Did Free Dining drive anyone else crazy?

[roxwithears]

Just returned from 9 nights at the Poly with free dining.
Didn't use all the credits because there was just so much food.

The restaurants were very busy due to the free dining- thankfully we had ADRs - it turned every table service meal into a 1 1/2 hour event. We wasted a lot of time in restaurants.

I found the plan cumbersome at times. On more than one occassion at a counter service location, CMs got snarky with me because I only wanted an entree without dessert. Once my DH told them to ring in a cookie and then told them they could eat it. I was told at Captain Jacks that they couldn't ring in a meal without the dessert...again, I got more cookies. I also hated that my kids were limited to the children's menu. Twice I paid for their meal because the children's menu only had a couple of things on it which my kids disliked. Eventhough they pool the credits, it shows on the card how many adults and children so if you order all together they will restrict you.

I don't think I would pay for this option...has anyone else had these thoughts? You would really have to eat a lot everyday to make up the price of the plan.

 

[soccerchick]

We also went during the Free dining period. We were a family of 4 -- DH, myself, DD6 and DS2. Since the dining was free, we ignored whether things were for children or adults. We managed 7 TS instead of 6. If I'd paid for the plan, I would have done things a little differently. We split almost all of our CS meals and paid only $60 OPP total (including $20 @ LeCellier on our last night for the kids - we were out of TS credits at that point, and for some treats not on the plan, like milkshakes at POP, etc.). Kids split a breakfast and DH and I split a breakfast. We used refillable mugs and took bottled waters w/our meals to maximize the snacks. We still used them all up. DD loved popcorn and we got a lot of waters and some sodas at the parks w/ the others. If we had all had the dining plan, then yes, it would have been a ton of food.

I liked the plan, but if I went when a really good room code was going on, or if my kids were older and I didn't want so many character meals, I'd probably pass on the plan. This was a great opportunity to do some TS restaurants and meet some characters we had not done previously.Some of it will also depend on the prices and new restrictions they put on it.

 

[LilyStar]

This is my opinion for what it is worth...

My fiance and I went for a 3 night stay at Coronado w/ the dining plan in September. We are kid-free and in our 30's. I think we all analyze things to death on this board. I do love doing so, but often makes matters worse. If you go and count the number of posts on free dining as well as debates on kids vs. adult credits, what's included, what's not included, which restaurants accept sharing etc etc etc. You will see that we beat this to death literally! I think this adds to our agony.

When we were there, we overheard a couple on the bus who had the free dining plan and really no idea how to use it at all. They did virtually no planning at all and probably ended up missing out on some great things. However, I bet they didn't lose sleep at night thinking "did I pick the right CS for my family? Did I get the most for my money? "

I think you need to take the good with the bad. If you are a planner, like most of us on the board, you just need to take Disney's lack of consistency with a grain of salt. One person's experience is completely different than someone elses on the same day in the same restaurant.

Ok that's my 2 cents Thanks for listening

 

[maxaroni]

This is my opinion for what it is worth...

My fiance and I went for a 3 night stay at Coronado w/ the dining plan in September. We are kid-free and in our 30's. I think we all analyze things to death on this board. I do love doing so, but often makes matters worse. If you go and count the number of posts on free dining as well as debates on kids vs. adult credits, what's included, what's not included, which restaurants accept sharing etc etc etc. You will see that we beat this to death literally! I think this adds to our agony.

When we were there, we overheard a couple on the bus who had the free dining plan and really no idea how to use it at all. They did virtually no planning at all and probably ended up missing out on some great things. However, I bet they didn't lose sleep at night thinking "did I pick the right CS for my family? Did I get the most for my money? "

I think you need to take the good with the bad. If you are a planner, like most of us on the board, you just need to take Disney's lack of consistency with a grain of salt. One person's experience is completely different than someone elses on the same day in the same restaurant.

Ok that's my 2 cents Thanks for listening

ITA.....I found the free dining more confusing before we went. Once we got there, we didn't have a problem at all and all the stress that I put into it was not worth it. Now granted, we had 3 adults (ds12), so our situation wasn't involving kids/adult credits. However, we didn't go into looking for the most bang for the buck,either. We loved the plan.

 

[indigoxtreme]

I found the dining plan to be wonderful and glad it was available. We are paying for it again in February. We had 5 adults, 2 49 yr old, 2 22 yr olds, 1 70 yr old and 1 child 4yr old and we always used the credits as they were intended to be used. Each adult and each child. I only planned our TS's. I checked out the menu's and new about what each person would eat. So I made sure that everyone including the child could find something to eat. Fortunately for us my DGD is not a "Picky Eater" She loves all foods from broccli on up. We only ordered what we wanted and did not look to see what the most expensive items etc were. Why would anyone want to do this, if it is not something they really enjoy.

We found the plan to be simple to use and the CM's to be wonderful. The would explain things on the menu, ie: if there was a combination meal on the menu etc. Such as Wishpering Canyon has.

 

[WDWorBUST]

I really enjoyed the dining plan. We ate at a lot of restaurants that we never would have otherwise...and found some new favorites. However it was frustrating to spend so much time eating or getting to someplace to eat or waiting to be seated to eat. We NEVER in a million years would have done 8 TS meals without the dining plan. I think the fact that it was free contributed to that since there was very little flying by the seat of your pants when eating since to eat even close to regular hours you had to have an ADR. Would I pay for it - maybe - depends on our situation - but not every trip for sure. It was great to experience it and it was a good value for us - AND I feel like it probably accomplished one of Disney's small goals anyway. We might actually buy it in the future now and before trying it we never would have even considered it.

 

[roxwithears]

It would have definitely been easier if we were all adults. My kids found plenty of things to eat on the adult menu for both CS and TS. Most of the kids menus are the same things over and over again, hotdogs and mac'n' cheese and I don't want them eating that "stuff" every meal. The kids menus need to be reviewed. For example, Pinnochio Haus now has an Italian menu which includes pizza. Of course my kids love pizza, but go figure, they don't have pizza on the kids menu...I end up paying for the pizza for the kids because I was not allowed to use the kids credits. When I asked why there is no pizza on the kids menu, the CM told me it was because all the adults would order it. I suppose if we wanted to use a loophole, DH and I could have gone through counter service lines separately and each ordered 2 adults meals. I am a big planner too but after a week it becomes too much "work" and I would have appreciated just being able to order what the family wanted.

 

[jenga1030]

We had no problem ordering adult meals for our kids at CS places. Even with the kids (ages 6 and 4) right there with us. We didn't do it everytime and it was too much food for the kids, but at a couple of the CS places, there was nothing on the kids menu they liked. We ordered all adult meals at Columbia HH, Pecos Bills, Wolfgang Puck Express and the sandwich place at the Beach Club.

 

[marcyinPA]

We had no problem ordering adult meals for our kids at CS places. Even with the kids (ages 6 and 4) right there with us. We didn't do it everytime and it was too much food for the kids, but at a couple of the CS places, there was nothing on the kids menu they liked. We ordered all adult meals at Columbia HH, Pecos Bills, Wolfgang Puck Express and the sandwich place at the Beach Club.

We didn't have any issues getting our Ds6 'adult" meals at CS places either. We just ordered whatever we wanted and we got it.

What was strange to us is that our DS10 is considered an "adult", yet everywhere we went, they gave him a kids menu! He still ordered from the adult menu, but I felt that I needed to "explain" that he is 10! In fact, Chef Mickey's and BOMA had him down on the ADR as a child. Interesting!

 

[Suzanne74]

I just got back and found it - for the most part - very easy to use. ITA with Lilystars's persective. We ran into so many people using the dining plan who did not make any reservations - they had a really hard time. There was also someone else on the bus that went to Brown Derby and hated it to only find out at the end that it was 2 points each. They were livid - then the wife asked me, did you know that - how do you find out what it what on the plan? So there were times, even my DH turned to me and thanked me, esp after LeCellier and Ohana's - both which were outstanding but completely filled our entire stay.

This is what I found - for future dining planners.....

Skip breakfast and do a late brunch or an early early lunch like say 11am-12pm. There are no lines at the CS spots, tables available and the food fresh. You can easily buy all adult CS meals IF you do not buy them all together. Most CM's don't even realize but some do - by buying separate say at different stations at Cosmic Rays - will allow your kids an adult CS meal. Also try splitting CS meals, esp at places with free refills and large portions. This may allow you some breakfast CS meals if you want it.

Make all ADR's in advance and make them for no later then 5:20pm. This ensures no waiting to be seated and very prompt service as the dining room isn't filled to capacity yet (they stagger the ressies on the waitstaff so they aren't bombarded) and they aren't behind on turning tables at appropriate reservation times. This will get you out the quickest as well and back in the parks before they close. This is particularly true for character meals or if you have parties larger then 5 people.

Also - if you plan character breakfast TS meals, plan them later so you can work up an appetite and then only do a CS meal for dinner. If you eat too early like 8-9am, you won't even eat that much and then will be hungry again by 1-2pm and then again around 6-7pm. CRT, Crystal Palace, CM, 1900 Park Fare, Ohana's are all places you can go on rides first at MK and then go eat around 10:20am. You will have better character interaction since most people are leaving at that time, not arriving. I would also plan on doing this meal on the MK early morning hours - more time to ride before breakfast!!

For CS and TS meals, get your dessert to go if you don't think you can finish them, esp if you head back to the hotel right away. I had a wonderful cheesecake one afternoon right after the pool.

Lastly - plan to use your snack credits for drinks only. Step away from the vending machines - go to your hotel store the FIRST day and use 4-5 credits and buy water and/or soda and store it in the fridge. Always keep a supply so you aren't tempted to pay for a soda/water when things are closed or you don't feel like walking to the store. If you opt for a Mickey bar here and there, fine, but everyone needs a soda or a water sometime else during the day. We found we paid for many drinks oop only to have 6 snack credits leftover at the end. Plan on buying the snacks you REALLY enjoy like Dole Whips, soft serve, bakery items out of pocket - if you think of it as true snack credit you will be VERY disappointed as most things do not count.


Our entire family LOVED the dining plan but if we do use it again, we will make some minor adjustments. Overall we tried many new restaurants and enjoyed a different persective to Disney. I agree with the OP about the time management. I would not recommend this plan to someone new to Disney or to commando style families.

HTH

 

[bamamom]

We just got back tonight....and we really enjoyed having the plan...$832.54 worth of food and the plan was free. If we would have purchased it we would have saved $382.54 still good deal. We didn't have any problems ordering the kids food off of the adult menu with the kids standing there at the CS places. I do think the kids menu's need to be revised We probably will buy it when we go back in December 2006 because it allows us the character meals and to eat at places we would normally not eat at.

 

[roxwithears]

Great ideas Suzanne74...
Interesting to see so many posters not having a problem ordering for kids off a non-kids menu. I certainly didn't experience this - I guess it depends on the CM and how much knowledge they have.

Thanks for everyone's input.

 

[GC&S]

We loved the dining plan. However,after many years of going to Disney, this was our first time to make ADR's in advance. We had a hard time with this due to in the past, when we got hungry, we would just find somewhere to eat. Now we had ADR's and were driven by a schedule. We ended up canceling CM as we were having so much fun where we were and didn't want to spend an hour on the bus getting to the Contemporary. We also tend to eat more TS meals than CS meals so we had a harder time using our CS credits. So for us, it was a good way to try several character dinings that now know what we will do next time. We also tried new CS places that we never even knew existed. For us, the snack credits were a huge hit. We would probably do the dining plan again, just plan a little differently. We certainly didn't stress over planning our ADR's - I called a couple weeks before we went and got everything we wanted. But I agree, the restaurants were packed most of the time and we did spend more time in them then we normally had in the past. But our child is a slow eater so that may account for our length of stay!

 

[GC&S]

Interesting to see so many posters not having a problem ordering for kids off a non-kids menu. I certainly didn't experience this - I guess it depends on the CM and how much knowledge they have.

We had several CM's tell us to order an adult meal for our dd at CS places. This was generally when they didn't have chicken on the kids meal. We only did it once as there was nothing on the kids menu she would have eaten.

 

[Alice28]

I agree with Suzanne!

We were there for 6 nights in Sept and had no problems with the dining plan, and we had two children in our party.

At several counter service, I ordered adult items for the kids because they did not like the kids offerings and was never questioned- off the top of my head I did this at Cosmic Rays, Pecos Bills and Tusker House. (well, my 4 year old almost always liked the kids choices, but my 8 year old LOVED hamburgers and hot dogs and those often aren't offered as kids' choices).

Many desserts came back with us, like brownies. Nice for a snack later on. And at TS restaurants, I found it fun to be able to have a dessert, something I would rarely, if ever pay for, but just take a few bites, enjoy it and not eat the rest.

I agree with getting EARLY PSs. I'm thinking that almost all of our PS times were between 5-5:45 and the only one we had to wait for was Cinderella's Royal Table for dinner. Our two lunch TS were right at noon and I don't think we waited more than 10 minutes.

I found all of the servers and counter service order takers incredibly efficient about the dining plan. All were quite knowledgible about it.

I would pay OOP for the plan because we definitely got our money's worth and my DH and I ALWAYS argue about how much money to spend on food on vacation- this would erase all those arguments! (I'm the stingy one).

 

[madge]

Just returned from 9 nights at the Poly with free dining.
Didn't use all the credits because there was just so much food.

The restaurants were very busy due to the free dining- thankfully we had ADRs - it turned every table service meal into a 1 1/2 hour event. We wasted a lot of time in restaurants.

I found the plan cumbersome at times. On more than one occassion at a counter service location, CMs got snarky with me because I only wanted an entree without dessert. Once my DH told them to ring in a cookie and then told them they could eat it. I was told at Captain Jacks that they couldn't ring in a meal without the dessert...again, I got more cookies. I also hated that my kids were limited to the children's menu. Twice I paid for their meal because the children's menu only had a couple of things on it which my kids disliked. Eventhough they pool the credits, it shows on the card how many adults and children so if you order all together they will restrict you.

I don't think I would pay for this option...has anyone else had these thoughts? You would really have to eat a lot everyday to make up the price of the plan.

we had a love/hate relationship with the plan, LOL....

in theory, it sounded like a great idea to choose whatever we wanted, wherever we wanted to go, to splurge a little bit! In reality, the Dining Plan didn't exactly fit into our style of touring. We rarely stop and eat sit-down meals every day of our WDW vacation, and felt like we needed to while on the plan. I made all of our PS early, at 90 days out...carefully timed with MNSSHP and flight times. Our flights changed and I tried to rearrange some of the meals, which was impossible because there were no seatings (for my party size) at the restaurants I originally booked on the dates/times I needed. I think that issue was more frustrating than anything for me--not being able to reschedule our meals at the Hoop Dee Doo or Chef Mickey's

As far as the plan itself, we tried to make choices that wouldn't leave us with a lot of wasted food. Our family used 3 CS credits at a time, which worked well. None of the severs or cashiers were terribly strict about the use of the plan, either. Our service was spotty in the TS restaurants, whether we were using the plan or not. I hated that we had credits left over, but it was too hot to eat last week, for sure.

What we plan to do next year is book an offsite condo or the Dolphin for the bulk of our stay, combining it with a couple of nights at a WDW resort using the Dining Plan for our must-do (more expensive) meals.

 

[spa101]

How did all of you get to get the dining for free, am I missing something?

 

[madge]

Great ideas Suzanne74...
Interesting to see so many posters not having a problem ordering for kids off a non-kids menu. I certainly didn't experience this - I guess it depends on the CM and how much knowledge they have.

Thanks for everyone's input.

we had 25 counter service credits (20 adult and 5 child) I only used 2 child's credits over the course of the week--at the food court on the last night of our stay, I got PB&J for the kids and muffins for the dessert so we could all have something to eat on the plane. The only place that the breakdown of credits was even mentioned was at the Pinnochio Village Haus. The cashier asked how many meals I was going to order, and if any of them would be a kid's meal. I explained that I was using 3 credits to feed my family, gave her my order and picked up me food. In the end, she was probably the most helpful cashier I encountered.

 

[terri01p]

I loved the dining plan, but there was so much wasted food, it hurt me to just waste food like that, when we left we had three table service meals left and 9 snacks left, we are Big People and Big eaters and we didn't eat even half of what we had in each meal. Sometimes we brought desert back to the room and then still ended up throwing it away, we would offer desert to people around us, but not to many takers , can't say I blame them. Could sure use that cheesecake right now

 

[84disney]

We had free dining on our vacation last week and loved it ! We had 8 adults and and 1 child. We had tons of food and we shared every TS that was not a buffet. That allowed us a great breakfast at Boma on our departure day. It helped cheer us up . We absolutely loved 'Ohana. I was so nervous after reading reviews on the boards ! It was superb. The shrimp was so good, as was the dessert . We bought about 15 snacks on our last morning. We just never had time in the parks to use many. The parks were so crowded . Rose and Crown was delish . We did not use many TS for our child....3 yrs old. He just ate some of our fries and nibbled. I had not really intended to use this strategy, but it would have been a total waste to use a credit for him. At 'Ohana, we did not know they had chicken fingers and fries for picky eaters, so my oldest daughter took him down to Cap'n Cooks??? and got a child's CS meal and just brought it up to our table. The waiter was fine with that, as he could tell I was ignorant that he could have done the same for me. He was very nice. We would pay for the meal plan...but would probably book one room with it and one room w/o, since we have to book two rooms for our large family. That would be just enough for some special meals, and not overkill!! It was really a ton of food.
I will answer any questions about where we ate...both cs and ts if anyone has any .