Free dining 2015?

[crazy4wdw]

Wonder what time it was live on the website?

Appears that the offer was available for booking at 4:15 am EST this morning! No wonder most of the rooms are already sold out.

 

[dismagic68]

I went online and booked at 7ish this morning. I tried calling but lines were busy. It was VERY simple onlune.

 

[Superchikk]

We're already booked at CBR, so I tried to change my res online. It told me all that are available are Pirate rooms - which I don't want (and would actually increase my cost). So I wait. But I'm on hold with no music - it's weird. Gave me my approximate wait time, and then silence. Seems kinda creepy for Disney. Ha!

 

[wolf29]

We were hoping for the 15th so that we could add-on to the free dining we have from the 20th-28th (Bounceback-CBR).

 

[DisBuckMan]

We're already booked at CBR, so I tried to change my res online. It told me all that are available are Pirate rooms - which I don't want (and would actually increase my cost). So I wait. But I'm on hold with no music - it's weird. Gave me my approximate wait time, and then silence. Seems kinda creepy for Disney. Ha!

Just stay with it. I was on "silent" hold for about 10 minutes before someone from Disney picked up.

The Pirate rooms are the only available rooms at CBR.

It went on sale online very early this morning...as someone else said.

I started calling right at 6am...and got right through to a fairly short wait.

We were already booked at CBR, so we had to upgrade to the pirate rooms from a standard, as well as the offer requires the park hopper or water park add-on...we still ended up saving about $460 over what we had originally booked, which was 6 nights standard room at CBR w/6 day tix and dining plan.

 

[paulcav3]

Wonder what time it was live on the website? People may have had several hours prior to 7:00 am EST to book free dining. When I checked for the last week of October, not much was available.

Apparently it went live around 4:00 A.M. EST. ..It's crazy!

 

[dtaylor98]

Wait time is now over 2 hours.

 

[eXo]

crazyness. my trip falls right before the December dates. However... it appears the free dining dates also line up with some of the busiest dates of the year (in regards to the December dates). I believe I am missing something here. Free dining is to help fill rooms... right? But isn't the week or two before Christmas one of the busiest times of year already? Why run the offer at that time? Or is it busy *because* of deals like this?

 

[Gondingl]

After calling over 70 times to only get a busy tone each and every time, I booked online!

 

[Superchikk]

Just stay with it. I was on "silent" hold for about 10 minutes before someone from Disney picked up.

The Pirate rooms are the only available rooms at CBR.

It went on sale online very early this morning...as someone else said.

I started calling right at 6am...and got right through to a fairly short wait.

We were already booked at CBR, so we had to upgrade to the pirate rooms from a standard, as well as the offer requires the park hopper or water park add-on...we still ended up saving about $460 over what we had originally booked, which was 6 nights standard room at CBR w/6 day tix and dining plan.

I've been on "silent" hold for about an hour and 20 minutes now. I suppose I'll keep waiting. I've tried calling again via 3-way calling to see if I can get through, but so far just a busy signal.

 

[paulcav3]

I'm not even able to log in to the website, and the app seems to be down. .

 

[lockedoutlogic]

crazyness. my trip falls right before the December dates. However... it appears the free dining dates also line up with some of the busiest dates of the year (in regards to the December dates). I believe I am missing something here. Free dining is to help fill rooms... right? But isn't the week or two before Christmas one of the busiest times of year already? Why run the offer at that time? Or is it busy *because* of deals like this?

The first 20 days of December are actually one of the slowest/nicest times of the year...it's just a mess the last 10.

It seems that there is/ gonna be alot of unhappiness floating around this... And I wish there was a way to make that go away, but there probably isn't. I'm sure it's very disappointing.

But any promotion... Any...at wdw is a result of a longterm study of bookings in advance, trend and habits. They do not want to give a discount - no business does - but will if it advances the overall agenda.

Free dining is/was 100% due to the housing bubble burst. It would not have existed, perhaps just in the slowest of months like September, without it. Disney has done a good job of moving their crowds around the 12 month calendar and that works against the promo as well. We are also in a bubble situation again - bread and circuses for everyone.

To the point that the date are "off"...there is a trend that's been grumbling that they are finding it more and more difficult to sell their rooms. So perhaps the "more expensive/crowded" weeks will start to show for promotions.

There are alot more summer discounts now and at higher percentages than there used to be.
Could that be a relentless 5-10% annual price assault? Wilderness lodge seems to be the epicenter/manifestation of that. Something else that will play out. $220 a night at Caribbean...is frankly insane - irregardless of inflation. I think they might have started to outkick their coverage.

I'm the last one to tell anyone to spend more than one cent more to go to wdw...that's a fact...so I wish the promo was better. They don't need the money.

At all.

 

[Superchikk]

I've been on "silent" hold for about an hour and 20 minutes now. I suppose I'll keep waiting. I've tried calling again via 3-way calling to see if I can get through, but so far just a busy signal.

I was on hold for about an hour and a half. Once I got to an agent, the call was relatively painless. We ended up switching weeks and resorts, but we're saving $900, so it's worth it.

 

[ivgotahalo]

I booked online this morning but now I'm freaking out. I'm booked at AoA for Nov 19-26 and I upgraded to the 1 table service- 1 SQ. Please tell me I did it correctly. I should get the dinning for free for the entire week right???? AND. Can I use the table service as a SQ meal? We don't want to sit down every night, just a few times throughout the week. THANKS!

 

[James Thick]

Just changed over my reservation to include free dining. This is the worst it has ever been for waiting and rooms being gobbled up already.


Jimmy Thick- Contemporary here I come!!!

 

[eXo]

Thanks for the reply lockeoutlogic. It seems to me this rush is primarily people who were planning to go, but were waiting to hear the announcement of free dining.

After all, how many people just booked their vacation "on a whim" merely hours after this was announced?

In other words... I'm guessing most of these people booking were going to go anyways. I suppose at best it helps push those booked trips to the dates they want to fill out.

lockedoutlogic - I've read that December (before Christmas anyways) was generally a pretty slow time, which is why I booked for the 6th-13th. But then I saw threads from last year stating that it was pretty busy as early as the 14th last year. Maybe that coincides with last year's free dining plan, or maybe it's the product of fastpass+ pushing people around the parks more, or maybe its the economy picking back up, or some combination of all the above. Either way, it didn concern me a bit. Obviously the posts are anecdotal, but when I was there last October it was listed as a 4 on the crowd calendar at TP, yet it seemed incredibly busy to me. I remember thinking, "If this is a 4, then an 8 would downright scare me and a 10 would be living hell".

All in all, I think I'm glad my trip falls the week before free dining. While I'd love the discount, I'm also willing to forgo it in hopes of it not being busier.

 

[PeterDisfan]

Just booked a split stay due to dates.. I was hoping the free dinning plan was starting Aug 15th but it wasn't in my cards So, I'm at Riverside 19th to 21st then Contemporary till 25th.. I did get the hotel discount and it's better than nothing.. The phone was busy for first half hour then i got through , the agent came on 3 minutes later.. Very happy !!!

 

[Smiling72]

On hold with Disney now. So far I have been on hold for 35 minutes.......

 

[PeterDisfan]

I called 407-828-8101 .. I figured i'd be on hold awhile but was surprised the recording said 3 minute wait and then she popped on..

 

[Smiling72]

On hold with Disney now. So far I have been on hold for 35 minutes.......

It has been a silent hold the entire time. Making me a wee bit nervous that it is silent, but after reading others were also on silent hold makes me feel much better.