dining question

[anniemae]

Do you think the free dining promo will make a slower time more busy crowd wise? I see everyone jumping on free dining, I am on some disney fb sites and my fb feed has exploded with folks booking and or changing current reservations to free dining. Will that impact the crowds do you think for slowish times like mid sept or nov?

 

[Reddog1134]

Absolutely. That's the exact reason why Disney offers it.

 

[Allison]

That is the reason Disney offers the promotion-to put heads in beds.

 

[nkereina]

It definitely does. We experienced it first hand at the resorts last year. POR/POFQ were not offered for free dining and CBR/CSR were - and they were filled to capacity. Busy, crowded buses. The way everyone goes nuts on release day is indicative of how popular it is and how many people are willing to make compromises in order to get free dining.

 

[tlmadden73]

So my question is will that make the last few days of August LESS crowded as people shift their vacation to August 28th and beyond?
I'm also curious if that will open up ADRs for those days as well.

Just curious as my trip is planned from 8/26 - 8/30 (I can't shift my vacation for a variety of reasons and thus the free dining isn't worth it this time round)

 

[anniemae]

So my question is will that make the last few days of August LESS crowded as people shift their vacation to August 28th and beyond?
I'm also curious if that will open up ADRs for those days as well.

Just curious as my trip is planned from 8/26 - 8/30 (I can't shift my vacation for a variety of reasons and thus the free dining isn't worth it this time round)

Thats a good question. I am not sure since many school start before labor day this year.

 

[Cloudless Nights]

OP-yes, that's why there are no "slow" times of the year anymore.

 

[Tomh]

Good question. It used to be that the free dining started around the middle of August. When that was the case, the first week of Free Dining was absolutely crazy busy, the 2nd week, when a lot of Northern schools were close to their starting date, was significantly slower, less crowded. The past couple of years, as the start of free dining has slowly crept later and later into August, we've found that the crowds between the first and 2nd weeks of free dining are not that much different. I wonder now, if there will indeed be a dip in crowd levels for that last week of August prior to free dining. I am tending to think not, since MOST Northern schools return in early September, I am thinking that the parks will be busy with Northern vacationers right up to the beginning of Free Dining, and then stay busy with the influx of free dining offers.

 

[HappySnowmanInSummer]

I don't think the answer here is as straightforward as "yes" or "no". Will it make it busier than it would have been without the free dining offer? Yes. However, this is an offer that Disney has had during this time for several years now, so it shouldn't in and of itself make it busier than it normally has been in the years past when free dining was offered. And even if it is busier, it still won't reach anywhere near normal "busy" times of year.