Is quality poor during free dining?

[disneyvoice]

So in reading some restaurant reviews lately I see people referring to Free Dining when explaining poor quality or disappointment in some restaurants. We already had our WDW vacation planned before they announced Free Dining and we have never been to WDW during a Free Dining time before. I am a bit concerned that we are going to be disappointed if the quality isn't as good as it usually is. What kind of changes/disappointments have you seen that you think are specifically related to Free Dining?

 

[TDC Nala]

I was there 9 days during free dining. I was not on a dining plan. The biggest disappointment I had at WDW was Wolfgang Puck Express, believe it or not. Soggy pizza, dry chicken, not what I remember. My friend didn't like that the caesar salad was mostly iceberg lettuce. Because of the dining plan? Because of free dining? No idea, really.

Everywhere else, I did not find any problems that I thought could be attributable to free dining. The 2 credit restaurants especially were great. The one credit ones were not bad and had a few excellent items.

The problems people are having making reservations can probably be traced directly to free dining, as well as the operation of the new WDW reservation system.

 

[ReneeA]

We've been for 3 free dining times and once that we paid OOP for the DDP. There was absolutely no difference in service or food quality between the free dining periods and the time we paid for it. We've always found things to be fine - fabulous at times and just so-so at times. I can't think of a time we've had really terrible food or service at WDW.

 

[tami82]

this was our first time on the dining plan and i have to say i was very very impressed with the quality of the food. It also depends where you go there are places that are better than others. I enjoyed every meal i had in the 7 days we were there but wasnt crazy about 1900 park fare. The counter service places also were very good and i was amazed at how big some of the portions were especially with some great desserts.

 

[TBGOES2DISNEY]

I've been twice during free dining and once I paid for the dining plan. Objectively, I'd say the food was the same on all trips. However, it may have been my imagination, but it actually seemed a bit worse on the trip that I paid for. Paying for it could have colored my opinion.

 

[TheRustyScupper]

The biggest disappointment I had at WDW was Wolfgang Puck Express, believe it or not. Soggy pizza, dry chicken, not what I remember. My friend didn't like that the caesar salad was mostly iceberg lettuce.

1) Wolfgang no longer owns Wolfgang at WDW.
2) He was forced to sell to Levy Group when he opened at Universal.
3) Disney claimed conflict of interest.
4) Ever since then, the food & service has been spotty and trending downward.

 

[DonaldTDuck]

WAH WAH WAH FREE DINING. IT's why I can't get an ADR, why there's a drop in quality, why I have to stand in line to ride Soarin' WAH WAH WAH.

That's not me, that's people that have to gripe about something. I've been eating at Disney for 25 years, often at TS long before the dining plans, and, while some menus are less interesting than then, the quality has been very similar. The pot roast at PTC is still the best Rose & Crown is still great, and Biergarten has vastly improved by going buffet.
Things change and sometimes not in the way some would like, but overall, the food is still pretty good.

 

[jrc-elpaso]

DH and I just got back from a 10 day stay at POR with free dining. All of our meals were great - both CS and TS. The food court at POR has very good breakfasts. The only meal we weren't thrilled about was Marrakesh - and that's just a matter of personal taste - not the quality of the food. We ate at Rose & Crown, Tutto Italia, Les Chefs de France, Tony's, Mama Melrose, Yak & Yeti, Boatright's, and Captain's Grill. This was our first trip to Disney so I can't compare but we were certainly pleased. Now we both have to go on a diet.

 

[ShannonMB]

I haven't read much about free dining ruining the food at WDW, but I sure have read a LOT of opinions that the dining plan in general has dumbed down the menus and overall quality of eating at WDW. I think their point is, if everyone is on the dining plan (free at times, no less!), and everyone all orders the most expensive thing on the menu at a certain place, soon that item won't be on the menu anymore (for instance, the twin lobster tails at Captain Jack's that are no longer offered). They aren't going to keep offering the creme de la creme, they have started offering mass-produced items that most people will generally consider acceptable. I can see this point, but I still totally love the dining plan (especially free dining!).

I imagine you'll still find the same quality as on your last trip, if that was good, then you'll be fine, IMO!

 

[TillyMarigold]

DH and I just got back from a 10 day stay at POR with free dining. All of our meals were great - both CS and TS. The food court at POR has very good breakfasts. The only meal we weren't thrilled about was Marrakesh - and that's just a matter of personal taste - not the quality of the food. We ate at Rose & Crown, Tutto Italia, Les Chefs de France, Tony's, Mama Melrose, Yak & Yeti, Boatright's, and Captain's Grill. This was our first trip to Disney so I can't compare but we were certainly pleased. Now we both have to go on a diet.

I agree, just back from 10 days at POFQ and the *worst* meal we ate was good enough that we wouldn't hesitate to eat there again or to recommend it to others. And we're serious food snobs. We ate at Narcoossee's, Kona, Boma, Akershus, Mama Melrose, Jiko, Sci-Fi, Cape May, and Kouzzina ... plus a ton of QS meals and snacks, of course.

We weren't thrilled with the food court at POFQ but that's our only complaint (lack of selection, it wasn't bad, actually the food was pretty good, just limited). We did have breakfast once at POR and agree it was very good.

 

[disneynutz]

Over that last several years we have seen the quality, menu selections, and dining experience at WDW trend downward.

It seems that Disney has decided to reduce the number of selections and design menus that are easy to prepare in less time to turn tables over faster. It also seems that more restaurants are being outsourced to other companies.

I don't know if this is being caused by "free" dining, the DDP, or just greed.

 

[Epcot4Me]

I feel like I have noticed a drop in quality since the introduction of the dining plan as a whole, not simply free dining. Most notably for me is the desserts...in particular, there are restaurants that used to have qualified, talented pastry chefs and have now switched to the frozen dessert put into a microwave. It makes sense- how many parties order a dessert per person normally? The demand increased and the only way to physically match supply was to either hire another dedicated pastry chef, or move away from homemade desserts.

 

[disneyvoice]

Thank you all for your replies - I'm feeling MUCH better about things now. We have never done the dining plan in the past simply because we don't eat that much when we are at WDW. We bring our own breakfast stuff and usually eat either one large meal and one very light meal each day or one large meal and a snack later. We aren't a dessert at every meal kind of family. So I'm sure we won't use all our credits but since the dining plan was free it was just the icing of our WDW vacation cake!!

So I'm relieved I can still look forward to all our old favorites!!

 

[MinnieTink]

We just returned from our free dining trip and found that the food quality was as good or better than our two previous trips. Coral Reef impressed us all, which I was relieved after reading some of the poor reviews here. The ONLY time we felt cheated or disappointed this time was at Tony's @ MK. The food was good but the portion of an appetizer we had gotten before was much smaller this year.

 

[septbaby]

I don't think food quality has declined per se. What seems to have changed is the variety and I'm not sure if that is a Free Dining phenomenon or not.

CBR food court had fruit and cheese plates and I seem to recall sushi as well (might have just been the veggie type). They had neither of these options a couple of weeks ago.

As for TS my only "bad meal" was Chef de France. Turned out to be just a really bad fit for us; no need for me to return there.

Boma was at least as good as I recalled, maybe better as we had breakfast there twice, paying OOP the second time.

Mama Melrose was fine, not great, but I'd return. Crystal Palace dinner was great, just not in love with the character interaction. We prefer Chef Mickey's for that.

Main Street Bakery may have actually gotten better if that is at all possible.
CBR dinner was good too. They now have a kids pizza meal, very small pizza, but at least it is an option and my little guy was happy. I just had to give him one of the sides from my veggie platter. I think it is hilarious that they offer a veggies platter and only had one veggie, the sides are all starches.

Bottom line, we ate very well at WDW during our stay so free dining would bring me back.

 

[yaksack]

I think the food quality of food at the buffets has declined alot over the years. I rate them along the lines of a poor Sizzler.

On the other hand I have yet to be disappointed by the quality of food at a non-buffet sit down meal. Although,there were simply things that I found unappetizing.

 

[Tracy041500]

Never had a problem with the food and we have always done the free dining plan.

 

[Pumbaa_]

Personally I blame the dining plan for global warming

 

[ElizabethB]

Our experience with free dining was 3 years ago, when appetizers were still included with the DDP and tips were included.

We specifically booked Chefs de France for dinner because we love it and it's always been a must do. Well, when we arrived we learned they had removed the filet specifically because it was free dining. I ordered what purported to be steak frites (a classic French bistro dish consisting of skirt steak and thick cut french fries). I often order steak frites at Artisanal in NYC and it is always excellent.

Well, they brought out something that bore absolutely no relationship to any piece of beef I've ever had. I still don't know what it was, but I certainly didn't eat it. Add to that the fact that the fries were cold and we were very disappointed.

We didn't go back again until last month. We tried it again before the current free dining promotion started and it was delicious. We loved the cheese, the escargot and the beef short ribs. The filet was also on the menu.

Now that free dining has started, who knows what's still on the menu and what has been removed.

That same trip we also ate at Tony's Town Square. I expected very little there. I ordered the NY Strip Steak. It came nicely grilled, medium, with roquefurt cheese on top. I took one bite and declared it superb, and it was. Flavorful, tender and truly a top notch steak. A friend had ordered a seafood pasta dish and said it wasn't very good. I told her send it back and get the steak. She did as I told, took one bite and said, "Wow." We both devoured our steaks with relish and thought the steaks were far superior to the filets at Jiko we had a few nights later.

We've since been back to Tony's a couple of times, ordered the NY Strip Steak and our experience has never been repeated. The steak has been fair at best. I've often wondered if the restaurant was low on strip steaks due to free dining and got some from one of the better restaurants that had some excess.

So, there was our experience with free dining: a "steak" if you can call it that at Chef's that we've never seen again (thank heavens); and a steak at Tony's that we've never seen again (more's the pity).

All I can say about free dining is buyer beware!

 

[MusiqChic99]

I haven't been to Disney in 10 years. I have never done the dining plan either. I hope it's not a disappointment since we have free dining. We are used to picking maybe 2 TS meals our whole trip so this will be a switch for us.

Honestly the food will have to be REALLY bad for us to have a bad time on the plan. We can't wait!!!!!