Availability at POP during Free Dining?????

[momto2inKC]

Yeah, the same speculation says no free dining at the values this year (that's what the UK and bounceback had to do). You need to be in mods and up.

We are booked at Pop for free dining. I think it was just the UK offer that you had to book mod or deluxe to get it.

 

[dairyqueenmom]

Now, that, sounds like a good plan!!! I'm booked from Sept 4-7 at POP. I'm going whether or not free dining is offered. My DU agent will try to get me free dining if possible. If not, then fine...I'll have my DDE card to use. My ADRs are made. No speculation on my part. But it always amazes me to see how many people book a room, hoping a good discount comes out, and if none appear they cancel. Disney does not offer discounts of any kind if the rooms are being filled. Discounts come along to entice us to stay there..not to thank us for already booking!

I am with you, we are DVC members staying on points, so we can not partake in free dining. We will be there Sept. 6-10 for Deluxe Dining. My ADR's are made and we can't wait. This is our first couples only trip since our Disneymoon.

 

[mygirl]

I encourage all of you to keep speculating, keep booking rooms in anticipation of free dining. Then Disney will not offer free dining and all of you will cancel and I can have the whole park to myself and peaceful dining.

LOVE IT!
we vacation in sept that is the best month to travel for our family. we would go to WDW then - every year - whether or not free dining is offered

i am totally one who believes that NOTHING in life is completely free. the offer states FREE dining, but i believe that your costs will vary elsewhere...

 

[Eeyore's My Favorite]

Exactly the Sports resort will not be hard to get IF and when free dining is released!! You know, this was'nt even my orginal point or question. I was thinking that IF free dining is released to cardholders like myself or the general public, that the POP resort could be much more crowded than Sports.
I know I could be wrong on this point but seeing that I have never stayed at POP, I really don't know.

We were at POP last year during free dining (we didn't use DDP) and I'll tell you it was the most miserable experience of my life staying at POP. I will not go back again. The resort was full to the rafters. Rude - unsupervised kids running up & down hallways after 10pm at night. Rude guests too lazy to use key cards, and the list goes on and on. The food court was so full that you had to be a table vulture in order to get a seat and pray that your food was still hot when you finally managed to get a seat. The busses were filled to capacity and usually you had to wait for a couple busses before you managed to even get standing room only on it & that was going to the parks. Also, we paid for preferred, but a preferred location is not what we got.

Because of this & many other issues, we switched to ASMu this past January & loved it!! No issues with the bus transportation (only shared one time), the resort was much quieter since it's so much smaller than POP & the food court was great. They had activities every day for the kids around the pool & the movies at night poolside were great, too.

Overall - I'd tell you to stay where you are instead of trying to switch to POP, but that's just my opinion.

 

[kaytieeldr]

I encourage all of you to keep speculating, keep booking rooms in anticipation of free dining. Then Disney will not offer free dining and all of you will cancel and I can have the whole park to myself and peaceful dining.

Yeah, in your dreams! I'm going, free dining or no free dining (okay, fine, I already have free dining, but that's not the point )

 

[ShellyLynn3630]

We were at POP last year during free dining (we didn't use DDP) and I'll tell you it was the most miserable experience of my life staying at POP. I will not go back again. The resort was full to the rafters. Rude - unsupervised kids running up & down hallways after 10pm at night. Rude guests too lazy to use key cards, and the list goes on and on. The food court was so full that you had to be a table vulture in order to get a seat and pray that your food was still hot when you finally managed to get a seat. The busses were filled to capacity and usually you had to wait for a couple busses before you managed to even get standing room only on it & that was going to the parks. Also, we paid for preferred, but a preferred location is not what we got.

Because of this & many other issues, we switched to ASMu this past January & loved it!! No issues with the bus transportation (only shared one time), the resort was much quieter since it's so much smaller than POP & the food court was great. They had activities every day for the kids around the pool & the movies at night poolside were great, too.

Overall - I'd tell you to stay where you are instead of trying to switch to POP, but that's just my opinion.

Thank you, finally an answer. This is exactly what I assumed. If my plans go through the way I "hope" they do we will for sure keep our ressie at Sports!!!!!

 

[wilde_oscar]

We were at POP last year during free dining (we didn't use DDP) and I'll tell you it was the most miserable experience of my life staying at POP. I will not go back again. The resort was full to the rafters. Rude - unsupervised kids running up & down hallways after 10pm at night. Rude guests too lazy to use key cards, and the list goes on and on. The food court was so full that you had to be a table vulture in order to get a seat and pray that your food was still hot when you finally managed to get a seat. The busses were filled to capacity and usually you had to wait for a couple busses before you managed to even get standing room only on it & that was going to the parks. Also, we paid for preferred, but a preferred location is not what we got.

Because of this & many other issues, we switched to ASMu this past January & loved it!! No issues with the bus transportation (only shared one time), the resort was much quieter since it's so much smaller than POP & the food court was great. They had activities every day for the kids around the pool & the movies at night poolside were great, too.

Overall - I'd tell you to stay where you are instead of trying to switch to POP, but that's just my opinion.

um, so you are comparing the crowds from Sept during free DDP to the crowds in Jan with out free DDP? hm, does that mean I can compare the crowds from the first week of december to the crowds from the last week in december? Again, you are comparing apples to pickled herring. And the way the systems works, for room allocation during free DDP, in sept, is to hit an equal occupancy percentage for each of the resorts in a class. So the Free DDP is equally divided between the value resorts... so all the value resorts are crowded during free DDP. It is like trying to decide between which resort will be the least crowded at Christmas and New Years... they are all at 100% capacity.

 

[wilde_oscar]

best of luck, your expertise is noted.[/QUO

I think IF free dining is offered I'll be the last one laughing here and will make sure and let everyone know just how my "expertise" has paid off!!!!!!!!!!

I booked during bounce back, I am getting POR for the same price you'll be paying at ASsp. He who laughs last, laughs best.

 

[wilde_oscar]

Yeah, in your dreams! I'm going, free dining or no free dining (okay, fine, I already have free dining, but that's not the point )

booking during bounce back rocks, doesn't it.

 

[kaytieeldr]

booking during bounce back rocks, doesn't it.

You betcha!

Hey, how's that refusal to believe in gravity experiment going?

 

[Gillian]

um, so you are comparing the crowds from Sept during free DDP to the crowds in Jan with out free DDP? hm, does that mean I can compare the crowds from the first week of december to the crowds from the last week in december? Again, you are comparing apples to pickled herring. And the way the systems works, for room allocation during free DDP, in sept, is to hit an equal occupancy percentage for each of the resorts in a class. So the Free DDP is equally divided between the value resorts... so all the value resorts are crowded during free DDP. It is like trying to decide between which resort will be the least crowded at Christmas and New Years... they are all at 100% capacity.

We were at Pop the third week in December. The first half of the week was fantastic! It was peaceful, and we never had a long wait for a bus or any wait for a table. By the time we checked out (12/23) it was a zoo and I wouldn't ever want to be there with crowds again.

 

[wilde_oscar]

You betcha!

Hey, how's that refusal to believe in gravity experiment going?

I painted all the ceilings.

 

[momto2inKC]

We were at POP last year during free dining (we didn't use DDP) and I'll tell you it was the most miserable experience of my life staying at POP. I will not go back again. The resort was full to the rafters. Rude - unsupervised kids running up & down hallways after 10pm at night. Rude guests too lazy to use key cards, and the list goes on and on. The food court was so full that you had to be a table vulture in order to get a seat and pray that your food was still hot when you finally managed to get a seat. The busses were filled to capacity and usually you had to wait for a couple busses before you managed to even get standing room only on it & that was going to the parks. Also, we paid for preferred, but a preferred location is not what we got.

Because of this & many other issues, we switched to ASMu this past January & loved it!! No issues with the bus transportation (only shared one time), the resort was much quieter since it's so much smaller than POP & the food court was great. They had activities every day for the kids around the pool & the movies at night poolside were great, too.

Overall - I'd tell you to stay where you are instead of trying to switch to POP, but that's just my opinion.

We were at Pop last Sept during free dining for 10 nights and had a blast!!! I can't think of 1 bad experience i had with other guests. Yes, it was at capacity, but so were all the other resorts. We also never had trouble finding a table at the food court. That place is HUGE!
I certainly hope they reimbursed you for the preferred room if that's what you paid for and did not receive.

 

[momto2inKC]

Thank you, finally an answer. This is exactly what I assumed. If my plans go through the way I "hope" they do we will for sure keep our ressie at Sports!!!!!

Just remember, Sports shares a bus with 2 other resorts, so you'll more than likely have the same issues if not worse than Pop. The great thing about Pop is they seem to always be the only resort at the end of the night with 2-3 busses loading at the same time at the parks. The line may be HUGE, but it moves faster than a lot of the others.

 

[CathrynRose]

i dont think you get free dining at values

Yeah, the same speculation says no free dining at the values this year (that's what the UK and bounceback had to do). You need to be in mods and up.

Nu -uh.... Im booked Bounce Back at POP from the 14-24, eating free.

 

[ShellyLynn3630]

I booked during bounce back, I am getting POR for the same price you'll be paying at ASsp. He who laughs last, laughs best.

Just how did you do that??? Same price for POR as Sports? What a heck of a deal is that!

 

[ShellyLynn3630]

Just remember, Sports shares a bus with 2 other resorts, so you'll more than likely have the same issues if not worse than Pop. The great thing about Pop is they seem to always be the only resort at the end of the night with 2-3 busses loading at the same time at the parks. The line may be HUGE, but it moves faster than a lot of the others.

Ya, I know this. But the one good thing at Sports is if you are staying there, they are the first ones to be pick up and dropped off, if you are sharing a bus with the others.

 

[wilde_oscar]

Just how did you do that??? Same price for POR as Sports? What a heck of a deal is that!

It's called bounce back... it is one of many promotions and offers that WDW offers. Since you already know how the system works, and are an expert on all things related to booking rooms and DDP I'm sure you know all about it.

Last year during Free DDP if you pre booked for this year, you got a room discount and free DDP for this year. When you get to t he advanced levels of working with in the boundaries of the booking system, you learn how to get two rooms at Pop for $59 a night total, that's for both rooms, yeah that is $39 a night, if you book properly in Feb.

When ya know how the rules work... the game is a lot more fun.

 

[wilde_oscar]

Just remember, Sports shares a bus with 2 other resorts, so you'll more than likely have the same issues if not worse than Pop. The great thing about Pop is they seem to always be the only resort at the end of the night with 2-3 busses loading at the same time at the parks. The line may be HUGE, but it moves faster than a lot of the others.

that is a bit of a misnomer, mornings and evenings during park open and close these resorts do not share buses. In the afternoons, when things are slow, sometimes they share buses. But it is no longer the case that these resorts usually share buses.

if you work out the logistics, avg wait and travel times between the resort with the fastest bus times and the resort with the slowest bus times is 8 min. When you do all the math there is no statistical difference between the resorts for bus service. The exception to this rule is travel to and from the monorail resorts to MK. But that would not be on a bus now would it.

 

[ShellyLynn3630]

It's called bounce back... it is one of many promotions and offers that WDW offers. Since you already know how the system works, and are an expert on all things related to booking rooms and DDP I'm sure you know all about it.

Last year during Free DDP if you pre booked for this year, you got a room discount and free DDP for this year. When you get to t he advanced levels of working with in the boundaries of the booking system, you learn how to get two rooms at Pop for $59 a night total, that's for both rooms, yeah that is $39 a night, if you book properly in Feb.

When ya know how the rules work... the game is a lot more fun.

Ya, I know about bounceback, but I have never heard of this one before. Getting a room discount and free dining!! Thats the bomb!