If there's no other free dining offer in Nov and Dec this year will you go anyway?

[Bete]

I'm having a hard time with this one. I really want to stay at POP and I want free dining there even if it's QS. I was lucky enough to get the 35% off resort room pin for the values for times in Nov and Dec. but it's not the same.
I have til Feb. 28 to make my decision. I know I can book now for safety purposes to get some kind of discount, but I just don't think I want to go without the free dining offer. I couldn't book early when the first offer came through for free dining; so, now I feel stuck. I just can't plan a year ahead on trips.

So, will you go without free dining?

 

[ollyg]

I am hoping for the kids stay/play/dine offer . If it is not offered, I think I may pass and plan for a longer stay and considering doing the land and sea in 2012.

 

[shystalips]

Bottom line. NO!!! I don't have to go or give disney my money. I am willing to call their bluff. I love disney and would love to go but in this economy I feel it's necessary to wait for the best deal for your family. Free dining is definitely the best deal for mine, but maybe not for some.

 

[Goofy4]

(if I had the $$, the time, and there was still some discount involved).

I would rationalize that fewer vacationers at Disney = more fun, freedom to eat when and where I want to, less time in line, etc. (I'm good at this)

 

[twoplustwins]

we just booked for November at Bonnet Creek. As much as I look forward to having extra space, a kitchen, and a washer/dryer, if WDW came out with a Kids Stay/Play/Dine Free for our dates I would have to consider it!! Free dining is not a great deal for us since we have four children and would need two rooms. I am seriously doubting the Kids Free promo will be offered, as I've never seen it for November, but I guess anything is possible!

 

[aubriee]

As a matter of fact I would give my eye teeth for that 35% off PIN code you got for my Dec trip. Since they now require AP holders to buy at least a two day ticket for everyone in the room, free dining has no appeal for us. We'd rather have the room discount. I could have booked the free dining offer for my upcoming May and also my late Sept trip, but chose to go with the GP code, while hoping for an AP discount. I'll be going back the first or second week of Dec and am again hoping for an AP discount. For a solo traveler or a couple staying at a moderate, free dining just doesn't beat the AP room discount, especially if you go several times a year and would have to pay rack rate for the room plus buy 2 day tickets for each trip.

 

[Bete]

(if I had the $$, the time, and there was still some discount involved).

I would rationalize that fewer vacationers at Disney = more fun, freedom to eat when and where I want to, less time in line, etc. (I'm good at this)

but they did have a FD offer last year for this year for Nov and Dec. There will still be free dining guests who were able to take advantage of it early. How many were able to book that early is anyone's guess. It may be Disney has their quota from that early booking time and that will be it for free dining.

 

[Linda T.]

I had free dining last year in July, and I am holding out for that again this year. We will not be able to go unless we get either a good discount or the free dining. I have chatted on line with the cast members and they all say "Book It" and when and if a discount comes out, we can apply it to your reservation. Well, I am not going to do that because I feel they will see all the rooms booked and not give a Disney discount. I really want to book but I am holding out. And if no discount/free dining this July, then no Disney for my family. It will be a sad day for my family if there is "no disney" this year.

 

[Bete]

I had free dining last year in July, and I am holding out for that again this year. We will not be able to go unless we get either a good discount or the free dining. I have chatted on line with the cast members and they all say "Book It" and when and if a discount comes out, we can apply it to your reservation. Well, I am not going to do that because I feel they will see all the rooms booked and not give a Disney discount. I really want to book but I am holding out. And if no discount/free dining this July, then no Disney for my family. It will be a sad day for my family if there is "no disney" this year.

about booking now with the hopes of a discount later. I agree with you that it will give Disney a false sense of security about booking the vacations, now. They'll have no way of knowing you will cancel if there are no good discounts, but in the mean time why would they offer any discounts if the rooms are booked?

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

We're wanting to go end of Sept/beginning of October and if they don't offer FD, we will definitely not stay onsite, and may not be able to afford to go at all. I have crunched the numbers every-which-way, and FD is a HUGE discount for our family. The only thing that comes nearly as close is staying offsite an paying for OOP meals, but we get less TS (which my husband and teenage sons love). There's no way we'll stay onsite without free dining though, even with the 35% off code I have, it will be almost 1200$ more without the FD!

PLEASE DISNEY!!!

 

[Melissalovespugs]

Yes, we plan to go this year without free dining, because we missed it when it was offered but we still want to go this year before our oldest starts kindergarten.

We hope to catch free dining for next year though!

(We were supposed to go Feb 3-7, but we all got the stomach flu & had to cancel our trip. Booo!)

 

[RMulieri]

It makes NO difference to me..I personally HATE HATE HATE free dining, it makes getting adrs, getting seated on time etc a whole lot harder.But Free Dining saves my family of 3 almost nothing compared to the 30-40% off pins..but we stay deluxe or dvc.In any event, it doesn't really affect me, I got a pincode already, I am using it in October.December has gotten too busy for me

 

[Linda T.]

You know Bete I have punched in many dates in July (and we hope to stay at CBR) and there are rooms availble on every scenerio I have put in. We are a group of six adults wanting two rooms and it seems July has many openings. So I am hoping most people are not booking to give disney that false sense that their resorts are full and that disney will see this and give either a good discount/free dining. All I can do is hope!

 

[ollyg]

we just booked for November at Bonnet Creek. As much as I look forward to having extra space, a kitchen, and a washer/dryer, if WDW came out with a Kids Stay/Play/Dine Free for our dates I would have to consider it!! Free dining is not a great deal for us since we have four children and would need two rooms. I am seriously doubting the Kids Free promo will be offered, as I've never seen it for November, but I guess anything is possible!

Although I love going in the fall, I would consider changing my dates for the Kids Free promo. I am opposite of you, free dining saves me more than the room discounts. We stayed at the POP last year and we loved it and would stay there again so the room discount does not save me as much.

I think the last day to book the Free Dining offer was 12-20-2010 So I hope they will release something to tempt people to spend their income tax refunds!!

 

[twoplustwins]

Although I love going in the fall, I would consider changing my dates for the Kids Free promo. I am opposite of you, free dining saves me more than the room discounts. We stayed at the POP last year and we loved it and would stay there again so the room discount does not save me as much.

I think the last day to book the Free Dining offer was 12-20-2010 So I hope they will release something to tempt people to spend their income tax refunds!!

Based on history, I'm guessing they will release the FD promo in March. We went in Nov 2009 and had the choice of FD or the room discount. It saved us the same amount of money so we went with the FD since the kids really wanted the character meals.
We had considered going in September, but the twins are turning 5 in November, so it is a birthday/Christmas trip.

 

[crazycatlady]

We're wanting to go end of Sept/beginning of October and if they don't offer FD, we will definitely not stay onsite, and may not be able to afford to go at all. I have crunched the numbers every-which-way, and FD is a HUGE discount for our family. The only thing that comes nearly as close is staying offsite an paying for OOP meals, but we get less TS (which my husband and teenage sons love). There's no way we'll stay onsite without free dining though, even with the 35% off code I have, it will be almost 1200$ more without the FD!

PLEASE DISNEY!!!

This is our dilemma, also. Disney is not really in the cards for this year unless we can get FD. I crunched all the numbers backwards and forwards and FD saves our family at least $1000. Staying and eating offsite is the next best way to go financially, but if we can't stay and eat on-site, I think we will just wait and save the money.

 

[3boys4me]

but they did have a FD offer last year for this year for Nov and Dec. There will still be free dining guests who were able to take advantage of it early. How many were able to book that early is anyone's guess. It may be Disney has their quota from that early booking time and that will be it for free dining.

I am almost certain that this offer was for free dining up until about October 2011. November and December were not included at all. Hopefully they will offer it for that time or I think we will have to pass too. We go during Thanksgiving and that is usually the only offer that we can take advantage of.

 

[beatlesblonde]

In our case yes we will still go. Free dining would save us almost $800, but if it doesn't get offered (or our dates don't fall within the offer) we'll downgrade our room before not using the dining plan as it is to great a value to us.

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

This is our dilemma, also. Disney is not really in the cards for this year unless we can get FD. I crunched all the numbers backwards and forwards and FD saves our family at least $1000. Staying and eating offsite is the next best way to go financially, but if we can't stay and eat on-site, I think we will just wait and save the money.

It's those darn teenagers! That's why we both save so much with FD!

 

[stitch34]

It makes NO difference to me..I personally HATE HATE HATE free dining, it makes getting adrs, getting seated on time etc a whole lot harder.But Free Dining saves my family of 3 almost nothing compared to the 30-40% off pins..but we stay deluxe or dvc.In any event, it doesn't really affect me, I got a pincode already, I am using it in October.December has gotten too busy for me

I totally agree... I can't stand it! Granted, we have APs, so free dining doesn't work for us, we just want a room % off.
But oh, always have the most terrible time getting ADRs for our late November into December trip each year! We also have been during 4th of July and Easter time - and nope, always can find ADR availability in the month or two before trip. Only times have had it impossible was when we did free dining in August - and then Nov/Dec. Last year, there were NOOO character meal ADRs available 3 months prior to our trip - I'm the type that has ADRs, but always tweaking and moving things around, and that was impossible to do.