Free Dining 2014 Discussion ~ Part 2

[daisy8869]

I called during my lunch hour and was able to make my reservation in less than 15 minutes!

9/26-10/3 at Pop with upgrade to dining plan

Yay!!!!

Thank you to everyone who has helped with this thread and especially, black!!!

 

[111mom111]

This gives me hope!! Those are the exact dates I am hoping to book in a Mod. when the GP offer is released!!
In an earlier post, someone said that all mods were booked for those dates, so he/she booked Pop.

I hope there are still rooms left in the moderates when it is time for the general public to book on the FD discount. All this activity on the boards today has me a little worried about getting in on this deal on May 7th. I hope they open a few extra rooms up for those of us that are waiting patiently!

 

[TheRatPack]

I still haven't gotten the e-mail...does anyone know if you can book the offer online or do you have to call?

You have to call for the Disney Visa release, GP offer next week will allow online booking.

 

[martinmont]

Mine takes a while to load. Once the balance loads it shows the payment link.

No wonder! My balance is not showing up either, just says unavailable at this time ,that's why I can't find the payment button.

 

[SMCURT28]

There are drawbacks. But renting points is still worth it to us. For example:

No flexibility once you book renting points. You can't switch your dates once booked.
You can't cancel and get a refund.
No daily housekeeping. But you can pay extra for it.
It can be tough to get popular resorts/dates as you have to find an owner at that resort to make the booking at 11 months out.
Have to pay at least 50% and up to 100% of the cost when you book, which could be at 11 months out.

Shhhhhh....don't tell anyone. Nobody ever said "free" dining was a good deal; well at least not financially, just mentally. As long as everybody thinks they're getting a good deal then that is all that matters!!! Everyone will have a great vacation!

 

[wdw4rfam]

Anyone know if the phones have died down yet?

 

[BarryS]

So, if Movies is excluded from FD and RO, who does Disney think is going to pay rack rates in September to stay there when you could potentially stay at CSR or CBR for less?

 

[wdw4rfam]

Shhhhhh....don't tell anyone. Nobody ever said "free" dining was a good deal; well at least not financially, just mentally. As long as everybody thinks they're getting a good deal then that is all that matters!!! Everyone will have a great vacation!

Yup, "mentally" just saved $3800 for free dining for 7 people for 10 days. Lets see a RO or rental beat THAT. Cant get a RO discount plus eating all CS OOP get close

 

[chrishem1972]

Yes the phones have died down... It took me a total of 5 minutes to modify my reservation.

 

[auger]

Wow! Pixie Dust Everywhere! Got through on lunch hour after waiting on hold 1 1/2 hrs this am and having to hang up to go to work. Upgraded from POR to WL. Now THIS surprised me - I was expecting to have to purchase park tickets as part of package but I didn't. That means I/you can save a little by ordering from UT or use AP if you have one. Happy happy happy!

I hope you really did get this huge dusting of pixie dust, but if it were me, I would look carefully at what I was given.
Please don't take this as an attack of any kind, I just don't want your trip to be ruined.
I am wondering if they maybe gave you the RO discount and charged you for the Dining.
Maybe the numbers work out pretty close to what you expected the price to be.

Like I said, I hope you did get this awesome deal, but I would definitely scrutinize my reservation and make sure before it was too late to fix it.

 

[CJK]

Congratulations to all of you who have successfully booked!

I have a quick question for some friends. They are currently booked at AKL with a MM package. They want to cancel that and rebook a villa at Kidani with the new RO discount. They have to wait until Wednesday to book. It's my understanding that there aren't a lot of Savannah, 2 bedroom villas. IF the room only discount is live on the website shortly after midnight, can they book it, and then phone Disney at 7am to cancel their original reservation? I think it's frowned upon to hold 2 reservations at the same time, but they are worried that the savannah 2 bedrooms will sell out. Thoughts?

 

[JeninTexas]

I must have been one of the extremely lucky ones... I called this morning a little after 8am to book a package with free dining. I knew POFQ was going to be excluded so I asked for POR and sadly that was excluded as well so we ended up booking Coronado Springs Standard King room (which is great cause hubby is a sprawler lol) with free dining for our dates 9/9-9/16. I say I must have been one of the lucky ones because my whole call, wait time included, was only 20 minutes

Same here. I was done by 6:20 my time. I didn't know what to do with myself afterwards!

 

[aaarcher86]

Congratulations to all of you who have successfully booked!

I have a quick question for some friends. They are currently booked at AKL with a MM package. They want to cancel that and rebook a villa at Kidani with the new RO discount. They have to wait until Wednesday to book. It's my understanding that there aren't a lot of Savannah, 2 bedroom villas. IF the room only discount is live on the website shortly after midnight, can they book it, and then phone Disney at 7am to cancel their original reservation? I think it's frowned upon to hold 2 reservations at the same time, but they are worried that the savannah 2 bedrooms will sell out. Thoughts?

They can, but the deal won't be on the website at 12a. Their system doesn't even roll over for the following day until 6a.

Also, if they are booking a package with the new RO discount they don't have to cancel and rebook. They can just switch the discounts pending availability.

 

[black562]

There are people on hold for hours and some getting through in minutes. Strange day...

 

[mommyof3princess27]

There are people on hold for hours and some getting through in minutes. Strange day.

I dialed 407-939-7639 and kept saying agent and i didnt put info in and it got me right through!

 

[CJK]

They can, but the deal won't be on the website at 12a. Their system doesn't even roll over for the following day until 6a.

Also, if they are booking a package with the new RO discount they don't have to cancel and rebook. They can just switch the discounts pending availability.

Thanks!

 

[Misjanuary1]

There are people on hold for hours and some getting through in minutes. Strange day.

agreed!!! At any rate this girl is happy!

 

[Belle5]

Wow! Pixie Dust Everywhere! Got through on lunch hour after waiting on hold 1 1/2 hrs this am and having to hang up to go to work. Upgraded from POR to WL. Now THIS surprised me - I was expecting to have to purchase park tickets as part of package but I didn't. That means I/you can save a little by ordering from UT or use AP if you have one. Happy happy happy!

I am going to join the bandwagon of bad news for you and tell you that someone has made a terrible mistake. I have been on these boards almost daily since Nov. 1999 and have watched these free dining threads forever. Unless everything we know has been thrown out the window, there is no way you booked what you think you've booked. I wish it could be so...

 

[LindaOwl1]

So wait - for FD do you have to book a package or not???

 

[mmtwinmama]

I was one of the ones who was able to book FD yesterday. We received the confirmation email and MDE is updated except for the balance info. Does anyone know how long it takes for that to update? I want to make another payment.