? re: menus/food during free dining...

[Dsnygirl]

Now, I know this question will be apt to prompt a lot of different kind of replies, and it may be open to each person's individual interpretation of what is "good food". But I guess I'm asking anyway... :blush:

We have never gone during a "free dining" promotion before, but with a 10-day trip planned for late next August, when the promo came out, we jumped at it... for our family of four, it saves us over $1500 and allowed us to upgrade where we're staying for the whole trip. :cloud9:

I noticed a comment by someone on here earlier today , saying that they're not happy that "free dining" is being offered so much next year, as they feel it lowers the quality of the food and that the restaurant CM's usually seems more stressed, etc., during it.

I know that the "free dining" promotion has almost become 'commonplace' in late Aug/Sept, so I guess my first question is - does Disney change their menus during the "free dining" time period, esp. when it's going on for such a long stretch of time? I doubt that they would when it's just "here & there" throughout other months... that wouldn't seem cost effective to change things up that frequently. But when it's for a steady 6 weeks or so, for those of you that are more familiar with Disney's menus, esp. at the "nicer" spots -- have you found that the food is lacking or different than what is normally offered? And what has been your experience with the CM's?

We certainly aren't changing our dates based on the answers, and we were actually hoping that a special like this would be released for our time period -- but I never really thought about the fact that travelling during such a promotion might change our dining experience overall. (and maybe it won't - I'm hoping not - we've got some serious favorites at certain spots!!)

Anyway - I'd love to hear people's experiences/opinions on this...

:thanks:

[comicguy]

I have to say that I like the dining plan for allowing us to basically prepayour meals. Fre dining is used to fill rooms during the "slow" periods. All that being said that over the last several years their have been menu changes that have made many people upset. The dining plan has allowed me to sample more of WDW's rest. then I normally would have. It is a bargin (at least for my family)when we have purchased it in the past and especially when we have had it for "free". We tend to eat much healthier meals than if we were to "fend" for ourselves!!!

The changes that have resulted from the dining plan include:

Standardizing of some menu items

deletion of some "classic" items

More crowded rest.

More harried rest. staff

My biggest disappointment was the removal of lobster from Captain Jack's rest. (but I did expect that considering the price of lobster)

I do have to say that even with these changes my family has had a great many awesome meals, friendly service in all establishemnets (except one about three years ago)and some very relaxing meals (we have never been rushed)

[Seasonscraps]

It's not so much that there is a difference in the menus or quality of food offered during the free dining promotional period but the feeling that dining overall has declined in the past few years. As comicguy stated, a lot of the restaurants have very similar menus, more limited options, substituted cheaper alternatives, etc. Like 50s Prime Time Cafe used to have a steak sandwich on their lunch menu, now they have a chicken sandwich. Things like that.

Specific to the free dining periods are the restaurants are crazy busy. The dining plan requires a lot of planning to make sure you use all of your TS credits so guests get their money's worth so it's difficult to get into some restaurants.


We felt a little rushed last time we were there during the free dining period (we weren't on the dp). Last time we were there during FD, we checked to see what was available for dinner one evening. Germany at 5:15 or 8:40 or something like that. That was it. We didn't expect anything popular but there were only 2 tables available in all of DW at 9am.

[Mickey91]

I agree with the previous posters. The quality of the food/menus aren't diminished during the free dining period, rather the quality of dining as a whole at WDW has diminished over the years where the DDP has been a part of the vacation planning. Whether it be through minimized menus or crowded restaurants and less then perfect staff.

[Dsnygirl]

Specific to the free dining periods are the restaurants are crazy busy. The dining plan requires a lot of planning to make sure you use all of your TS credits so guests get their money's worth so it's difficult to get into some restaurants.

Good point -- guess I'd better be online doing our ADR's pretty quickly this year, and I'm sure glad we're starting our vaca the day before the free dining promo hits -- at least I'll have a chance of getting some of our favorite TS spots! ;)