Did FREE DINING make you more stressed?

[HinunterZuNich]

I never would have thought that having Free Dining and the dining plan in general would make my family feel so in "a hurry", but this trip it sure felt like that. Most of it is our fault, but we did make ADR's! It's just hard to explain why, but I feel like we felt the need to get the most out of the meal instead of just enjoying the moment.......or maybe I'm just overthinking and bummed to be home LOL.

Oh well.

 

[natalia1681]

I did the dining plan last year as well. I, too, felt like I was spending alot of my trip eating or trying to get to my ADRs. It was something that I wasn't used to before, since typically we only eat at the Counter Service restaurants (because we can't afford anything else:lol.

I agree that it can become a bit stressful!:wave: Glad that you had a nice time on your trip!

 

[Nemo14]

That's interesting. I wondered about that. We usually eat at one or maybe 2 big-meal type restaurants in a trip. It seems like this would be a lot of food and a lot of restaurant time for us. :veryconfu

 

[Dukeblue1016]

Last year it didn't seem stressful at all, it was AWESOME...

This year... it was stressful because it brought in soooooo many more people... and it was just like... if you last minute changed an idea of somewhere you wanted to eat then there was nothing you could do to get a ressie during your trip somewhere else... at least worth it....

 

[CaptainMichael]

I guess it was better when we did it because it was new (last May). It was a convienience for us and enabled us to eat at places we normally wouldn't go to.

 

[miles1]

I guess it was better when we did it because it was new (last May). It was a convienience for us and enabled us to eat at places we normally wouldn't go to.

Ditto. We ate at a lot more restaurants than we normally would, like Whispering Canyon and 50's Prime Time, that were really fun and added to the trip. But, all the ADR's did make our park visits less flexible, since we had to stick to the park or area where we were planning on eating.

Overall, I think we would do it again if they offer it for free, but after adding up what we would have spent I'm not so sure its a great bargain to pay for the plan.

 

[Computer Magic]

Being a huge fan of the Dinning Plan and previously the Silver Dinning, I have to admit the huge push by Disney by giving the plan away has made things more difficult for people

I made ADR for LeCellier back in Feb for our Sept trip. Then the Halloween night at MK schedule came out and is only offered the same night as our 5pm LeCellier ADR. So we have to eat and get to MK at 7pm.


It's too late to rearrange dinner and I don't want to cancel LeCellier so we will have to go with the flow. It may be a little rush, but what can we do.

 

[AEfx]

We did it last year, and while it was a wonderful experience (and it's so, so tough to turn down FREE food, especially over a thousand bucks of it for a family of 4...), it did lead to more park hopping than we wanted to do, and isn't something we'd need every trip.

I can't say a word of complaint because the meals and everything we just so wonderful...and FREE, lol...but I do understand how it can be easy to feel like you are there to be eating and doing the attractions secondary, as opposed to the other way around. I think that's just the dining plan in general, free or not. Two hours a day to eat at a specified hour can be very limiting.

AEfx

 

[jonesenon4]

:sohappy: we had the free dining plan last year and loved it we just planned park days to coincide with the adrs.we were planning on paying for the plan this year but disney offered it free again so we accepted again free or not its a great value.we figured it up last year and even if we had paid for it we would have still saved over 1000 $ great value. 24 more days till our first res at le celliar cant wait.:sohappy:

 

[brich]

Our first time using the plan is coming in just 29 days... The thing I seem to notice with those who feel rushed is just that. Slow down a bit. Maybe breakneck speed and not being flexible in your plans is the problem. I'm really looking forward to making meals an important part of the overall experience of our trip. Consider your meal time as an extension of the rides and park experience. You plan around long lines, show times, character meet times, fast passes. Why not add in your meal times. It's a great way to slow the day down in my opinion.... We have always had ressies as part of our trip, not sure how the dinning plan changes anything...
Just my 2cents

 

[animay]

I hate making ADRs at Disney just because I don't like being tied to a schedule while I'm there. "Well, the meal's at 1 so we don't have time to go on that ride. We need to get over to the other park." Plus, what if we're not in the mood for a full meal when the time comes? Next month will be our first time using the dining plan and we have one meal scheduled for the evening of our first day at the Contemporary. No parks for that day anyway. We'll have one more sit down meal to use after that and we're just going to wing it and see what's available. If we don't use it then that's fine too. It's not like it cost us anything.

 

[Dukeblue1016]

I guess it was better when we did it because it was new (last May). It was a convienience for us and enabled us to eat at places we normally wouldn't go to.

Well yes, this is ABSOLUTELY true... in two years these are the places we ate on it:

Teppanyaki (twice)
'Ohana
Tony's Town Square
Le Cellier
Yachtsman Steakhouse
Whispering Canyon
Hoop-Dee-Doo
Nine Dragons
Grand Floridian Cafe
Concourse Steakhouse

Plus, we spent both trips over $800 worth of food... so yes, it absolutely enabled us to eat more, and at more places...

but... as someone else said, they did more park hopping... which if you read my trip report... that's EXACTLY what we did... wayyy too much


how do I link a trip report to my signature by the way???

 

[DiPSU224]

We have always loved trying all the restaurants so the dining plan was a dream for us. Now we didn't experience the FREE plan, but on our honeymoon we made ADRs for everyday we were there. The only bad thing was our points were incorrectly explained to us when we changed resorts and we had to cancel our dinner at Citricos which bummed us out but we quickly got over it. I LOVE planning out a rough schedule with park hours, parade times and fireworks shows with ADR's super early anyway, so that hasn't been a problem for me. I'm a freak like that though :lol:

 

[Lucky]

Overall free dining was a very positive addition to our experience this year. It did mean more time sitting in restaurants and less for attractions though. One way to save 15 minutes or so is to go mostly to buffets or places like Garden Grill & CRT that serve family style. Then there's less time spent waiting for servers.

Making reservations for every day also has more implications for your whole itinerary, so requires more advance planning. You may sometimes want to book a place you don't like as well, because it's located in a park you prefer to be in. When you're only booking a couple of sit-downs for a whole week, you can work around them much more easily.

But I can deal with those issues - I'd be thrilled if they offer me another $800-plus worth of free dining next year.

 

[bgraham34]

I felt stressed before we even went. I actually cancelled by Reservations with free dining and got room only. Works out it will be cheaper for me to do it this way. especially with the 20% off.

 

[skiddles]

split your table service meals between breadk lunch dinner

with two kids 3 and 5, we found that having splitting the TS meals between breakfast (norway princess) Lunch Biergarten Last lunch show, Cindy castle and Le celeir. We found that eaign only three TS dinners Liberty tree, BOMA, capt jacks (first night) and holly and bvine for fantasmic was awesome. Use the CS for some take out breakfasts , we stayed at All star sprots and loved it. in room fridge was full of cheeses, fruits milk cereals ect. NO need to stress when you fill yourself up in the afternoons.

 

[AEfx]

Our first time using the plan is coming in just 29 days... The thing I seem to notice with those who feel rushed is just that. Slow down a bit. Maybe breakneck speed and not being flexible in your plans is the problem. I'm really looking forward to making meals an important part of the overall experience of our trip. Consider your meal time as an extension of the rides and park experience. You plan around long lines, show times, character meet times, fast passes. Why not add in your meal times. It's a great way to slow the day down in my opinion.... We have always had ressies as part of our trip, not sure how the dinning plan changes anything...
Just my 2cents

I did exactly as you said, and am a very experienced Disney visitor, and it still was a bit stressful. I wouldn't exchange the trip for the world, but the issue I understand (and we also had) was that the LACK of flexibility during free dining is the problem, not that we weren't being flexible.

You pretty much are beholden to the times you plan ahead of time, no matter what. That was my experience last year, and from what I understand it's even more so true this year. Free Dining makes things so very, very busy and you have a very hard time changing ressies if your plans change. That means you have to absolutely decide you will be in a certain park 3-6 months ahead of time. Because the dining is so very, very crowded during the FREE promotion, I saw countless people turned away at every restaurant we visited last year, being told "in two weeks, in three weeks, is our next available reservation".

Even as well-planned as we were, we still ended up doing more park hopping than we had wished because of things beyond our control - attractions breaking down, show schedules changing, etc. We may have a ressie at MK and planned to be there that day, but if we missed something previously at AK and our only chance to see it was that day (as happened when ITTBAB went down several times throughout our trip as we were in line) that meant if we wished to be flexible we had to do some major park hopping. With a group, that can be a lot of work.

Another aspect, free dining or paid, is that most people aren't used to spending 3 hours a day feeding themselves. That is a SIGNIFIGANT part of a park day. While most enjoy the food at WDW, and you are correct that it can be a great part of the experience, a large sit-down meal every day that takes 2+ hours, and just for one meal, is a lot for many of us when we have a limited time at WDW and while I can get a great meal within minutes of my home it's a lot tougher to find Disney rides.

So while I'm a huge fan of Free Dining, and the Dining plan in general, I do understand how it makes for a different touring plan and can put stress on the trip that may not have been there. Now I am a planner, I love it; but I also understand the people who think it's insane to have to schedule a theme park meal six months in advance, or even before you arrive. Even the best restaurants in the biggest cities generally have a week or two wait. You and I are experienced enough to know how it works at WDW, but we must always understand that the average visitor has very little of that knowledge and having to commit to a vacation schedule up to six months in advance can be a very daunting, odd prospect.

AEfx

 

[shoppingnut]

I've had no problems doing the free dining, but then again, I've been doing sit down meals for dinner for many years. I don't/won't eat counter service for dinner as I really don't like it and the atmosphere for dinner. So, because I've been doing a sit down for dinner for some time, it is very easy for me to plan my days and meals.

 

[Lucky]

I did exactly as you said, and am a very experienced Disney visitor, and it still was a bit stressful. I wouldn't exchange the trip for the world, but the issue I understand (and we also had) was that the LACK of flexibility during free dining is the problem, not that we weren't being flexible.

You pretty much are beholden to the times you plan ahead of time, no matter what. That was my experience last year, and from what I understand it's even more so true this year. Free Dining makes things so very, very busy and you have a very hard time changing ressies if your plans change. That means you have to absolutely decide you will be in a certain park 3-6 months ahead of time. Because the dining is so very, very crowded during the FREE promotion, I saw countless people turned away at every restaurant we visited last year, being told "in two weeks, in three weeks, is our next available reservation".

Even as well-planned as we were, we still ended up doing more park hopping than we had wished because of things beyond our control - attractions breaking down, show schedules changing, etc. We may have a ressie at MK and planned to be there that day, but if we missed something previously at AK and our only chance to see it was that day (as happened when ITTBAB went down several times throughout our trip as we were in line) that meant if we wished to be flexible we had to do some major park hopping. With a group, that can be a lot of work.

Another aspect, free dining or paid, is that most people aren't used to spending 3 hours a day feeding themselves. That is a SIGNIFIGANT part of a park day. While most enjoy the food at WDW, and you are correct that it can be a great part of the experience, a large sit-down meal every day that takes 2+ hours, and just for one meal, is a lot for many of us when we have a limited time at WDW and while I can get a great meal within minutes of my home it's a lot tougher to find Disney rides.

So while I'm a huge fan of Free Dining, and the Dining plan in general, I do understand how it makes for a different touring plan and can put stress on the trip that may not have been there. Now I am a planner, I love it; but I also understand the people who think it's insane to have to schedule a theme park meal six months in advance, or even before you arrive. Even the best restaurants in the biggest cities generally have a week or two wait. You and I are experienced enough to know how it works at WDW, but we must always understand that the average visitor has very little of that knowledge and having to commit to a vacation schedule up to six months in advance can be a very daunting, odd prospect.

AEfx

I agree with all of this. We had been to WDW 3 times before, a week each time, and had another 8 days this time. So we didn't feel too deprived of time for attractions despite a few 1.5-hour sit-down meals. We'd done most of the rides and shows before, knew enough to make reservations very early etc. But I doubt if we'd have felt so positively about a free dining plan if it had been available for our first trip in Sept. 03.

 

[Rora]

I used the dining plan for the first time a few weeks ago. It was a -little- stressful having to figure out exactly how it worked. And having to schedule the day around our reservations. But we were so tickled over the new experience, and having all these expensive meals for free, that we got over it quickly. We normally go in June. And I thought having to wait until August would kill me. But it was absolutely worth the wait to use the dining plan.