Free Dining Affect of Crowds

[michaelc]

Greetings,

My family and I are leaving next Sunday for a great week at Disney. We have the free dining plan and have every sit down prebooked. We tried to change a couple of them to find out "NO SEATING AVAILABLE." I was wondering if that is an indication that the parks will be extra crowded. Anyone with some perspective have any comments?

Thank you

Daddy
Mommy
Olivia
Zachary
Garrett

 

[Lora]

We're right on your tails since we arrive a week after you. I wouldn't worry about the dining issue being a reflection of the crowd levels. I imagine that many of the people who are eating at a sit down restaurant once/day wouldn't normally do so without the free dining. We've never done the dining plan and we have only one sit-down meal planned for this upcoming trip (12 days at WDW).

As for the poll, I didn't answer because there isn't one land that's best to start in. I would go to the land that is most important to you for starters. We usually do one morning at MK that starts in Fantasyland. We can usually do all of it and at least one other major attraction (and get a fast pass for later at another one) before the crowds start to descend.

Another plan is to do the mountains in Frontierland, and then head over to Tomorrowland for the big ones. Then you can slow down and do the others. It may seem like too much walking, but if you do the less popular rides just because you're in that "land", you may end up having longer lines for those other highlights later.

I'm not sure if I made sense there - but what I'm trying to say is - it's more important which rides you do first than which land you do first.

 

[darlak]

We've found the Sept crowd levels to be pretty low. However, the TS restaurant levels will be high.