Everything We Know About Free Dining -

[torismom]

I have a question. We have free dining booked during Sept.

This is to be my grandmother's first trip.She is 86.

What is the cancellation policy if she needs to cancel or reschedule her package? She is in a seperate room than I am.

Thank you.

 

[mbanks21]

cancellation is $100 44-6 days out, $200 5-0 days out. Insurance is nonrefundable neither is airfare. You can rescedule and lose the free dine with very little to no penalty

 

[Donnask8pro]

I was just going to post that they are offering bounceback. Looks like someone beat me to it.. LOL

 

[anett]

okay, so no free dining for Oct or Nov this year??? I thought it was ALWAYS offered in these months or did I miss something? Is there a way to find out when free dining is "usually" offered, is there a rhyme or reason to this process. Thanks.

 

[mbanks21]

You definately missed something. Free dine has never been offered in oct or nov (free dine bounceback ends in EARLY oct) but its always been late august to end of september

 

[anett]

Really? Who strange, just last Nov 1-6th we had a room only reservation but got a code for free dining. The year before we passed on it, but last year We got free dining in Nov and fell in love with the program and where hoping to get free dining again. Since we have not seen it, we are already booked with the QXD code this year with dining. Our friends who jsut decided to come were hoping for free dining this month too? Thanks

 

[bballprncess]

Hello!

Great topic everyone! I am planning a my first trip to WDW with my 7 year old daughter for late August of 2009. As a single mom, free dining would be incredibly helpful! Can someone outline the best steps I should take in order to be eligible to book free dining? For example, do I need to sign up for the Disney Visa Card? We are doing a Land and Sea plan (but booking the Land and Sea separately from one another), should I book my hotel now, or wait until April when the Free Dining offer comes out?

As a WDW newbie, any guidance is greatly appreciated!

Sincerely,
Lori

 

[tkitty]

Hello!

Great topic everyone! I am planning a my first trip to WDW with my 7 year old daughter for late August of 2009. As a single mom, free dining would be incredibly helpful! Can someone outline the best steps I should take in order to be eligible to book free dining? For example, do I need to sign up for the Disney Visa Card? We are doing a Land and Sea plan (but booking the Land and Sea separately from one another), should I book my hotel now, or wait until April when the Free Dining offer comes out?

As a WDW newbie, any guidance is greatly appreciated!

Sincerely,
Lori

Hi. We did free dining for the first time in 2006, and plan to do it again in 2009. I now have a Disney Visa, so I will wait for my code, but I never thougt about booking before the code comes out, to get what we want. Great question. Hope you get some response.
When I booked for 2006, I was much more clueless, and lucked out and got everything we wanted for 2 families, POFQ, ajoining rooms and all.

 

[caisland]

Hello!

Great topic everyone! I am planning a my first trip to WDW with my 7 year old daughter for late August of 2009. As a single mom, free dining would be incredibly helpful! Can someone outline the best steps I should take in order to be eligible to book free dining? For example, do I need to sign up for the Disney Visa Card? We are doing a Land and Sea plan (but booking the Land and Sea separately from one another), should I book my hotel now, or wait until April when the Free Dining offer comes out?

As a WDW newbie, any guidance is greatly appreciated!

Sincerely,
Lori

Hi, We were at free dining in 2006 and 2008. Disney puts out the offer to Disney Visa holders first then open to public the next week. We are not cardholders and we have had great ADR's and room locations.
The offer is usually early April and open til June or sellout whichever comes first. Best Restaurant ADR's go quick.

 

[KarenP99]

My recommendation is as follows..

Book the reservation with everyone in the room getting a 1 day base ticket (the minimum allowed for free dining)

Upon arrival, upgrade the kids ticket to whatever length of stay you need and ask the concierge desk to put the tickets for you and your wife on separate media.

Save those 1 day passes til your AP renews and you can put one ticket against each AP renewal.



Knox

Just to clarify, will they deduct the $ value of the 1 day base ticket from your annual pass renewal fee? Anyone know how much the 1 day base ticket is?

Do the 1 day passes expire?
If you get the 1 day "base" ticket, you still get free dining for more than 1 day?

Thanks!

 

[wdwfanatic316]

Free dine will be offered for 09. Those checking in to free dine 08 will be able to book bouncebacks for late august to early october 09

Can someone educate me on what "bouncebacks" are? Is it scheduling free dining for next year way in advance? We're going in Nov for our first free dining trip, and want to be prepared if we're asked to book for next year!

Thanks!

 

[mjem216]

The Free Dining Plan For Fall/winter Does That Apply To Dvc Members

 

[stepdisney]

Can someone educate me on what "bouncebacks" are? Is it scheduling free dining for next year way in advance? We're going in Nov for our first free dining trip, and want to be prepared if we're asked to book for next year!

Thanks!

Bounceback for us (free dining August this year) was booking free dining for next year from August - October. Be prepared if you booked the free dining in November with the Disney Visa, to book again if it is offered. Look in your check-in packet for a flier. If one is not in there, go to the front desk concierge and ask. There is a reservation button on your resort room phone. You can also dial that number and reach reservations. Do your homework before you go so that you'll know where you want to stay, what dates, etc. There are limitations to bounceback offers. They will tell you when the offer expires and what dates you can book.

Have a great trip.

 

[patita71]

Hello, hoping someone can give me some guidance/advice!!
I have looked/read through so many threads trying to figure out how the free dining might work for me.
We are going in Nov for 3 nights,we are seasonal passholders and I currently have a discount code for the hotel stay, we are staying in a moderate. Does anyone know if or how we can acquire the free dining, family of 4 (2a/2c)??
Thanks so much!

 

[catne]

Hello, hoping someone can give me some guidance/advice!!
I have looked/read through so many threads trying to figure out how the free dining might work for me.
We are going in Nov for 3 nights,we are seasonal passholders and I currently have a discount code for the hotel stay, we are staying in a moderate. Does anyone know if or how we can acquire the free dining, family of 4 (2a/2c)??
Thanks so much!

The current Free Dining offer is for Disney Visa card holders, and is only good for 9/28-10/11, 11/9-11/22 and 12/14-12/20. So you could not use it...also, you can only have one sort of discount on your reservation at a time, so even if your dates matched up & you had a Visa card, you could not get the Free Dining added because of your discounted room.

The real savings on the Free Dining come if you're staying in a Value resort. Often a room discount on a moderate or deluxe resort will save you more money than the Free Dining does...

 

[stepdisney]

The real savings on the Free Dining come if you're staying in a Value resort. Often a room discount on a moderate or deluxe resort will save you more money than the Free Dining does...

The bounceback this year if you booked free dining in Aug/Sept., was not only free dining next year but also a room discount of 30% if you booked certain DVC rooms. THIS was the best deal!

 

[firsttimer2007]

Are there BB offers for those that are going on free dining through visa in November and December?
Or is the BB free dining only for those going in Aug/Sept?

 

[kaytieeldr]

Nothing has been announced regarding any type of Future Stay program for any Guests visiting beyond 10/24.

Don't forget, you don't HAVE to have been onsite with Free Dining in 2008 to book Future Stay during the eligible period in 2009 - you just need to be staying onsite and book while you're there.

 

[kimmar067]

...I probably read right over it, but does anyone know what the newest code for Disney Vsa cardholders is for the free dining offer in Nov-Dec??

 

[TDC Nala]

The Free Dining Plan For Fall/winter Does That Apply To Dvc Members

Free dining never applies to DVC members. It's only available with a full price room/tickets package reservation through CRO.