Free dining plan for 12/14 - 12/20/2014??

[jjoobrien]

Is anyone able to give me any guidance as to if the dining plan will be offered as a promotion for the week of 12/14/2013? Trying to tentatively plan our next trip (with hopes of free dining plan).

 

[TDC Nala]

Nobody has any idea yet whether or not it will be offered for that time in 2013. We're still waiting for the September dates. I'm afraid that right now you can't plan for free dining that far ahead.

 

[jjoobrien]

I just found a link that sets out when past promotions were made. This is nice because at least I can get an idea of what weeks past promotions were offered.

http://www.mousesavers.com/historical-information-on-walt-disney-world-resort-discounts/

 

[csjordan]

I just found a link that sets out when past promotions were made. This is nice because at least I can get an idea of what weeks past promotions were offered.

http://www.mousesavers.com/historical-information-on-walt-disney-world-resort-discounts/

Thanks for the link. I am watching this year to see what type of discounts MIGHT be available for 2014. Does anyone remember whether Thanksgiving week was a blackout week for FD last year? This link only has that FD was available 9/30-12/13.

 

[amccu18007]

I am fairly certain that fd is always blacked out Thanksgiving week.

 

[TheDisney411]

Thanks for the link. I am watching this year to see what type of discounts MIGHT be available for 2014. Does anyone remember whether Thanksgiving week was a blackout week for FD last year? This link only has that FD was available 9/30-12/13.

I'm not sure why everyone posts that link to Mousesavers, as it doesn't have the historic black out dates. And that's the info most people need. If there is free dining in December this year, the most likely dates would be December 1-6 and probably December 14-19 or 20. Pop Warner is a week later this year, so that should open up the first week of December that has been blacked out the last 3 years.

Historic Free Dining Dates and Promo Release Dates:

Free Dining Promos/Discounts Released Spring of the Year Offered:
August 21- October 4, 2005
August 13 - September 30, 2006
August 26 - September 22, 2007
August 30 - September 27, 2008
August 16 - October 3, 2009

July 27, 2009(First Time for quick service at values, free Disney Dining at moderate and deluxe resorts)
Free Dining released for travel from October 4 – December 17, 2009

May 3, 2010:
Free Dining released for travel from August 15 – October 2, 2010.

July 6, 2010:
Disney extended the Free Dining offer for travel through early fall 2011. Many dates were blacked out:

August 15 - October 7, 2010
October 22 - October 28, 2010
November 12 - November 18, 2010
November 27 - December 2, 2010
December 10 - December 21, 2010

January 1 - 5, 2011
January 9 - 13, 2011
January 21 - February 3, 2011
February 11 - 17, 2011
February 25 - March 3, 2011
May 27 - June 2, 2011
August 19 - September 29, 2011

March 2011:
Free Dining Discount released for August 28 - September 24, 2011

August 3, 2011:
Free Dining Discounts released for dates through early Spring 2012
October 1 - October 6, 2011
October 22 - November 3, 2011
November 12 - November 17, 2011
November 26 - December 1, 2011
December 10 - December 15, 2011
January 8 - January 12, 2012
January 21 - February 2, 2012
February 11 - February 16, 2012
March 3 - March 8, 2012
March 24 - March 29, 2012

March 3, 2012:
August 25 - September 29, 2012

July 11, 2012:
September 30 - October 4, 2012
October 19 - November 1, 2012
November 9 - November 15, 2012
November 23 - November 29, 2012
December 10 - December 13, 2012

 

[TheDisney411]

I am fairly certain that fd is always blacked out Thanksgiving week.

It is. The trick to getting free dining during Thanksgiving week is to check in by the Thursday BEFORE Thanksgiving, as they usually have a promo during that timeframe. As long as you check in by the last date of a free dining promo week, you can have the discount applied to your entire stay up to 14 nights, and that takes you well past Thanksgiving week.

 

[windy1968]

I work for Thomas cook and we received our 2014 brochures yesterday which advertised free dining for 2014 booking between 25/4/13 till 3/11/2013

 

[TheDisney411]

I work for Thomas cook and we received our 2014 brochures yesterday which advertised free dining for 2014 booking between 25/4/13 till 3/11/2013

I assume you are from the UK and UK free dining offers have no baring on US free dining dates or release dates - which plans are given to certain resort levels are usually different too.

 

[TDC Nala]

Yep. Thomas Cook is a UK company. UK offers are not comparable to those made in the US.

It should be noted that free dining was offered for the non-UK general public in January/February 2011 and 2012, but in 2013 it was not offered at all. We can't anticipate anything right now based on past offers for 2013, much less for 2014.

 

[TheDisney411]

Yep. Thomas Cook is a UK company. UK offers are not comparable to those made in the US.

It should be noted that free dining was offered for the non-UK general public in January/February 2011 and 2012, but in 2013 it was not offered at all. We can't anticipate anything right now based on past offers for 2013, much less for 2014.

Actually, you really can. Even though there wasn't a free dining offer for January - March dates, there was the Stay/Play/Dine, which was almost comparable to FD. As for the late summer/early fall discounts, they specifically created free dining 9 years ago to fill resort rooms during that historically low time frame, which is the height of hurricane season. It's a pretty safe bet that free dining will be offered for that time frame or some sort of very comparable discount, other than just a room only discount. They can't maintain the attendance numbers they have had for the last 7 year during September without a huge discount like free dining.

 

[TDC Nala]

Sorry. But you can't say specifically what Disney will do until they do it, ever. I can't really get behind making specific plans for discount offers in 2014 a year and a half before the trip... And Stay, Play and Dine, while it is a discount, is not free dining.

 

[TheDisney411]

Sorry. But you can't say specifically what Disney will do until they do it, ever. I can't really get behind making specific plans for discount offers in 2014 a year and a half before the trip... And Stay, Play and Dine, while it is a discount, is not free dining.

I agree it's way too early to make predictions for December 2014, but not for fall this year. The OP actually asked about 2013 in the question she typed, I didn't notice 2014 in the title until you mentioned it. There has been no indication they won't have free dining for this August/September - that's easily predicable after the last 9 years. The dates vary slightly from year to year, but disney knows they could never fill the resorts and parks to the degree they are now able to in September without free dining discounts. And while I agree Stay/Play/Dine is certainly not a free dining discount, it is still a very deep discount that was offered during a traditional lower crowd time frame.

Disney marketing can throw something unexpected out there sometimes, but generally, they are very predictable.

 

[TDC Nala]

She asked what 2013 looked like so she could plan for 2014, for that time of year 2013 doesn't look like anything yet. And yes, Disney has said they are going to cut back on and generally change the discounts. Which they did this year by offering Stay Play and Dine instead of free dining for the first part of the year. And we don't know about September yet, anything out now it just a rumor.

I think we can count on there being a package discount of some type, but will it be free dining, and will it look like free dining from previous years? Can't answer that with any accuracy yet. And that's for 2013, not 2014.

 

[TheDisney411]

She asked what 2013 looked like so she could plan for 2014, for that time of year 2013 doesn't look like anything yet. And yes, Disney has said they are going to cut back on and generally change the discounts. Which they did this year by offering Stay Play and Dine instead of free dining for the first part of the year. And we don't know about September yet, anything out now it just a rumor.

I'll stand by those FD predictions for 2013 FD discounts. And I doubt they are more than a day or two off. And really, Disney has been giving the same line about drastically cutting discounts for the last 3 or 4 years and it simply hasn't come to fruition. They are simply trying to appease all us stockholders with that verbage. Anyone who follows historical discounts like this through Disney or other travel companies know that at certain times of year they must offer deep discounts to keep their numbers up. It's not about customer appreciation or even customer expectations, it's a simple numbers game.

 

[Bete]

I would look for a time after 8-14 for any free dining deals.

I base this on a pincode offer I received that ends on 8-14. Usually when one deal ends another one will be begin.

Free dining for the public started in the fall originally because there was a lot of bad PR going on about tornadoes at that time of the year in the Florida area. Disney was offsetting those possibilities by offering the free dining deal. Then, they expanded it for the winter months because the economy showed less traveling and so forth.

This year seems to show there is a trend to get away from free dining. If there is free dining dates this year it may be very limited on dates. If resort capacity is very poor they will bring it back.

In the past they have downgraded the free dining to not include appetizers and gratuities for the regular dining plan. As time marched on there were more downgrades and now it appears they want to stop this promotion.

I believe there is only one factor that will bring free dining back and that's attendance at the resorts.

 

[lillieandlilahsmommy]

About September dates? When do you think those will come out? It seems like every year it gets later and later. Anyone think free dining is going to be eliminated all together?

 

[TheDisney411]

About September dates? When do you think those will come out? It seems like every year it gets later and later. Anyone think free dining is going to be eliminated all together?

The next round of Free Dining dates have been leaked on the Codes and Rates Board.

Release Date: May 9
FD Promo Dates: September 2 - September 25, 2013
Quick Service DDP for value resorts
Regular/Basic DDP for Mods and Deluxe Resorts
3 night minimum/14 night maximum booking
Your check in dare must fall within the promo dates to have the discount applied to your package reservation.