[Jennatrz]

Ok....So I haven't ever booked during free dining. DH and I already have tickets. So I know that we have to book MYW ticket to get the free dining. Can we just purchase a 1 day MYW ticket each to get the free dining for our whole stay? I just came up w/ a price online of only 616.00 for 5 nights including 1 day MYW tickets. Can this be right? One table Service dinner can be over $100.00 easily. Please explain. If this is right I am booking tomorrow.

[Erin]

Yes, that's right!! :c)

That's how our family did it two years ago and we only paid about that same thing for a room at the Pop. I think we paid a little more, but we bought 4 tickets. We are now using those tickets to upgrade to season passes!! So, now it's like getting that money back, anyway!!

:c)

I hope this helps!

It's really a great deal, huh?

[llama]

It really is an amazing deal when you get your bill at the end of the meal.

(Hey, that rhymes! )

My dh kept a running tab of what the food would have cost us if we were paying out of pocket - and it was shocking what we would have paid. (or we would have foregone appetizers and desserts). The only downside is if you don't have big appetites. It's a LOT of food.

[MissDisney]

I was checking out the DDP for our December trip... but honestly, I don't think we could eat that much, and anyway, doesn't it feel like you are spending the whole day sitting in a restaurant somewhere? I am scared the kids would go ballistic if they had to give up park time for another meal!

I want to save the money... what about that AP food discount? How does that work?

[dixie]

Originally Posted by Jennatrz

Ok....So I haven't ever booked during free dining. DH and I already have tickets. So I know that we have to book MYW ticket to get the free dining. Can we just purchase a 1 day MYW ticket each to get the free dining for our whole stay? I just came up w/ a price online of only 616.00 for 5 nights including 1 day MYW tickets. Can this be right? One table Service dinner can be over $100.00 easily. Please explain. If this is right I am booking tomorrow.

Jennatrz that was my question to Mouseketrips and the answer is yes! we have booked a one day MYW pass and had free dining for 14 days for three of us ( adults) we could have had FD for all our stay (24 days) however, we do tend to do alot of Non Disney things the first few days we are in America so it might not have been beneficial but for 14 of our 'Disney' days its a terrific saving!

[Soundgod]

Originally Posted by MissDisney

I was checking out the DDP for our December trip... but honestly, I don't think we could eat that much, and anyway, doesn't it feel like you are spending the whole day sitting in a restaurant somewhere? I am scared the kids would go ballistic if they had to give up park time for another meal!

I want to save the money... what about that AP food discount? How does that work?

I still can't understand where this thought comes from.
I don't understand how an average CS meal for lunch and a sit down dinner of entree and dessert is too much food. To hear people talk, it's as if they never eat anything, but if that were the case, the restaurants in WDW would be empty all the time.
I'm not picking a fight, it's just after all the times and people I've seen say it's too much food, I don't get it. Not on the standard dining plan.
As for the feeling that you're eating all the time, again I ask, don't you eat lunch and dinner? I can agree with kids you don't want to kill time in parks and I don't know if they have the stamina or patience to wait until after Wishes or Fantasmic for dinner. Or how much time you'll want to break on a night you're doing an EMH. But even those days, you can flip your meals, especially in MK where Cosmic Ray's stays open serving chicken/rib combos and burgers for a CS, while you use your TS credit for a breakfast or lunch buffet. Even then, hit the park at open and then grab the last seating for breakfast, usually 10:30.
The real way to decide if the standard dining plan works for you is to crunch the numbers. The plan is $38 a night. If you're going to spend that much a day for food anyway, the plan makes sense. If you enjoy eating a decent sit down dinner, the plan makes sense. However if all you want to do is CS twice a day and keep on the run, it doesn't.

AP discounts are typically 10% at most sit downs, including Fulton's and House of Blues which aren't even on the dining plan.
There is also the Disney Dining Experience membership which gives 20% off most, but not all WDW sit downs. However, since Jan 1, they have been automatically adding an 18% tip onto the bill of all DDE members who use their membership for discount. Mathematically this means that the discount covers the tip.
The lists of participants should be found at All Ears and also on the WDW official site in the passholder benefits section. Sorry, I'm too lazy right now to chase them down and past them into this post.

[DisneyTeacher]

Originally Posted by Soundgod

I still can't understand where this thought comes from.
I don't understand how an average CS meal for lunch and a sit down dinner of entree and dessert is too much food. To hear people talk, it's as if they never eat anything, but if that were the case, the restaurants in WDW would be empty all the time.

I know you didn't quote me but I'm one who says the dining plan can be too much food. It's a matter of opinion, simple. Yes, we eat 2-3 meals a day at home but not THAT much food. I eat a quick breakfast but nothing big, a turkey sandwich at lunch, and a nice dinner. A CS meal of a burger and fries would be my big meal at home, at WDW I would follow that up with an even bigger meal 5-6 hours later. To me that's a lot of food on a 10 day trip eating that way every day.

I don't know if this is right or not but it seems a lot of your trips are shorter trips. If we were there for 2-4 days I could eat that way but after 10-12 days I get sick of eating big every day. You may not see it as eating big but I do, 3 meals a day at WDW is way more food than I eat at home in a day.

Like I said, this is MY opinion and you may not agree.

[sue299]

Originally Posted by DisneyTeacher

I know you didn't quote me but I'm one who says the dining plan can be too much food. It's a matter of opinion, simple. Yes, we eat 2-3 meals a day at home but not THAT much food. I eat a quick breakfast but nothing big, a turkey sandwich at lunch, and a nice dinner. A CS meal of a burger and fries would be my big meal at home, at WDW I would follow that up with an even bigger meal 5-6 hours later. To me that's a lot of food on a 10 day trip eating that way every day.

I don't know if this is right or not but it seems a lot of your trips are shorter trips. If we were there for 2-4 days I could eat that way but after 10-12 days I get sick of eating big every day. You may not see it as eating big but I do, 3 meals a day at WDW is way more food than I eat at home in a day.

Like I said, this is MY opinion and you may not agree.

Last year when you got the appetizer apiece, it was ALOT of food. We rarely order an appetizer when out to eat anyways. The you add the dessert, wow, we needed to WALK after a meal! But this year with the appetizers cut, I think it will be fine. I (as said before) wish you had the choice of appetizer or dessert. Sharing an appetizer with DH then sharing dessert would be plenty for me!

[DisneyTeacher]

Originally Posted by sue299

Last year when you got the appetizer apiece, it was ALOT of food. We rarely order an appetizer when out to eat anyways. The you add the dessert, wow, we needed to WALK after a meal! But this year with the appetizers cut, I think it will be fine. I (as said before) wish you had the choice of appetizer or dessert. Sharing an appetizer with DH then sharing dessert would be plenty for me!

No appetizer would help. Like you, I wish you could get either dessert or appetizer but I understand why Disney doesn't allow that choice. I don't know if we'll do the dining plan again or not but mostly because my picky son magically becomes an adult this year. There's NO way he could eat enough to make it worth it and my DH and I don't need the extra credits (or pounds!).

[MickeyEars]

Originally Posted by Jennatrz

Ok....So I haven't ever booked during free dining. DH and I already have tickets. So I know that we have to book MYW ticket to get the free dining. Can we just purchase a 1 day MYW ticket each to get the free dining for our whole stay? I just came up w/ a price online of only 616.00 for 5 nights including 1 day MYW tickets. Can this be right? One table Service dinner can be over $100.00 easily. Please explain. If this is right I am booking tomorrow.

Yes, it's true, sounds to good to be, but it is! We did this last August, it was FANTASTIC. We'd be going again this year for free dining but had already decided we want to see the Christmas decorations, so it's December for us this year. Next year we'll definitely be going for the free dining again if it's offered. I did check yesterday, to see if POP was available for free dining still and it was (I'd love to go for a quick trip with just DH).

[Dana]

You got it. That will get you in as a "package" and you would be eligilbe.

[Soundgod]

Originally Posted by DisneyTeacher

I know you didn't quote me but I'm one who says the dining plan can be too much food. It's a matter of opinion, simple. Yes, we eat 2-3 meals a day at home but not THAT much food. I eat a quick breakfast but nothing big, a turkey sandwich at lunch, and a nice dinner. A CS meal of a burger and fries would be my big meal at home, at WDW I would follow that up with an even bigger meal 5-6 hours later. To me that's a lot of food on a 10 day trip eating that way every day.

I don't know if this is right or not but it seems a lot of your trips are shorter trips. If we were there for 2-4 days I could eat that way but after 10-12 days I get sick of eating big every day. You may not see it as eating big but I do, 3 meals a day at WDW is way more food than I eat at home in a day.

Like I said, this is MY opinion and you may not agree.

I was probably quoting most posters who feel the standard dining plan is too much food.
Every family and every person is different depending on family size and age, budget, and personal dining habits, I understand this. I understand that for us, the dining is as much a reason for our visit as much as anything else the parks offer. Also, after about 25 years of grab and go meals while working or even on early visits to WDW when our financial picture was a bit more shakey, I would much rather sit down and have my food prepared as I want, certainly more than another burger, and brought to me instead of fighting to try to keep an overloaded tray from dumping the beverages (So why do I like buffets?). To me, it's a shame that the appetizer was eliminated with the tip, as that increased the value of the plan over paying OOP. But even now, it's very easy to spend $38 a day on food, so the plan at least will allow you to have prepaid your meals.

"3 meals a day at WDW is way more food than I eat at home in a day."

But the standard dining plan is only 2 meals a day and a snack.
Eating three sit downs a day at WDW is a bit much. I've been on the old Grand plan where it was actually 4 meals a day (including V&A!) because the "snack" was defined as ANY entree and beverage or dessert and beverage! That was sheer insanity! 12 sit down meals in 3 days if you wanted! The old Gold plan, which is similar to the current MYW Gold and also the new Deluxe DDP, all offer(ed) 3 sit downs a day, excluding V&A. Also, the old version (pre-2005) didn't differentiate two credit or one credit, they were all one credit, and more restaurants were still participating including Portobello, Fulton's, and House of Blues.
I was interested in maxing out our benefits, so of course we did sit down three times a day, but again, I try to have dinner after park closing when possible and our days (including mid day naps) are typically from 8 AM to Midnight, something families with kids won't be willing to do.

We do two types of trips to WDW. There are several 2 and 3 day visits and often on those, we miss our mid day meal or breakfast. On the 7-8 day visits, we're more likely to be sitting down at least twice a day. The past two years, we went in September to take advantage of free dining, but now that we can buy the DDP for any length of stay AND get AP rates I tried the deluxe DDP on our last visit. For 2 days we each had 6 credits. Those translate into 5 sit down meals, including Cali Grill. One sit down on Monday and Wednesday, and three meals on Tuesday. We also took our desserts away from two meals and brought them home with us as well as cashing out our remaining snacks for key lime tarts for home as well.

Anyway, I agree, three full sit down meals is too much when you're trying to max out. But one sit down that includes only entree and side dish, dessert, and beverage and one CS with a burger and fries (or other) and beverage plus a dessert which you can often pick up later on, on your way back to the hotel, IS a normal amount of food. That's my opinion.


I hope I haven't left anything out.

[cooncat]

Just a thought...we're a family of adults and we did the DDP for our last visit several years ago. It was the basic plan - CS, snack & TS, and we thought we'd explode! We all tend to do one bigger meal a day (usually lunch), but found appetizer, meal & dessert much more than we usually eat. Even when we dine out around home, we tend to do a shared appetizer (sometimes) and entree. If we have an appetizer, we usually don't do dessert. I'm sorry they don't let you have a choice of appetizer or dessert this year (we're doing free DDP) rather than mandatory dessert, because we'd just do a 50/50 split & share! I think the food is larger portions and more calories than we'd normally do. Most of the entrees had to be more than 300/400 calories each. Interestingly, last time we still all came home 5- 10 pounds lighter than we were when we got there!

[cinderbella]

Everybody pretty much answered your question so I have nothing else to add there.

As far as the "it's too much food" debacle I can see how it can be different for everyone. It's been different for us on different trips. We went once when Dave was sick with some stomach bug we were there for 3 nights and then it was TOO much. However, we've gone there for longer trips (when Dave was feeling fine) and sometimes it seems like it's not enough..that was during Food and Wine Fest when we went nuts and used all our snack options by day 4 at the booths. But other times we've gone for long trips and it's been too much food. It just depends on your family and what kind of mood you are in. We rarely do buffets, space out our meals at least 7-8 hours of each other and try and eat stuff we normally would never order or know we LOVE. Then again we are just two adults. I see some kids barely picking at there food and crying and ready to go see Mickey and the adults can't enjoy there meals. So it varies. No two families are ever going to be the same and that's why it's an option not a requirement.

[Jennatrz]

Wow I had no idea that I would start a debate. Since it is free dining I am definitely going to take advantage. We have been to WDW so many times that it will be so nice just to relax and enjoy every minute we can. So thank everyone for all of your opinions.