Table Service Time?

[jabuller]

We are planning to go to Disney either in Sept or Oct. Last time we did not stay on site, but I am debating it this time since our kids are 2,3 and still can use a break in the afternoon. Since "free" dining is offered in September I am trying to research a bit about that. We are looking at staying at the Poly so we would have a table service meal included in our daily allowance. How true are the reservations to the time you actually sit down? How fast is Disney service? About how long can I expect to be in a table service meal? Longer than your typical sit down meal? I'm trying to decide if this is really worth it to our family. We do enjoy eating, but DH isn't an adventurous eater and eating isn't the focus of our trips. I would like to think that a table service meal could be a nice chance to take a bit of down time and be able to "recharge" between activities, but my fear is that it might become something where we are just spending a lot of time waiting for our table, food, etc and it might turn into the opposite of relaxing with a 2 and 3 year old.

 

[Cafeen]

We are planning to go to Disney either in Sept or Oct. Last time we did not stay on site, but I am debating it this time since our kids are 2,3 and still can use a break in the afternoon. Since "free" dining is offered in September I am trying to research a bit about that. We are looking at staying at the Poly so we would have a table service meal included in our daily allowance. How true are the reservations to the time you actually sit down? How fast is Disney service? About how long can I expect to be in a table service meal? Longer than your typical sit down meal? I'm trying to decide if this is really worth it to our family. We do enjoy eating, but DH isn't an adventurous eater and eating isn't the focus of our trips. I would like to think that a table service meal could be a nice chance to take a bit of down time and be able to "recharge" between activities, but my fear is that it might become something where we are just spending a lot of time waiting for our table, food, etc and it might turn into the opposite of relaxing with a 2 and 3 year old.

A lot depends on where you go and when your ADR is. Disney restaurants CAN get backed up pretty easily, and I always expect at least a 15-20 minute wait after check-in.

You can usually average about 60 minutes from the time you sit down until the time you are done. There is a bit of variance in here as well, but over the past few years, that's been about my average (mine may be a bit less, since I'm usually alone).

However, while looking at the Free Dining Plan promotion at the Poly, I'd also look into the room discounts. You may end up better off with a room discount even while paying for the dining plan!

For example, a Sept 21-28 (this is the last date that the room discounts are available) trip at a Garden View at Poly would be ~$422x5 + $452 + $511 or $3,073*1.125 (tax) = ~3457. The savings on the free dining would be roughly $55.59x6x2 + 17.16x6 = 770.04, still at a total of $3457 + tickets. A 20% (doh, they limited it for the Poly) discount would turn the first number into ~2765, plus the 770 would be 3535.60... so...um, yeah. You'd still be slightly better off doing FD over room discount in this case! Note, if you were at Yacht, Beach, Boardwalk, WL, Contemporary, or AKL...they get a 30% room rate discount, so the math would likely work out in favor of the discount + buying the plan vs using Free Dining.