Why so much dislike for free dining?

[Daisy'sMom]

We did the free dining last fall when we took our nieces to Disney for a week. We have APs, so we had to buy two one day passes that we used later on to renew our APs. This year we took the 42% discount offered to APers. When I called, the CM checked and we would have had to pay 500 more for the "free dining", for the two day passes and rack rates for the room.
We also didn't want the hassle planning our day around our ADRs. It is just not for us. But for those who like it, enjoy.

[Septbride2002]

Hi 'Manda,

Garden Grill - Interesting space, (How many restaurants in Peoria rotate overlooking the Land?), great character interaction (starring Mickey) and very picky eater friendly food.

I suggested this - but they liked the cheaper price of the breakfast, plus they had issues with the menu. This has been a hard trip to plan...

[EpcotFanatic]

Personally I love free dinning. Years ago I would have never thought to do it.

I recently went down with some friends who were getting it, and I figured what the heck. To me, it's worth it if you actually eat.

If you live off counter service for a week, it's probably not worth it. But for the week that I was there I got to enjoy the dining by eating like a king and not worrying about the bill.

We never had a problem with reservations either. 90% of our table meals were walk-ups with a 30-40 minute wait. A small price to pay and didn't "lock" us away from the rest of the parks.

One of the only places we reserved in advance was Rose & Crown for 8:00 pm. By the time we started eating our food, Illuminations was about 15 minutes from starting. By the time it was over, so was our dessert. Worked out perfectly.

[brystonmama1975]

We are going at the end of the month and with 7 people it made sense. My BIL crunched numbers and weighed room discount vs food plan and the dining plan was best for us. My husband and I are still budgeting for food since we don't want to be restricted by the plan. We are using the plan for %80 of our food and paying for any extras too. This way we don't spend all our time worrying about the food plan and we can enjoy our dining experience.

[princessgirls]

You've just brought back an old memory of doing just this. It was in the exit area of Spaceship Earth, right?

Remember that when you could walk up to the monitors and see and speak to someone. Back in the 80's when Epcot opening that was AWESOME!!!

Seriously, when I went back in 1997 after many years away I was sad to see that they had done away with that. They were located on the left side of Spaceship Earth.

Ahhh...memories!! Good ones!! Now it's ADR's 180 out.
Julie

[PittFan]

We LOVE the Free Dining !!! As I stated in another post, It's a no brainer for us. With 6 adults ( now that the kids are teens) eating for 14 days it outweighs any other discount we've seen. And I must say that Disney's Free Dining promotion is working. The purpose was to increase park attendance during the off peak season and it worked. I know for a fact that we couldn't return every fall without such a discount.