disgusted w/DDining Plan

[wdwgrannyb]

We have just decided to go to WDW and take our 2 grandchildren. Disney is offering free dining when we will be there. The problem is I paid an additional $750.00 to upgrade the free plan(because we are staying in a Value Resort) only to not be able to eat at a decent time frame during any day. I have checked from 1pm to 6pm and everywhere is booked. I managed to find 2 meals out of 8 days.Should I just ask to have the difference refunded and just pay for those reservations I have. I am so dissappointed and kinda disgusted with Disney. Thanks for any advice.

 

[kathie859]

Is the issue that your trip is coming up quickly? How flexible are you for meals times? That seems to be a real trick getting ADR's if you're close to trip time.

I'd try to schedule either a late lunch in lieu of dinner or late breakfasts and perhaps you'll have better luck.

Hope you get what you need

 

[DisneyTravelers2008]

I would aslo try to call back to see if anything opens up. Short term reservations can be hard to get. Hopeit works out....

 

[smitch425]

We have just decided to go to WDW and take our 2 grandchildren. Disney is offering free dining when we will be there. The problem is I paid an additional $750.00 to upgrade the free plan(because we are staying in a Value Resort) only to not be able to eat at a decent time frame during any day. I have checked from 1pm to 6pm and everywhere is booked. I managed to find 2 meals out of 8 days.Should I just ask to have the difference refunded and just pay for those reservations I have. I am so dissappointed and kinda disgusted with Disney. Thanks for any advice.

if you booked a last minute trip, that really isn't their fault. Disney suggest making ADRs at the 180 day mark. You can keep checking multiple times a day to see if something opens up, but odds are that you will have to be flexible or just pay OOP for the meals that you found and take the free QSDP. The QSDP actually has some very good meals if you do your research. It may make for a less stressful vacation if you are not tied down to multilpe ADRs. Good luck and happy planning!

 

[wild.zinnia]

I think flexibility is important here. Have you tried looking at resort restaurants or just ones in the parks? Can you look at off meal times, like early or late dinners instead of at the busy and popular normal dinner time? Midway through my last trip, due to some drama I had to change all of my dining reservations. We were able to find reservations for every single day and there was only one restaurant that I couldn't find a table at. Good luck.

 

[Wadecool]

We have just decided to go to WDW and take our 2 grandchildren. Disney is offering free dining when we will be there. The problem is I paid an additional $750.00 to upgrade the free plan(because we are staying in a Value Resort) only to not be able to eat at a decent time frame during any day. I have checked from 1pm to 6pm and everywhere is booked. I managed to find 2 meals out of 8 days.Should I just ask to have the difference refunded and just pay for those reservations I have. I am so dissappointed and kinda disgusted with Disney. Thanks for any advice.

The part in bold made me chuckle.

 

[Mom of 2 Wife of 1]

We have just decided to go to WDW and take our 2 grandchildren. Disney is offering free dining when we will be there. The problem is I paid an additional $750.00 to upgrade the free plan(because we are staying in a Value Resort) only to not be able to eat at a decent time frame during any day. I have checked from 1pm to 6pm and everywhere is booked. I managed to find 2 meals out of 8 days.Should I just ask to have the difference refunded and just pay for those reservations I have. I am so dissappointed and kinda disgusted with Disney. Thanks for any advice.

Would you walk up to any restaurant in the real world and just expect there to be a table waiting for you? Would you do that for any airline on any day you wished to travel? So why would you book a family vacation at the number one tourist destination on planet Earth with only 75 table service restaurants catering to 100k-150k people each and every day, and expect them to have the restaurant of your choice and a table that fits your party size at the exact time that best suits you? Either cancel the upgrade or plan ahead next time. In either case, it's not Disney's fault for doing well.

 

[morethananyonex]

I find it hard to believe there are literally no seatings in any restaurants in WDW in a 5 hour span for 6 days. You may not get a restaurant you were hoping for, but that's just a risk you take when booking after the 180 day mark. It sucks, but it is what it is.

Have you tried resort restaurants, especially less popular ones like the Grand Floridan Cafe or Captain's Grille at the Yacht Club? There's also less popular park restaurants like the TS in Morocco (can't remember it's name). I think your best bet would be non character meals at resorts. I can't imagine you would have problems getting into the TS restaurants at Saratoga Springs, OKW and some of the other more unpopular dining resorts.

If you wouldn't be happy doing that, then I would stick with the QSDP.

 

[Costino1]

Or you can be one of the annoying people who make a scene saying "I paid $5000 for this trip and just because I don't have a reservation i can't dine here!?!" and be seated before those who made ADRs...yup saw it many times.

 

[sharonabe]

Free dining means the restaurants are pretty full.

Have you tried this trick?

On the Disney dining website, put in your party size, the date, then either put in a time or just "dinner" and don't give any other restrictions. It will tell you ALL the restaurants that have openings for about a 4 hour time frame. This should give you some options; not necessarily the ones you want, but at least better than nothing.

Otherwise, yes, I would call and see if you can go back to just the free QSDP and pay OOP for the two ressies you have. You might be able to get a % off your room that would offset those two meals.

 

[morethananyonex]

For fun I just checked availability for dinner tomorrow. For a party of 4 there are 49 matching restaurants with availability accepting the dining plan. I also tried with a random free dining date (I chose Oct 5th) and got 45 available restaurants. When are your dates?

 

[nerdboyrockstar]

I forgot about free dining and was looking for some place for dinner in or around MK during a MNSSHP night. Yeah, nothing.

So, yeah.. I think some of you should be a little more sympathetic with the OP. In the "real world," you don't need 180 days (or even more than 14 days, honestly) to make dining reservations ANYWHERE.

 

[JoShan1719]

I forgot about free dining and was looking for some place for dinner in or around MK during a MNSSHP night. Yeah, nothing.

So, yeah.. I think some of you should be a little more sympathetic with the OP. In the "real world," you don't need 180 days (or even more than 14 days, honestly) to make dining reservations ANYWHERE.

Had the OP posted something along the lines of, "I'm disappointed we couldn't get the ADRs we wanted," I think we would be a little more sympathetic. But to post how disgusted and angry you are with Disney World for not being able to get ADRs without a little more info (what dates, what restaurants?) it's difficult to be that sympathetic. And in the "real world" restaurants don't offer free dining promotions to get more people to eat there.

I agree with the pp who suggested just putting in the number of people and the park/resort you want to eat at and the meal you'd like to eat to get more options.

 

[morethananyonex]

I forgot about free dining and was looking for some place for dinner in or around MK during a MNSSHP night. Yeah, nothing.

So, yeah.. I think some of you should be a little more sympathetic with the OP. In the "real world," you don't need 180 days (or even more than 14 days, honestly) to make dining reservations ANYWHERE.

In about a minute I was able to find just under 50 options for dinner on a night during free dining less than a month away. According to OP's sig, she sounds like she's familiar with Disney, and by extension I would assume the ADR situation. I'm not really all that sympathetic to her disgusted feelings when there is a fairly easy solution (although it may not be her ideal one).

 

[sharonabe]

I forgot about free dining and was looking for some place for dinner in or around MK during a MNSSHP night. Yeah, nothing.

So, yeah.. I think some of you should be a little more sympathetic with the OP. In the "real world," you don't need 180 days (or even more than 14 days, honestly) to make dining reservations ANYWHERE.

I just found several for next week's MNSSHP.

Specifically on the 20th: 1900 Park Fare, CRT, Kona, Plaza, The Wave, Whispering Canyon, Grand Floridian Cafe

23rd: Grand Floridian Cafe, LTT, Trail's End, The Wave, WCC

27th: GFC, LTT, Tony's, The Wave


The trick is, you can't even put in a location; only your date, party size and a time. All of the above were anywhere from 4:00-8:00.

 

[kmedina]

Have you tried this trick?

On the Disney dining website, put in your party size, the date, then either put in a time or just "dinner" and don't give any other restrictions. It will tell you ALL the restaurants that have openings for about a 4 hour time frame. This should give you some options; not necessarily the ones you want, but at least better than nothing.

I second this one. It is the best way to see all available openings. You can find something that may not be your first choice that way. Keep trying and cancel the less desired ones if your first choices open up. Good luck.

 

[sukhakuli]

I just found several for next week's MNSSHP.

Specifically on the 20th: 1900 Park Fare, CRT, Kona, Plaza, The Wave, Whispering Canyon, Grand Floridian Cafe

23rd: Grand Floridian Cafe, LTT, Trail's End, The Wave, WCC

27th: GFC, LTT, Tony's, The Wave


The trick is, you can't even put in a location; only your date, party size and a time. All of the above were anywhere from 4:00-8:00.

CRT is available for next week? That gives me hope that I can book it for our Nov/Dec trip coming up! So far it has been booked, and I check every day.

 

[JoseCSS]

 

[Patience]

$750 to upgrade from QS for two adults and two children sounds really high to me. Without looking it up, I can't remember the exact amount we paid to upgrade from free QS to basic DDP, but I know it was around $200 and that was for six nights for me and my husband, our teenage daughter (Disney adult) and our 4 year old.

I agree with the others- keep checking! I was able to book a Crystal Palace breakfast (finally!) in lieu of a Crystal Palace dinner at 3:30 but I checked several times a day for a long time before I was able to get it.

 

[winterman]

DH and I are also booked at a value resort during free dining. For a while we considered upgrading to DDP. But then decided to stick with the QSDP. To upgrade would have cost us $198 ($11/night/person). Instead, we have made 3 ADRs that we will pay for with the the $198 that we didn't spend to upgrade.

I think this will work well for us. We are really looking forward to trying some of the many CS restaurants that serve a wide variety of foods. And when we eat at the TS places, I will not be resticted be the dining plan rules. (I usually prefer to have an appetizer and salad instead of an entree.) One thing that I will miss is knowing where we will be eating each night. I actually like that and now we will be back to "where shall we eat tonight?"