Blackout dates in October?

[buttons]

I am anxiously awaiting to see if there will be a free dining offer in October as I am hoping to go to WDW October 8-15. If free dining is offered, can anyone tell me if the dates around Columbus day were blackout days last year? If they blackout those dates, are you able to add on the dining plan for later in the trip? Thanks

 

[squirrel]

As long as you check in on an non-black out date, then you get Free Dining the whole trip (up to 14 nights).

If the first few days of your trip are black out dates, then you will need to book room only for those dates. Then book the Free Dining for the rest of the dates and you are allowed to pick up your park tickets early (I believe up to 3 days).

 

[purple figment]

Last year FD was blocked out from Oct 8 through Oct 21.

It was offered from Aug 15 - Oct 7 and Oct 22 - Oct 28. There were additional dates during other months.

 

[squirrel]

So that means it most likely will start on Oct. 7th. this year if they offer it.

 

[MsPeggySue911]

According to Mousesavers historical discount data on WDW for last year

For stays during the times :10/1/10-12/21/10
Package offered: package deal ("free dining") for general public
Dates released/booked by: 8/16/10, exp 12/20/10

The entire month of October had free dining last year according to Mousesavers.

Also released last year:
Stay dates: 8/15/10-12/21/10 Package offered: package deal ("free dining") for general public
Release date/book by: 7/6/10, exp 8/14/10

That doesn't mean that they will release the same thing this year by any means, but I am hoping they do. =)

 

[NOLA_Tink]

For many holidays, including Columbus Day, they usually start the black-out time the Friday before the holiday. If they extend FD, you probably won't be able to get it if you check-in on October 8, but you would (probably) have it for the entire time if you checked-in on the Thursday, October 6. Then again, I could be totally wrong b/c it's all speculation. (Our vacation was originally scheduled for that time, so I was also trying to figure out all of the scenarios when I was doing my planning for those days.)

 

[buttons]

Thanks to all of you for the helpful info. We decided to be safe and rearranged our plans. We will be going from September 24-October 1, just in time to take advantage of the current FD offer! Thanks again!

 

[catne]

According to Mousesavers historical discount data on WDW for last year

For stays during the times :10/1/10-12/21/10
Package offered: package deal ("free dining") for general public
Dates released/booked by: 8/16/10, exp 12/20/10

The entire month of October had free dining last year according to Mousesavers.

Also released last year:
Stay dates: 8/15/10-12/21/10 Package offered: package deal ("free dining") for general public
Release date/book by: 7/6/10, exp 8/14/10

That doesn't mean that they will release the same thing this year by any means, but I am hoping they do. =)

The info from Mousesavers is a little misleading. There were many black-out dates during that time...10/1-12/20 was the general dates the promo began & ended, but was not really all-inclusive of those days.

The actual Disney offer read more like "available for most dates from October 1-December 20" but the fine print showed the days that were excluded including the time around Columbus Day in October, and Thanksgiving week in November. As others have posted, you could still get the promo offers if you checked in before the black-out started but if you checked in during the blackout, no discount. We changed our Fall trip from October to November last year to get a good discount because our original plan had us arriving during black-out days in October.

 

[DeepSouth]

Interesting stuff. Is October FD usually announced this month (June)?

 

[catne]

it's hard to say Free Dining for October is "usually" announced in June...since it has not been a "usual" discount until very recently. Disney has announced cutting back on discounts, and they have reduced the value of what they're offering so far this year...still good discounts, but not as good as previous year.

The Free Dining during prime hurricane season (late August-September) has been around for several years - even before the economy tanked - since it was originally offered to fill the empty hotels at the end of summer when the combination of kids-back-in-school and hurricane season meant lots of empty hotel rooms. Free Dining was just an enticement to fill hotel rooms during an ordinarily low-occupancy time.

Once the economy tanked, there were many empty rooms, all year, so Disney began offering multiple promotions during much of the year, including unprecedented discounts available over major holiday times even...2010 was the first year Disney offered all the extensions on various versions of Free Dining.

So it remains to be seen if bookings will be low enough to warrant extending Free Dining promos past September.

 

[Colleen27]

The info from Mousesavers is a little misleading. There were many black-out dates during that time...10/1-12/20 was the general dates the promo began & ended, but was not really all-inclusive of those days.

The actual Disney offer read more like "available for most dates from October 1-December 20" but the fine print showed the days that were excluded including the time around Columbus Day in October, and Thanksgiving week in November.

And from a few days before Halloween through Veterans Day were blacked out too. We're playing with two sets of Nov dates and I was surprised at last year's blackouts. I'd have thought our early Nov dates were more likely to get a discount than our Thanksgiving break dates but that isn't the case based on last year's offer. For T-giving we could do a split stay and get the discount for all but one night if it follows last year's pattern, while the entirety of the Veteran's Day dates fall within the historic blackouts.

 

[PHXscuba]

Since we are going at almost the same time (mid-October) and have known our rough dates for more than a year, here is what my planning notes say:

"Free dining for Oct 2010 came out July 6, 2010 -- didn’t include middle weeks of October."

We are arriving Sunday of Columbus Day weekend and I've given up hope of Free Dining. Still hoping for a room discount for at least part of our stay!

PHXscuba