Free Dining and Reservations

[pirasha]

Hello all,

So for those of you who have gone during free Dining times; how full have the restaurants been? I'm going mid September next year so hoping for free food (crosses fingers) but I'm getting a little nervous about the reservations.

I was only going to reserve 1 restaurant per day (thus able to be a bit more flexible day to day as to where we are) but if there's free dining available will we be able to get into anything without a reservation? I'm mostly talking about QS places here as most of my actual reservations are going to be table service (with the exception of BOG for lunch because I know this is super popular)

Should I schedule two or three reservations per day and just cancel when we get closer or do you think we'll be okay with just one reservation and see where we are as the day goes on (knowing that we may have to eat at odd times)

I like to go with the flow while on vacation and see where the day takes us (beauty of park hoppers) so I don't really want to be nailed down to a particular park all the time. HOWEVER, food is important and if we do get the Dining Plan then I want to make sure we utilize that.

 

[Pumbaa_]

The only qs that takes adrs is BOG. The others are walk up

It is a good idea to book your ts in advance. If you change your plans while there just be sure to cancel any adrs the night before

 

[danielocha30]

with or without Free dining, the chances to get in are slim with no ADR, always book ADR, free dining makes the process to get the ADR harder, but any given day restaurants are at full capacity, there is no slow season anymore, sure some had have walk in but is a risky move

 

[DisneyHardin]

I suggest that you go ahead and make tentative plans of where you will be each day and book your ADR's. It's rude, in my opnion, to book a bunch of ADR's with the intention of cancelling them at the last minutes.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

Hello all,

So for those of you who have gone during free Dining times; how full have the restaurants been? I'm going mid September next year so hoping for free food (crosses fingers) but I'm getting a little nervous about the reservations.

I was only going to reserve 1 restaurant per day (thus able to be a bit more flexible day to day as to where we are) but if there's free dining available will we be able to get into anything without a reservation? I'm mostly talking about QS places here as most of my actual reservations are going to be table service (with the exception of BOG for lunch because I know this is super popular)

Should I schedule two or three reservations per day and just cancel when we get closer or do you think we'll be okay with just one reservation and see where we are as the day goes on (knowing that we may have to eat at odd times)

I like to go with the flow while on vacation and see where the day takes us (beauty of park hoppers) so I don't really want to be nailed down to a particular park all the time. HOWEVER, food is important and if we do get the Dining Plan then I want to make sure we utilize that.

I'm a little confused by your post. If you plan on going next September, simply book your room reservation early to make use of the 180+10 onsite ADR reservation perk. If you end up being able to snag free dining, you will either get the QS DDP (with value and mod reservations) or the regular DDP (with deluxe reservations). The QS DDP doesn't include any TS credits, so that's super easy as the only QS restaurant that takes ADR's is BOG. Otherwise, QS is all walk up. If you get the regular DDP, that will include 1 TS credit, per person, per night booked, so, in essence, one 1 TS credit reservation per day (as was your plan). (Or you can use more credits to go to signatures.) So, simply pick the one restaurant per day you want to go to and make the reservation 180 days prior to check-in.

Are you asking whether you have to make ADR's at all and just wing it? Yes, you can do this. We do it all the time and have always found something available, however, it's complete luck of the draw and you have to take what you can get. EP and resort restaurants are typically the easiest to get and, yes, you may have to eat at odd times. Is this the best way to maximize the regular DDP? Probably not. If you would rather wing it and not be stressed about maximizing dining credits, you may also want to be on the lookout for room-only discounts and not have a dining plan at all. It's always best to crunch the numbers either way. For some family configurations, a room-only discount is a better deal than free dining.