Free Dining Question....

[kadesha]

I've read some reports from people that have been during free dining and they complained of bad service at the restaurants. Does that have anything to do with the free dining timeframe? I mean, are they less attentive, etc. because they assume that most people are "free dining?" I avoid September for this very reason.

Free dining dates have been released during our time frame but we do not qualify. I just don't want to deal with crappy service while we are actually paying for our dining plan.

Can anyone make me feel better about this??? Hopefully what I have heard is not the norm!

 

[pumba]

we were just in Disney and we had an excellent waitress at Crystal Palace and all the CS places we went to......I think getting a bad waitress or having bad service is just hit or miss.......when we were there in May .....we still had pretty good service and we had 6 TS restaurants..
This trip was a fast one and we were only able to get one reservation....

 

[Mr. Pig]

I have not done free dining so I can't speak for that but you will always hear more about complaints than good service. I remember hearing a lot of complaints about bad service when the tip used to be included with the dining plan. I never had bad service then and I noticed no change in the service this year when the tip was not included with the plan. Service may not be quite as good during free dining because the restaurants can get very crowded (so I hear) and the wait staff may be stretched a little thin.

 

[LegoMom3]

We just got back from an 8-night stay with the Free Dining. It's the second time we've done FD. While both times we did experience less-than-cheerful servers at some counter-service places, not once did we have bad service at a table-service restaurant. The servers we got were always VERY cheerful, attentive to our needs and generally just quite pleasant!

.

 

[SGMCO]

We just got back last week from FD and had wonderful
service--you have to tip them now on the dining plan--
Free or not--so every server we had did a great job and we
left full 20% at most TS we ate at.
No one at the TS restaurants know who has the FD plan or not--
all they ask is if you are on the Disney Dining Plan--there were
guest there who paid for it.
Had a Great Week the Crowds were very low--wait time for most rides 5 mins.
We will be back next Sept. for FD (took the BB while there)
can't wait to go again.

 

[TheRustyScupper]

1) Yes, there are some servers that discrimate against DDP
2) Many servers are disgusted with DDP, because they "think"
. . . DDP guests seem to demand too much and think they have super-powers
. . . DDP guests tend to not leave good tips
. . . DDP guests do not know how to act at good eateries and let kids misbehave

2) However, the vast majority of servers try to give good service to all.
3) You should not have a problem.

 

[Bell30012]

Does the server know that a party is on the DxDP? I ask this because of the appetizer being included with the DxDP and not with the DDP.

 

[ntsammy5]

We've been twice during free dining and the service was always excellent

 

[otisandmaggie]

We were there week before last and didn't have any problems with service. We had one guy at 'Ohana who wasn't great - luckily he was the guy who brought the drinks, not the one who brought the food! Other than that we had really good service (Whispiring Canyon was particuarly good - they were 30 -45 min behind on seating, but once we finally got a table, service was great - we didn't feel rushed or like our server was stressed AT ALL) Boma was crazy the night we were there - so many people waiting in line that we didn't go back for seconds (forcing us to eat more dessert - awwww!) But our server was great. Even took the time to talk about Morocco and places in his home city of Rabat that I had visited. The other patrons of Le Cellier were a bit much (a table with some SERIOUSLY out of control kids) but again - service was great and our server seemed relaxed and was very accomodating.

So - all in all - none of our issues w/ free dining were server related, all were crowd realted. We tipped 20%+ everywhere we ate.

 

[design_mom]

We were there in early September and we had excellent service every place we went. The restaurants were VERY CROWDED though and so I'm sure being super-busy all the time could wear on anyone performing a customer-service type position. (We didn't notice problems with any of our servers, but I'm sure it can happen.) We did notice a number of guests being rather pushy (upset when they weren't seated immediately at the time of their ADR, not understanding what was/not included in DDP and getting pushy about it.) This was our first time on the DDP and I am guessing it was a lot of others' first time, too. Some of us were better informed than others.

Does the server know that a party is on the DxDP? I ask this because of the appetizer being included with the DxDP and not with the DDP.

We were asked for our DDP card at the beginning of the meal and again at the end of the meal, so I don't think you will have any trouble getting what you're entitled to. They will know you're on the DxDP when you show them the card at the beginning.

 

[kadesha]

Thanks for your responses! I feel better about it now!

 

[TyTysMommy]

I've taken advantage of free dining twice and have had great service. You always hear about the bad service because people who have something to complain about tend to make their opinions vocal. But all of those people who have had great service don't usually vent about it.

 

[pigletto]

We've had great service at every restaurant we've eaten at this week.
Actually .. I expected less given how slammed the restaurants were. Luckily it seems there is adequate staff on hand and everything went smoothly anywhere we were.