free dinning?

[happygirl]

can you go ahead and book a hotel room, and then add free dinning? when the free dinning comes out

 

[CarolA]

Maybe....

Basically you are "rebooking" If Disney has rooms at your hotel/level avaialble for Free Dining then you can swap to it. If they don't you can't just add free dining to your existing reservation.

 

[amsafko]

Now I've been told by at least 5 different CMs that I can just add it when it comes out. We've booked the Poly with dining already and they have all said to just call and they will change it to free dining. I asked about whether we had to rebook and they said absolutely not. I'm confused.

 

[RMulieri]

as far as I know you can call and ask if it can be added,but free dining isn't always avail. for every resort choice in every room category.usually the resorts with a projected low occupancy level will have rooms avail.You can call and try but there are no guarantees.

 

[safetymom]

It depends if there are rooms available with free dining. If you have room only you would need to switch to a package with at least a one day base theme park ticket.

 

[CarolA]

Now I've been told by at least 5 different CMs that I can just add it when it comes out. We've booked the Poly with dining already and they have all said to just call and they will change it to free dining. I asked about whether we had to rebook and they said absolutely not. I'm confused.

They always say this... but then when it comes out and folks call "its sold out for the Poly on my days"

Here's the deal. Disney is aiming for some unknown occupancy level. Let's just assume it's 80%.

So they decide "free dining" is the ticket. They look at the occupancy hotel by hotel, category by category. So the standard rooms at the Poly are 60% booked for Sept 10th. And there are 100 rooms (I am making these numbers up) Then they have 60 rooms book and want to add 20 more bookings, for that period they release 20 rooms to free Dining. Now you call and you are number three they can "swap" you from basic to Free Dining. (It may not be a "rebook" but it's the same concept. Just because their computer uses different terms) So person #25 calls for that period. "Sorry no free dining" left.

Now one of the great unknowns is "how does the fact that person 3" released a "regular room" figure in. Disney CMs have been quoted as saying "it goes back into the non discounted pool" and "it becomes availalbe for discount" meaning, the CRO CMs probably don't have a clue. I assume that by now having done this for years, Disney has a model that says "of the 60 rooms we currently have booked, some precentage will convert to free dining meaning we actually need to book X rooms to get to our desired occupancy levels"

They just don't publish any of thier desired numbers, discounted numbers etc to help us out!

 

[amsafko]

So, being that we will be notified early (Visa Cardholder) and will call immediately, will my chances be good that we'll be able to stay at the Poly?

 

[wilde_oscar]

and strange enough, with so many people booking, and thinking that they can upgrade to free dinning when it comes out... Disney might look at the occupancy numbers and say, wait a tick... we are already booked to the capacities we are looking for, then not offer free dinning. You just might be shooting yourself in the foot to "book now, then add later"

 

[wilde_oscar]

So, being that we will be notified early (Visa Cardholder) and will call immediately, will my chances be good that we'll be able to stay at the Poly?

your chances are equal to everyone else that is anticipating the free dinning promotion that want to stay at poly and have a disney visa. I am just saying, don't shoot yourself in the foot by booking early with the idea of adding it if they offer it, as that might change the dynamic enough that they don't see a need to offer a deal to get people in rooms.

 

[ajleone]

So, being that we will be notified early (Visa Cardholder) and will call immediately, will my chances be good that we'll be able to stay at the Poly?

Referring to CarolA's explanation you could call first thing on the day its offered and still be caller 25 and have missed the free dining. So I would definitely try but don't make plans on the basis that you are going to get it!

 

[CanadianGuy]

and strange enough, with so many people booking, and thinking that they can upgrade to free dinning when it comes out... Disney might look at the occupancy numbers and say, wait a tick... we are already booked to the capacities we are looking for, then not offer free dinning. You just might be shooting yourself in the foot to "book now, then add later"

This is ABSOLUTELY ACCURATE from what I've been told thru informal channels.

Do NOT book now if you're looking for the free dining period.

The amount of rooms at each resort available for free dining is based on presumed occupancy. A booking that you make now hoping to switch to free dining increases the presumed occupancy and lowers the number of free dining rooms expect.

On top of that.. whatever reservation you make now -- will have to be CANCELLED and rebooked to get the free dining anyway.

Summary: It's pointless.

The best way to get what you want when booking.. is to be flexible.

If you can be flexible with your dates.. OR flexible with your resort choice.. or ideally BOTH.. that will be your best bet to getting the free dining program. I'd suggest that since you have your heart set on the Poly.. you should see if there are a couple of date -ranges that you could try to coordinate the trip around.

These are just my opinions based what the information I was given. Your mileage may vary. This is not official DIS-moderator advice.. just my own personal opinion.

I'm moving this over to the Resorts and Booking Board.

Thanks!

Knox

 

[CleveRocks]

Bottom line: booking a room now in hopes of getting Free Dining gives you NO ADVANTAGE over waiting to book a room until Free Dining when it's announced. NO ADVANTAGE.

 

[HopperFan]

Example:

We booked CSR, standard room for the dates we wanted during "free" dining. We did so because we were going regardless of whether they offered the dining deal or not. We wanted to make sure that we were in a resort that we would enjoy and had a good food court, should the plan not be available.

We are Disney Visa card holders and called immediately on the day it was released to us. No standard rooms were available at CSR for the special. That is a big resort with lots of rooms to fill, and yet they had their quota filled. Of course, there was the possibility of some being released to it later if enough cancellations came in. We were one of those people who had booked and therefore reduced the number of available rooms.

We took the "free" dining program at POP. There were some others available and I had previously stayed at all of them, but I didn't want to pay their rack rates when ...because of the dining we would be spending even less time at the resort.

If I were going regardless of the offer, and had a certain resort that I wanted to stay at for sure, then I would do the same thing again (but chance that my first choice resort would not be available should the deal come out). If I am going ONLY because there was going to be free dining, then I would not book and then wait until it is announced.

Remember they did Bounceback this year for those of us who were there and yes, I booked it again. So it may cut back on the availability because they marketed to a group who have already committed to that time frame previously and it may have been a successful idea. The year before they offered a Sept Bounceback to winter travelers. And cancellations won't be due until summer.....which could affect the numbers of rooms in the deal. Those rooms are in limbo throughout the booking time frame.

 

[kathiep]

We booked the bounceback as well when we were there in 9/07. I made ressie's for CSR. After kicking it around a bit, we decided to try to updgrade to a deluxe. So far, I have been unable to upgrade to any of the deluxes. I know the bounceback free dining was offered at the deluxes as well so I'm betting a lot of people booked through the bounceback program and used all the rooms already allocated for this promotion. I'm hoping that if it's announced, I will be able to upgrade then but it seems this promotion has been getting more & more popular each year.

 

[amsafko]

I talked wtih Dh just to be sure and we would opt for at least one of the 3 on the monorail line. We really want a resort on the monorail line as we have a stroller and it was so hard last time with that and the buses. However if it is filled, if it does come out, then we will try for the other 2 - if they are a no go then we'll still be going. We are getting at least $600 off due to our disney rewards. It will be interesting to see what happens.

 

[christa112]

We had our 1st Disney vacation booked in 2005 with Dining Plan and everything at the All Star Movies and then I get a promo with my Disney Visa saying Free Dining during the time we had already booked. I called and they credited me the amount of the Dining Plan back onto my credit card.