Free Dining 2015: The aftermath!

[emmamomma]

I am curious to see what went on yesterday for the free dining booking frenzy. The phone lines were down many times during the day and I read on a few posts that the website was unresponsive as well. How many people got what they wanted? Who missed it? ALso did anyone get any info from their CM on the phone or their TA? I for one was told that the promotion was extremely restrictive and limited. Also that when i called around 7pm there wasn't much left in the free dining pot.

 

[apainterxx44]

Our trip was booked from nov 1-10 at CSR standard view because I looked at historically when free dining was and I thought early November would be included. I was able to change my dates online no problem, but by the time I got home I could only get free dining with a king business class room at CSR. It ended up being $324 more but I guess at least we got the deal and our now considered club level there. I've never been, I'm excited regardless! Side note, I tried calling disney at least 100 times and couldn't even get a dial tone. I was really looking forward to their hold music

 

[emmamomma]

I've been to CSR and it's really nice. Atleast for that extra money you have acces to the lounge where you csn grab some breakfast in the morning and drinks in the evening. We got a king room at PoR, which was all i could get for our dates in August. I booked online and got it done by 7:10 am. The phone lines were already jammed at 7am, when i called I was told there were technical difficulties and to call back later. BUT I saved $400 from the room only discount and $1000 from the original rack rate I booked in January!

 

[surffood13]

We got basically what we wanted. We knew we were travelling 12/16-12/21 for school trip and were waiting to see what the deals would be available. We would have stayed in POFQ if available as that is where the school will be staying. We are in Caribbean Beach instead in a Pirate room. My 17 year old is extremely excited. He was telling his grandparents how great it is going to be. (I booked a room for them as well). I could not get through on the phone and booked through the website around 7pm.

 

[smi727]

Booked 2 rooms at ASSp for Nov 14-21 online at 5 am yesterday. I was up with my 8 month old and decided to check to see if free dining was live. Had both rooms booked by 5:20. A friend of mine was able to book ASSp Nov 13-20 online at 9 pm last night after trying for a couple hours to get through by phone. Both were brand new reservations so I don't know that made the process easier.

 

[southpaw1031]

After trying multiple times online and the site telling me that my dates were invalid I decided to try the phone line expecting to be on hold for quite some time and this was around 10 am. Four minutes later I had a CM booking my stay at AoA.

 

[ChipnDale79]

Why is Disney's reservations systems not able to handle the demand? Yet again, when something new is offered, people flood their reservation system, and yet again they had widespread issues.

 

[crazy4wdw]

I am curious to see what went on yesterday for the free dining booking frenzy. The phone lines were down many times during the day and I read on a few posts that the website was unresponsive as well. How many people got what they wanted? Who missed it? ALso did anyone get any info from their CM on the phone or their TA? I for one was told that the promotion was extremely restrictive and limited. Also that when i called around 7pm there wasn't much left in the free dining pot.

I think part of the issue is that you could book free dining starting around 4:00 am EST. By the time 7:00 am rolled around and people started to call in, many of the rooms were already booked.

Why is Disney's reservations systems not able to handle the demand? Yet again, when something new is offered, people flood their reservation system, and yet again they had widespread issues.

Happens every time Disney has a special promotion or discount. Ever try to call in to reserve a special event for Epcot Food &Wine Festival? Same issue - phone lines jammed, waits of up to 2 hours, sometimes it takes 30 to 45 minutes just to get through. Same thing occurs when the Candlelight Processional Dinner packages are released. You'd think Disney would get it together and bring in extra CM's to handle to the flood of phone calls.

 

[jerseygal]

Why is Disney's reservations systems not able to handle the demand? Yet again, when something new is offered, people flood their reservation system, and yet again they had widespread issues.

I also don't understand if a promotion is offered why Disney doesn't make provisions to meet demand.
If it is impossible to meet demand in one day, why not "phase in" the promotion by just allowing guests to book at certain resorts on certain days?
VERY FRUSTRATING for those guests trying to get through. Ripple effect on MDE for those guests trying to make dining reservations etc.

 

[Tsprowles]

Our TA was able to apply FD to our two standard wheelchair accessible rooms at POR for Sept. 19-26. She tried all day and the system kept crashing and the wait times on the TA line were crazy but she was finally able to get through and apply it at 8:30 last night! I'm still in shock because the rooms were so limited but Im guessing it's true that people were booking up everything they could for their dates and just dropping what they didn't want later on.

 

[THEDISNEYTHREE]

I stayed up until midnight to see if it started and got up again at 6 am. I booked online and had absolutely no problem. I was done in a matter of minutes. I got the exact dates and room I wanted. However, I wanted a pref. room at Pop and that is easier to get than others. I cannot believe how long some people were on hold on the phone.

 

[ivgotahalo]

It sounds like I was very lucky. I had to change my dates a little ( I really wanted to go in Dec in the "green" days) but we ended up with right before Thanksgiving. I got the exact room I wanted at AoA and actually had no issues booking online. I'm actually worried that I did something wrong or am not getting what I think I'm getting since it was so easy. I do not understand My Disney Experience and the Dining part is confusing.... Can anyone tell me what it means?

Dining Plan:2014 Quick Service Meals, 2015 Table Service Meals - Adult, 2015 Table Service Meals - Child, 2015 Quick Service Meals

 

[5kidsmommy]

I tried to modify my room online, what a freakin' disaster. I had already changed it once and it reverted back to that original change. I just made a new reservation. This was all at 5am before the madness started. I hope they get some IT people working on the ability of guests to modify existing reservations, it was very hit or miss.

 

[5kidsmommy]

It sounds like I was very lucky. I had to change my dates a little ( I really wanted to go in Dec in the "green" days) but we ended up with right before Thanksgiving. I got the exact room I wanted at AoA and actually had no issues booking online. I'm actually worried that I did something wrong or am not getting what I think I'm getting since it was so easy. I do not understand My Disney Experience and the Dining part is confusing.... Can anyone tell me what it means?

Dining Plan:2014 Quick Service Meals, 2015 Table Service Meals - Adult, 2015 Table Service Meals - Child, 2015 Quick Service Meals

AoA gives the table service meal package unless you specifically upgraded to the regular meal plan. Meal plans were kind of a mess yesterday and emails sent out were incorrect.

 

[emmamomma]

I got an email that said i had quick service, but i was supposed to have the regular plan. my disney experience was correct though so i called and they told me it was a known issue and i did have the TS dining plan

 

[allybabba98]

My family loves AofA but with the five of us we need to stay in the family suite which is awesome but expensive. I had been looking at POR and in the end booked there. However, we could not get the free dining so I booked with the room rate they were offering and then added QS dining on top of that.
My DH surprised me as he wanted the dining plan, I was more than happy to order some groceries. So not sure how much we actually saved.....
With having to buy a park hopper or the water park option it just would not work for us, while I could hop from park to park my kids and DH would not be able to keep up

Hey, we are going to Disney!!! No complaints just so excited we are going back!

 

[DisneyCAL]

Our traveling party already had reservations for 2 standard rooms Grand Floridian Theme Park View in September. I did the math and Free Dining Plan didn't add up for us. I took the Late Summer Room Discount instead. For those two rooms we got almost 3,500 off our balance instead of 2,100 for free Dining Plan. And I was able to do it online this morning. Yesterday the site and phones weren't working for me.

 

[verleniahall]

we already had a prefered room at POP - just had to add park hoppers and we paid the upgrade from the free quick serivce to th dining plus

 

[disneyseniors]

I am curious to see what went on yesterday for the free dining booking frenzy. The phone lines were down many times during the day and I read on a few posts that the website was unresponsive as well. How many people got what they wanted? Who missed it? ALso did anyone get any info from their CM on the phone or their TA? I for one was told that the promotion was extremely restrictive and limited. Also that when i called around 7pm there wasn't much left in the free dining pot.

Intersting comments I went to my travel agent today, Tuesday, and she tried to get onto WDW web site last pm and even SHE couldn't get through!!!! That' s just insane! This am she tried several times while I was there and finally got on and got our rooms booked, But the fdp was not available at our resort, so we opted to just go without it this time. Honestly, too much food, too scheduled lately for me anyway. We have the resort we want without fd and for the dates we want. We are awaiting to hear back from the TA if we have PIN numbers or not? She was put on hold for 2 and a half hours, yes, HOURS, but she just laid the phone down and said she would call me when she got an answer. soooooo, even the TA's can't get through where they want to. CRAZY!!!

 

[To the honeypots]

The quote from my TA was $2000 higher than our magical deal so new free dining for us. There is no way two people would eat $2000 worth of food.