Best strategy, free dining or 30% at deluxe?

[disneypolybride2008]

Hi, I really want the 30% off deluxe resorts to come out, last year that was in July though. Last year May was when free dining came out. Right now i have a stay booked 10/24-11/1 but the hypothetical free dining dates say 10/25-10/31. I know i can get it for 11/1 extended but not earlier, for 10/24. That means i would have to have a separate reservation for my arrival day. My question is, it saves more money to save 30% but what if that doesn't come out, or doesn't include my days, then i would rather have free dining than nothing. However, if the 30% comes out like it did last year and included all of my days, then i would have not needed to split my reservation into two. If i split it up, will they be able to put it back together? What should i do?

thank you

 

[DebbieB]

Hi, I really want the 30% off deluxe resorts to come out, last year that was in July though. Last year May was when free dining came out. Right now i have a stay booked 10/24-11/1 but the hypothetical free dining dates say 10/25-10/31. I know i can get it for 11/1 extended but not earlier, for 10/24. That means i would have to have a separate reservation for my arrival day. My question is, it saves more money to save 30% but what if that doesn't come out, or doesn't include my days, then i would rather have free dining than nothing. However, if the 30% comes out like it did last year and included all of my days, then i would have not needed to split my reservation into two. If i split it up, will they be able to put it back together? What should i do?

thank you

It depends on how much your room is and how many people you have. If you can get 30% off a $500 room, that would be $150 off. If you only have 2 people, that's more than the value of free dining. So there isn't a straight answer, you need to give more details.

 

[disneypolybride2008]

2 adults, 1 child, 1 infant, wanting to stay at Grand Floridian

 

[Starwind]

Since you don't want to pay rack rate, you could book the FD now (which you would be happy with) and then if the rest of fall RO does come out (probably sometime late July, based on 2014) you can change to the RO then if it is available. If there ends up being no RO or it is not available for the dates/resort you want, you will still have the FD booking which you are happy with, and are not stuck with a rack rate that you are not happy with.

I do not know if they are still doing it, but it used to be that to switch between RO and packages (which FD is) bookings you actually had to book a new reservation under the new type and cancel the old (we did this last year; we canceled the old only after we had confirmed the new).

(as an aside this is particularly annoying for anyone dealing with foreign currencies; because of fluctuations in the Canadian dollar we actually lost some $ on the refund of the reservation we canceled because the Canadian dollar had gained value between when it was booked and when it was canceled; we had to calculate the currency difference into our "is FD worth it" calculations).

We have booked our December 2015 split stay at rack rate. I am willing to pay that price, though I don't like it. I am hoping that the rest of fall RO discount will come out and we can switch to that. HOWEVER, if there ends up being no RO discount, or not for our dates, then I am ok with paying rack rate. By booking nearly two months ago we guaranteed we will have a room for the dates we want at the resort we want at, although we are not amused by it, at a price we are willing to pay.

SW