ITS COMING -Nov. 2014 Free Dining - waiting, watching, wishing & worrying thread

[wolfador]

My wife and I just booked a POR - RR for Nov 5-12. Going down for the Wine and Dine half. Hoping for any type of discounts.

 

[dakotix]

Last year it was just two of us..this time around I am organizing resrevations for two more couples and applying free dining (knock on wood) to them as well. No pressure!

 

[mulan1123]

I'm planning my family Disney vacation for November but my parents really want the free dining plan as it does ease the expenses of food during the trip. This will be my second time to WDW, but my first time planning (my friend did all the planning), so I'm new at this whole free DDP thing. I know a free DDP will be offered eventually but when does that offer to the public. How about PIN? What is the difference? Are their room restrictions for the DDP???? Any tips will be helpful. I tried looking but found nothing....

 

[mommajo143]

What to do.....what to do..... I really want to book so I can make payments as the extra money comes along. On the other hand, if so many people have this idea there's little chance that dining will be offered that week. My DH has mandated vacations the week of Christmas, Thanksgiving and Fourth of July, so Thanksgiving is really the only time we can go. I hate to lose the free dining. Three very hungry boys really puts a dent in the budget if we have to pay out of pocket.

consider buying gift cards as you go? Disney gift cards don't expire so it would work the same way, and if you worry about "needing" the money later (with a reservation you can cancel and get your $ back) maybe get a visa gift card or something easier to use in other ways if needed...
just an idea...

 

[Catrinabeach]

I'm planning my family Disney vacation for November but my parents really want the free dining plan as it does ease the expenses of food during the trip. This will be my second time to WDW, but my first time planning (my friend did all the planning), so I'm new at this whole free DDP thing. I know a free DDP will be offered eventually but when does that offer to the public. How about PIN? What is the difference? Are their room restrictions for the DDP???? Any tips will be helpful. I tried looking but found nothing....

It is not for sure that FD will be offered. Last year when we were there in Nov with FD there was a BB offer for the next year for FD. This year they didn't offer that as the BB so I am thinking they may not offer it this year.

PINs are random and we never know in advance what they will send out. I'm hoping for one since they sent us one for Jan-Mar when we couldn't use it.

No restrictions for DDP but if they do offer FD it may have availability only at certain resorts or resort categories again we won't know til they offer it what they will offer. They do tier it though. Values get QS, Moderate and Deluxe get Basic DP.

 

[mulan1123]

I hope they offer FD. I found a website with past FD and they've have FD almost every fall for the past few years....so fingers crossed

 

[vandygirl]

Subscribing....hoping for FD. We got the pin last year but ended up having to cancel.

 

[dakotix]

They almost will certainly offer free dining it's just a question of when! We're planning on arriving on the 10th of November. Free dining has been offered* around * that date for the past 4years. Now of course the tricky part is pegging your arrival on a day that includes free dining. If you don't, it makes no difference if day 2 or 3 falls on the beginning of a free dining promotion . Your only recourse at that point is to either change your arrival day or split the reservation. This is why we don't purchase our flights until after the promotion has been announced in the fall. A little stressful but actually the best time to book a flight is 2 to 3 month's before. The rule of thumb for first timers is book NOW with dining included and when the promotion is announced in August, call Disney, make any necessary changes and apply the promotion. Then book your flight (always on a Tuesday)!

 

[MKEgramma]

I'll join in the watching! We are booked at BCV Nov 2-10 2014. Our 2 sons and their families are joining us. We will have all 3 Grandkids with us this time. We will be celebrating our 30th anniversary and my husbands retirement. Hoping for a room discount. We have picky eaters and I feel DDP would be wasted.

 

[mulan1123]

Can I book a resort then add the FD is it's offered? Or do I have wait to take advantage of the FD????

 

[goNDmay9]

@mulan I think a lot of people go ahead and book the hotel with dining and then modify their reservation when the FD is announced.

 

[jessicamouse]

Can I book a resort then add the FD is it's offered? Or do I have wait to take advantage of the FD????

I know this is not a very happy answer, but there truly is no benefit of booking the reservation in advance if you just plan to add a discount when (if) it is released later on. Many people last year booked POR as an example and then when the discount was released on August 1 they ended up having to switch the reservation to CS or CBR because there was no availability at their original choice. POFQ wasn't even included in FD last year! Many people will also tell you that too many advanced bookings could have a negative impact on whether or not a discount is released. I think a good example of that was the week after Thanksgiving last year, which has traditionally been included in all discounts because of low numbers. It was not included last year, presumably because of too many bookings (especially from the PIN that was released). If you know you are going to go and stay at that resort regardless of whether or not free dining is coming and the resort itself is most important to you, and go ahead and book. But if you will alter it based on when the discount is released and what's included, then you might as well wait. Discounts for November, if offered, will probably be released somewhere towards the end of July or beginning of August. That seems like forever. But the wait is half the fun right? Happy planning!

 

[JillianLeigh]

They almost will certainly offer free dining it's just a question of when! We're planning on arriving on the 10th of November. Free dining has been offered* around * that date for the past 4years. Now of course the tricky part is pegging your arrival on a day that includes free dining. If you don't, it makes no difference if day 2 or 3 falls on the beginning of a free dining promotion . Your only recourse at that point is to either change your arrival day or split the reservation. This is why we don't purchase our flights until after the promotion has been announced in the fall. A little stressful but actually the best time to book a flight is 2 to 3 month's before. The rule of thumb for first timers is book NOW with dining included and when the promotion is announced in August, call Disney, make any necessary changes and apply the promotion. Then book your flight (always on a Tuesday)!

I'm confused. So in order to get FD on my vacation package that I've already booked, I have to have also booked the DDP? I have a reservation for POR Nov. 13-18 with 4-day park tickets for the family. They wouldn't give me free dining if it comes out unless I had already booked the DDP?

 

[dakotix]

I disagree. I booked early for our last trip and when the promo was released I called and the cast member and simply applied the promotion to our reservation. I don't know what went on "behind the scenes" to do that but, from what I understand, a certain number/ block of rooms are set aside for each promotion.

It took less than 5 minutes and since the reservation was already setup I wasn't competing with others for the same block of rooms and trying to whip everything together last minute. If you wait odds are you risk paying more because the standard rooms (or all rooms) are gone.

Now we stayed at CSR and there are a ton of rooms at that resort so that may account for my easy experience. Also I happened to nail our arrival date spot on to coincide with free dining so we didn't have to change our dates. I think and correct me if I'm wrong, but if you have to change your arrival date because it doesn't jive with the promotion, it requires the cast member to cancel the original reservation and rebook it from scratch. That may account for some people's experiences of needing to book at an alternate resort.

 

[dakotix]

I'm confused. So in order to get FD on my vacation package that I've already booked, I have to have also booked the DDP? I have a reservation for POR Nov. 13-18 with 4-day park tickets for the family. They wouldn't give me free dining if it comes out unless I had already booked the DDP?

That is my understanding from the research I did last year and it is also how I did it last time. Once the promotion is released you simply call and they apply the promotion and subtract the extra charge for free dining off your balance.

 

[tyniknate]

I know this is not a very happy answer, but there truly is no benefit of booking the reservation in advance if you just plan to add a discount when (if) it is released later on. Many people last year booked POR as an example and then when the discount was released on August 1 they ended up having to switch the reservation to CS or CBR because there was no availability at their original choice. POFQ wasn't even included in FD last year! Many people will also tell you that too many advanced bookings could have a negative impact on whether or not a discount is released. I think a good example of that was the week after Thanksgiving last year, which has traditionally been included in all discounts because of low numbers. It was not included last year, presumably because of too many bookings (especially from the PIN that was released). If you know you are going to go and stay at that resort regardless of whether or not free dining is coming and the resort itself is most important to you, and go ahead and book. But if you will alter it based on when the discount is released and what's included, then you might as well wait. Discounts for November, if offered, will probably be released somewhere towards the end of July or beginning of August. That seems like forever. But the wait is half the fun right? Happy planning!

I totally agree with this. There is little benefit and may possibly black out dates if too many people choose to book and hope.

 

[emmakatbaby]

Joining in

 

[mulan1123]

I was planning on waiting until at least the spring (April/May) to book. Although last year, my friend waited until June/July to book, and our other friend had a PIN for FD. And the timing when we went just happened to be FD promotion. So it worked out great with FD.

 

[ekatiel]

I'm confused. So in order to get FD on my vacation package that I've already booked, I have to have also booked the DDP? I have a reservation for POR Nov. 13-18 with 4-day park tickets for the family. They wouldn't give me free dining if it comes out unless I had already booked the DDP?

I don't think this is correct. You can add the dining plan to your package at anytime. If you already have a package booked, I'm pretty sure that when free dining is released, you can call them and they will modify your package to include free dining. The package WILL almost certainly end up costing you a bit more than what you originally booked. In the past, they have waited until after the yearly price increases in August to announce free dining for November, so when they modify your reservation, you will pay the newly increased prices. The price difference will be much less than what you would have paid for the dining plan, though. We are planning to book a package without the dining plan this year until FD is offered. Our ODS will be 10 when we travel, and therefore, a Disney adult for the dining plan. We will not be getting the dining plan this trip unless it is free.

As for the person who recommended waiting to book until free dining is offered, if you wait, you will lose out on the 180+10 rule for booking ADRS if you don't have a hotel reservation at your 180 day mark. If you want reservations at some of the most popular restaurants, then the 180+10 advantage is a big deal and definitely worth going ahead and booking at least 180 days out.

 

[dakotix]

As for the person who recommended waiting to book until free dining is offered, if you wait, you will lose out on the 180+10 rule for booking ADRS if you don't have a hotel reservation at your 180 day mark. If you want reservations at some of the most popular restaurants, then the 180+10 advantage is a big deal and definitely worth going ahead and booking at least 180 days out.

That's an amazing point. I didn't even think of that. I didn't realize how vital it was to make those reservation s until it was to late last time.

Well all three Disney reservations are made! I had three laptops going at the same time to make sure all three would go through the way that we planned. So phase 1is done! Phase 2 will be applying free dining and phase 3 will be booking flights!