Should I Change My Dates To Avoid Free Dining?

[tink4ever]

Should I change my dates to avoid free Dining? I know that sounds crazy but my DD and I are going from Sept 6-11 for a quick mother/daughter trip and since we are DVC I found out I cannot cash in on the free dining so my question is How crowded will it be and should I go after free dining? I have never been during these free dining times so I have no idea truly how crazy it can be. I can only imagine it being nuts. Also how hot is it during this time. I am beginning to rethink Sept all together.

 

[carolinagirl]

We were there last year during free dining (last week of September) and we thought the parks were still pretty empty. Of course, this year could be different.

 

[TinksTheBest]

We were there last year during September and while it was hot, the lack of crowds made up for the heat! We were there during the third week of September and the longest wait we experienced was 20 minutes for Soarin'. We walked right on to Expedition Everest and almost everything else. We met up with some people who had been there from Sept 10 and they made the comment that it was even less crowded earlier in their trip!

This year, we will be there from Sept 12 to the 17th. We are hoping that the crowd levels will be similar to last year. I remember last year that there was a lot of discussion about free dining time and I was concerned about the crowd level. I was pleasantly surprised when we were able to sit curbside for the parade at MGM five minutes before it started. We also had a great view on the MK parade with only one row of spectators instead of the 3 or 4 rows that we were used to.

I'm very excited about our trip this year and I expect (hope) that crowd levels will be similar to last year.

 

[Microcell]

I think our dates were 9/8-9/16 last year and it was not crowded at all, and while hot, it rained every afternoon and the cloud cover was a welcome relief. The restaurants were busy though. No waits to speak of for anything not even Soarin!

 

[justplaingoofy]

I would not..

It is still the lowest park attendance.... I think you'll just notice that restaurants are much busier

 

[gypsydoodlebug]

I've been the last two years. The first year Sept. 11-15 it was DEAD!!! DEAD!!! Last year, it was a little more crowded, but we really only noticed the crowds in the restaurants. I think our longest wait was for the Jungle Cruise at MK for about 25 minutes, but that ride ALWAYS backs up.

We were booked for mid-October, which is still my preferred time, but I moved up to Sept. 22 for the additional $623 savings.

 

[ElizabethB]

If you're not participating in free dining, I think you should change your trip. Free dining makes the restaurants a crazed free for all, IMO.

 

[auntie]

We had a trip planned for Free Dining during it's last week..which was the first week in October. Never did the free dining before..and was trying to make ADR's back in June and was not able to secure ANYTHING in any of the spots we wanted to eat. I thought I gave myself enough time, but was because of the free dining the reservations were all booked. We are not picky as our kids are older...as to times that we eat. However eating dinner at 10:00 at night..no thanks. We did get calls from Disney on several occasions saying that they planned to open earlier for dinner and have resturants take later reservations for dinner. Honestly..it didn't appeal to me. I figured the free dining I was getting wasn't so free if I was already paying full rack rate for a room at the WL. I feel the free dining is a considerable savings and worth dealing with the crowds if you are staying value or even moderate. I would think with you being DVC and not being able to actually benefit from the free dining itself..I would change my reservation to a less crowded time. I know we wound up cancelling our reservation. I wasn't going to waste my table service credits to eat counter service. Didn't see the point of that..and not really any kind of savings if that's the case. We are rescheduled for a trip in May..I was lucky and received a pin code discount. We are using that and I'm still thinking on whether to add the dining or not. Probably will decide this this week. Of course we'd be paying for it. I have made ADR's for the period we will be there, and had no trouble what so ever.
If your dates are flexible and you will not benefit from the free dining..why bother to go when it's likely to be pretty crowded in the restaurants. Unless you have a 1 bedroom with a kitchen booked..and plan to eat in.

 

[ADP]

Keep in mind that the reason Disney is offering free dining is because rooms are not typically full during this time. Crowd levels should still be very low despite the great offer.

The offer may affect crowd levels some, but not enough to be very noticeable.

 

[auntie]

Maybe it is typically less crowded that time of year, however with the addition of the free dining to fill the rooms..they also fill the dining establishiments. If it wasn't going to be crowded the last week of the promotion then I have to wonder why we couldn't get reservations any where we wanted to eat. Believe me...I wasn't being picky in any way,shape or form as to where to eat. I thought that 3 mos. out was enough time to book an ADR..but with the free dining that wasn't the case. I guess if I had made reservations to eat at the 6 mos point, we would have been okay..but we didn't want to deal with the possibilty of overcrowded restaurants. Maybe the last week of the "free dining"(when we were scheduled to go) was more crowded than some of the other weeks. I personally wouldn't go during free dining, unless I were planning to take advantage of the promotion. If you are DVC and not able to take advantage of the promotion, I personally wouldn't put myself in that situation.

 

[thunderbird1]

If you can get most of the ADR's you want (and aren't likely to change them on a whim while you're there), or are happy with CS meals, off property restaurants or cooking in your DVC room, then I'd stick with your current plans. Mid-September is likely to still be relatively slow, and while free dining will book up the restaurants, it doesn't necessarily bring a lot more people into the parks. It may get some people who were planning to stay off-property into the resorts, but they would have been in the parks anyway. Have fun either way!

 

[ldmilton]

We were at WDW the last week of Sept/first week of Oct for Free Dining. We were able to get all of the TS ADR's we wanted and even changed two (added additional dinner at Boma and Yachtsman Steak) while we were there. Parks were not at all crowded our first week, but we noticed a real difference our second week with the beginning of Food and Wine Festival and the upcoming Columbus Day weekend.

We also didn't think any of the restaurants were crazy busy....but, it was just DH and I, so no character meals and ususally late ADR's may have made the difference.

I would keep the dates if it were me....just my $.02

 

[auntie]

We were scheduled to be 5 people..all adults (at least in size!). I'm sure that's why we may have had a harder time getting ADR's. I'm also inclined to think that if you are paying moderate or value, the dining is a much better deal. When you are paying full rack rate for a Deluxe resort, it becomes less of a "free experience". I honestly don't mind eating couter service, and we were doing the free dining to experience some of the spots we might not have ordinarilly. So when it looked as if we weren't going to be able to do that, we figured we'd wait until another time.
Oh..and it also didn't help that I had to pay $2300 that same month to have my daughters four wisdom teeth removed. That sort of pushed us over the edge to waiting for another time. Luckily for us we actually received a pin code mailer for May. We were planning to go at that time anyway, so this was a nice added bonus.
I would imagine that if it's only two people it would be easier to secure ADR's whether it's during the free promo or not.

 

[tink4ever]

Thank you everyone for your responses. I will talk to my DD and see what she wants to do but I probably will keep my ressie and go with the flow. I am so excited for our mother/daughter time (she is 20 yrs old so a salad by the pool will probably make her happy) in disney that I think I will just go anyway.