Free dining plan in 2007 News

[raammartin]

Anyone have any idea if free DDP will be offered to the general public? Oh please oh please *fingers and toes crossed*

 

[bicker]

No one knows for sure, raammartin. It does seem very likely that they will, but we typically find out "for sure" only a short time before they actually do. And that would be in early Spring.

 

[Tinksmom5]

I just got off line with a dcm and they said they didn't hear anything about free dinning in the US for 2007 as of right now . Imagine my relief to see that they are indeed offering it to guest who are there right now . That would be mean our chances are pretty good . I was also thrilled to learn they offer it to Disney Visa card holders before everyone else as I am now holding such a card . I was planning to get down there for May but if the free dinning comes through I will be waiting and saving and perhaps be able to extend our vacation from 7 days to 10 . whoopppeeeeee

 

[disneyjunkie]

I just got off line with a dcm and they said they didn't hear anything about free dinning in the US for 2007 as of right now . Imagine my relief to see that they are indeed offering it to guest who are there right now . That would be mean our chances are pretty good . I was also thrilled to learn they offer it to Disney Visa card holders before everyone else as I am now holding such a card . I was planning to get down there for May but if the free dinning comes through I will be waiting and saving and perhaps be able to extend our vacation from 7 days to 10 . whoopppeeeeee

We can't be sure that the plan will be offered to the general public. Depending on how well they booked the resorts during the time that UK visitors were able to book and now, they may not need to open it up to the rest of us.

 

[Albertan mom]

So it goes:
-Guests staying there now
-Disney Visa card holders

How about Canadians next??

 

[Albertan mom]

A couple of people have posted about making ADRs at 180 days +10.

What is the +10???
Is that only for certain people? Visa Card holders? Certain resorts?

Others have mentioned calling, reserving a room, then cancelling if they don't offer free dining. Do you get charged a cancellation fee? Deposit non-refundable?
If they do offer free dining, they can put that onto your package?

If so, that sounds like the way to go!!

thanks

 

[bbump]

Oh the suspense...........suspense..... suspense.....

Just worried if there are alot of ressies made for the 8/5/07 - 10/3/07 timeframe, it might look like Disney doesn't need to offer a promotion to fill the resorts becuase the resorts are already being booked.

I am checking these boards almost daily to see if there are any rumors from CM's or updates, but it sounds like everything depends on how the current Pilot Program goes over with guest staying at Disney now.

IF ANYONE HEARS ANY UPDATES... PLEASE POST RIGHT AWAY.

Thanks!!!!!

 

[bicker]

A couple of people have posted about making ADRs at 180 days +10. What is the +10??? Is that only for certain people?

Disney's own resort guests can book their dining reservations 180 days prior to their CHECK-IN date (while everyone else can book their dining reservations 180 days prior to the date of the meal -- a subtle but often quite important distinction). The +10 indicates that when taking advantage of this, the Disney resort guest can only make ten days worth of reservations. If their trip is longer, they'll have to make their reservations for the remaining days of their trip following the standard policy, i.e., 180 days prior to the date of the meal.

Others have mentioned calling, reserving a room, then cancelling if they don't offer free dining.

That is a pretty silly practice. You gain no advantage whatsoever from having a hotel reservations with regard to getting free dining, if and when it is offered. In order to get free dining, there needs to be special free dining inventory available. Everyone who "adds" the free dining to an existing reservation is really being switched from regular inventory into this limited free dining inventory (but Disney doesn't bother the guest with this detail). If there wasn't any space left in the special inventory, having a room reservation wouldn't help you at all.

 

[Mrs.Reese]

When would they announce free dining? I remember going in 2005 and it was first offerred to FL residents (which we are). DH says we can take another trip only if we get another good deal since school starts later this year and we won't receive our first paycheck this school year until the third week of september.

 

[disneymom3]

That is a pretty silly practice. You gain no advantage whatsoever from having a hotel reservations with regard to getting free dining, if and when it is offered. In order to get free dining, there needs to be special free dining inventory available. Everyone who "adds" the free dining to an existing reservation is really being switched from regular inventory into this limited free dining inventory (but Disney doesn't bother the guest with this detail). If there wasn't any space left in the special inventory, having a room reservation wouldn't help you at all.

In fact, in may harm you in the long run. If there are all these rooms booked in hopes of free dining and WDW looks at their reservation logs and sees that heck rooms are booking up without a promotion, they may decide they don't need one.

 

[bicker]

When would they announce free dining?

It is impossible to know for sure, but best guess now is early Spring.

 

[angelmav]

Disneymom, I think thats exactly what may be the pavlovian response to having done this past years and perhaps exactly what disney was shooting for. Of course, I think its also a smart move to offer it to returning guests because that will mean capturing all their vacation dollars that would have been directe elsewhere.

 

[i3utterfli82]

Here is what I was told this past week about the future of free dining for 2007.

I booked our trip for September at the Beach Club and asked the CM if dining was going to open to the public later in the year (for my mom), he said it will not be open to the public, however they will run the same program they are now at different resorts. So if you missed staying in December, if you stay in April you can book free dining for Aug-Sept.

He also stated as part of the "pilot program" this was only being advetised in the selected resorts, this is why people staying at other resorts (other than POP, POFQ, CR, and Beach Club) are not seeing or hearing anything about it. In April is will be advertised at different resorts.

I would think there would be a possibily for Disney Visa holders to get the offer, but maybe not to the general public without the Visa and who are not staying onsite during the promotion.

But then again, who knows!

 

[M-I-C-K-E-Y]

Hi Folks,

I've just returned from a 30 hour quick trip to WDW, specifically to book a 2007 Free Dining trip. The whole story, which will help clarify this situation, is over at:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=15989234#post15989234

 

[bicker]

This makes a lot of sense. I indicated quite a few weeks ago that the free dining promotion was clearly underpriced, and so one way to make up for that imbalance, without actually raising prices, is to require affinity purchases -- in this case you need to book an earlier vaction in order to qualify for the discount. It seems a little bit too "second order" for my tastes, but they obviously know what they're doing.