FREE DINING UPDATE- RUMOR and SPECULATION / Update Page 80 !

[Wendy*Darling]

So if the consensus is that the offer being released possibly tomorrow (maybe to Visa cardholders tomorrow and everyone Thursday?) is Sunday is a summer offer...is there any buzz as to what it is? My TA had said she expected a summer offer this week and that it may just be "tempting." I had thought that there was no way it could tempt me because we were to be checking in to AKL Sunday night. Now I'm hoping it is uber tempting because we are, sadly, NOT at AKL right now. My 10 year old son was playing "capture the flag" with the neighbor kids this afternoon when he fell out of a tree and broke his leg about an hour and a half before we were to leave for the airport. Disney was great in working with the situation as was our TA. I guess we are going to plan for our "in memory of Papaw" trip in the summer so the kids don't have to miss school so now I'm hoping for a better deal than the "up to 30%" that is out now...and still hoping for free dining that would let me add a short stay before or after our cruise just for my boys and I. That would definitely help ease the disappointment here over having to cancel. I don't know if my son has cried more over the leg or being the "reason" we had to cancel (despite DH and I both telling him that it was an accident and that it is not his fault we had to cancel!).

So now even more waiting and wondering and obsessing! I'm not sure how much more I can take!

 

[DoodlesMom]

Well I have decided not to worry about it anymore. We still do not have definate plans to go to either place. I went ahead and started booking ADR's in case we go to Disney. If we dont go...I will share them with fellow DISer's or cancel them. We did decide to take Amtrak to Orlando. It is so cheap to take the train so we are going to book our tickets with them tomorrow!

Really? How cheap?

 

[Port Orleans fan]

So if the consensus is that the offer being released possibly tomorrow (maybe to Visa cardholders tomorrow and everyone Thursday?) is Sunday is a summer offer...is there any buzz as to what it is? My TA had said she expected a summer offer this week and that it may just be "tempting." I had thought that there was no way it could tempt me because we were to be checking in to AKL Sunday night. Now I'm hoping it is uber tempting because we are, sadly, NOT at AKL right now. My 10 year old son was playing "capture the flag" with the neighbor kids this afternoon when he fell out of a tree and broke his leg about an hour and a half before we were to leave for the airport. Disney was great in working with the situation as was our TA. I guess we are going to plan for our "in memory of Papaw" trip in the summer so the kids don't have to miss school so now I'm hoping for a better deal than the "up to 30%" that is out now...and still hoping for free dining that would let me add a short stay before or after our cruise just for my boys and I. That would definitely help ease the disappointment here over having to cancel. I don't know if my son has cried more over the leg or being the "reason" we had to cancel (despite DH and I both telling him that it was an accident and that it is not his fault we had to cancel!).

So now even more waiting and wondering and obsessing! I'm not sure how much more I can take!

Wow, what luck.

I hope your son feels well soon. Keep your chin up because there are better days ahead.

CHEERS!

 

[kparc]

So if the consensus is that the offer being released possibly tomorrow (maybe to Visa cardholders tomorrow and everyone Thursday?) is Sunday is a summer offer...is there any buzz as to what it is?
So now even more waiting and wondering and obsessing! I'm not sure how much more I can take!

6:30 a.m. - EST - Nothing (so far) on the Disney/Visa site about a new promo. The wait contines..............................:

 

[TheRatPack]

after 7am and still nothing

 

[twokids0204]

Uggggh....

Looks like it's going to be a Fall visit to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

 

[tonyolily]

Wow, still nothing....

 

[francie57]

For Mamalisala - if you are staying deluxe, the free dining isn't always the better deal. We stay at the BWV (not DVC member - we go through Disney) and we make out better with a room discount than with the free dining. We had our TA price our trip last Aug. with both (since FD came out for our time frame) and we saved more with the room discount since to get FD you have to pay full rack rate on the room. Just make sure to figure your trip both ways. If Disney isn't offering a room discount yet, if anyone is a AAA member they have room discounts that you could figure out now.

 

[luvdisney00]

Uggggh....

Looks like it's going to be a Fall visit to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

You have to wonder why Disney doesn't seem worried about late summer/fall crowds planning to go somewhere else? Even if they weren't sure if they are ofering FD or are secretly planning to offer it later, you think they would have something out now to keep people interested. Like maybe extend the up to 30% through the end of Sept for now and see how booking goes and maybe add free dining later to boost bookings. it makes no sense that there is NOTHING out there after 8/14. People who want to vacation at the end of the summer (like us) may start getting nervous that there's not going to be a GP offer and book other things.

 

[a1tinkfans]

Me thinks Maybe Disney is realizing MANY people booked "thinking" free dine and "Believes" people will not cancel if it is closer (too close) to that August date as they'll Lose money (airfare, etc)
thus they get their rooms filled either way??
We shall see......................
Fingers crossed (toes too)

 

[DISNEY1975]

And I'm gonna guess that your original reserrvation was on some kind of discount? Doesn't really matter.. CSR is a convention resort and often blocks off large portions of rooms for planned conventions making it 'appear' sold out.. and those rooms often open up later on depending on the attendance at the conventions..

Either way.. having that original reservation guaranteed you NOTHING on the new promo.. as per the post that followed yours.

I know this is not in the resort pages, but now that you mention conventions, I have a question!

I originally wanted to book the Contemporary for Oct, but its been "sold out" since the beginning. Do you think they would release rooms as it got closer?

 

[luvdisney00]

Me thinks Maybe Disney is realizing MANY people booked "thinking" free dine and "Believes" people will not cancel if it is closer (too close) to that August date as they'll Lose money (airfare, etc)
thus they get their rooms filled either way??
We shall see......................
Fingers crossed (toes too)

Possible...but we ths Dissers are still the minority of those who go to WDW and I can't believe THAT many people plan to go during that time (school starting, hurricaines etc..) without some incentive.

 

[sjs314]

I know our family use to go late August, with no discount , no FD, why ?...................Because in Connecticut School did not as a rule start in August, son played on traveling little league teams well into August so it was the only time we could go unless we went during Easter vacation. Considering Little League and I suppose other sports as well which are nationwide events keeping people home until the later week in August Disney can count on certain % of booking without offering incentives to GP.

 

[goofy4tink]

Me thinks Maybe Disney is realizing MANY people booked "thinking" free dine and "Believes" people will not cancel if it is closer (too close) to that August date as they'll Lose money (airfare, etc)
thus they get their rooms filled either way??
We shall see......................
Fingers crossed (toes too)

Yep...that's exactly what happens. Those people that book now, in hopes of changing to a discount when one is offered are really shooting themselves in the foot. Disney puts out discounts when it sees that not enough rooms are being booked. When Disney does put out a great discount, more often than not, you have to cancel the original booking and then rebook at the discounte rate. If you miss that 'window' when there are plenty of rooms available, then you may be out of luck. Especially if Disney doesn't offer a lot of rooms at that price. And there is no telling exactly how many rooms are going to be offered at that great price.

I truly don't see a lot of people canceling trips to WDW and then staying at US/IoA resorts simply because of the new Harry Potter stuff. I guess I could very well be wrong, but that new attraction still doesn't make financial sense to me to stay at US for a week. I would much rather stay at WDW and then head over to US/IoA for a day or two. But, that's just me..I'm sure plenty of people have different views on that one.

 

[mking624]

I have noticed with Disney that they will tell you a particular resort is sold out...you can call every day and eventually, that resort will be reopen for bookings.

So......will it happen tomorrow???? What promo will come out??

Reopening for bookings can be a result of cancellations, or in the case of promos, adding additional rooms to a promo.

 

[Port Orleans fan]

You have to wonder why Disney doesn't seem worried about late summer/fall crowds planning to go somewhere else? Even if they weren't sure if they are ofering FD or are secretly planning to offer it later, you think they would have something out now to keep people interested. Like maybe extend the up to 30% through the end of Sept for now and see how booking goes and maybe add free dining later to boost bookings. it makes no sense that there is NOTHING out there after 8/14. People who want to vacation at the end of the summer (like us) may start getting nervous that there's not going to be a GP offer and book other things.

Well said.

Disney is going to miss out on some of their late season crowd because they are taking too long to release deals. For example, a friend of mine is only willing to wait until the end of this week for the fall promotions to come out before deciding to do something else. Him and his wife are talking about other places to travel to, and the last I heard they were talking about Cuba.

IMO the longer Disney waits, the worst it's going to be for their September/October attendance.

 

[kparc]

Yep...that's exactly what happens. Those people that book now, in hopes of changing to a discount when one is offered are really shooting themselves in the foot. Disney puts out discounts when it sees that not enough rooms are being booked. When Disney does put out a great discount, more often than not, you have to cancel the original booking and then rebook at the discounte rate.

Another MODERATOR stated that the folks on this site are merely a fraction of the people that attend Disney. The 'few' people that are booking now and still hoping to get FD know they can do that. Like the other MODERATOR said, when Disney advertises FD or Discounts the general public goes Hey that sounds like a good deal and books. Very few folks that go to Disney know about this site or any unoffical site. I bet it's less the 3% and that is the high end estimate.

 

[sjs314]

Another MODERATOR stated that the folks on this site are merely a fraction of the people that attend Disney. The 'few' people that are booking now and still hoping to get FD know they can do that. Like the other MODERATOR said, when Disney advertises FD or Discounts the general public goes Hey that sounds like a good deal and books. Very few folks that go to Disney know about this site or any unoffical site. I bet it's less the 3% and that is the high end estimate.

True, I have been going to Disney for a long time and just this year came across this site, I wish I had known about it sooner, might have saved some $$$

 

[jerseygirl81]

They have some rooms for that time frame (after Aug. 15) booked by the people who are bouncing back with fd and they also sent out a lot of pin codes for fd. When we were in Disney in Dec they had a bounce back offer with a discount for quite a bit of 2010 included. So they do have rooms booked for that time with those offers alone plus the people who book ahead of time waiting for free dining so this could effect the deal they offer if they offer one. So even if they offer fd late I would think they would book quite a good deal of rooms. Linda

 

[disneymagicgirl]

For Mamalisala - if you are staying deluxe, the free dining isn't always the better deal. We stay at the BWV (not DVC member - we go through Disney) and we make out better with a room discount than with the free dining. We had our TA price our trip last Aug. with both (since FD came out for our time frame) and we saved more with the room discount since to get FD you have to pay full rack rate on the room. Just make sure to figure your trip both ways. If Disney isn't offering a room discount yet, if anyone is a AAA member they have room discounts that you could figure out now.

Room discount works out better for us too since we stay deluxe...this time in a 1 bedroom! I think it would depend how many "adults" you would need to purchase the dining plan for though.
Good luck to all who are waiting!
Personally, I would like to see the 4/3 deal again.