Free Dining Fall 2015? (and a whole lot more)

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Loved this thread last year, learned a lot from here and did FD in Sept. Hoping to go Oct 31-Nov 7 this year. If FD comes out again, i think i can talk DH into another trip! Though we are definitely renting a car this time. I had all i could take of the POR buses last time.
 
OK current promo end on March 28th. Anyone have any insight if there will be a new one after that?
 
OK current promo end on March 28th. Anyone have any insight if there will be a new one after that?
 
This is actually called a "continental combo" : a pastry (croissant, muffin, danish, etc.), a piece of fresh fruit and a drink, and it counts as a CS. We've use lots of these with my picky eaters :rotfl:
Good to know! THANK YOU!!
 


I keep going back and forth between the regular & deluxe. It is just me & my little guy (late Oct). Leaving the rest home. I keep thinking that the meals might offer a nice break for him.
 
I keep going back and forth between the regular & deluxe. It is just me & my little guy (late Oct). Leaving the rest home. I keep thinking that the meals might offer a nice break for him.

The deluxe is really convenient if you'll plan on doing alot of character meals with him. But, if not, its ALOT of food. Even if you switch between TS and QS. My husband and I had about 4 credits left over at the end of our trip even with Le Cellier, CRT and HDDMR which are all 2 credits each. If you plan on doing quite a few QS meals with all those credits, I don't see the cost being worth it.
 


It's different for everyone. It depends on how many you are feeding. My daughter has a family of five, it's way cheaper for her to get free dining over the discount room rate. For me, I'm a party of two, it's cheaper to get discount room rate.
Depends on the resort catergory and amount of people. For 3 or more people, free dining will almost always be better even if staying at a deluxe. For two people staying at a deluxe, the room rate will be better. All depends. you will need to crunch some numbers. I find that with me and DH and DD6, deluxe room discount and free dining are almost the same. Add one more person and free dining is the winner, exclude one and room discount is better.

Also depends on how big of eaters you are.
 
Loved this thread last year, learned a lot from here and did FD in Sept. Hoping to go Oct 31-Nov 7 this year. If FD comes out again, i think i can talk DH into another trip! Though we are definitely renting a car this time. I had all i could take of the POR buses last time.

If you can, book thru AAA. One of the perks of booking thru AAA is Diamond Parking. Each park has special diamond parking close to the entrance. So even if you go to the parks later in the day, you don't have to park 5 miles away. The only park I would recommend still taking the bus to is MK. It takes forever to park the car, get on the monorail/boat and ride over to the park. Plus if you stay for the fireworks, the trip back to the car is really no fun!
 
If you can, book thru AAA. One of the perks of booking thru AAA is Diamond Parking. Each park has special diamond parking close to the entrance. So even if you go to the parks later in the day, you don't have to park 5 miles away. The only park I would recommend still taking the bus to is MK. It takes forever to park the car, get on the monorail/boat and ride over to the park. Plus if you stay for the fireworks, the trip back to the car is really no fun!
Def double check about the diamond parking... I was just reading someone's trip report and they stated that they purchased the diamond parking, but they were unable to use it.. Here's what they said actually... "We finally got into the parking lot, and having booked through AAA, we had a Diamond Parking pass. Which as it turns out, despite the deal with AAA and Disney not ending until 2015, Disney had already phased out the Diamond parking. So the one main reason I booked with AAA, became completely irrelevant on our trip."
 
If you can, book thru AAA. One of the perks of booking thru AAA is Diamond Parking. Each park has special diamond parking close to the entrance. So even if you go to the parks later in the day, you don't have to park 5 miles away. The only park I would recommend still taking the bus to is MK. It takes forever to park the car, get on the monorail/boat and ride over to the park. Plus if you stay for the fireworks, the trip back to the car is really no fun!

Def double check about the diamond parking... I was just reading someone's trip report and they stated that they purchased the diamond parking, but they were unable to use it.. Here's what they said actually... "We finally got into the parking lot, and having booked through AAA, we had a Diamond Parking pass. Which as it turns out, despite the deal with AAA and Disney not ending until 2015, Disney had already phased out the Diamond parking. So the one main reason I booked with AAA, became completely irrelevant on our trip."

Thanks I will check into that, I have never heard of Diamond parking! If they still offer that, I would pay for that kind of convenience.
 
If you can, book thru AAA. One of the perks of booking thru AAA is Diamond Parking. Each park has special diamond parking close to the entrance. So even if you go to the parks later in the day, you don't have to park 5 miles away. The only park I would recommend still taking the bus to is MK. It takes forever to park the car, get on the monorail/boat and ride over to the park. Plus if you stay for the fireworks, the trip back to the car is really no fun!

Each to their own. We love riding the trams and monorail. It is like another ride for us!!

Plus time it right and you can get a great view of the fireworks from the monorail or from the ferryboat area once you leave the monorail. Bypassing most of any night time waiting for monorails, buses or trams.
 
If you can, book thru AAA. One of the perks of booking thru AAA is Diamond Parking. Each park has special diamond parking close to the entrance. So even if you go to the parks later in the day, you don't have to park 5 miles away. The only park I would recommend still taking the bus to is MK. It takes forever to park the car, get on the monorail/boat and ride over to the park. Plus if you stay for the fireworks, the trip back to the car is really no fun!

Disney severed their relationship with AAA at the beginning of the year. There are no longer additional perks for booking with them.
 
Each to their own. We love riding the trams and monorail. It is like another ride for us!!

Plus time it right and you can get a great view of the fireworks from the monorail or from the ferryboat area once you leave the monorail. Bypassing most of any night time waiting for monorails, buses or trams.

Normally we feel the same way! The buses, boats, and monorail have been like park rides to our boys ever since their first trip! And DH and I enjoy not having to drive and have always used Disney buses. But this past trip in Sept at POR, ugh, the buses were horrendous. We waited on them constantly, they were always packed to the crack, and then we would wait again at the parks for forever. Every single night of our stay, we waited 45 mins+ to leave the parks. It's like Disney never realized how crowded the resort was and never compensated by adding more buses.

POR has these awesome screens at the main bus stop that tell when the next bus is coming. We got to the stop at 10:50 am and an Epcot bus pulled up, we watched as it was completely filled. The driver said "Don't worry, another one is coming right behind me." Sure enough, the screen showed one coming at 11:01 am. Then it changed to 11:08. 11:15. 11:23. 11:31. 11:42. Finally one came at 11:50. I wish i was exaggerating. It was like that our entire stay. We ended up taking cabs the last 3 days because every minute we wasted at the bus stop was less time for us in the parks, and I wasn't having any of that!

This was our first time at POR. Maybe it's just that resort? Maybe its just a Sept thing? I don't know, but it left a sour taste for us and we felt like we would've had the perfect vacation without the bus drama.
 
Normally we feel the same way! The buses, boats, and monorail have been like park rides to our boys ever since their first trip! And DH and I enjoy not having to drive and have always used Disney buses. But this past trip in Sept at POR, ugh, the buses were horrendous. We waited on them constantly, they were always packed to the crack, and then we would wait again at the parks for forever. Every single night of our stay, we waited 45 mins+ to leave the parks. It's like Disney never realized how crowded the resort was and never compensated by adding more buses.

POR has these awesome screens at the main bus stop that tell when the next bus is coming. We got to the stop at 10:50 am and an Epcot bus pulled up, we watched as it was completely filled. The driver said "Don't worry, another one is coming right behind me." Sure enough, the screen showed one coming at 11:01 am. Then it changed to 11:08. 11:15. 11:23. 11:31. 11:42. Finally one came at 11:50. I wish i was exaggerating. It was like that our entire stay. We ended up taking cabs the last 3 days because every minute we wasted at the bus stop was less time for us in the parks, and I wasn't having any of that!

This was our first time at POR. Maybe it's just that resort? Maybe its just a Sept thing? I don't know, but it left a sour taste for us and we felt like we would've had the perfect vacation without the bus drama.
Actually, we had the same experience with awful bus stuff on our last stay at POR (sept 2013). Not fun and we ended up driving a few places. My son and I waited for a bus for 45 minutes so my younger son and husband could grab breakfast and not rush, well...they beat us to Epcot (they were at the main stop and we were at a smaller one). But, this can really happen anywhere, so we just always hope for the best! Trying Caribbean resort this time (nov) and hoping it is an ok experience for us.
 
October 2013 was similar for us at POR. We felt we wasted so much time on busses that I don't want to go back until we can stay at a monorail resort.
 
Oh no! We're at POR. Boo.
I saw somewhere that Disney is putting more expansion buses into service, but there are also proposals for a massive expansion of the monorail. Hopefully in the near future Disney will resolve the transportation problem
 
Oh no! We're at POR. Boo.

At POR the buses used to start on the Riverside side of the resort. If you were on the French Quarter side you typically watch full buses pass by without stopping for an hour. It's best to find out where the first bus stop is and get there early in the morning. Especially if you have a character dining planned first thing in the morning so you don't miss your reservation. I've seen plenty of REALLY upset people who missed morning reservations.
 
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