Opted out of Free Dining

[MaryannF]

I already booked room only reservations for our family trip in November. DS, wife and 2 kids are staying at AoA, DD and SO are staying at POP, DH and I are also staying at POP. I saw a rumour on line yesterday that Free Dining was coming out this week and our dates were included. I started calling this morning and could not get through. I kept trying and around 1pm finally got through to WDW Travel Co. All agents were busy so I was on hold and told that there could be a 2 hour wait to speak to someone. My DH was aghast. He couldn't believe that WDW expected me to wait 2 hours on a long distance call. He started crunching some numbers and decided we would not be doing Free Dining. It pained me to hang up but I did. I hope we made the right choice. What are the chances that discounted rooms will be offered in November? Somehow I doubt it!

 

[DeniseinNS]

I booked online this morning in about 5 minutes, go online and see if you can make the changes there!

 

[absolut_mandy]

As for discounts, I am sure that there will be some. Disney always seems to give offers through the year so i am sure that November will be nothing different.

Don't give it up, just yet. The discounts will probably come out in June/July for November.

 

[minnie mum]

You gave up too easily. Phone lines (and the web site) are always jammed on the first day of any new special offer. Try again tonight or tomorrow.

 

[MaryannF]

DS came by the house today and asked my DH why he wouldn't want something for FREE!! I am now going to try to get free dining attached to our existing reservations. I hope I'm not too late.

 

[MaryannF]

Almost 2 hours later and I just got off the phone without free dining. The cast member I had at first told me that I needed to have an existing package reservation that had tickets and dining on it to get free dining. I told her I didn't think she was right. She left me on hold for a while and came back to say she would have to cancel my existing reservation, refund my deposit and make a new reservation. After being on hold for a long time she came back on and said that there wasn't any free dining at Pop Century and tried to move me to All Star Sports. I said no. I just hope she hasn't screwed up my existing room only reservation.

 

[archdandy]

Almost 2 hours later and I just got off the phone without free dining. The cast member I had at first told me that I needed to have an existing package reservation that had tickets and dining on it to get free dining. I told her I didn't think she was right. She left me on hold for a while and came back to say she would have to cancel my existing reservation, refund my deposit and make a new reservation. After being on hold for a long time she came back on and said that there wasn't any free dining at Pop Century and tried to move me to All Star Sports. I said no. I just hope she hasn't screwed up my existing room only reservation.

You do need to have a package with tickets (either park hoppers or water park and more) in order to get the free dining. But you do not have to already have a dining plan. I'm not surprised that she saw no availability at Pop though, the free dining rooms booked up so fast this year, seriously it was crazy.

 

[MaryannF]

I told the agent on the phone that I wanted to upgrade my existing room only to a package to include 6 day park hoppers and dining. She told me I couldn't get free dining because I didn't have an existing package reservation and she couldn't do an upgrade to a room only reservation. She also told me that she couldn't see if there was any availability without making a reservation. She put me on hold for 30 minutes while she spoke to guest services who eventually told her that there wasn't availability at Pop. Luckily she didn't cancel my existing reservation as I can see it when I log in to my WDW account.

 

[DisneyFreak06]

I told the agent on the phone that I wanted to upgrade my existing room only to a package to include 6 day park hoppers and dining. She told me I couldn't get free dining because I didn't have an existing package reservation and she couldn't do an upgrade to a room only reservation. She also told me that she couldn't see if there was any availability without making a reservation. She put me on hold for 30 minutes while she spoke to guest services who eventually told her that there wasn't availability at Pop. Luckily she didn't cancel my existing reservation as I can see it when I log in to my WDW account.

Sorry you are having so many troubles. It is true that it needs to be a package, and the room only is a separate type than with tickets. This free dining deal, you do need either park hopper tickets or the water park and more add on. I think the minimum is either 2 or 4 days. If you already have tickets through somewhere else, then, yes, it likely isn't a good time to get the free dining for you. I hear a lot of people don't think it adds up for them if they don't normally get the park hopper. I always get park hopper, so it would be fine for me, although I got free dining with my bounceback. I'm glad that she didn't mess up your current reservation on you though as well.

 

[minnie mum]

I'm glad that your existing reservation wasn't canceled.

The CM was correct. You cannot upgrade a room only reservation to a package. They are two separate reservation systems and you can't just switch from one to another and use your existing deposits. The existing reservation has to be canceled and a new vacation package reservation made with a new deposit.

From what I've seen here on the Dis, it looks like there weren't a lot of rooms made available for free dining this year. All of the people booking up rooms in advance (in the hope of getting free dining when the offer came out) probably shot themselves in the foot. With all those rooms already booked, Disney probably didn't see any need to put a lot of inventory into the special offer. I think the requirement for PHs is new this year, too. Makes FD even less of a good deal if you weren't planning on getting them originally.

It will be interesting to see how many of these people cancel their reservations now that they can't get the free dining.