Worth avoiding free dining times?

[HiHoWeGo]

I have read that free dining offers are really packing WDW; resorts, restaurants, and parks! Is it worth avoiding stays during free dining offers? I really value low crowds (we've gone twice in early December) and we really wouldn't get much out of free dining ourselves.

What do you think?

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Disney offers free dining during their lowest crowd periods to try increase attendance and specifically increase people staying on property.

Many of the time periods where free dining is offered are still the best time to go. If you make restaurant ADRs well in advance you won't have a problem finding a time to eat at most restaurants. The most popular restaurants (i.e. BOG) will fill up at 180 days regardless of free dining.

 

[ZoZo]

While table service restaurants will be very busy during free dining, the parks won't be. Free dining doesn't boost overall attendance significantly, as the PP said.

These periods are still a great time to go (especially September!) - just be sure to make any dining reservations well in advance, since they book up very far in advance due to the number of people on the dining plan.

 

[HiHoWeGo]

Thanks for the feedback. Sounds like its not really worth working hard, or sacrificing an otherwise desirable period, to avoid free dining.

 

[lustergirl]

We have enjoyed the free dining promo in September many times. The resorts weren't packed but if you didn't make ADRS in advance you might of been out of luck.

 

[Missytara]

As PP's reported, FD doesn't boost attendance; it allows people to upgrade to another level of resort or another category or take a savings.

It allows people who are staying off-site to move into the values, but they don't have the regular dining plan, so they don't have TS unless they pay for the upgrade. Those on the dining plan for the first time might not be savvy enough to be looking for the most expensive options to get the best bang for your buck and will most likely go for convenience. That still leaves the options where you can book the most expensive places for 1TS, at the resorts, and leave the parks to the first timers.

 

[sharadoc]

The past couple of years had free dining in December so if you've been there during that time, you've already experienced the crowd level. We were there this year and last year during FD in November and December and it seemed to have no major impact on park crowds, just more folks in restaurants.

Hoping for it again this year for our November trip!

 

[MakiraMarlena]

Restaurants, yes.

Resorts and parks, no.

They offer the promotions to help get more rooms booked at the resorts. More guests at the resorts does not equal packed parks. Even though WDW has a lot of hotels, even if each hotel was completely full with the complete capacity of each room, it would still be a very small percentage of the capacity of the four theme parks. If you are seeing massive crowds at the parks, they are coming from someplace other than the Disney resorts.

They only offer the promotions at a time when resort occupancy is on a downturn anyway - and they don't offer the promotion for every room in a given resort. So not everybody at each resort will be on free dining; most of the resorts will not be completely full, either.

 

[Nancyg56]

I like Free dining periods. The parks are not crowded due to the offer, although as others have observed, the restaurants are. If you are going to take advantage, make sure you book your ADR's because this offer is not a savings if you cannot get into a restaurant.