November and free dining frustration!

italia218 · May 4, 2015

So I have been trying to get my closest friends to come to WDW with my DH and me for over 7 years! I finally got them excited for the wine and food festival and free dining promo ( my friend and I recently left teaching and are no longer slaves to the school schedule).

I cannot find any availability for the weeks we are able to go. What do you guys think, will more rooms be released for the promo? Any tips for me going forward? Thanks so much!

Ps we are looking at 11/8 or 10/25

neatokimmo · May 4, 2015

What is your budget? AKL shows up for Oct 25th. It's my dream trip I keep in the cart (we booked all star music lol).

italia218 · May 4, 2015

neatokimmo said:
What is your budget? AKL shows up for Oct 25th. It's my dream trip I keep in the cart (we booked all star music lol).

AKL is a little too much for us right now, I was hoping for a moderate! Thanks for checking for me! I haven't seen anything actually, so that is a little promising!

Jadyreen1282 · May 4, 2015

You've got to be quick on FD. Even if you're not sure you can go you should put a deposit down to secure the room. Most room were gone in the first hours of the promo.

neatokimmo · May 4, 2015

italia218 said:
AKL is a little too much for us right now, I was hoping for a moderate! Thanks for checking for me! I haven't seen anything actually, so that is a little promising!

I totally understand. We are using a big chunk of credit rewards or we wouldn't even be doing value.

buzznina · May 4, 2015

You have to keep trying, and I do not mean a couple of days a week, I mean a few times daily! I have seen rooms open up and then disappear just as fast. So you have to out work the other guy

neatokimmo · May 4, 2015

Nov 16-22 is $2744, free dining, Coronado Springs. 2 adults. If you push it back a week and arrive on a Monday, you have more options.

They released free dining at like 4am that Monday morning. I booked at 6am. So if you decide to do next year you need to join the watcher thread. And be willing to stay up all night to book it.

Hi Pluto · May 4, 2015

You could keep checking. But you could also look at booking something and waiting for the other fall discounts to come out. You might save about the same amount (and you could always add the dining plan separately). There are some pretty good standard rates right now at the moderates anyway.

~Cari~ pluto:

thr33boys · May 4, 2015

You should consider looking at an agency exclusive deal and paying oop for food. They have offers that cover both your date options at the moderate level. I'm saving about $950 (for 2A, 1 disney adult, 2 kids), this will more than cover the amount we'll need for food by paying oop. Our last trip, we spent about $800 on meals.

dchronister · May 4, 2015

It always works out better for my family to take the room only discount. I would do the math on it, it probably will end up being close to the same, the only time it would work out better for us to take free dining is if there are 4 adults in our room and we stay for longer than a week. Also rented points for a villa at one of the DVCs from a member or a broker that rents out the members point for them is always a good deal too, usually a bigger room for the same or less $ than a regular room.

saskdw · May 4, 2015

Early indications are that they allotted alot fewer rooms this year to the FD promo. All the Mods availability for December dates are pretty much gone. Most Years I could book a room in September for FD on those dates.

It is possible they could release more rooms, but no one here will be able to forecast that. It will depend on how full the resort bookings are on whatever date they feel is relevant.

joannamet · May 4, 2015

I tried off and on for days until I finally got availability for a value resort in Nov and then I couldn't be picky about it. I had to take All Star Music which would never be my first choice under any other circumstances. We usually stay at moderates but the price difference has become too much to justify.

I don't how you're searching but it helped me to go into the website and click at the bottom on Special Offers. Click on the 'One Delicious Offer' promo and then on Check Availability on the right. Put in your dates, number of guests and All Resorts and it will show you everything that has availability for those dates. Then you can change your dates at the top and it will continue to show you availability (or not) for the Free Dining Package.

Also, I saw some posts about people making multiple res. because they hadn't decided on their dates. As those people cancel out their extra res. more rooms should open up.

Good luck and keep trying.

italia218 · May 4, 2015

Thanks, guys. I will keep trying and compare different offers too!! I'll keep ya all posted <3

MichMill · May 4, 2015

italia218 said:
Thanks, guys. I will keep trying and compare different offers too!! I'll keep ya all posted <3

Keep Trying - often! I originally booked before the promotion, called on the day free dining was announced and was told that there were no available rooms. I kept trying different times of the day through my existing reservation, using the modify reservation option, and was able to get a room under the promotion. I have continued to look out of curiousity and sometimes see only deluxe, expensive options, but sometimes see a value or moderate pop up. This morning All Start Music was available when I looked.

Elleshoodat · May 4, 2015

If you're going to be spending a lot of time at Food & Wine, I'd recommend not holding out for free dining but trying to secure a room-only deal instead. We focus on Epcot that time of year and would much rather snack our way around the festival than spend "free" credits on sit-down meals.

Anomaly711 · May 4, 2015

Keep fiddling with the dates and resorts on the website. My husband sat for about an hour inputting different arrival and departure dates until he got CSR from Nov 11-20. We Weren't planning on going for 10 days, but we're rolling with it! We actually just added a night

Good luck. The FD seems like a good deal to me if you're staying at a Moderate.

scitti45 · May 4, 2015

I couldn't find any rooms with free dining for our dates. I ended up booking through an agency and got a deal that saved us a decent amount of money still. So there are other options also!

italia218 · May 6, 2015

Anomaly711 said:
Keep fiddling with the dates and resorts on the website. My husband sat for about an hour inputting different arrival and departure dates until he got CSR from Nov 11-20. We Weren't planning on going for 10 days, but we're rolling with it! We actually just added a night Good luck. The FD seems like a good deal to me if you're staying at a Moderate.

I stayed diligent and was able to book a business level king room at Coronado with the FD promo. I am actually really excited about it. Anybody ever stay at CS busniess rooms??

saskdw · May 6, 2015

italia218 said:
I stayed diligent and was able to book a business level king room at Coronado with the FD promo. I am actually really excited about it. Anybody ever stay at CS busniess rooms??

You will love it!!

CSR is our favorite resort. DW and I stayed in a Business Class King Room Dec. 12th-24th, 2013. DW, DS and I stayed in a standard BC room Dec. 10th-26th, 2014. The rooms are the premier location at CSR. The food court, main pool, bus stop, quiet pool, and laundry are all a 2 min walk. The BC lounge is just a bonus!! All the BC rooms have a bluray player as well.

italia218 · May 8, 2015

saskdw said:
You will love it!!

CSR is our favorite resort. DW and I stayed in a Business Class King Room Dec. 12th-24th, 2013. DW, DS and I stayed in a standard BC room Dec. 10th-26th, 2014. The rooms are the premier location at CSR. The food court, main pool, bus stop, quiet pool, and laundry are all a 2 min walk. The BC lounge is just a bonus!! All the BC rooms have a bluray player as well.

I'm super excited! Thanks for the info. Sounds awesome!

November and free dining frustration!

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