Howdy Folks, Disney Blackout Question

[tjudgeiii]

Hi all, first time poster but long time Disney goer since I was 7 (33 now) 18 times and counting, have stayed at Fort Wilderness, Port Orleans French Quarter, All Star Sports...and soon to be Pop Century.

I have a question I am hoping you can answer. If I book a trip for two between the Blackout dates of Oct 4th to Oct 10th and I purchase a Dining Plan, if Disney changes their mind and does not Blackout these dates for a Free Dining Plan or 15% off Resort stay, will Disney honor me for the aforementioned? Or once you book your trip, that's final?

Thanks!

 

[wesfulmar]

They should. Don't forget, if you arrive in the last day of a promotion, the promotion should apply on your entire trip. So ,say the promotion ends on Oct 3rd and your check-in is on that date, it should apply to all nights on that reservation as long as they are continuous nights.

 

[tinkerbella16]

They will honor the discount, pending availability at the resort of course! We were already booked when we received free dining at Pop Century. We just changed our resort yesterday to POFQ because I received a FD pin code.

 

[Mikie]

Disney will apply the discount IF you call and request it (won't happen automatically) and IF they have rooms available at your resort in that offer category. They set aside a certain number of rooms at the discount price (not the entire resort) and when they're gone, they're gone even if you already have a reservation there.

Last year a friend had a reservation at POP, later got a room only discount, but they didn't have any more "standard" rooms available at the discount rate when she called. The POP rooms are (relatively) inexpensive and the discount offered was only 15%, the discount barely did more that cover the upgrade to a .preferred" room that was available for discount.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

Yes see the above! They will not apply the discount automatically. You have to call and ask for it. And even then, the discount has to be available for your resort, your dates and the room type you booked, or else you have to change things in order to get the discount.

 

[mickeynut1]

Hi all, first time poster but long time Disney goer since I was 7 (33 now) 18 times and counting, have stayed at Fort Wilderness, Port Orleans French Quarter, All Star Sports...and soon to be Pop Century.

I have a question I am hoping you can answer. If I book a trip for two between the Blackout dates of Oct 4th to Oct 10th and I purchase a Dining Plan, if Disney changes their mind and does not Blackout these dates for a Free Dining Plan or 15% off Resort stay, will Disney honor me for the aforementioned? Or once you book your trip, that's final?

Thanks!

As others have said, you can call and have a discount applied as long as what you have booked is available under that discount. Sometimes you have to be flexible with your resort and/or room type as having a reservation already in place does not guarantee a discount can be applied.

 

[smitch425]

They should. Don't forget, if you arrive in the last day of a promotion, the promotion should apply on your entire trip. So ,say the promotion ends on Oct 3rd and your check-in is on that date, it should apply to all nights on that reservation as long as they are continuous nights.

This only applies to free dining offers, not room discounts.

OP, the best you could hope for is a room deal. Free dining for that period will not happen. Best of luck, and

 

[Mikie]

This only applies to free dining offers, not room discounts.

OP, the best you could hope for is a room deal. Free dining for that period will not happen. Best of luck, and

Since it was a "black hole" in the dining offer dates I believe you, but you sound so confident? Since a new pin has come out covering some of the October dates, why are so sure there wouldn't be a new pin or additional public offer for this time?

 

[aaarcher86]

Since it was a "black hole" in the dining offer dates I believe you, but you sound so confident? Since a new pin has come out covering some of the October dates, why are so sure there wouldn't be a new pin or additional public offer for this time?

Past history is a big indicator. Disney is pretty good about knowing when they need discounts.

 

[smitch425]

Since it was a "black hole" in the dining offer dates I believe you, but you sound so confident? Since a new pin has come out covering some of the October dates, why are so sure there wouldn't be a new pin or additional public offer for this time?

I have gone to Disney World the last eight years, with six of those being in October. There should be a room discount for the public that will come out later this summer. Since the public FD offer and the FD PIN have already been released, there is no reason to expect additional dates. This year's public offer is more limiting for October than ever before. October has steadily increased in crowds year after year, and Oct. 4-10 is peak Fall Break time for schools throughout the country. As a party of 2, you will likely come out better with a room discount depending on where you are staying. If you can arrive late on Oct. 3, you can get free dining for your stay (if there is still availability under the promo). The computers do not roll over to the next day until 6am or so, so you could arrive at 3am on the 4th and still get FD.

 

[purple figment]

Since it was a "black hole" in the dining offer dates I believe you, but you sound so confident? Since a new pin has come out covering some of the October dates, why are so sure there wouldn't be a new pin or additional public offer for this time?

It's extremely unlikely that the public FD offer will be extended during the dates you mentioned. There's a lot happening during the excluded October dates. Besides school vacations, the first weekend is runDisney's Tower of Terror 10 miler and the following weekend is Columbus Day weekend and Oct 5-9 is the Gartner IT Symposium. PINs are limited because they are sent only to specific email addresses and since the FD offer has been out for a while some have found that they couldn't even utilize the PIN because resorts/dates no longer have FD availability.

Your best hope is a room discount, but unlike FD offers where only your check in date needs to be within the FD dates, the room rate is night by night so you may or may not get a discount for all of your nights.

We are also going in October during the block out dates and are hoping for a room discount as well.

 

[tjudgeiii]

Thanks all, you guys/gals are great.

I think I'll just book the trip and hope for the best, hopefully I'll get lucky and something will surface, albeit a discount or free DP.

I went two years ago, ironically same week, and when I first booked the trip through Expedia in July, a Free Disney Plan was not available. However, In late September, it did become available, so I cancelled the trip through Expedia (except for the flight) and booked directly through Disney. They were also offering 25% off Moderate Resort stays as well, which I was able to take advantage of.