Should I Upgrade To Table Service Disney

The Costless Disney Dining Plan promotion is tiered twice, meaning that every bit you lot change Walt Disney Earth hotel levels, which meal program you receive also changes. Additionally, you can upgrade your Dining Plan independently of your resort hotel tier by paying for one of the premium offerings.

In this post, we'll clarify whether making an upgrade–or a downgrade–during the Free Disney Dining Plan promotion might make sense. Like so many of our Costless Dining posts, this volition include a dreaded component: math. Beyond getting more than value out of the promo, the other reason upgrading or downgrading is worth considering is considering room inventory is limited at some resorts. This ways flexibility is crucial, and you lot might need to be willing to choose something other than your #one or #ii hotel.

To that end, nosotros're going to wait at whether it makes sense to upgrade or downgrade your hotel selection. In that location's only one resort tier from which both options are possible, and that's the Moderate Resorts. Moreover, since there's a change to Free Dining at Moderate Resorts this year, with them only receiving the Quick Service Disney Dining Programme, we recall it makes the most sense to clarify this from the perspective of Moderates.

For the sake of this comparison, nosotros're going to use Coronado Springs Resort equally our baseline. It'south an easy pick amid Moderates, equally neither Port Orleans Resort is bachelor (consistently, at to the lowest degree) for Free Dining, and Caribbean Beach is undergoing extensive refurbishments this summer and autumn that make it less appealing.

For the upgrade and downgrade options, we'll be using Pop Century, which is our top option for Value Resorts (and actually, all resorts) during Free Dining, and Animate being Kingdom Guild. Nosotros have a difficult fourth dimension choosing between Animal Kingdom Order and Wilderness Gild, simply arbitrarily opted for Animal Kingdom Lodge here.

While I promised math here, we're going to use fairly loose numbers since prices fluctuate throughout the rate seasons during which Complimentary Dining is offered. With that said, on boilerplate, there's a fairly consistent toll premium for Coronado in a higher place Pop Century and Animal Kingdom Lodge over both.

The Coronado to Pop Century comparing is an easy one. It boils downwardly to whether, all else being equal, Coronado Springs is worth an actress $50/night to you. This is manifestly a personal question that depends upon budget, how much space you demand, etc. Assuming that you're looking for the best value (and I'm guessing that's the case if you're reading virtually Free Dining), I'd probably recommend the downgrade to nigh people.

Coronado Springs is a nice resort with upgraded amenities and better rooms, merely maxim that's all worth an extra $50/night, particularly for those seeking the best value, is a stretch. In my opinion, at least.

I think exceptions to this are for parties of iv who might value the extra infinite in their room, and adults traveling without kids who volition spend more time at the resort. Additionally, paying even more to upgrade to the new-ish Gran Destino Tower is another fashion to justify the premium pricing, as that tower is far swankier than any other Moderate Resort.

On the other hand, if you're planning on spending near of your time in the parks, and your hotel will simply be a identify to shower and sleep, a compelling case can be made for Pop Century. Not only is Pop Century cheaper, but the bus situation is amend and the food courtroom is more convenient to admission for most standard rooms.

Additionally, Pop Century is the cheapest resort with Skyliner access to Disney'due south Hollywood Studios and Epcot. Manifestly, your mileage may vary. If I were personally in this position, I'd downgrade to Pop Century without a second idea.

The upgrade question is a trickier one. If we were only going on prices, the $200/dark toll to upgrade to Animal Kingdom Lodge is a lot. However, there's another variable at play here: receiving the standard Disney Dining Plan at Deluxe Resorts.

With an upgrade cost (allow'southward brand information technology an even $xx for simplicity'due south sake) to go from the Quick Service to standard Disney Dining Programme, this could amount to as much equally $80 in value if you have 4 people in your room. In that scenario, information technology becomes a question of whether Beast Kingdom Lodge is worth the $120/nighttime splurge.

If that's your effective hotel upgrade cost (once offsetting the toll departure between the Dining Plans), I call back a stiff statement can be made for the upgrade existence worth it. This is potentially truthful fifty-fifty if you lot're a bargain hunter–just think that 'value' is the intersection of quality and price, not just any'southward cheapest!

With Animal Kingdom Social club, y'all become considerably nicer accommodations, some of the best amenities at Walt Disney World, and an excellent dining slate at your resort in Jiko, Boma, The Mara, and Sanaa.

That math assumes 4 people in a room, which might non be the case for some parties. If you're a family of 3, the cost difference is apparently higher. In that case, Animal Kingdom Lodge becomes a tougher sell. (If you're a party of 2, you're actually in territory where you should be looking at room-just discounts or renting DVC points, anyway.)

One time again, it's going to come up down to personal preference. If you lot're group that will simply use the hotel for shower and sleep, Animal Kingdom Gild might not make sense no matter the price difference. (I will say that fifty-fifty in that instance, the value of waking up for a sunrise cup of java and watching the animals active on the savanna is close to priceless.)

On the other hand, if yous programme on spending a lot of time at your hotel, enjoying the full "resort" feel, and focusing a lot on table service dining, Animal Kingdom Lodge is pretty compelling. If Sarah and I were traveling with a couple of kids and we wanted to splurge, I'd admittedly make this upgrade.

The basic takeaway here is that I probably would not practise a Moderate Resort this year during Free Dining. Saving money or splurging brand a expert amount of sense, to me at least, depending upon your preferences. I take to reiterate that this is incredibly circumstantial–you lot're going to have your own unique considerations that might make my generalizations and assumptions inapplicable.

The indicate here is to offering a starting place for your own planning, not offer a definitive "YES, ABSOLUTELY UPGRADE/DOWNGRADE Under ALL CIRCUMSTANCES!" It's impossible to exist that authoritative when it comes to Free Dining (or really, most things Walt Disney Earth-related).

The next question is whether you lot should upgrade your tier of Disney Dining Plans. It's another personal question, merely I'1000 more often than not in favor of moving from the Quick Service Disney Dining Plan to the standard i. Given the ~$23 upgrade cost, I think this makes sense from a value perspective, likewise.

Per the calculations in our Disney Dining Plan Tips & Info Guide, the value of a counter service credit is $21 and a tabular array service credit is around $45 (so, a $24 value difference versus the $23 yous'll pay). If you look at our Dining Plan Best Value posts for counter service and table service restaurants, you'll meet it's easy to squeeze more value than that out of both meals. However, you can clasp around $ten more per value out of table service credits, whereas $five more than in value out of counter service credits is the best instance scenario nigh places.

Beyond the value considerations when y'all do the math, table service meals are an essential part of the Walt Disney Earth experience to me. I remember having a mix of sit down-down and quick meals enhances the overall vacation. A week of nothing but counter service would go old. Once more, at least for me, personally. (Have I added enough "in my opinion/personally" caveats yet? 😉 )

At present, if yous have young kids who might not want to sit down for an hr (or more) for a table service meal, or if it's your first visit to Walt Disney Earth and you lot're trying to do every bit many attractions as possible, maybe this is poor advice for you.

Another scenario where I recall keeping the Quick Service Disney Dining Plan makes sense is during the Epcot Food & Wine Festival, peculiarly if you're going to allocate almost all of your snack credits to the Food & Wine Festival Marketplace Kiosks (which is what we recommend).

In that instance, and so much of your foodie experience might already be oriented around the Epcot Nutrient & Wine Festival that doing a daily table service meal in addition to that would be overkill or hateful allocating an inordinate amount of time to eating.

At the other end of the spectrum, there'due south the question of whether y'all should upgrade to the Palatial Disney Dining Plan. This is a question I experience like I've already answered pretty well in our "How Nosotros Saved 50% on the Deluxe Disney Dining Plan" post. Beyond what's at that place, I'll add that with another ~$41 surcharge over the standard Disney Dining Program (or ~$64 over the Quick Service DDP), it makes sense when looking strictly at the numbers.

That surcharge is less than the value of a table service credit, which makes it an objectively practiced value. The trouble here lies with the fact that, objectively adept value or non, virtually visitors don't take "objectively" this much stomach space for food on a given twenty-four hours, nor "considerately" this much fourth dimension in their itineraries.

There are a limited gear up of circumstances under which the Deluxe Disney Dining Plan makes a lot of sense (well-nigh notably doing a grapheme breakfast and nice dinner). When this version of the DDP works for people, it actually works. We've made it work well for us, and we intend upon using it once more afterward this year. I practice think that we're the exception, rather than the rule, though. I'd be difficult-pressed to recommend the Deluxe DDP to first-timers. It only requires too big of a time delivery to brand sense.

Okay, that's a lot on downgrading and upgrading when it comes to Gratuitous Dining at Walt Disney World. If I were to distill this all downwards to a couple of basic points, they'd be that the Free Dining 'defaults' are non the best options for a lot (most) guests, and also that so much of what is all-time comes down to personal preference and your Walt Disney World itinerary outside of dining.

A sensible approach to this, I think, is to create your Walt Disney World itinerary get-go (we take 1-day plans to help with that), and and so circling back to see what your schedule is like in terms of gratis time–both for enjoying your resort and allocating fourth dimension towards meals. From there, determine whether it'southward appropriate for y'all to upgrade or downgrade, and do that as possible. Hope this post helps with that, or is at to the lowest degree interesting food for thought! 😉

Want more dining tips? Check out our 101 Succulent Walt Disney World Dining Tips. For where to swallow, read our Walt Disney Globe Restaurant Reviews. For comprehensive communication, the best identify to start is our Walt Disney Earth Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!

Your Thoughts

Are you thinking of upgrading or downgrading your Gratuitous Dining booking? Practice you think any of these moves nosotros recommend are skilful or poor ideas? Are you skipping Free Dining this twelvemonth in favor of some other discount due to the changes at the Moderate tier? Any other tips or suggestions for leveraging Free Dining to go better 'value' out of it? Hearing from you is half the fun, so please share any questions or boosted thoughts in the comments below!