Free Dining

[timbitkid]

I seen that the free dining is on until Dec. 21 which is great the only problem is that they have black outs. I arrive on the 9th of December for 10 days and it starts on the 10th and I don't qualify for the free dining. I miss the promo by one day. What makes it harder is that the plane tickets were already purchased and there is no changing the flights. Guess I'll be on a tighter budget than I thought I would be on

 

[justcantwait]

Can you change your package? If you check in on 12/9 for a room only, then check out and back in on 12/10 for the package, free dining would apply to the rest of your stay. Just a thought. HTH

Kathy

 

[sjsjbrook]

Can you change your package? If you check in on 12/9 for a room only, then check out and back in on 12/10 for the package, free dining would apply to the rest of your stay. Just a thought. HTH

Kathy

That was my suggestion as well. Or have two different reservations with disney. I would chat with your travel agent and see what options you have. It is worth a try. Plus you would actually see what you would be saving.

Let us know what happens.


On a side note, today I told my hubby that if we won the lottery we could take advantage of free dining. He smiled at me and told me that if we won the lottery we wouldn't need free dining. LOL. Then he told me to buy a loto max.

 

[averysmom]

Can you change your package? If you check in on 12/9 for a room only, then check out and back in on 12/10 for the package, free dining would apply to the rest of your stay. Just a thought. HTH

Kathy

We've done this more than once - checked in our arrival day for a room only, and then checking in the next day for our package - it's really not a big deal!

 

[grover]

Yep..I would be changing the ressie to room only for first night and book the free dining starting on the 10th.

 

[Alderbrook]

I can't see why you can't get it from the 10th on? did you call them? My GF wanted to add a night to her Sept trip to arrive 1 day early & when she called they said that the free dining was sold out so now she has 1 day from an 8 day trip that doesn't have free dining.

 

[timbitkid]

I called disney and they told me to do a room only 1st night then check out and check back in and do the rest of my trip with the dining package. Travel agent didn't recommend it but say they can do it for me but I would loose the promo codes that disney already sent me. She is gonna call me back with the new details and prices

 

[Blanche_Neige]

I called disney and they told me to do a room only 1st night then check out and check back in and do the rest of my trip with the dining package. Travel agent didn't recommend it but say they can do it for me but I would loose the promo codes that disney already sent me. She is gonna call me back with the new details and prices

was the promo code that you got better than free dinning? if not then I recommend what others have said book 1 night room only and then free dining for the rest of your vacation.

The only thing is if you want to go to a park the fist day you will have to buy a separate ticket 1 day admission (that is $$) or you could just take it easy relax but the pool on your first day, go DTD...

I don;t know why you TA didn't let you know about this option many people do it, it's not a big deal.

 

[bbangel]

I called disney and they told me to do a room only 1st night then check out and check back in and do the rest of my trip with the dining package. Travel agent didn't recommend it but say they can do it for me but I would loose the promo codes that disney already sent me. She is gonna call me back with the new details and prices

Bingo. You can't stack discounts and it may be that the TA figured that your promo code was a better deal for your situation than free dining would be. Would be interesting to know if free dining saves you any money or not.

 

[fivebyfive]

The only thing is if you want to go to a park the fist day you will have to buy a separate ticket 1 day admission (that is $$) or you could just take it easy relax but the pool on your first day, go DTD...

I don;t know why you TA didn't let you know about this option many people do it, it's not a big deal.

I've done this before and will NEVER do it again. We had to move rooms when we switched from our room only to MYW package. Our new room wasn't ready and we had to check out of the other one by 11. It was a nightmare. We wasted 2 whole days of our 7 day vacation for this. The first day (because we didn't have theme park tickets, and couldn't do ANYTHING because it was raining!) and the next day was a headache to move.

After it was all said and done (dropping our room discount to full price, then adding free dining), the difference wasn't all that much and not worth it at all for the headaches it caused.

I know we all try to help one another budget for our WDW trips, but IMHO cutting corners can sometimes put a real damper on the vacation. At least that's been my experience.

 

[brighteyes]

I've done this before and will NEVER do it again. We had to move rooms when we switched from our room only to MYW package. Our new room wasn't ready and we had to check out of the other one by 11. It was a nightmare. We wasted 2 whole days of our 7 day vacation for this. The first day (because we didn't have theme park tickets, and couldn't do ANYTHING because it was raining!) and the next day was a headache to move.

After it was all said and done (dropping our room discount to full price, then adding free dining), the difference wasn't all that much and not worth it at all for the headaches it caused.

I know we all try to help one another budget for our WDW trips, but IMHO cutting corners can sometimes put a real damper on the vacation. At least that's been my experience.

On my first trip to WDW we weren't happy with our room location but took it because we were delayed 9 hours in getting there our first day. So the next day I asked if we could move to a better location.

The hotel staff (not sure who) moved ALL of our luggage and even the POP fridge from the fridge swap with our food inside to our new room. We just packed up our bags and left for the parks and came home to our new room.

It was seamless and not a problem for us. We even had a call from the manager to see if our new room was ok and if we needed anything else. We were at POP.

 

[fan1080]

I've done this before and will NEVER do it again. We had to move rooms when we switched from our room only to MYW package. Our new room wasn't ready and we had to check out of the other one by 11. It was a nightmare. We wasted 2 whole days of our 7 day vacation for this. The first day (because we didn't have theme park tickets, and couldn't do ANYTHING because it was raining!) and the next day was a headache to move.

After it was all said and done (dropping our room discount to full price, then adding free dining), the difference wasn't all that much and not worth it at all for the headaches it caused.

I know we all try to help one another budget for our WDW trips, but IMHO cutting corners can sometimes put a real damper on the vacation. At least that's been my experience.

I'm pretty sure Disney will help with moving. They will usually even take care of your bags for you, so all you have to do is head over to the resort and check in. If your room isn't ready your options are the same as if you were already checked-in, except you don't have access to your room. You can explore the resort, get some food in the food court or restaurant, shopping, you can even go to the parks or downtown Disney, etc.

And, for room only reservations that have a package after the room only, you can even get your park tickets, for the package, early. Not sure if it's at the concierge desk or at guest relations at the parks, but you just tell them your reservation details and they will issue you your tickets. You can also add an extra day to the tickets, if you haven't already added it with the package. That way the extra day ticket will only cost about $3 per ticket, which of course will cover the room only day.

The only thing is if you want to go to a park the fist day you will have to buy a separate ticket 1 day admission (that is $$) or you could just take it easy relax but the pool on your first day, go DTD...

As I mentioned above, you can get your package tickets prior to check-in, so no need for a separate full price single day ticket. You can inlcude an extra day on the package tickets, or even add it once the tickets are issued to you, to cover for the room only day. Cost would only be $3 per ticket.

 

[brighteyes]

I'm pretty sure Disney will help with moving. They will usually even take care of your bags for you, so all you have to do is head over to the resort and check in. If your room isn't ready your options are the same as if you were already checked-in, except you don't have access to your room. You can explore the resort, get some food in the food court or restaurant, shopping, you can even go to the parks or downtown Disney, etc.

And, for room only reservations that have a package after the room only, you can even get your park tickets, for the package, early. Not sure if it's at the concierge desk or at guest relations at the parks, but you just tell them your reservation details and they will issue you your tickets. You can also add an extra day to the tickets, if you haven't already added it with the package. That way the extra day ticket will only cost about $3 per ticket, which of course will cover the room only day.

As I mentioned above, you can get your package tickets prior to check-in, so no need for a separate full price single day ticket. You can inlcude an extra day on the package tickets, or even add it once the tickets are issued to you, to cover for the room only day. Cost would only be $3 per ticket.

Yes, Disney does do the move for you. I should have said they moved all of our luggage to our room for us. We just had to make sure everything was in our bags before we left for the parks. It was effortless, really.

 

[Blanche_Neige]

I
And, for room only reservations that have a package after the room only, you can even get your park tickets, for the package, early. Not sure if it's at the concierge desk or at guest relations at the parks, but you just tell them your reservation details and they will issue you your tickets. You can also add an extra day to the tickets, if you haven't already added it with the package. That way the extra day ticket will only cost about $3 per ticket, which of course will cover the room only day.



As I mentioned above, you can get your package tickets prior to check-in, so no need for a separate full price single day ticket. You can inlcude an extra day on the package tickets, or even add it once the tickets are issued to you, to cover for the room only day. Cost would only be $3 per ticket.

Good to know for the future
I love this board you learn new things all the time.