Will Free Dining make it less crowded...

[hrh_disney_queen]

...the week before it starts? Just wondered what you thought. Free Dining starts on Aug 26 (is that right or close?), and I read somewhere that the first week or so of Free Dining is crazy buzy. That made me think that maybe people would be waiting for that and not be there right before it starts...I know wishful thinking on my part, just curious..

Whaddyathink?

 

[JustineMarie]

If it's wishful thinking, I'm right there with you.

 

[hrh_disney_queen]

If it's wishful thinking, I'm right there with you.

Sometimes that's all we have! Is there a fingers crossed smiley?

 

[aubriee]

Don't forget the Bounce Back and UK Programs for free dining both start in early August, before free dining for the general public, so they will all be there. Also I've read that quite a few people went ahead and booked all during early August through the very end of Sept hoping for free dining. After they found out that free dining started later and ended sooner than it did last year, they were still stuck, due to already having vacations scheduled at work and nonrefundable airfares.

Now saying all of that, I hope you guys are right. I was able to book free dining via the Bounce Back Program and purposely chose the last possible check in date of Sept 29th for the MNSSHP and the Food & Wine Festival. When the dates for free dining for the general public came out, my first thought was that people who normally go the first week in October will move their dates back a week or two in order to take advantage of free dining. I'm really hoping that's true and that the first couple of weeks after the general free dining ends the parks will be empty.

 

[kmjmom]

I'm hoping for the less crowded feel too!

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Well, since all of the resorts are booked solid I am not thinking "less crowded" will be what we encounter, but you never know!

 

[FINFAN]

I can offer you our experience August of '06....free dinind began on 8/13 and we arrived 8/11. Stayed at POP first 3 nights, Polynesian remaining 7 nights. When we arrived on the 11th , the parks were not "empty" by any means, but just right...enough people to have all the carts open, characters around...perfect level of activity, maybe 15 minute waits for things, 25 tops for the biggies like TT or SM...certainly do-able, stress-free, we were having a loveley time, busses not bad from POP, maybe had to wait for 2nd one leaviing in the a.m. for MK, everything else fine. Then, on the 13th...the floodgates opened. When we arrived at POP we had 3 people in line ahead of us for check-in, we had used DME, everything was smooth as could be. We went to the food ourt the morning of the 13th and we could see the masses lined up for check-in already ay at 8 a.m.! Now I know many folks arrived on the 12th, and then were re-checking in on the 13th under the free dining offer, but this was nuts. I also know the the Value resorts we the best economical savings under free dining, so I thought, well sure, it's crowded here, but maybe the Mods/Deluxes aren't as bad....WRONG! We went to MGM on the 13th ( mostly based on our ADR at Sci-Fi) and the place was mobbed. I think we noticed it since we had had such low crowds the 2 days prior. When we returned to Pop at about 9 pm still on the 13th...the line for check-in was STILL huge. I asked a CM if it had been like that all day, and he said the resort holds over 2,000....and they had over 1,100 check in that day alone.... ....
Now, the parks are well equiped to handle crowds, but AK and EE being so popular, you had to have a FP by 10 a.m or you were out of luck for the remainder of the day. We have been to WDW 5 times and with the awesome guidance of these boards have not planned our trips without knowledge. Yes, we winged some areas of the trip, but had to make some adjustments on timing to be able to keep our ADR's and allow ample ( 90 minutes) to get to where we were going to eat. We experienced the monorails backing up using 25 extra minutes of time, but not a problem overall daily, but it did happen twice...busses will be more crowded...
In a nut shell, I think you will have crowds, but not to the level of the first 2 weeks of free dining. Once school starts and Labor Day are past, then it will be sweet during free dining. If we were able to go again, I would have booked the week PRIOR to free dining just as you did...we enjoyed some great restaurants that we would never have gone to...free dining allowed us to enjoy both a deluxe resort and deluxe food at the same time...something we have never done before, and it was wonderful...however we did have to schedule ourselves around the ADR's as there was NOTHING availabel for those who did not thave them...EVERY place we were eating at was turning folks away, it was so hard to watch day after day...and the CS places were mobbed. We left on the 21st, so things may have dropped off after that, but all the CM's we talked to had said the 2 weeks PRIOR to Free dining were "dead"...that not everything ( carts, street entertainment etc.) was even needed to be open. Now I like having enough folks to have the place hopping, I like the action, so maybe I am not the best judge...but the fact that I thought it was mobbed and would not go during Free dining again is pretty significant in my kids eyes.
I hope your strategy works in your favor, please post when you get back as we would like to plan a "pre-dining" trip next summer to celebrate our kids graduating H.S and Middle school...no $ after that...college you know! Anyway, have an awesome time, we still enjoyed the heck out of ourselves and would have rather been than not been...we had 10 day tix and used them all up...I thought we would have a day or 2 left, but ended up using them as the crowds did alter us a bit.

Have a blast!


Pam

 

[tasha99]

UG's crowd calendar has the week prior to free dining all at 6. The first week of free dining is one 4, one 6 and the rest 5's. The day after Labor Day is a 4. I'm too lazy to go get my book to login to check further, but I'd guess it will be 4's and 5's.

 

[lauritagoddess]

I'm hoping the first week of free dining isn't that crowded since that's when we're going, but I had booked that week long before the free dining came out. It was a great week to go last year since so many kids are already back at school. I don't think we waited more than 20-30 minutes max for anything. I think it will probably be similar this year, you can't get around school start dates (luckily my son's school doesn't start until after Labor Day). I imagine that all the resorts and restaurants will be crazy, but the parks I don't think will be too crowded.

 

[Skroops]

We went last year during the free dining promotion (both this year and last not actually using the free dining but the room-only discounts) and it seemed that the sit down dining was crowded but the parks...not so much.

Infact, Mama Melroses' at MGM had a sign out that said there were no tables available and they wouldn't even take your name for stand-by!

We used fast passes, went to the parks early, and used Tour Guide Mikes' best park for the day advice and we were fine. The crowds weren't nearly as crowded as our last July visit!

Good luck!

 

[bigbabyblues]

I don't know, but free dining coincides with the public schools starting here, and my DS starts back a week before that.

 

[hrh_disney_queen]

I can offer you our experience August of '06....free dinind began on 8/13 and we arrived 8/11. Stayed at POP first 3 nights, Polynesian remaining 7 nights. When we arrived on the 11th , the parks were not "empty" by any means, but just right...enough people to have all the carts open, characters around...perfect level of activity, maybe 15 minute waits for things, 25 tops for the biggies like TT or SM...certainly do-able, stress-free, we were having a loveley time, busses not bad from POP, maybe had to wait for 2nd one leaviing in the a.m. for MK, everything else fine. Then, on the 13th...the floodgates opened. When we arrived at POP we had 3 people in line ahead of us for check-in, we had used DME, everything was smooth as could be. We went to the food ourt the morning of the 13th and we could see the masses lined up for check-in already ay at 8 a.m.! Now I know many folks arrived on the 12th, and then were re-checking in on the 13th under the free dining offer, but this was nuts. I also know the the Value resorts we the best economical savings under free dining, so I thought, well sure, it's crowded here, but maybe the Mods/Deluxes aren't as bad....WRONG! We went to MGM on the 13th ( mostly based on our ADR at Sci-Fi) and the place was mobbed. I think we noticed it since we had had such low crowds the 2 days prior. When we returned to Pop at about 9 pm still on the 13th...the line for check-in was STILL huge. I asked a CM if it had been like that all day, and he said the resort holds over 2,000....and they had over 1,100 check in that day alone.... ....
Now, the parks are well equiped to handle crowds, but AK and EE being so popular, you had to have a FP by 10 a.m or you were out of luck for the remainder of the day. We have been to WDW 5 times and with the awesome guidance of these boards have not planned our trips without knowledge. Yes, we winged some areas of the trip, but had to make some adjustments on timing to be able to keep our ADR's and allow ample ( 90 minutes) to get to where we were going to eat. We experienced the monorails backing up using 25 extra minutes of time, but not a problem overall daily, but it did happen twice...busses will be more crowded...
In a nut shell, I think you will have crowds, but not to the level of the first 2 weeks of free dining. Once school starts and Labor Day are past, then it will be sweet during free dining. If we were able to go again, I would have booked the week PRIOR to free dining just as you did...we enjoyed some great restaurants that we would never have gone to...free dining allowed us to enjoy both a deluxe resort and deluxe food at the same time...something we have never done before, and it was wonderful...however we did have to schedule ourselves around the ADR's as there was NOTHING availabel for those who did not thave them...EVERY place we were eating at was turning folks away, it was so hard to watch day after day...and the CS places were mobbed. We left on the 21st, so things may have dropped off after that, but all the CM's we talked to had said the 2 weeks PRIOR to Free dining were "dead"...that not everything ( carts, street entertainment etc.) was even needed to be open. Now I like having enough folks to have the place hopping, I like the action, so maybe I am not the best judge...but the fact that I thought it was mobbed and would not go during Free dining again is pretty significant in my kids eyes.
I hope your strategy works in your favor, please post when you get back as we would like to plan a "pre-dining" trip next summer to celebrate our kids graduating H.S and Middle school...no $ after that...college you know! Anyway, have an awesome time, we still enjoyed the heck out of ourselves and would have rather been than not been...we had 10 day tix and used them all up...I thought we would have a day or 2 left, but ended up using them as the crowds did alter us a bit.

Have a blast!


Pam

Wow! You have summed up exactly what I was curious about. This is a very last minute trip, and I did not plan it around the free dining..actually it didn't occur to me that the FD would increase crowds to a frenzy until I read the other day about the first two weeks being crazy. So then I got to thinking that maybe if all those people were waiting for the beginning of FD, there wouldn't be as many in the prior week. I am not as gregarious as you are, I want the entire park all to myself... ...but I guess a few more people can be there if they just stay off the rides I want to go on... but seriously, I am just happy to be there, too...with a little planning we can go on everything that is necessary to make it a great trip...thank you so much for giving such a detailed report about this, I really appreciate it!

Thanks to everyone else, too for your thoughts. I will definitely post about the crowds when we get back!!

 

[raven69david]

Is there a fingers crossed smiley?

 

[ldo]

last year, many school were still out for the 1st week of free DDP. This year, more schools, including Fla are back in session, b/c the general public free DDP doesn't start until 8/26. We are going 3 days before free DDP then staying for 4 more after that--so here's hoping for smaller crowds.

 

[LAS321]

We arrived last year 3 days before free dining started and were there 6 days during it. When we arrived there were only a few others checking in. We walked right up to the counter and were heading to our room in no time. The day free dining began, we stopped in the Custom House to have our cards changed over for the DDP. We were shocked to see the crowds of people and long lines waiting to check in. It was pretty much like that everywhere we went for the rest of our stay. We felt there was enough of a difference that this year we opted to pay for the DDP and go the week before the madness begins!

 

[Goofymommaof2]

Last year we were not aware of the free dining plan (silly us!!!) and we arrived a few days b4 it started. It was not crowded at all. I was wondering why....THEN a few days later you could hardly walk around. So yes, I do think it is a less crowded time of the year.

 

[swim-mom]

I am going to WDW from Sept 19-26, that should be OK for the crowds right?


Every school is back in session, but the ADR are booked. I think that they are only at 1/2 staff which maybe why the food is booked?

Make sense?

 

[cccm]

I'm hoping for the less crowded feel too!

kmjmom - DD and I will be at WDW same time as you for our Mother Daughter Trip. Have a great trip!

 

[AStamm]

We leave on Friday for our free DDP courtesy of the Bounce Back program. I wouldn't hold my breath thinking that it won't be crowded the week before free DDP is open to the general public since Bounce Back and UK dining starts earlier. I always prefer to go with the "worst case" scenario for crowds and be pleasantly surprised when they are lighter than I imagined.

 

[kidslvdizny2]

We will be there the 17th-23rd hoping for the same thing .We are paying for the dining plan as well. lets keep our fingers crossed. I had read about horror stories of no seating available.

Kidslvdizny2