2018 Free Dining Watch Thread V3

[Disneyfam5104]

2 adults and 2 kids but both the kids are considered adult 17 and 13. What are your dates?

Sept. 22 - 29, and I was looking at a Standard Room.

 

[smitch425]

Can someone confirm this? Multiple people have said their rates went up, but I thought once Disney released its rack rates for the year they were fixed??? Until of course, the next year when they go up again.

They did slip a small rate increase in a month or two ago. There were posts about it at the time.

 

[h&D3]

I know our rooms at AKL went up about a month ago. Club Level went from $588 to $600/night. (Glad we reserved our room well before that!)

~D

 

[Inklight]

How many people were in your party? Just wondering bc when I run numbers for our family of 4 (3 adult, 1 Child), CSR is still about $600 less than AKL, even after we upgrade to DDP. Just wondering if I was looking at something wrong. Any advice appreciated!

For us, I am comparing an already discounted reservation that I have booked for 4 adults for 4 nights. Also, the reservation is POR River View ... which at rack rate is substantially higher in price than Standard or Garden View, making it close to the lower priced Standards at AKL. The difference in upgrading from QSDP to DDP for us is $373.88, making AKL (without having to upgrade to DDP) a cost-effective option with FD.

 

[Mr. Jackson]

Hi my name is Matt and I have been following this thread the best I can for a couple days now. My family of 4 will have our first Disney trip this August 25th - Sept 5th. I have already booked online and have reservations for POP with 10 day hopper plus option tickets. Could one of you experienced folks help me understand what my best option would be to secure free dining for this trip? In addition would I be getting FD for all 11 nights or does it go by number of park tickets? Thanks so much!

 

[Inklight]

Hi my name is Matt and I have been following this thread the best I can for a couple days now. My family of 4 will have our first Disney trip this August 25th - Sept 5th. I have already booked online and have reservations for POP with 10 day hopper plus option tickets. Could one of you experienced folks help me understand what my best option would be to secure free dining for this trip? In addition would I be getting FD for all 11 nights or does it go by number of park tickets? Thanks so much!

If the FD offer is available for your resort and dates, you would get the free dining for the entire length of stay for everyone in your room. Once the offer drops, which now looks like tomorrow, you could either modify your existing reservation online (if you have a Change Reservation button) or make a whole new reservation online. You could also call, but once this offer drops the phone lines will be heavily impacted.

Hope your family has a great time!

 

[GenGen22]

Can someone confirm this? Multiple people have said their rates went up, but I thought once Disney released its rack rates for the year they were fixed??? Until of course, the next year when they go up again.

I checked my rates last night and there was no change for POP.

 

[Lisa LSR]

I think i misunderstood. Isn't CSR a moderate, not a deluxe?

 

[SPOERLX3]

BREAKING NEWS!!!

Free Dining booking 4/24-10/7.

Dates: 8/20-9/29, 11/24-27 & 12/7-12/23.

More later.

Thank you @Disney Ron
Another rumor was going around that they may bring back the opportunity for Disney Visa holders to get a day or 2 early booking this year. Have you heard any truth to that?

 

[GenGen22]

I'm kind of sad. I really wanted to go in November but my dates aren't included. my secondary dates in December are included though but the November dates were definitely preferred.

 

[Mr. Jackson]

If the FD offer is available for your resort and dates, you would get the free dining for the entire length of stay for everyone in your room. Once the offer drops, which now looks like tomorrow, you could either modify your existing reservation online (if you have a Change Reservation button) or make a whole new reservation online. You could also call, but once this offer drops the phone lines will be heavily impacted.

Hope your family has a great time!

Thank you so much for the information Robin! That was fast, I do currently have the change reservation button available do you think that will change?

 

[krisfan]

Hi my name is Matt and I have been following this thread the best I can for a couple days now. My family of 4 will have our first Disney trip this August 25th - Sept 5th. I have already booked online and have reservations for POP with 10 day hopper plus option tickets. Could one of you experienced folks help me understand what my best option would be to secure free dining for this trip? In addition would I be getting FD for all 11 nights or does it go by number of park tickets? Thanks so much!

It depends on number of nights... so u will get for the nights u booked..
One thing to remember sometimes the offer may not be available for all the dates of u r current reservation for that same room. So u can modify u r current reservation.. or simply book another reservation with available dates..
Sometimes u might not find want you want on release date.. but they may open up again after few days...

 

[Mr. Jackson]

It depends on number of nights... so u will get for the nights u booked..
One thing to remember sometimes the offer may not be available for all the dates of u r current reservation for that same room. So u can modify u r current reservation.. or simply book another reservation with available dates..
Sometimes u might not find want you want on release date.. but they may open up again after few days...

Thank you for the details, I am new to this so every little bit helps! Enjoy your day!

 

[DBDiz]

I am guessing Disney Chase holders didn’t get an advamce purchase this year
I haven’t received email but only ever did once in all the years I habe had one

I called this morning and was told there were no available discounts. I asked about Visa in particular, but no.

Last year's deal wasn't an earlier booking window, but two additional weeks at the beginning of August for free dining that were not available to the general public.

If memory serves, Chase and Disney altered the rewards program so we may not see deals moving forward.

 

[h&D3]

Last year's deal wasn't an earlier booking window, but two additional weeks at the beginning of August for free dining that were not available to the general public.

If memory serves, Chase and Disney altered the rewards program so we may not see deals moving forward.

So IF there was going to be a Disney Visa offer, would that be listed on the Disney Visa site, or on the Disneyworld site to be able to book it?

~D

 

[scard192]

I'm kind of sad. I really wanted to go in November but my dates aren't included. my secondary dates in December are included though but the November dates were definitely preferred.

there might be a RO discount for November, last year later Fall RO discounts came out in July so might be awhile

 

[Grmnshplvr]

Depends on the view.. would be interensting to see what she booked.. Generally a mod is still a lot cheaper when paying the upgrade even for 4 adults. , where you MAY get close is maybe at POR a royal preferred room is 292 plus upgrade a night for 400 rack you WL has a room just under. But generally the standard moderate rack rate is about 222-240ish... add the 100 lets say 340... No delux rack is that low.

This year we're booked at a preferred at CSR total is 4983. OKW same dates 4913. AKL 4933 the difference isn't just in the view, its in paying the difference for the dining for us it's 4 adults 7 nights.

 

[Grmnshplvr]

I think i misunderstood. Isn't CSR a moderate, not a deluxe?

CSR is a moderate

 

[relcx4]

Can anyone on here confirm that they have been able to use their tickets early? This happened to us last year and we were told we MIGHT be able to get someone to activate our park tickets the day before our package started but that they wouldn't guarantee it - said we'd have to go to the concierge. We were at Yacht club so just ended up doing a pool day and not dealing with it but would possibly have to do this again THIS year and really need the extra park day during our room only this time......

I have done this and to be honest it was a bit of a pain. We ended up going to the Disney Springs Guest Services Center and were there for quite a while before we were successful in finding a CM who could help activate the tickets. Initially, there was a lot of looking it up in the system to figure out how to activate the tickets. Eventually my persistence paid off and we were successful in getting the tickets activated before the package date. My advise is to plan extra time in your schedule to get the tickets. Oh, and I believe there is a time limit on how many days prior you can get them-- 3 days when I last checked. Someone else might need to chime in there though because it's been a year since I last researched it.

 

[deakam]

Hi my name is Matt and I have been following this thread the best I can for a couple days now. My family of 4 will have our first Disney trip this August 25th - Sept 5th. I have already booked online and have reservations for POP with 10 day hopper plus option tickets. Could one of you experienced folks help me understand what my best option would be to secure free dining for this trip? In addition would I be getting FD for all 11 nights or does it go by number of park tickets? Thanks so much!

Dining, whether free or paid goes by the number of nights at the resort not park tickets. When the promo drops there are 2 ways to get the free dining. On MDE click the modify button and change to the new promo or you can call and add the free dining. Either way works if the promo is still available when you get through. If you booked through a travel agent the agent can attempt to get the promo for you. Good luck and have fun. Did you book the dining plan with the Package you already have? If you used another discount you will lose that discount so make sure that the cost difference is worth free dining. And sometimes the room type you already have booked my not be available for free dining so you might have to upgrade your room. Is the difference between a standard room and a preferred room rate enough to warrant adding free dining and when figuring the costs don't forget to add the cost of the upgrade from quick service to full dining....really it is easy.