An important note on Free Dining if you already bought park passes!

[frayedend]

Hey so we booked our last trip before free dining and only because our friend had extra passes with park hopper and water parks. When free dining was offered we went for it but were dissappointed because we had to buy 2 day passes to get the deal.

I posted here my being upset that we couldn't apply our already purchased tix to the package. Everyone said that there was no way to do that. We called and they told us it couldn't be done.

When we got to our resort our friend told us that she called and was told it could be done at guest services. I didn't believe it. At the resort we were told to go to guest services at the park.

Well believe it or not they just scanned our previously purchased passes to confirm and then they gave us a gift card for the 2 days we purchased. We got over $600 back. So it can be done but has to be done at a park where they can scan your tickets and confirm everything. We were super happy to have an extra $600 that we promptly gave back to Disney for pins and snacks and shirts.

 

[TruBlu]

Wow! That's really good to know. I'm sure that will really help some people out.

 

[catne]

wow! That is amazing to know...I wonder if that works with Annual Passes, too? Course the Disney gift cards are not quite the same as getting your money back. But would cover a lot of incidental expenses like tips & adult beverages

 

[squirrel]

Thanks, I will try it out in just over a month.

I have an AP, but had to purchase a one-day ticket to get the Free Dining.

 

[havaneselover]

I'd love to hear more details or if others have done this. I buy 10 day no expiration park hoppers from Undercover tourist. We're going for 4 days in December, and 3 of us have 2 days left so buying the 2 day works fine. My son has six days left on his pass. I wonder if I can just get a refund for his ticket.

 

[grimgrningghost]

wonder if it works if you have the give a day get a day tickets.

 

[donaldtutter]

I'm slightly confused. What tickets did you have,which tickets did they give you the gift card for, and where and what did you say to guest services? Thanks for any further info.

 

[disneymom06]

This would make free dining for those with annual passes worthwhile again. I hope that this is true, I would be very happy with a gift card in place of the 2 day tickets. As a family of 6, I still have quite a few one day tickets.

 

[n2mm]

This would be great news if it's not just an isolated case. I hope it's a new policy. I actually wrote to the AP office a year ago and suggested this. I told them as AP holders we are often stuck having to buy these 1 days tickets and it would be great if we could convert them into a gift card to use while still on that trip. Hmmmmmm.

We will be there next month and will have our 1 day tickets on our package, plus we are both current AP holders. I'm thinking I might try it myself.

 

[frayedend]

Okay for the record this was not annual passes. I don't know that they would do the same for annual passes as for full regular 7 day passes. I will try to detail what happened better.

Our friend planned a trip almost 2 years ago with her family, in-laws, everyone. It was supposed to be for 2 weeks. She had no experience with Disney at all. She went to the Disney store in the mall and bought every person in her group 2 passes for 7 days, with hopper and water parks and more. Long story short many in her family backed out of the trip and she ended up only going for 1 week since she didn't have her family to help with her infant. This left her with a bunch of 1 week passes. So she wanted us to go to Disney with her. We said we really couldn't afford it so she offered to give us free of charge 7 day passes for each of the 4 of us (2 adults, 2 kids). This was her way of getting us to go. She wanted us to go as she new we had gone many times and knew a lot.

This was all before free dining was offered. We opted to go and stay at Pop to save money. We also purchased the dining plan.

Okay so fast forward, we are all booked, and then they offer free dining. But the caveat is that we have to buy 2 day passes to get the free dining. This is still cheaper than the original deal we had so we bought the 2 day park passes even though we had the 7 day already. The plan was to not use the 2 day passes and have them separate them from the room key at the end of our stay. We were told we had to purchase them to get free dining and no one mentioned getting a gift card later. It never occurred to me either and now that I think of it, no one really told me I couldn't get a credit. They just said the passes we already had could not be included as part of the package because they were purchased separately and not at Disneyworld.

So then nothing happened until we got to Pop and our friend told us that she was getting the gift card. I was adamant that she was wrong but she insisted that a CM on the phone told her it could be done once we got there. So the CM at Pop made a phone call and after a few minutes back and forth (and me standing there fully expecting my friend to be let down) the CM said it could be done but only at Guest services at the park.

So we went to MK guest services and told them the story. We had passes already but had to buy passes for the free dining. She asked for our 7 day passes and our KTTW card. She then spent a few minutes scanning them and typing and finally handed us a gift card for the full value of all 4, 2 day passes for over $600. So basically the applied the disney store passes to our package.

I hope that makes sense. I'll be happy to clarify anything that doesn't make sense.

Oh yeah, they also credited us the difference between child and adult passes for our kids (the free passes our friend gave us were all adult) and we also used the credit to add a few days to our passes because we stayed for 9 nights.

 

[donaldtutter]

Good for you!! It does make sense, but I didn't think Disney would do something like that. Which park did you do this and was it outside the park or inside? Were the 2 day tickets on the KTTW card and if they separated them did it effect your dining plan? Thanks so much.

 

[frayedend]

Good for you!! It does make sense, but I didn't think Disney would do something like that. Which park did you do this and was it outside the park or inside? Were the 2 day tickets on the KTTW card and if they separated them did it effect your dining plan? Thanks so much.

This was done at guest services outside the entrance to Magic Kingdom, on the right side of the entrance is a very large guest services area with a bunch of windows. The 2 day tix were on the KTTW card. They didn't need to be separated because they were basically voided and I got a gift card for the cost. It didn't affect my dining plan at all. That's a good question though because I had every fear as they were doing the credit that I would somehow lose my free dining. I always think the worst and I've learned that in most places the worst is what you get. But not at Disney. That's why I'm such a fan.

 

[Joie]

I have a question....how did you get free dining and omly had to purchase 1 day ticket? I thought you had to purchase 2 day tickets to get free dining?

 

[catne]

I have a question....how did you get free dining and omly had to purchase 1 day ticket? I thought you had to purchase 2 day tickets to get free dining?

if you're talking about squirrel's post above, saying they had the AP but had to purchase one day ticket to get free dining...if you look at the trip history in squirrel's signature, looks like they were there last year for Free Dining. My guess would be they booked bounceback free dining. The offer last Fall for the bounceback free dining only required one day tickets.

 

[squirrel]

Yes, I booked the bounceback so I only have a 1-day ticket. I upgraded to an AP last year so I will have an extra 1-day ticket from this year's free dining.

It would be great if I could get a GC for the price of the 1 day ticket to use on souvieniers.

 

[pinkerbell]

WOW!! this is amazing- I have an ap and willaskif I can get a GC- I have more one day passes than I care to keep track of (also on bounceback) even if I cant - glad it worked for you!!!! Whooot~!!!

 

[n2mm]

I have a question....how did you get free dining and omly had to purchase 1 day ticket? I thought you had to purchase 2 day tickets to get free dining?

Like the other poster, I too booked my free dining last November 2009 when the policy was value resort with basic ddp and the required 1 day ticket.

I also have an AP and now will have an extra 1 day ticket to save for my renewal (same for my DH). It would be nice to "cash" the ticket in for a gift card to use while there instead of storing it away until January 2011 (for my renewal) and May 2011 (for my DH's renewal).

 

[Cafeen]

Since no one has said it yet, I just want to bring a dose of reality in here.

My guess is that the OP's case is an isolated incident. It's Disney's policy to require the 2 day tickets, and they do let people know of this (well, at least that tickets are required) when booking the special offer. Now, it'd be nice if everyone could just "return" those 2 day tix for credit (aka Gift Card), but not sure how often it is actually allowed.

Of course, if it's one of those "quiet" policies, that's great, but just tempering the excitment with the possibility that this was a "one time" thing and not to expect it . Good luck to those who will try for this, but don't be shocked if it doesn't work.

 

[frayedend]

Since no one has said it yet, I just want to bring a dose of reality in here.

My guess is that the OP's case is an isolated incident. It's Disney's policy to require the 2 day tickets, and they do let people know of this (well, at least that tickets are required) when booking the special offer. Now, it'd be nice if everyone could just "return" those 2 day tix for credit (aka Gift Card), but not sure how often it is actually allowed.

Of course, if it's one of those "quiet" policies, that's great, but just tempering the excitment with the possibility that this was a "one time" thing and not to expect it . Good luck to those who will try for this, but don't be shocked if it doesn't work.

I do have to say that at guest services at MK there was no questioning it, no calling anyone for approval, nothing like that. We just said, we have these 2 day passes on our KTTW card that we had to buy to get free dining and we don't need them because we have these. She just did the transaction like it was very normal. I tend to think it is just something they do but don't really advertise.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

This is a very isolated incident. I would not expect to be able to do it without a manager's vey specific approval and extenuating circumstances.

Also, it would get a incident report in the permanent Guest Recovery System with name and address recorded showing what was done, why it was done, and who authorized it.

Very often before a special request is granted the Guest is looked up in GRS to see that the Guest has not had similar incidents in the past.