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

[Aeri]

Does free dining sell out? Or can u add them during the dates allowed? We r wanting to go when Christmas lights r up but can only afford to go during free dining as we were just there the second week of march and Christmas will b so close around that time. I guess what I'm saying is once the announce free dining does it sell out or only allow a certain number of fd?

 

[LouFapp]

Does free dining sell out? Or can u add them during the dates allowed? We r wanting to go when Christmas lights r up but can only afford to go during free dining as we were just there the second week of march and Christmas will b so close around that time. I guess what I'm saying is once the announce free dining does it sell out or only allow a certain number of fd?

FD has a limited number of available rooms per resort so yes it can sell out.

 

[Grumpyhaus]

We currently have a res at POR from 9/9-9/13 and really do not have a preference for moderate hotel choice. Would it be better to change to COR or CBR this far out to make sure we are in a historically non-excluded hotel?

 

[FFMickey]

If you absolutely must have FD, I wouldn't book at any resort that you would want to stay. If the rooms of a resort fills up, there is no incentive for Disney to offer the free dining promotion. I booked at POFQ because we wanted to take advantage of a bounceback offer, but we are going whether or not free dining is offered. If FD is offered, it'll be better for us though.

 

[Gelfling_Jen]

So excited for free dining, we are trying to wait to book so hoping airfare rates stay down during the wait! That might tip my hand. But figuring a Sept 29 checkin might be a safe bet.

We're arriving Sept. 29 as well and hoping flights go down at some point during the wait lol. I really hope they offer it cause I've based so much of my trip on it and have coordinated with friends who are staying as well! I don't want to have to change dates or cancel!

 

[Honeybee83]

I have a question about the article posted a while back where "dad" says for the first time in three years he thinks free dining is coming, when he is normally the one saying it's dead. He mentioned that Chip (I'm assuming Chip and co), Rick, and Dave all think it's coming too. I have no idea who Rick or Dave are and I can't find any info on the Chip and Co site that says he thinks free dining is coming. Anyone have any info?

 

[monica9]

I also think that business could be slow now because their prices are so outrageously high and now that there is groupon, living social and other online sites where there are constant vacation deals, people might be vacationing with their family for cheap somewhere else. I constantly see all inclusive island deals that are half the price of a moderate disney vacation.

 

[monica9]

We're arriving Sept. 29 as well and hoping flights go down at some point during the wait lol. I really hope they offer it cause I've based so much of my trip on it and have coordinated with friends who are staying as well! I don't want to have to change dates or cancel!

I've read the best time to book a flight is 8 weeks before you go. Good luck!

 

[loveshak22]

I've read the best time to book a flight is 8 weeks before you go. Good luck!

I've also read in a couple of articles that airline deals often come out on Tuesdays in the late afternoon. I've never tracked this myself but will often wait until Tuesday night to book a flight to see what costs are...not sure if it's true but I've read it a couple of times now. Good luck!

 

[aaarcher86]

We currently have a res at POR from 9/9-9/13 and really do not have a preference for moderate hotel choice. Would it be better to change to COR or CBR this far out to make sure we are in a historically non-excluded hotel?

It wouldn't really matter. Going to add the FD plan if you're there or switching and adding it essentially does the same thing internally with the res. There's no benefit to having the hotel pre booked.

 

[coneeny4]

Keeping my fingers crossed for FD before going back to school August 31.

 

[rinnythepooh]

Does free dining sell out? Or can u add them during the dates allowed? We r wanting to go when Christmas lights r up but can only afford to go during free dining as we were just there the second week of march and Christmas will b so close around that time. I guess what I'm saying is once the announce free dining does it sell out or only allow a certain number of fd?

Last May we were able to book an 8 day Free Dining reservation for Coronado starting 11/9/14 (It did sell out very quickly). WORKED OUT GREAT!
-Osborn Lights were up at HS
-Food and Wine was going on at EPCOT
-Went to the Mickey's Christmas party at MK
-Was able to snag a FD Bounce Back offer for 2015. The last day to book that FD BB offer was while we were there.
-Loved, just loved Coronado Springs.

 

[cart-mom]

Hopping on the bandwagon. DH wants FD. Kids don't want to go to WDW this year (teenagers!) How did I screw up my kids? Took them to WDW too many times. What a shame for them. I know they will come back some day, Just not sure if I can go away for a whole week with only DH and DS13 while DD17 and DS15 are home alone and DS20 will be at college. I'm always up for a WDW trip but kind of want to go to the OB because my kids all want to go (how often does that happen?) DH thinks there just isn't enough to do there (went once before and loved it).

 

[vrajewski10513]

Isn't MDE run by that third party company that shuttles people all over the place? I can't think of the name.

I took that information and figured it would mean less people are flying because it's so expensive and the company as a whole doesn't have as much business. I don't know. I feel like attendance has been up during slow times all 2014 so I didn't see how they were putting those two things together like that.

I cant site any of my sources, because I just read things in passing not really paying attention to where they're coming from so take it as you wish lol

I read that Disney was switching their third party transportation company and that the 70 workers that were laid off would more than likely be re-hired by this other company? Again, hear-say cause I have no idea where I read it lol

I also saw that 2014 showed record breaking attendance for WDW. So I agree that I dont think its related.

 

[vrajewski10513]

Hopping on the bandwagon. DH wants FD. Kids don't want to go to WDW this year (teenagers!) How did I screw up my kids? Took them to WDW too many times. What a shame for them. I know they will come back some day, Just not sure if I can go away for a whole week with only DH and DS13 while DD17 and DS15 are home alone and DS20 will be at college. I'm always up for a WDW trip but kind of want to go to the OB because my kids all want to go (how often does that happen?) DH thinks there just isn't enough to do there (went once before and loved it).

You're def a brave woman if you choose to leave 3 teenagers home alone for a week. But maybe they're more well behaved and trust worthy than I would have been at that age haha

 

[emsstacey]

Getting fd means that you will pay full price for rooms, right? I keep seeing what people are paying for deluxe on their trip but when I search, it is $400-$600 for all deluxe per night. How can I get it cheaper? I just can't justify paying that per night compared to other vacations!!

That said, I'm considering what moderate I want to book if/when fd comes available. CSR sounds great but it seemed to take forever to get to AK last trip and I'm wondering if transit times will be awful. I need to check out menus at the QS there, too. We stayed at POR last time and were less than pleased with mousekeeping and the busses but my youngest would love the royal rooms. Tough decisions, especially since POR will likely be excluded!

 

[donp]

Getting fd means that you will pay full price for rooms, right? I keep seeing what people are paying for deluxe on their trip but when I search, it is $400-$600 for all deluxe per night. How can I get it cheaper? I just can't justify paying that per night compared to other vacations!!

That said, I'm considering what moderate I want to book if/when fd comes available. CSR sounds great but it seemed to take forever to get to AK last trip and I'm wondering if transit times will be awful. I need to check out menus at the QS there, too. We stayed at POR last time and were less than pleased with mousekeeping and the busses but my youngest would love the royal rooms. Tough decisions, especially since POR will likely be excluded!

We actally found the bus service at CSR and transit times to be quite good when we went with FD last year in September. The Pepper Market was okay, but nothing that we thought was spectacular--seemed quite similar to POR in quality of food.

 

[loveshak22]

Getting fd means that you will pay full price for rooms, right? I keep seeing what people are paying for deluxe on their trip but when I search, it is $400-$600 for all deluxe per night. How can I get it cheaper? I just can't justify paying that per night compared to other vacations!!

That said, I'm considering what moderate I want to book if/when fd comes available. CSR sounds great but it seemed to take forever to get to AK last trip and I'm wondering if transit times will be awful. I need to check out menus at the QS there, too. We stayed at POR last time and were less than pleased with mousekeeping and the busses but my youngest would love the royal rooms. Tough decisions, especially since POR will likely be excluded!

They usually always offer room only discounts and FD. RO can be anywhere between 20-30%, based on past offers. For our party of two at a deluxe resort we save more with the RO discount. You can only pick one.

Also, depending on when you are going there are ways to save up points on a Disney Visa Rewards card to apply to your room, or even other travel cards points that can be redeemed for a statement credit. It's still the same price but you can save up some ways to help it feel less expensive.

 

[vrajewski10513]

Getting fd means that you will pay full price for rooms, right? I keep seeing what people are paying for deluxe on their trip but when I search, it is $400-$600 for all deluxe per night. How can I get it cheaper? I just can't justify paying that per night compared to other vacations!!

That said, I'm considering what moderate I want to book if/when fd comes available. CSR sounds great but it seemed to take forever to get to AK last trip and I'm wondering if transit times will be awful. I need to check out menus at the QS there, too. We stayed at POR last time and were less than pleased with mousekeeping and the busses but my youngest would love the royal rooms. Tough decisions, especially since POR will likely be excluded!

If you were interested in staying at a deluxe, there ususally are room discounts running concurrently with the Free Dining discount. Unfortunately it is one or the other, but alot of times people find that with Deluxe resorts the room discount is more beneficial to them that the free dining. Run the numbers and see what works best for your family.

 

[emsstacey]

I need to start using my Disney Visa again to save up. I will likely put the vacation on there and probably charge my grad school to get the points!