New free dining offer yeaaah

[SarahD]

I honestly feel like crying... we check in Oct. 9. The very first blackout date.

I don't see anyway of working around it either. Flights are booked & there's $75 change fees on each ticket.

I've been waiting for months and months for FD to come out, knowing that the first day or two of our stay would be excluded because of Columbus Day but I was about 99.9% certain the majority of our stay would be covered. And now nothing is.

I seriously feel like crying! Money's saved, we're going regardless, but man that extra $500 or so would have been SO helpful.

If it's going to save you $500 - wouldn't it be worth it to pay the airline change fees? If you did, you'd be out the $225 for change fees (3 of you, right?) but still save $275 and have an extra day. Maybe I missed something, though.

 

[sukhakuli]

I've been reading you can pick up tickets up to 3 days before your package begins (please verify that with Disney, though, because there are conflicting reports). Would it be cheaper to add 3 days of tickets (for a total of 9 days) to your free dining package? I know you said you were getting a 4 day ticket, but since you can only get them 3 days early - maybe go to a waterpark or putt-putt one day instead of park? Just a thought.

They told me that you can't use your tickets early.

I ended up getting an 8 day. Now they are checking on the military resort discount for the first part of the trip.

 

[rossb]

Are you guys adding free dining to discounted room reservations or are you adding free dining to full priced packages? I'm reading that in some cases a room discount might be a better deal than adding FD to a rack room or full price package.

 

[Kristina]

I just put in a quote request with Dreams for a week at Pop with basic dining and now I can't wait to hear back obviously lol!! I'm so afraid that Pop will be full, and I'll get offered All Stars instead as I just love Pop and want to stay one last time before the new resort opens. So excited, at work, it's the middle of the night and I realised I could send a request with my iphone ))!!!
Now all I can do is wait .

 

[KEPE]

WOW, I couldn't keep up with the posts today.

Danny, THANK YOU AGAIN!!

Congrats to everyone who got what they wanted today!!!

Habsfan, your morning sounds just like mine!! Glad you got what you wanted.

So here is my story..... dialed in at 7 on the nose from the car on my way to work. At 7:45 lost the call when I got on the elevator. Dialed in again, no music and was going to hang up but many on the dis were having the same issue so I stayed on (THANK YOU ALL WHO WERE POSTING THIS MORNING). Got through at 8:50. CM was really nice and told me that FD was blacked out for my dates (10/22 - 10/29) and was not available until 10/30. He priced out my trip for 10/30 but those dates wouldn't work for me. So I hung up very dissappointed. Then on the dis (AGAIN THANK YOU!!!) everyone said it was finally up on WDW so I checked and low and behold the dates were 10/23 - 11/5. I called AGAIN, on hold for another 25 mins to get a wonderful CM who was able to book me for 10/22 room only and 10/23 - 10/29 package. She did tell me I couldn't pick up my park tickets until 10/23 (not sure if that is true or not) but we are not having a park day on 10/22 anyway so I was ok with it. She linked the ressies and I was on my way. I was able to upgrade to DXDP and STILL save about $270.

So a looooooong morning with lots of ups and downs but in the end.... WELL WORTH IT!!!

 

[SarahD]

They told me that you can't use your tickets early.

I ended up getting an 8 day. Now they are checking on the military resort discount for the first part of the trip.

There are several posts on this thread that contradict that. It sounds like to me that the reservation CMs aren't aware of the "up to 3 days early" policy. Can anyone provide the link to help out?

 

[KEPE]

Kristina, what are you dates? I can pop over to the WDW site and see if its available on line for you.

 

[Minnie_Mom]

For those of you asking about picking up tickets early, check out this thread...

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2772089

It might be helpful. Hopefully, CF, who working in ticketing at WDW, will post soon and clarify everything.

Good luck!

 

[k_fawver]

Shout out to my fabulous TA --- Susie at Small World Vacations!!!

She just emailed me and we saved over $900 on our trip with free dining. We were able to keep our original resort reservations and everything!

60 days and counting!

 

[mareeld86]

Ok so I obviously have a very strong Australian accent as I have received my confirmation for free dining and they have Spelt my name and address wrong do I just call up to get them to fix it??

 

[airowo112]

I had booked with the room discount about 2 weeks ago but couldn't get POFQ so booked PORS. Then I saw the post about the rumor.. was on chat at 7AM this morning and the agent said my dates fell into the right time frame to call. I was on hold for 1 hour and 6 mins (no music on hold but i wasn't giving up) and it was worth it.. I saved an additional $545 and was able to get back to POFQ. Going 10/6 till 10/12 so we get to do Food and Wine and get to do Not so Scary! Can't wait and thanks again for the trip.

 

[Buttercup2009]

Thank you Danny25 for the awesome heads up! I called at 7am on the dot this morning and was on hold for maybe 10 minutes and got the most wonderful CM Aeisha and got free dining for Nov. 5th - 11th! I didn't use a code or anything, I just said "I heard there was a free dining offer being released this morning and I would like to add it to my current reservation". She asked where I heard about the free dining offer and I said the disboards and she laughed. I'm so happy about this because it allowed us to upgrade from Pop to Port Orleans French Quarter. I'm so excited because I've never stayed there before or even been on the resort grounds before! November can't get here fast enough!

 

[Grumpy Grandma]

Thank you Danny25 for the awesome heads up! I called at 7am on the dot this morning and was on hold for maybe 10 minutes and got the most wonderful CM Aeisha and got free dining for Nov. 5th - 11th! I didn't use a code or anything, I just said "I heard there was a free dining offer being released this morning and I would like to add it to my current reservation". She asked where I heard about the free dining offer and I said the disboards and she laughed. I'm so happy about this because it allowed us to upgrade from Pop to Port Orleans French Quarter. I'm so excited because I've never stayed there before or even been on the resort grounds before! November can't get here fast enough!

It's a beautiful resort .... I've stayed at Riverside but always walk over to POFQ.

 

[kerplop]

Ok so I obviously have a very strong Australian accent as I have received my confirmation for free dining and they have Spelt my name and address wrong do I just call up to get them to fix it??

Yes just give them a call! Sooner the better.

 

[buckeev]

I have an off-the-wall question. Can I pay off my trip with Disney Gift cards or does it have to be credit or check?

ABSOLUTELY! (gift cards).
That's exactly how I've done it for the past two trips!

 

[KEPE]

It's so funny, everyone's different experiences. Some people were on hold for hours, others minutes. Some people got denied because of the "false" blackout dates and others had no issue from the start. When all is said and done I hope everyone got what they wanted. I think next time I'll avoid the 7 am rush and just wait until the afternoon.

 

[airowo112]

It's a beautiful resort .... I've stayed at Riverside but always walk over to POFQ.

you are going to love POFQ, we have stayed there before. not much for food choices but the transportation is the best only 1 bus stop for the entire resort. if you don't like to walk ask for building 4 or building 2 both are near the pool, food court and bus stop. if you like to be more remote and private building 7 is great closer to PORS but a walk to the pool and bus.. have a great trip. I am so excited i can't wait to get back. to get the resort you want to stay at and FD is AWSOME..

 

[nishijb]

ABSOLUTELY! (gift cards).
That's exactly how I've done it for the past two trips!

Is there a way of getting discounted Disney gift cards?

 

[habsfan71]

It's so funny, everyone's different experiences. Some people were on hold for hours, others minutes. Some people got denied because of the "false" blackout dates and others had no issue from the start. When all is said and done I hope everyone got what they wanted. I think next time I'll avoid the 7 am rush and just wait until the afternoon.

I agree. I spent 1.5 hours on hold and ended my call based on incorrect information from a CM on chat and conflicting dates from another site. I called later in the morning when I saw the dates on the Disney site, and was able to make the changes (same resort - POFQ, and same room category). I mentionned it to one of my co-workers who is also going during the FD period, and he was also able to make the change to his reservations.

 

[1tufgt]

It's so funny, everyone's different experiences. Some people were on hold for hours, others minutes. Some people got denied because of the "false" blackout dates and others had no issue from the start. When all is said and done I hope everyone got what they wanted. I think next time I'll avoid the 7 am rush and just wait until the afternoon.

Yeah I was on hold for like 30 mins with one number but the 939-7532 got me to a CM in like 5 mins. It was great.