2018 Free Dining Watch Thread V3

[Nancyg56]

We can make our ADRs in one day from now, so we're going to do that. If the average cost of the meals we want is more than it costs to upgrade I'll probably do that. We're going to upgrade our tickets to APs, too. I've just spent a year at my first big girl office job and we're finally stable with cash! Going all in on Disney!

I agree that before you make any changes to your reservation, book your meals. We tend to book moire than is on the plan, so we pick and choose what we pay OOP for, and becasue we share some meals our credits do stretch, but I like to know where we stand before I choose the plan to go with our meals.

Book exactly what you want and where you want without free dining. You can easily make the needed modifications if it does come out.

Agreed. I only book if I know my dates are set in stone, and I only book what we will use no matter discount or not.

 

[gqmom]

Help! I’m having trouble deciding between RO and FD

I can only get either discount for 4 out of my 7 day trip that is currently booked through a TA using 2017 pricing.

Any suggestions on how to compare pricing? There are so many variables and I just can’t figure out the rates.

 

[scrappinginontario]

Not really clear on what you are asking. Sorry.

Your best option is to ask your TA to vampire if they have access to the numbers.

Do you have 2 things booked and wang to know which one to keep? Are you looking to book something for a future stay?

 

[Nancyg56]

Help! I’m having trouble deciding between RO and FD

I can only get either discount for 4 out of my 7 day trip that is currently booked through a TA using 2017 pricing.

Any suggestions on how to compare pricing? There are so many variables and I just can’t figure out the rates.

If you have 2017 prices, any changes you make wil be made with 2018 pricing. If you want to knwo how much teh 4 days will cost with free dining, plug in your dates and your resort with hoppers and tix, and that will be the price. DO the same with your RO discount that you might have.

The concern is that this will also affect your remaining three days. You now have new bookings, and you will be charged 2018 costs as well. If you are driving you will also be subject to the parking fee.

Have your TA see what she can get adn ask her for figures, not just for your 4 days of discount, if it is still available, but for your remaining three days.

 

[gqmom]

Thanks! My plan/hope is to not abandon my original reservation but to just modify the days down from 7 to 3. I booked the RO and Free Dining with 2 new reservations. I wouldn’t abandon my initial reservation unless i can get a discount for the entire stay.

We aren’t driving but we may rent a car. I didn’t consider that cost. Thank you for reminding me of it.

 

[gqmom]

Not really clear on what you are asking. Sorry.

Your best option is to ask your TA to vampire if they have access to the numbers.

Do you have 2 things booked and wang to know which one to keep? Are you looking to book something for a future stay?

Thanks, very good idea. I didn’t realize my TA could do that.
I have everything booked - 3 reservations. 1 with my TA for the 30th thru 6th. I need to add the 29th so I have a RO resi for 29th-3rd and FD for the same dates. As soon as I figure out what the best deal is, I’ll cancel the other.

If I go with the RO, I’ll keep my tix and dining on my original 2017 reservation. It will be dining for only 3 days, but I’m not worried about that.

 

[TBGOES2DISNEY]

When's the latest date you can upgrade your dining before your trip (how many days before)?

 

[pooh'smate]

When's the latest date you can upgrade your dining before your trip (how many days before)?

I have always heard it is 3 days.

 

[kpd6901]

Just a heads up. I keep checking FD availability so that the FD portion of my three part split stay Nov. 22-Dec. 2 can expand into the last portion. If anyone has cancelled anything. No luck yet. BUT, I found that it no longer is for bookings thru July 7. Free Dining is now available for bookings through August 1. I found that interesting.

 

[DisneyLifePapioNe]

Hey everyone Disney has extended the booking window until August 1st, just thought I’d let everyone know if you don’t already!

 

[Elsaalltheway]

Hey everyone Disney has extended the booking window until August 1st, just thought I’d let everyone know if you don’t already!

Thats cool that they extended it, but really how many rooms could they possibly have open that they need to fill.

 

[DisneyLifePapioNe]

Thats cool that they extended it, but really how many rooms could they possibly have open that they need to fill.

I heard they maybe opening up more availability as far as rooms go also.

 

[Elsaalltheway]

I heard they maybe opening up more availability as far as rooms go also.

Well that would be nice.

 

[Rose42633]

I heard they maybe opening up more availability as far as rooms go also.

Oh, really????? Do you have any idea when? I cannot afford to go without FD and would love to go the week after Thanksgiving but there’s zero availability for any value. We love Pop!

 

[scrappinginontario]

Oh, really????? Do you have any idea when? I cannot afford to go without FD and would love to go the week after Thanksgiving but there’s zero availability for any value. We love Pop!

I’m not convinced there was ever any availability at pop that week and if so it was VERRRRY limited!! I was online within 2 mins of the offer dropping and could not find any availability at Pop even though I tried various options. I hope something opens for you but I will say this one person talking about more dates opening is the only person I’ve heard say this so I’m wondering if the person who said this to them was misinformed?

 

[Nancyg56]

I’m not convinced there was ever any availabilityvat pop that week and if so it was VERRRRY limited!! I was online within 2 mins of the offer dripping and could not find any availability at Pop even though I tried various options. I hope something opens for you but I will say this one person talking about more dates opening is the only person I’ve heard say this so I’m wondering if the person who said this to them was misinformed?

I agree. I wanted BC and had spoken to a CM a few days prior to the FD offer dropping. He told me to consider changing to a different resort, perhaps YC? Hmmmmm.....sure enough, the only availability at BC was the suites. As much as I would have loved that level of stay, I changed resorts. FD was very limited, and unless there are a lot of people dropping thier reservations at POP, etc I doubt there will be more openings. It woudl be nice, however I am not sure that is going to occur.

 

[heath92681]

I’m not convinced there was ever any availabilityvat pop that week and if so it was VERRRRY limited!! I was online within 2 mins of the offer dripping and could not find any availability at Pop even though I tried various options. I hope something opens for you but I will say this one person talking about more dates opening is the only person I’ve heard say this so I’m wondering if the person who said this to them was misinformed?

Our family got 2 rooms at Pop Sat-Wed after Thanksgiving, so there was some availability, although extremely limited. Seemed like everything was gone within an hour or so of drop time.

 

[kpd6901]

I’m not convinced there was ever any availabilityvat pop that week and if so it was VERRRRY limited!! I was online within 2 mins of the offer dripping and could not find any availability at Pop even though I tried various options. I hope something opens for you but I will say this one person talking about more dates opening is the only person I’ve heard say this so I’m wondering if the person who said this to them was misinformed?

Our family got 2 rooms at Pop Sat-Wed after Thanksgiving, so there was some availability, although extremely limited. Seemed like everything was gone within an hour or so of drop time.

My parents are staying at POP and initially got FD from Nov. 24-29, then there was availability till Nov. 30, so we snagged that. We hadn't been able to to see anything extending later past then, though. I don't know the details of the different resorts, but my guess is that they simply extended the promo because they may have fallen short of quota of sales at a particular resort or two that might be less desirable or undergoing renovation. I expect no further inventory openings, though I would gladly welcome it.

 

[scrappinginontario]

It could be because I was looking for a longer stay. I already had a room discount BB offer booked from Nov 24 - Dec 2 and was looking for those dates so quite a long stay. We went with out Plan B dates and are happy to be going Dec 8 - 16 with FD at Pop.

 

[vratiana]

It could be because I was looking for a longer stay. I already had a room discount BB offer booked from Nov 24 - Dec 2 and was looking for those dates so quite a long stay. We went with out Plan B dates and are happy to be going Dec 8 - 16 with FD at Pop.

Similar boat to many of you- I tried booking 11/24-12/1 for Pop when the offer dropped and it wasn’t available. I also booked 12/8-12/16 as a backup. I have been checking multiple times a day since the offer dropped to switch with no luck. Still holding out hope but it’s dwindling!