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:

 

[Conrad3000]

It doesn't matter if the reservations start at 180 days, 90 days or 7 days. You are inconveniencing someone and not making things fair for everyone. Personally, I had about two years of planing for my last trip and my next trip and I would book at the two year mark if I could. You can't even get a room that far in advance.

The only fair way they can do it is to allow booking as early as WDW possibly can allow. Which probably is 180.

If you made it three months you would just make it harder on a lot of people and not really create a convenience. Imagine if they did the same thing with rooms and other events at WDW? It doesn't make sense and it would be inconsistent with other vacation destinations.

 

[jennc2001]

today was our last day of our WDW trip and i must say that i myself love the free dining!! the only thing i didn't like was that we had to make reservations for all our of table service meals so therefore missed most every night of fireworks (never got to see Wishes ) and it was just hard to do anything around our scheduled dinners. Next time, i think we're definately going to get the counter service dining plan....that way we can just go and do as we please and not have to work around reservations!

 

[UberPlannerMom]

today was our last day of our WDW trip and i must say that i myself love the free dining!! the only thing i didn't like was that we had to make reservations for all our of table service meals so therefore missed most every night of fireworks (never got to see Wishes ) and it was just hard to do anything around our scheduled dinners. Next time, i think we're definately going to get the counter service dining plan....that way we can just go and do as we please and not have to work around reservations!

What time were you eating dinner? I didn't think wishes was really all that early... my 5:30 ressies aren't going to make me miss it, right?

 

[jennc2001]

What time were you eating dinner? I didn't think wishes was really all that early... my 5:30 ressies aren't going to make me miss it, right?

oh no...i'm sure you won't miss them! ours were always around 7 or later so we always seemed to miss them! that's the one fireworks show i was really looking forward to so i was really disappointed we missed them!!

 

[kimmychad]

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 with you completely monty. we start planning our trips a year in advance usually. we know where we want to eat and i'm on the phone at the 180 day mark. you can't get a room without planning in advance so why anyone would think you can eat where you want without reservations is beyond me.

 

[fosse76]

The problem is, really, that you really are captive at Disney when it comes to eating. As someone else mentioned, if you go to a city like New York, Chicago or LA and can't get into a swanky must-do restaurant, there is a 99.9% chance that there is a restaurant nearby that you CAN get into. That really isn't the case at Disney. I personally didn't find the food to be anything special that would make people want to go to Disney specifically for the food. I think Disney really does need to do one of two things: 1) Only have a set number of reservations per hour and have the rest available only for walk-ups or 2) eliminate the reservations system completely. Anotherpotential option would be that you can only make same-day reservations...at the park...in person (either at guest relations, that specific restaurant, or a special "reservation center"). That would at least make it equitable.

As for the dual reservations...perhaps they could implement a system where no one can make reservations within five hours of each other. Or better yet, in order to reserve a spot you have to give them a credit card number (standard at a lot of high-end restaurants) and institute a "no-show" fee if not cancelled by a certain time.

 

[Missing20K]

I could be mistaken, but I think I remember being a child (mid to late 80's) and we made reservations for dining when we got to WDW. You were able to make reservations for an epcot restaurant when you entered the park. I'm not sure why this would be such a bad idea. The planners amongst us could plan to be up nice and early and at the gates, ready to make their reservation, while the non-planners could still go make a reservation the day of. Doesn't seem like it would really discriminate in any way. Or I guess if you want to park hop, have the ADR's made over the phone for the same day, or possibly a week in advance. As was said before, some can't plan 6 months in advance, some live nearby, some take advantage of last minute deals. In fact, didn't Disney release codes for a discounted fall package that started in October? Pretty hard to get ADR's at the 180 day mark in that case. I personally can't see any drawbacks to making the reservation system limit the ADR's to a 7 day window. Would seem like that would help everyone, those who want to plan, those who don't, those who are taking last minute trips, and those who have been booked for 10 months. At least that would give nearly everyone who is planning on doing a table service meal, an equal shot at an ADR, whether you live in UK, FL, or anywhere else in between. I could be totally wrong though :veryconfu

 

[Disney05]

We made dining reservations months ago, goes with the planning. We are not using the DDP this year though, it's lost it's attractiveness.

 

[WildLodgeFan]

1) Only have a set number of reservations per hour and have the rest available only for walk-ups or 2) eliminate the reservations system completely. Anotherpotential option would be that you can only make same-day reservations...at the park...in person (either at guest relations, that specific restaurant, or a special "reservation center"). That would at least make it equitable.

As for the dual reservations...perhaps they could implement a system where no one can make reservations within five hours of each other. Or better yet, in order to reserve a spot you have to give them a credit card number (standard at a lot of high-end restaurants) and institute a "no-show" fee if not cancelled by a certain time.

I agree with number #1, but #2 probably isn't feasable with as busy as Disney is. In addition, I imagine a number of strategic decisions are based on the number of ADR's scheduled. For example, food service contracts are probably negotiated based on their expected number of dining guests. Without reservations, it's a little harder to quantify that data.

I agree with the dual reservation solution, I think credit card guarantees and no-show fees would be great.

 

[WildLodgeFan]

I could be mistaken, but I think I remember being a child (mid to late 80's) and we made reservations for dining when we got to WDW. You were able to make reservations for an epcot restaurant when you entered the park. I'm not sure why this would be such a bad idea.

I can remember those days, especially the days that you made reservations at Epcot on video phones! But I also know that since I first attended in 1989, that attendance at WDW has increased considerably, so to be honest I don't think a smae day plan can really work as well. In addition, advance reservations makes considerable strategic sense for Disney. They are able to gauge revenue, make personnel decisions, etc. with the knowledge they get from 6 month advance reservations.

 

[Pumbas Nakasak]

So what we are saying is that those who do plan should be penalised for those that dont/cant/wont. :shrug: Theres always counter service for those who need to be spontaneous.

Perhaps the parks could switch to flexi hours to accommodate those who hate early mornings or late nights, and your admission only buys X hours per day.

 

[Senderella]

today was our last day of our WDW trip and i must say that i myself love the free dining!! the only thing i didn't like was that we had to make reservations for all our of table service meals so therefore missed most every night of fireworks (never got to see Wishes ) and it was just hard to do anything around our scheduled dinners. Next time, i think we're definately going to get the counter service dining plan....that way we can just go and do as we please and not have to work around reservations!

Why didn't you schedule a breakfast or lunch for your MK day? You would've been able to catch Wishes then.

 

[CatLady]

So what we are saying is that those who do plan should be penalised for those that dont/cant/wont. :shrug: Theres always counter service for those who need to be spontaneous.

I think a lot of the problem is that there are a certain percentage of people who understand how to "work the system" and plan. If you're reading this post, you're one of them. It's a smaller percentage than those of us who are know better sometimes realize. The remainder of visitors to the parks show up and do their thing, blissfully unaware that if they wanted a table service meal, they should have booked it months ago. And that's not really fair to the "average joe" visitor.

I know better. When I tried to walk up at Epcot and failed a couple weeks ago due to capacity, I knew my chances were pretty much zero, and I was fine with it. But I can understand that on a very low traffic day at Epcot, the average visitor who doesn't comb the internet for planning tips would not understand why they coudln't get a sit-down meal when it wasn't the least bit crowded. Making some accommodation for walkups seems to be only fair to those folks.

 

[jennc2001]

Why didn't you schedule a breakfast or lunch for your MK day? You would've been able to catch Wishes then.

We did actually have one breakfast reservation. And to be honest, it was the 2nd day of our trip, and we don't plan "this day at this park" we just do as we feel like doing that day. We ended up in Epcot and watching Illuminations. Which was OK, but it wasn't Wishes. I really don't see why people get so inspired by illuminations....but that's a whole other thread
But, like i said, next time I'll know and we'll probably just do counter service meals and maybe one or two sit down meals. I also took my parents so they could enjoy it with my son and so it's harder (for me) to accomodate more people. Next time, it was be me, my fiance (then husband ) and our son!!

 

[wvdisneyfamily]

I honestly think ADRs are here to stay. I think in an effort to make dining a better experience, a certain amount of tables should be set-aside as walk-up only. I don't know how realistic that is or how it would mess-up the ADR system, but it would be worth investigating.

 

[DonaldDoleWhip]

So what we are saying is that those who do plan should be penalised for those that dont/cant/wont. :shrug: Theres always counter service for those who need to be spontaneous.

I know I'm not in the majority here, but the reason I hate the dining plan is because of how the quality drops at WDW's few restaurants with respectable food (although it's weird that many WDW restaurants with mediocre food are booked out 9 months in advance while some of the nicest restaurants in NYC have availability 2 weeks in advance).

Disney World definitely has some amazing restaurants: Jiko, California Grill, Artist Point, Narcoosees, Citricos, and Victoria & Alberts above all. V&A isn't part of the dining plan so its quality hopefully hasn't dropped (I've never been there), but it's too expensive to do on a regular basis, it has limited seating so it's difficult to get a booking, and you have to dress up to eat there. Eating at V&A is a culinary event which obviously can't be done frequently.

Disney's other signature restaurants have fallen victim to free dining. Normally, these restaurants require 2 table service credits to eat at, so most people on the dining plan can only eat here occasionally. However, free dining gives people the incentive to try these places because the food is all free anyway.

During my last trip in August, I went to Artist Point the day before free dining began. The atmosphere was perfect, as the restaurant was large but quiet, almost emulating a national park. I ordered the buffalo steak, and it was absolutely delicious. For dessert, I got the berry cobbler. It was fresh, light, and overall amazing. 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.

Then of course, Disney has to dumb down the menus in order to accommodate those who don't have very sophisticated palates and are only trying the restaurant due to free dining. Look at California Grill - it always has a beef filet with barbecue sauce on the menu, served with that season's potato/vegetable. Even during my second meal at Artist Point, I heard a woman complaining because she didn't know what "truffles" were and she was shocked when her steak came with french fries that "tasted funny" (the menu described them as truffled french fries). Truffles are a very expensive ingredient (I find them delicious), and it would be a travesty if Artist Point cut them from the menu because too many people on free dining preferred plain fries or mashed potatoes.

That's why I hate free dining. I'm a foody who appreciates fine dining, but I also love Walt Disney World. Before, I could enjoy both at the same time, but now it seems like Disney's fine dining scene has gone downhill. I hope Disney realizes that these restaurants were truly great products, some of the best restaurants in Central Florida. It would be a shame if Disney sacrified its world class restaurants and allowed them to lower in quality.

 

[Pumbas Nakasak]

I know I'm not in the majority here, but the reason I hate the dining plan is because of how the quality drops.

No there are plenty of us who agree that both quality diversity and choice have suffered as a result of the dining plan.

But on reservations, I started making them before the dining plan, after failing to get any openings at character dining many many moons ago.

Besides planning adds to the fun of a holiday.