2007: Can existing ressie be changed if free dining is offered?

[MissMinnie]

Hi! Anyone have experience changing an existing reservation that includes dining to one with free dining upon hearing of the offer? I want to make my late August 2007 ressie now with the DDP, but was wondering if I can get a credit if I call if and when WDW announces they are offering the free DDP again next year. Will I have to cancel and rebook or will Disney change the existing ressie to include free dining? Thanks for your help!!

 

[outlander]

well...first of all, there isn't a difference between free dining adr's and regular ones so you won't have to worry about rebooking. secondly, the farthest in advance you can make adr's is 180 days and that's not everywhere, some are less.

 

[thunderbird1]

Good question, and good thinking ahead. We, too, would like to take advantage of free dining if it's offered again next year, and making your package reservation now is a great idea, if you can change it to add the free dining when/if it becomes available next spring. Anyone?

 

[northie]

If you made your reservation through Disney you can call them and tell them what you want to do, and they will cancel your existing reservation, and make a new one right away so hopefully you can get the same hotel etc. I THINK they can transfer the down payment to the new reservation but that would depend on if they are getting so booked they don't want to cancel the old one before they make a new one...in that case you'd have to give them another $200 to hold it and they'd refund the $200 for the cancellation. You wouldn't have to change any of your existing ADRs as they would be the same...instead of cash, you "pay" with your Key to the World, and they're the same as making an ADR you will pay cash for anyway.

I believe you can have a travel agent do the same thing for you unless the free dining is offered only if you book through Disney directly!

As soon as I pay off our December trip in a couple weeks I will book the trip for April, and if a free dining thing comes up I will be ready for it too, and re-book!

Sara

 

[binkyboots]

I might be wrong, but I think if you book through dreams unlimited that they will apply free dining if it becomes available for your dates

 

[bicker]

Keep in mind that the free dining promotion is capacity limited, so it must be available at the time you try to "add" it to your reservation. (That's why it doesn't make sense to make a reservation that you don't plan to keep, just to "secure" a spot in a specific hotel.)

 

[MissMinnie]

Thank all of you for your responses. I am a Disney "veteran" so I am comfortable with the ADR system. I guess I will make my plans anyway because I am going next year whether or not they offer free dining! I used the dining plan on my last trip and it worked out great. I hope all of you have a day!

 

[DiszyDeanette]

We did this when free dining was offered in April. We had booked in January for November, and called to have it changed to 9/30-10/8 to take advantage of free dining. They took the deposit and payments we had put on the November trip, and applied them to the October trip, Disney had no problem with this request.

 

[disneymom2twins]

We booked through AAA in April for our upcoming Sept. trip. The deal with the dining is that you have to pay full rack rates for the hotel portion. So we had the dining paid for, then it went free. We lost our $150 AAA room discount, but saved $400 by having the dining free.

But watch some other travel agents, I heard it was only AAA or disney themselves that would allow you to do this.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

I don't book until the offer comes out. I figure if I book, I'm making them one booking closer to their target and thus one booking less likely to offer the free dining.

 

[bicker]

That's a very wise approach.