Been that week the past 2 years with free dining and it was great. Sometimes mid afternoon would get a little crowded but nothing compared to the summertime.
Love, love September. I think the Food & Wine festival increases crowd levels, but kids are back to school (kinda evens it out). Since the Free Dining offer will be over by then (pretty much), I think the crowds will be low.
Hit it right on the head... Same time last year it was relatively dead even with the free dining, but the night the Festival began, the crowds got much larger.
I keep thinking that with all this interest on the boards about you would think it would be MORE crowded?? But hopefully since it is the end of it the crowds won't be so bad.
We went last year the last week of Sept and the crowds were pretty low, no long waits at all. We enjoyed it so much, we are going again the same time this year!