2018 Free Dining Watch Thread V3

[eeyorepixie]

4:30 cannot come soon enough!
While I am waiting for Disney Ron to come back, I have a question...
Can one person book 2 rooms for bounce back? Family of 5 going next year. I would love 2 value rooms. We are going in August but it is just me and a 16 year old and I am pretty sure the 16 year old can't book the second room

 

[Canadisney Fly]

Never mind!

You only need the first day of the reservation to fall within the dates, and all subsequent days of your reservation will be FD. For example, if you book Dec 23 to Jan 2, you will get free dining for the duration of your stay.

 

[Canadisney Fly]

I've been recently defaulting to the US website. I'm Canadian. Yesterday, I kept defaulting to the UK website.
I might be in South America by the time tomorrow rolls around.

Brazil is lovely this time of year...!

 

[Kaelorian]

You just have to check in on one of those dates, your length of stay can be up to 14 days

An earlier poster was saying a CM today said this may no longer be the case. Here's hoping it's not true!

 

[sharonabe]

You just have to check in on one of those dates, your length of stay can be up to 14 days

You missed the post about a new rumor: free dining MAY not extend and only be good for the dates that are posted. However, as the poster you quoted pointed out, there is one group of dates that only includes 3 nights, so if there is a 4 night minimum, that rumor doesn't make sense. If there isn't a nightly minimum, but only a 4-day ticket minimum, then the rumor could still be valid.

 

[Malificient Tater]

Y'all don't freak out over what a CM told someone, a good bit of the times the information is not totally correct. If it has not been posted here by reliable people and even with that everything is still up to speculation, calm down.

 

[KT0191]

I've booked for ASMo for my SIL, because getting the rock bottom lowest option is what's important to her, but if I were booking the trip for me, I'd do Pop. I really liked the option to walk across the bridge to AOA for a change in food courts, and have the option to take the bus to AOA if things are looking scary at the Pop bus stop.

I love the themes at ASMo, so I'm hoping I can join her in December (especially if the renos are finished and the room has two queen beds), but it looks like they're starting with the preferred buildings, so it's anyone's guess as to whether the renos will be done. In the future, the option for the Skyliner gondola will make Pop even more appealing!

Oh yeah. We love Pop and the new room renovations are awesome. My son just saw a video of Movies and about died over it and said he wants to go there. So who knows what I'll do. Like I said, I'll make a split decision like I do with everything else in my life lol

 

[Disneylover99]

Brazil is lovely this time of year...!

 

[MegSF1]

WDW newbie here - trying to game plan for the unfortunate scenario that AoA Suites are not part of the deal this time around.

Plan is for a 7 night stay 12/7-12/14
3 Adults (Me, Hubby & Mother in law)
Child - 4 yo
Infant - 3mo

We were at WDW last year and loved AoA suite and it worked great because of the price point, atmosphere for my daughter and separate space/bathroom for my MIL. Does anyone have an alternative hotel suggestion that is rumored to be included in the deal and at a similar price point? (I have a feeling we may just be waiting for RO discount if AoA suites are excluded).

 

[Disneylover99]

If I have an existing reservation, and I am able to modify it to add free dining, does it still count as being booked on the original date, or do modifications reset that? Asking because we booked prior to the new parking charges, and we may be driving, so I wondered if that would affect us at all.

I am by NO means an expert on any of this but I just thought I would share my experience. I had a reservation booked prior to the parking change and I made a modification and changed my tickets to park hoppers. When I got the new confirmation email it has a disclaimer on there that says " Important Details.... For reservations made March 21 or later, a per night parking fee will be charged to your hotel folio....."

Soooo I'm not sure if I will have to pay the fee now or not. But it does have me somewhat concerned.

As long as your reservation number remains the same after you modify, you will not have to pay the new parking fee.

 

[jsburas123]

Since the Disney Visa holders didn't get an early booking window, the Disney Visa FD offer will drop at the same time as GP (at this moment, strong rumors suggest that will be tomorrow morning). I think what may have confused you is that Chase will send and email out for Disney Visa holders later in the day, just inviting you with a link you can click on. BUT the email normally reaches the Disney Visa holders 3-4+ hours after the actual promo has come out. By then, the rooms are slim pickings.
As a Disney Visa holder, when you click on the Special offer, across the top of the page on the package page of the Disney World website, it will say something like "Free dining offer for Disney Visa holders". You will click on that link. The room allocations are normally different than the room allocations for the general public. (i know last year, I could book rooms on the DV link that were not available on the GP link). If the room you are looking for isn't on the Disney Visa link, you are welcome to look at the general public link and book it there, if it is available (and still pay with your Disney Visa).
MAKE SURE you go to "My Profile" on your MDE account, under "payment methods" and update it to show your Disney Visa card as your payment method. That will help you when you are checking out.
Good luck to everyone and pixie dust that we get what we want!

Thank you so much! This is most helpful!!!

 

[Kaelorian]

Y'all don't freak out over what a CM told someone, a good bit of the times the information is not totally correct. If it has not been posted here by reliable people and even with that everything is still up to speculation, calm down.

Because telling people to calm down has always worked. You are correct, everything is up to speculation, this whole thread is. The information could very well be incorrect (and most likely is), but I can still discuss it just like any other rumor. I can also be worried about it with others that feel the same sentiment. I don't think anyone was saying it was concrete, we're all hoping it's not

 

[mickey1968]

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

I noticed that now Sundays and Thursdays are higher than Mon-Tues-Wed, then Friday and Saturday are the highest.

 

[SG131]

Alright veterans of FD. Help me out here. Just thinking a little bit. My family of 3 adults, 2 children are staying at AoA Cars Suite. My parents simultaneously staying at Pop. We have our ressies already booked from Nov. 19 thru Dec. 1. The plan was hoping FD mirrored last year, so we would hit that Nov 19 date and get it, removing the final three days and leaving Nov. 28. No avail, it seems on that date. Our plan B was to remove the first 3 days, arrive Thanksgiving day, Nov. 22 and stay thru Dec.1 to take advantage of lighter crowds near the end of our trip. We are flying, but my parents are driving, but booked before the parking fee. Regardless, we have 6-day tickets, planning 2 off days in between, plus MVMCP. No hopper currently. I really could use a helpful volunteer. Assuming rumors of resort inclusions remain the same, it looks like my family is out of FD regardless, but my parents might still get some if they do a split stay in option B. (We are all getting the regular DP anyway based on the choices for character meals and the like). I hear people talking about paying oop for meals during part of the split stay. Can you still get the DP for the non-FD part? And if you do, I assume that you cannot roll over unused credits from stay 1 to stay 2, right? Our plan would be Mickey's BY BBQ for Thanksgiving (2 TS credits) on Nov. 22, CRT for 2 credits on Nov. 23, Tusker House on Nov. 24. Again, assuming my family of 5 is out (AoA) and not splitting a stay, could we just use our credits to help them pay for one of their 2 credit meals and my folks credit us back later in the trip (paying for is with some of their credits)?.....or is this all moot because their first split might be too short anyway? If it does work, does that save my parents anything significant? Or not really worth it? Would going this route be a case of biting off a nose in spite of a face if RO discounts apply to our Plan B dates later on? Thank you so much!!

The one problem you may have if you split the stay like this is that your parents park tickets will have to be tied to the second half of their stay. From what I understand you can activate your tickets early once you get to Disney (though I’ve seen some post that they had difficulty), however, they will not be able to book fast passes for the first portion of their stay until in Disney and the ticket is activated. Not sure what your priorities are, but with a larger group, not being able to book all of the fast passes together for the first part of their stay would be deal breaker for me.

 

[Canadisney Fly]

How do you get these PIN codes?

Ah, the elusive Pin Code. Given only to the chosen few, rumour has it that in a dark room called Club 33 and a third, Oswald the Rabbit pulls names out of a hat and randomly sends out offers.

In spite of my efforts to woo Oswald and the mysterious algorithms that dictate his choices, I have NEVER received one!

 

[Curlylocks02]

I noticed that now Sundays and Thursdays are higher than Mon-Tues-Wed, then Friday and Saturday are the highest.

That was the case last year too
I know this only because I had to get a resort price list to tally out each individual cost as part of my trip last year was for work for reimbursement. It was eye opening bc there is also increase in cost around Veterans Day and other holidays not just the specific days of the week

 

[Disneylover99]

Does anyone have a link etc. to the official policy regarding activating a ticket ahead of time? I know several people have mentioned that it worked for them but we are looking at staying two weeks, one week onsite and one week offsite. The way the dates look we would have to do the offsite stay first and it would be a major pain if we couldn't use our tickets during that time. Especially as it is my son's birthday!

The info. is probably in robo's ticket sticky somewhere.
https://www.disboards.com/threads/all-about-tickets-upgrades.3570721/

We have activated our package tickets early a few times without difficulty at Guest Services outside the first park we wanted to go to. As someone else has mentioned, you just won't be able to make fp's until you get there and activate your ticket for that first week.

 

[mousefan73]

WDW newbie here - trying to game plan for the unfortunate scenario that AoA Suites are not part of the deal this time around.

Plan is for a 7 night stay 12/7-12/14
3 Adults (Me, Hubby & Mother in law)
Child - 4 yo
Infant - 3mo

We were at WDW last year and loved AoA suite and it worked great because of the price point, atmosphere for my daughter and separate space/bathroom for my MIL. Does anyone have an alternative hotel suggestion that is rumored to be included in the deal and at a similar price point? (I have a feeling we may just be waiting for RO discount if AoA suites are excluded).

Two rooms, connecting not guarenteed or ASMU has a family suite, but only one real bed... Corondo has VERY limted junior suites... Cabins might work not sure how the infant counts.. But only one bath.. I totally get the two baths thing.. My mom needs her own bathroom when she travel with us..
What is more important the dining experience ( do you plan to upgrade for TS?) or the room.. If the room do the RO discount and pay OOP; especially if you only want QS.. Now if you need all the character buffetts for your child. "Free" dining the upgrade is worth it.
Or two rooms...

 

[mousefan73]

The info. is probably in robo's ticket sticky somewhere.
https://www.disboards.com/threads/all-about-tickets-upgrades.3570721/

We have activated our package tickets early a few times without difficulty at Guest Services outside the first park we wanted to go to. As someone else has mentioned, you just won't be able to make fp's until you get there and activate your ticket for that first week.

From my understand there is no "official" WDW policy on this that is in writing.. for years it was disputed as many CMs did not 1. know it was possible 2. or how to do it... but it seems the past few years there has been no issues.

 

[Canadisney Fly]

I've used them pretty much at all hours of the night and never seen a time when the boards were down.

They were down at 2:10 am PST, when I was trying to convince myself that it wouldn't drop today, and that I should go to sleep, but that little voice in my head kept saying "it's 5:10 am in Orlando - just hold out a bit longer!". I was hoping for some company...