Is Disney's free dining fair?

[princess aleya]

We are just wondering how other people like us who "PAY" for the dining plans feel about not being able to get the dining times or restaurants they want because they are ALL booked up because of the free dining.We find it VERY annoying is it just us ?

I don't think that Free Dining has anything to do with you not being able to get your ADRS, you have to book your ressies at least 180 days in advance to get the choices you want.

 

[TinkerBelle_325]

My point is that with Disney giving away free dining plans it became MUCH harder to book times and restaurants. It's August,try booking a Dinner at O'hana's for for the last 2 weeks of January first week of Febuary,you'll find nothing.Does Disney need ADR (except for dinner shows) Walk ins wouldn't fill the restaurants?What happened to doing things spur of the moment like vacations should be sometimes.I'm just venting, but why should I have to decide now that I want to eat mickey shaped waffles for breakfast for a trip in February. And I do know "FREE" dining isn't really free.Remember the days when you use to walk into EPCOT and made your dining reservations on the touch screen for that day.I'm not trying to bash (DW staying out of this topic) I totally LOVE DISNEY and have from the first day I walked into the MK July 18 1976.I just miss some of the OLD ways.

Well, I arrive next Friday, which is during Free Dining. We are Annual Passholders and prefer the discounts we get using TIW.

I just put in "Friday, Sept 3rd, Dinner, Party of 4"

Here are the results:
50's Primetime Cafe
Artist Point
Biergarten
Bistro de Paris
Boatwright's
Boma
Cape May Cafe
Captain Jack's
Captain's Grille
Citrico's
Crystal Palace
Flying Fish
Fulton's
Garden Grove
Grand Floridian Cafe
Hollywood & Vine
Hollywood Brown Derby
House of Blues
Il Mulino
Jiko
Kona Cafe
Kouzzina
Les Chefs de France
Liberty Tree Tavern
Mama Melrose
Maya Grill
Narcoossee's
Nine Dragon's
Olivia's
Planet Hollywood
The Plaza
Portobello
Raglan Road
Restaurant Marrakesh
Rose & Crown
Saana
Sci-Fi
Shula's
Shutter's
Todd English's Bluezoo
Tokyo Dining
Tony's Town Square
Trail's End
Turf Club
Tusker House
The Wave
Whispering Canyon Cafe
Wolfgang Puck
Yachtsman
Yak & Yeti

Looks like there is still lots of opportunity for spontaneity.

For interest sake, I tried today for dinner as well and got:

50's Primetime
Artist Point
Bistro de Paris
Boatwright's
California Grill
Captain Jack's
Captain's Grille
Citricos
Flying Fish
Fulton's
Garden Grove
Hollywood & Vine
Hollywood Brown Derby
House of Blues
Il Mulino
Jiko
Kona Cafe
Kouzzina
Maya Grill
Olivia's
Planet Hollywood
The Plaza
Portobello
Raglan Road
Restaurant Marrakesh
Rose & Crown
Sci-Fi
Shula's
Shutter's
Todd English's bluezoo
Trail's End
Turf Club
The Wave
Whispering Canyon Cafe
Wolfgang Puck
Yachtsman Steakhouse

 

[Melissa<3Disney]

I usually don't post on these types of threads, but I have to say that I don't think it's unfair at all. Like most others have stated, ADR's aren't set aside for free diners, once your ADR time opens up everyone has free game to go and get their reservations! I, for one, have never been on a dining plan.. never even stayed onsite before. I have eaten at a few Disney restaurants before (used to live in Orlando), and ADRs have been hard to get when free dining isn't around. I think that has more to do with the DDP in general, now that more people are able to experience Disney Dining.

And slightly off topic..I also can't stand when I see people say that "Oh people just think they are getting a better deal with free dining!"(Not the OP, just something I have noticed whenever the topic of free dining comes up) I had two rooms booked at POP and one booked at POR with the 25% and 30% discounts without the meal plan. That saved us around $2300 for our family of 14. When free dining came out I switched to that promotion instead.. it saved our family I would assume anywhere between $3500-$5000 on food depending on what type of restaurants we eat at. I figure the adults will spend around $30-$50 a day on food and the kids $15-$25 (we have 9 adults,4 kids, and 1 infant in our party), these may be a little generous, but if you think breakfast, lunch, and dinner with a few TS restaurants thrown in there, I would say it's pretty close, especially with the way our family eats!!

Our trip is in 36 days.. i just checked availability for restaurants the other night because I wanted to treat my parents to a signature dining experience, and they had multiple reservations from 7pm-8pm (when we usually like to eat dinner), of course it wasn't for places like Ohana, CRT, Le Cellier etc, but those places from my memory have always filled up extremely fast, nothing to do with free dining!

 

[ngvenice]

My two cents---

Hope I don’t get bashed! It makes me sad that people blame free dining on the supposed now lower quality of food and unattainable adr's at Disney because some threads make it seem like it’s our fault (those of us who take advantage of the free dining), some people have this if yall wouldn’t take advantage of it, Disney wouldn’t offer it mentality. I mean why in the world would anyone turn down a discount. And yes to me it’s a huge discount because I’m in a Value Resort and the free dining is a better offer than the room discount-although I’m upgrading, I’m still saving.
First off I’d like to say that I’m a newbie so I cannot attest to the quality of the food in the past but I do know that quality is being downgraded everywhere in the country. Disney is a business looking to turn a profit. If they did not offer the Free Dining a lot of families could not afford a trip to Disney this year and a lot of families wouldn’t be enticed to book a trip either so what do you think would happened if Disney had less bookings, yep they’d have less profit and they’d have to start making cuts somewhere to turn a profit and I’m guessing sooner or later those cuts would be in their restaurants. I love this forum but some threads get downright mean, one poster even said that they hate having to share the restaurant w/ people who not only are only there because of free dining but actually have no business eating at a table serv restaurant!

 

[Melissa<3Disney]

My two cents---

Hope I don’t get bashed! It makes me sad that people blame free dining on the supposed now lower quality of food and unattainable adr's at Disney because some threads make it seem like it’s our fault (those of us who take advantage of the free dining), some people have this if yall wouldn’t take advantage of it, Disney wouldn’t offer it mentality. I mean why in the world would anyone turn down a discount. And yes to me it’s a huge discount because I’m in a Value Resort and the free dining is a better offer than the room discount-although I’m upgrading, I’m still saving.
First off I’d like to say that I’m a newbie so I cannot attest to the quality of the food in the past but I do know that quality is being downgraded everywhere in the country. Disney is a business looking to turn a profit. If they did not offer the Free Dining a lot of families could not afford a trip to Disney this year and a lot of families wouldn’t be enticed to book a trip either so what do you think would happened if Disney had less bookings, yep they’d have less profit and they’d have to start making cuts somewhere to turn a profit and I’m guessing sooner or later those cuts would be in their restaurants. I love this forum but some threads get downright mean, one poster even said that they hate having to share the restaurant w/ people who not only are only there because of free dining but actually have no business eating at a table serv restaurant!

No bashing, I agree 100%!!

 

[Eliza32]

I'm just miffed that because I live in the UK I booked too early to get the free dining and I'm not allowed to add it now!!! Does it make any difference to availability of ADR's - yes I think it does, More people are now booking meals that they wouldn't necessarily have paid for OOP. We ate every TS at Disney in 2007 because we got it free, this time we will be eating off site. DDP was great free, but I wouldn't buy it because it's too limiting.

 

[Sherrkel]

I'm thankful for the free dining promo in 2011. Without this savings ($1,300 for our family of 3) we may not have been able to travel to the World in February; I was really on the fence about our trip due to costs being so high. Now we're going to be paying basically the same package price as our 2009 4 for 3 trip discount (for same length of stay); that's unusual in this economy!

I was able to secure all of our group ADRs at the 180 day mark (Ohana, Cali Grill, Crystal Palace, WCC, Coral Reef, Raglan Road, to name a few).

I'm very pleased about the savings and our ADRs.

Sorry to the OP that free dining doesn't work for you.

 

[mousey]

Nothing is for free so I think the poster was right that they just pay for their dining ahead of time when they are paying rack rates. It did use to bother me when people made multiple dining reservations for the same time only to cancel at the last minute until I was able to get LeCelliur for lunch thanks to someone who had multiple reservations. I also appreciated someone getting a better time and passing their "better than my time" to me. Lets face it those characer meals are outragiously priced and this might be the only way for some families to enjoy them.

 

[TDC Nala]

I don't blame free dining for the lower quality of food. I blame Disney's new business model in the Iger era. The dining plan, free and paid, is part of that business model.

 

[Ava]

Well, I arrive next Friday, which is during Free Dining. We are Annual Passholders and prefer the discounts we get using TIW.

I just put in "Friday, Sept 3rd, Dinner, Party of 4"

Here are the results:
.....

Looks like there is still lots of opportunity for spontaneity.

For interest sake, I tried today for dinner as well and got:

.....

Wow, those are some looong lists of last-minute ressies available! I'm sure they are not at prime times, but it does show that there are reservations available at the last minute if you can be flexible.

On our last trip we decided the morning of that we wanted to try for a sit-down dinner at Epcot that night. We asked at the concierge desk at the hotel & had several to choose from for later in the evening. We had already seen Illuminations earlier in the week, so we had no problem eating dinner during the show that night. We had a quiet romantic dinner at San Angel Inn, at a table next to the "river."

We're not doing the Dining Plan next trip (have never done it) partly because I don't want to deal with choosing all our meals 6 months in advance. I'll make ADRs for 2 or 3 TS meals during our 6-night trip; the rest of the time we'll eat CS, or perhaps try to get in to another TS the morning of. If I could ever travel during free dining I'd probably try out the plan, but otherwise I'd rather pay OOP.

 

[a1tinkfans]

Also, free dining, paid dining, or no dining doesn't impact when one can make reservations - the window opens at the same time for all. If a location is filled, it's because someone else made the reservations, not because their meals are (or are not) "free".

I just returned during FREE dine, which I paid rack rate for We were able to do walk ups for dinner at the New Italian Place in Epcot (do not take reservations yet anyway), Trails End, Tonys @ MK (1 hour earlier than reservation), Kona Cafe (1 1/2 hours earlier than reservation), We ditched Mama Melrose, RF in DTD (and I gave away the $10 off coupon we had), and we also ditched a 2nd Le Cellier dinner reservation we had snagged too. Plans change, so you never know...
So, point is....walk up, use the online system while on property and just try...you never know what you may be able to get! Good Luck! My best meal was Le Cellier for dinner, food was Very Good, service was Excellent!

 

[Bradsdadg]

I didn't read all the responses here. But I will say that I can't wait for them to get rid of "Free dining" if they ever do get rid of it. I'm sick of hearing about it, and i'm sick of the DDP in general. It doesn't work for our family, we'd lose money each day being on it. And from what I understand, it really isn't free...

 

[Disney Von Drake]

As others have stated, life is not fair. While a reservation is handy, it’s up to the host or hostess when (and if) you get seated. Some people just have no clue how to present themselves at a restaurant and they often get a table way in the back by the service door or none at all. Other folks without a reservation are able to get a table in short order due to their knowledge of how things work. Bearing, good demeanor and a keen sense of the obvious are always helpful in getting a table sans reservation. These are qualities that many WDW guests seem to forgo at WDW.

 

[tinka-belle]

It's all semantics, just another way of promoting a discount that catches people's attention. They could call it the "$42 off per adult, $11 off per child per night of your stay" discount, or the "have dinner on us" promotion, and they would get less than half the takers than they do with "FREE dining". People like free, they gotta eat, and WDW food is expensive. We here on the DIS know it's not really free since the room rate is high, but I'll wager lots of people don't.

As far as any dining plans, free or not, filling up ADR spots.......well, from WDW's viewpoint they have the money up front, know the staffing levels required very far in advance, and can better predict their bulk food contracts with less waste. Saves money for them all around. Food quality (or lack of) I attribute more to the economy than the dining plan, though I think the dining plans have resulted in less choices and more similar and streamlined menus, not always a good thing.

It started with the Magical Express. Keep people captive without independent transportation and they'll eat and shop on site. Now feed them (food being the biggest vacation expense after the hotel and passes and flights) and bring the experience closer to a cruise or all-inclusive vacation resort that so many families opt for. People like to know their total costs, save for a souvenier budget, up front, and the DDP takes a major variable expense off the table and includes it in their up front costs.

Disclaimer: I'm not comparing a WDW trip to a cruise or all-inclusive beach resort so please no comments about the differences between those (and there are many!). Just pointing out that a more inclusive vacation is what people seem to ask for these days.

 

[cigar95]

We're not doing the Dining Plan next trip (have never done it) partly because I don't want to deal with choosing all our meals 6 months in advance. I'll make ADRs for 2 or 3 TS meals during our 6-night trip; the rest of the time we'll eat CS, or perhaps try to get in to another TS the morning of. If I could ever travel during free dining I'd probably try out the plan, but otherwise I'd rather pay OOP.

Folks often write about how the dining plan means having to reserve six months in advance, and I'm not sure I get that.

I'm guessing it means that if one gets the dining plan, then there's a certain sense of urgency to actually *use* all of ones entitlements. And so just to be safe, one needs to be sure to make reservations well in advance. Without the dining plan, if one grabs a counter service burger instead of a table service, or leaves to eat off site, you haven't really lost much. Is that it, or is there more to it?

The other thing to remember is that the list of restaurants where one *needs* to reserve at 180 days is a very short list. Except in the busiest holiday periods, there's a very good selection of restaurants available at 60 or 90 days, and usually at reasonable times. Especially in the resort restaurants. (Yes, if you want the *most* popular your only choice may be to reserve as soon as possible, or to eat at odd hours.)

 

[clairemolly]

I booked our trip last December with a 30% PIN on a room at POFQ with the dining plan. I made my ADRs in May at exactly 180 days out, waking up at 6 a.m. the day after moving my family into our new home. When free dining was extended in July, I called and discovered that it was cheaper for us to switch our discount to free dining. We subsequently upgraded to Deluxe dining.

My point...just because I am now booked with free dining, doesn't mean it is the reason I made my ADRs and you cannot get yours. I booked mine when I was "paying" for it.

 

[2Tiggies]

We all know that 'free' dining is never really free. Sometimes it is a better deal than a room discount. Sometimes it is not. I just priced up a split stay for next year. A week at POP is cheaper with FD. The week at the Poly is cheaper to pay for the dining plan and take a room discount. You have to see what deal is best for you. It isn't about the food. It's about how much you pay for the same/similar vacation that is the basis of the decision for most of us. Either way, if you want TS restaurants, the earlier you book, the better your chances of getting what you want.

Bottom line: if you want to eat at Disney TS restaurants and you want to pick and choose where and when you eat, you need to make your ADRs. This is regardless of how you pay, what you pay or where you stay.

 

[gilsan]

My point is that with Disney giving away free dining plans it became MUCH harder to book times and restaurants. It's August,try booking a Dinner at O'hana's for for the last 2 weeks of January first week of Febuary,you'll find nothing.Does Disney need ADR (except for dinner shows)

I booked a few days ago and was able to get an 'Ohana ADR the first week of February for 10 with no problem. The system offered me a choice of times between 5-7pm.

'Ohana is closed Jan 17-Jan 19 for refurb so that may also be causing you to have a more difficult time making reservations.

 

[eliza61]

We are just wondering how other people like us who "PAY" for the dining plans feel about not being able to get the dining times or restaurants they want because they are ALL booked up because of the free dining.We find it VERY annoying is it just us ?

Not annoying to me.

1) free dining is a discount, just like any other discount. some times they work for you, some times they don't. I hate it when Macy's gives out coupons and then you find out it doesn't apply to a thing you want.

2) Truthfully I've never not been able to get the places I want. The really popular ones like Le Cellier are never ever worth the 2 credits so it's no biggie. Shulas steak or Yachtsman serve waay better food and are relatively easy to get into

 

[canoe86]

Since this thread has become a bit of a commentary on the dining plans, I will give my opinion of it.


Does it save money?

I don't know if it saves us money or not. I actually don't care. Just doing a quick mental math, I figure its pretty close to break even.

Why use DDP?

Convenience. I like the idea of having my meals paid before I go. I don't worry about cost while I'm there, its taken care of.

Does DDP hurt service?

I think it did when tips were included.

Is an ADR harder to get because of free dining?

Other than LeCelier, we've pretty much eaten at every restaurant we've wanted to. What we do is when we get ready to make our ADR, we prioritize where we want to eat. The places we really want, we get first, then build our plans around them, and then fill in the other ADR after. So with some flexibility, mostly no, not harder. Actually forces us to look at some other places which are GOOD! ie Olivias! I will say our large family makes it tougher than most since we must get a big table.

Is our personal situation different than others?

Yes, we have a bit of a different situation. SIX people in the family. Now, DDP may work a bit better for us and ADR easier to get because we have 4 kids under 13. So everyday, we come back to the room for a rest. Combine that with a park hopper and we really have a lot of flexibility. First, we aren't pressured to stay in one park for hours on end. The kids all have naps, so it is no problem taking them to and early dinner. (and yes, the older ones sometimes sleep to....and that includes me! )

Should there be changes?

Yeah, I would like to see some DDP changes. A couple of thoughts, make some other restaurants 2 credits. (they are doing this with lecelier) Make all quick service meals half a credit. This would off set some others going to 2 credits. Just a couple thoughts.


I guess that's it.