Free Dining Success Rate

[Roxyfire]

I didn't know it was going live till I got the DV email. I immedietly went online and book the Pirate Room for us and a King at CBR for my parents. My parents were fine with the King room and we were excited about the Pirate Room, but it was a bit more then a standard and we were concerned about the walk. So after trying all day yesterday - 2 standard rooms popped up online, I instantly changed out reservations. So know we are all staying in standard rooms at CBR. I'm so excited! Saved us over $800 for our inital estimations. We DID have to change out dates by 1 day, but it wasn't that big of a deal for us.

Yeah my only option at CBR when it came online was Pirate, and not Preferred which is what I had originally booked. Great luck on getting what you wanted!

 

[Bellhop97]

My TA called.. and the special wasn't valid for the POLY unless I wanted to spend and arm and a leg for an upgrade, but we did get a discount on the room rate.

 

[Jessiemendez1]

I'm curious about the visa email. I have a Disney visa & never get anything...

I have a Disney visa too and did not receive anything

 

[Huff]

I have a Disney visa too and did not receive anything

Never received any email as well but the Visa FD offer wouldn't make any difference for us. Only change is earlier arrival dates for FD.

 

[VillainFavs]

Never received any email as well but the Visa FD offer wouldn't make any difference for us. Only change is earlier arrival dates for FD.

Don't know how true this is, but I did read somewhere that there maybe more/different rooms available through the Visa offer than the general offer. Someone was looking for a standard view at one of the resorts--don't remember which one--and it wasn't available on the general website. But logged in through the Visa offer and was able to get it.

Worked for me because of the earlier August dates.

 

[Wood Nymph]

I can see the the Yacht Club - GV is available for Oct 1 - 5th for free dining with the Disney Visa offer but not with the gp free dining offer.

 

[Mattieray1982]

Got CSR with FD. My friend woke up at 430am to check to see if the offer was going to post. To my surprise I received a call to wake up and hop online.

 

[lady_hlh]

There are definitely some differences between what is showing up as available for the regular free dining and the disney visa free dining. I also noticed that today they seemed to have released more moderate rooms under both offers.

 

[Liv4Dis]

On my gosh ... stayed up almost all night on the 24th/25th and waited for free dining -- wanted Riverside but ended up getting All Stars Music. Still was super happy to get free dining BUT just couldn't leave it alone.

Was able to switch dates and then got Riverside Royal Rooms but this was a lot more than I wanted to spend ... and just this morning was able to switch to Riverside Garden View. Will not be checking anymore - now on to changing all of my dining reservations. Sending pixie dust and hoping everyone gets what they want!

 

[Huff]

I wanted POP but got ASMU when FD first showed up on line. Been checking daily and was able to change it to CBR for $110 more for our 10 night stay. I assume CBR is worth the $110 for 10 nights more than ASMU or POP?

 

[Shadowcat70]

I was online right at 4am and Pop was already unavailable for our preferred dates (9/27 - 10/5). AS music and sports were available, but we didn't really want to stay there, and the FD package was priced a lot higher than looking at the regular package. I was frustrated, so I gave up and went back to bed. Hubby woke me up at 6am because he said our dates at Pop were open. He had checked my original spreadsheet and thought the end of August was what I was looking for, and those were available. I asked him if he was sure we wanted do deal with the heat and whatnot, and so we decided to book end of August.

So while not when I would prefer to go, we were able to book the offer and are excited to be going.

 

[UKinAU]

Maybe easier for me as I'm in Perth, Australia which is 12 hours ahead of Orlando time. We hadn't booked anything prior as I didnt want any hassle of changes.
Got the booking started at 4:05. Had issues as each time I added my credit card and click done, it would not move on. After trying a lot of different credit cards and browsers and devices I eventually put in my phone number in international format and it accepted (will have been good if it displayed an error or something).
Final booking was probably around 5:20am Orlando time and got what we wanted which was POR in mid Sep for 6 nights.
Made all the advanced dining reservations at the timing and locations we wanted so was all good in the end.

I have no issues with adding on park hopper and water options as part of FD. The first time I went to Disney we regretted not having the options, the freedom of knowing you can park hop, go to a water park makes a better experience.

 

[chewysmom]

Luckily I got the resort I wanted (CBR, standard) for the dates I wanted. I was up off and on all night on Sunday though.

 

[Lyndsey]

After obsessively checking disney site and calling all week and booking rooms and cancelling rooms, we finally got CBR standard room for 5 for the whole trip!! Dec 21-Jan 1. Thankful my crazy disney booking week is over until it is time to book dinners!!

 

[Nancee74]

I had 3 rooms booked at Port Orleans Riverside and today was able to change to Pop Century with FD. Savings was over $3,000.00 for our party.

 

[TWK]

I have been checking, and yesterday we switched our reservation to Pop!

 

[glitzybabes]

I am checking 10+ times a day for POR.

 

[SuperJess]

I booked at 4:30 on the 25th. Had set an alarm Was able to change two of our rooms online. 3rd wouldn't. So I just rebooked it and canceled the old one to avoid having to call. We were booked Nov. 27th-4th. Then a week later decided we wanted to add the 26th. Was able to change all the reservations online. Saved the three families going over $1600 and we got what we wanted when we wanted. Same thing happened last year when FD dropped. Yeah!!!!

 

[MommyJen]

Initially I didn't get the resort or dates we wanted. But, after trying for a few days I managed to get out first choice resort, CBR. I keep checking every day about changing our dates but nothing is available.

 

[DBDiz]

I'd been checking at least once a day for the last week and a half trying to get Pop for the last week of Sept into Oct.

Finally had luck yesterday, booked today!