Free Dining 2014 Discussion ~ Part 2

[Ksquared]

Called right at 7:00 am sharp. I was only on hold for 13 minutes!!! Added FD to my exisiting reservation at BC 9/6-9/13. Got confirmation email about 30 minutes later.

so when you say you added the FD to your existing reservation, can I ask how your original was? Did you have a room and tickets and just added dining or did you already have the dining on there and they just changed to FD?

I guess I'm thinking about reserving for next year at some point but need to know how I should book my room when I make the reservation. Do I book RO, or a package? If you already have dining on there, can you switch it out to FD??

 

[andeesings]

Family of 5 here and we finally decided what to do since POR is excluded (although I will TOTALLY be check at midnight and/or 7 am Wed!). We booked 2 rooms at Pop 1WZ1/16-11/21. CM tried to get me to book a cabin for a family of 5. Um no thanks. Sounds too much like camping. This girl, while she has three boys, does not like camping. Never stayed at Pop before (or any value). I'm excited. Keeping this trip a complete surprise to the kids.

Haha, ACTUALLY, the cabins aren't like camping- they're AWESOME!! Fort Wilderness is my CHILDHOOD, I can't even tell you. I love the full kitchens, and the Chip & Dale campfire with movie is SO GREAT. If I had kids... Those FW cabins would be it for me for sure. You'll only be there for five days so you probably won't spend too much time in the resort, but if you ever spend a bit more time... fort wilderness is where it's at!

 

[andeesings]

In a DIS search I found the upgrade charge from quick service to deluxe to be about $65 per adult, per night. That's about $975 for five nights for my DH, my 12 year old, and me. My 6 year old would be another $15 or so. That's pretty pricey. Has anyone else tended to upgrade their free dining plans?

I did it. It's about $48 per person per night. We crunched the numbers and it will save us money (we love expensive food, what can I say? Lol). Check out menus. See what works best for you.

 

[donp]

so when you say you added the FD to your existing reservation, can I ask how your original was? Did you have a room and tickets and just added dining or did you already have the dining on there and they just changed to FD?

I guess I'm thinking about reserving for next year at some point but need to know how I should book my room when I make the reservation. Do I book RO, or a package? If you already have dining on there, can you switch it out to FD??

Those in "the know" would say to do nothing now until the FD is released. The concern would be that if too many people book with the expectation that FD will be released in the future, that that jeopardizes the chance that your resort will be included in the upcoming FD promotion. Some feel that is exactly what happened to POR and POFQ this year--too much pre-booking. Just because you have a room reserved does not mean that you are guaranteed to get FD even if that resort HAS the FD promotion as well.

That said, if you decided to book it anyway, I don't think it really matters how you book it. If you were to book a package with room and tickets, it is very easy for the CMs to just "Add FD." It does, however, rebook you into a different package. So, if tickets had gone up from the time you originally booked until you added the FD package if it was available, you would see the increase in ticket prices on your new rebooked package.

 

[Later_Mater2009]

has MDE been acting weird with reservations lately? for some reason I type in Ohana and it gives me an error message i tried my ipad app and my computer and it gave me a time to book then the page just recycled, it never gave me the rest so i signed out and signed back in and it said there could not complete my request.. like they werent taking dining reservations at this time?? does this happen often ? or is it part of the forever glitch that is MDE..LOL so far until tonight it has worked well for me ??

 

[dsm925]

I booked during the free memory maker promotion and got a 25% discount on the cost of my room. When I called to add the free dining, I could not keep the discount and the free memory maker. It would have been $150 more to take the free dining and I would have to pay for the memory maker.

 

[black562]

I guess I'm thinking about reserving for next year at some point but need to know how I should book my room when I make the reservation. Do I book RO, or a package? If you already have dining on there, can you switch it out to FD??

This is the absolute worst thing you could do.

I've been saying for a long time now that don't this would eventually cause an unprecedented number of resorts to be excluded. This is exactly what ended up happening. Three of the most popular resorts are now excluded from free dining due to booking levels not needing a promo.

Booking ahead gives you zero advantage. In fact, last year the website opened many hours before the phones. Since you can only change a current reservation by phone, those booking new reservations online had hours of head start to book up the most popular resorts and room choices.

Disney discounts to get new bookings, not to give money back to those already booked.

 

[deakam]

I booked during the free memory maker promotion and got a 25% discount on the cost of my room. When I called to add the free dining, I could not keep the discount and the free memory maker. It would have been $150 more to take the free dining and I would have to pay for the memory maker.

So the only way the free dining would be viable for you is if you plan on spending more than $300.00 for food during your trip. $150.00 in additional room cost and $150.00 for the advance purchase Memory Maker. I don't know about you but my family of 3 adults usually spends $100-$125 a night for dinner alone. Add in another $50 or so a day for 3 CS meals and 3 snacks and we make up the difference in 2 nights. The rest is free.

 

[TheGreatGafsby]

it was bad enough hearing everyone talk about pre-booking in hopes of securing free dining; basically admitting that they knew the risks etc., but excusing themselves anyway ("I was going anyway, and I absolutely need that resort because of reasons x, y and z... However, if they don't offer Free Dining, I'll move to another resort"). But now some people who already have a reservation, want another, with the intention of dropping one when they finally make up their mind. it's frustrating, waiting and hoping to get anything, to hear people talking about grabbing multiple reservations - potentially, and I would say clearly, depriving another family of that room. If you are able to book, just book what you want given what's available. I don't get it....

 

[TheGreatGafsby]

it was bad enough hearing everyone talk about pre-booking in hopes of securing free dining; basically admitting that they knew the risks etc., but excusing themselves anyway ("I was going anyway, and I absolutely need that resort because of reasons x, y and z... However, if they don't offer Free Dining, I'll move to another resort"). But now some people who already have a reservation, want another, with the intention of dropping one when they finally make up their mind. it's frustrating, waiting and hoping to get anything, to hear people talking about grabbing multiple reservations - potentially, and I would say clearly, depriving another family of that room. If you are able to book, just book what you want given what's available. I don't get it....

Ahhhh... I didn't get it. it's late after all.....

 

[cassiejo2711]

has MDE been acting weird with reservations lately? for some reason I type in Ohana and it gives me an error message i tried my ipad app and my computer and it gave me a time to book then the page just recycled, it never gave me the rest so i signed out and signed back in and it said there could not complete my request.. like they werent taking dining reservations at this time?? does this happen often ? or is it part of the forever glitch that is MDE..LOL so far until tonight it has worked well for me ??

This has been happening to me as well. No clue what's up. I've tried different browsers and everything too. No problems before, but when I'm trying to add some ADRs now it is being flakey

 

[Corrie76]

If you want to do it online, You will need to create 2 profiles with 2 different email addresses. Otherwise you will have to call in and book it with a CM. We are a family of 6 that wanted to book 2 rooms. I played around with the website (so I would be ready for FD) and couldn't get it to work so I called and spoke to a couple of CM's (1st one for the info and the other one to confirm) that explained that the only way to do it online is with 2 separate profiles with separate emails, then you can link everyone together on your family & friends page once you book.

Thanks. This is helpful. I need to book 3 rooms

 

[deakam]

it was bad enough hearing everyone talk about pre-booking in hopes of securing free dining; basically admitting that they knew the risks etc., but excusing themselves anyway ("I was going anyway, and I absolutely need that resort because of reasons x, y and z... However, if they don't offer Free Dining, I'll move to another resort"). But now some people who already have a reservation, want another, with the intention of dropping one when they finally make up their mind. it's frustrating, waiting and hoping to get anything, to hear people talking about grabbing multiple reservations - potentially, and I would say clearly, depriving another family of that room. If you are able to book, just book what you want given what's available. I don't get it....

I am guilty of pre booking. I booked Pop preferred room when I found out that PO was excluded from free dining because I can not stay at Pop if I do not have a preferred room. One of my group has a club foot so we wanted to minimize walking outside of the parks where we will have a wheelchair. I was planning on calling to add the free dining on Wednesday but we have all been discussing this trip and the decision has been made to move to WL because that is a lot less walking over all. So I am canceling a Preferred room at Pop Century tomorrow morning. Then I will just re-book WL when free dining comes out. I am so glad this is the last trip for us. We are moving to Florida next year and will just make day trips.

 

[tony609]

With the taxes it's about $48 per person per night.

Is this on top the $19.02 (?) we pay to upgrade from QS to Reg DP or do we subtract that from $48 per person?

 

[deakam]

go to the website and price out your resort for your dates with the QS plan then do it for the Deluxe plan and subtract the two. That is the amount you will have to pay to upgrade. So you want to price out your resort with no dining and add in the difference from the first equation and you should have your cost. Remember that Disney does not add tax until the end of the reservation process on the website.

 

[KNovacovschi]

it was bad enough hearing everyone talk about pre-booking in hopes of securing free dining; basically admitting that they knew the risks etc., but excusing themselves anyway ("I was going anyway, and I absolutely need that resort because of reasons x, y and z... However, if they don't offer Free Dining, I'll move to another resort"). But now some people who already have a reservation, want another, with the intention of dropping one when they finally make up their mind. it's frustrating, waiting and hoping to get anything, to hear people talking about grabbing multiple reservations - potentially, and I would say clearly, depriving another family of that room. If you are able to book, just book what you want given what's available. I don't get it....

I agree with you 100%, the system alone should not allow it. However, this may start a debate like the making multiple ADRs as well as booking a room but not actually staying in it just to get MBs.

 

[mommyof3princess27]

Is this on top the $19.02 (?) we pay to upgrade from QS to Reg DP or do we subtract that from $48 per person?

On top of. Because i paid $48per adult at a moderate

 

[KNovacovschi]

Ahhhh... I didn't get it. it's late after all.....

Some people want to book online & already have reservations (whether previous or FD) while they decide where they want to stay & will call back at a later time to cancel one of them. PP was just stating that it's frustrating as it takes away from others who may want that timeframe but are not able to because a resort is booked.

 

[mommyof3princess27]

We may need a part 3 by tomorrow!

 

[kelmarie66]

it was bad enough hearing everyone talk about pre-booking in hopes of securing free dining; basically admitting that they knew the risks etc., but excusing themselves anyway ("I was going anyway, and I absolutely need that resort because of reasons x, y and z... However, if they don't offer Free Dining, I'll move to another resort"). But now some people who already have a reservation, want another, with the intention of dropping one when they finally make up their mind. it's frustrating, waiting and hoping to get anything, to hear people talking about grabbing multiple reservations - potentially, and I would say clearly, depriving another family of that room. If you are able to book, just book what you want given what's available. I don't get it....

But what if you booked way before any of this FD talk started. Like way before. And now you have ADRs attached to your res. So you shld cancel and lose all that b/c it's taboo and messes up what resorts are included or excluded? What are the chances of getting a res like this switched to FD? And not losing ur ADRs?