Free Dining Question

[irish_trip_mom]

I can't remember....If you start your vacation a day or two prior to free dining, does it kick in on the date specified? I vaguely remember there was a "trick" to it....like if you had it for your trip but went over by a day or so, you got it for the whole trip? It's been awhile, and I think I am forgetting the ins and outs! Thanks!

 

[memy26]

Last year we checked in on the last day of fd & we got it for our entire trip!

 

[HM]

If you check in before free dining starts, you'll need to split your reservation and do one for the days before and one for free dining.

 

[Suz D]

If you check in before free dining starts, you'll need to split your reservation and do one for the days before and one for free dining.

Exactly, and the problem with this is that you must purchase at least a 2 day park ticket with free dining. That means that you would need a ticket for the first few days of the reservation and then another ticket once free dining starts.

Two ways around this:
1. Don't go to the parks (right...like this would happen. I can't get within 50 miles of WDW and not go to the parks)
2. Purchase a ticket for your full stay with your first reservation and use that ticket for your entire stay (both the 1st and 2nd ressie). Save your room key with the two days worth of tickets on them because they don't expire if you haven't used any of the days. Then you can use them for another trip and upgrade them to however many days you need for that trip.

We did the a modified version of the second option for our Thanksgiving trip. We checked in the last day of free dining which went for our whole stay, but since we have annual passes, we just didn't use the two days worth of tickets on our room keys. We'll save those for a time when we only go for a couple of days, or use the credit from them for a longer stay.

 

[swift]

Exactly, and the problem with this is that you must purchase at least a 2 day park ticket with free dining. That means that you would need a ticket for the first few days of the reservation and then another ticket once free dining starts.

Two ways around this:
1. Don't go to the parks (right...like this would happen. I can't get within 50 miles of WDW and not go to the parks)
2. Purchase a ticket for your full stay with your first reservation and use that ticket for your entire stay (both the 1st and 2nd ressie). Save your room key with the two days worth of tickets on them because they don't expire if you haven't used any of the days. Then you can use them for another trip and upgrade them to however many days you need for that trip.

We did the a modified version of the second option for our Thanksgiving trip. We checked in the last day of free dining which went for our whole stay, but since we have annual passes, we just didn't use the two days worth of tickets on our room keys. We'll save those for a time when we only go for a couple of days, or use the credit from them for a longer stay.

There is a third option - pick up your tickets early. Sometimes the CMs on the phone tell you this can't be done but recent posters have been able to get their tickets up to 3 days before the start of their package.

 

[squirrel]

There is a third option - pick up your tickets early. Sometimes the CMs on the phone tell you this can't be done but recent posters have been able to get their tickets up to 3 days before the start of their package.

Yes, this is available now. Cheshire Figment, a ticketing CM has posted this quite a bit.

 

[Suz D]

There is a third option - pick up your tickets early. Sometimes the CMs on the phone tell you this can't be done but recent posters have been able to get their tickets up to 3 days before the start of their package.

I obviously had NO idea that you could do this! That solves the whole problem. I can't wait to book another vacation and use this option. So much for posting!

So when you check in for the first part of your reservation (the one without the free dining) you just check in and then give them your second reservation number and ask for the tickets? You would have to be on a room only plan for the first few nights though.

 

[Donnainnj]

You are going to want to go to Cheshire Figment's ticket sticky to figure out how to pick up the ticket early. I know in the past it could only be done at guest services (park, not sure about DTD) Not sure if that has changed, but the sticky will tell you.

 

[jcamacam]

OH MY GOODNESS...I cannot even tell you how much this made my day!!!

We have the following ressies:

Ressie #1 - Room only 3/1/12-3/2/12
Resie #2 Package w/ free dining 3/3/12-3/10/12

So, if I understand correctly, we could get a 10 day park pass on our second ressie above and it request those tickets when checking in on 3/1 with our ressie #1?