The Parks and Free Dining 2009

[CanadianPaco]

I am hearing that resorts are selling our during free dining. Friends can't book a value resort in August! What will park attendance be like? What other time of year will it be comparable to? Do touring plans (like Ridemax) take free dining into consideration?

 

[goofy4tink]

I've been to WDW during free dining and it doesn't seem to have a huge impact on the parks. While I'm sure there are a lot of people that book simply because it is free dining, it isn't a huge number. The restaurants get super crowded, but that's because guests that are there for free dining tend to book more table service meals than they normally would.
You should see average numbers in the parks....I booked my trip (8/14-8/21) before free dining came out because I enjoy that time period in the parks. It was tough to get the meals I wanted, but I'm not overly concerned about the crowd levels in the parks.

 

[Joseph Carter]

we were out there last september during free dining. We stayed offsite so didnt eat in Disney but noticed there were alot of people in the restuarants. But the rides were fairly quiet for us. And the parks were quiet too. Its low-moderate crowd levels which makes it very managable.

 

[VegasMike21]

Late August/September are usually mid crowd levels even with the free dining the parks aren't that crowded because the kids are starting to go back to school. Like other posters said you'll find the TS restaurants to be crowded which basically means less lines for the rides.

 

[RMulieri]

The park crowds are light...the restaurants are JAMMED. This is not the time of year to try and get by walking up to TS restaurants.Most do take guests with reservations only.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Yep. Free Dining doesn't - to any appreciable degree - draw more visitors to Central Florida. It simply entices more of the ones planning to visit anyway, to stay onsite.

 

[CanadianPaco]

That is really interesting! Thanks for the feedback!

 

[jamesnoel]

we got this for last week in september

 

[mom1005]

Does Free Dining operate the same as the 4/3 deal? Where there are only so many rooms "blocked" for this promotion?

We are there the 17th - 25th and hoping the crowds are very low. We changed from the same timeframe in June......

 

[lfwhipp]

Does Free Dining operate the same as the 4/3 deal? Where there are only so many rooms "blocked" for this promotion?

We are there the 17th - 25th and hoping the crowds are very low. We changed from the same timeframe in June......

interested to know the answer to this, i thought there was limited bookings, but i am not certain

 

[RMulieri]

Does Free Dining operate the same as the 4/3 deal? Where there are only so many rooms "blocked" for this promotion?

We are there the 17th - 25th and hoping the crowds are very low. We changed from the same timeframe in June......

Any discount or promotion at Disney has a limited number of rooms blocked per resort.This includes free dining .Once the free dining rooms are sold out ,they are sold out.

 

[serene56]

I agree that only a limited amount of space is available for free dining.
Once that date in June comes and goes Im sure there will be more rooms available.
I see Pop is soldout completely for September. Bet the end of June will see a bunch of rooms come online

 

[tiki23]

....the Free Dining promo is still running on TV, so there must be some room at the Mouse House somewhere.