2015 FREE DINING THREAD _ All Questions HERE!!

[kerri0616]

I feel like I got lucky. Tried calling at 6am...busy busy. Logged in and tried CBR for 12/21-12/28. Nothing but Pirate rooms. Tried Coronado and went with Std View Business Class. Confirmation email received 6:09 am. Considering dropping day to reduce cost of hoppers. How could there be no normal rooms at CBR??

 

[Aubrav]

So I missed all of this. I waited until 12:30am. Got up at 5:30 and it was there. Because Im exhausted, can someone tell me what time it went live? Ive been on the phone with Disney (mostly on hold) literally all day. The TA website was practically useless and it was 3 hour on hold to get to talk to someone with a live system. I had to change my own ressie from Poly as it wasnt available. I switched from Poly to GF. Then thought about it some more and decided to add days and go with Beach Club. Then I read the resorts thread and saw someone with dates similar to mine scoring the Poly..so I called again and tweaked my dates by 2 days and was able to get the Poly back..BUT...I lost some dining I had with my original ressie, including BOG Oh well..its just a meal I have about 20 others to look forward to

After waking up at 2am, 3am, 4am, and 4:30am, I rolled over and refreshed the website on my phone to find the offer available at 4:30am. The website was working great at that point but there was limited room availability, at least for me.

 

[mbarber]

I went with park hopper this morning not really knowing if I made the best choice, but after reading this post it was just confirmed to me that I did!

Just curious why you think the Water Park option isn't a good choice? I must have missed something lol. I can't keep up with this thread lol

 

[lazer]

We went last year with our 2 boys ages 5 and 3 and our girl at 16 months. We had the regular dining plan and booked many character meal buffets. I kept all my receipts and added them up and Even with those buffets we didn't get our full money's worth. Plus, we found the character buffets to be a bit crazy for us. All 3 kids needed help getting food and we had to make sure to do it in between the characters. So we said for next time we would avoid the character buffets. Later I found that with an RO discount at a deluxe and paying for a few T'S meals out of pocket would be better and cheaper. Plus, we wouldn't be up against a schedule all the time. This year we will be a family of 5 plus another baby coming in June. I did the math for us to stay at POR with FD and it came out very cheap for us so we are getting the dining plan again. Haha! The only character meals we have booked are Akershus and Ohana for breakfast but we only did those because they are served family style. No running to the buffet! We do have one buffet booked and that's Biergarten mainly at the request of my husband. I almost booked Tucker House but then remembered our rule about no character buffets! We also booked Hoop Dee Doo and are kind of glad it takes 2 credits. One less reservation we have to deal with! The quick service locations at the parks will be crowded so it is best to eat early, lunch at 11. My last advice is to bring activities for them during dinner so the adults can talk. New coloring books, look and find books, etc. We forgot this last year and a family next to us at Ohana did this and it seemed to work well for them! Hope that helps some, feel free to PM with questions!

ohana is great, it's no work! We are trying Garden Grill this year with characters and its family style too, so no work haha. I hate taking ten trips to the buffet for me and my two kiddos

 

[schriverl]

Oh, thank you for that information! I had no idea mini-golf was included, and my kids were really looking forward to trying out Winter Summerland this trip but were having trouble deciding on which course to try. Now we can play through both courses!

Yay! Glad I was able to help. I knew I'd read it before but it doesn't say it everywheres. So when I found it I wanted to share.

 

[twoolle]

My 32 weeks pregnancy insomnia woke me up at 3:15 central. I refreshed the disney special offers page on my ipad and nothing new. Decided to check here just in case and got the error message so I thought the FD went live and everyone crashed the disboards. I checked the disney site again and there was the new offer. It took me a couple times to get POR options to load but I was finally able to book 3 separate ressies for our family for the week after labor day. (I will call later to get them linked)

I have been following this thread for a few weeks because it was fun to follow last year. Had absolutely no intention in going this year but Sunday we asked if other family was interested and they said yes! So here we are planning another trip...it will help me get through the last 8 weeks of pregnancy. Praying for a healthy baby that owner mind a Disney trip at 10 weeks old. I think we will wait to tell the other 3 kids about our trip until after baby comes in June.

 

[schriverl]

Thanks for the laugh!!! I am definitely switching!!

The water parks fun and more can be used at Disney Quest and the Miniature golf courses before 4pm. Don't switch!!

 

[skater]

I'm a TA and knew about the crazy release. I was on the phone and online well before 6 cst and just finally got a reservation about an hour ago. It was a bad day for TA's but it really wasn't their fault. There were a lot of really upset TA's posting to the Disney Travel Profesional FB page today.

Yes, it was a bad day for TA's. I spent my day continuously trying to get into the system, being on hold only to be disconnected twice - the second time by a rude CM who said "Its all sold out!" right before I was disconnected, trying repeatedly to book online, etc. It was a 9 hour day of frustration. I even foolishly told a client that it was sold out before I noticed that people were still booking by reading the Boards. 3 hours later (the end of the day at this point) I finally had my first booking. Things got a little better after that and I was able to book several and modify a few others. I lost one client today and gained another one (someone who tried for a couple hours herself and couldn't get in).

 

[jesusluvsu2005]

ohana is great, it's no work! We are trying Garden Grill this year with characters and its family style too, so no work haha. I hate taking ten trips to the buffet for me and my two kiddos

We really enjoyed the Garden Grill. We went in 2008 and enjoyed how it turns. I know it's had periods of not turning so not sure if it still does or not.

 

[Sasha3855]

Thanks to everyone for your help last night and today. My travel agent just got through after almost 5 hours on hold. For only $64 more I'm able to stay in the same type of room I at pop and get free quick service dining. Keep trying everyone, lots of people have multiple bookings and will start canceling once they get what they want. Good luck to those still trying.

 

[woodynjessiesmomma]

A "great deal" doesn't always mean money. As you said, you could stay off-property for the same price meaning that you are getting quite the upgrade to stay on property instead (no cooking, no driving, various other perks vs. staying off property). So you would have saved money with a mod, but your husband and your family will be very happy with the AoA suite. I think that means you got a great deal when you factor in value.

You're absolutely right and I didn't mean to complain, just commenting on my experience. When I first heard about FD I expected monetary savings. Because we chose to upgrade FD, we added the cost and then the PH requirement added cost too. I was surprised though, that even if we skipped PHs and paid OOP, we wouldn't save that much and we'd miss out on some fun dining experiences. I just had to calculate my options so my brain could rest. I am happy with our plan, just surprised how it worked out in numbers.

 

[donp]

Ack, I just can't leave things alone! Even at this hour, CSR standard rooms are still available for my dates, for about $100 more than my existing Pop preferred reservation. I know next to nothing about CSR though, because it was already sold out during the original dates I wanted to go, before I found out about FD December dates and adjusted my travel plans. So I never researched it. I would really prefer queen beds at a mod, but the theming at Pop seems cute. I'm looking at December, so I don't know if there will be much pool time, with 6 and 8 year old girls.

Which would you choose: Pop preferred or CSR standard for $100 more? Assuming it's still available, lol.

CSR!!!!! There last year, and have been at Pop. No question to me.

 

[Drnifer]

Which would you choose: Pop preferred or CSR standard for $100 more? Assuming it's still available, lol.

I'd go with CSR. It's more peaceful and relaxing. We've stayed there twice and find it quieter than Pop. The rooms are nice and the bus service was good also.

 

[Aubrav]

I am so surprised (and happy!) that people are still reporting getting what they want this late in the day! That gives hope. Sadly, from my experience last year, I was terrified that I would miss out on the free dining and these experiences today only prove it. I'm going to relate it to Black Friday at Christmas. It's great to save some money but not always at the risk of losing the magic of Christmas. At least at the end of this our time in Disney on our trips will still be magical and this day will be a thing of the past. Maybe it's a good thing that Disney is releasing the fall dates so early with plenty of time for many to forget the stress surrounding the booking. I love Disney, but I don't like that they put out such limited availability for such a popular offer. I am happy for everyone that got what they wanted and for anyone who found viable alternatives that they are happy with.

 

[Aubrav]

You're absolutely right and I didn't mean to complain, just commenting on my experience. When I first heard about FD I expected monetary savings. Because we chose to upgrade FD, we added the cost and then the PH requirement added cost too. I was surprised though, that even if we skipped PHs and paid OOP, we wouldn't save that much and we'd miss out on some fun dining experiences. I just had to calculate my options so my brain could rest. I am happy with our plan, just surprised how it worked out in numbers.

I didn't mean to imply you were complaining, I just wanted to encourage you and your results. You know, even if they weren't as great monetarily, really you're doing great! I faced that with my first reservation this morning. It was like "Yay we got free dining... but... my stomach hurts a little" because it actually added up to hundreds more than I had budgeted and $700 more than our trip last year. I had to ask myself if the free dining was worth it at that point, which of course it was, but not to the extent I was expecting. However things worked out for us like they did for you, so now we can just all breathe a great big sigh of relief!

 

[jerzeystar09]

Did anyone else notice that the park hopper was cheaper? I was pricing out a room at POP because my dad may now be joining the trip and it was showing as $27 and change. Really weird.

 

[smitch425]

Did anyone else notice that the park hopper was cheaper? I was pricing out a room at POP because my dad may now be joining the trip and it was showing as $27 and change. Really weird.

It's only that cheap when you already have the WP&M option on your tickets.

 

[ehoops120912]

I know a lot of people are upset this year the FD was so limited and that you had to have park hoppers. I know A LOT of people who are booking to go to Universal because it was cheaper than disney even without dinning. I think Disney needs to find a way to do this a little better next year....I got everything I wanted, but stayed up all night and fumbled around for a half hour online to get it. I'm going to book a BB so I don't have to mess with that next year (lots of BB might be why it was so limited this year)

 

[donp]

Interesting---just playing around with my dates in September, and there is still a garden view room for five with FD at POR--is this surprising? $3689 for one week. That was only about 100 more than my BB standard room.

 

[Aubrav]

Did anyone else notice that the park hopper was cheaper? I was pricing out a room at POP because my dad may now be joining the trip and it was showing as $27 and change. Really weird.

No, they were the same price for me. It gave an option of Park Hopper or Water Park & More with no price listed or I could upgrade to both for $110.