******Official 2017 Free Dining Plan Watch, Wait, and Dream

[KNovacovschi]

I read on a blog I think Disney tourist that the BB offer coincides with FD dates and are off by maybe a week later

Which would make sense as the general public offer is usually pretty close to what the BB was.

 

[KimBean]

Hi neighbour! I drove with my parents to WDW as a kid too! We have driven down with our 3 kiddos 3 times before to WDW and it's really not that bad.

Well I feel left out but I will be the one to get us in off topic trouble. Lol. We drive. Atlanta here so no biggie. We leave at 4am and get there by lunch at resort or Disney springs.

 

[KNovacovschi]

If your friend wants to sit with you they should purchase the EB check-in also. It is unfair to others on your flight to save seats when the option to purchase the EB check-in is available to all. I'm guessing it might also be your 11 yo who has to keep telling adults they can't sit in an (available) seat because it's 'saved.' Unfair. Just do the right thing and purchase EB check-in for all.

I've actually seen flight attendants tell people they couldn't save seats for others. Those people are never happy and I feel bad for the flight attendant.

 

[DiaryofaDisneyKid]

Well I feel left out but I will be the one to get us in off topic trouble. Lol. We drive. Atlanta here so no biggie. We leave at 4am and get there by lunch at resort or Disney springs.

Don't worry this thread is always off topic. Especially the night FD is released, we have to keep each other up!

 

[KimBean]

Since last night in phone and computer if I do a room search I can get about 2 pages into booking a reservation and then get:

Service Unavailable - Zero size object

 

[Annam3]

Since last night in phone and computer if I do a room search I can get about 2 pages into booking a reservation and then get:

Service Unavailable - Zero size object

That has been happening to me too. I switched browsers.

 

[Annam3]

That has been happening to me too. I switched browsers.

Firefox seems to be working much better than Safari.

 

[JackieO]

Well I feel left out but I will be the one to get us in off topic trouble. Lol. We drive. Atlanta here so no biggie. We leave at 4am and get there by lunch at resort or Disney springs.

If I wanted to keep getting notifications about how you get to Disney I'd follow that thread....

KIDDING

I'm refreshing this page all day long and I'm glad to see new comments, whatever they are.

 

[goldnvalli]

I can't say they do or not, but I know I check kayak and other sites daily from my IPad and have always gotten the best prices. In fact last year I got tickets from Bangor to Orlando for $250 round trip on United. I often will check prices from my work computer and they are the same. I watch the prices go down T-Th usually and rise in the other days. As much as I check my prices should always be the highest if this was happening I would think. The tickets I got were hovering around $350-380 for weeks.....dropped for a few days and then were back up. Supply and demand it would seem to still be the way. I cross reference often with the actual airline sites and they will be dead on.

I use Kayak too and I look at one way flights. I find that when I book 2 one ways flights i save money. We are going to south florida next month and I booked 2 different airlines from 2 different airports. We live in NYC and have an option of 3 different airports.

 

[MickeyPlanning]

I am planning a trip for my family of 4 for November 16-22. We have gone one other time but I am planning things out much better this time around. It is also my son's 7th birthday this trip. I have a few questions..

Are there usually FD rooms available at Contemporary?- we are booked in a garden room currently

Is the upgrade to Deluxe worth it? We are planning to do CRT, BOG (if we can), Polynesian show, TS each night, Chef Mickey's Breakfast and probably a few other character breakfasts (maybe Garden Grill, Crystal Palace?). It seems like the upgrade cost may be less than paying the extra out of pocket. Does anyone have experience with this?

Are there any special dining experiences for boys birthday at MK? We will be there on his birthday and are currently thinking BOG, but I have heard near impossible to get.

Also, is it miserably crowded the weekend through the Tuesday before Thanksgiving?

Thanks for any help!

 

[v0mich01]

Ok, so this is our first time doing disney. Its my, my husband, our 2 year old, and in laws. We're currently booked two rooms at CBR for 11/25-12/2 with the $75 gift per night. All booked through a travel agent, who holds the reservation. I'm thinking that when FD is announced, I may book a back up reservation at our back up resort(a 1 br villa at Kidani Village with a Savanna view). I'm having a little bit of a hard time, so I guess opinions are welcome.

If we don't get FD at CBR, we can use the giftcards, and would only end up spending about $600 OOP to cover the difference(only!) but my back of resort will cost me $700 more than that(and is 1 less night). But I Kinda have the opinion that if I can't get free dining at CBR, but could swap to another resort with free dining, and no construction mess -- well, that might be worth it. Plus my in-laws said they're probably not going to do the park nearly as much as we are, so it'd be nice to have a nice resort for them to hang out at, and not deal with potential construction noise.

 

[JennJ84]

I am planning a trip for my family of 4 for November 16-22. We have gone one other time but I am planning things out much better this time around. It is also my son's 7th birthday this trip. I have a few questions..

Are there usually FD rooms available at Contemporary?- we are booked in a garden room currently

Is the upgrade to Deluxe worth it? We are planning to do CRT, BOG (if we can), Polynesian show, TS each night, Chef Mickey's Breakfast and probably a few other character breakfasts (maybe Garden Grill, Crystal Palace?). It seems like the upgrade cost may be less than paying the extra out of pocket. Does anyone have experience with this?

Are there any special dining experiences for boys birthday at MK? We will be there on his birthday and are currently thinking BOG, but I have heard near impossible to get.

Also, is it miserably crowded the weekend through the Tuesday before Thanksgiving?

Thanks for any help!

We are a family of seven and we always get the Disney Dining Plan. We find that the Delux is not worth it for us. We rarely take the time to do a sit done for every meal and we usually only eat like two meals with snacks in between. We are also the type that gets up later, has lunch at food court and then heads to the parks and are out until 1am. So for us, the extra money is not worth it. W use our one sit down meal that comes with the Disney Dining Plan at a restaurant like BOG for dinner each day. It just depends how you like to do Disney I think.

 

[Elsaalltheway]

Just an FYI, since it could affect peoples dates, there are rumors Splash Mountain will be down for refurbishment Aug 28-Nov 16 in preparation for the 50th anniversary! I'm bummed out, but I guess in the big scheme of things, its one of the rides I would be least upset about missing, because I have been on the one at Disneyland many many times.

https://www.disboards.com/threads/splash-mountain-refurb-august-28-november-16-2017.3592241/

But its a longer ride at DW. My brother told me this last night and I'm totally bummed. Im taking two newbies and I wanted them to see the difference.

 

[DisTXMom]

Ok, so this is our first time doing disney. Its my, my husband, our 2 year old, and in laws. We're currently booked two rooms at CBR for 11/25-12/2 with the $75 gift per night. All booked through a travel agent, who holds the reservation. I'm thinking that when FD is announced, I may book a back up reservation at our back up resort(a 1 br villa at Kidani Village with a Savanna view). I'm having a little bit of a hard time, so I guess opinions are welcome.

If we don't get FD at CBR, we can use the giftcards, and would only end up spending about $600 OOP to cover the difference(only!) but my back of resort will cost me $700 more than that(and is 1 less night). But I Kinda have the opinion that if I can't get free dining at CBR, but could swap to another resort with free dining, and no construction mess -- well, that might be worth it. Plus my in-laws said they're probably not going to do the park nearly as much as we are, so it'd be nice to have a nice resort for them to hang out at, and not deal with potential construction noise.

Personally, I would not stay at CBR for your first visit. Even with the $75 and possible free dining. It's your FIRST visit. Think you'd like to experience a hotel that is fully functioning on your first time to Disney. Just my two cents. Hope you have a wonderful time!

 

[MickeyPlanning]

We are a family of seven and we always get the Disney Dining Plan. We find that the Delux is not worth it for us. We rarely take the time to do a sit done for every meal and we usually only eat like two meals with snacks in between. We are also the type that gets up later, has lunch at food court and then heads to the parks and are out until 1am. So for us, the extra money is not worth it. W use our one sit down meal that comes with the Disney Dining Plan at a restaurant like BOG for dinner each day. It just depends how you like to do Disney I think.

Thanks! My 2 kids are early risers, 6 am usually. So we will be doing some TS breakfasts before the parks open, not everyday, but we figured at least a few for characters. We also will want to sit down and have dinner most nights. For lunch TS meals are probably not what we will be doing unless that is the only time we can get like a CRT res. or something

 

[mikesteffen]

So I am getting into this thread late. Has there been any rumors about when FD will drop? Or are we just assuming the same date as last year?

 

[v0mich01]

CBR was the resort I wanted originally. I know its late nov/early december, but I wanted a pool with zero entry for my 2 year old, in case we end up swimming. And I think(correct me if I'm wrong) its the only moderate with a zero entry. So then I looked at values, and we could do a family suite at AoA, but I'm not sure about the size of it. So then that brings us to deluxes, and the cheapest way for us to get in there is the kidani village 1 br, I guess I could do standard view, but to me it would be amazing for my son, and even for my inlaws, who may be hanging around the villa a bit more, to have that amazing view.

Personally, I would not stay at CBR for your first visit. Even with the $75 and possible free dining. It's your FIRST visit. Think you'd like to experience a hotel that is fully functioning on your first time to Disney. Just my two cents. Hope you have a wonderful time!

 

[Azjenn]

Ok, so this is our first time doing disney. Its my, my husband, our 2 year old, and in laws. We're currently booked two rooms at CBR for 11/25-12/2 with the $75 gift per night. All booked through a travel agent, who holds the reservation. I'm thinking that when FD is announced, I may book a back up reservation at our back up resort(a 1 br villa at Kidani Village with a Savanna view). I'm having a little bit of a hard time, so I guess opinions are welcome.

If we don't get FD at CBR, we can use the giftcards, and would only end up spending about $600 OOP to cover the difference(only!) but my back of resort will cost me $700 more than that(and is 1 less night). But I Kinda have the opinion that if I can't get free dining at CBR, but could swap to another resort with free dining, and no construction mess -- well, that might be worth it. Plus my in-laws said they're probably not going to do the park nearly as much as we are, so it'd be nice to have a nice resort for them to hang out at, and not deal with potential construction noise.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I believe villas are usually excluded from the free dining offers

 

[jlundeen]

I am planning a trip for my family of 4 for November 16-22. We have gone one other time but I am planning things out much better this time around. It is also my son's 7th birthday this trip. I have a few questions..

Are there usually FD rooms available at Contemporary?- we are booked in a garden room currently

Is the upgrade to Deluxe worth it? We are planning to do CRT, BOG (if we can), Polynesian show, TS each night, Chef Mickey's Breakfast and probably a few other character breakfasts (maybe Garden Grill, Crystal Palace?). It seems like the upgrade cost may be less than paying the extra out of pocket. Does anyone have experience with this?

Are there any special dining experiences for boys birthday at MK? We will be there on his birthday and are currently thinking BOG, but I have heard near impossible to get.

Also, is it miserably crowded the weekend through the Tuesday before Thanksgiving?

Thanks for any help!

The one time we upgraded to the Deluxe meal plan was when we (hubby and &) sprung for Beach Club rooms for us, our DS and DIL, and DD and SIL - (3 Garden Rooms). We knew that we'd probably start out together, and do at least dinner together every day, but we wanted to not have everyone worry about how many of which kinds of credits we had left - it just made life much easier to not have to worry about it. But this was a special trip, and cost wasn't the top factor.

Usually, I do a spreadsheet and try to estimate where we think we'd be eating, and how much it would cost out of pocket vs. on the DDP, and also on the Dlx plan. Usually, the regular DDP works out best for us, but every trip is different. (Remember on the dining plans, the taxes are already built in, but tips are not).

So, my advice for you is to try to plan it out, at least at a high level - look at the different menus to get an idea of what costs would be, and then you can figure out the best plan for your family. With a lot of 2TS meals, it might be less for the Dlx Plan in the long run, but you won't know until you do the math

 

[Elsaalltheway]

Ok, so this is our first time doing disney. Its my, my husband, our 2 year old, and in laws. We're currently booked two rooms at CBR for 11/25-12/2 with the $75 gift per night. All booked through a travel agent, who holds the reservation. I'm thinking that when FD is announced, I may book a back up reservation at our back up resort(a 1 br villa at Kidani Village with a Savanna view). I'm having a little bit of a hard time, so I guess opinions are welcome.

If we don't get FD at CBR, we can use the giftcards, and would only end up spending about $600 OOP to cover the difference(only!) but my back of resort will cost me $700 more than that(and is 1 less night). But I Kinda have the opinion that if I can't get free dining at CBR, but could swap to another resort with free dining, and no construction mess -- well, that might be worth it. Plus my in-laws said they're probably not going to do the park nearly as much as we are, so it'd be nice to have a nice resort for them to hang out at, and not deal with potential construction noise.

I would ask suggestions from the Inlaws on where they would want to stay. I would also suggest something close to Disney Springs. maybe something on that water way. I don't know if POR or POFQ will be offered at that time, but at least Disney Springs would give them something to do.