2016 Free Dining Watch

[TabGray]

I just wanted to jump in and say hello! I've already booked my very first Disney vacation (and mine and my DH's very first vacation after 14 years) with our TA for 12/12-12/22 at POR and, of course, my fingers are crossed for FD. I've read through this whole thread and you guys are awesome!!! What a way to while away the time while we wait for the official dates. Thank you all for the great tips and insights!

 

[deakam]

This is the first time I've ever posted here, though I've been reading for about 100 pages now...I currently have a reservation for 2 rooms at the Comtemporary from 9/1-9/6/16, and hoping to get FD applied when it finally gets released. I see so much talk about going from Value to Moderate and back depending on the dates and availability, but what does anyone think about whether I'll have difficulty or not getting the FD applied to my deluxe ressie? And what kind of room category is usually included, because maybe I'll have to change that? Right now we're in Garden Wing-Garden view.

Would a room discount benefit me more than free dining? We're a party of 4, 2 in each room (2 adults and two kids, 14 & 15...so I guess technically adult).

BTW, we're also booked through a TA.

2 adults in a garden wing room? The garden wing rooms at the Contemporary are probably the largest non-suite rooms on property. With only 2 adults in each room you will probably benefit more from the room only discount. The free dining discount would be about $128.00 a night for 2 people. The room discounts are usually more than that at a deluxe resort. If all 4 of you were staying in one room then the math would work the other way. I do believe the garden wing rooms comfortably sleep 5. Garden wing are really hard to get because they are limited.

 

[mommyrosa2]

Still no availability at any of the Epcot resorts for our October dates so I'm really starting to think that there will be no sort of discount for any of these at all...ugh!

 

[FireWife70]

I haven't been trying to look at availability online the last day or two, but reading everyone talking about glitches ... thought I might throw out there that Disney is doing a big preview thing for travel agents/press right now, which is likely causing more people to be doing various things on the site ... not necessarily looking for availability on possible FD dates, but just in general. People seeing things about upcoming events at AK, eventual Star Wars & ToyStory Land, etc. Plus Disney may be making adjustments to their site as far as putting in later hours, etc. All of which may not directly affect eh booking part, but by affecting their site/network in general may be contributing to the 'glitches' people on here are experiencing.
Just my thoughts -- I have no inside knowledge!

 

[Whycomike]

I think I saw it mentioned somewhere that you can tell when the MVMCP is by the closing times of the park. Can anyone point me in the direction of finding that information?

You can tell by closing time, look for something like 7..but here are the dates instead...
http://www.wdwinfo.com/holidays/mvmcp.htm

 

[twoolle]

I personally think a RO discount would be better for you since you have 2 rooms at a Deluxe, rather than 4 adults in 1 room. I have recently calculated a stay at the GF and a RO discount would be significantly better than free dining.

I will run some numbers when I return from lunch and see if I can get a better idea for you. I love pricing Disney vacays.

If you have only 2 people in each room I also believe a RO discount will be better. It is usually around 30% for deluxes.

 

[Moramoon]

I just saw that we can start booking fast passes for the new Soarin' tomorrow. I would think the site wouldn't be so glitchy before then or else it would be complete chaos.

 

[deakam]

Still no availability at any of the Epcot resorts for our October dates so I'm really starting to think that there will be no sort of discount for any of these at all...ugh!

Which would explain why our "wedding discount" which is a joke in general---came to about $11.00 a night. Thankfully my daughter decided to go to the Magic Kingdom side even though the wedding and reception is in EPCOT. But the discount for the standard view rooms on the Magic Kingdom side comes out to about $30.00 a night. Hoping something better pops up for those dates. We are looking at Oct 7-15. Non negotiable so probably no free dining.

 

[TigerlilyAJ]

OK, NGL, I thought you guys were just crazy when you first started talking about "glitches" because when I went to the site, everything was the same as ever. Then I decided that maybe it's because you guys are looking at rumored FD dates while I've been looking at other dates this week, doing more Excel number crunching. Then I thought maybe it's because most of you have a party that fits in a standard room, while my party does not, so we're looking at different types of rooms, thus different availability.
Now today I decide to try some new, non-(rumored)FD dates, and I only get offered five resorts. Normally, even when a resort has no rooms for my party size, they still appear on the results page, with the little message about nothing is available during those dates for my party. Now when I click on a specific resort to look at the rooms offered and then hit the Back button to go back to the results page, the results are completely different. Sometimes I get the usual listing of all resorts, whether there is a room available or not, sometimes I get another abbreviated list--but different from the one that was on the page before. I clicked on AoA, for example, hit the Back, and now not only do I have different resorts listed, but AoA isn't even in the list anymore. Crazy.
I just hope this all means a DV drop tomorrow.

ETA: Meanwhile DH has come up with a split-stay plan involving non-Disney site, then switching to a Disney property and buying FD OOP (assuming the rumored dates are correct, so no FD for our preferred week)--and using those few days to do all our character meals and Ohana dinner and Mickey's BYBBQ. LOL, in other words, load up all our most expensive meals for the DDP days. Crazy like a fox.

 

[babydoll65]

Th

Any word on ticket add ons?

They will most likely have you put parkhopper or water parks on your tickets. It was a requirement for the free dining bounce back offer.

 

[mommyrosa2]

Which would explain why our "wedding discount" which is a joke in general---came to about $11.00 a night. Thankfully my daughter decided to go to the Magic Kingdom side even though the wedding and reception is in EPCOT. But the discount for the standard view rooms on the Magic Kingdom side comes out to about $30.00 a night. Hoping something better pops up for those dates. We are looking at Oct 7-15. Non negotiable so probably no free dining.

Have you checked rates with the TA that has exclusive deals? You may get lucky in finding something with your dates and I want to say their exclusive rate was just shy of 30% off. We're checking in a week later than you and were unable to take advantage of their deal which was a bummer for sure as I would have taken that and ran!!

 

[deakam]

Have you checked rates with the TA that has exclusive deals? You may get lucky in finding something with your dates and I want to say their exclusive rate was just shy of 30% off. We're checking in a week later than you and were unable to take advantage of their deal which was a bummer for sure as I would have taken that and ran!!

Just put in a request for a quote from one of the travel agencies that advertise here on the disboards. Hopefully they come up with a better price than is currently being offered to us. Thenks

 

[xipotec]

Glitchy Disney web site!!!! That never happens!!!

Actually it happens all the tome, you guys are just noticing it cause you obsessivly checking it....


I have 2 bookings, mainly cause we didnt know which week we would go. I am holding off cancelling until I see if FD drops.

After last years mess of FD, I am starting to think FD is a room filler....they dont care if its a significant amount of rooms, the want 100 booked 100% of the time....

 

[damskipi13]

Have you checked rates with the TA that has exclusive deals? You may get lucky in finding something with your dates and I want to say their exclusive rate was just shy of 30% off. We're checking in a week later than you and were unable to take advantage of their deal which was a bummer for sure as I would have taken that and ran!!

This is kind of off topic but are people really getting good deals from that TA? I recently put in a request to them and the price I was quoted wasn't a good deal at all. I priced out 7 nights at AoA and Pop. The "exclusive rate" total was exactly the same price for both resorts as Disney's rack rate on the same dates. Did I do something wrong?

 

[Lisa J]

November hours are here:

http://media.disneywebcontent.com/staticfiles/parkhours/wdwtravelagent_november.pdf

This PDF is awesome! I am going in October, however. Is there one for then, perhaps?

 

[mommyrosa2]

This is kind of off topic but are people really getting good deals from that TA? I recently put in a request to them and the price I was quoted wasn't a good deal at all. I priced out 7 nights at AoA and Pop. The "exclusive rate" total was exactly the same price for both resorts as Disney's rack rate on the same dates. Did I do something wrong?

Not sure what was quoted for you but I have been using them for our August trips the last few years and as an example, our trip this August... we're staying at the Beach Club for almost 52% off the room rate...you'll never see that rate with Disney. Also, when I priced out one of their exclusive rates for this coming October, it was about 29% off at the Beach Club, unfortunately our dates don't coincide with either of their October deals and because my dates are set in stone, I cannot change or you bet I would have.

 

[Amanda S.]

This PDF is awesome! I am going in October, however. Is there one for then, perhaps?

https://media.disneywebcontent.com/StaticFiles/ParkHours/WDWTravelAgent_October.pdf

Just search Walt Disney operating hours with whatever month you want, it should pop up

 

[prettypatchesmsu]

This PDF is awesome! I am going in October, however. Is there one for then, perhaps?

http://media.disneywebcontent.com/staticfiles/parkhours/wdwtravelagent_october.pdf

For these all you have to do is replace the month

 

[Amanda S.]

http://media.disneywebcontent.com/staticfiles/parkhours/wdwtravelagent_october.pdf

For these all you have to do is replace the month

Hmm.. your way is faster. lol.

 

[scard192]

This is kind of off topic but are people really getting good deals from that TA? I recently put in a request to them and the price I was quoted wasn't a good deal at all. I priced out 7 nights at AoA and Pop. The "exclusive rate" total was exactly the same price for both resorts as Disney's rack rate on the same dates. Did I do something wrong?

yes, I have a quote from an agency that has exclusive rates, I would have preferred POP or ASMu but their exclusive for Values is at ASSp. I posted this earlier:
I have a quote from a TA for our dates at ASsp, QS dining, 8 day park hoppers for $450 (2 rooms)more than if we got FD at that resort. plus one complimentary visit to a water park which the kids have wanted to do but never wanted to spend the $$ for that ticket upgrade. If the rumored start date for FD is 11/15 ( we check in on the 12th), this may be the best option. I would not have to do a split stay for 11/12-11/15 and could make FP+ 60 days out. ASsp would have been our 3rd choice but we stayed there in 2009,so familiar with the resport. $225 each is not that much for me and my sister and would be SO much easier if FD does not start at the beginning of our stay. feeling like I have all my ducks in a row and am ready for whatever FD turns out to be

$225 is not all that much more I don't think when the only other option would be a split stay and would have to pay OOP for meals for 3 days (3 people in each room) and not able to make FP+ 60 days out for our first few days.