The wait is over! The question has been answered! Free dining is back! Many people speculated that Disney would not bring back their popular perennial free dining package this year due to the increased crowds and generally increased tourism levels since 9/11. However, they have, in fact, re-introduced free dining during peak hurricane season again this year.
Granted free dining isn't quite as free this year. It doesn't include gratuity (tip) and it also doesn't include an appetizer at the table service meal due to the general changes Disney made in their dining plan. One can only hope these changes will curb the hordes of people who eat at Disney, but I doubt that it will.
We took advantage of the free dining plan last September during the week of 14-22. Our impression was that it was too much food and that it dominated our trip. We had to make reservations months in advance for the good restaurants and ended up eating a odd times even then. We didn't see any of the fireworks/nighttime shows at the parks because we were eating.
Don't get me wrong, we had a blast. It was just a completely different kind of trip than normal. It revolved around food rather than the parks.
If you are planning on going, here's a couple of suggestions that I've picked up from watching the forums since last year... It appears that the week we went was by far the worst week to go. It seems everybody tried to go as late as possible. Well, as late as we thought was possible. It turns out, according to one person that as long as you arrive on the last day of the free dining you get free dining for the length of your stay. I would verify this before making any assumptions, but they claimed it worked and allowed them to essentially get free dining the week after every body else and that meant the crowds were significantly less. If that's not possible, it appears that going earlier in the offer meant lower crowds, too.
Here's a link to more information http://www.mousesavers.com/packages.html
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