2018 Free Dining Watch Thread V3

[seh]

I’ve booked a standard room at AKL and fingers crossed there’s availability for FD. Does anyone know if a room upgrade might be required to get FD? Haven’t been in 5 years so I didn’t know if this was something they required in the last few years.

It might be different with the GP offer, but when we booked FD as a bounceback last fall for this fall, there was EXTREMELY limited availability. THe only standard rooms available were in the value resorts. We wanted to try to squeeze into a deluxe resort to get regular dining rather than QS but they basically only had club level, which sort of defeated the purpose of "free" dining. Again, maybe bookings are way down, and they could release a whole different tranche of rooms for the general public offer, but we've been booking FD as a bounceback for years and the room selection for that was the worst we've ever seen. If that's any barometer...agree with previous post--book quickly when it opens!

 

[tinkerbell87512]

When FD drops what is the offer called on the offer page? eat stay play?

 

[seh]

When FD drops what is the offer called on the offer page? eat stay play?

I think it's something like "Enjoy a declicious deal". I think eat, stay, play is a different promo that is a (springtime?) package discount but not as deep of a discount as free dining...others can correct me if I have this wrong.

 

[bluejasmine]

When FD drops what is the offer called on the offer page? eat stay play?

Should just be free dining

 

[Canadisney Fly]

Justca heads up that unless they put crazy amounts of people on the room refurbishments at ASMo, they won’t be done in November. I’ve been tracking and updating the Pop renovations thread since the beginning and it takes an average of 2 1/2 -3 months per building to renovate. If they are doing similar renovations I would plan on a similar timeline. Pop has 10 buildings and it has taken them 13 months to complete the first 6 buildings. Yes, they overlap some buildings. Hope this helps.

I had heard that renos started in March at ASMo (building 10) - any word on whether anyone has stayed in a reno'd room there yet?

 

[Kathy Muniz]

Anyone watch Dads video from this morning? Thought it was weird he thinks they’ll require park hopper plus...

 

[ericstac]

I've seen many talking about the morning it drops the phone lines will be busy for hours.. does the secret backend line still work? We used to use it years ago when FD would drop and get in with no wait.

does anyone in here even remember this?

 

[DavidHobart]

The villas do seem to get excluded often from FD. How about a suite?

True suites at the deluxes (not family suites, although AofA family suites may be excluded this year) are almost always excluded; usually plenty of villas (except in the monorail resorts) are in Free Dining.

Here's what I have as excluded the last three years:

2015: Excluded resorts include Little Mermaid rooms at Art of Animation, All-Star Movies, Port Orleans French Quarter, Bay Lake Tower, The Villas at the Grand Floridian, and the Polynesian Villas and Bungalows. Moreover, Port Orleans Riverside is in the deal only for arrival dates August 28 – October 2. Campsites, suites, and three bedroom villas are also excluded.

2016: Excluded resorts include Little Mermaid rooms at Art of Animation, All Star Movies, Port Orleans French Quarter, Bay Lake Tower, Polynesian Bungalows, Grand Floridian Villas, and after 10/31, Port Orleans Riverside. Campsites, suites, and three bedroom villas are also excluded.

2017: Excluded resorts include Little Mermaid rooms at Art of Animation, All Star Movies, Port Orleans French Quarter, Copper Creek at the Wilderness Lodge, Bay Lake Tower, Polynesian Villas and Bungalows, Grand Floridian Villas, and after 9/30, Port Orleans Riverside. Campsites, suites, and three bedroom villas are also excluded.​

 

[scrappinginontario]

I don’t feel the majority of people gavebooked ‘multiple reservations’ with hopes of securing FD. Some may and while I may not agree with that it’s not my responsibility to police other people’s choices.

Those I feel sorry for are those who are definitely going and will lose out on their resort/dates because they are feeling pressured not to book to leave availability.

The only reason I’m saying this is because this happened in the fall with the (far less popular) special offers and those very same people were coming back reporting they couldn’t get anything for their dates or at their resort of choice and were having to pay more for their trip to get less than they wanted.

If someone is flexible with resort/dates hold off. But if your heart is set, don’t feel badly booming the trip you want when you want to.

 

[AnakinsDad]

Anyone watch Dads video from this morning? Thought it was weird he thinks they’ll require park hopper plus...

I hope Park Hopper PLUS isn't required. Not a fan of the water parks in Sept-October. Usually the kids get too cold.

 

[Queen of the WDW Scene]

Should just be free dining

No it usually says something about a delicious offer.

 

[bluejasmine]

Anyone watch Dads video from this morning? Thought it was weird he thinks they’ll require park hopper plus...

Thats whats rumored

 

[ceecee]

Makes sense they would require hopper plus due to the weather being cooler and not as many people going to the water parks. I know we don't.

 

[Disneylover99]

Anyone watch Dads video from this morning? Thought it was weird he thinks they’ll require park hopper plus...

I think just park hopper plus was rumoured last year too, but it turned out to be park hopper or park hopper plus.

 

[mandis77]

just think - in under 48 hours this could all be over!

 

[Queen of the WDW Scene]

Makes sense they would require hopper plus due to the weather being cooler and not as many people going to the water parks. I know we don't.

August and September are not cooler and that's when the majority of the dates will be.

 

[mandis77]

August and September are not cooler and that's when the majority of the dates will be.

True - I'm sure my kids would love a WP day. However, I am NOT crazy about making it a requirement for FD. I'm off to do more number crunching...

 

[Kathy Muniz]

True - I'm sure my kids would love a WP day. However, I am NOT crazy about making it a requirement for FD. I'm off to do more number crunching...

We’re going in December... aren’t the water parks usually closed for return that month?

 

[mandis77]

We’re going in December... aren’t the water parks usually closed for return that month?

I remember them closing in Jan for refurb but I don't know about Dec. This year they've had to close a lot due to cold temps, though. Until recently water parks have never been on the radar as my kids weren't tall enough to make it worth it. However, this year we are going in September and it's still SO HOT then I'm sure they'd love taking one of our resort days and going to Typhoon Lagoon instead. Even if PH+ is required it's still staving us over $1000 do we'd probably do it. I love the dining plan and we always buy it - FD or not.

 

[jlundeen]

We’re going in December... aren’t the water parks usually closed for return that month?

They usually close one at a time for refurb - and the other one is open unless it's too cold.