free dining with ADR's?

[travelmel]

I was wondering about the free dining... what I notice is that the free dining is often given out (code) pretty much in a RIGHT NOW fashion which doesn't go well with the YOU HAVE TO PLAN IN ADVANCE FOR RESERVATIONS FOR TS type of thing. How do people who use free dining get their reservations?

Thanks

 

[aubriee]

I'm not sure what you are talking about. I got free dining for my Sept/Oct trip way back last fall via the bounceback program. However, the free dining offer was made available to the public back in the spring (March or
April, I believe). Apparently they didn't have as many bookings as they thought they would, so they have since extended the booking dates. However, lots of us have had since last fall to plan our ADRs and the majority of the rest have had since early spring to plan theirs. In fact, I can not even make my ADRs until this Sunday (June 28th) for my Sept 26th-Oct 4th trip. I already have my ADRs planned for my free dining trip in Sept/Oct, plus have them already planned for my Dec trip also.

 

[catne]

gosh..., don't actually know for sure what you mean here...I knew about Free Dining 2009 a year in advance because we booked for 2009 Free Dining on bounceback offer during our WDW vacation last September 2008. So we had all kinds of planning time for our dining choices.

And the General Public Free Dining 2009 promotion offer started in mid April 2009 for stays at the end of August through September 2009...so that was more than 90 days notice. A lot of people booked their Free Dining hotel package before they could book dining (since you can't book that until 90 days out now) There was planning time, there, too. In fact some people with Free dining are still waiting for their dining booking day so have plenty of time to plan.

I guess if you just now found out about Free Dining, it might seem like "Right Now", but a lot of people looking for Disney deals learned about it a couple of months ago.

 

[TDC Nala]

If you're just learning about the free dining, yes you will need to jump in and work on getting the reservations you want - which may mean you need to accept off-peak dining times or something like that. I am not on free dining but am traveling in that time period. I have had success getting some of the popular places (I'm not trying character meals) from the online reservation system and it's well under 90 days till my trip, it's now around 60 days. But I am accepting early and late dining times.

As far as the free dining code goes - it was available for March 30 for stays beginning August 16. Originally one had up to June 22 to book; that's now been extended to July 26. Unless you don't decide for sure you're booking until mid-July, that's quite a long time to prepare, assuming you knew about it prior to March 30. If you are talking about the e-mail PIN codes, I don't know how long they give you to decide whether or not you want to book those.

 

[winterman]

I booked a Free Dining package on 3/26/09 when it first became available for Visa members. FD became available to the public a few days later. I couldn't make my ADRs until 6/16/09. Keep an eye on these boards and you'll have plenty of notice.

 

[PrincessTiffany]

I booked our Free Dining trip three months before our ADR booking window opened up.

 

[travelmel]

I'm not sure what you are talking about. I got free dining for my Sept/Oct trip way back last fall via the bounceback program. However, the free dining offer was made available to the public back in the spring (March or
April, I believe). Apparently they didn't have as many bookings as they thought they would, so they have since extended the booking dates. However, lots of us have had since last fall to plan our ADRs and the majority of the rest have had since early spring to plan theirs. In fact, I can not even make my ADRs until this Sunday (June 28th) for my Sept 26th-Oct 4th trip. I already have my ADRs planned for my free dining trip in Sept/Oct, plus have them already planned for my Dec trip also.

gosh..., don't actually know for sure what you mean here...I knew about Free Dining 2009 a year in advance because we booked for 2009 Free Dining on bounceback offer during our WDW vacation last September 2008. So we had all kinds of planning time for our dining choices.

And the General Public Free Dining 2009 promotion offer started in mid April 2009 for stays at the end of August through September 2009...so that was more than 90 days notice. A lot of people booked their Free Dining hotel package before they could book dining (since you can't book that until 90 days out now) There was planning time, there, too. In fact some people with Free dining are still waiting for their dining booking day so have plenty of time to plan.

I guess if you just now found out about Free Dining, it might seem like "Right Now", but a lot of people looking for Disney deals learned about it a couple of months ago.

I'm not sure if these were supposed to be helpful or hurtful but either way.. umm.. thanks.

If you are talking about the e-mail PIN codes, I don't know how long they give you to decide whether or not you want to book those.

Yes, I was talking about the PIN code offers as that is the only private offer I have ever received and it came out of the blue and I have no idea what prompted it or if I'd ever receive another one but it seemed like a tough call to try and book right after I got that pin code due to needing flights, time off, etc.

I had never had a bounceback offer (obviously those give plenty of time!) as i have never been to WDW (not one of the lucky ones, YET ). And I realize the current public offer was plenty of time but who wants to go in Aut/Sept (actually, I'm sure there are plenty, but not me).

I booked a Free Dining package on 3/26/09 when it first became available for Visa members. FD became available to the public a few days later. I couldn't make my ADRs until 6/16/09. Keep an eye on these boards and you'll have plenty of notice.

I booked our Free Dining trip three months before our ADR booking window opened up.

Thanks, guys, for your kind and polite response. I used to watch these boards like a hawk about a year ago... but personal situations made it so I had to cancel my trip and now I'm DIPPING into the planning waters again. There have been so many changes just this last year! The 90 day booking window, changes to the DDP, etc. It can be overwhelming.