Are certain hotels more likely to offer free dining?

[Treysar]

I’m booking for December 2020 and I’m hoping for free dining. Will AOA, FW, CBR or POR be more likely to offer free dining? Or does it not quite work that way?

Thanks!

 

[DisneyWishes14]

There are typically resort exclusions with free dining. In the past, Ft. W cabins and AoA LM rooms have been excluded, but no one knows what future promos will exclude. If you are booking now, there is also no way of knowing if your resort and room category will be in the promo inventory for your travel dates. Just because you have an existing reservation doesn't mean you will be grandfathered into a promo. If you know you will go regardless of a promo, book what you like within your budget now. You can always try to modify once a promo is released. If you aren't going without a promo, I would wait until the promo is released and choose something in the inventory that suits your budget.

 

[Moliphino]

Sometimes POR is excluded for some of the dates (I think usually the December dates, actually).

 

[Faldred]

The whole point of free dining is to increase bookings in under-reserved hotels. So yes, the hotels in lower demand during off periods are the ones more likely to offer free dining discounts, whereas the higher demand hotels have much more limited or no free dining offers available.

 

[Pumbaa_]

This is when a TA is worthntheir weight in gold

Dreams Unlimited is a board sponsor. Highly suggest you use a TA that can assist

 

[Moliphino]

You can see what has historically been included in free dining on the Disney Food Blog: DFB Free Dining search

 

[Treysar]

The whole point of free dining is to increase bookings in under-reserved hotels. So yes, the hotels in lower demand during off periods are the ones more likely to offer free dining discounts, whereas the higher demand hotels have much more limited or no free dining offers available.

Are any of the hotels I listed usually under reserved? Thanks!

 

[Zombie]

I’m booking for December 2020 and I’m hoping for free dining. Will AOA, FW, CBR or POR be more likely to offer free dining? Or does it not quite work that way?

Thanks!

I’m Canadian and sometimes the room pool for FD is slightly adjusted for out-of-country guests. But we’ve had free dining three times now - including this upcoming December period. And it has been offered at AOA (excluding the LM rooms, the family suites only), FW cabins (not campsites) and CBR. We have not seen it offered at POR the past two times we’ve got it and it is often excluded due to popularity. I know for Canadians there are some times that POFQ is offered, but again I haven’t seen the past two times we’ve got FD.

We have seen that SSR have been available in our time periods and sometimes OKW. The offerings (usually a studio and sometimes a one bedroom) we’ve noticed are very closely priced to the AOA and FW Cabins. And they Claude the DDP rather than just the QSDP. So you might want to consider and watch for them too.

We tend to book the last week of August/first week of September or the week after American Thanksgiving or the first week or so of December to provide additional context to the period and hotel Availability and offerings we’ve seen on FD.

The past two times we used FD we stayed a CSR. This December we’ll be staying at AOA.

Good luck.

 

[Faldred]

Are any of the hotels I listed usually under reserved? Thanks!

CBR has historically been a good candidate for free dining, but with all the changes over in that area, including the Skyliner, I have no idea what hotel occupancy looks like. I second the suggestion of using a quality travel agent - they will have access to the data sooner and more completely than the general public, and they will do the legwork for you if you list your preferences.

 

[LoveAList]

We live in the UK and this year POR was excluded from our 2020 free dining offer. French Quarter was still included but I think Riverside is becoming very popular.

 

[xWhereswaldo]

I’m Canadian and sometimes the room pool for FD is slightly adjusted for out-of-country guests. But we’ve had free dining three times now - including this upcoming December period. And it has been offered at AOA (excluding the LM rooms, the family suites only), FW cabins (not campsites) and CBR. We have not seen it offered at POR the past two times we’ve got it and it is often excluded due to popularity. I know for Canadians there are some times that POFQ is offered, but again I haven’t seen the past two times we’ve got FD.

We have seen that SSR have been available in our time periods and sometimes OKW. The offerings (usually a studio and sometimes a one bedroom) we’ve noticed are very closely priced to the AOA and FW Cabins. And they Claude the DDP rather than just the QSDP. So you might want to consider and watch for them too.

We tend to book the last week of August/first week of September or the week after American Thanksgiving or the first week or so of December to provide additional context to the period and hotel Availability and offerings we’ve seen on FD.

The past two times we used FD we stayed a CSR. This December we’ll be staying at AOA.

Good luck.

I'm Canadian and we were at POR in September for free dining, booked when it came out in January' but the year before I know POR wasn't included.

 

[12disneybee]

I’m booking for December 2020 and I’m hoping for free dining. Will AOA, FW, CBR or POR be more likely to offer free dining? Or does it not quite work that way?

Thanks!

I booked bounceback for Aug-Sept
Availability was wide open
If Free dining promo comes out for general population in Spring, I find slimmer pickings and having to book room upgrades