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

[amytaylor2]

If you do that though, will you lose any ADR's made? Or can you transfer those to a different reservation?

ADR's aren't connected to your resort reservation. They would be fine.

 

[Attracted to Beasts]

If you do that though, will you lose any ADR's made? Or can you transfer those to a different reservation?

No, you won't lose any ADRs. This is actually my plan..I have a FD BB but I may need to change it so if I dont know what I'm doing by the time general FD is released I'm just booking a second reservation and canceling the other one. I currently have ADRs made for 2 different weeks also-so yes, I am being an annoying ADR hoarder but it's hard when you don't know exactly what you're doing! I have 4 different ohana reservations! I'm THAT person! Lol

 

[HBouchard]

If I do a bounce back next year, can i change resorts or do I have to stay at the same resort?

 

[ENJDisneyFan]

If you do that though, will you lose any ADR's made? Or can you transfer those to a different reservation?

You won't lose ADRs. They are not tied to your reservation.

 

[Susan Doeberl]

I found that Delta was cheaper than Southwest but they also don't have a straight flight so you do have to change planes. I don't mind changing planes if it saves me some money.

 

[tchull]

Just wanted to chime in and say thank you all for the great information! I finally talked my husband into a fall trip with the incentive of getting free dining. (He's not a huge fan of Disney or spending money! lol) My daughter and I love it and couldn't be more excited. I'm stressing now over getting in on the promotion before rooms sell out. We already have a package booked at CSR, but have flexible dates. Thanks for all of the great tips and I'll be watching this thread in anticipation. Just wanted to confirm...when it goes live online is that usually around 4:00 a.m. eastern time?

 

[Disneylover99]

If I do a bounce back next year, can i change resorts or do I have to stay at the same resort?

You can change if there is availability based on the bb promotion to change it.

 

[Attracted to Beasts]

If I do a bounce back next year, can i change resorts or do I have to stay at the same resort?

You can change as long as there's availability

 

[Jaime4004]

Yes, I suspected this as well. I never sign in when I check. And...I did see hardly any nonstop flights when checking July dates. I never know when to purchase tickets...and waiting for FD dates just messes things up royally. I always just plan on spending $ 400.00 a ticket, that way I'm not stressed about it. This is from NH to Orlando.

Yikes! We're going to FL in april from NH and the flights were crazy. We're actually flying from providence (1.5 hrs away, not happy about that). Also doing a WDW trip in August (SW used to be affordable then) but they are high this year. If it doesn't come down, we'll drive. I refuse to pay more than about $275 round trip.

We have a BB booked at POR in August. I'm stalking this sight just for fun, used it 2 years ago to book our FD trip and it was very useful.

 

[HBouchard]

Anyone else flying Southwest? Have you noticed the $ & points jumping up a lot recently?? I was holding off hoping for new flights to be added or price to go down again but they just keep going up! Ugh.

We are booked at Disney last week in Aug.

I am flying Southwest in September and got flights for $98.00 each way. That was a good price for me, it's a direct flight too!

 

[Party.Of.4-NY>>>FL]

thanks goldnvalli and ustasmom. My trip is in Nov., so I think I'll be good.

Just keep in mind that if you added the optional trip insurance, the insurance portion of your deposit is non-refundable. There may be a grace period of a few days where it is refundable but it is usually a very short period of time where that would be the case.

 

[12disneybee]

I found that Delta was cheaper than Southwest but they also don't have a straight flight so you do have to change planes. I don't mind changing planes if it saves me some money.

NO THANK you to lay overs, they can cause some serious delays when one plane is late etc...........................running between gates to get to your next terminal, NO THANK YOU.

 

[12disneybee]

I am flying Southwest in September and got flights for $98.00 each way. That was a good price for me, it's a direct flight too!

My flights for September dropped to $94 each way non stop last week and THIS WEEK DROPPED TO $86 each way non stop!!!!!! got my points refunded! whooooooo hooooooooooooooooo

 

[Elsaalltheway]

Ugh that out in may and back in july does not sound good, agreed!

I also couldn't agree with you more that taking children on trips, and exposing them to different walks of life is important, but why does that have to conflict and involve getting into disagreements with schools?

Kids have 2 weeks or so off at Christmas and over 2 months in the summer. I get that it's a busy time to go, but the option to take trips is always there.

Based on my experience, you're going to pull your kids out once or twice in their school career for vacations, that happens. It's more the 1 or 2 weeks every year that i don't quite follow.

I don't have kids yet, so maybe i don't understand, but just coming at this from a different point of view.

I don't have kids either, but why should adults have to base their vacations around their kids time off from school.

 

[Azjenn]

If I do a bounce back next year, can i change resorts or do I have to stay at the same resort?

As long as the resort you are wanting to book at is available in the bounce back offer you can book anywhere you want

 

[kindle&wine]

My flights for September dropped to $94 each way non stop last week and THIS WEEK DROPPED TO $86 each way non stop!!!!!! got my points refunded! whooooooo hooooooooooooooooo

lucky duck!

 

[Neeky78]

I booked last year through a representative and when I went in to modify it I didn't have a modified button so I called Disney and the representative told me that anytime that you book through a Disney representative or through a TA you will not have the modified button. I also saw on the free dining thread from last year that if you do not book on line then you won't have a modified button and through my own experience last year I found out that it is true so I ended up canceling my reservation last year and re-booking online and I had my modified button. Right now Disney is doing updates so if you did book online sometimes you have the modified button sometimes you don't on my reservation one time I'll check it's there one time it's not but once they get everything set the new modify button should be there.

I booked directly through MDE online and I've never had a modify button. I had to call to make a change to my reservation. All I had was a resort reservation, so very straightforward, but still no button.

I'm from Australia and I booked CBR during the renovation period, so maybe one of those things is the reason I've never had the ability to make changes online?

It says "modify" but when I click on it, it takes me to another page where it says I have to call.

 

[agassizsmile]

I truely believe the best option if you can afford to place a second deposit down is to just book a new reservation and then cancel the old one rather than trying to change or "modify" the existing reservation you have.
Reason being is if there is a glitch during checkout when trying to modify and it says you need to call you will most likely lose the FD package your trying to book as I believe an item is only held in your cart for 10 minutes.
Recently I was attempting to change my resort and encountered this problem so I called and the hold time was 40 minutes rather than wait and lose the room I wanted I hung up and booked a new reservation then called and cancelled the original reservation.
My refunded deposit for the cancelled reservation showed up in my account within 5 days.

But if u book new reservation you pay new ticket prices right? I booked before they increased.So if I book new reservation I lose my little savings on ticket prices. ..? Did the increase go up really high if its a small amount then I guess its ok.

 

[Neeky78]

I have some questions about free dining and getting an AP. We, just my DD 14 and I, are going for a two week trip Dec 14 - 28. We have never been at Christmas and want to soak up as much atmosphere as we can. Free dining would be a huge cost saver for us. I plan on buying annual passes so we have park access every day and an excuse to go next summer and possibly Halloween. I want to have the AP at lest 60 days prior so we can make FP choices. If I book the required tickets and have the AP, can I remove the tickets once I arrive and keep them for another trip or will that void the dining? Will my AP work for fastpass selection for the entire 14 days even with the other tickets on my MDE? Can I remove the tickets at the same time as activating the AP?

I believe you can upgrade your tickets to AP at any time between now and your trip, and even while you're in your trip, and only pay the difference it would have been if you bought AP originally (but at the current prices). Your Fastpasses would roll over as it's all linked.

So I guess you could buy the tickets needed for fd and get your fastpasses then call up and speak to someone on the phone about upgrading the tickets to AP. I can't see why they would take the fd away as you're spending more money with the AP They want AP holders as they're the regular income as they spend money at the parks and on accomodation on a regular basis.

I'm not an expert, but I asked a similar question when speaking on the phone to a CM and the bottomline was you could always upgrade your tickets easily, with no financial disadvantage, but not go "down" in ticket levels.

 

[Neeky78]

I am sorry if this has been asked, but I have already booked a vacation at ASM(including tickets) for late September but have not added any dining as of yet(still deciding which one to go with). My 180 days is coming up to book all of my dining reservations. I know once that first 180 day comes I can go ahead make reservations for my full stay(1 week). My question is, if or when free dining comes up and I go to "change" reservation will it mess up any of my dining reservations already made for that full week?

Dining is completely separate. The booking is under your name, not your resort reservation. The only way they are connected is that resort guests can book them sooner online, but anyone can make a booking after that time, even locals just wanting a nice dinner on a weekend.
Once the dates are available for booking anyone can call or go online and make a reservation as you do for any restaurant.