booking a room w/out the intention...

[ras1121]

I'm sure this has been discussed and not that we would ever do this, however my wife and I were discussing today, what is the deterrent of adding a day in the hotel to the end of a trip in order to get free dinning without the intention of ever staying in it? If free dining starts the day after you were planning on checking out, could a person add a day to their reservation, receive the free dining and just leave a day early?

Again, this isn't something we are planning on doing, more just curious on how Disney would handle this possible "loophole." You would in fact be paying for the room, just not staying in it.

 

[FiggieFan]

From what I understand, the first day of your trip, your check-in day, has to be during the free dining window available or else you are not eligible.

 

[justanothermark]

Free dining is based on day of check-in being in the window of free dining so adding a day at the end won't get free dining for the entire trip. Many people check in the last day of free dining window and get free dining their whole trip even on days not in the window due to the check in day. Also, you have to check in before 6am the following day to get free dining and to count. you can't book a room for a day early, not show up until the next day and get the free dining. that is how disney keeps people from playing the system any more than they already do.

 

[KarmaCat]

Yes, the only important date for free dining eligibility is your check-in day. We are going over Thanksgiving week, which is excluded from free dining, so we moved our check-in date to the end of the week before and will be receiving free dining for our entire stay. It doesn't work the other way around, though. We couldn't have moved our check-out date later into the next FD window and still qualified for the promotion.

 

[ras1121]

Ahh that makes sense, I thought as long as your trip touched the free dining dates you were eligible for the discount. Thanks for the info!