Free Dining Plan v. Actual Costs
When it comes to ‘doing the math’ on Free Dining at Walt Disney World, often I see people compare the actual cost of the Disney Dining Plan to a room-only discount in order to determine whether Free Dining is the best offer for them.
This is an ostensibly fair but ultimately fallacious comparison unless the Disney Dining Plan perfectly matches your eating preferences. If the Disney Dining Plan offers “too much food” for you, it’s not worth the ‘sticker price’ of the plan. (This is a point we’ve made before several times, so if you feel like we’re preaching to the choir, this article is not for you.)
To illustrate what we mean, think of the dilemma consumers face when browsing Costco or Sam’s Club. I think we’ve all been there: we see an exceptional buy one, get one free deal on a bulk package of something that makes that product effectively half price! Even though it’s way more than we need, we buy it anyway.
We use a quarter of one package and the rest goes stale. (Or, in our case, this is how we’ve had the same ginormous boxes of Keebler Club Crackers for the last 2+ years.) Suddenly, we’ve overpaid for that “exceptional deal.”
For many people, this is the exact scenario with the Disney Dining Plan. I cannot stress this enough: if you’re arbitrarily ordering the most expensive thing on the menu, only eating half your meal, or stockpiling treats on the last day to take home, the Dining Plan is not worth its full price to you. A deal is only a deal to the extent that you’re getting something you want and will actually use.
To further demonstrate this, I thought I’d use our meal costs and stay at Fort Wilderness during our last trip to Walt Disney World as an example. Since Free Dining was not offered during our visit (a room-only discount was), I’ll adjust our dates for this hypothetical, moving our trip forward to late August when both Free Dining and a room-only discount of 25% off is available for Fort Wilderness.
With the room-only discount, we would save $78 per night on the Fort Wilderness Cabin. As we’ve noted before, this savings is static regardless of whether there’s one person in the room or 4 people; whereas Free Dining is incremental. This means that Free Dining becomes a progressively better deal as you add more people to the room. In fact, for parties of 4 in a single room, we almost always recommend choosing Free Dining over the room-only discount.
We also would save $83 per person on park tickets over the course of the trip by not having to purchase the Park Hopper option, and also buying from an authorized reseller. (See our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post for more info on this.) Your mileage may vary on this depending upon whether you’d want the Park Hopper.
This amounts to a total savings of $722 over the course of our 5-night trip. Let’s see how much we ended up paying for meals out of pocket, and whether that would’ve closed the gap…
Day 1:
Fort Wilderness Brunch — $97.98
Planet Hollywood Observatory — $87.29
Day 2:
Epcot Festival of Arts Snacks (x6) — $31.25
France Snacks (x3) — $15.71
Via Napoli — $51.46
Day 3:
50s Prime Time Cafe — $111.46
Sunshine Seasons — $50.02*
Day 4:
P&J’s Southern Takeout — $44.04*
Gasparilla Island Grill (plus 4 snacks) — $72.54*
Magic Kingdom Snacks (x2) — $10.63
Day 5:
Plaza Restaurant — $83.07
California Grill — $55.01**
Magic Kingdom Snack (x1) — $4.57
*Total cost extrapolated for 4 people based upon 2 person costs.
**Total for 2 people and not extrapolated
What We Paid…
Total: $715.03 (plus tips)
Free Disney Dining Plan Totals…
Upgrade Cost to Standard Disney Dining Plan: $423.40
Out of Pocket Cost: $55.01 (plus tips)
Total Savings of “Free” Dining: -$485.38
In the end, we would have lost about $485 by virtue of Free Dining. As mentioned above, though, this was a far from perfect case study. In large part, that’s because it’s done after the fact, and with even slight adjustments to our itinerary, we could have broken even.
This would’ve been possible to accomplish by sticking to counter service restaurants instead of upgrading to the regular Disney Dining Plan, or upgrading and doing more expensive table service restaurants (and switching our California Grill lounge meal to a counter service meal…or a couple counter service meals).
However, I think it’s at least somewhat instructive, as it shows what our “natural” Walt Disney World dining experience was when choosing where we wanted to eat and paying out of pocket. There’s no doubt that part of the reason we would’ve lost so much with Free Dining was because we didn’t tailor our dining experiences to take advantage of the promotion nor did we try to fit within the confines of what credits we had.
This brings us to something that grinds my gears about the Disney Dining Plan: people saying it’s more convenient than paying out of pocket. It boggles my mind that people think ordering what you want and paying for the actual cost of that food is less convenient than keeping track of different credits, planning meals that comport with those allocations, and using all of said credits.
As is the case for many visitors to Walt Disney World, we would’ve had leftover counter service and snack credits. We would’ve also had an insufficient number of table service credits. This would have necessitated modifying our dining behavior, and also stocking up on junk at the end of the trip to take home so we didn’t waste credits. That is not more convenient than eating where you want, and paying as you go.
The other common argument I suppose people could make–and one I find absurd–is that the Disney Dining Plan still would have been better because we could’ve eased our mind about menu prices, and not have been cost-conscious. There are a number of times when we ordered a less expensive menu item, shared, didn’t order a drink, etc., because we didn’t want to spend extra money. There are also times we splurged.
In news that will surprise no one, we’re frugal. We could’ve afforded to splurge at every single meal, but we tend to look at prices and nix certain items because, to us, they are not worth it. Since when is being cost-conscious a bad thing? At a time when American consumer debt is at an all-time high of $12.73 trillion, my humble opinion is that being careful about how you spend your money is a good idea. Avoiding reality by creating an artificial buffer of “credits” to psychologically trick yourself–even on vacation–may not be pragmatic.
In fairness, this frugality cuts both ways. If we had the option for Free Dining on this trip, I would’ve taken it. If we modified our meal schedule to better-leverage Free Dining, we would have come out ahead. It would’ve cost us a bit more money and been less convenient than paying out of pocket, but that would have been be fine. Having Free Dining would’ve improved our overall experience as we could’ve splurged more without seeing our out of pocket costs increase.
This all might seem contradictory. Those potential contradictions lie in our frugality and convenience. With regard to the frugality, it’s important to remember that the distinction between being frugal and being cheap is a very meaningful one. We’re willing to pay more when the experience is commensurate with the cost. We think the gains made by taking advantage of Free Dining would have been “worth it” here.
Second, convenience. We do a lot of planning for trips, and some of that requires a bit of inconvenience for an improved experience. I don’t take issue with inconvenience–I just want to call a spade a spade. To that end, it irks me when people contend that the Disney Dining Plan is more convenient than paying out of pocket. The Disney Dining Plan is inconvenient, but that does not mean it’s always worse.
The salient point here is the same one we’ve made in probably a half-dozen other articles about Free Dining–that there’s no such thing as a free lunch and whether free dining is a good deal for you depends upon your personal circumstances. It’s the same point again and again, just stated differently. While this blog might sound like a broken record, as long as an alarming number of people keep indicating that they are opting for the Free Dining promo “because it’s free,” it’s a point we’ll continue making.
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Your Thoughts
Do you agree or disagree with our assessment of Free Dining? In your personal circumstances, has Free Dining been more or less advantageous than a room-only (or other) discount? Any thoughts about our case study? Any questions? Hearing from readers is part of the fun (and is helpful to others), so please share your thoughts in the comments below!
Another odd argument in favor of the “convenience” of the dining plan that I have seen plenty of times goes like this:
“It’s so convenient! Your credits are right there on your MagicBand. Just let them scan it and you’re good to go!”
Two things:
1) Because you still have to tip your waitstaff, this just isn’t really true, and
2) Your credit card is also right there on your MagicBand. How is that less convenient?
For me the dining plan is a mental break from the frugal angel on my shoulder that is always there! When I pay out of pocket I become overly thrifty, second-guessing everything (is this $40 steak really worth it?) and then miss out on trying new restaurants and dishes. Pre-paying for the dining plan ensures that my mind is free to just enjoy.
I agree! We do not always get the meal plan but when we do I find myself to be more relaxed when it comes to meals because I am not stressing over how much each person (5 others) is spending. So a few more dollars for that peace of mind is worth it to us.
I agree. I’ve only got the free quick service with my stay and am questioning what bookings I make at Table Service places where as last time I paid for the table service dining plan and booked until my hearts content and didn’t even think about.
We will be staying 6 nights at the all star sports this september, 2 adults, 4 park tickets with water parks admissions, we only had to pay 108 usd extra (we first got the price tickets from last year , so we had to stick to the new ticket prices) so if I do the math each of us will be spending 9 usd per day (2 snacks and 2 quick service meals) i am total newbie with the Disney dining plan, but I really think this is a total win! What do you think?
It’s important to mention we wanted to visit for the first time the water parks, so it was part of our initial plan before ever thinking to get the free dining.
It’s probably a deal for you, but the key consideration is opportunity cost–you’re giving up a room-only discount in order to get Free Dining, so you need to do the math against a room-only discount to see which is better.
(If a room-only discount is not yet available for your travel dates, one will probably become available at some point soon.)
I am so with you on the convenience point! The dining plan is not convenient by any stretch of the imagination. I also have a hard time understanding why paying more for the same amount of food gives “peace of mind”. To me it’s an unemotional calculation. How can I get what I want to eat for the least amount of money? It’s never the dining plan, even with “free” dining.
And as for “disney kids” doing lots of character meals-that is us-and the dining plan still doesn’t save us money. That may be the demographic that has the greatest chance of saving money, but still usually doesn’t. Each year the calculation gets less and less favorable.
I am so confused! The more of these I read, the more confused I get. I am traveling with a 6 year old (just her and I) and staying during the Food & Wine Festival at CBR with gift cards. I don’t know if I should upgrade from QS or not. We have a few ADRs, but not 6 because we wouldn’t use the DDP for Norcoosees or CRT. Originally, I planned to use the gift cards for Akershus, Norcooses, BOG, & Rainforest Cafe, but now I am wondering If I should upgrade instead & use giftcards for QS. What holds me back, is that I like appetizers instead of entrees and we love dessert!
It sounds like you might be better off with a room only discount. The free dining plan might not be worth it for 1 adult and 1 kid, especially if you plan on having some TS meals. You can try to figure out how much you would spend at each restaurant with a dining calculator (like this one: https://www.distripplanner.com/) and see which would be better for you.
Thank you so much for that link! I constantly try to calculate the dining plan vs cash and have found it to be very difficult.
I have already purchased the dining plan, know our restaurant choices and eating habits. I was able to input it all and if I do the math correctly will come out (with the dining plan vs cash for all food) $300 dollars ahead! This includes having to purchase a few extra quick service meals due to our schedule and feeding 2 hungry teenage boys!
Thanks BA. I Guess I should have specified that we ALREADY have “Free” Dining. I doubt a room discount is still available even if we wanted one. I just don’t know if we should upgrade from QS to standard or not and the calculator isn’t really helping me figure it out. It’s hard enough having to travel with a special needs child, but having to plan where we will be each day at what time, is downright impossible. Tom says that it is a poor use of DDP to use it on signature restaurants that cost 2 credits, so we are already planning to pay for Norcoosees & CRT. I guess I need to figure out if it is a better idea to pay out of pocket for Akershus & Rainforest Cafe, or add more TS reservations we may not be able to make and pay for a lot of QS.
Cynthia, glad that link helped! I came across it a few weeks ago and it helped us plan so much better!
Andie, I guess I’m not sure how many days you are planning on going but if you have some table service reservations already, it may make sense to upgrade to the regular dining plan (since I’m assuming you have the free QS plan already.) The Regular DDP has 2 snacks, 1 QS and 1 TS meal per day which I think would be plenty and you can use them on any day you like. For example, you can have 2 QS meals on Monday and 2 TS meals on Tuesday. They just give you all the credits up front and you can use them how you like. Even if you don’t plan on using all of them, you can combine 2 TS credits each to pay for CRT and Narcoosee’s. And because you still have to tip and it’s not included with the meal plan, you can use the GC to pay for the tips (and whatever souvenirs you plan on getting because you pretty much won’t be able to leave without getting some.) 🙂
This is really great calculator – I had alreday decided against free dining – but it made me feel better LOL
The “free” portion of free dining for me was only $380, because I am not getting park hopper, I have a room discount & I would need to upgrade from QS to regular dining. Then I looked at what the cacluator gave me for average prices and reduced all but the character meals, because we have a 9 & 13 yr old and the 13yr old will want to eat off the childrens menu a lot plus my bf & the two girls are vegs. I did like the idea of having it paid for in advance – that for me would be the convinence factor, but I would come out at a minimum $500 behind, plus paying for hopper when I don’t want to use it would really bug me LOL
For me, there’s a third rationale for the dining plan other than cost calculations or convenience: it’s part of the Disney Bubble. On the plan, I’ve paid for meals at the same time as I paid for my room and my park tickets, and while I’m there I don’t have to think about it at all, neither to try and maximize my value nor to try and spend less at mealtimes.
Knowing myself, if I was paying as I went then I couldn’t help but worry about the menu prices– it would be the same if I used a pre-paid gift card containing dollars I could spend on other things, I’d think about how many of them I was using up. With a dining plan, all cost thoughts have come and gone before my trip begins. (The fact that tips aren’t included spoils it a little bit, but not too much.)
So that’s my idiosyncracy but I wonder if a lot of people who vaguely cite “convenience” as a reason to use a dining plan are really thinking in this Disney Bubble way, a quality-of-vacation-life issue that involves not having to think about real world things while there.
“It boggles my mind that people think ordering what you want and paying for the actual cost of that food is less convenient than keeping track of different credits, planning meals that comport with those allocations, and using all of said credits.”
I think this is a good point, as when I’m on vacation, I want to eat, what I WANT TO EAT. If I want said appetizer, but said appetizer is not on the DDP menu, you can’t order it, or you pay extra for it, which kind of defeats the whole purpose. I also liked another commenters point about if you aren’t a soda/juice drinker, it’s not always a good value either. I drink water (or adult beverage) at every meal. We’re also the kind of folks that maybe don’t want to have a designated place to be every night for dinner, and would perhaps like to just post up at a bar somewhere for drinks/snacks, and the DDP doesn’t allow for that kind of thing. Maybe they should have a adult beverage/snacks DDP option. I could get into that.
Before we got APs, we always used to do the free dining promo. It worked well for us for a couple of reasons: (1) we stay at value resorts, so the room only discounts are not as appealing to us as they would be if we stayed at a more expensive hotel that gets a deeper discount and (2) we are big eaters with expensive taste. We generally found that we were getting a good deal with free dining, because we were able to eat at restaurants that we wouldn’t normally eat at and we could order expensive menu items without feeling bad. We are pretty frugal as well, so we wouldn’t usually go to an expensive restaurant and order the most expensive thing on the menu, even if it sounded good, but we could do that with the dining plan. However, we recently got APs and so we have started to think about whether we want to buy the dining plan or not. On a recent trip, we actually did a split stay and bought the dining plan for three days. On those three days, we ate at some expensive restaurants and were able to eat lot of steak and other goodies. We also were there during flower and garden, so we utilized most of our snack credits at the festival booths. Then for the rest of the trip, we just ate more frugally and tried to utilize our AP discounts. We ran the numbers afterward and it worked out pretty well for us. I definitely agree that the dining plan can be a good fit, but it really depends on your individual circumstances.
It might also be worth noting that it’s pretty much never a good idea if any of the following apply:
1. You are getting military room/ticket discounts.
2. You don’t drink juice/soda, or you don’t want to order dessert with every damn meal. When my husband and I did the dining plan we felt obligated to eat dessert and ended up feeling overfull.
3. If you consider yourself a “grazer.” Disney table service meals are always too large for me, and I always ended up packing half the meal away in a Tupperware (leftover short rib for breakfast is delicious!). There were times when my husband and I even shared counter service meals! Even with the Food & Wine Fest vendors allowing us to use 1 QS for three snack credits at the food stands in 2015, we ended up with unused credit at the end of our stay.
My family and I had the quick service plan last year during a quick trip in the fall. I understand what you mean about the plans not being very convenient if you want to make sure to save money. I spent so much time working on sample menus before and after booking. I planned out a lot of our trip anyway and my husband was very good about going along with everything, but it did seem crazy to ask him if he would rather eat fajitas or the more expensive taco burger at Pecos Bills. I think we did well overall, especially since we were able to use snack credits during the Food and Wine Festival. The only thing that tripped me up was accidentally using an adult credit for breakfast at Be Our Guest restaurant for my 2 year old’s kids meal (he was too young to have his own meal plan). Since we were at a kiosk instead of talking to a cast member, I wasn’t thinking about paying for these with credits and with a credit card like we did at all the other meals.
Your points re: convenience,or the lack thereof, and importance of being budget conscious are valid points, however it simply comes down to stress for me. I opt for the quick service plan every time because that is what my family and I prefer at the World and it’s worth it to me to pay extra to not have to constantly be budgeting out the food costs.
I did a crazy amount of math about free dining 🙂 and didn’t go with it. If we were staying at a different hotel it MIGHT have worked out, but at AoA we would have had to upgrade from quick serve, get park hopper (which I have no need for) and then losing the room discount, it was going to cost us money. We are doing a table service every day – 3 of them character meals (and we are BIG fans of Disney snaks). I am a bit of a crazy planner, so I know where we are going to eat for all meals each day and I used the menu’s to estimate how much we will spend. I was actually suprised and I am going to keep track of what we actualy spend, to make sure I am right since we will probalby go back in a couple of years around the same time. We have one 10 & one 13 yr old, neither who are big eaters and they and my bf are all vegitarians – I know that Tom said meal plan was never a deal for veg’s but I was surprised that even the ‘free’ dining worked out to costing us money.
We had Free Dining last year, and for us it was a great deal then. We did one character meal per day (and loved it! Yes, yes, we’re THAT kind of people ;-)) and spent all our snacks credits on Food&Wine items and those huge Starbucks frappuccinos. The Free Dining meant we could afford to upgrade to a Moderate, which made sense last year because we got the regular Dining plan. Now that the Moderates only receive the QS Dining plan, it would not have been such a great deal for us. We go to WDW every two years. Next year we won’t even try to get Free Dining, since it will not be worth it for us. Instead we’ll try a new (for us) deal – renting DVC points to stay at the Animal Kingdom Lodge for the first time (Our first Deluxe stay! SO excited!! :-))
We rented points last year and stayed at AKL for the first time and it was really fun! We are usually valid resort people and actually did a split stay, make sure you allow for resort time! We stayed at All Star Sports the first half and spent a lot of time in the parks and then did AKL the second time and spent lots of time at the pool and on our balcony observing the animals 🙂
Thanks for the tips, Erin! I can’t wait to finally stay at AKL, it has been my dream for years! 🙂
We stayed at Animal Kingdom Lodge (Jambo House) in the fall. You will LOVE it, we did (and we didn’t even have a Savannah view room).
I am so excited to hear this! It will certainly cost quite a lot to stay there, even on rented points, but I think we’ll love it – just like you said! 🙂
“Planet Hollywood Observatory — $87.29” Wow! That must have stung typing that out.
Thanks again for another great post.
One topic no one talks about much is tips. If you pay out of pocket and make frugal food and beverage choices at table service restaurants, you will have a significantly smaller tip than if you had the DDP and tried to “make the most” of your credits to get expensive food. You pay tip based on the dollar amount you ordered, even with the DDP.
The last time we went (a family of 4 at the time — 2 adults, 2 kids) we stayed in Poly and had the mid-level dining plan (one table service per day, the rest quick).
I felt pressured prior to even going on vacation to try and organize all of the meals we would be eating and where (syncing the dining location with which park I thought we’d be in, let alone trying to a good seat time). Then while on vacation I still felt pressured to try and utilize all of our credits appropriately, and we still had to rush to make our reservations (which didn’t always sync up to our daily locations — not to mention rushing to a reservation with two young kids is not always easy).
All that being said, there were parts of the plan that made me relax in that I didn’t have to budget out every meal (which is a welcome relief when you have a family to tend to). I also have to note that rushing to meet reservations was much easier being on the monorail line (if we had to deal with busses every time I might’ve lost it).
Our next vacation will be with 3 kids and I most assuredly will take advantage of the dining plan because not only will it probably be more cost efficient (noting our group size) but it will relieve the meal-to-meal planning that I’d have to do for now 5 people. Again, this is if we’re on the monorail line somewhere. If we stay in a cabin or larger suite with eat-in kitchen, I might be tempted to ignore the meal plan and make some of the meals “at home”.
Always a good read Tom. We have done more analysis on DDP than I care to mention. We have the full spreadsheet with meals laid out and prices of what we plan to order for the week. Like stated, if you have two little people or more DDP is a good deal but planning is key, ADR is key, heck, preordering is also a help. On a one or two weekend trips and one week trip we paid out of pocket. My wife hated it. On vacation she wants to swipe the band and keep on moving. We normally end up a little ahead on price for the DDP. We are now full time DVC renters/future owners as our ROFR just passed.
A helpful tip for the Food and Wine festival — gift card in Lanyard for drinks. We saw a few years ago so I have a gift card on a belt clipped lanyard. Much easier than digging up wallet every time, especially with two under 7 family members.
We’ll be doing free dining for the first time this year and I’m curious to see how much of a benefit it will be to our family (it is also the first time we are going together as a family). We largely went with this over the room discount because we want to do as many character meals as possible to hopefully limit standing in line to meet characters while in the park, which is something we know our toddler will want to do. Plus, the room discount at our hotel was pretty meager. After doing the math, it seemed like the free dining plan was the most economical option but that will largely depend on if we are hungry enough to maximize it to the fullest potential. It will be a good trial run at the very least as I see many more trips in our future now that our daughter is getting old enough to enjoy the experience.
If you do a lot of character meals, it’s easy (or easier) to come out ahead. I can definitely see the math working in your favor!
We’re going at Christmas. The only available discount is free dining, so we’re way ahead. If the discount were for a hotel, we’d take that. We don’t eat nearly enough to save any monies on the dining plan if we had to pay for it. As far as inconvenience goes…you swipe your wrist band and sign either way!nancy
FWIW, there will probably be a room only discount for December travel dates released later this summer.
Thank you for the info. Now I can over analyze that! Just when I thought I was ahead of the game.
One bad thing I have noticed the one time I had free dining was that the parks were so much busier than they had before. So I guess the conclusion I came to was if I think it’s a good idea a lot of other people will also
We notice that the restaurants (particularly table service ones) are much busier as is Epcot during Food & Wine Festival, but the parks otherwise are less busy. That’s part of the reason Free Dining is offered in the first place–to boost attendance (or rather, hotel occupancy).
It’s to fill their resorts up. The week pop Warner football is there has been a very good week to go to the parks. They will be much busier the week after that I can just about guarantee it