Didn't know about free dining last year.

[bitohoney]

Was there free dining in August 2008? I went 20-30 Aug 08 and PAID for the dining plan. How could I have missed it?

Anyway, when I made my ADRs last year I didn't have a problem at all. And it wasn't crowded.

Why are so many having problems with their ADRs for this August? Is it more popular this year?

 

[tinka-belle]

In 2008 the FD promo was for check-in beginning 8/24. Also, just this year the ADR window went back to 90 days. It was 180 days last year, and the FD promos did not go on sale until early April, so within the 180 day window. This year people have already booked the FD package and are jumping on the exact
90th day to make their ADRs right at 7am. Couple this with a new dining res system at Disney that is apparently having crashing problems, not loading dining res slots correctly, and that most CM's are not up to speed on. Gonna have problems, will eventually smooth out, but people with FD bookings (and I'm one of them) this year are bound to run into some difficulty.

 

[bleeps]

I think the other issue is that the buy 4 get 3 free resorts deal, which ends 8/16 (the booking window for it is already closed), also helped bring more people in. That's why we're going then.