So how has your free dining experiences been?

[nurseypoo5]

Any issues? Any restaurants service not as good as when not free? Food quality? Crowds? Where have you eaten? Where you disappointed or extremely pleased at any particulair restaurant? How were the waites for your tables?

 

[nurseypoo5]

bumpity bump..anyone back yet??

 

[heidijot]

Good Morning,

My dh and I were on the DDP from 8/16-8/20 and truely enjoyed it!! We ate at Booma, 50's Prime Time Cafe, Coral Reef, and Crystal Palace for breakfast, and the Trails End. Our counter service was used at the AllStar Sports and the ABC Commisary (sp) We found the food to be good, great at Booma and really fun at the 50's Prime Time Cafe. Cousin Richard was hillarious We never had a very long wait and were even seated early if we checked in early. Our plan of attack was to arrive a little early and have a drink while we were waiting, we were travelling childless.And we were always seated promptly. Everyone was friendly and attentive, even though the restuarants were busy. On Saturday night we did have ADR's because we planned to go to the Boardwalk but around 2:00 in began to rain so my dh got on the phone to Disney Dining looking for availabilty. They asked for a time frame and then gave us quite a few choices of restaurants. We chose the Trails End because we felt like a buffet but we could have gone to Liberty Tavern, China and a few others.
I would suggest the plan to people who eat a lot because it is a good value.

Any questions, just ask and I'd be happy to reply!!

Heidi

 

[square pond]

Any issues? Any restaurants service not as good as when not free? Food quality? Crowds? Where have you eaten? Where you disappointed or extremely pleased at any particular restaurant? How were the waits for your tables?

We were at Disney last week on the free dining. All of our experiences were good except for LeCellier. First off it was packed, but we expected that. We felt extremely rushed. The food came out while my husband was still eating his soup and the waiter actually took it away while he was eating it! My fillet had the taste of an uncleaned grill so I only ate the potatoes. Glad I filled up on bread sticks and dessert. This could be an isolated incident but I am glad we did not pay out of our own pocket for this 130.00 dollar meal! Oh we did not have long waits anywhere and got into Whispering Canyon in about 20 min. without a ressie!

 

[mrsltg]

Not especially positive...

We were at the World from 8/14-8/21. Most meals felt rushed (with drinks, apps, entrees, and desserts, we were out of Kona in under 70 minutes), and at 'ohana we had to hunt the waiter down to bring the skewers a second time. The counter service was fine, as were the snacks. I do think the filling of the restaurants is having a negative impact on quality and service. We're going to have to stick to the signature restaurants from now on, I think.

 

[ReallyFunMom]

Not especially positive...

We were at the World from 8/14-8/21. Most meals felt rushed (with drinks, apps, entrees, and desserts, we were out of Kona in under 70 minutes), and at 'ohana we had to hunt the waiter down to bring the skewers a second time. The counter service was fine, as were the snacks. I do think the filling of the restaurants is having a negative impact on quality and service. We're going to have to stick to the signature restaurants from now on, I think.

Hmmm, with kids and not wanting to miss too much park time, I think a 70 min meal might work better for us. Its a 25min wait for a table that my crew would have a hard time with so if speeding up decreases waittime, I'm ok with that to a point.

 

[ctnurse]

Hmmm, with kids and not wanting to miss too much park time, I think a 70 min meal might work better for us. Its a 25min wait for a table that my crew would have a hard time with so if speeding up decreases waittime, I'm ok with that to a point.

I agree. With ds 2 70 mins would be great. We can keep him entertained for an hour.

 

[DisneyLover1091]

I heard that it is a disaster according to someone you have to have ADR or else it's not going to work.

 

[CathrynRose]

I agree. With ds 2 70 mins would be great. We can keep him entertained for an hour.

Heck - I got a 15 y/o and and a 11 y/o - and I'd still wanna be out in a hour!!

I hope they rush me!

 

[wdwobsessed]

The food came out while my husband was still eating his soup and the waiter actually took it away while he was eating it! My fillet had the taste of an uncleaned grill so I only ate the potatoes. Glad I filled up on bread sticks and dessert. This could be an isolated incident but I am glad we did not pay out of our own pocket for this 130.00 dollar meal!

OK ... I am putting on the flame retardant suit but I have to say something here ...

If a waiter tried to snag my soup out from under me whilst I was eating it I would say "Excuse me ... I was not done with that".

If my meat tasted bad I would say "My meat tastes funny ... I would like something else please"

I'm not bashing you by any means! Please make note of that!! I just feel frustrated when people walk away without being satisfied. We NEVER walk away without being satisfied.

Next time you get a bad dish or a bad server ... call them out on it! That only improves things for the next time!

WDWO

 

[Bev J]

We hate being rushed through a TS meal, I want to finish a course before something else is brought out. A good server should keep your meal paced out so you can enjoy it. And a server removing something before I am finished-not going to happen.
Just because you have 'free' dining does not mean you should have bad service or food...

Bev

 

[kbmoo]

We just got back from a 5 day trip on Monday. We had a fantastic time. Le Celliar was out favorite. Best restaurant meal I have ever had. We went to Japan, Boma's, california grill & Hollywood & Vine. We were very happy with all of the meals but Hollywood & vine. The only thing was we had to wait 10-20 some of our reservations. And all the places were really crowded. Good food, but we felt like we were at old country buffet. Noisy & crowded. But all our servers were wonderful and helpful. The food was just not very good at Hollywood & Vine. Dried out and bland food. But other than that we were thrilled with everything.

 

[n2mm]

Pretty much the same as other posters. We ate at Kona, Concourse, LeCellier, and Maya Grill. All of our servers were great, except Maya Grill. With ADRs we waited, 15 min. for Kona/20 min. for Concourse/15 min. for LeCellier/ and no wait for Maya Grill. All of our food was good and other than Maya Grill, our servers went above and beyond. Accommodating menu changes for me, recommending items, explaining the plan, and just going the extra mile. While the server at Maya wasn't awful, he just wasn't very friendly and seemed rushed, though they were not busy at all, the place was only about 25-30% full. He finally warmed up a little to us by the end of the meal. We never felt rushed and were never moved from one item to another until we were ready. We were in each place in just enough time to dine and relax an appropriate amount of time. We never encountered any problems using the ddp at all. We have used the ddp before, so knew what to expect. I was shocked at some of the things offered like smoothies and milk shakes, esp. at concourse. I think concourse had to be the most accommodating place we ate. The table next to us was using ddp credits, the dde and paying cash for the kids meals. The server had no problem understanding what they wanted to do and took care of the bill correctly. The server was telling the folks that the night earlier someone came in with leftover TS credits that they were not going to use, so asked if they could pay for other guests meals at the restraurant and they said it was no problem, so 15 people got to eat for free with someone's leftover credits. The servers thought this was great and very generous of the guest.

 

[wdwishes1990]

We just returned 8/12-8/20 overall the dining went well. Although I felt bad for those who did not have prioirity seating - there was nothing to be had!!
The only time we recieved even close to poor service was during the ohana breakfast - 1 waitress for a large area of table, it was tough getting anything even silverware. I noticed the cast members trying hard but I think that as a whole they were not prepared for the volume that they experienced. The biggest problem was the frequency of the "systems" going down and not being able to use snack options in the parks at various carts. One day for a while you could not use it at Epcot anywhere! That's difficult if your counting on using that handy dandy card - carry some cash with you just in case!

 

[hegs65]

We just returned from our trip 8/15-8/21 and the only trouble we had was at the Whispering Canyon Cafe. Their computers were down so we had to charge our meal to our credit card and then we had to go to our resorts conceriege to have them credit us back the amount. We had relatively no waits for any of our TS meals. We ate at 1900 Park Fare, Kona, LTT (lunch and dinner) Lecellier, WPC, and WCC and found the service was great at every place except at WCC. Because of the computer problem, this meal took 2 1/2 hours-way too long!!!! Plus, our waitress was a little flaky to say the least.

Oh, also wanted to say that because of a VERY BAD dining experience (not service related) at one of the above mentioned restaurants, we had 7 extra ts credits left on our last full day so we called disney dining and had no problem getting an adr for lunch at LTT.

 

[disnut1149]

Hi
We just got back last night. We were there from 8/17 to 8/22, and I have to say that the free dining was awesome. We ate at CP, 1900 Park Fare, O'hanas, Chef Mickeys, and Mama Melroses. We were NEVER rushed. My DGD 3 1/2 had so much fun at O'hanas, that the waitress told us to take our time and we did. My DD and I had tried several mixed drinks, so maybe that's why she wasn't rushing us. We had really good service and everyone was really nice to us. I hope they have the free dining again next year.

 

[Hoosier Mom]

So about what time does all the rushing begin?

We made our dinner ADR's for 4:30 pm. We have a toddler and want to get in and out fairly easily.

Our lunches are for 11:20.

 

[debbie655]

We had the free dining Aug 13-17. We ate at Concourse Steakhouse, O'Hanas, Sci-Fi, and Spoodles. O'Hana's sticks out in my mind as our longest wait time, probably close to 30 minutes. Our service was fine except for Sci-Fi, but I didn't relate that to the fact that we were on the dining plan but to the fact that the servers were really busy. At Spoodles, our waitress apologized for our desserts being delayed saying that everyone was on the dining plan and they very busy in the back decorating all the desserts...no problem. We never felt rushed and all food was good except for Sci-Fi. Most of our reservations were for 8pm or later except for the Sci-Fi Dine in.

While sitting outside the Sci-Fi waiting for our table, there were so many families being turned away because they didn't have reservations. They were also being told that there was no availability anywhere on Disney for the whole week. That is probably why Disney was offering a "special gift" if you used to TS at a CS restaurant. There was one woman who walked up complaining that she had booked a package at the last minute and what good was it if she couldn't get in anywhere to eat...I felt really bad for her. Even the girl at the podium outside said that her parents were coming down there in October and she warned them to get reservations NOW. I would never go down without ADRs after seeing what I saw last week.

 

[square pond]

OK ... I am putting on the flame retardant suit but I have to say something here ...

If a waiter tried to snag my soup out from under me whilst I was eating it I would say "Excuse me ... I was not done with that".

If my meat tasted bad I would say "My meat tastes funny ... I would like something else please"

I'm not bashing you by any means! Please make note of that!! I just feel frustrated when people walk away without being satisfied. We NEVER walk away without being satisfied.

Next time you get a bad dish or a bad server ... call them out on it! That only improves things for the next time!

WDWO

wdwobsessed, I don't feel you are bashing me. I have always had a little paranoia about sending back meals since my husband cooked for years in restaurants and has seen many a horrid thing done to peoples food when it has been sent back. He has never personally done this but has always stuck to the policy never send back your food. He says a lot of cooks find this to be an insult. (especially in a busy situation) I probably should at least asked to have my meal credit back and mentioned the rushed service but I am a little on the shy side and hate to make a scene. I will try to speak up next time.

 

[frozone]

wdwobsessed, I don't feel you are bashing me. I have always had a little paranoia about sending back meals since my husband cooked for years in restaurants and has seen many a horrid thing done to peoples food when it has been sent back. He has never personally done this but has always stuck to the policy never send back your food. He says a lot of cooks find this to be an insult. (especially in a busy situation) I probably should at least asked to have my meal credit back and mentioned the rushed service but I am a little on the shy side and hate to make a scene. I will try to speak up next time.

Yeah, but ultimately it's your vacation. Sometimes when I'm on vacation, I'd rather just go with the flow and not deal with any potential conflict.