Drawbacks to going during Free Dining???

[sydprincess]

Booked our trip during Free Dining in March. Any drawbacks to going during that time that I should be aware of? Thinking it's going to be a lot more difficult to get the ADR's I want. True? Anything else?

Thanks!

 

[JimmyV]

That's pretty much the main concern. People will want to make the most of their FD experience, so you will see a smaller percentage of people "winging it" without ADRs. Restaurants that are largely viewed as the "best bang for the buck" will fill up quickly at or after the 180 day mark. FD is a lot more attractive if you book Chef Mickey's for breakfast or 'Ohana for dinner (if you are into those places). Most folks will try to avoid being left out of the dining game only to have to eat at food courts and Pizza Planet. So mark your calendar and make some ADRs. You can always cancel if your plans change.

 

[starrysky]

if you are happy to eat at weird times or very late then you can probably get by with no ADRS. If its more than two people then I would book as many as you can or at least the more popular places like CRT and Le Cellier. We managed to get an ADR last year on the day at Cali Grill but it was for 9:10pm, not a problem as we got to see the fireworks but for some this might be far too late.

We are doing the DDP for the first time so we wanted to make sure we got all the ones we wanted at times we wanted so ADRs all the way for us.

 

[jlk806]

The restaurants are crowded and you may have longer than average waits for a table, even with an ADR. I go every year at the end of August during FD and it is always that way. I just went 2 weeks ago with 3 friends and even though it was July and the parks were much more crowded than they are the end of August, the restaurants were not nearly as crowded. We got seated at each of the TS restaurants within about 5 minutes of arriving, some we even got seated before our ADR time. That doesnt typically happen during FD.

 

[KTJAY]

Booked our trip during Free Dining in March. Any drawbacks to going during that time that I should be aware of? Thinking it's going to be a lot more difficult to get the ADR's I want. True? Anything else?

Thanks!

Maybe I just lucked out on my trip last August during Free Dining. The only restaurants we thought were really busy were Via Napoli-which i thought was more because it was new and Tony's was busy one night-we waited about 30 mins but we didn't have an ADR. These were the restaurants we ate at:

Mama Melrose-walked up for lunch-no wait....no one in restaurant
Crystal Palace bfast-no ADR-10 min wait-9am not crowded
Le Cellier- had ADR for lunch but I saw people walk up and they were told 15-20 min wait
Via Napoli-no ADR too new-walked up at 6pm made 815 ADR-walked around Epcot and came back-very crowded
Tony's-walked up around 745pm- 30 min wait-crowded
1900 Park Fare-530 ADR not too crowded
Cape May clambake-530 ADR medium crowd
Kona-635 ADR-med crowd

I would aim for lunches or early dinners/late breakfasts

I have been in March before

 

[DianeW]

Does anyone think the quality of the food or the service suffers during Free Dining? We've always had the DP, but never during free dining (our vacations never seem to coincide with the good stuff LOL), and I've often wondered if there is a difference in the meals during that time.

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

That's the big drawback...eyeryone wants ADRs at "Le Cellier" etc.

However, if you don't do DDP there are some advantages....

All those folks are spending hours of thier day in resturants... cuts down on the park lines!

Most of them won't use two credits so the signature resturants are still open

As to the quality of the food suffering... how much more can it suffer? Disney probably pays the resturants the same low price per diner regardless. However, do the math... for what they are getting something had to give and IMHO quality over the past few years is headed down. I pretty much stick to Signature and non participating resturants.

 

[Kay1]

Does anyone think the quality of the food or the service suffers during Free Dining? We've always had the DP, but never during free dining (our vacations never seem to coincide with the good stuff LOL), and I've often wondered if there is a difference in the meals during that time.

I sure hope not because that wouldn't be fair to anyone.

 

[KTJAY]

Does anyone think the quality of the food or the service suffers during Free Dining? We've always had the DP, but never during free dining (our vacations never seem to coincide with the good stuff LOL), and I've often wondered if there is a difference in the meals during that time.

Not at all-I've gone during Free dining and not and the quality is not different. I think menus have been limited due to the dining plan over the years but that's a whole different issue. lol

 

[chocovrdmicears]

One downside to going during Free Dining - very little flexibilty in making any changes to your ADR's once you are there- we tried several times during our stay to push out or pull in an ADR based on how our day was going with NO luck. And there is little to no chance of changing where you want to eat..the majority of places do not accept walk ups during Free Dining.

 

[dclfun]

Haven't they changed the rules on making ADR's to limiting you to only one per time-slot or can people still book many multiple ADR's- one in each park, for instance or several for each meal? The biggest drawback to ADR's for us is that we're not big planners but we HAVE to be if holding an ADR and we've never booked multiple ADR's. Also, people often call to try and modify an ADR only to be told that nothing is available, when truly, other than some of the most popular restaurants ( Le Cellier, Chef Mickey, CRT) you can still walk up and wait. We've gotten Ohana many times after being told on the phone it was fully booked, for instance and with almost no wait time. FD certainly doesn't seem to affect the attractions as more people are dining TS vs. in the queue lines. ---Kathy

 

[BebopBaloo]

As long as you make ADRs 180 days out, or close to it- you'll be fairly stress free. We've never been to free dining in March, but a couple times in Sept. We've always had good experiences. We only had to wait a long time ONCE and that was our fault. We overslept our afternoon nap, the bus came late...in the rain..we had to hustle through the rain w/a toddler to Liberty Tree Tavern...and we were late for the ADR. That being said...the food was great and the service was excellent.