Free dining?

[El&Asmom]

We are hoping to book for Sept of '07 just like we did in '06 with free dining.
We want to stay at WL this time around, and saw that several people stated that the free dining rooms sold out quickly for WL last time.

If we book now for that same time period before free dining is announced, can we apply the free dining promotion to our reserved room if they end up offering it, or would we have to cancel our reservation and rebook. By booking soon, I was hoping to at least have a room already reserved before the free dining promotion is announced.

Thanks, here's hoping for free dining.

 

[kaytieeldr]

The problem with already having a room booked on the chance that free dining will be offered is, if occupancy appears high enough, the promotion may not be offered or rooms at a given (high-booking) resort may be extremely limited.

 

[TDC Nala]

The problem with already having a room booked on the chance that free dining will be offered is, if occupancy appears high enough, the promotion may not be offered or rooms at a given (high-booking) resort may be extremely limited.

This is a good point.

At any rate, you would have to cancel and rebook a new package.

 

[SAKPEG99OKW]

Just as an fyi, DW and I booked the future stay program during our last stay in Nov 06. The Future stay was offering free dining if you booked a future trip duing either aug or sept. 07. The program was for these two months only. When we made our reservation the CM told me that disney is trying something new in 2007 and only choosing to offer free dining with these types of programs geard toward guests who are already staying on property. He said that disney was not going to be offering free dining to the general public during 2007. Of course I do not know if he was telling me the truth or not, but that is what he told me.

Good Luck.

Scott

 

[abaldacci]

I had an extremely hard time keeping my same ressie last time free dining was offered. You just would not believe what I went throught to keep'em I would expect to have to change resorts if you don't thats great if you do atleast you planned on it. I want to stay at the poly this trip but I will switch if I have to for free dining and I have decide to wait on what ever offer they give before i book this year, too. just where i don't get to set on an idea of where i want to stay. I really about had a nervous break down keeping my same ressies last year and after all that I did not care for the resort that much. I think i had it to built up in my mind

 

[ekball]

We are hoping to book for Sept of '07 just like we did in '06 with free dining.
We want to stay at WL this time around, and saw that several people stated that the free dining rooms sold out quickly for WL last time.

Thanks, here's hoping for free dining.

Just letting you know that we booked the WL with free dining in June - maybe a week or two before the promotion ended. All that was left was courtyard views, but that was a couple of months after the offer began.

Crossing my fingers along with you (but we're going regardless...)

 

[aubriee]

Just as an fyi, DW and I booked the future stay program during our last stay in Nov 06. The Future stay was offering free dining if you booked a future trip duing either aug or sept. 07. The program was for these two months only. When we made our reservation the CM told me that disney is trying something new in 2007 and only choosing to offer free dining with these types of programs geard toward guests who are already staying on property. He said that disney was not going to be offering free dining to the general public during 2007. Of course I do not know if he was telling me the truth or not, but that is what he told me.


Good Luck.

Scott

I was told the same thing when I booked the Bounce Back Program while I as there in Dec 06. The CM made a point of saying WDW had received ALOT of complaints about the free dining from both restaraunts having to deal with irate patrons and visitors upset because restaraunts were too crowded and they couldn't get ADRs. He said WDW was 'severely limiting' the number of free dining pkgs available for 2007. He also said that free dining would only be available through the UK program and the Bounce Back Program. He said this after I had already booked my trip for Sept 29th-Oct 7th 2007.

Hopefully it was just a sales tactic, but he did make alot of sense and seemed to know what he was talking about.

 

[magicmouse2]

I am willing to take my chances and wait for free dining. If not available then I will use an AP rate to discount my room and put on less weight during my vacation I am stuck with the August timeframe anyway because of school.

 

[goofydad621]

We have booked for late Sept. Early Oct. hoping for free dinning but not because of it. We booked the night we got back last Oct. because of the fun my DW and DD had at MNSSHP they wanted to go back at the same time frame. I have talked to few cast members since and some say there will be free dinning offered again tot he general public some have said they just don't know. At this point it is all speculation, we all have to wait and see.

 

[Perrine]

We were in WDW last year from 08/20 to 09/04 during free dining plan.

You speak about 2 different types of programm : Do you think (as we are french) that we're concerned by the bounce back program if we book a new stay from 08/17 to 09/03 2007 ?????

what do you mean by "general public" : Are only concerned those who came for the first time ?
And those who were not in wdw in 2006?

What about strangers (outside UK) and french people in particular ?

It's our 9 stay this year so I would like to be sure that if Disney proposes free dining plan again during the periode we have chosen, we can take it.
It's really a very important question for us because we're a party of 5 and it's a very expensive stay (plane + resort + pass) and we've planned to stay 18 days on site.

What's your opinion please ?
I'm a bit lost ... so I need your help !!

Thank you very much.

Perrine

 

[ecolyer]

Sorry to post a dumb question, but what exactly is Free Dining??

We got out reservations through a travel agent for a cabin at FW the end of April, and included the Disney dining plan. Should I reconsider, or will I be able to change my reservations if they do offer Free Dining??

Any help you all can give is much appreciated!

 

[Katems]

Okay, the 'bounce back' program was offered in December (and maybe November, not sure) of 2006 and it was offered to people currently at WDW on vacation. If they booked a new vacation right then and there, for August/September of 2007, they were given the Disney Dining Program for free. That bounce back program is all over with so you're out of luck there.

Now, the past two years they have offered the Disney Dining Plan for free for specific vacation dates between August and September. The offer began around April and you had to book the trip before a certain date in June. If you did that, you got free Disney Dining Plan. If you did not book it within the correct time frame, you did not get it, and if you wanted to go to Disney during a time different than the specific August/September dates they said, you did not get it.

Now, 'general public' means everyone as far as I know....although some people have said you had to be in the United States when calling in and booking. I don't know if that's true or if I'm completely wrong here!! But yes, I have heard the last two free dining promotions were for Americans only, which is why the UK was specifically offered this awhile back and Americans were not. But I also don't see why ANYONE can't just call the basic Disney phone number and book during the required time frame, and get free dining IF it's offered. I'm confused on this point.

Now, for the person who booked an April trip at Fort Wilderness with the Dining Plan, no, you cannot get free dining because it's not being offered. The only times they've offered it so far has been for August/September vacations. So April won't be a time they offer it. If they go against the trend, and DO offer it for April, you would have to cancel your reservation and make a new one to include the free dining.

 

[Perrine]

Thank you very much for you quick answer Katems.
I just have to wait for April and hope........ !!!

Perrine

 

[CampbellScot]

Okay, this is what I heard from MY college roommate who is a Disney marketing..."suit" for lack of a better word...Disney CM's were doing the "HURRY HURRY while supplies LAST" type of thing with the bounce back program. They weren't specifically saying that dining would NOT be offered to the general public, but they were making it clear that it was highly unlikely...which makes sense as this is a sales tactic to get people to book and pay for rooms NOW to fill rooms during HURRICANE season months in advance. The reason for this bounce back program was b/c despite Free Dining, they still hadn't brought in as many people as they wanted during this low period...even though it DID bring in a ton of money...Disney wants MORE money...OF COURSE they are going to tell people that free DDP won't be offered to the general public b/c then people wouldn't book rooms so far in advance...it gives guests that "Wow I'm in a special private club" feeling...it's all sales tactics and it works.

Disney is a money making machine. There is no way they are going stop a program that brings people in to spend outrageous amounts of money on resorts and merchandise just b/c there were "complaints" from diners about the free DDP and the inability to get short notice ADR's. That doesn't make any sense. Disney is GLAD people have a hard time getting into TS places on short notice. It means their restaurants are full and people are booking months and sometimes years in advance. If people have x amount of dollars and they can go to Cancun or go to Disneyworld...the free food offer will tip the scales A LOT for those who might go somewhere less crowded without the offer, all things being equal.

I don't know for sure if free dining will be offered to the general public although I'm going to imagine it will, and oh my the idea that people "might" miss out on such a great deal sure brought in a lot of advance reservations that weren't made this time last year.

who knows...we'll see!