Making a reservation in hopes of free dining?

[anorman]

I am looking at travelling to WDW next August 2017 mid to late month. Is there any point in booking a package deal now when I am hoping to be able to avail of a free dining promotion? Or should I just wait until it is offered?

According to this years 2017 bounceback offer it looks likely (if the pattern holds) that free dining will be available for the dates I am looking at. Should I book a package deal? Is there any point in including the dining plan if I only intend to cancel it should free dining be offered? I will, if I have to, pay for the dining plan should free dining not be offered but free stuff is always good, right? Can I add free dining to an already existing reservation if I have the dining plan included or, conversely, not included?

Thanks. Any and all advice is welcome.

 

[rteetz]

Booking a room now does not mean that room you book will be eligible for free dining. If free dining does happen they would have to rebook that room you already booked. Disney has increased the requirements on free dining as well. You might even book at a resort that won't get free dining at all. You can't just add free dining.

 

[anorman]

If I follow what the bounceback offer outlines though is there any advantage? For instance, not at any of the excluded resorts such as French Quarter, etc.

 

[Moliphino]

I think the only benefit would be for booking ADRs if they don't announce free dining until within 180 days of your dates (which they very well might not, I made a dummy reservation this year for September so I could get a BOG dinner ADR because free dining wasn't released yet). I don't think they usually let you add on free dining to an existing reservation, whether it includes the dining plan or not.

 

[Roxyfire]

I would reserve something you are willing to pay for without a free dining promotion and not adding a dining plan now. Keep in mind if you rebook later using a promotion, you could pay more for tickets or room rates if there are any increases.

 

[Accident]

A specific discount is always a dilemma I face when I go to book a trip. On one side, I want to lock in my trip as soon as I can so I can get everything else lined up like travel and work time off. On the other hand, the discounts I wait for happen rather close to when I want to travel. Discounts are also a way to get more people to come to the world so the more people that are booked, the less likely or less lucrative a discount will be.

you sound like your far enough away that waiting isn't a huge deal. it's the rooms that aren't filling up that get the discount so I would try to not help fill them up so you have a chance to get both the discount you want and the room you want. Otherwise, book the vacation your ok with paying with no discount and apply whatever discounts you can..

Also did you ever do the math on if the free dining plan actually saved you money? It might also be worthwhile to use an amazing travel agent so they can monitor this stuff for you and do their best to keep the vacation how you want it. The good ones will tell you when they can change your reservation to save you money.

 

[wilkeliza]

The biggest issue of booking with out a promotion announced is that the more people who do that the less incentive Disney has to offer the promotion.

Bouncebacks can't really be used to gauge what is going to be offered to the general public as they are used to entice repeat visits. The idea is while you are on a Disney high to get you to book again before you have time to really think it over.
Free Dinning promos are to fill empty rooms during the slow season that couldn't be filled with bouncebacks or regular new bookings.

Also a reservation barely gives you a 180 day advantage. Anyone can book on the rolling 180 with out a reservation the only leg up having a resort reservation gets you is the length of stay addition so it is 180+ the length of stay opens on your 180 from check in.

Outside of that if you are going to do it make sure you are either okay not getting free dinning or won't be suckered into booking a higher class or resort then you originally planned to spend with the idea that free dinning will save you even though you are now paying more for your vacation then you had originally budgeted.

 

[Accident]

@wilkeliza has a much better way to describe what I was trying to carefully say I'll have to borrow that in the future.

 

[wilkeliza]

@wilkeliza has a much better way to describe what I was trying to carefully say I'll have to borrow that in the future.

I've had to explain it so many times that there is kind of a spiel haha. Also I always shake my head when people say but for only 15 more a day then my full package I was able to get a resort upgrade or the standard dinning plan instead of quick service or whatever added thing and I think that's great but now that's 15 less a day for something else or your going over budget. There is a hand off.

We also don't even do free dinning any more because we realized we often don't order dessert as we would rather have the desserts later while walking around then those packaged cheese cakes or cookies that are all too common at quick service.

 

[monorailrabbit]

I would reserve something you are willing to pay for without a free dining promotion and not adding a dining plan now. Keep in mind if you rebook later using a promotion, you could pay more for tickets or room rates if there are any increases.

This. If we aren't okay paying the package as is, we don't book it. That way, any promotions that may come after are gravy, but we don't panic if we don't get one. We always book as soon as we know what dates we want to go, just because we need to nail down PTO and such. For what it's worth, we've always been able to change our ressies very easy to get FD.

 

[Accident]

We also don't even do free dinning any more because we realized we often don't order dessert as we would rather have the desserts later while walking around then those packaged cheese cakes or cookies that are all too common at quick service.

It was a combination of not being able to tell if free food saved me money and how I was paying much more in gratuity than if I was paying out of pocket. once you factor in gratuity it becomes obvious how we eat didn't save money. Although it was really a spontaneous 48 hour from booking to check in trip that dining plan wasn't available to us when we really got to see how much money we wasted.. Then we started to look closer at what free dining really costed us and saw it was just a way to overspend for the same thing we wanted if we didn't get it.

We also like all the little snacks you can find and like to skip desert (and usually appetizers or not 1 per person) and walk around and enjoy the little things out there.

 

[anorman]

This. If we aren't okay paying the package as is, we don't book it. That way, any promotions that may come after are gravy, but we don't panic if we don't get one. We always book as soon as we know what dates we want to go, just because we need to nail down PTO and such. For what it's worth, we've always been able to change our ressies very easy to get FD.

Have you changed your ressie using a travel agent or directly through Disney? I have booked online myself in the past but never had to apply a promotion to an existing ressie before.

It was a combination of not being able to tell if free food saved me money and how I was paying much more in gratuity than if I was paying out of pocket. once you factor in gratuity it becomes obvious how we eat didn't save money. Although it was really a spontaneous 48 hour from booking to check in trip that dining plan wasn't available to us when we really got to see how much money we wasted.. Then we started to look closer at what free dining really costed us and saw it was just a way to overspend for the same thing we wanted if we didn't get it.

We also like all the little snacks you can find and like to skip desert (and usually appetizers or not 1 per person) and walk around and enjoy the little things out there.

We are a family of four (two teenagers) so the free dining offer does actually save us money. Plus it gets us in through the door of restaurants we might not otherwise go to because of sticker shock . Also skipping dessert is not an option with my two girls...lol!

 

[mickeynut1]

I am looking at travelling to WDW next August 2017 mid to late month. Is there any point in booking a package deal now when I am hoping to be able to avail of a free dining promotion? Or should I just wait until it is offered?

According to this years 2017 bounceback offer it looks likely (if the pattern holds) that free dining will be available for the dates I am looking at. Should I book a package deal? Is there any point in including the dining plan if I only intend to cancel it should free dining be offered? I will, if I have to, pay for the dining plan should free dining not be offered but free stuff is always good, right? Can I add free dining to an already existing reservation if I have the dining plan included or, conversely, not included?

Thanks. Any and all advice is welcome.

Disney offers discounts to fill rooms, so as others have posted, booking now in hopes of FD isn't the best strategy as that's one less room Disney needs to fill. If you will go regardless of whether or not FD (or another discount) is offered, I'd book now to make sure you get what you want. If your trip is dependent on a discount, I'd wait to see what (if any) discounts come out before booking. The FD discount can be added to an existing reservation (pending availability) if you already have a package booked. Keep in mind that what you have booked must be available under the discount in order to have it applied. Also, if you have a RO reservation and want a package (FD or pay for dining), the RO will have to be cancelled/refunded and a package booked, requiring a new deposit (this goes for changing from packages to RO, too). Since RO and packages are different reservation systems, money paid toward one cannot be applied to the other.

If I follow what the bounceback offer outlines though is there any advantage? For instance, not at any of the excluded resorts such as French Quarter, etc.

There's really no advantage. Booking now in hopes of a discount fills rooms, so if resorts are at/near capacity, Disney will see no need to offer discounts.

 

[monorailrabbit]

Have you changed your ressie using a travel agent or directly through Disney? I have booked online myself in the past but never had to apply a promotion to an existing ressie before.



We are a family of four (two teenagers) so the free dining offer does actually save us money. Plus it gets us in through the door of restaurants we might not otherwise go to because of sticker shock . Also skipping dessert is not an option with my two girls...lol!

We never use a TA - we book ourselves. We call and get the FD promo when it comes out, or change our ressie online. You don't exactly apply it, you have to rebook with the promo - but all of your payments and stuff apply with it. I feel like I'm not explaining it super well, haha, but we do this every year and never have trouble.

 

[anorman]

We never use a TA - we book ourselves. We call and get the FD promo when it comes out, or change our ressie online. You don't exactly apply it, you have to rebook with the promo - but all of your payments and stuff apply with it. I feel like I'm not explaining it super well, haha, but we do this every year and never have trouble.

Thanks!