New free dining offer yeaaah

[beachmom14]

You say you have no doubt that there will be FD offered for laste Summer/early Fall. Do you know/think they will offer it at the end of May again? I sure hope so as it saved us a ton of money this year.

**edited to add: Or any type of discount for the last week of May through the first week of June.

I didn't see a response to this question, we are also going May 17-24th and I'm wondering about FD. My sister is a DVC and sold me her points for the 7 days plus I booked 1 extra day.

 

[1tufgt]

I didn't see a response to this question, we are also going May 17-24th and I'm wondering about FD. My sister is a DVC and sold me her points for the 7 days plus I booked 1 extra day.

DVC members don't get free dining from what I've read.

 

[havoc315]

I didn't see a response to this question, we are also going May 17-24th and I'm wondering about FD. My sister is a DVC and sold me her points for the 7 days plus I booked 1 extra day.

Free dining is for resort reservations through Disney. Not DVC -- Remember, in theory, DVC is simply shared ownership of a condo. From Disney's perspective, staying on DVC isn't really that different from staying offsite. Except they made money when the unit was first purchased.

 

[michfam]

Hi All,
I think I've got a no solution problem but maybe all of the experts here can help me out. We were waiting patiently for FD to come out but booked our trip a few days before it did hoping to lock in our location which we did, CS from 11/9 - 11/15. As everyone knows that week is blocked out and we don't maintain enough days to get FD with a split trip. We have stayed at about this same time for the last three years with FD (even the exact same dates) and I have no idea why they blocked out that week. Anyway, I'm hoping against hope for a pin code but has anyone on the thread received a pin for a blocked out week? Or any other ideas? We cannot change our dates so if nothing comes along we will cancel before 9/25 and go on a non Dis vacation this fall.
Thanks everyone and congrats on your trips, especially first timers.

 

[tink15823]

Hi All,
I think I've got a no solution problem but maybe all of the experts here can help me out. We were waiting patiently for FD to come out but booked our trip a few days before it did hoping to lock in our location which we did, CS from 11/9 - 11/15. As everyone knows that week is blocked out and we don't maintain enough days to get FD with a split trip. We have stayed at about this same time for the last three years with FD (even the exact same dates) and I have no idea why they blocked out that week. Anyway, I'm hoping against hope for a pin code but has anyone on the thread received a pin for a blocked out week? Or any other ideas? We cannot change our dates so if nothing comes along we will cancel before 9/25 and go on a non Dis vacation this fall.
Thanks everyone and congrats on your trips, especially first timers.

You didn't say how many people are in your party? Have you ran other resorts to see if you could save enough with out free dinning. For example We are booked at the Contemporary but if we moved to POR we would save more than we would if we got free dinning staying at the Contemporary. We are excited about staying there but I would change in a minute if it meant going to Disney or not going to Disney.

 

[michfam]

You didn't say how many people are in your party? Have you ran other resorts to see if you could save enough with out free dinning. For example We are booked at the Contemporary but if we moved to POR we would save more than we would if we got free dinning staying at the Contemporary. We are excited about staying there but I would change in a minute if it meant going to Disney or not going to Disney.

Thanks for the reply,
My DW and DD who's celebrating sweet 16 and myself in one room and inlaws in another.
we've stayed at POFQ in '08, CS in '09 which we loved,building 8b which we've requested, CBR in '10 because CS was gone.
Our previous packages have all been around $2000,( inlaws didn't come) we usually fly with miles then we shoot the works by carefully mixing and matching our FD needs and enjoyed cocktails, appetizers and bottles of wine. Right now I'm looking at $3300 for the three of us and $1500 for 4 nights with the inlaws. Once I buy extra plane tickets and fun money I'm looking at $7K. A little steep for my budget.

 

[klmall]

We have never done Free Dining before but have been looking for a discount for a possible fall trip with no success so I have really been running the numbers round and round. Between a tight work schedule and no discounts I never thought anything could work BUT I called around 2:50 PM today and put a hold on a FD package for the Poly for late November. FD will save us about $700 even if we have to restrict our eating a bit (we usually like 2 TS meals a day but I don't want to upgrade our package).

The only way we could save even more money is if they announce a 40% discount in mid-August for our dates. Switching to that would save us a little over $350 more but who knows if a Poly Garden View room would be available at that time.

Anyway, I am surprised that FD could save us money at all for a Deluxe based on all that I had read for the past year. Now I have to convince DH that this is worth it!

Glad to hear that so many people have gotten what they wanted!!!

We realized that spending this much money is just too insane at this time since we are also renovating our kitchen, turning our small family room and living room into one 'great room' and finishing our basement. Plus the anniversary week in Banff. Maybe we can go in a year or so!

Have fun everyone!

 

[michfam]

Well maybe good things happen to folks who utilize TheDIS, I don't know but last evening things improved. First let me say that I had my numbers slightly askew in the last post. Our package cost included a water view room and DP, inlaws was a WV king w/o DP. When we booked only WV was available but in the last few days standard rooms were showing up on line. Yesterday showed no Mod Resorts available at all for our dates but I called and the CM was able to change both rooms to standard. He looked for a pin for our household with no luck but when he checked G-ma and G-pa's a pin turned up for a 25% room discount! He went to check ours again and still nothing. Then he reduced our stay to 4 days and there it was. But were staying 6 days, inlaws 4 so we have some thinking to do. But we locked in the room changes and their discount and knocked $676 off our overall price. Things are improving. Now we're asking ourselves if 5 nights might get us a pin or if we break our stay into 4 nights and 2 nights if we can make it work. Any way right now we're back to probably going.
I hope this helps anyone who is still searching.
I also asked the CM about getting a FD pin for a blocked out week and he said it is possible! Keep checking back!
Thanks everyone!
p.s. I'm looking for the abbreviation link, can anyone help?

 

[javamommy]

There are a couple of threads in the theme parks forum about this. Here's one:

http://http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2772089&page=7

Typically it has not been a problem to get your tickets a couple days early, but some CM's are reporting that just as free dining was announced they made a point of telling people they would no longer do this. It remains to be seen if this is actually the case. We were hoping to go into the MK that first night, but will have some alternate plans in mind just in case. Hopefully we'll hear enough feedback from others going ahead of us to know ahead of time.



Yes, I just called customer relations this morning and talked to Tarl. He said they have a function to pick up tickets as early as 7 days before your reservation and you can use them! Yippee!

 

[canadianmama]

Good afternoon everyone! I have a question about this new free dining offer. We will be staying at the Allstar Movie resort from November 29 to December 4. We have five nights booked, but are only planning on four days in the parks. I've already booked the room, but I also purchased our tickets at the same time when I called a couple months ago. I realize in hindsight that I should have just booked the room and not the tickets, I wasn't thinking. SO my question is, can I still get the free dining added to the package being that a) our tickets are already booked and b) we are staying five nights but only bought tickets for four days in the parks? Thank you in advance for your help!

 

[vossjemi]

I'm curious about something here as well. I had a room only booked for 4 nights at FW Cabins with a 15% AAA discount. When FD came out, I cancelled the room only, and bought a MYW package for those 4 nights with 3 day base tickets. Now, I get a postcard in the mail that says moderate resorts get 25% discount. Is the Free Dining deal still the better one over the code? I'm thinking so, but just checking.

 

[THERESA522]

Good afternoon everyone! I have a question about this new free dining offer. We will be staying at the Allstar Movie resort from November 29 to December 4. We have five nights booked, but are only planning on four days in the parks. I've already booked the room, but I also purchased our tickets at the same time when I called a couple months ago. I realize in hindsight that I should have just booked the room and not the tickets, I wasn't thinking. SO my question is, can I still get the free dining added to the package being that a) our tickets are already booked and b) we are staying five nights but only bought tickets for four days in the parks? Thank you in advance for your help!

YES! As long as there are still rooms available during your dates, you can apply the FD code to your room!

 

[THERESA522]

I'm curious about something here as well. I had a room only booked for 4 nights at FW Cabins with a 15% AAA discount. When FD came out, I cancelled the room only, and bought a MYW package for those 4 nights with 3 day base tickets. Now, I get a postcard in the mail that says moderate resorts get 25% discount. Is the Free Dining deal still the better one over the code? I'm thinking so, but just checking.

You can figure it out on disney's website to see what's best. Depending on # of people in your party, FD is probably better, but not necessarily.

Just go to the site and price room only for your dates - then do the math @ 25% off.

 

[canadianmama]

YES! As long as there are still rooms available during your dates, you can apply the FD code to your room!

Awesome, thank you!! I am going to call them tonight and ask them to change my reservation!

 

[Coconuts]

Finally pulled the trigger and booked our trip the other day. Yeah free dining!

 

[FigmentChick]

Finally pulled the trigger and booked our trip the other day. Yeah free dining!

Awesome, Coconuts!!! I think you and I end up at WDW around the same time every couple of years!!! Happy planning!

 

[Coconuts]

Awesome, Coconuts!!! I think you and I end up at WDW around the same time every couple of years!!! Happy planning!

Great minds think alike! Looks like we're both doing POR but our trips will be a few weeks off. Enjoy!

 

[mickmom728]

I thought I knew what I was doing when going to the website and figuring out the prices and such but when I go there I haven't been able to access the free dining offer that goes into next year. I have even clicked on "specials" but that special isn't on there, only the one that ends in august.
PLEASE help me!!! what am I doing wrong?!? TIA!

 

[tink15823]

I thought I knew what I was doing when going to the website and figuring out the prices and such but when I go there I haven't been able to access the free dining offer that goes into next year. I have even clicked on "specials" but that special isn't on there, only the one that ends in august.
PLEASE help me!!! what am I doing wrong?!? TIA!

What are the dates you are going ? You should be able to go into specials as long as the date is before March 2012 . Some weeks are blacked out.

 

[1tufgt]

Just got a email today about the free dining offer and it looks like they've might of added some dates. Reason I noticed this is because we are arriving on the 22 of Oct. and before when the offer came out it started on the 23rd so we were going to stay 1 night off resort but now it looks like I'll go ahead and add the extra day on resort to our trip.