Free dining and crowds

[KAB1]

We have never been to disney during free dining! We always go the last week of June and stay at the GF on the Deluxe dining plan. The hotels and parks have never seemed overly crowded. My question is, how crowded are the parks and restaurants during free dining. We do mostly table service for lunch and breakfest with some counter service at gasparilla's only. We do mainly signatures for dinner. My ADR's are already booked and I'm actually happy that I triple booked so many because it seems like with free dining offered at that time, you wont have much of an option to change a week or two before your trip.

 

[dhardawa]

I have never found crowds to be an issue during free dining, but typically the free dining I use is during less than crowded times anyway.

 

[tyniknate]

Free dining is crowded.

You are triple booked? Are you serious?! AARRGGGHHHHH!!!! No wonder there's never reservations to be had.

 

[su_A_ve]

I've done the week before Xmas and 2 days past with FD (twice) and never had a problem, nor more than 10' wait. ADRs are a MUST however...

 

[NickNElliesMom]

triple booked???

 

[KAB1]

Free dining is crowded.

You are triple booked? Are you serious?! AARRGGGHHHHH!!!! No wonder there's never reservations to be had.

Very Serious!!!! I always do this so We have options where we want to eat everyday and are not on a strict schedule. I do cancel the day of the reservation though (Usually in the morning)!!!!

 

[stitch34]

sorry, but triple booking? And cancelling that day what you won't need.... doesn't help anyone really. People are planning their vacations and trying to set a schedule and book dining and then there's nothing available. Waking up that morning and seeing, ohhh, someone just cancelled this and this doesn't help much.
Personally I can't stand free dining. Granted, yes, it's a fantastic deal. But wait times for restaurants always seem so much longer. We always do deluxe dining so are used to what we find average wait times. During an August free dining trip we waited a minimum of 25 minutes to be seated, and many times waited 45 minutes past out ADR time. I do like to play and switch things up during planning, and never can do that during trips when there are free dining going on - like 3, 4 months out, whatever ADRs I have, that's it I've found, everything is booked up. Have gone spring break, 4th of July when no free dining, but crowded times and never have these issues with availability even a month out of our trip, or excessive wait times.

We do split stays between value/deluxe. Sept went this past year during free dining. All Star Movies food court - 10:30 at night, just wanted to get the kids a snack. Nope. seriously, each register at that hour was a good 15-20 people deep waiting to pay, all with full meals.... because ohhh, got free dining, gotta use all these credits up, is what I thought the mentality was. Experienced something similar during MVMCP - after fireworks Cosmic Rays was CRAZY.

We're going this summer. Have 21 ADRs made for deluxe dining - and no more. Can't imagine triple booking. That is absolutely ridiculous to me.

 

[KAB1]

sorry, but triple booking? And cancelling that day what you won't need.... doesn't help anyone really. People are planning their vacations and trying to set a schedule and book dining and then there's nothing available. Waking up that morning and seeing, ohhh, someone just cancelled this and this doesn't help much.
Personally I can't stand free dining. Granted, yes, it's a fantastic deal. But wait times for restaurants always seem so much longer. We always do deluxe dining so are used to what we find average wait times. During an August free dining trip we waited a minimum of 25 minutes to be seated, and many times waited 45 minutes past out ADR time. I do like to play and switch things up during planning, and never can do that during trips when there are free dining going on - like 3, 4 months out, whatever ADRs I have, that's it I've found, everything is booked up. Have gone spring break, 4th of July when no free dining, but crowded times and never have these issues with availability even a month out of our trip, or excessive wait times.

We do split stays between value/deluxe. Sept went this past year during free dining. All Star Movies food court - 10:30 at night, just wanted to get the kids a snack. Nope. seriously, each register at that hour was a good 15-20 people deep waiting to pay, all with full meals.... because ohhh, got free dining, gotta use all these credits up, is what I thought the mentality was. Experienced something similar during MVMCP - after fireworks Cosmic Rays was CRAZY.

We're going this summer. Have 21 ADRs made for deluxe dining - and no more. Can't imagine triple booking. That is absolutely ridiculous to me.

Actually I agree with you on alot of this!!!! We do not do free dining and are not doing it in June either. I was fortunate when I booked my trip back in october to get 30% off my stay at the GF for the last week of June. This discount works out better for us. I cannot stand free dining either. I was really keeping my fingers crossed that it would not be offered for June. I like being able to walk into the GF cafe for lunch and have only a few tables filled. As far as me triple booking, I look at it like this. I booked my vacation 9 months out and at 180 days I booked my ADR's. I was going to Disney regardless if their were discounts or not. We have a four year old and sometimes our schedule needs to be flexible so that is the main reason I book so many ADR's. I am really not concerned about making it easier on people who have just decided to book because free dining was offered. If they can't get an ADR at this point for lets say, Le Cellier for the last week of June, then they should try calling every morning of their vacation. I have a lunch and dinner booked for every day of the trip but will probably only eat their once!!!!!!!

 

[sweetdana]

The crowds are not busier, the resturants are impossible.

There is never a hey let's stop and get something to eat .. anywhere.. Earl of a sandwich has a line until Tuesday and although you the rides are not more crowded.. your hungry sometimes gets to you.
YOU have to plan REALLY REALLY REALLY good to go when FD is out. Irrelevenent if you have FD or not.

 

[trickiwoo]

We've gone in September during Free Dining in both 2009 and 2010 and haven't had any problems with crowds... We have had some trouble getting the ADRs we wanted... but we're able to get them later when there were cancellations (you just have to keep checking!) But when we got to the restaurants we were always seated right away and had excellent service without long waits for anything. In fact, some of the restaurants were pretty empty and we could have eaten without a reservation. Of course that wasn't so for the more popular restaurants... and many QS restaurants didn't have any lines at all... And the ones that did have lines weren't very long at all and moved very quickly.

As for the parks, no crowds at all! When we rode Toy Story Midway Mania, there was only a 20 min wait! Most rides we could walk right on. We hardly got any FastPasses at all because we just didn't need them! We never had to wait long at all.

I imagine free dining in mid-late August is a lot worse because it's before a lot of kids go back to school... but in September, it's not bad at all!

 

[DadtoPrinceNoah]

how crowded are the parks and restaurants during free dining. ... I'm actually happy that I triple booked ...

I am really not concerned about making it easier on people who have just decided to book because free dining was offered.

And I am not concerned about it being easier on you. So I hope that it is crowded and their are tons of people enjoying the magic of Disney!

 

[stitch34]

Well, we book at 180 days out... but still, we like to be able to have availability to make changes if need to. Even now... waiting on AP rates, don't know second part of trip where we're staying yet. BC? Poly? I know X day works great if stay at BC for us... but, will there be a standard/garden view room available that particular date with AP rate? That's how our ADRs are worked right now, Cape May booked to work for a BC stay. OR, if end up with better availability at Poly, then need to switch our Cape May, Ohana ADRs. Just want to be able to still have availability to play around a bit.

We also have relatives that are local, and usually don't know till they hav
e a better idea of work and days off they can take, till about 2 months out. So sometimes am scrambling to switch my ADR to add them to it, or may have had party of 7 booked planning on them, and now need to switch it to only 4.
Kids may look at a photo album from a past trip and say ohhh, can't wait to eat at such and such place again. Really? ugh, don't have that booked for this trip, thought we could skip it. Okay, back online, let's see if that is available.
So yeah, even booking at 180 days out, for us, yeah, there are situations where we'd like to make changes.

And those that are booking a trip a month or two out... well, of course availabilty won't be great, but they should still have some chance of getting something. I know our very first trip was only 2 weeks out that we booked it - and am SOOO grateful we were able to book some great meals. My kids will never forget their first breakfast at Ohana!

 

[POOHS3]

That's easy. I.E. if multiple dinner reservations (like more than one a night) are under the same resort confirmation. Disney just cancels them all approx. 30 days out.

 

[melissapealo]

And I am not concerned about it being easier on you. So I hope that it is crowded and their are tons of people enjoying the magic of Disney!

Totally agreed

That's easy. I.E. if multiple dinner reservations (like more than one a night) are under the same resort confirmation. Disney just cancels them all approx. 30 days out.

I'm not sure if they actually cancel them. However you don't need a resort confirmation to make an ADR. It would actually be very easy for someone to make multiple ADR's for the same night and use multiple names if necessary. While I don't believe it's right, it is done quite frequently.

 

[KAB1]

And I am not concerned about it being easier on you. So I hope that it is crowded and their are tons of people enjoying the magic of Disney! [/QUOT

Crowds and tons of people will by no means make it difficult on me. Like I said in my previous post, I have numerous ADR's booked so I can go to the restaurants at my leisure. I stay at the GF, which probably wont be that crowded seeing that rack rate with free dining will run you pretty close to $600 a night. And as for the parks, I get there an hour before rope drop and we are the first ones at the rope. We walk in the park in the breakfest line and head right over to the rope. We never have more than a 15 minute wait at any ride. So based on this, I know that I will have a wonderful vacation as I usually do!!!!!!!!!!

 

[melissapealo]

And I am not concerned about it being easier on you. So I hope that it is crowded and their are tons of people enjoying the magic of Disney! [/QUOT

Crowds and tons of people will by no means make it difficult on me. Like I said in my previous post, I have numerous ADR's booked so I can go to the restaurants at my leisure. I stay at the GF, which probably wont be that crowded seeing that rack rate with free dining will run you pretty close to $600 a night. And as for the parks, I get there an hour before rope drop and we are the first ones at the rope. We walk in the park in the breakfest line and head right over to the rope. We never have more than a 15 minute wait at any ride. So based on this, I know that I will have a wonderful vacation as I usually do!!!!!!!!!!

Actually it's under $500 a night and many people upgrade due to the fact they don't have to pay oop for dining. I have no doubt that you'll still have a good vacation, but as you've previously stated you've never been to Disney during free dining. You don't know what to expect of the crowd level. There will also be the people that upgrade to deluxe due to the 40% off rate. That brings the room down to under $300 a night which is a great deal for a deluxe room. I'm assuming that you probably skip some rides or decide to do them at a later time to keep the wait under 15 mins. That is a smart stategy but one that many others do as well.

It's still extremely rude to book 3 different ADR's for the same night. Eventually I'm sure Disney will come up with a way to stop that so that everyone has a fair chance at getting the ADR's they want. Triple booking is just selfish and inconsiderate of everyone else trying to have a magical trip.

 

[Kudrah]

Not only is the OP triple booked, but I believe, if I understood correctly, they have both lunch and dinner at Le Cellier booked for EVERY day of their trip but only intend on eating there once.

Wow. Selfish Much?

 

[hmontgomry]

I've been 4 times during free dining and it is so hard to make reservations. I only have 7 TS booked and I booked them all the other night in preparation for free dining. It's terrible that someone books more than they will use...and comes on here to brag about it...

 

[cburnett11]

Triple booking = greed!
Very lame on your part...

 

[pdxJolene]

Wow OP. I'm amazed you would admit to that, I would be way too embarrassed to admit something so greedy and distasteful.

I fully support disney coming up with a way to prevent that.