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

[Elsaalltheway]

Howdy, neighbor! I've lived in OK for almost 4 years now. I've learned the entire OK school system is one sad, sorry joke for the most part. I'm just glad I don't have to worry about it and feel bad for those that do. With that said... OK, rant over. LOL

I guess its all where you live. I'm from Oregon originally and when I was 17 and a Sr I missed the first week of school due to a trip to Disneyland. I missed a total of 17 days that year, never had anything happen. Now my cousin misses five and his parents get calls...But now I live in AZ and they get out of school in may and go back in July. Ugh I would have hated that, but I don't know about how much school you can miss. I think its just as bad because I've heard my neighbor have to get Dr excuses for her daughter. The problem with a lot of schools now is that they teach to pass those standardized tests. Schools have changed a LOT since I was a kid. I think taking your kids on trips is important. It shows the children how to interact in society, DisneyWorld introduces them to so many different people and lands and cultures. I think its a great thing.

 

[scrappinginontario]

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.

We fly with Southwest a few times each year. Booking opening day is normally the least expensive the flights will be...until you get about 6 weeks prior to your trip and sometimes they go down at that time to fill up the empty seats. With Southwest I recommend booking the day flights are released whenever possible.

 

[NicoleLarson]

When we lived in GA, they had the 5 day rule too. My DD was in kindergarten and had missed 4 days (2 different disney trips), we got a letter saying if you miss more than 5 we could face jail time. I felt that was pretty severe. In FL we fill out a form notifying them that we will be missing school and they either approve or disapprove. I don't know anyone that it didn't get approved and some are upwards of 10 days.

On a completely different note, I got amazing news on our FD bounce back from last year. We booked CSR business class and since they demolished that building we got moved. We got moved to BC club level!!!!!!! I'm beyond excited and so thankful that I made that reservation at the last minute!

 

[ThistleMae]

when you price any airline, you should do it under the "incognito" setting on your computer. For some reason, the airline sites store info of you checking already and each subsequent time you check the price goes up. I read this on a travel site once, and it's true.

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.

 

[DisneyLifePapioNe]

That's awesome...you should go buy a lottery ticket also!!!

When we lived in GA, they had the 5 day rule too. My DD was in kindergarten and had missed 4 days (2 different disney trips), we got a letter saying if you miss more than 5 we could face jail time. I felt that was pretty severe. In FL we fill out a form notifying them that we will be missing school and they either approve or disapprove. I don't know anyone that it didn't get approved and some are upwards of 10 days.

On a completely different note, I got amazing news on our FD bounce back from last year. We booked CSR business class and since they demolished that building we got moved. We got moved to BC club level!!!!!!! I'm beyond excited and so thankful that I made that reservation at the last minute!

 

[Elsaalltheway]

Does anyone have the costs from last years free dining?

I know that we booked our bounce back and it went up 200 and that was going from a preferred room to a standard room.

 

[ThistleMae]

We got tickets for $ 325 for July Disney trip, but that was from a diff. state, RI. Staying at my cousins before we go.

 

[smallworldnh]

We got tickets for $ 325 for July Disney trip, but that was from a diff. state, RI. Staying at my cousins before we go.

I just booked this morning with SW, non stop on 9/21 from Manchester, NH to Orlando for 132.00. This is one way, I haven't booked my return trip yet.

 

[Jellybass]

Yup, we are leaving from Manchester on the 24th, almost the same price but the return on Sept 2 is 313.

 

[Elsaalltheway]

We got tickets for $ 325 for July Disney trip, but that was from a diff. state, RI. Staying at my cousins before we go.

Airline tickets are awful from here too. I'm in AZ and I expect to pay around 500 per ticket. We take a read eye there so we get the full day use of our arrival day. But tickets do fluctuate. I wish expedia brought back their price matching. That if you booked your flight and found it cheaper, they would match the price, but alas, not to be. Oh well. I had a voucher i had to use anyway.

 

[TropicalDIS]

I guess its all where you live. I'm from Oregon originally and when I was 17 and a Sr I missed the first week of school due to a trip to Disneyland. I missed a total of 17 days that year, never had anything happen. Now my cousin misses five and his parents get calls...But now I live in AZ and they get out of school in may and go back in July. Ugh I would have hated that, but I don't know about how much school you can miss. I think its just as bad because I've heard my neighbor have to get Dr excuses for her daughter. The problem with a lot of schools now is that they teach to pass those standardized tests. Schools have changed a LOT since I was a kid. I think taking your kids on trips is important. It shows the children how to interact in society, DisneyWorld introduces them to so many different people and lands and cultures. I think its a great thing.

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.

 

[scard192]

We got tickets for $ 325 for July Disney trip, but that was from a diff. state, RI. Staying at my cousins before we go.

we paid $341 rt PVD-MCO last November; our return flight was that Saturday before Thanksgiving which made the return more expensive.

 

[kindle&wine]

 

[sharonabe]

Does anyone have the costs from last years free dining?

I'm not sure what you're asking. The dining plan is free, but you have to pay full rack rate at whatever resort you stay and book the type room that is available for your dates and your party. You also have to purchase the type ticket that is required. In the past, it was at least a two-day, park hopper ticket. So the cost of free dining is different for everyone.

 

[FoxC63]

my sons teacher (he was in 3rd grade) would send about 14 pages front and back of work for him to do.

This too happened to our son when we got back, I made a few calls to my friends (their kids are in my sons class) and compared the assignments, turned out the teacher gave my son a lot more work than what the students actually did, she also gave him a quiz the first day back at school. I confronted her with the principal and she took the "extra" sheets back and he was allowed to retake the quiz.
Our school policy states per one day missed your child has TWO days to make up the work and once completed can then be tested.

EDIT: I never bring homework when we travel. It's a vacation.

 

[mommajo143]

There have been times you might be able to decrease the amount of days missed if you can catch the end of a booking period around a holiday, I'd have to go back and look but I think in December it might have been the 10th to the 20th or so if you check in on the last day of the offer you still get free dining for the length of your stay, then they might only miss 2-3 days?

We do this - there are always random days - teacher training etc... this year we booked 9/1-9/10. We will fly out the afternoon of 9/1 (won't miss school) & Monday is LABOR day ergo only 4 days absent

 

[timtennille22]

I spoke to my children's physician, and she just wrote me a note. It was a workaround.

I have an awesome pediatrician who is a fellow Disney addict. She tells me to call when we go and she writes a Dr excuse for both my boys. Both are honor roll students. We love going in the fall. My oldest son will be starting college this fall so he won's be going on this trip. So that will be different this time.

 

[Attracted to Beasts]

Southwest's fares are crazy! The day they released Long Island-MCO was $143 each way which I thought was rather high....now it's over $200!! I can't book though because I'm not sure if we're going to be flying out of Long Island, Baltimore, or D.C./Reagan or Dulles!!! DH better find out soon about this job it's killing me! On a positive note we lived in Baltimore for 14 years and since it's Southwests hub fares a usually very cheap! Hopefully they stay low!

 

[Attracted to Beasts]

Does anyone have the costs from last years free dining?

I booked a WL standard BB last year for late August and if I put in the exact same info today it's about $200 more for the same thing.

 

[Lesley Wake]

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.

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