Cant get dining reservations, does mean the parks will be crowded?

[maryj11]

I have been trying to get dining reservations from Dec 12th to the 15th but cannot get the ones we want. I was wondering do you think this is a good way of telling which parks will be crowded ? I mean if the restaurants are booked wont that mean the park will be pretty busy ? We went in Sept. and I didnt have any trouble making reservations and it was free dining, the parks were a little busy but that was because we went to the parks with EMH. But we had no trouble getting reservations for our favorite restaurants.

 

[TDC Nala]

It does not even necessarily mean the restaurants will be crowded. As there is no penalty for skipping most restaurant reservations, many times persons make them and then don't show up or forget to cancel them. You're also looking at a free dining period. During free dining, restaurants book up, but the parks aren't necessarily hit with much higher crowds.

 

[ILoveMyGirls]

i'm wondering the same thing about Dec 5th - Dec 11th. You are arriving as we are leaving. lol.

 

[Nadjalu]

Keep in mind that the "season" you are going in USE to be dead. Now many more people are showing up. Does that mean craziness...NO.
What Disney has done is take those who usually stay off property and lured them in with the Free dining, so it is the same amount of people (maybe a bit more like I said) but they are concentrating on getting more use out of the dining plan.

Make sense??

So plan on crowds, just not crazy holiday crowds. Plan on using Fast Pass and being aware of what you would like to get done. However it doesn't mean you have to plan every minute in order to accomplish it.

Relax and have fun!!

 

[ILoveMyGirls]

the dining plan did not lure us to stay on-site as the places i want to stay at are so out of our league since I can't work any longer so we have to stay off-site.

Keep in mind that the "season" you are going in USE to be dead. Now many more people are showing up. Does that mean craziness...NO.
What Disney has done is take those who usually stay off property and lured them in with the Free dining, so it is the same amount of people (maybe a bit more like I said) but they are concentrating on getting more use out of the dining plan.

Make sense??

So plan on crowds, just not crazy holiday crowds. Plan on using Fast Pass and being aware of what you would like to get done. However it doesn't mean you have to plan every minute in order to accomplish it.

Relax and have fun!!

 

[maryj11]

I didnt think it would be as crowded Dec 12-15 as it was when we went Labor day week. Labor day week was free dining and I had no trouble with making reservations. We even made some the same day. Labor day week wasnt crowded but I would say on a scale of 1 to 10 it was about a 4 or 5 on crowds.

 

[TDC Nala]

Labor day week is probably the least crowded time of the year. December is usually more crowded. People come in to see the decorations (and now to get free dining) and the weather is usually better than September.

Also, many school systems have either just started their academic year around Labor Day, are just starting, or have only been in session a short time. Not so easy to pull the kids out for a vacation.

 

[brivers222]

eh doesn't really mean anything... most of my ADRs were booked solid when i went to "tweak" them closer to the dates (oct 9th - 18th) but for the first half of our trip we had walk on rides!!