2015 FREE DINING THREAD _ All Questions HERE!!

[scrappinginontario]

I asked this a while back, but never got an answer. What time does southwest announce new dates? I know I don't need to be online right then, but I have to work on the 14th, so I wanted to do it before I left if possible.

Thanks

If at all possible, please keep checking as early and often as you can on release date as the fall flights seem to jump quickly. Last year we were traveling the date of the release. I tried at 6am and they were not out. The first time we stopped was 8am and our flights had already jumped up to over $250 each direction which is almost double what we normally pay!

This might have been a (bad) fluke but I'd rather you be prepared just in case it happens again.

 

[wdw4rfam]

If at all possible, please keep checking as early and often as you can on release date as the fall flights seem to jump quickly. Last year we were traveling the date of the release. I tried at 6am and they were not out. The first time we stopped was 8am and our flights had already jumped up to over $250 each direction which is almost double what we normally pay!

This might have been a (bad) fluke but I'd rather you be prepared just in case it happens again.

Oh my, that's what I was afraid of. My DD and her BF are flying that Saturday before thanksgiving, so a VERY busy travel weekend, and from what I am seeing these only 1-2 non stops per day. So I will make sure I am on at 6:00 and keep refreshing. Thanks for the heads up. Someone else said it's not as cut throat as free dining, but it sounds like it is

 

[lauradis]

I asked this a while back, but never got an answer. What time does southwest announce new dates? I know I don't need to be online right then, but I have to work on the 14th, so I wanted to do it before I left if possible.

May 13/14 yes

 

[tabistar]

Well, we decided to extend our vacation 2 nights to get free dining! So, we'll be at CBR in a standard room 9/25-10/3! I still have us at 5 park days plus water parks & more, so we might add another day or go to Universal for a day or something. Now I need to go add 2 more dining reservations!

So, 2 more nights plus free dining is only costing $350 or so more (plus $40 if we add another park day). Plus, we get 2 extra days at Disney, making it the longest trip for us yet! Not too bad!

 

[RedWolf95]

You can also do Target Debit/Credit Card and save 5% if you buy the Gift Cards.
My plan is to go thru Ebates.com and buy them with my Target Card.
That means 5% off from target and a extra 2% (Ebates) thats back in my pocket.

So can you actually order 60 of the $50 gift cards from Target to use for paying off a $3000 vacation?

 

[jkiszka]

I'm pulling my hair out on this! Perhaps y'all will be able to help...

My wife and I generally go to WDW every year the last week of September / first week of October, and we book with Dreams Unlimited. I had foresight to book all of my ADRs exactly 180 days ahead of time (got most of what I wanted at the times I wanted them also!) and I went ahead and had our Dreams Unlimited agent make the reservation.

My reservation including free dining expires tonight, and I need to book or I'll lose it. Only problem is, I originally had our agent get our reservation from 9/24 - 10/4 at Coronado Springs... Turns out, my wife won't be able to leave until 9/25. When I had my agent try to make the reservation from 9/25 - 10/4, she told me that Disney has some new crazy policy that forbids them to decrease the number of days on the reservation. And what's worse is that our agent now says that there isn't ANY availability at ANY of the moderates at all for 9/25 - 10/4!!

Does anyone else have experience with this? I'm pretty anxious and unhappy about it... this is like the first time that I got all of our dining reservations we wanted (except for Be Our Guest dinner--that one seems pretty much impossible), and now it looks like I'm going to have to kill the whole reservation and cancel all of my ADRs, and cancel our trip to Disney this year. I don't want to pay over $5k for a deluxe...

Any advice?

 

[disneyjr77]

I was just on the Disney site and Caribbean Beach was available 9/25-10/3...I know it's a day less but it was available.

 

[Aubrav]

I'm pulling my hair out on this! Perhaps y'all will be able to help...

My wife and I generally go to WDW every year the last week of September / first week of October, and we book with Dreams Unlimited. I had foresight to book all of my ADRs exactly 180 days ahead of time (got most of what I wanted at the times I wanted them also!) and I went ahead and had our Dreams Unlimited agent make the reservation.

My reservation including free dining expires tonight, and I need to book or I'll lose it. Only problem is, I originally had our agent get our reservation from 9/24 - 10/4 at Coronado Springs... Turns out, my wife won't be able to leave until 9/25. When I had my agent try to make the reservation from 9/25 - 10/4, she told me that Disney has some new crazy policy that forbids them to decrease the number of days on the reservation. And what's worse is that our agent now says that there isn't ANY availability at ANY of the moderates at all for 9/25 - 10/4!!

Does anyone else have experience with this? I'm pretty anxious and unhappy about it... this is like the first time that I got all of our dining reservations we wanted (except for Be Our Guest dinner--that one seems pretty much impossible), and now it looks like I'm going to have to kill the whole reservation and cancel all of my ADRs, and cancel our trip to Disney this year. I don't want to pay over $5k for a deluxe...

Any advice?

Keep your reservation for now, with whatever resort you can get. As you just said, held reservations will be released tonight so there may be some additional availability between now and the end of the promotion that you can switch to. If it doesn't work out you can cancel later right?

And yes, keep checking surrounding dates because of that new policy

 

[RejoyceoverDisney]

I'm pulling my hair out on this! Perhaps y'all will be able to help...

My wife and I generally go to WDW every year the last week of September / first week of October, and we book with Dreams Unlimited. I had foresight to book all of my ADRs exactly 180 days ahead of time (got most of what I wanted at the times I wanted them also!) and I went ahead and had our Dreams Unlimited agent make the reservation.

My reservation including free dining expires tonight, and I need to book or I'll lose it. Only problem is, I originally had our agent get our reservation from 9/24 - 10/4 at Coronado Springs... Turns out, my wife won't be able to leave until 9/25. When I had my agent try to make the reservation from 9/25 - 10/4, she told me that Disney has some new crazy policy that forbids them to decrease the number of days on the reservation. And what's worse is that our agent now says that there isn't ANY availability at ANY of the moderates at all for 9/25 - 10/4!!

Does anyone else have experience with this? I'm pretty anxious and unhappy about it... this is like the first time that I got all of our dining reservations we wanted (except for Be Our Guest dinner--that one seems pretty much impossible), and now it looks like I'm going to have to kill the whole reservation and cancel all of my ADRs, and cancel our trip to Disney this year. I don't want to pay over $5k for a deluxe...

Any advice?

Can you go a day ahead of her and check in? Assuming you are flying and not driving.
We are not doing FD but because of my job I can't leave the same day as my DH. I will meet him there.
But yes we have been reading about this change in policy

 

[jkiszka]

I was just on the Disney site and Caribbean Beach was available 9/25-10/3...I know it's a day less but it was available.

Well heck! I see that too now! We've never stayed there, but we'd be fine with that... also it's $1000 less!!!!

I'll let my agent know...

 

[disneyjr77]

Well heck! I see that too now! We've never stayed there, but we'd be fine with that... also it's $1000 less!!!!

I'll let my agent know...

I hope it works out for you!

 

[tabistar]

Well heck! I see that too now! We've never stayed there, but we'd be fine with that... also it's $1000 less!!!!

I'll let my agent know...

It just became available today! I was excited, too, and booked it for us

If you really wanted that last night, you could try a split stay- either paying regular price for another room at CRB, or transferring to another resort. You wouldn't get the extra day of free dining, but you'd get an extra day at Disney!

 

[Boardwalk Gal]

When I had my agent try to make the reservation from 9/25 - 10/4, she told me that Disney has some new crazy policy that forbids them to decrease the number of days on the reservation.

I never heard of this. So if i was to decrease my days on my current FD reservations, i cannot do this? Is this in writing? Is it where the "fine" line print is that i agreed to...(we suppose to read it, but who really does?)

 

[smitch425]

I never heard of this. So if i was to decrease my days on my current FD reservations, i cannot do this? Is this in writing? Is it where the "fine" line print is that i agreed to...(we suppose to read it, but who really does?)

The new policy went into effect last month, and yes, it states in the fine print that Disney reserves the right to restrict changes to any reservation.

 

[Aubrav]

I never heard of this. So if i was to decrease my days on my current FD reservations, i cannot do this? Is this in writing? Is it where the "fine" line print is that i agreed to...(we suppose to read it, but who really does?)

Basically based on what I've been told, if the exact dates you want are not showing as available in the system, you can't have them. All of those dates must be available as a package. You can't just shave days off of what was a set package of availability.

 

[sarahplus4disneymom]

Basically based on what I've been told, if the exact dates you want are not showing as available in the system, you can't have them. All of those dates must be available as a package. You can't just shave days off of what was a set package of availability.

It's up to them to devide. I booked 9/23-10/3 at CBR but only needed 1
9/25-10/3 and the agent wasn't Able to modify but she filled out a paper and an agent called me and approved the change and I got what I wanted!

 

[wdw4rfam]

So can you actually order 60 of the $50 gift cards from Target to use for paying off a $3000 vacation?

I paid off my $5000 balance last year all with gift cards. Just be sure you aren't going to need to cancel, because you will be stuck with all those gift cards instead of a refund. Also don't throw the cards away, because if you cancel, they will refund all the money back to those cards.

 

[donp]

So can you actually order 60 of the $50 gift cards from Target to use for paying off a $3000 vacation?

Yes! It is a little time consuming, and you can only order about 8 an order online (and then go back in and order 8 more). I have put 104 cards on my trip so far. Almost $300 worth of savings!

 

[Madame]

Still no joy tonight. We're just going to count ourselves lucky that we got 6 of our 7 nights with FD. Hope others are having better luck

 

[WickedMom]

Not seeing any new rooms at POR for September....I booked a royal pool view room on the day dining was released but have been trying obsessively since then to knock it down to a less expensive room with no luck. I'll just keep trying!