*Free* Dining Announced...dates for Fall thru December!

[stashbin]

Good Luck trying to get Free dining! Starting at 8:05 am, I called 207 times (dial, busy, hang up, dial again), finally got through at about 12:30 and waited 98 minutes on hold only to be told that there was no availability for the free dining at the resort I already had reservations for (POP). The cast member tried a few other resorts and nothing. Our reservations were for Nov15 - 23.
I'm very disappointed : (

I'm in the same boat as you. We have two rooms at Pop but no FD available for our package. If nothing opens up for FD at a value then we won't be able to go this year.

 

[Tmesser]

I'm in the same boat as you. We have two rooms at Pop but no FD available for our package. If nothing opens up for FD at a value then we won't be able to go this year.

I feel your pain. Luckily I caught the email right before we left out of town... This year was stressful with the free dining, because 1. I couldn't get ahold of anyone all day long, 2 I was forced to book online and had questions about the hopper tickets (which I'm not happy about)
I usually will not stay inside the park if I'm not getting discounted on something worth my while... I suggest maybe calling once a day and seeing if someone has dropped the free dining package if its available to add with your room.. I know the value resort at Pop had free lunch dining and you could pay extra to add the table dining. If you can't go because of the price I suggest planning out a cheap hotel close, eating once a day in the park and trying to get tickets from undercover tourist. Good luck hope you get the FD

 

[glm777]

I got the free dining!!!!!! After waiting so long the first day and finding out there was no availability for POP (we did not want to choose another resort), I called every day and finally on Thursday I was told they had opened another 10 rooms at POP for the FD promo! So glad I continued to call!. And we were able to upgrade from the QS plan to the regular plan for only a minimal charge. We actually have to do a room only reservation for Nov 13th and 14th and a new reservation for the 15th - 22nd (FD starts 11/22). so we will eat out of pocket the first 2 days but have the FD the rest of our 10 day trip. Plus we were able to upgrade our 8 day parkhopper ticket to a 10 day ticket to cover the first 2 days of our room only stay. All in all we each saved about $500. My niece and her children actually saved over $1100! Flights are now booked, magic bands have been chosen - just waiting for the 17th to make my dining reservations and for tickets to MVMCP to become available!

 

[glm777]

It won't make your crowds unbearable but, certainly, Disney uses the "free" dining promo to get more people into the parks at what is normally a slow time. So, your crowd levels will be higher to some degree.

We often go during the free dining promo and don't usually see a big difference in crowd size.

 

[glm777]

I'm in the same boat as you. We have two rooms at Pop but no FD available for our package. If nothing opens up for FD at a value then we won't be able to go this year.

Call every day!!!!! I did for several days and finally got the free dining. Don't give up!!

 

[Marionnette]

We often go during the free dining promo and don't usually see a big difference in crowd size.

FD gets more people into the resorts who might otherwise stay offsite. I don't think that it necessarily drives more people into the parks. F&W, MNSSHP, MVMCP and the fall/Christmas decorations tend to draw people to the parks themselves during FD periods. If there's a slight uptick in crowd levels, it's more likely due to those features attracting people.