2015 FREE DINING THREAD _ All Questions HERE!!

[Aubrav]

Lucky!! I have been looking for a Nemo…have Lion King as well…and it never shows available when I check online. Just waited on hold for over 2 hours for the CM to tell me no as well. I was afraid to do anything online as I didnt want to screw up what I have. If a Nemo becomes available will I just click on that button and hit change? Before it lets me look at what is available there is a box that says something about changes and I don't want to mess up

That first box is just letting you know that you know that you will have a chance to cancel your changes after you make them and keep your original reservation. There's no harm in clicking "continue". You will even see a full breakdown of any changes before you accept.

 

[piglet1979]

Phones open at 7 AM EST, but you can make reservations online starting at 6 AM EST.

If you want reservation at Be Our Guest or any other really popular restaurant you will want to get on line right at 6 EST. I got on right at 6 and Be Our Guest for our entire stay was booked already. I did get one a few days later but you never know.

 

[2princessmomma]

Just wanted to post my success story because i know it helps me know there is hope when i'm getting discouraged. Called in the chaos yesterday, took a couple hours to even get anything but a busy signal then spent two more hours on hold, couldnt get what we wanted (pop), took All Star Sports (i have two non sporty daughters) we were going to just be happy we are going and make the best of it. Decided to check this morning because so many people said that things might become available and sure enough, pop was. called in and got through within 10 minutes and got switched to Pop. Dont give up! The Cast Member told me that he feels they released some more rooms. Keep trying!

 

[Aubrav]

Just wanted to post my success story because i know it helps me know there is hope when i'm getting discouraged. Called in the chaos yesterday, took a couple hours to even get anything but a busy signal then spent two more hours on hold, couldnt get what we wanted (pop), took All Star Sports (i have two non sporty daughters) we were going to just be happy we are going and make the best of it. Decided to check this morning because so many people said that things might become available and sure enough, pop was. called in and got through within 10 minutes and got switched to Pop. Dont give up! The Cast Member told me that he feels they released some more rooms. Keep trying!

That's what I'm waiting for, pop standard rooms to be available.

 

[mjallemand]

Phones open at 7 AM EST, but you can make reservations online starting at 6 AM EST.

Cool, so 5AM local time. I wanted to jot that down for future refrence.

 

[G719]

The fine print from the disney site for the Waterpark and more option regarding do wp and more tickets expire in 14 days or when your resort stay is over:

Tickets and any options purchased must be used within 14 days of first use, except for Florida Resident 3-Day and 4-Day Tickets. Florida Resident 3-Day and 4-Day Tickets expire 6 months after first use or December 17, 2015, whichever comes first, and may not be used on the following blockout dates: December 18, 2014 - January 2, 2015; March 28 - April 10, 2015; June 6 - August 13, 2015.


All tickets and options are nontransferable and nonrefundable and exclude activities/events separately priced. Water Parks subject to rehabilitation, seasonal and weather closures.

Someone was asking but I couldn't find their question to quote. So it sounds like from that you can still use any leftover tickets (regular or wp) even if your resort stay is over.

 

[mjallemand]

If you want reservation at Be Our Guest or any other really popular restaurant you will want to get on line right at 6 EST. I got on right at 6 and Be Our Guest for our entire stay was booked already. I did get one a few days later but you never know.

I'm shooting for a lunch reservation for Be Our Guest, so I should be okay as long as I get there at open, I would imagine.

 

[lazer]

Ok good to know. I'm just curious with the new system if it's like the dining system now and released reservations are put back into the "pool" right away. With so many people canceling it would be nice if people posted what they canceled for others DISers to try and get......

Not sure, but I'll be stalking our original dates to see if we're able to switch back to them. I keep two browsers open, one with my modify page up and another without me logged in to check availability. I'll cool with sticking with what we have, as we're driving, but keeping my oldest in school one more day would be nice!

I'm shooting for a lunch reservation for Be Our Guest, so I should be okay as long as I get there at open, I would imagine.

Might want to start on your last day (if your BOG days are flexible) and work backwards that way. Good luck!

 

[austinsmommie]

I was just dropping by to say the same thing. I'm looking at our week, and there are definitely more openings right now. The website also seems to be cooperative.

Edit: I actually just used the modify button to change our reservation from a pool view to a garden view and saved $75 more. Woohoo! (On a side note, was I the only who found using the modify button to be slightly terrifying?)

I to was able to change my reservation from a pool/water view to a standard room this mornig. We are going Thanksgiving week staying at CBR, saved us a little over $200! I was afraid of the modify button too, I was afraid I would lose everything!

 

[2princessmomma]

That's what I'm waiting for, pop standard rooms to be available.

Thats what i was afraid of when he said yes its available, i didnt want to pay extra for preferred, it was standard! I hope you are able to get what you want! We have never stayed at POP and im excited to check it out! Now if they would just let you use a promo on Little Mermaid room at AoA id be a super happy camper! haha

 

[smitch425]

It depends on the tickets you have booked. If you are booked with a regular Magic Your Way package, you can add the extra day before using up your ticket, but in my case, I am booked with a TA exclusive deal that includes convention tickets that only the TA can change.

 

[austinsmommie]

Late last night finally found a standard room at CBR for October, trying to switch to that from my preferred room. Tried multiple times to modify and kept getting the "there was a problem with the payment method" error even though I owed nothing yesterday. Now this morning getting the same error message but doesn't matter I guess because standard rooms are gone again for my dates . Has anybody else seen this error message?

I did get the same message this morning. I just hit confirm and ignored the message and somehow it went through the second time.

 

[tiffne]

I am not planning a WDW trip, however, this morning I was helping out a friend who is trying to book a September trip with free dining. I was logged in under their account on my phone and managed to snag a Carribbean Beach package with free dining. At the time my friend was on the phone with Disney so she told me to hold off on booking. They managed to get All-Star Music but would rather have had CBR. I went on my computer and lo and behold the package is still sitting in my shopping cart! For curiosity's sake I logged in under my account and it allowed me to get all the way to the checkout process. I can change the names to the names of my friends' family, however, I don't really want this package under my account.

Long story short -- is there a way, after booking this package under my account, to switch the package to their account? Does anyone know?

 

[PirateD]

Yes @PirateD, you can. I just switched my tickets from 8 to 7 last night and it did not effect my FD

You actually may be able to use the modify button to change your tickets. It gives you the option of which part of your package you want to change. When I modified my resort I then had to go in and change the tickets before i confirmed because it defaulted to the length of our stay.

Thanks, Aubrav and ehoops, I'm glad to hear it can be adjusted. I will wait to see what arrival and departure times we end up with and modify from there. That's the next big hurdle! My sister checked on flights for us from Seattle and they're running about $1000 per person! Yikes!! I expected them to be high during the holiday season, but not that high! I'm hoping we can snag something on SWA. Good thing we've got that FD!!!

Grats to everyone who is done - where do I go on this site now??

That's what I was wondering! I've been lurking on the resort boards trying to glean as much info as possible about different resorts. Then this thread became my home. On to the dining and FP+ threads next I guess!

 

[blondemomma]

WOOHOO, scored free dining at por, just had to move it up a week, which was not a problem and saved 700.00. disney bound with grandkids 9/13-9/18

 

[smitch425]

I am not planning a WDW trip, however, this morning I was helping out a friend who is trying to book a September trip with free dining. I was logged in under their account on my phone and managed to snag a Carribbean Beach package with free dining. At the time my friend was on the phone with Disney so she told me to hold off on booking. They managed to get All-Star Music but would rather have had CBR. I went on my computer and lo and behold the package is still sitting in my shopping cart! For curiosity's sake I logged in under my account and it allowed me to get all the way to the checkout process. I can change the names to the names of my friends' family, however, I don't really want this package under my account.

Long story short -- is there a way, after booking this package under my account, to switch the package to their account? Does anyone know?

No

 

[luvseaside]

Glad for those who were fortunate to get this deal. I purposely booked through a TA this time, as I was told the TA would be all over any new discounts as they become available. I had to email her yesterday at noon to check on this; she emailed back late afternoon that she had been trying all day for her clients, but was unable to get any free dining or room discount. (We are booked at CBR) I know there are no guarantees, but it's still disappointing, especially for my niece & her family traveling with us. They are saving for a house, and we offered to pay for room & tickets if they would handle their food and transportation. That would have been a real savings for them. Oh well, we will still have a good time, but I might be rethinking some dining reservations now.

 

[Emr410]

I'm shooting for a lunch reservation for Be Our Guest, so I should be okay as long as I get there at open, I would imagine.

I had no problems getting lunch reservations at BOG for my dates in September on the first morning my ADR's opened up. They were slightly early (11:30 ish) or later (1:30 ish) but they were available.

 

[kevin75]

Wow, I have to admit that evidently I didn't know how fortunate I was. After reading all of everyone's stories (both here and on FB), it seems that mine was a cakewalk in comparison. As I said previously, I had made a 'backup' reservation on Saturday in anticipation of FD, just in case my TA was not able to get anything, which I thought would never happen. There's always something available the first day, right? Yesterday morning, I got up at 6am and got online to try and modify our package to take advantage of the FD offer and within 20 minutes and two browsers, I had successfully modified, put down the appropriate deposit and I went back to sleep.

FF to the end of yesterday and we all know what happened. It is good to hear though, that things might be getting a bit better.

I will also say thank you to whoever told me last night about transferring a reservation. I talked to my TA and she sent me the form that enables me to transfer my reservation so that she will get the credit for the trip.

 

[linzjane88]

I had a chat lady tell me you can indeed cut days off of your stay without treating it as a cancel/rebook. I am 99.9% sure that is wrong but I still saved the conversation. I couldn't get through on the phones today, only a busy signal. It is annoying that they had availability at CBR for 9/24-9/30 but nothing shows when you search for 9/24-9/28 (what we wanted!).