I hate the Free Dining Plan

[Patsfan28]

I have been going to Disney for 25+ years. Never in Mid September has it been so difficult to find a decent place to eat. There is ZERO availability at any halfway decent restaurants. This frustrates me so much as I know half the people who made the reservations back when free dining was originally offered wont even go to their restaurant. For those of you who do keep your reservations let me be the first to thank you for being considerate! I think Disney should punish those who do not keep to their reservations by deducting dining credits from their card( with a few emergency exceptions). If that wont work make it like it used to be without advanced dining reservations. I remember my dad making a sprint to Cinderellas Castle to make a lunch reservation for King Stefans Palace! Enough of my rant i still cant wait to have a great time again at the World... just may be a bit less fulfilling :fork:

 

[mousefan1972]

This problem should get a little better starting next year, 2009. There will be less people with free Table Service dining.

If they offer free dining in 2009, it looks like it will be tiered toward the resort level. There are some related threads on that.

Looks like 2009 Free Dining would be:

Value resort- None
Moderate resort - The new Counter Service dining plan.
Deluxe resort- The regular Table Service dining plan.

WDW seems to have figured out that they were giving away the store in many cases, particularly with the Value resorts and free dining.
Regular Table Service Free Dining for 4 people in a Value room could be worth more than the price of the room.

Not sure if that is true. I was at WDW this past weekend. Stayed at WL, and we had a flyer in our room for the free dining offer for next year. I called the extension and inquired. I asked the CM if we had to stay at WL since that's where we were currently staying. She said, "No, you can stay anywhere on property". I repeated "anywhere?" and she said yes. Now we all know that some CM's are better informed than others, but this one seemed like she knew her stuff. There was also no mention of the tiered plans/resort level on the flyer. :shrug:

*take with grain of salt*

:lol:

 

[mousefan1972]

well, maybe you could do that because you weren't on the dining plan. my sister in law and her husband took my other sister in laws kids just 2 weeks ago, and they bought the dining plan and tried to make 2 reservations at one time and they wouldn't let her. the trip was a surprise for the kids, so they were trying to make 2 reservations and let them pick which one they wanted to go to when they told them about it....but they wouldn't let them do it

You can't book two ressies for the same time during the same phone call. You can make one, then call back at a different time to make another one. There is currently no system place for the CM to cross-check to see if you are already booked at another restaurant at the same time. And yes, always call back and cancel which ever one you will not be using. :wave:

 

[PaulaB]

This problem should get a little better starting next year, 2009. There will be less people with free Table Service dining.

If they offer free dining in 2009, it looks like it will be tiered toward the resort level. There are some related threads on that.

Looks like 2009 Free Dining would be:

Value resort- None
Moderate resort - The new Counter Service dining plan.
Deluxe resort- The regular Table Service dining plan.

WDW seems to have figured out that they were giving away the store in many cases, particularly with the Value resorts and free dining.
Regular Table Service Free Dining for 4 people in a Value room could be worth more than the price of the room.

Don't bet on that

you are right on the value
moderate resort -The new counter service dining plan BUT you can upgrade to disney dining plan
Deluxe dining plan regular table service dining pan, with the option to upgrade to deluxe dining plan. Which is what I have done for 14 days so that is 42 worth of dining adrs to plan for.

 

[partyoffour]

Speaking as someone who does not have a lot of money and has to scrape pennies together to make a trip out there, I can say that I and many others would not be able to make a trip to WDW were it not for the free dining offer. I realised during my last trip, that the entire package cost about $60 a day, which was about how much of a tab we racked up in free dining each day, even for the food and wine festival? This meant that i was getting my trip for about half the cost I would have had without the plan. Also, both times I have gone to WDW i have gotten the free plan and had no probloms switching resturaunts when needed. I even showed up at the wrong time for one meal, several hours late, and they still go us in. As you said, a lot of people don't show up so you can use this as an advantage. If that's not an issue then you should be booking resturaunts months in advance anyways.

realise that the plan is not as much value as it was before and if you are not staying on property, it doesn't help you much, but it is the diference between going to WDW or not for many of us.

I hope they never take away free dining. I have 4 kids and am a stay at home mom so when scraping together the pennies to go, 800 bucks off is a huge difference between driving and flying. I even plan on taking 200 from our vacation fund this year and doing the bounceback so I can get free dining in a value resort next year. But this time since we have a teen in high school we will be going in August.

 

[DonaldDoleWhip]

I hope free dining goes away forever (I know it won't, but that doesn't change my opinion). Quality really goes down when Disney gives away nice meals to the masses.

Think I'm kidding? Well I'm not. During my last trip in August, I went to Artist Point the day before free dining began. I ordered the buffalo steak, and it was absolutely delicious. We liked Artist Point so much that we made a booking to go back again.

Our next meal at Artist Point was 5 days into free dining. The restaurant was way more packed than during our previous meal, and service seemed more rushed because Disney had to deal with more diners. I ordered the buffalo steak again; it was half the size compared to 5 nights earlier. In addition, the "signature Artist Point berry cobbler" didn't taste as fresh as it did during the earlier meal. I could tell that the cobbler itself had been sitting on a counter for a while, and they just added the ice cream to serve it. The meal felt like a total ripoff to people paying out of their pocket.

 

[elcheapo]

patsfan 28....pass on the diamond horseshoe....GO GIANTS!!!!!

 

[jennc2001]

i agree with the poster a few posts up....i also pinch pennies to be able to go on vacation with my family so the free dining plan has been a blessing to us the past 2 years, this year makes 3!!
i'm sorry for those of you that don't like it, or who it inconveniences or however you feel about it but it saves my family sooooo much money!
i think the first year we went, we figured up that we were getting over $1000 in free food....which saves us a bundle and let's us stay longer and be able to enjoy our vacation more!!

 

[aj_steig]

While I understand the upset, you'll get no sympathy from me.

I took advantage of free dining from 24-31 August and not only used all my credits, ate a number of times at the restaurants of my preference at the times I wanted. I plan ahead and am content to do so. At one point last year I had ADRs in place for three separate week-long trips [incuding one using free DDP].

Dining Plan's only impact is there are people who book TS that might not otherwise. The planning and booking would be necessary regardless of it being free or not these days.

I just got back today from WDW and we loved the dining plan! Yes, the restaurants were busy, but we made all our reservations at the 180 day mark and had no trouble getting the places we wanted. We got to try out a lot of great places that we wouldn't have otherwise tried. Doesn't leave all that much room for being spontanious, but it was a small sacrifice for the amount of money that we saved. Overall, we were very happy with it!

 

[flscooman]

I don't know about all this as far as giving things away etc. I have a coworker who stays at the Value resorts. She didn't do free dining this year because she said it would have cost her more $ than not doing it. She was able to get a great rate for the All Star hotel of her choice (not sure through who/how), and it would have cost her $700 more to tack on the Dining Plan for her and her dd because she would have had to pay a higher rate for her room. Not free at all.

Ah someone finally sees the myth that is "free dining" take the slowest time of the year. a time when they use to deep discount the rooms in order to fill them. Now offer "free dining" but charge full price for the rooms. now the hotels are full, the restaurants are full.

 

[pjulie75]

I hate the fact that you have to book restaurant 180 days in advance, that is Christmas Day for me this year! So while having the family round for dinner, amusing the kids, I will need to phone Florida to make reservations (thanks goodness I can multi-task:animwink. I hate needing to plan my holiday like a military operation, I much prefer to take each days it is comes and the flexibility of doing as you please. I will however need to book as I don't won't kids to miss out on CRT. I do not think they should open so many restauarants to the dining plan, some should not allow Dinner Reservations and be available for people who want to be flexible while in the parks. It is Disney, so I can't see them losing out on money, it is so busy all the time and I am sure the restaurants would still fill up.

 

[Tinkerbella16]

I have done the DDP once last year, but it wasn't free dining. I see where everyone is coming from in this situation. It makes more headaches for those who don't have free dining and wanna eat at some of their favorite places, but can't bc its booked solid with free diners. And then it saves families a ton of money to get free dining, so its hard to pass it up. I don't like the DDP period. It was wayyy better when they had tax, tip, and appetizers included...A lot less confusing, and everythings paid for upfront, just eat, swipe card, and thats it. I think last year was the last time I'll ever do the Dining Plan...we really enjoyed it until they made the changes they made.

But I can really care less about free dining because I never go in Aug-Sept anyway... I go in november, the same week every year so it doesn't bother me, like others.

 

[dixiegirl]

Its only going to get worse when people start having the ability to book online.

Uhh I shudder at the thought!!!!! And yes I too hate free dining, I miss the days of going up to a sit down place to eat ..say like Italy and either getting to eat there that very nite or the next day......Oh I miss those days!! So yes now at the 180 mark or 90 mark I call make the ressie and I'm good at calling if we're not gonna keep it......I just hate thinking about where we are gonna eat that far in advance . I like playing it by ear.....But what can you do!

I just feel bad for those "First Timers" that have no clue that you need to or really should call to get into a character Dining way before your trip, and you have a child looking soooo forward to eating with that character....I have'nt thank god gone through this because I'm a Disney geek like you all, but I've seen it.......Very Very sad.....

 

[aurora1982]

Sorry, but if you're not going to plan ahead, then it's kind of a case of tough luck! Some of us put real effort into being organised and doing things early, and we'll reap the rewards. I got all of my ADRs within a week of the park hours posted (a nightmare this year because they didn't post park hours until after the 180-day mark).

Just because someone is lucky enough to live in the sunshine state doesn't mean they should receive any more preferential treatment than they already do - I fork out to travel a few thousand miles to come to Disney, and then pay more than a local person to visit the parks themselves - I'd be seriously annoyed if they made a move to favour FL residents in dining allocations as well.

You wouldn't expect to be able to simply walk in to your favourite restaurant in your local town, would you? And practically every restaurant at Disney is someone's favourite.

I don't get how anyone has an issue with working out their vacation dates until the last minute - surely any job (except maybe the armed forces because they have plans that they have to keep secret) would prefer you to book time off sooner rather than later? What if you had a wedding to go to or something, are you honestly saying you wouldn't know if you could go until the last minute???

 

[Susan Savia]

We book one character breakfast and one character dinner at the 180 days mark, and for the rest of the time play it by ear. Not every day are we in the mood for a large meal, but rather choose something lighter like fish and chips in England.

We always know that our first day in the parks is going to be EPCOT and that the second day will be MK and that our last day will be EPCOT. This helps in our planning too. We're not sure on those other days where we'll be or what we'll feel like eating so its best left open for when that moment arrives to decide.

________________________

Next Trip - January 2009

 

[maryt01]

i called 180 days in advance. could not get my favorite adrs for december.:xmas:

 

[aurora1982]

i called 180 days in advance. could not get my favorite adrs for december.:xmas:

Sorry Mary, that's really rubbish It just bugs me that people think they have some god-given right to do as well as the planners, but without any planning! Christmas is a shocking time of year - I take it you were CRT-hunting?

 

[Brwneyedgirl72]

Sorry, but if you're not going to plan ahead, then it's kind of a case of tough luck! Some of us put real effort into being organised and doing things early, and we'll reap the rewards. I got all of my ADRs within a week of the park hours posted (a nightmare this year because they didn't post park hours until after the 180-day mark).

Just because someone is lucky enough to live in the sunshine state doesn't mean they should receive any more preferential treatment than they already do - I fork out to travel a few thousand miles to come to Disney, and then pay more than a local person to visit the parks themselves - I'd be seriously annoyed if they made a move to favour FL residents in dining allocations as well.

You wouldn't expect to be able to simply walk in to your favourite restaurant in your local town, would you? And practically every restaurant at Disney is someone's favourite.

I don't get how anyone has an issue with working out their vacation dates until the last minute - surely any job (except maybe the armed forces because they have plans that they have to keep secret) would prefer you to book time off sooner rather than later? What if you had a wedding to go to or something, are you honestly saying you wouldn't know if you could go until the last minute???

While I understand your point, I don't agree with you. Not everyone books their WDW over 6 months out. Some (many I am sure) book 3 months out or less - so are they to penalized for not being able to plan farther out? Yes, I am a frequent WDW guest and I do not expect to be able to walk up and get a table at a moments notice. However, I do believe that we should all have an opportunity to enjoy a restaurant without having to plan 6 months out. I say drop the ADR window to 90 days and give everyone a fair shot!

 

[aurora1982]

While I understand your point, I don't agree with you. Not everyone books their WDW over 6 months out. Some (many I am sure) book 3 months out or less - so are they to penalized for not being able to plan farther out? Yes, I am a frequent WDW guest and I do not expect to be able to walk up and get a table at a moments notice. However, I do believe that we should all have an opportunity to enjoy a restaurant without having to plan 6 months out. I say drop the ADR window to 90 days and give everyone a fair shot!

I think that's a fantastic idea to drop the ADR days. It'd give planners the chance to really consider where they'd like to be each day, based on EMHs, Spectro/Fantasmic! schedules, etc, and therefore make ADRs accordingly, without having to do the reshuffle once Disney had got their proverbials in gear.

However, I still cannot understand why people are "not able to plan farther out" than 3 months. Can you give me an example of why this would be the case?

 

[Lucky]

While I understand the upset, you'll get no sympathy from me.

I took advantage of free dining from 24-31 August and not only used all my credits, ate a number of times at the restaurants of my preference at the times I wanted. I plan ahead and am content to do so. At one point last year I had ADRs in place for three separate week-long trips [incuding one using free DDP].

Dining Plan's only impact is there are people who book TS that might not otherwise. The planning and booking would be necessary regardless of it being free or not these days.

I agree.

Also, it's not as if free dining is in effect all year. I would never consider going to WDW at certain times of year to avoid the holiday and mid-summer crowds. Others work around black-out dates. Is it really that hard for the haters to schedule a vacation around the 6-8 weeks free DDP is in effect?

Finally, I agree that getting ADRs and not showing up, or double-booking ADRs, is not good and I hope WDW can take more steps to try to prevent this. But do we really know how common these abuses are? Eliminating it might mean a certain place is fully booked only 60 days in advance instead of 80, but that wouldn't help walkups or guests planning just a few days or weeks ahead.

 

[bhg469]

You don't know that. Maybe it will keep people from booking multiple places for the same timeframe.

My thought is that it will make it easier for them to book it and forget about it. They may not be able to book multiple reservations but you are giving people far too much credit thinking they will always keep their plans. Either way the current system is flawed, there really needs to be spots set aside for walk ups. Its not fair to people that are unprepared and new to WDW for their trip or for people that may change their mind. This is not really anyone on this board but there are always first timers that do not know what to expect.. I just personally didnt like having to book so far in advance when i vacation by the seat of my pants. I follow schedules and time frames every day at home and work, vacation should be fun. I would like to see some sort of credit card hold for sure though.