2016 Free Dining Watch ~ Part 2

[Becky Mouse]

Please let me know. I am looking for November 17-25. Thanks

Sorry, I guess she just modified the reservation. Good luck getting the room you want!

 

[stashbin]

yes..

That is great! We are still trying for our dates.

 

[Canadisney Fly]

So here's an interesting thing - I'm booked at CSR for 5 days with FD, but keep checking to see if any values come up (just to alleviate my guilt at paying for a moderate). Nothing available. Out of curiosity, I check my cart. It had a CSR with FD for a 4 day, rather than the 5 day that I booked (I was testing options the morning the offer came out). The $ amount was showing, and just for kicks, I hit the checkout button. It bumped up the cost by $600, then proceeded to the checkout page. Strange that the cost went up, and even stranger that keeping something in my cart held it for that long. Anyone have any insight?

 

[stashbin]

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

We are looking for 11/16-11/22

 

[Yeln4lks]

We are looking for 11/16-11/22

the week before thanksgiving is our usual week we like to go but could not get FD. tried the week after and to my surprise it was available. Hope you get yours booked as well.

 

[MissErikaRae]

This entire process is so confusing/stressful! We really wanted to stay at the Poly but when the RO discount came out we booked TPV at GF. After playing around with the travel dates a standard view at the Poly is available for part of our trip and for the rest of the trip our options are an Lagoon View at the Poly/ Contemporary- tower room/ or 1bed Villa at Animal Kingdom. I have no idea to what to do! Do I keep my TPV at GF or do a split stay at the Poly/ other? I've never been so indecisive. haha

 

[Attracted to Beasts]

Inventory is ridiculously low this year with the FD! In 2014 I got ASSp no problem, last year CBR standard no problem but this year I logged on at 4am on the dot and there was hardly anything I wanted for 8/27-9/1 (which I feel like are less popular dates) At 4am I put a waterview room at CBR in my cart and got all the way to the payment page. Then I quickly opened another window just to see if anything was cheaper at POR ! That proved to be a costly mistake! In the 10 seconds it took me to do that both the waterview rooms at both resorts were gone and it wouldn't let me pay only upgrade to a pirate room or royal room!!!! So how many of those rooms were really actually being offered if they were gone in 30 seconds at 4am?!?!? We ended up with our 3rd choice (standard WL) which I am actually really excited about because I never stayed there but seriously FD this year has caused me so much stress! Ugh!

 

[shap39]

This is my first experience with FD I am very disappointed I booked my room ahead of this because I'm going anyway but I don't see why I shouldn't be able to get into

 

[rspencer38]

Inventory is ridiculously low this year with the FD! In 2014 I got ASSp no problem, last year CBR standard no problem but this year I logged on at 4am on the dot and there was hardly anything I wanted for 8/27-9/1 (which I feel like are less popular dates) At 4am I put a waterview room at CBR in my cart and got all the way to the payment page. Then I quickly opened another window just to see if anything was cheaper at POR ! That proved to be a costly mistake! In the 10 seconds it took me to do that both the waterview rooms at both resorts were gone and it wouldn't let me pay only upgrade to a pirate room or royal room!!!! So how many of those rooms were really actually being offered if they were gone in 30 seconds at 4am?!?!? We ended up with our 3rd choice (standard WL) which I am actually really excited about because I never stayed there but seriously FD this year has caused me so much stress! Ugh!

I'm looking at similar dates Aug 26 - Sept 4th. Only a handful of higher priced rooms at Coronado. Had POP lined up but then it disappeared. Going to settle on All-Stars and keep and eye out for changes.

 

[mikeyg1479]

Yes I can confirm inventory is insanely low (at least in the moderate range, we don't do deluxe). Currently have a November trip booked for PO FQ- got a discounted group rate through travel agent. I had them investigate right away the free dining plan resort options once they were announced- the only availability were Pirate rooms at CBR (arguably the worst rooms at the resort, only full size beds, and horrible location within the resort for a lot more money), or taking an expensive suite at Coronado (my family of 4 just needs a regular room).

Both cases would result in trip price being over $1000 more than booked, (and just flat out buying the dining plan with our currently booked trip would cost the same amount for us).

Even if it had been only a few hundred dollars more for the rooms actually offered, then switching accomodations to get the free dining plan would be a good deal, but its actually not a good deal at all with the paltry room options available forcing us into a much higher price bracket, or undesireable accomodations.

 

[vanjust14]

This entire process is so confusing/stressful! We really wanted to stay at the Poly but when the RO discount came out we booked TPV at GF. After playing around with the travel dates a standard view at the Poly is available for part of our trip and for the rest of the trip our options are an Lagoon View at the Poly/ Contemporary- tower room/ or 1bed Villa at Animal Kingdom. I have no idea to what to do! Do I keep my TPV at GF or do a split stay at the Poly/ other? I've never been so indecisive. haha

Those are all great options! I think I would stick with TPV at GF. It is a dream of mine to stay at GF. Plus, I'm not crazy about doing a split stay, but that's just me. I know the feeling of being so indecisive though! I don't want to regret anything later so I constantly second guess. I usually ask my husband to help me decide. Most of the time he says, "whatever you want", which doesn't help , haha!

 

[Attracted to Beasts]

Yes I can confirm inventory is insanely low (at least in the moderate range, we don't do deluxe). Currently have a November trip booked for PO FQ- got a discounted group rate through travel agent. Had then investigate right away the free dining plan resort options- only available were Pirate rooms at CBR (arguably the worst rooms at the resort, only full size beds, and horrible location), or taking an expensive suite at Coronado (my family of 4 just needs a regular room).

Both cases would result in trip price being over $1000 more than booked, (and just flat out buying the dining plan with our currently booked trip would cost the same amount for us).

If it had been only a few hundred more for the rooms actually offered, then switching accomodations to get the free dining plan would be a good deal, but its actually not a good deal at all with the paltry room options available.

Did you check out WL standard? We're not usually deluxe people either but because it's under construction the prices are reasonable. For 5 nights in August were paying "only" $250 more than what we would pay for a pirate room. I agree the pirate rooms are awful for those 2 reasons! That's why we upgraded ourselves! It's also DH birthday so I think he was a little more willing to splurge! Lol

 

[PeterPanFan123]

For anyone that was trying to get standard room at Poly or another Deluxe for November, and had no luck getting FD offer (like us- we could only get AKL w/FD, which is beautiful, but we've stayed there before, and wanted to try a new resort), we got a quote from the 'magical' agency and got Poly, RO, for about $1000 less than AKL w/FD, and we'll be able to use that $1000 'savings' toward our meals. Just thought I'd mention this for anyone looking for other opportunities.

 

[MissErikaRae]

Those are all great options! I think I would stick with TPV at GF. It is a dream of mine to stay at GF. Plus, I'm not crazy about doing a split stay, but that's just me. I know the feeling of being so indecisive though! I don't want to regret anything later so I constantly second guess. I usually ask my husband to help me decide. Most of the time he says, "whatever you want", which doesn't help , haha!

Exactly! I ask my boyfriend and he says, "I don't care, whatever you want" haha! I'm not a fan of the idea of a split stay only because I want to relax and not have to deal with packing and then switching resorts- but it would save us $1000 to split stay! Agh decisions!

 

[TraceyL]

This magical agency never got back to me! Don't have much luck with TAs - had one who was supposed to be letting me know when offers were out for my dates but I emailed her and she didn't check until the evening when everything was gone. Good job I do things myself...

 

[Disneylover99]

This magical agency never got back to me! Don't have much luck with TAs - had one who was supposed to be letting me know when offers were out for my dates but I emailed her and she didn't check until the evening when everything was gone. Good job I do things myself...

Email them again.

 

[eyeblaura]

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

I cancelled and rebooked early yesterday morning. I had booked at CBR and nothing was available except pirate rooms which I didn't want so I cancelled and rebooked at CSR. I did it online so I had to put a new deposit down on the CSR reservation, it wasn't transferred. I did not get an email confirming my cancellation but it did drop from MDE and I did get an email confirmation of my new reservation.

 

[PeterPanFan123]

This magical agency never got back to me! Don't have much luck with TAs - had one who was supposed to be letting me know when offers were out for my dates but I emailed her and she didn't check until the evening when everything was gone. Good job I do things myself...

Oh that's too bad, I'm sorry you had that experience. I hear you, I'm very much the same. We usually go it alone without TA, but in this case, it was a good deal for us.

 

[rspencer38]

Did you check out WL standard? We're not usually deluxe people either but because it's under construction the prices are reasonable. For 5 nights in August were paying "only" $250 more than what we would pay for a pirate room. I agree the pirate rooms are awful for those 2 reasons! That's why we upgraded ourselves! It's also DH birthday so I think he was a little more willing to splurge! Lol

How many nights are you at WL? Do you mind saying how much you paid?

 

[Party.Of.4-NY>>>FL]

So here's an interesting thing - I'm booked at CSR for 5 days with FD, but keep checking to see if any values come up (just to alleviate my guilt at paying for a moderate). Nothing available. Out of curiosity, I check my cart. It had a CSR with FD for a 4 day, rather than the 5 day that I booked (I was testing options the morning the offer came out). The $ amount was showing, and just for kicks, I hit the checkout button. It bumped up the cost by $600, then proceeded to the checkout page. Strange that the cost went up, and even stranger that keeping something in my cart held it for that long. Anyone have any insight?

I have been playing around with the site for a couple of months leading up to FD announcement and it does indeed keep items in your cart for a long period of time. I intentionally logged in and emptied my cart the night before so that I was starting with a clean slate.