who did free DDP last Aug? how bad were crowds?

[lillygator]

interesting to read....this is our first time on the free dining and we're checking in day one....if it's too hot and crowded we'll just head to one of the water parks and lie around! Luckily we have our ADR's!

 

[missycj96]

We were there for free dining mid august. The crowds weren't too bad and there was less rain then usual. Still its hot so plan plenty of pool time.

You MUST make TS reservations if you want to eat dinner at a good TS restaurant at a normal dinner hour. I didn't want to be tied down so I thought I would go without ADRs. But after reading the boards, about 2 weeks out I got nervous and started to make reservations. Everything was booked, but I persevered and made early reservations (with a baby that worked anyway). It ended up working out great for us but it took work on the phone before I left. I called once I was down there to try to change a few things or switch and for the popular restaurants you could forget it. So make sure you make reservations for dinners. Other than the sit down restaurants being full, the parks and hotel didn't seem any more crowded than normal.

 

[M-I-C-K-E-Y]

I remember waiting for our name to be called at Liberty Tree last August and hearing a British lady attempting to get a table for her group. They had absolutely nothing for her, and after ten minutes of frustration, she gave up. Next, she asked whether there was anything available for another date, about eight days later. All that she could get was a late seating, somewhere around 9:15PM, if memory serves me. If the urgency of making those ADRs well in advance was ever doubted, that was a prime example...

 

[deltachi8]

Was there late August in 06, 05, 04, 03 and 01. The only difference i noticed in 05 and 06 (with free dnig) is the table service places were booked and crowded with no walk ins being accepted. Other than that, the parks were slow.

 

[deltachi8]

We were there for the last 2 weeks of August. We PAID for our dining plan for 5 people for 13 days and were aggravated beyond belief trying to use it. All of the restaurants were full. In several cases, we had to wait considerably longer than quoted (90 minutes over the time of our 'reservation' at Coral Reef). The wait staff was frazzled from the onslaught of guest with the 'free' dining plan. The quality and choice of food was substantially downgraded. We heard many complaints from the cast members over the 2 weeks that they (Disney) were not prepared/staffed for the tidal wave of patrons using the free dining plan. It was NOT a pleasant experience.

Interesting, the longest wait we had (Aug 22-29)was about 20 minutes for a table and we felt the service across the board was supurb as was the food. The table service places were fully booked however.

 

[Alicnwondrln]

we were there last year from the 13th to the 23rd and they were not bad at all

 

[pooch]

We were there for the last 2 weeks of August. We PAID for our dining plan for 5 people for 13 days and were aggravated beyond belief trying to use it. All of the restaurants were full. In several cases, we had to wait considerably longer than quoted (90 minutes over the time of our 'reservation' at Coral Reef). The wait staff was frazzled from the onslaught of guest with the 'free' dining plan. The quality and choice of food was substantially downgraded. We heard many complaints from the cast members over the 2 weeks that they (Disney) were not prepared/staffed for the tidal wave of patrons using the free dining plan. It was NOT a pleasant experience.

Although we also had a rather long wait at Coral Reef (partly our fault, we got there early too), we never encountered frazzled waitstaff. Everyone was uniformly sociable and efficient. It they were indeed frazzled, they handled it with humor and we went out our way to return the friendliness. I have found the best way to get good service is to be a good patron! I can't wait to do FD again!!!

 

[MEK]

I have done the dining plan the last 2 Augusts (2005 - 2006). The restaurants were crowded, but we were seated quickly everywhere except Coral Reef (1/2 hour wait). The service was excellent everywhere and I did not have one bad meal. the park crowds were low. Of course it's hot - it's August. Be prepared for that and bring water to drink.

 

[ldo]

yes, when I called last week, all they had for Coral Reef at normal dinner hours was 5:00 or 6:40 during 8/26 week---bet they are now booked even more. With young kids---advanced ADRs are a necessity for us---we simply can't eat at 9 PM.
Also, when I was at Epcotover Easter, there were no walk-ins at Le Cellier unless we wanted to separate into a party of 2 and a party of 3 and wait 1 hr+. No big deal, we weren't planning on it and didn't have DDP----but I would be very upest if I got to WDW with DDP and couldn't get any TS meals.