2018 Free Dining Watch Thread V3

[sharonabe]

If my daughter in college can somehow manage to go during the school year is it easy to add someone to your existing room and keep the free dining or should I try to make a new reservation including her now and pull her off if she can't go?

I think it's easier to drop a person later than it is to add. Make sure you include her in any ADRs you make too.

 

[ksromack]

I swear.. I'm so frazzled right now. I did the all nighter, then I was able to modify online. Now the PIN code that I got about a month ago is finally working for the room we have and it's giving me the best price. So I guess I'm on hold (wait time now said 60 minutes) but there is no music playing. Just silence. Am I screwed? I don't want to hang up if in fact this does go through.... What should I do????

~D

Stay on hold. My music cut out after about 45 minutes on hold. I just put my phone on speaker and at 1 hour and 49 minutes, "America" (i swear she said that was her name) came on the phone! I was rather freaked out myself!
I never was able to modify online.

I believe you can start making your reservations at 6am EST on your 180 day mark

Get online earlier than 6 am. Twice this year I was able to get ADRs before that time on day 180.

 

[Meghan4]

You are the 3rd or 4th person reporting no music. I think you're okay...stay on the line.

I'm dealing with this too. Over an hour now and no music.

 

[tesslor]

I think it's easier to drop a person later than it is to add. Make sure you include her in any ADRs you make too.

Thank you!

 

[Queen of the WDW Scene]

Does anyone else find it interesting that the "offer highlights" and "offer details" and "important details" fail to mention a minimum night stay and minimum day of tickets?
It does not fail to say the ticket must be Park Hopper or Park Hopper Plus so why not say its a minimum of 4 days?
Its probably just my wishful thinking but my theory is that if its not in writing then they can always change it up.
For example if they are not getting as many bookings with the offer as they were expecting they might suddenly let a 3 day or 2 day option pop up on the tickets page of the booking process.
As it stands we likely are not going because we expected the price to be $1,245 at POP for 2 people with 2 day PH and QSDP and now its $1,631 because we would have to get a 4 day PH and we are unwilling to.
If anything we'd take the RO offer which would put us at $1,113 for just the room and 2 day PH and just pay OOP for QS meals.
At least we have a FD BB booked for December but how we would love to go again in between now and then lol.

 

[JenniferYoung44]

Do you have any recommendations for getting the reservations I want? Should I wake up really early every morning ?

Make your most important or hardest to get ADRs later in the stay so you have the advantage of 180+ days. Lots of things you can’t get at 180 you can get at 180+3 or 4. The later the better chance.

 

[Deranged Hermit]

My brother and I made our reservation about 9 this morning. Had zero problem doing it online (We needed 3 rooms: my family, his family, my parents). Tomorrow I'll call and link the reservation since I never could get through to an agent.

 

[mermaid764]

I watched for it online until 4 am ET (2 am our time) and then headed to bed as my hubby said he would watch for it, and wake me up when it went live. Unfortunately he dosed off, and didn't end up waking up until 6am ET. However, we were still able to get exactly what we wanted- September 18th-September 27th in a standard room at Pop with the upgrade to the regular dining plan. We had no issues booking, and all was said and done in less than ten minutes! I can't wait Congrats to everyone else who got what they were hoping for!

 

[JenniferYoung44]

J

I really really want to do Ohana for dinner one night and I am super worried I'm gonna get a 9 or 10 pm reservation

Just plan it toward the end of your stay and you should be fine

 

[Shandy1121]

So is our next big thread about where to eat?

LOL! I was proactive and made all my ressies before I even got the free dining today. Sorted!

 

[disneymomofthree81]

Mine did the same thing! pop century from 9/29-10/6 wouldn't work, but 9/28-10/6 did....please let me know if they let you drop the day I'd be curious how that goes! Naturally all I'm getting now is stitch so I can't even try myself.

Yep! They let me take the extra day off. The first lady I spoke to couldn't change it. She got guest services on the phone call & they took care of it! Soooo excited I scored FREE DINING, saved our family of 6 (4 being hungry teenagers) $2300.00!!!!!!!

 

[DisneyMommyMichelle]

Did anyone who went last year in December for free dining have a hard time making table service reservations? What if you're on the site each morning it opens (180 days prior)? Thanks!

YES! I was on right at the time my dates opened and I booked table service from the back of our vacation to the front and my husband was on his phone booking from the front of our vacation back and we still didn't get everything we wanted, but we were staying Club level and once they e-mailed us, we sent them our suggestions and they got us everything we ended up missing and for that I was grateful!!

ETA: Our dates were December 5th - 29th

 

[BabybetterDisney]

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!

How about the food and wine snacking?

 

[Brandon Routt]

How about the food and wine snacking?

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1vXckwn5hMpVVg-iVyKb0XhCXRPN3aanBcFzrq3dSh_8/htmlview Snack credit list

 

[madmeg]

Congrats to all that were able to get the free dining promo.
My daughter will be 10 years old when we go and will be charged as an adult when dining. For the non buffet table service, will they let us opt out her table service credit and just pay for a kids meal? I know she will not like the food from the regular menu and she can't eat that much. She only likes Mac and Cheese!!!! The kids meal are for 9 year olds...are they strict?

 

[Sabrina Carter]

This is very interesting. Both of you seem to have the same issue. I wonder if prices were jacked up. Because we looked at numbers before FD came out and even if we had to add the increased room rate, ticket prices and parking it was less than $800 difference and that was staying at a deluxe resort. We are staying at the poly and can't take advantage of this program. I am hoping a RO discount comes out for Nov 25th.

It amazes me how this works differently for so many people. Some were able to book a reservation online or on the phone no problem, some modified their existing reservation online. Of the modified ones some had no price increase and some did. One person was told it had to be certain days, which was totally wrong based on the promotion on Disney's website. Some can't get through at all and are having all kinds of technical difficulties. Then there are the above situations. That is the most amazing part. Especially the first one. She should have been able to modify her reservation online with very little increase in price. This is just plan nuts!

I have spent the last 4 months planning every detail of our trip and reading this forum to educate myself and give my family the best chance, so I'm a bit disappointed. But the saying "nothing is every really free at Disney," rings true today. In December I booked OKW 2 bedroom villa, 7 nights (Nov 25th-Dec 2), 8 people, all park hoppers, no discounts for $9997.43. While trying to add the free dining today it increased my price to $13190.87. With that said, everything else that I have read indicates that room only offers are a better value so I will keep my fingers crossed for one of those. Like a junkie, I cannot quite Disney, it's not even an option in my brain-- all the more reason to get started on purchasing DVC points.

 

[SKYYCAMEL]

If I go online and add an extra day to my reservation, will it mess things up or will it be ok?

 

[Spacepest]

To those who are half dead from being up all night, I salute you.

So, I got free dining. I didn't intend to go to Disney this year, but my family recently decided to do a family reunion in WDW. And the dates just happen to fall during free dining. They've been talking about doing this for years, and I promised we would go.
You bet your you know what I got up at 4am to book, and of course the website crashed and wouldn't let me order a thing. I said screw it, went to bed, got up a few hours later and tried again. This time I got the reservation I want to go thru. So one week at Coronado Springs with free dining for my husband and I! And I just called up my relatives to tell them to try and modify their existing reservations (they booked last month already) to get free dining if possible.

I can't wait to go to Epcot and blow a bunch of snack credits.

 

[MAF]

Wow so I just was able to update my reservation with FD and the price went up by $700. Are they insane? I'll just pay OOP for my dining if that is the case.

 

[Sabrina Carter]

I have spent the last 4 months planning every detail of our trip and reading this forum to educate myself and give my family the best chance, so I'm a bit disappointed. But the saying "nothing is every really free at Disney," rings true today. In December I booked OKW 2 bedroom villa, 7 nights (Nov 25th-Dec 2), 8 people, all park hoppers, no discounts for $9997.43. While trying to add the free dining today it increased my price to $13190.87. With that said, everything else that I have read indicates that room only offers are a better value so I will keep my fingers crossed for one of those. Like a junkie, I cannot quite Disney, it's not even an option in my brain-- all the more reason to get started on purchasing DVC points.

quit---duh