2015 Free Dining

[JohnDaleswife]

Read on some Facebooks sites that the Free Dining promo is most likely going to be released very soon, but I see no talk of it on here. What gives?

 

[disney world dreamer]

in the past it has been released sometime between late march and early may.
not much to talk about until its announced.
then it will be a hot topic for a while.

 

[kandb]

Any rumors on when it is going to start? Any rumored dates?

 

[disneymarathoner07]

Any rumors on when it is going to start? Any rumored dates?

I booked a room for a friend yesterday for early October and when she asked me if I wanted dining plan I responded that we were going to wait to see if free dining was going to be offered....she told me that I needed to start looking for that the beginning of May.

 

[aaarcher86]

There's individual month threads and a FD thread on the dining boards. Plenty of people talking about it.

 

[JohnDaleswife]

Oh, ok. My bad.

 

[HollVoll]

We're just waiting and waiting...not so patiently.

 

[petrymom]

Waiting here too!!

 

[DISNEY1975]

The past 2 years have shown it was release to Visa card holders the very beginning of May, and a few days later to the general public. For those waiting for the promo before adding dining, I would suggest adding the dining now, making your ressies at the 180 mark (which is very soon for Oct. travel dates), then cancelling the plan/reservations is it doesnt pan out. Good luck all. My fingers are crossed for September dates

 

[Aubrav]

The past 2 years have shown it was release to Visa card holders the very beginning of May, and a few days later to the general public. For those waiting for the promo before adding dining, I would suggest adding the dining now, making your ressies at the 180 mark (which is very soon for Oct. travel dates), then cancelling the plan/reservations is it doesnt pan out. Good luck all. My fingers are crossed for September dates

The problem with booking first and then changing your reservation is that it reduces the need for them to offer the free dining. If they are >50% booked already then there is no reason for them to offer such a great promotion.

 

[monica9]

The problem with booking first and then changing your reservation is that it reduces the need for them to offer the free dining. If they are >50% booked already then there is no reason for them to offer such a great promotion.

Except for the fact that they know that people will book early and then change if an anticiapted promo doesn't come out. They have to know that most people know about past promotions and plan their vacations around that. Who in the world would pay full price for disney when they have a promo out for every season!!!

 

[aaarcher86]

Except for the fact that they know that people will book early and then change if an anticiapted promo doesn't come out. They have to know that most people know about past promotions and plan their vacations around that. Who in the world would pay full price for disney when they have a promo out for every season!!!

I think most people is a stretch. Most people don't plan and follow stuff like DIS people.

 

[Tinkershelly]

The problem with booking first and then changing your reservation is that it reduces the need for them to offer the free dining. If they are >50% booked already then there is no reason for them to offer such a great promotion.

THIS! And it's easier to book a new reservation online as soon as FD is announced than it is to call Disney, wait on hold for possibly hours to switch your reservation. And without knowing which dates and resorts qualify you may have to change your plans from your original reservation. If you use a travel agent who will switch your reservation for you, you still need to get in contact with them if your original reservation doesn't qualify. Far easier to start fresh on the morning the promotion opens up with a new reservation.

 

[Jadyreen1282]

I think most people is a stretch. Most people don't plan and follow stuff like DIS people.

I have to agree. We are a unique bunch.

 

[Meldev]

THIS! And it's easier to book a new reservation online as soon as FD is announced than it is to call Disney, wait on hold for possibly hours to switch your reservation. And without knowing which dates and resorts qualify you may have to change your plans from your original reservation.

I'm going with this plan this year. Last year I modified my res when FD came out - errors were made. I have a res now, and will keep it if FD doesn't get released, but if it does, I'm booking a totally new res during those dates! ;-)

 

[scard192]

The past 2 years have shown it was release to Visa card holders the very beginning of May, and a few days later to the general public. For those waiting for the promo before adding dining, I would suggest adding the dining now, making your ressies at the 180 mark (which is very soon for Oct. travel dates), then cancelling the plan/reservations is it doesnt pan out. Good luck all. My fingers are crossed for September dates

just to clarify, in 2013 the "Fall" (October - December) FD promo did not drop until August 1st and I don't think there was a Disney Visa advance booking, went right to GP. There were a lot of very nervous/anxious DISer's waiting for that Fall Promo in 2013.

 

[mjallemand]

So I really don't know what to do anymore. The trip is for the third week of November, and I'd really love free dining because that's like $600+ off our trip expenses, and we're not exactly a high-income couple to begin with.

If I book a reservation now, there's no guarantee I'll be able to add on the free dining plan if/when it arrives.

If I wait for the free dining offer to arrive I potentially miss out on getting a room, dining reservations, and potentially even Fastpass reservations if I wait too long.

This is really stressing me out and I don't know what to do.

 

[Tinkershelly]

So I really don't know what to do anymore. The trip is for the third week of November, and I'd really love free dining because that's like $600+ off our trip expenses, and we're not exactly a high-income couple to begin with.

If I book a reservation now, there's no guarantee I'll be able to add on the free dining plan if/when it arrives.

If I wait for the free dining offer to arrive I potentially miss out on getting a room, dining reservations, and potentially even Fastpass reservations if I wait too long.

This is really stressing me out and I don't know what to do.

If you are planning to go on certain dates and stay at a specific resort no matter what offers come up then book your trip now. If you must have a promotion of some sort then wait. There is no guarantee that the dates and resort you pick in advance are going to qualify for the offer and then you will need to make some quick decisions to rebook your reservations. Also the more rooms booked at rack rates, the fewer rooms that Disney will discount and the more likely your reservations will not qualify for the discount. You can still book dining reservations at 180 days without a room reservation so that shouldn't be a problem. That's what I have done for late September while waiting for Free Dining BEFORE booking my room reservation.

 

[jamnich314]

Also the more rooms booked at rack rates, the fewer rooms that Disney will discount and the more likely your reservations will not qualify for the discount. You can still book dining reservations at 180 days without a room reservation so that shouldn't be a problem. That's what I have done for late September while waiting for Free Dining BEFORE booking my room reservation.

We are doing the exact same thing. We don't want to book now because we want as many rooms as possible to be unoccupied so Disney will offer discounts (whether it be FD or % off a room) to more resorts and more room types. We booked our ADRs at the beginning of the week and got almost everything we wanted. Now, we are waiting for the discounts to come out for end of September so we can book. Booking a room early is only a detriment to our goal. And like you said, we may book POR King Bed and try to switch it when a discount comes out and have that resort and/or room type be unavailable so we would have to switch anyway. PLUS, I hear it's faster to just go online the day the discount becomes available and book brand new as opposed to calling Disney that morning to change the reservation. I've heard horror stories of people waiting on the phone for hours trying to get FD the morning it becomes available to the general public.

 

[Halloweenqueen]

Free dining really is a Catch 22. It is to everyone's disadvantage to book before the discount. Yet everyone wants to book ADRs at the 180 day mark.

Yes, doing all of your dining in one sitting is convenient, but that's the only plus of booking before a discount. So many people think they are reserving a room that will be discounted later and it just doesn't work that way. Have a reservation puts you in no better position than the guest who books the day the discount comes out.

I bet the resort choices will be very restricted this year. Best to have a second or third choice for a resort and super flexible dates.