Final Verditcs on Free Dining! Tell us what you think!

[maxsmom]

Ok, now that it's pretty much over (I know there are a few still there riding it out), I was wondering what everyone thought. I'm looking for a span from the beginning to the end of it.

We went and actually arrived before it started. It was great before the actual start. But once the 13th arrived it was a zoo. We were at the MK early on the 13th and walked onto EVERYTHING. By the time we got back that evening it was an absolute zoo. It didn't help either that it was extra magic hour. Things never settled down from that point on. So from our perspective it was nice to do once. However, since we cannot go when it's possibly less crowded due to the fact that we are teachers we probably won't do it again. I'm glad it was earlier this yr though so we could at least try it.

How was everyone else's experiences?

 

[disyady]

We have been during the last half of August in 03, 04, 05 and again this year for free dining and we definitely found the crowds a bit heavier. That is not to say that it was crowded, but it wasn't that same "we have the parks to ourselves" feeling that made the August heat bearable in previous years. I did enjoy the free dining plan (we had never been on the DP before). Our receipts totalled $1800 for 8 nights for the 5 of us (although DH was sick pretty much the entire time) but we are the type of family that normally only averages $100/day for food so we were definitely eating in a manner that we are not accustomed to! I am in a real debate as to whether or not it would be better to time our trip the week before free dining (if it is offered) next August in order to avoid the first week rush or to arrive the 12th when free dining would begin and give up my AP discount (my AP expires Aug 21/07) in order to eat free. Decisions, decisions!!!

 

[BillSears]

I was there from 9/9-9/16. The longest I waited was 15 minutes for Soarin. Almost everything else was a walk on. To me it was a perfrect time of year to go. I was there just before the love bugs, we were lucky and didn't have a hurricane, the crowds were low and we only had a few days where it rained for abit.

I'm still not positive it was a fantastic deal though. If you're 4 adults in a room at the values you make out like a bandit. But we stayed at the WL and I'm not sure how much of a discount we could have gotten on the room rate and whether that discount and the DDE would have come out to be a better deal then the free dining.

One last thing was the huge amount of food. I know we don't have to eat it all but with it already paid for I have a hard time resisting it. I'll be doing a non DDP trip in December and that'll help me make up my mind about whether I want the plan for future trips or not.

 

[jrasmom]

We were first timers, just returned home on Saturday. We were there from 9/24-9/29. What you guys call low crowds amaze us....there were still wait times from 45-95 minutes some days on such rides as Peter Pan, Pooh, Dumbo in the MK and Soarin & Test Track at Epcot.

Now, as to the DDP we loved it. We traded in several of our TS for the CS + snacks/laynard & pin/poster option. Our kids (3 of them) each came home with a pin/laynard and we got a free poster too AND we spent the last 6 of our snack credits on drinks & fruit before leaving, to have while traveling home....at least the first part of that 13.5 hour drive.

Since we didn't use all TS we didn't spend as much as others did on food but going on memory alone ( I didn't have receipts with prices on them from each place and can't remember exactly what we all had everywhere) it saved us $600 and I did NOT include snacks in this, too much to remember.

IF we ever return we will hopefully luck into booking with Free Dining again.....what are the odds of getting a free dining offer for Feb. or early March of any year?

We DID have to wait 25 minutes PAST our ADR time once arriving at 1900 Park Fare, had an ADR for 5:50, arrived at 5:38 and we weren't seated until 6:15 when everyone else who walked in at the same time and even some LATER then us were seated first.

And we really really enjoyed Chef Mickeys, probably the only ts we'd do again.

 

[Magical JenK]

We were there right after Labor Day...September 5th-15th and our longest wait was 15 min for Star Tours at MGM. Everything else we were able to walk right on.

We were lucky enough to use the free dining plan last year as well, so we knew to make our ADRs ahead of time. Although, we were also able to add one ADR to Concourse Steakhouse the day of (Friday, the 8th) and change our ADR at Kona Cafe a few times the day of as well (Thursday, the 14th).

We had exceptional service at all the places we ate at and had no problems using the dining plan at all. All the servers asked us up front if we were on any of Disney's dining plans and explained what items on the menus were/were not part of the dining plan.

We had to wait 10-15 min past our ADR only at Le Cellier & Tony's. Both of which I expected. Only at Tony's did we feel rushed. When your appetizer comes out before your diet coke makes you question how could they have had that ready for me already?? But it was still good!!

For the two of us, we had over almost $1000 in food tallies and we still had 10 counter service credits left because DH didn't eat lunch a lot. We were able to try new restaurants and new entrees that we normally wouldn't so that was nice. And to keep the magic lasting after we returned home, I used all of our left over snack credits (10) for Mickey krispy treats!!

We really enjoyed the dining plan & would purchase it.

 

[BillSears]

We were there from 9/24-9/29. What you guys call low crowds amaze us.

I don't think I've heard people say that 9/24-9/29 were low crowds. The problem is that that time frame is getting too close to the Food and Wine festival. I've heard the parks start picking up around that time.

It's amazing how much difference 2 weeks can make. it looks like the day after labor Day to the 2nd week in September is the best time for crowds during the free dining offer.

 

[jrasmom]

I don't think I've heard people say that 9/24-9/29 were low crowds. The problem is that that time frame is getting too close to the Food and Wine festival. I've heard the parks start picking up around that time.

It's amazing how much difference 2 weeks can make. it looks like the day after labor Day to the 2nd week in September is the best time for crowds during the free dining offer.

I've been reading trip reports and such and some say no crowds, etc. We must've been in the wrong parks on the wrong days

BUT, also the bus drivers and one of the cm's at registrations said they were still experiencing low crowds.

We'd like to try late February or early March for our next trip...of course we know to steer clear of spring breaks so probably more like late January-February.....IF I can convince the hubby of a next trip

 

[BillSears]

We must've been in the wrong parks on the wrong days

We'd like to try late February or early March for our next trip...of course we know to steer clear of spring breaks so probably more like late January-February.....IF I can convince the hubby of a next trip

Yep it may have just been bad luck for you and some good luck for me. Just like the grocery store, sometimes whatever line you pick is the slow one.

I'll be trying the second week in December next. Hopefully it'll be low crowds. Good luck on your February/March trip!!!

 

[WDWRC]

W
IF[/B] we ever return we will hopefully luck into booking with Free Dining again.....what are the odds of getting a free dining offer for Feb. or early March of any year?

.

Free dining in peak season? No chance.

 

[tcp0421]

We were there Sept 18-25. I was amazed with the low crowds. The longest line we saw was for the Test Track. My Husband and 4 dd waited 30 minutes. Other then that everything was walk on! The free dinning to me was GREAT! I dont think I would go again without it! For three of us the amounts total $950.00 in food!! Loved it!!

 

[glavine47]

LOVED the free dining Sept 19-24 small lines and good food;what else do you need in DW

 

[everest]

We went Sept 26 - Oct 3 I asked several cast members (check-in staff, Buss drivers, Food court employees and cast members at Animal Kingdom) about the crowd size and all said light to moderate crowd levels. I really liked getting a 2 TS credit signature dinners then splitting a CS dinner the next night with DW. Any time Disney offers Free Dinning we are there!!

 

[Bam99]

Our favorite meal was @ Concourse our waitress was great. The food was great and we were allowed to order whatever we wanted we all ordered smoothies & soft drinks no confusion there it was very simple! They were running really behind the night we were there 9/24 and we waited an hour for our table with a reservation and they were turning people away.

Our worst meal of the trip was Sci-Fi we didn't really like our server and the food was the worst of the week. This place is really dark and we like to see what we are eating so that was a problem for us. The food was just not good for us in gereral.

We generaly liked the buffets we ate breakfast & dinner @ crystal palace. I liked the breakfast offerings more than dinner. We did have a late breakfast (10:40) on 9/25 and we really felt rushed with the characters and with dining we felt like we were really pushed out the door. They did make sure we seen all the characters before we were pushed out.

As far as the crowds went we were lucky we only had a few waits that were longer than 20 minutes. They were the most popular...Soarin, Splash Mtn. It seems like everything was a walk on or less than 20 minutes. We got fast passes for Soarin because it was a 30 minute wait there was plenty of things to do around there to pass the time until the return time. We rode mission space & test track and tower of tower with only a 10 minute wait. Rockin Roller Coaster was 20 minutes.

We did have some trouble with the bus transportation sometimes it was really crowded but in Disney's Defense they usually took care of it really quickly. We were @ Epcot for Illuminations and the lines were extremly long for Pop Century but they had busses loading three at a time to get people out of the park.

I would go again for the free dining it was helpful for us a family of 5 it saved us a huge amount of money for us.

 

[Mrs Grumpy]

We were there from 9/23 - 9/30/06 and loved the dining. They did the job with the free dining and now have me hooked so I will be paying for it on our next trip if they don't offer if for free (we are not going for 5 years (September 2011) so who knows what offers they will have then. There seemed to be tons of people at the park but the lines on the rides were usually walk on for us. I think the longest we had to wait ever was 20 minutes which we still don't count as being a long line. When we go back though I think we are going to go a week earlier in the month because it sounds like it had even lighter crowds.

 

[pooch]

8/25 to 9/3 - family of four adults on free DDP. Crowds were VERY manageable. Longest wait was for Soarin' - probably 30-40 minutes, everything else pretty much a walk-on.

Had all our ADR's made so no issues there. WAYYYYY too much food. I think that, much like the WDW vacation itself, DDP gets better with experience. Of course, each family has their own plan based on their likes and dislikes. For my family, the DDP worked best when we had a good sized CS breakfast about 10AM, a snack or shared CS meal about 2 PM and a rip roaring full TS about 7:30 with dessert taken to go for a midnight snack. Unfortunately, it took several days to figure this out and we ended up with 11 snack credits, 5 CS's (and we wasted at least 4 more) and a TS left over. And, by check out day, we were SOO stuffed that we had little interest in taking stuff home. I did use the snack credits on Mickey Bars but really could have gotten a lot more.

Next time, free or not, I have a better idea of what works, and doesn't, for us. If I had to pay, I think I would do a split stay, getting the plan for maybe half our stay. I found that, by day 6, we weren't all that interested in eating anymore and the fridge was stuffed with leftovers, more than enought to cover that last few days!!

Bottom line, we LOVED the DDP and our total for the week was well over $1900.

 

[JCuel]

Was there with DW 9/3 - 7 and had frre dining. Except for 9/3 there were no more then 10 minute waits for any ride. Longest wait for a meal was Ohana on 9/3. Ate Lecelleir on 9/4 arriving 10 minutes early being told a 20 minute wait that was maybe 2 minutes. Only had ADR's for Lecellier and Ohana. Was able to get everything we wanted the week we arrived except CR for dinner. Was told CR, Chef Mickey, and Lecellier were unavailable. Didn't think that there was that much food but of course only ate when hungry.

 

[MissinDis]

We went early Sept 2006 and LOOOOVVVED DDP (we had free dining). We loved eating counter service at our hotel because they had nice fresh salads and a good variety. With our snack tickets we got grapes to take back to the room (had a frig). We did lots of character breakfasts and saved our meal tickets for nice dinners at Citricos, Flying Fish (and enjoyed the Boardwalk), etc. We loved going to all the nice restaurants for dinner. It made us feel like we were really on vacation!! We saved at least $1,300 for 2 adults & a 7 year old girl. Left us lots of money for gifts & souveniers. My husband loved it so much, he won't go again until they have free dining. We found it to be a huge advantage and would recommend it to anyone.

 

[mdfdisney]

We enjoyed 7 nights of free dining from 9/17 to 9/24. In fact, I extended our vacation from 6 nights to 7 when the offer came out.

We ate way too much, but enjoyed every minute of it. I would never have tried many of the table service restaurants we visited, sampled the great desserts or appetizers if I were paying out of pocket.

Bottom line.. we enjoyed it enough that we are paying for dining on our next trip to DW in January.

 

[emmabelle]

We had free dining from Aug 22-29, and loved it. We even changed some of our ADR's while we were in Disney without any problems. I wouldn't do the evening extra magic hours again, way too crowded, but everything else was great.

 

[TyRy]

We were on free dining from 9/23-9/30. The parks were empty the entire week - I think we pulled a total of 3 fastpasses all week. We even arrived at Epcot at 11 and only had a 30 min wait for Soarin.

The DDP worked great for us, never had a long wait to be seated, and we had great service everywhere. We were having drinks/wine at each meal, so I do not know if that helped or not. We did end up leaving extra tips everywhere as well.

Ty