2016 Free Dining Watch ~ Part 2

[SJSloan]

POP in December looks like it's sold out. That was fast!

CBR standards are gone too for Dec.

I was looking for a standard at CBR in December too and was there right after it dropped, but nothing. Had to "settle" for a Water/Pool view. I'm just thankful to have FD!

Did anyone have any luck getting POR for the 11/28 dates. (Thanksgiving weekend)

Someone may have already answered your post by now, but sadly, POR was excluded after 10/1.

Ok, so how many of us have got the Free Dining and now will obsess over Rivers of Light, Tiffins or any other combination of things?

Next on my list is MVMCP tickets, Park Hours, and ADRs.

Just a couple minutes after 4am EST, 4:03am, I believe. My husband's a computer guy and set it up to sound an alarm when their offer page changed. It checked every 2 minutes, and the alarm went off at 3:05CST.

We were just talking about this last night on the boards, he could sell that feature!

Does anyone else keep logging in and out to check on their reservation???? I think I'm seriously ill.

I checked my reservation 5 times yesterday just to make sure I wasn't dreaming. And it's the first things that I checked this morning.

I went to bed at 2:30 and set my alarm for 4:30 and it was up!! Yay! Got CBR for 12/14-12/20. Merry Christmas to me!

We are at CBR 12/16 - 12/23. What room category did you get? We were looking for Standard but could only get Water/Pool view.

Sooooooo who saved what$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

We saved $1,000 but we also booked before the price increase and without hoppers, it would have been bigger if we had the current prices.

So, I booked early this morning at Pop for a solo trip. My mom informed me tonight that she might want to join me. Is adding a 2nd person to a reservation allowed? She said she won't know until early July. If I call Disney before free dining is over and add her to my room, will that be a problem if the resort is already sold out? I would love for her to join me, but I really don't want to lose out on my dining!

As long as she will be staying in your room that will not be a problem. You can add more up to room capacity. FD is based on the number of rooms, not the number of guests.

Same here. After staying up til midnight, getting up again at 1:00am, 2:30am, and 4am, all I was able to do (that was even close to the cost of our existing CSR standard reservation), was a pirate room at CBR. After learning from this thread that the beds in that room are doubles and not queens, and that these rooms are the furthest away from everything, and after looking on the Disney website all day for another deal and reading this thread off and on all day, I gave up our free dining room and booked a standard room at POFQ, paying for the dining plan. Hopefully, a free dining deal that works better for us will open up or we will get in on a resort discount offer or code. If not, that's okay....we're still going to Disney!!

I'm so glad you got everything worked out. When I read your first post I thought "Oh, no, she doesn't know the Pirate Rooms only have full beds." But then I saw where someone had already told you. I have heard great things about POFQ. Enjoy!

Brutal honesty needed. Is it possible in the coming weeks that my existing standard room at CBR could have a chance at FD? I do have a TA watching. I'm booked 11/19-11/25.

There is still a possibility. The promotion ends in August I believe so there is still plenty of time. Just check often and if you see something book it yourself and then transfer to your TA.

Standby...

I'm on the edge of my seat and my heart start beating fast whenever I see these words from you. Thankfully that was just a test.

 

[alopez926]

I managed to get a CSR room with FD, but just checked availability for our dates at a Value (because I'm a little obsessed right now), and there are NO resorts with FD for Sept 30-Oct 5 in any category! I know we'll love CSR and I'm over the moon to get a room, but I have to say we did really well on the QSDining plan last year, as they let you convert a counter service meal to three snack credits - we ROCKED the EF&WFest and would park hop over there at least once a day to forage! I end up paying ~$400 more for CSR than I would for Pop, which is pretty much the cost of upgrading to the DDP for 5 days, but that's about a bajillion dollars Canadian, so I felt it prudent to check for a Value. No availability alleviates my guilt at upgrading!

We are going the same dates. I was online at 4AM when Free Dining was released. There were no options for Values on these dates at all when I logged in to book. CSR and CBR Pirate rooms were the only options below Deluxe. So not sure you missed out on one, if that makes you feel any better!!

 

[kjw42]

So I swore up and down we weren't going this year and I was only watching for fun. Then came the rationalization stage "what if we can't go next year? What if we stayed in a value to save money?" etc. Next came " We'll I just get up early and see if anything is even available". Now we're booked for our fall vacation!

 

[Yeln4lks]

just got POP for 11-27-12-02 online...

 

[berkfam22]

what phone #?

407-939-4357

 

[SJSloan]

After 2 days I have finally caught up with this thread!

I prepared Sunday night by having my laptop, iPad and phone at my finger tips. I put Cutthroat Kitchen on in the background on Netflix and started folding 6 loads of laundry. I also had snacks and pop at my fingertips to help "keep busy" but I didn't need them. My routine was: fold towel, Command + R, fold shirt, Command R. Then when I finished a pile I caught up on the Board. Then before I knew it, it was go time (thanks to the person who first saw the offer and quickly reported back to us). I texted my traveling companion and my little text group and then tried to modify my reservation. Woody was split in a million pieces on my screen. I tried again, nothing. Then I transfered to my slow as molasses iPad and made a new reservation. I was done by 4:09. I got a text from my friend that she was done, with the same resort and room category as me. Then I moved to my client's reservation (thankfully I only had 1). I got her FD for her week over Thanksgiving and she was over the moon. It was now 4:20 and I was running on adrenaline. Before I knew it, it was time to get up and get the step-kids to school. And unfortunately I had to report to my day job. I barely made it through and crashed after the kids homework at 6:30 last night. Slept for almost 12 hours.

This was my first experience with Free Dining as we usually travel in May/June, but since the last free dining release I have also become a TA so this will not be my last. I have learned so much from all of you. And while it has been stressful, it has been fun.

THANK SO much much to Black562 and Dirty Steve for your information, and thank you to everyone who stayed up all night and entertained me. You made the night fly by and kept me laughing.

I don't know what to do with my time now that I will not be constantly refreshing the thread. Anyone start the 2017 thread yet?! Hope to see you all around and back next year!

Congrats to everyone who got free dining and if you didn't don't give up. A lot of TA held reservations for their clients yesterday, and they have 3 days to book. If they don't book they will go back into the system, so keep checking!

In the end I secured FD at CBR, 12/16 - 12/23, Water/Pool view.

 

[eyeblaura]

I see our park tickets are all listed as 10+, even though we have two under 10. I think I'll wait until next week to have my TA get it fixed. It sounds like the phone lines are still pretty hectic.

Our park tickets are listed the same way and it lists PH instead of waterparks. Everything else looks fine but like you I'm going to wait to call until all the FD dust settles. Have plenty of time to straighten it out before september.

 

[ml sumner]

I see our park tickets are all listed as 10+, even though we have two under 10. I think I'll wait until next week to have my TA get it fixed. It sounds like the phone lines are still pretty hectic.

My ds who will be 5 is listed 10+ as well. I will definitely wait until a week or two before I call to have them correct this. I wonder if the price is correct that we are booked for since the age shows this on the tickets.

 

[stashbin]

just got POP for 11-27-12-02 online...

With FD?

 

[disneydreamer74]

We got through yesterday afternoon after an hour wait on the phone line following 30 minutes of redialing. Modified our Pop Century reservation for 9/3/16-9/6/16 to add free dining. Upgraded to the Disney Dining Plan! We switch to the Swan/Dolphin for 4 days on 9/6/16 so no dining after that...but while we can enjoy it we will be free dining away!! Now we wait for the MNSSHP!!*Edited to add we have standard rooms and the CM stated that rooms were going fast for our dates.

 

[tatorswife]

Worried about reservations because I never received an email conformation that I had cancelled one package and booked another. Anyone else had this issue? I guess you could say when I wasn't able to get fd at POR I went ahead and booked CSR with FD but didn't cancel the POR ressie til later yesterday afternoon. Now I'm nervous because I didn't get a email conforming the cancelled resort and the money paid toward the POR ressie has not been transferred to the new ressie either

 

[Kshell40]

I see our park tickets are all listed as 10+, even though we have two under 10. I think I'll wait until next week to have my TA get it fixed. It sounds like the phone lines are still pretty hectic.

Mine too. Was told by Cm it's glitch.

 

[ml sumner]

We are going the same dates. I was online at 4AM when Free Dining was released. There were no options for Values on these dates at all when I logged in to book. CSR and CBR Pirate rooms were the only options below Deluxe. So not sure you missed out on one, if that makes you feel any better!!

We are almost the same dates 9/30-10/6 and I too was on line when the promotion dropped and never saw Pop (that was what we were hoping for). Yesterday, I took a vacation day and spent all day refreshing the free dining for our dates and picked up All Star Music around 11:00. We originally booked CSR preferred room first thing that morning, but that was really more than what we wanted to pay and could have done the Room discount and paid for our dining at All Star movies for cheaper without the wp or ph add on. All in all we are saving about $400 bucks, but free dining is definitely not what it use to be and while prices keep going up so does the package even with free dining!

 

[Tone2938]

After reading through all of your responses. I've realized that I got extremely lucky in getting a reservation for free dining at Pop Century. We were just going to go with one of the All Stars resorts but they only had Pop Century available for our dates. This will be our first time staying there so I'm excited and thankful to be able to experience it. I hope that all of you still trying to get a free dining reservation get one eventually! We were planning on going last year and I was late to the free dining release. I thought we were out of luck in getting it but about 2 weeks after the release date a bunch of reservations became available for the dates we had picked. We ultimately ended up postponing the trip until this year but my point is that you all still could get your free dining reservations if you keep checking!!!

 

[ml sumner]

After reading through all of your responses. I've realized that I got extremely lucky in getting a reservation for free dining at Pop Century. We were just going to go with one of the All Stars resorts but they only had Pop Century available for our dates. This will be our first time staying there so I'm excited and thankful to be able to experience it. I hope that all of you still trying to get a free dining reservation get one eventually! We were planning on going last year and I was late to the free dining release. I thought we were out of luck in getting it but about 2 weeks after the release date a bunch of reservations became available for the dates we had picked. We ultimately ended up postponing the trip until this year but my point is that you all still could get your free dining reservations if you keep checking!!!

Yep, I will keep checking several times a day for a few weeks! You will enjoy Pop. We love that it has its own bus transportation.

 

[Yeln4lks]

With FD?

yes..

 

[Yeln4lks]

I just checked Pop again and still available for 11-27-12-02

 

[dizneygirl55]

So I swore up and down we weren't going this year and I was only watching for fun. Then came the rationalization stage "what if we can't go next year? What if we stayed in a value to save money?" etc. Next came " We'll I just get up early and see if anything is even available". Now we're booked for our fall vacation!

Totally us too!

 

[Yeln4lks]

Totally us too!

exact same here!!! so excited...

 

[Canadisney Fly]

We are going the same dates. I was online at 4AM when Free Dining was released. There were no options for Values on these dates at all when I logged in to book. CSR and CBR Pirate rooms were the only options below Deluxe. So not sure you missed out on one, if that makes you feel any better!!

It does - THANK YOU! I stayed up until midnight (3 am eastern), but then fell asleep and woke up at 6 am eastern. Thankfully, made it in before the phone lines opened and modified my existing CBR to CSR with FD. I saw the same thing - only pirates and no values. Great to know those extra two hours of sleep didn't cause me to lose out - thank you!!!