2018 Free Dining Watch Thread V3

[twoolle]

Good luck to everyone and keep trying if at first you don't succeed! I was glad to see AoA Suites INCLUDED as that's on our hopeful list for next year. Although who knows what next year would hold. It was fun following this year though!

 

[jade88]

It was certainly glitchy when it dropped.

When I went to my eligible POP dates, it told me there were no available offers for 30 minutes. Then it showed free dining but I couldn't select it.

Finally I had to move to All-Star Movies and it came up fine, I then was able to move back to the POP standard with QS FD. Not sure why all the hoopla was necessary.

Maybe the computer didn't like the price I got back in October when I booked? I don't believe it was anything other than rack rate tbh.

 

[laurenpetro]

Nothing for my dates at BC, which I expected. Oh well, at least I got another discount a few weeks ago.

Congrats to all who got it! Enjoy the free food!!!

 

[matthewhavens]

I found the Visa card promo but how can you modify your existing booked reservation? I don’t see it when I try to modify

Couldn't figure it out either. Just booked a new reservation with the free dining and cancelled the original.

 

[123SA]

So is our next big thread about where to eat?

PSSSSSTTTT.....get booking your meals right now! There will be very slim pickings soon, if not already

 

[JoyAhead]

So we are traveling 11/24-11/30 and DONT plan to use free dining. Will it be miserably crowded and hard to get ADRs now?

Hi! We went this same week last year (also FD then) and did not use free dining. We are going back the same week this year and not using free dining again. Last year the parks weren’t any more crowded than normal, and I didn’t notice the restaurants being crowded, but ADRs were a huge pain to get right at 180. The days we were actually at the parks ADRs were showing up all over the place. We actually booked a same day Be Our Guest lunch and a CRT dinner. But at 180, it was hard.

 

[Lehuaann]

I’m having a hard time justifying paying $9,416.75 (11 nts w/ 4 day PH) for a package I paid $6,870.14 (11 nts w/ 9 day PH) last year.

Albeit last years FD package was on a 2016 BB that included the regular dining plan, still, that’s a $2,500 difference, wow...

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

Woke up around 4am ET, no specials on my phone, woke up with second alarm at 5:15am ET, and there they were! YAY however as suspected with the rumors our dates weren't there, Nov. 13-19. No biggee since we'll go without the FD anyway but I did print out the Visa offer and the GP offer for reference for 2019 (unless we do a BB prior to next year). However, each year the perks of FD get less and less attractive, it's not as necessary for us but so glad for all who were able to get what they wanted or close to what they want. For those that didn't, keep checking, popular resorts/room types will keep popping back in and out of inventory. Good luck everyone who's still working it.

 

[minniesBFF]

Are you sure you got the FD offer? I tried to adjust my Pop reservation (Nov 24 - Dec 2) and the new price was $40 more than I paid when I paid full rack-rate so even though the price was showing up when I clicked the FD offer, it really wasn't the FD offer. Did you have everything in place before or did you add things like dining now?

I changed our dates to 2 weeks later, booked a new reservation and I now have a 'true' FD reservation. Same amount of time but $500 less.

If you paid more after adding 'free dining' then I'm not sure you really got Free Dining. Just my .02 as I faced a similar challenge

You are right! I just did a new reservation, same dates, same resort, same amount of park hoppers and the FD package is actually $247 cheaper than my original package! Thank you so much for pointing this out!

So now my only question is, when I cancel my existing reservation and book this new one, will I lose my $200 deposit from the first reservation? That might be a silly question but I have never cancelled and rebooked before.

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

so I got free dining!
I called in this morning- they didn't give what dates the Disney Visa would allow free dining
but I'm staying Aug15-20 and I got it !!!!

If anyone needs the visa dates- here is the link to the offer- there are earlier dates in August for visa cardholders

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/special-offers/resort-parks-stay-dining-visa-package/

 

[mandis77]

We did it y'all!! Well as I was dozing and refreshing at 5am.... poof there it was! It was a little glitchy at first but I got our POP preferred 9/5-12 with upgraded dining! Now onto obsessing on how to properly use up all those snack credits!

It's been fun!

 

[DaniMoon]

You are right! I just did a new reservation, same dates, same resort, same amount of park hoppers and the FD package is actually $247 cheaper than my original package! Thank you so much for pointing this out!

So now my only question is, when I cancel my existing reservation and book this new one, will I lose my $200 deposit from the first reservation? That might be a silly question but I have never cancelled and rebooked before.

I'm trying to figure out the same thing.

 

[DaniMoon]

I thought I was going to be content with the room discount, but now that I see the Visa offer available for my earlier dates, I'm rethinking. It would be $500 more for 13 nights, which for food would be a deal. My question is, if I book a new reservation, and cancel my old one, which I have paid $1500 on with credit card and gift card payments, will those all get reimbursed to the specific cards. Also, what about the initial $200 deposit.

Thanks. As most of you, I'm trying to avoid calling and would like to do it all online.

 

[ksromack]

Thanks. As most of you, I'm trying to avoid calling and would like to do it all online.

One hour and 49 minutes on hold......finally got through and now the cast member is having trouble too! Ack. I'm about to have heart palpitations (maybe it's the oodles of coffee I've had). The cast member just got back on the phone and said Tinkerbell had to help her! Yay. I'm done!

 

[rockinrhonda]

Here is the Disney Visa offer again. Site has been down, but it is the correct link to book arrival dates starting 8/2.

Thank you

 

[Lovetherodent]

PSSSSSTTTT.....get booking your meals right now! There will be very slim pickings soon, if not already

My 180 doesn't open til June! (going in December).

 

[leebee]

I got through on-line about 5:30 and made a reservation but have not received the confirmation e-mail yet and the $200 reservation charge has not shown up on the card yet so I am a little nervous. I cannot get into my account to confirm as when I go to the Disney World Resort website I only get an advertisement page and any links go either back to that page or to Stitch eating the page. Hopefully I really did get through and it just taking time to process. Is anyone else experiencing that?

@Dale Begley Similar for me. I already had a reservation at ASMu with the exact amenities that FD was requiring, hoping that I could just use the change reservation button. Nope... When I go into my MDE account, it says I still have the Summer Room Offer w/QSDP but it shows the payment balance as what it should be for FD w/the QSDP. When I go to "My reservations and tickets" it shows that I have FD w/QSDP, but at the bottom of the page it shows the cost as the full charge, without deducting the $200 I've already paid... but I cannot hit the "check out" button. FINALLY, to complicate matters further, there is an offer in my cart, which I DID NOT put there, for the same FD offer BUT upgraded to the DDP (which is what I want to do in the future). No email from Disney, no charge on my credit card, and no freaking way to get through on the phones. I am going to sit tight for now. I took screen shots of everything so hopefully my FD is there.

Try using Firefox for your browser. Open up Firefox and in the upper right corner there's an icon that looks like 3 parallel horizontal lines. Click on that and choose "New private window." Then go to disneyworld.disney.go.com and see if you can get into your MDE account that way. It's an incognito window, won't let any website track you or add cookies, etc. That's been working best for me, so that the Disney site doesn't just default me to some old page.

 

[unwritten01]

Man I am tired out after all of the excitement. Kind of like leaving a job - will miss you folks! If you have not gotten what you want yet best of luck and see you there!

 

[rockinrhonda]

If I want to upgrade my dining plan from quick service to table service later by paying the difference, do I have to pay my balance off first? Or will they add it to my balance when I modify online?

Just getting the free quick service in my cart was glitchy enough, so I just wanted to make sure I grabbed the promo first.

Obviously I will wait to do anything until this all dies down.

They will add it to the balance.

 

[FinnsMom7]

You still qualify, you can save your four day tickets for another time and continue using your AP.

I know but this is the last year for multiple trips so to spend that money to "save" money doesn't make much sense. The RO offers are much better in the end for us, FD makes us upgrade plan or room type and we wouldn't spend as much OOP as FD covers.