for us.

Next year we have booked 2 nights onsite, enough for us, and will just eat when we feel like it! DDP no longer factors as part of our plans, free or not.

Somewhere between option 1 and 2. Me and my wife love the DDP and have even paid for it before as we like the perceieved 'convenience' of having food pre-paid. If it doesn't come free i thin kwe would either stay in value resorts instead or consider our first ever off site stay.