**Official December 2010 Thread!!**

[MamaJessie]

Hi all!

I don't post often (obviously) although I read the boards constantly, but I feel compelled to write and share (with people that I know share my excitement) that I just booked for December 2010! Free dining is just the icing on the cake, because I've wanted to see Disney at Christmastime for YEARS and finally get the chance to do it!

Looking forward to counting down with you all to a magical WDW holiday trip!

Hello fellow nutmegger!

So free dining. Ugh. I was all gung ho but then trying to change it ended up being a pain and gave me WAY too much time to reevaluate and I think I may just keep the 40% off pin. I must have messed up the original math because I thought there wasn't much of a price difference between the 40% and FD but actually there is a pretty big difference. I kind of like the thrill of finding a good off-site dining discount anyway

All this up and down planning is making me get more excited about going

 

[rabbitthecat]

Hello fellow nutmegger!

So free dining. Ugh. I was all gung ho but then trying to change it ended up being a pain and gave me WAY too much time to reevaluate and I think I may just keep the 40% off pin. I must have messed up the original math because I thought there wasn't much of a price difference between the 40% and FD but actually there is a pretty big difference. I kind of like the thrill of finding a good off-site dining discount anyway

All this up and down planning is making me get more excited about going

Ahoy, fellow nutmegger! Hot enough for you?

Yeah, I hear you on the FD issue. I just got lucky that our travel dates were flexible; otherwise I probably would have booked without a dining plan altogether. (dining plan math is pretty iffy when you eat mostly vegetarian, but with the plan being free the math is a little easier to swallow!). Truth be told I'd switch out free dining in a heartbeat if I could get a 40% off code for December; I am vowing one day to get back into CR! In the meantime, though, AKL at Christmastime with FD isn't half bad :

Good luck on finding off-site discounts - I agree, sometimes there is fun just in the hunt!

 

[snykymom]

Joining the party - got a PIN (thank you, CM for finding it for me!) and booked CSR for December 12-18. Looking forward to it!

 

[aimhi]

I received a pin which is a discount code either sent to your email or your home address. I was told to go onto Disneys website, log in and set up my hotel, my tickets, as well as dining and then click out of the page. Then a pop up shows up and asks why you left the page early - click that you felt you were not getting the best deal. I did this about 5 times and boom - I received a pin code in my email a week later, as well as one in my home mail. It was 40% off for select dates - room only discount.

The free dining offer is featured on the Disney website - so it is open on certain dates as well but its great! You get quick service for free but you can upgrade to the dining with the 1 table service, 1 quick and 1 snack for $10 each adult/each night and $2 each child/each night. I was going to do the Delux where you get 3 table service or quick service meals but its $50 each adult/each night and thats just too much money for my family.

Hope I answered your question =)

Thank you so much for everyones help I will look into all of this!

 

[TruBlu]

I hope I haven't made a huge mistake here...

For the same price as 7 nights at POFQ with dining (not free) I got 9 nights at Animal Kingdom Lodge, pool view (free dining). I'm not completely sure we can go 2 nights early. I'll have to get it OK'd with the school and sell our tickets to a play. SO... what happens if we can't actually go the 2 extra days? Can we pay for them anyway and just get there when we get there? It wont cost us any more than it would have to stay at POFQ anyway. I made the reservation, now I'm worried about it.

 

[2poohbears]

I have a question for a friend who is traveling with her family at the same time as us...

They are checking in on DEC 15 and checking out on DEC 24. She called to add the free dining to her ressie today, but they made her do 2 reservations... 1 from DEC 15 - 21 (with free dining & it includes all her park tickets), and one for DEC 22-24 (outside of the free dining period - so she has no dining plan for those days - it's booked as "room only")...

here is my question---Has anyone been able to book the free dining for their entire trip, even if only the beginning is during the free dining period? I always thought if you booked before free dining ended that you would get it for the entire stay.

 

[mrsksomeday]

Um, hi it is me again. mrsksomeday, the person that posted oh about a day ago that we weren't going in December anymore just in October . Well it seems I should have waited one more day because some of our DIS friends get to go in December now so the December portion of our trip is back on .

We are going Dec. 2nd - 10th staying at Pop Century, going to MVMCP on Dec. 2nd.

 

[TruBlu]

I hope I haven't made a huge mistake here...

For the same price as 7 nights at POFQ with dining (not free) I got 9 nights at Animal Kingdom Lodge, pool view (free dining). I'm not completely sure we can go 2 nights early. I'll have to get it OK'd with the school and sell our tickets to a play. SO... what happens if we can't actually go the 2 extra days? Can we pay for them anyway and just get there when we get there? It wont cost us any more than it would have to stay at POFQ anyway. I made the reservation, now I'm worried about it.

So, since I did this our dates and resort have changed.
We are now December 2-11 at Animal Kingdom Lodge.

 

[rebelbuddhist]

I have a question for a friend who is traveling with her family at the same time as us...

They are checking in on DEC 15 and checking out on DEC 24. She called to add the free dining to her ressie today, but they made her do 2 reservations... 1 from DEC 15 - 21 (with free dining & it includes all her park tickets), and one for DEC 22-24 (outside of the free dining period - so she has no dining plan for those days - it's booked as "room only")...

here is my question---Has anyone been able to book the free dining for their entire trip, even if only the beginning is during the free dining period? I always thought if you booked before free dining ended that you would get it for the entire stay.

We did... arriving 12/19 staying until 12/29 and got the free DP for the entire trip even though the dates are 12/10-12/21.

 

[PrincessSuzanne]

I have a question for a friend who is traveling with her family at the same time as us...

They are checking in on DEC 15 and checking out on DEC 24. She called to add the free dining to her ressie today, but they made her do 2 reservations... 1 from DEC 15 - 21 (with free dining & it includes all her park tickets), and one for DEC 22-24 (outside of the free dining period - so she has no dining plan for those days - it's booked as "room only")...

here is my question---Has anyone been able to book the free dining for their entire trip, even if only the beginning is during the free dining period? I always thought if you booked before free dining ended that you would get it for the entire stay.

She obviously got an inexperienced CM. She needs to call back, they did that ressie incorrectly. As long as her check in day is within the free dining period, she can get it for her entire stay.

We are going to be there Dec 23-26 and I thought about adding a few days and on the website, I can check in on Dec 21 and have free dining for the entire stay. Unfortunately I can't do those dates, so we are going to enjoy our 50% off at the Dolphin.

Suzanne

 

[2poohbears]

Thanks for responding so quickly. I told her I thought she should call back because normally you can get free dining through the whole trip. She actually talked to 2 CMs because she made changes after first booking it, and both split her ressie. weird. She will definitely be calling back!

 

[Lisadaa2]

Does anyone know: if you already have a packaged booked can they just add FD to it? Are there only so many rooms alloted where I may have to change hotels or room catagory? Also if booking through AAA, would I still recieve the 20% discount off the rooom and get FD too? Please help because I have called AAA and the agent I have dealt with is on vacation and the only other person has no idea what they are doing. All you Disers know alot more

 

[*Meagan*]

Hello fellow nutmegger!

Heyyy what part of CT r u from? I was born and raised in CT! just moved to the west coast in 2008!

 

[WUVmyDISNEY]

No FD here since we are spending most of our nights at the Dolphin but still excited! At least we did get a $100 food credit with the package we booked at Dolphin and I did get all of the ADRs I wanted.....just kept the cost down a little by booking for lunch instead of dinner.

Oh yeh..the other reason I am posting is cause I want to see my ticker!!

 

[nstem]

Does anyone know: if you already have a packaged booked can they just add FD to it? Are there only so many rooms alloted where I may have to change hotels or room catagory? Also if booking through AAA, would I still recieve the 20% discount off the rooom and get FD too? Please help because I have called AAA and the agent I have dealt with is on vacation and the only other person has no idea what they are doing. All you Disers know alot more

There are only a certain number of rooms but they can add free dining if it is available without you having to rebook. Disney only allows one discount, so you will give up the 20% off, sorry

 

[happenin2you]

So after discussing with my husband the options of just taking the discoount on the trip we already have booked or changing to a different hotel as a sort of upgrade and still paying the same price, we decided to stay with WL since we've heard it's the best place to be at Christmas. So now I need to have the FD applied to my ressie. Can anyone tell me the number I should be calling? I searched through my confirmation emails and I can't find a number anywhere.... Thanks!

 

[ThereYouSeeHer]

The Disney link to the free offer is here: http://bookwdw.reservations.disney....mo&promotionCode=fy10q4dine&market=fy10q4dine

It references the following information for calling: "Check availability to book your stay online now, or call (407) 939-7918† and ask for booking code TF5."

Hope this helps!

 

[mom2clr]

I got all caught up in the excitement of free dining that I was rethinking my room only reservation. But as I'm looking at the amount of food I would have to eat per day (by myself since my DD2 eats like a bird), it makes no sense for me. Maybe some day I will be able to join in all your excitement.

 

[exwdwcm]

Ok I was just reading through the pin threads. Thanks for the info!

But DVC members do not get the option for free dining I guess.. which is ridiculous if you ask me! Being part of the DVC costs a pretty penny its not like being a dvc owner is free...I would love to be offered free dining!

i know, it is a downer. We've used free dining twice now, once this past December and it was great, then we used it years ago back when the appetizers were included, it was a LOT of food! i felt like we ate our way through the vacation! We will miss free dining, but we do have a full kitchen in our room at BLT, so we will do at least one or two dinners there, as well as most breakfasts and a few lunches. I plan to get an AP (discounted about $100 for DVC members) and the TIW card, which will save us 20% off food/alcohol at most sit down places (only a few exclusions). I did the calculations and I think we save more using the TIW than we would by paying for the DDP. So that is what we plan to do.

Hooray!! Beth at DU emailed me all the info this morning about the free dining offer extension!! But, to get the new deal on dining we had to add ANOTHER day on our vacation!! We had to change our Savannah Room to a Savannah Bunk Bed room, does anyone know about them?

Okay so we already had to add a day on the end to see Steven Curtis Chapman and now a day on the start to EAT FREE!!! What a deal!!

The Bollengier 4 are definitely doin' the HAPPY DANCE all over Princeton, TX

yeah!!! Beth was my agent a few years ago too- she's great!

Hi all!

I don't post often (obviously) although I read the boards constantly, but I feel compelled to write and share (with people that I know share my excitement) that I just booked for December 2010! Free dining is just the icing on the cake, because I've wanted to see Disney at Christmastime for YEARS and finally get the chance to do it!

Looking forward to counting down with you all to a magical WDW holiday trip!

welcome!! and hope you post much more!

Joining the party - got a PIN (thank you, CM for finding it for me!) and booked CSR for December 12-18. Looking forward to it!

woo hoo! yeah for pixie dust!

I have a question for a friend who is traveling with her family at the same time as us...

They are checking in on DEC 15 and checking out on DEC 24. She called to add the free dining to her ressie today, but they made her do 2 reservations... 1 from DEC 15 - 21 (with free dining & it includes all her park tickets), and one for DEC 22-24 (outside of the free dining period - so she has no dining plan for those days - it's booked as "room only")...

here is my question---Has anyone been able to book the free dining for their entire trip, even if only the beginning is during the free dining period? I always thought if you booked before free dining ended that you would get it for the entire stay.

as others have suggested- i would have her call back over and over. It seems they have extended that courtesy to everyone else (extending the FD through length of stay as long as you check in during the eligible period). I swear you can call sometimes and get 5 different answers from 5 different CMs.

Um, hi it is me again. mrsksomeday, the person that posted oh about a day ago that we weren't going in December anymore just in October . Well it seems I should have waited one more day because some of our DIS friends get to go in December now so the December portion of our trip is back on .

We are going Dec. 2nd - 10th staying at Pop Century, going to MVMCP on Dec. 2nd.

yeah- welcome back!!! So are you doing October still? Is TnT coming again now? so glad you get to visit in the magical holiday season still!

 

[Tink Mick Koda Miles]

I'm sad I cant get the free dining since I rented DVC points for this trip but I cant really complain.. I paid $740 including paypal fees for 7 nights at Saratoga and AKV including two nights Sav. view. Im guessing thats still better.