Quote Originally Posted by BrerGnat View Post
I hate "free dining" for a few reasons:

1. It makes the restaurants SO crowded. It makes it almost mandatory to make your reservations 180+ days out, which I HATE doing. I like to do walk ups sometimes, which it never a problem, UNLESS it's "Free Dining" time, and then there's no hope

2. They are doing it too often. It was fine when it was a once a year thing, in Aug/September. However, now, they are offering it the WHOLE year at various times, and that makes it annoying for people regarding ADRs.

3. I just hate the dining plan altogether. It was sort of okay at first (the one time I used it) because it really was a great deal (included apps, entree, dessert, drink, AND tip at TS places!). It's not really a "deal" anymore. It's a way that Disney makes people THINK it's a deal, and causes inflated pricing for people paying OOP, to further boost the claim of real savings. Quality and menu choices have declined significantly since the plan arrived, and prices have continued to go up. In addition, I hate being "tethered' to my ADR's and found the one time we used the DDP, we spent so much time getting to and from ADRs, and coordinating where we needed to be, that the trip became all about that, and not so much about being in the parks and having spontaneous fun.

Further, it's not "free". You are giving up a room discount in lieu of the dining plan being given.
Brer was just entirely 100% point by point right.