2013 Free Dining Watch

[vacation_junkie]

I was just looking through my "vacation" file and noticed that this day last year I booked our Jan 2012 vacation with free dining.

The year before I booked the 2nd week of October for January 2011...so I'm guessing no free dining this coming January

[cfriend416]

Can anyone help me out? I've never used a discount for a trip before, and my TA is unavailable until Wednesday. We're not Visa card holders so we can't try for discounts until then anyway, but I'd like to have some idea of what we could get.

My parents and I are on one reservation (3 adults) and my sister, BIL, and niece are on another (2 adults, 1 infant). We are booked for AoA and would like to try to switch to Pop to get the discounts. We currently do not have dining but would add it (Quick service) if S/P/D is a good deal. Any Visa card holders have any idea of which would be a better deal for us?

Also, our travel dates are 2/23-2/28, that doesn't fall in a blackout week does it?

Thanks so much!

[laurenb0380]

We are booked at POR. 2 standard royal rooms from 1/27-1/31. 5 adults and 1 child. 4 days base tickets and no dining plan. Our bill was $3400. Used the s/p/d offer and added dining and was bumped up to a garden view royal room. The bill is now $3650 and the travel agent said once she gets the invoice there's a chance it could actually be up to a hundred rollers lower. So for $165-265 we getting a better room and the dining package

[dakotix]

Anyone book just two adults at a mod? 7Days with park hop ? What kind of savings did you get?

[Starclassic]

Originally Posted by dakotix

Anyone book just two adults at a mod? 7Days with park hop ? What kind of savings did you get?

Not sure if this helps you, but I priced 2 adults, 7 day base plus DDP, at POR preferred room and was quoted $2045.87 (before insurance) with the S/P/D offer.

[bbinnsGA]

Id love to get free dining in May if anyone sees it or knows of it coming up!

[dakotix]

Originally Posted by Starclassic

Not sure if this helps you, but I priced 2 adults, 7 day base plus DDP, at POR preferred room and was quoted $2045.87 (before insurance) with the S/P/D offer.

That does help thank you Ive had reservations at CSR since august and have been waiting so impatiently to know what my "real" balance is lol. We have a 7 day standard room , park hop w/ DDP for two and that costs $2684.; so if your quote holds true I'll be saving over $600

[aaarcher86]

Originally Posted by cfriend416

Can anyone help me out? I've never used a discount for a trip before, and my TA is unavailable until Wednesday. We're not Visa card holders so we can't try for discounts until then anyway, but I'd like to have some idea of what we could get.

My parents and I are on one reservation (3 adults) and my sister, BIL, and niece are on another (2 adults, 1 infant). We are booked for AoA and would like to try to switch to Pop to get the discounts. We currently do not have dining but would add it (Quick service) if S/P/D is a good deal. Any Visa card holders have any idea of which would be a better deal for us?

Also, our travel dates are 2/23-2/28, that doesn't fall in a blackout week does it?

Thanks so much!

Not sure what the numbers would be for you, but we added s/p/d for our trip 2/23 - 3/4 so you'll be good to go on your dates

[ChefandSweetPea]

I just wanted to make sure to keep an eye out for the dates too. Were literally waiting to see what the dates are going to be and work our vacation around it if all works out well.

[redoschi]

Oh, the wait for Wednesday!!!

Sorry for the huge post, but I'm not being able to restrain myself from over-planning before the GP offers are released!!!

I have a reservation for Pop for 14 nights with 8-day hopper in January starting Jan 22nd.

I'll be on the phone first thing on Wednesday to try and get some kind of offer, but I'm thinking on what would be best.

Regular prices of QSDP for 14 nights isn't worth it for us as we'll be in Disney parks for 7.5 of those days and most of those CS credits would be used on breakfasts of other days as well. (12 CS for breakfasts and 16 between Lunches and Dinners in my current plan).

I'm thinking of maybe reducing our onsite stay to 11 nights (we'll be in Orlando for 16 nights, first 2 already booked at an off-site hotel, would just extend that reservation to 5 nights) or maybe do a split stay with the first part just room-only and the second with a package deal in the same hotel or if we get a good offer even changing hotels.

As breakfast meals are usually much cheaper and sometimes easier to share, I believe that having 22 CSs would enable us to do all our 16 planned CS lunches/dinners (most of them in the parks but 3-4 in DTD like Wolfgang Puck Express and Earl of Sandwich! ) and still be able to do several breakfasts (more than the remaining 6 CS if we share some platters and use some snacks) on the plan.

Another possibility if there is a nice offer (or if we can't get an available room at Pop or another value) is to transfer into a Moderate (POR being my first choice due to the bayou theming and the boat to DTD! )! And if in a moderate using Stay/Play/Dine we could get the regular dining plan and make some more ADRs transfering some of our current CSs plans into TS!

We have already made some ADRs that we plan on going no matter what like Ohana, Sci-Fi, T-Rex and Be Our Guest with a couple others also reserved that we'll probably use just if we get the DDP like Tusker House, Le Cellier and Teppan Edo. We also plan on doing Beaches & Cream! (no ADRs there, but is my favorite burger in WDW! )

[Starclassic]

Originally Posted by redoschi

And if in a moderate using Stay/Play/Dine we could get the regular dining plan

You can upgrade the quick service dining plan to get the regular dining plan at a Value. You just pay the difference.

[cfriend416]

Originally Posted by aaarcher86

Not sure what the numbers would be for you, but we added s/p/d for our trip 2/23 - 3/4 so you'll be good to go on your dates

Thanks so much! I tried emailing my TA to set up a phone appointment to alter our reservation but she didn't seem to know anything about a discount. She said she'd apply any discount that came out, but since we're currently booked for AoA the discounts won't apply without changing our reservation, which she didn't seem to get!

[merina888]

I've read from other posters that if you upgrade from QS to regular DDP at a value resort, you must pay the difference between the two before the discount would be applied. In other words, you don't get a discounted regular dining plan if you upgrade at a value. You pay the full rack rate difference between regular DDP and QS if you use stay, play and dine discount.

[aaarcher86]

Originally Posted by cfriend416

Thanks so much! I tried emailing my TA to set up a phone appointment to alter our reservation but she didn't seem to know anything about a discount. She said she'd apply any discount that came out, but since we're currently booked for AoA the discounts won't apply without changing our reservation, which she didn't seem to get!

Are you in the LM standard rooms? Those are the only ones excluded. If you are booked for the family suites you can apply it no problem!

Good luck moving everything around if you need to

[aaarcher86]

Originally Posted by merina888

I've read from other posters that if you upgrade from QS to regular DDP at a value resort, you must pay the difference between the two before the discount would be applied. In other words, you don't get a discounted regular dining plan if you upgrade at a value. You pay the full rack rate difference between regular DDP and QS if you use stay, play and dine discount.

That's what I've heard something like that as well. And honestly, I'm not even sure of the numbers. I just know I upgraded from DDP to DXDP and saved a bit less than free dining. I gotta keep it simple!

I guess you'd be paying the full upgrade price, plus the child amount of the included DP which is why it works out to be being 'almost' as much as free dining, since with FD you'd just pay the upgrade price.