Your thoughts on Free Dining?

csharpwv

DIS Veteran
Joined
May 30, 2009
This thread was moved from the DVC page without regard to the fact that it was intended as a solicitation of opinion from DVC members.
 
"Free Dining" is a tool that is used by Disney to increase attendance during forecasted low attendance periods. As a result, attendance is higher during this period, everywhere.

Free dining and the DDP have both affected the quality and quantity of food being offered. Chefs and Managers have a more restricted budget and the menu items have to allow for a faster table turn over. Disney doesn't want you to sit and enjoy your meal, they want you gone so the next guy can be served. Pacos Bill's in the MK had new chairs installed last year that were designed to be more uncomfortable with the backs removed. Guests were sitting for too long after they had finished eating. :scared1:

:earsboy: Bill
 
Wow!! thats a list.

Not sure about free dining because but when teh dining plan was first introduced, yes it did offer the appertizer and gratuity.

We've never done free dining as, even if we were not using our dvc points we would stay deluxe. Whenever we stay deluxe the discount on the room has always been a better deal than free dining.

I guess I'm probably one of the more vocal critics of wdw food lately. At best I think its mediocre, I have had some meals that bordered on down right bad. Now whether or not that's due to free dining, I don't know.

Yep, I think disney will always have to offer free dining. I think disney has placed itself in a no win situation with the abudance of discounts. It's like the retail stores, now coupons and sales are almost daily. Where once you had maybe 3 or 4 annual sales, stores have them weekly at the very least. I no longer even shop unless there is a sale, it's a vicious cycle because even when the economy improves I won't shop without a sale.
Same with disney, as much as I love the world and I do, without my dvc would I ever pay rack rate for the quality disney offers. No way, no how. are you kidding, especially with a waldorf right at its door steps. I stayed at the waldorf last November and believe me quality wise it blows the world off the map. Now a rumored 4 season is to open.

So in my mind, disney is stuck with offering discounts.

Now you have to take my comments with a grain of salt. I always drive so disney transportation is not a big incentive for me to pay rack rate just to get bus service and rarely do we do rope drop so morning EMH's are also not that high priority for me.
 
So many questions! :)

So-called "Free Dining" is a discount program that allows Disney to charge more for their resort rooms and to operate their resorts at a higher occupancy rate, especially when demand would otherwise be down. Disney is a business and apparently "Free Dining" has proven to be a successful way to fill rooms and increase overall revenue.

"Free Dining" is likely to continue to be back year after year, even if the economy gets much better. When the economy is better, the time periods when free dining is offered are likely to be shortened, and the room rates are likely to go up.

Disney can do what they want. They're a business. They own many of the restaurants at WDW, and they work out contracts with most of the restaurants that they don't own.

I wish the restaurants had to succeed based on the quality of their food and service, and the value received by guests. Instead, the restaurants are pretty much guaranteed a bunch of filled seats, and they can improve their P&L by lowering their costs. That's not a way to assure great meals.

But that's how it is.

Fortunately, it's still possible to dine well at WDW. And with a rental car, there are now more good places to dine within a fairly short drive from DVC resorts than ever before.
 


Oh, one last thing, the value of any thing is of course subjective.

For myself and my family generally our TS meals are extremely important. we love sitting down at the end of the day at a great meal and going over the end of the day. We laugh, talk and generally really connect. unlike at home where the tv may be on, some one may be websurfing and the kids may be texting away.

So saving 15 bucks on a meal is not as big priority as leaving the restaurant satisfied. 90% of the time when I leave a disney restaurant If you ask us how our meal was we'll say "eh, it was ok". I absolutely hate that. So for us, even with the dollar savings it was of little value.
 
Ok, so I've been having a heated debate with a co-worker about this topic.



As DVC members - What do you think about free dining?

Do you think that it has lowered the food quality at WDW?Absolutely! Food used to be interesting and authentic to the culture it represented at Disney. Now it's all generic and "plastic" (my word for run of the mill buffet food).

Do you think free dining attracts a different crowd to WDW?Maybe.

Do you think Value resort stays should qualify for free dining at all?I don't think there should be free dining, so I don't see why ANY resort should qualify.

Do you think that it packs the restaurants 'too' full?Absolutely!

Does the lack of available dining reservations during free dining periods annoy you?Yes and no. I find we can still get in as a walk up to places like Teppan Edo etc, if we go at off times. The thing that annoys me most is not being able to get my favorite Signature/White table cloth place. Of course the real issue is that when I do get into my favorite signature, it's filled will very young screaming and running youngsters who are with their parents on free dining. These are restaurants that would not normally see very young children during most stays. I have no problem with children in restaurants, but when I want to spend a quiet ADULT evening with my spouse at a restaurant where we intend to spend a couple hundred on our meal, I do NOT want to have to talk over screaming children or have them coming up to my table. Yes, those things and worse have happened to us at places like Jiko and Artist Point during Free dining.

Do you think it is a promotion that Disney will continue to offer after this year?Unfortunately, yes. I sure hope they don't though. Unfortunately, the quality will NOT return even if they do away with the free dining.

Is the value of the promotion as high as what it is perceived to be?

Have you had any free dining horror stories (overcrowded restaurants, lower quality of food, extremely large parties with WILD kids)?

I'm just curious to hear what other people with a high affinity for Disney think about this promotion that some love, and some love to hate! LOL

Does anyone know how long free dining has been offered? Not exactly sure, but I think it's been about 5 years now.

Was it ever offered when the gratuity and appetizer were included?Yes, it started with gratuity being included and you could choose between either an appetizer or a dessert.

Thanks for any and all feedback!:thumbsup2
I have answered in the body of your post, since I felt it was easier to do that way.
 


My thoughts are I believe the "free dining" has significantly increased the prices for those who do not take this option.

For example Cape May averaged out to be $55 per person (with a couple of drinks).

Meals I used to pay $28 (which I thought was high) are now at $45.

I believe the portions are smaller as well.
 
I have answered in the body of your post, since I felt it was easier to do that way.

Hear...hear Diane.

HATE Free Dining and ALL DINING PLANS. The quantity of unique dining experiences has declined, and those that are non-themed, basic restaurants may as well be TGIFridays.

:mad:
 
There are dishes, meals, and particular restaurant experiences that I and my family enjoy at Disney. These things add to my family's vacation, and we look forward to Breakfast with Stitch as much as we look forward to riding Toy Story together. I have usually been able to get a specific restaurant for each trip, and I have been at Disney during free dining.

I've read many posts on other than DVC boards telling how much money people have saved using the free dining promotion, so I don't think it's just a perceived savings, I think there are some savings for certain families. I think Disney vacations are so expensive that any savings for families is good.

I do not always go to Disney with my DGC, but it is true when they come, it seems that Disney is just about a perfect place to be with children and enjoy the place that Mouse built. We have never felt rushed to make way for the next party, of course maybe there were hints we never got! Free dining has not diminished our enjoyment of WDW, including eating at the restaurants we enjoy.
 
Free dining? You mean actually eat on Disney property?

Gave up on that a long time ago (did free a couple of times, but that's free and several years ago).

We much prefer going off site or getting some foods that we really love and cooking.

We considered getting the DDxDP for one night. After looking at the menues, decided even that wasn't worth it.
 
I'm probably in the minority here, but then again, I'm probably not a very typical DVC owner either. First of all, I didn't start going to WDW until 2 years ago, so I have nothing to compare the food to. All I know is that we enjoy the restaurants very much, and as a single mom, dining out is my #1 vacation treat (second only to using WDW transportation and not having to drive - which also means we're not going offsite.) I don't mind fixing simple breakfasts in the room and I love having the kitchen for sandwiches & snacks, and the big fridge for keeping cases of water cold. But I'm not at all likely to fix a full fledged dinner in the villa.

I do enjoy the space in a one BR villa, but we can handle a hotel room for a long weekend. As you can see by my ticker, we booked a free dining trip for Labor Day weekend. The value of the dining plan for me and 2 kids that WDW considers adults is appx $138 a day. Subtract that from the rack rate of the room, and it's like paying about $30 a day to stay at a moderate. I would never book free dining at a deluxe or a villa, as that is definitely not a good value. But at the moderate level, I don't think it's a bad deal at all - we can "rough it" for one trip. But I can certainly see where this probably isn't something most DVC members with larger families would consider. We're also getting one last trip out of our AP's, so I don't mind getting the 2 day tickets and setting them aside for our December trip (when I will upgrade them to 10 day non-expiring water park and more tickets!)

The bottom line for me is that I'm going to be eating at WDW restaurants regardless, whether I'm using TiW, getting the dining plan, or paying out of pocket. So an occasional free dining trip is a welcome option for me.
 
My thoughts

Ok, so I've been having a heated debate with a co-worker about this topic.



As DVC members - What do you think about free dining?

Do you think that it has lowered the food quality at WDW? Yes, some of my favourite meals have either disappeared or changed so much that I no longer enjoy them as much.

Do you think free dining attracts a different crowd to WDW?

Do you think Value resort stays should qualify for free dining at all?In the UK they don't. You can only get free QS plan at a moderate and the DDP at a deluxe.

Do you think that it packs the restaurants 'too' full?

Does the lack of available dining reservations during free dining periods annoy you? I've always booked in advance so never had a problem.

Do you think it is a promotion that Disney will continue to offer after this year? I can't see them stopping it anytime soon. It's now offered for a majority of the year for us in the UK, rather than that small window of opportunity in the fall. Next year UK residents can book with free dining for all of January, most of February and then every date from May 1st until 18th November.

Is the value of the promotion as high as what it is perceived to be? It depends on the size of the party and whether one would order in the same way if they were paying for the food.

Have you had any free dining horror stories (overcrowded restaurants, lower quality of food, extremely large parties with WILD kids)? No

I'm just curious to hear what other people with a high affinity for Disney think about this promotion that some love, and some love to hate! LOL

Does anyone know how long free dining has been offered? I booked a free dining trip in September/October 2005. It was available for a window of about 5 weeks and we received appetiser, entree and dessert, as well as gratuities included.

Was it ever offered when the gratuity and appetizer were included?See previous response.

Thanks for any and all feedback!:thumbsup2
 
I'll hit this question by question:

As DVC members - What do you think about free dining?
-I feel indifferently about it.

Do you think that it has lowered the food quality at WDW?
-In my experience the quality of food has been the same.

Do you think free dining attracts a different crowd to WDW?
-Most definitely. Food is probably one of the largest expenses when it comes to a vacation (depending on how upscale the room is), so to offer that as free, it is a huge discount that encourages people to come that otherwise may have stayed home. It certainly persuades me to go!

Do you think Value resort stays should qualify for free dining at all?
-I think if they're going to do free dining, that they offer only QSDP for Value resort guests is fair.

Do you think that it packs the restaurants 'too' full?
-My family and I have not experienced that problem so far, but then we go down in low crowd seasons too.

Does the lack of available dining reservations during free dining periods annoy you?
-Again, never experienced a problem there, but we also try to book as far in advance as we can.

Do you think it is a promotion that Disney will continue to offer after this year?
-Depends on how long the economy remains in bad shape.

Is the value of the promotion as high as what it is perceived to be?
-It saved a family of 5 going for 7 nights in January about $1200. So that's definitely a good deal!

Have you had any free dining horror stories (overcrowded restaurants, lower quality of food, extremely large parties with WILD kids)?
-Nope.

Does anyone know how long free dining has been offered?
-Several times now is all I know.

Was it ever offered when the gratuity and appetizer were included?
-I doubt it.
 
As DVC members - What do you think about free dining? I think it's hysterical that Disney calls it FREE and folks throw money at them.. there's nothing FREE about it. Disney is getting a LOT of money for those overpriced hotel rooms that are worth about 1/2 of thier charge :rotfl2:

Do you think that it has lowered the food quality at WDW? I don't think "free" is the issue (see above) I think the overall reimbursement for DDP is the issue!

Do you think free dining attracts a different crowd to WDW?:confused3

Do you think Value resort stays should qualify for free dining at all? Well, it's not FREE! So if you want to pay over $100 bucks a night for a hotel that has far less going for it then a Fairfield Inn you should get something extra. A couple of $12 counter service meals seems a good trade.

Do you think that it packs the restaurants 'too' full? Once again I balme DDP overall.

Does the lack of available dining reservations during free dining periods annoy you? No, never had a problem

Do you think it is a promotion that Disney will continue to offer after this year? Yes, they are making a BUNCH of money off of it!

Is the value of the promotion as high as what it is perceived to be? No, you just overpaid for a subpar hotel room, but "it's a deal because the word free was in my package" :lmao:

Have you had any free dining horror stories (overcrowded restaurants, lower quality of food, extremely large parties with WILD kids)? No



I find it interesting that you questions are apparently "the value resorts should not get 'perks' Why not? Those people are overpaying for those rooms too!
 
I have answered in the body of your post, since I felt it was easier to do that way.

Does the lack of available dining reservations during free dining periods annoy you?Yes and no. I find we can still get in as a walk up to places like Teppan Edo etc, if we go at off times. The thing that annoys me most is not being able to get my favorite Signature/White table cloth place. Of course the real issue is that when I do get into my favorite signature, it's filled will very young screaming and running youngsters who are with their parents on free dining. These are restaurants that would not normally see very young children during most stays. I have no problem with children in restaurants, but when I want to spend a quiet ADULT evening with my spouse at a restaurant where we intend to spend a couple hundred on our meal, I do NOT want to have to talk over screaming children or have them coming up to my table. Yes, those things and worse have happened to us at places like Jiko and Artist Point during Free dining.

I will never forget the one and only reservation my DH and I made at Jiko a few years ago. We paid the $$ so that our 3 DSs could go to Simba's Cubhouse for a couple of hours and were seated at our table for enough time to have ordered and been served a drink - enjoying the atmosphere. A family with 3 boys far younger than ours were then seated right near us and to keep his children occupied the father proceeded to take out some sort of bingo board game - calling out numbers, etc. in the middle of the dining room. The people next to us had luckily just been seated and were able to switch tables - we were stuck there eating our appetizer. The father continued to jump through hoops to "entertain" his kids. We couldn't choke down our food fast enough. Now, I have no idea whether or not they had free dining but either way they should have stuck with a different type of TS restaurant.
 
I will never forget the one and only reservation my DH and I made at Jiko a few years ago. We paid the $$ so that our 3 DSs could go to Simba's Cubhouse for a couple of hours and were seated at our table for enough time to have ordered and been served a drink - enjoying the atmosphere. A family with 3 boys far younger than ours were then seated right near us and to keep his children occupied the father proceeded to take out some sort of bingo board game - calling out numbers, etc. in the middle of the dining room. The people next to us had luckily just been seated and were able to switch tables - we were stuck there eating our appetizer. The father continued to jump through hoops to "entertain" his kids. We couldn't choke down our food fast enough. Now, I have no idea whether or not they had free dining but either way they should have stuck with a different type of TS restaurant.

I totally agree with you! WHY in the world do people think that it is appropriate to do that?

Would they go to a reservation only restaurant in their hometown and take a board game along with them.... REALLY?

That is just so tacky!

That idea shares all of the class, grace, and sophistication of a paper plate!
 
As DVC members - What do you think about free dining?
It doesn't really bother me; as others have pointed out, it isn't actually free. If you're paying full rack rate, you're paying for it one way or another.

Do you think that it has lowered the food quality at WDW?
I think the food quality and variety at WDW has gone down. Whether this is because of free dining, the DDP, or the economy, or some combination thereof, the end result is the same. We mostly stick to the signature restaurants, and we've found that they're generally still pretty good. I think the world showcase restaurants, which used to be wonderful and unique, are the ones that may have suffered the most. I think it is unfortunate, and I wish Disney would take steps to increase the quality and variety again, but I don't see that happening in the near future.

Do you think free dining attracts a different crowd to WDW?
I doubt it does much, but it may change where people stay and eat. It may convince people to stay on property, but I doubt it convinces people to come to WDW rather than take a different vacation entirely.

Do you think Value resort stays should qualify for free dining at all? I've never stayed at a Value resort, but I think that having a free quickservice plan for people staying there during free dining promotions is entirely fair and reasonable.


Do you think that it packs the restaurants 'too' full?
I don't think that's free dining, I think that's the DDP and the Disney scheduling decisions. Yes, the restaurants are crowded, and more so than I enjoy.

Does the lack of available dining reservations during free dining periods annoy you? I make my reservations at the first opportunity, and I generally get what I want. I do think people on a free dining promotion really ought to be given a shorter ADR window (maybe 3 months out) than those paying money for the DDP or planning on paying cash. That would help with the people complaining that those on free dining take all the good timeslots.

Do you think it is a promotion that Disney will continue to offer after this year? Yes, it's been very successful. Why wouldn't they continue it? If the economy improves, they may offer it at more limited times of the year, but it will almost certainly be offered.

Is the value of the promotion as high as what it is perceived to be? It can be a very good deal. I helped a friend book a package that included it, and we priced things several different ways. We ended up booking one of her rooms on free dining and one on another package, and she's going to be able to add a few things to their trip (pirates league, BBB) that she wouldn't have otherwise booked. It is definitely going to save them a little money.


Have you had any free dining horror stories (overcrowded restaurants, lower quality of food, extremely large parties with WILD kids)?
Yes, the food quality has decreased. Yes, the number of children in signature restaurants has increased. The first bothers me, but the second doesn't. I've always taken my kid(s) to the signature restaurants, and we're paying for our meals. We take our children to good restaurants when we're at home, too. As long as the parents control their children and keep them quiet, I have no issues at all with it.

Does anyone know how long free dining has been offered?
Hmm, we did it at least once 4 years ago before we bought DVC.

Was it ever offered when the gratuity and appetizer were included?
Yes. It was the one time we did it.
 
I will never forget the one and only reservation my DH and I made at Jiko a few years ago. We paid the $$ so that our 3 DSs could go to Simba's Cubhouse for a couple of hours and were seated at our table for enough time to have ordered and been served a drink - enjoying the atmosphere. A family with 3 boys far younger than ours were then seated right near us and to keep his children occupied the father proceeded to take out some sort of bingo board game - calling out numbers, etc. in the middle of the dining room. The people next to us had luckily just been seated and were able to switch tables - we were stuck there eating our appetizer. The father continued to jump through hoops to "entertain" his kids. We couldn't choke down our food fast enough. Now, I have no idea whether or not they had free dining but either way they should have stuck with a different type of TS restaurant.

While I don't mean to give this guy a pass for what sounds like some fairly obnoxious behavior, respectfully, what exactly did you expect? It's Disneyworld. There are going to be kids there, lots of them, in fact, and they are going to be at places that you wouldn't otherwise expect to see children by virtue of the fact that WDW is, at its heart, designed to be a place that the whole family can go. There is a kids menu at Jiko and at most restaurants, and with that being the case, I can't really fault the guy for bringing his children.

Honestly, if you want a kid-free environment at Disneyworld, you have to either go to V&A's or a couple of those places by the Boardwalk that don't allow children at their chef's table, or go off-site to a nice place that you wouldn't expect to see kids. At home, I would never dream of taking our daughter out to eat at nice places, but at Disney, it's just part of the deal, for better or for worse. Of course, I wouldn't bring a bingo game and start calling out numbers so the guy is clearly a knucklehead, but I can't say that this is the only instance I've ever heard of someone being totally clueless about restaurant etiquette at WDW, so it's unfortunately to be expected.

To sum up my thoughts on kids at "nice" restaurants at Disney:
-Expecting parents to reign in their kids and not let them disrupt other diners is entirely reasonable
-Expecting a truly adult environment at places that aren't designated as such is probably asking too much
 

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