If you have read my previous article on the Disney Dining Plan, you know that I am not a huge fan. From a pure financial standpoint, most people are better off paying for meals out of pocket. You really have to work to come out ahead. Despite that, the Disney Dining Plan remains a popular option.
What is even more popular is Disney’s Free Dining offer. Pre-COVID, Disney offered a deal where, if you paid full price for a WDW vacation package (resort + tickets), Disney would give you either the Quick Service Dining Plan or the Disney Dining Plan for each member of your party free of charge! It’s easy to see why this offer was so sought after by fans.
In the wake of COVID, Disney did away with the Dining Plans, and as a result, the Free Dining offer went away as well. However, when Disney announced the return of the Dining Plan last year, it was only a matter of time before Free Dining was back as well.
Well, it is officially back!
What Is the Current Free Dining Offer?
Here are the details of the current offer:
- First, you must be a Disney+ subscriber. You must be a subscriber both when you book the offer AND through the length of your vacation. Of course, if you are Disney fan, you probably are already a subscriber, so this is a low bar.
- You must arrive between July 1 and September 30, 2024
- You must book a full price vacation package consisting a minimum 4 night stay and a minimum of a 4 day Park Hopper ticket for each guest on the reservation
- If you book a Value or Moderate resort, you receive the Quick Service Dining Plan for each guest at no charge
- If you book a Deluxe or Deluxe Villa resort, you receive the standard Disney Dining Plan for each guest at no charge
- The number of rooms for which this offer is valid are limited, so it may be harder to book certain popular resort and/or dates. You may need to be flexible
The obvious upside is that you get free dining. The obvious downside is that you must pay full price for your room and tickets. The question is whether booking this offer is better than using the current room discount offer and paying for the Dining Plan or buying food a la carte. The rest of this article will focus on answering those questions!
Is the Free Dining Offer a Good Deal?
In order to answer this question, I looked at two things:
- Which is cheaper: Booking the Free Dining offer OR Booking a discounted room/ticket package and adding the Dining Plan
- How much am I “paying” for the Dining Plan with the Free Dining offer? In other words, how much more am I paying for a Free Dining package versus a discounted room/ticket package without the dining plan?
The Assumptions
Currently, Disney’s publicly available room discount offer is called “Stay Longer and Save More”. Guests can get up to 35% off the room price for most stays between March 25 and October 3, 2024. You can get the biggest discounts if you stay between July 8 and October 3 and you stay for 5 or more nights. This offer can be booked both as park of a package (i.e. room + tickets) or just for a room.
Here are the assumptions that I used for doing this comparison
- I assumed a stay from Sunday July 21 through Saturday July 27 (6 nights, 5 days)
- I included a 5 day Park Hopper ticket with the package
- I looked at four different room categories – one Value (Pop Century Preferred), one Moderate (Caribbean Beach Preferred), and two Deluxe (Polynesian Theme Park View, Animal Kingdom Lodge Savannah View)
- When comparing the discounted room offer, I added the Dining Plan that was equivalent to what you would have gotten with the Free Dining offer (i.e. Quick Service Dining Plan for the Value and Moderate, Disney Dining Plan for the Deluxe)
- I priced out options for both two adults and for two adults/two children under 10
- For each hotel, I priced the above out three ways
- Package with Room Discount + Dining Plan
- Free Dining Package
- Package with Room Discount but NO Dining Plan
Option #1: Pop Century Preferred
The Pop Century “Stay Longer and Save More” discount for this time period is 25%, which isn’t too shabby. Normally, Value Resort room discounts are on the low end.
Here is what the pricing looked like for Pop, both for two adults and a family of four:
In both cases, if you want to get the Quick Service Dining Plan, the Free Dining offer is the way to go. It is going to cost you several hundred dollars less than taking the room discount and paying full price for the Dining Plan.
Also, the Free Dining offer effectively lowers the cost of the QSDP for the two adults to $35.07 per day. This is how much more you pay for the Free Dining package versus getting the room discount without the QSDP. This is a great deal. You only have to spend around $14/meal in order to break even. This is easy to do without much trouble.
With two adults and two children, Free Dining is an even better deal! The children effectively eat for free!! This is because everyone in the room gets Free Dining for no additional cost. When you add two children to your package, you are only paying extra for their tickets.
Conclusion
If you are staying at Pop Century Preferred for the selected dates and you can make use of the two Quick Service meals + one snack per day per person, get the Free Dining offer!
Option #2: Caribbean Beach Preferred
The discount on these rooms is 30% which, again, is not too shabby. This is on the high end of the discount spectrum for a Moderate resort room. Plus, with Caribbean Beach now being on the Skyliner, it is a great resort option!
Here is the Caribbean Beach pricing:
As you can see, the Free Dining isn’t quite as good a deal as Pop Century. Two adults wanting the Quick Service Dining Plan will pay around $100 less by taking the room discount and paying full price for the QSDP. For a family of four, the calculus changes as now you have two additional people getting the QSDP. Therefore, you now save a few hundred with Free Dining.
Conclusion
Because the room discount here is greater than Pop Century, it gives you more of a benefit. However, the more people you have in the room, the more you will start to benefit from Free Dining.
The moral of the story here is that if your room is at capacity and you can make use of the meals you get from the QSDP, get the Free Dining. Otherwise, you might be better off taking the generous room discount.
Option #3: Polynesian Theme Park View
Polynesian probably is one of the most popular Deluxe resorts. Its combination of ambience, dining option, and its location on the monorail loop make it a fan favorite. As such, the current room discount here is only 15%
Below is the pricing for the Poly:
At the Poly, Free Dining is once again a great deal, likely because the room discount is not that generous. If you are getting the Disney Dining Plan, you’ll save several hundred dollars over taking the room discount and buying the DDP yourself. The team is even better if you have four people in the room, as they are all getting in on the Free Dining act.
For adults, the effective cost of the Disney Dining Plan with Free Dining is $79! At that price, you should be able to easily come out ahead versus paying for your meals a la carte. And when you add children into the mix, it becomes a no-brainer, especially if you plan on doing a lot of table service meals.
Conclusion
Because of the somewhat stingy room discount, the Free Dining plan at the Poly is a great deal if you plan on doing a lot of table service dining.
Option #4: Animal Kingdom Savannah View
Animal Kingdom Lodge has the more generous room discount… 35%. As such, I expect that Free Dining won’t be as good a deal here. But let’s see…
As predicted, you are better off taking the room discount, even if you want to add the Dining Plan to your package. For two adults, Free Dining will cost you almost $400 extra… not so “free”. Even if you pack the room with two additional children, the cost between Free Dining and taking the room discount is about a wash.
Conclusion
Because you get the maximum room discount of 35% at Animal Kingdom Lodge, you likely are better off taking that discount rather than opting for Free Dining. Free Dining is not a good deal here.
Summary
As you can see, whether or not Free Dining is a good deal varies based upon where you are staying and how many people are in the room with you.
However, the general pattern is that the Free Dining deal is a good deal if:
- You are booking a resort with a stingy room only discount (under 30%), and/or
- You maximize the number of people in the room
Of course, don’t just rely on these rules of thumb. You easily can price out options for yourself on the Walt Disney World travel website. That way, you can pick the option that saves the most money for you and your family!
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