Free Dining Fall 2015? (and a whole lot more)

[Aubrav]

The add ons are for the same amount of days as your tickets. I tried to add just 1 day for the water parks and couldn't.

Well that's almost useless to me. We wanted 6 days in the regular parks and 2 days to explore Disney properties. Now we're either going to have to cut down our days at the regular parks, cut down our days exploring, or waste $250...

I'm not complaining here, just thinking out loud. I still think the dining deal is worth it.

 

[ThistleMae]

Yeah...I think it is all about the "illusion of a deal." Don't you worry, Disney is still making out...but perhaps you still will be, just not as much.

 

[Aubrav]

Quick Q about a split stay

Our dates for our stay are 6 - 15 Nov. FD dates start on the 9th (or 8th depending on the rumor).
The best option for us would be to do a split stay 6-8 & 9-15...but how does that work with the tickets?
If we book the FD package for the 9-15, that includes the tickets...but since the tickets get cheaper the longer you stay, I dont want to end up doubling up on the tickets. ( 3 day ticket for the first stay and the rest included in the FD package).

What's the best way to do this and maximize savings?

Thanks in advance!

I don't know if anyone has answered yet, I can't keep up. But I do recall smitch and others talking about early pick up on your dining package tickets. So maybe you could book a room only offer for the first part and then get enough ticket days in your dining package to cover them all and just pick up the tickets early.

Hopefully someone will see this and confirm if it hasn't already been answered.

 

[Aubrav]

But...what are the deals like? Are they 30 percent off room or free dinning....like most of the yearly offers? I guess I don't know what the advantage will be. Can anyone explain?

Apparently BB offers can include anything from free dining to room discounts to whatever other extreme deals they offer. For example, I learned here that if I had just called the phone number when I was in the resort last year I could have had the free dining plan booked for this year already! Instead I'm anxiously waiting it's release, and my visa

 

[Aubrav]

You basically have 6 theme park days and 6 water park fun and more entries to use within 14 days of first use for either set.

Oh that is so much better then! I think I can work with that, it gives us more flexibility without having to purchase extra days.

Am I correct in assuming that those also require a park hopper to go from park to park in one day? I know it's a stupid question but I just want to make sure.

 

[Aubrav]

That potentially can save Disney a LOT of money!!!
Those lines load up and if people are able to apply discounts online......wait! Have you used the website lately. geesh last night I was poking around for ADRs and checking options for resorts and I kept getting the freaked out Donald and having to reload. Online discounts would be nice but I hope the website can handle the load!

I have DV but if I decide to look for RO prices, that means I have to either fight through all your calls or wait until GP and hope for the best.

Oh side note for Disney Visa holders. I was not aware that now that I bumped to Premier, I will get 2% on my vacation now. Past vacation was just 1%. I'm quite the happy Disney Princess on that one. Just might be getting that Annual Pass after all. LOL
Now to start walking and get in better shape instead of sitting here reading and eating. geesh.

So why don't they allow VC bookings online?

 

[LouFapp]

I don't know if anyone has answered yet, I can't keep up. But I do recall snitch and others talking about early pick up on your dining package tickets. So maybe you could book a room only offer for the first part and then get enough ticket days in your dining package to cover them all and just pick up the tickets early.

Hopefully someone will see this and confirm if it hasn't already been answered.

So just to be sure I understand the ticket rules properly for my situation. I am going for 12 nights/13 days. Day 1 we are just going to Downtown Disney so no need for park tickets. On the day we are going to the Christmas Party we aren't going to the parks until the Event ticket can get us into MK. The last day we fly out fairly early so no ticket. A 10 day ticket should get me a day in the park for everyday since no park first or last day and no park day of the Christmas Party, correct? But as far as the thread I'm writing this off of, and maybe I missed something, if you buy a 6 day pass with park hopper and waterparks, as long as on the days you are going to the waterparks, you aren't also going to a regular park and assuming you go to the waterparks in the middle and not on the last day you should be ok, right? example, you buy a 6 day pass with waterparks and day 1 - 4 you go to regular parks, day 5 you go to a waterpark at this point you only used 4 days of tickets and still have 2 to use within 14 days of day 1, so day 6 you go to a regular park, leaving 1 day of tickets, day 7 a waterpark and then day 8 you use your last day. Is that not right??? Does a waterpark actually take away from a park ticket?

 

[elle325]

Well that's almost useless to me. We wanted 6 days in the regular parks and 2 days to explore Disney properties. Now we're either going to have to cut down our days at the regular parks, cut down our days exploring, or waste $250...

I'm not complaining here, just thinking out loud. I still think the dining deal is worth it.

I agree the free dining is still worth it, it just throws a huge wrench in our plans. We might have to stay a day less to offset the park hopper cost. and according to the South America release it states "y/o" which I believe is and/ or in Spanish. So you can do park hopper or water park.

 

[LollieInwonderland]

Trying to catch up here lol Okay so the last time we did free dinning was back in 2012. I booked non pass hopper tickets, staying in the AOA Nemo suite 6 days 7 nights. Is this no good for free dinning anymore? I really don't want to waste money on park hopper passes since we generally stick to one park per day

 

[Aubrav]

So just to be sure I understand the ticket rules properly for my situation. I am going for 12 nights/13 days. Day 1 we are just going to Downtown Disney so no need for park tickets. On the day we are going to the Christmas Party we aren't going to the parks until the Event ticket can get us into MK. The last day we fly out fairly early so no ticket. A 10 day ticket should get me a day in the park for everyday since no park first or last day and no park day of the Christmas Party, correct? But as far as the thread I'm writing this off of, and maybe I missed something, if you buy a 6 day pass with park hopper and waterparks, as long as on the days you are going to the waterparks, you aren't also going to a regular park and assuming you go to the waterparks in the middle and not on the last day you should be ok, right? example, you buy a 6 day pass with waterparks and day 1 - 4 you go to regular parks, day 5 you go to a waterpark at this point you only used 4 days of tickets and still have 2 to use within 14 days of day 1, so day 6 you go to a regular park, leaving 1 day of tickets, day 7 a waterpark and then day 8 you use your last day. Is that not right??? Does a waterpark actually take away from a park ticket?

This is how I'm understanding it. Effectively if you buy 6-day tickets and add water park and more then you have actually 12 days. But you can only use base parks for up to 6 days and water parks for up to 6 days. Is this correct?

 

[Aubrav]

I agree the free dining is still worth it, it just throws a huge wrench in our plans. We might have to stay a day less to offset the park hopper cost. and according to the South America release it states "y/o" which I believe is and/ or in Spanish. So you can do park hopper or water park.

We wouldn't use park hoppers so I'm thinking the extra park option might be better if we have to.

 

[ELSA711]

This is how I'm understanding it. Effectively if you buy 6-day tickets and add water park and more then you have actually 12 days. But you can only use base parks for up to 6 days and water parks for up to 6 days. Is this correct?

We had the hopper/water park option for our 6 day stay and all it meant was that we had 6 days to use however we wanted. I could be wrong. We did waterpark during the day and Epcot at night if I recall correctly.
This was in 2009

 

[Aubrav]

Trying to catch up here lol Okay so the last time we did free dinning was back in 2012. I booked non pass hopper tickets, staying in the AOA Nemo suite 6 days 7 nights. Is this no good for free dinning anymore? I really don't want to waste money on park hopper passes since we generally stick to one park per day

The hotel stay is eligible if you are going during the available dates but according to the newest rumor, you will have to add either park hopper OR water park & more options to your tickets.

 

[Aubrav]

We had the hopper/water park option for our 6 day stay and all it meant was that we had 6 days to use however we wanted. I could be wrong. We did waterpark during the day and Epcot at night if I recall correctly.
This was in 2009

Hmmm, maybe I'm wrong then.

 

[RejoyceoverDisney]

So why don't they allow VC bookings online?

'Vacation club? I don't know anything about DVC. I assumed that you could.

If you mean DV or Disney Visa, that's a good question too. I mean not like they can't see it's a Disney Visa by the numbers. I'm a "retired" Software Engineer due to deciding to become a Full time Mom to my special needs son, so it sounds reasonable from the programming perspective, but I'm not sure if the online booking part is a totally separate system from the credit card software and for security reasons can't be linked to verify that the information is a Disney Visa..........LOL.......all just a guess from my 20 years out of software business. LOL

The reservation software can modify what's in it's own database.

Hope I didn't take this in a direction you were not asking.

 

[ELSA711]

Hmmm, maybe I'm wrong then.

I'm old and forgetful so don't hold me to it

 

[DisneyNannie]

This is how I'm understanding it. Effectively if you buy 6-day tickets and add water park and more then you have actually 12 days. But you can only use base parks for up to 6 days and water parks for up to 6 days. Is this correct?

Aubray, that is my understanding also. You can't mix and match the park tickets and the water park tickets. You would gave 6 park tickets and 6 water park tickets. You couldn't use them as 8 park tickets and 4 water park tickets. Also my understanding is that you need a valid park entrance ticket for the Halloween party and the Christmas party. I think that is what happened with us 2 years ago.

 

[DisneyRunner2009]

You have six days in a park and six days to use at a water park. You can use one park ticket per day, one water park ticket per day or go to a theme park and water park in the same day. As mentioned, you cannot use them interchangeably. You are entitled to six days at theme parks and entitled to six days at water parks.

 

[Aubrav]

'Vacation club? I don't know anything about DVC. I assumed that you could.

If you mean DV or Disney Visa, that's a good question too. I mean not like they can't see it's a Disney Visa by the numbers. I'm a "retired" Software Engineer due to deciding to become a Full time Mom to my special needs son, so it sounds reasonable from the programming perspective, but I'm not sure if the online booking part is a totally separate system from the credit card software and for security reasons can't be linked to verify that the information is a Disney Visa..........LOL.......all just a guess from my 20 years out of software business. LOL

The reservation software can modify what's in it's own database.

Hope I didn't take this in a direction you were not asking.

Yes I meant Disney Visa offers, someone said earlier to use DV for Disney Visa and DVC for Disney Vacation Club acronyms

 

[Aubrav]

You have six days in a park and six days to use at a water park. You can use one park ticket per day, one water park ticket per day or go to a park and water park in the same day.

So you don't have to have a park hopper to go to, say, Hollywood Studios in the morning and Blizzard Beach in the afternoon?

EDIT: So I did a little bit of research and I see that Yes, you get 6 additional entries into an extra non-base park (with a 6-day base ticket) in addition to your 6 days at the base parks. Also, you CAN use a base park and non-base park admission on the same day without a park hopper pass (as Disney Runner said above). The park hopper upgrade only applies to the base parks.

This is straight from Undercover Tourist:


How You Can Use It

Here are two examples of how to use a Water Park Fun & More ticket.

Example One: Go to Magic Kingdom® Park from park opening until about noon. Then head to Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon Water Park and cool off in Castaway Creek for a few hours during the hottest part of the day. Go back to your hotel room for a quick rest and change of clothes. Re-enter Magic Kingdom® Park around 6:30 p.m. for the nighttime parade and fireworks show. (You’ll have used one day and one Fun Visit.)

Example Two: Go to Disney’s Blizzard Beach Water Park when the water park opens. Bring a picnic lunch and plan on staying for most of the day. Go back to your hotel room in the afternoon for a shower and a change of clothes. Then head to Downtown Disney and spend the rest of the evening at DisneyQuest® Indoor Interactive Theme Park. (You’ll have used two Fun Visits and no days.)

Remember, if you want to visit more than one main park in a day, you’ll need a Park Hopper + Water Park Fun & More ticket.