AP room only discounts vs free dining plan

[SantiJB]

Hi,

Sorry but I can't find a concret answer of my question, so I really appreciate to know your opions and experiences about it.

My family (3 adults and 1 child) are planning our next August 2019 trip to WDW. We want to stay 14 nigths in one of the Disney resorts (we do not know what). As we know that 2019 prices are not available, we are trying to do our simulations considering 2018 rates and offers.

One think that we are considering is to buy one annual passholder and get the room only discounts for AP and the other benefits for AP.

We have read that in past years the rooms discounts for AP in August were between 25-35%, depending on the resort. For the same time, room only discounts for general public were only 15-25% (more or less).

Considering that room-only discount for AP could be a great discount for a 14nights stay, we do not know if it is better the free dining discount.

If the quick service dining plan is $52.5 per adult and $21.74 per child, in our case with the free offer we would receive a discount of $2.509,36 (3 adults + 1 child and 14 nights).

It is hard to find a room only discount that reach 2.509,36, isn't it?

Is it worth the free dining plan vs AP room only discounts?

It could be some mistakes in our thoughts so please help us and explain us our experiences with AP room only discounts vs free dining plan

Thank you!!

 

[Mome Rath]

Do you have an idea of which level of resort you want or is that totally dependent on what you decide about the AP vs. dining plan? That will make a difference as far as your numbers, and the probability of an AP rate being offered in August, and what that rate would be.

 

[AFwifelife]

Remember that you will need to buy at least a 2 day ticket for each person for the free dining so be sure to add it to your calculations. Also you are paying the rack room rate for the hotel. We all have APs so the additional ticket prices are a detractor for us but even with applying that amount to future tickets, it’s cheaper for us to take the room discount and pay OOP for food. The DDP is never a deal for us though.

 

[SantiJB]

Thank you very much!

Mome Ratch: We are considering a Moderate resort

AFwifelife: I read a lot of times that AP hotel room discount is better than DDP free, but I do not know exactly why? In our case, we do not have any AP now. Our idea is to buy one AP or to try to book a package with DDP free. If my calculations are not wrong, the amount of monery that you "save" with DDP free is a lot, is higer the discount for AP only-room?

 

[Mome Rath]

Yes, it's more complicated than what it can first appear. So, as AFwifelife pointed out it hinges on how much you would normally spend on food at Disney. I'd maybe read this thread to get an idea of what that means: Dining plan worth the value? Because you are only really saving however much you would normally order and eat at Disney, and the dining plan has never been worth it for our family either.

On the other side (the room side of things) you have to pay rack rate with no discount at all. So, if the money that your particular family would actually save in food would have to be more than what you'd save for the discounted rate. We don't eat a lot in while we are there, so the money "saved" on DDP never made sense for us. Add that to the necessity that everyone on the DDP has to buy at least 2 day tickets and the math doesn't work out for us. (So, even if someone in your group had an AP, they couldn't get the free dining plan with the AP, they would also have to have at least a 2 day ticket through a package deal in order to get the DDP, so add in the price of an extra 2 days that the AP holder doesn't need.)

 

[SantiJB]

Thanks!

In order to see what works de AP discounts, could you please check with your AP discount an stay for 14 nights 3 adults 1 child (5/27 to 6/10) in the following:

Animal Kingdom Resort (standard)
Caribbean Resort (standard)
Pop Century (preferred)
Coronado Springs (water view)

Really appreciate!

 

[AFwifelife]

I agree that you should price everything out, including using a DDP calculator to see if the dining plan is even worth it in the first place. Yes you get dining for “free” but it’s just like adding more to your cart to get free shipping. Would you overall be paying less if that free shipping offer was less or would you be spending the same amount regardless of the offer? I would also look into the price differential for 14 day tickets and getting everyone an AP.

I’ll check those hotel rooms just give me a minute

 

[AFwifelife]

AKL standard - $5,160.76, avg $327.66 per night
CBR standard - $3,684.71, avg $233.95 per night
Pop preferred - $2,612.59, avg $165.88 per night
CS water was unavailable so preferred - $3,836.11, avg $243.55 per night

 

[SantiJB]

Thank you!!!

Those rates included tax?

Do you know what % of discount is applied in each case with AP?

 

[AFwifelife]

Yes tax is included. No clue on the percentages. You would have to do the math, they don't tell you "Congrats this rate is 22% off!"

 

[wishicouldgomoreofte]

1. Since you are looking at a 14 day trip, are you outside USA? Britain & Canada often have different deals, and special pricing on tickets we don't, so that is something else to take into consideration.
2. You would need to save $179.24 each night (2509.36/14 nights) per your calculations. That would have to be expensive deluxe rooms. an $800 per night room with a 20% AP room discount (800 + .125 hotel tax = $900 x .20 AP room discount = $180. $900 - $180 = $720 x 14 nights = $10,080 for hotel at AP discount rate to meet your estimated $2509.36 savings for "free dining" Also, your figures are for QSDP. and deluxe rooms would qualify for regular DDP. so you would need to pay even more for the room, to meet your desired "savings". As someone stated above, it is like buying more to qualify for free shipping. Buying and paying more than you intended or need to in an attempt to get something "free".
3. Not all rooms are available and able to be booked for free dining. I don't know how often standard rooms are included, but you can bet they will sell fast. It is not easy to get what you want. It is a feeding frenzy, and again you may end up booking more than you want and paying a LOT more to get "free dining".
4. You know prices for both rooms and dining will go up for 2019. Maybe before you can book them. WDW is expecting pretty good crowds in 2019 with so much opening, and discounts won't be good. Unless the economy really does a nose-dive, it will be crazy high.
5. Instead of pursuing "free dining", consider what you really want in hotel room, tickets (10 day hopper plus or 14 day one park?), other splurges (dessert parties, golf, water skiing, tours), off property time (Universal, Seaworld, some of Florida touring, Discount shopping malls), etc, etc. Figure all THAT out first, without taking into account what & where you will eat or how much you will spend on dining. After you get that shocking real price, and have some of the other things firmed up, then you can more realistically consider the "free dining" vs. AP room discount.