This information probably belongs on this thread.
@chipndale79 noted that they will be in WDW next week for four (4) days and that "there is plenty of dining availability the entire time we are there."
So I checked the app and sure enough next Wednesday has lots of open ADR's, including Rose & Crown, which is usually tough. I checked for tonight, and it seems to be the same.
So what does it all mean?
could mean a lot of things. for us, cutting the park hours and ever increasing price of the sit downs makes it harder for us to do them. Not to mention, the lack of a dining plan for now.
There was a time when we'd hit the parks early in the morning, go back to the hotel for a break in the afternoon, hit a sit down for dinner, then go play in the parks for hours after dinner. Late hours and magic hours made it possible.
Now with the cutting of hours and magic hours, we get to the park in the morning, and stay all day, no time for a sit down. If we do a sit down, the day is basically over, not a lot of time to do anything afterwards, and it cost a small fortune.
Edit: not to mention, the quality has severely decreased. Ohana for example used to be an absolute must for us. one of our favorite places to eat, always amazing. The last 2 times we've been, unbelievably subpar. Food was cold and overcooked both times, and both times they made it obvious they wanted to us to eat as quick as possible and get out.
That's happened to us a couple of times actually. We had reservations at Via Napoli at 630 on one of our last trips, with EPCOT closing at 9. The restaurant apparently was closing at 7, and they made it clear with how loud they were cleaning and banging around, they wanted everyone eating to get out.