The Free Dining Plan Dilemma

[AP1991]

A 1 time Disney visitor needing some guidance!

Went to WDW Jan 2020 and stayed at POR, we had the QS Dining Plan included on the free dining plan offer (booked summer 2019.) Long story short - The Disney blues have hit me straight in the face and now I am desperate to go back!

I am looking at heading back in Jan 2021 however:

- Do Disney hike the hotel prices up while the free Dining Plan Offer is on in order to offset the cost slightly?

- Is it cheaper to book into a Value Resort and upgrade to the QS plan from the free breakfast offer?

- Is is cheaper just to book outside of the dining plan offer and take advantage of the 4 free nights offer - Then pay for the dining plan out of pocket?

We loved POR, the vibe was great - But I will be honest, I was left a bit disappointed by the Food Court there. We found ourselves just getting the boat to Springs every morning and eating there instead. I would be perfectly happy in a Value!

Were not too fussed about the level of hotel we stay in - It is just a bed and a shower to us at the end of the day as we spend all our time in the parks. Just looking for the cheapest wast to get back there whilst staying on site!

Thanks Everyone!

[Tsoski]

So the prices do fluctuate during the different offers, but IMO it is cheaper to book during "free" dining if you know your likely to make the most of it (if you know you'll end up with lots of credits leftover or eat the cheaper items on the menus then it's probably cheaper to pay out of pocket)

It can sometimes be cheaper to stay at a Value and upgrade, sometimes it isn't, you would just have to look at the difference in the prices for your dates. my MiL and SiL decided to come after we booked, were staying at Coronado Springs with DDP but they choose to stay at All Start Music and upgrade to DDP as it was still a few hundred £ cheaper that coming to Coronado.

[Guest]

To your questions in same order.

- No they don’t hike up the prices, but the free nights offer will have dropped off so some may appear to be higher on the face of it.

- You would need to cost it up to find out, prices are a bit too variable to definitively say whether it is cheaper to go value and upgrade or book moderate.

- We are usually deluxe with DDP and there is no way that free nights would be better value than free dining. I have made that comparison many times and has always been the case. It isn’t necessarily four free nights either, it varies. I re-priced my upcoming trip and the free nights saving would have been £500, no way could I have fed two adults onsite for eleven days with £500. However if you book a value, it is only one QS per day, so it could be that free nights would be better value depending on the size of party and cost of hotel. Unfortunately this isn’t something you can find out now, you will have to make a call.

[sha9]

They don’t increase the prices for all resorts and even the ones they do it’s usually a small amount. I don’t think it’s better value to book with free nights these days as generally only a few resorts have 4 nights free and it doesn’t tend to offset the cost of food in my opinion. It does depend on party size but even for two adults I don’t see it as being a better deal.
There are slight savings to be made if you are a part of 2 in booking the cheapest value resort and upgrading but for me it wasn’t enough to be worth it, especially when you take into account the $200 gift card.

The other thing about free dining vs free nights is that free dining is the main offer. When it’s out it’s a bird in the hand. There’s no way to know if free nights will definitely happen as it’s essentially a back up offer if some resorts don’t sell as well as Disney would like.

[Goldia]

For us as 4 people in 1 room the free DDP promotion is the best. But it all depends on how many people are in your group and whether you actually want to eat all your meals onsite. The lower the number of people then the better the free nights room saving becomes in terms of value as we will pay the same as a party of 4 as a party of 1 for the room, but our food costs will be much higher.

[Elodie]

As Claudette says, they definitely do not hike up the prices anywhere. People might think they do when they see higher prices, but it’s because you are seeing the basic rack rates rather than discounted prices during other offers, ie free dining is full price with extras thrown in for free (eg meals and gift cards), while free nights is cheaper because it’s full price minus the discount.

For us, free dining was the best offer (family of 4, wanting lots of character meals).

We were originally getting free QSDP at a moderate and upgrading to DDP as it was cheaper than free DDP at a deluxe. In the end, we decided the £100 per night extra was worth it to upgrade to Beach Club from Caribbean Beach, and I’m sure we made the right decision for us.

You’d be best pricing up your different options once they’re available, and see which works for you, balancing out the benefits / appeal of each hotel and dining plan against any extra costs.

[ginnyfish]

It's worth adding that the free dinning offer sometimes only includes the more expensive room types at some resorts, which can make it seam more expensive in some cases.

[tink111]

For us free dining worked out better too! Two adults at POFQ for 7 nights.
Also we like the benefit of not having to budget for food that week!

[Hula Doola]

For us staying at POFQ with QSDP for 4 was cheaper than booking after the end of the free dining when the free nights offer came out, as I repriced it at that point for comparison sake and we were better off (though that was based on us getting the free nights and paying for the qsdp - if you wanted to just pay for food oop and could get off site to access supermarkets it may have been cheaper to do that - but a lot of faff in our minds).
If you are going to upgrade from free breakfast to QSDP in a value or from QSDP to DDP in a moderate you will have to look at each resort in turn as they are all different and offer different rooms at different prices too. It was cheaper for us to stay at POFQ with QSDP in May than to stay in a preferred room at one of the cheaper moderates (in order to avoid lots of in resort walking), and also cheaper than staying at a value and upgrading to QSDP.
In short my experience suggests that if your are going to buy qsdp anyway its better to book during free dining than during free nights at a moderate resort.

[Cara040]

We went in October 2019 having only booked in Feb 2019 so too late for free dining, so stayed in a value resort and bought food oop.
We were in All Star Movies and having had a recent refurb the room was better than we’ve had at POR or POFQ. What we missed was the boat to DS in the evenings.
Food wise we spent about £70 a day , that was for 2 adults and DD 12. We ate onsite the whole holiday and had 2 TS meals ( Rainforest cafe and TRex). We really like Wolfgang Puck express as it’s TS without the cost. We had an amazing time and all in was definitely cheaper ( flew indirect as well) but I prefer the DP as all costs covered prior to holiday.
This year we’ve booked late again so are staying at Endless Summer and doing Universal, DC and having a year without Disney. When we go back which will be 2022 I would opt for free dining if available.