planning for August trip with or without FD in advance. Am I correct in my logic?

[chris4disney]

We plan to go to Disney in mid-August for a 9 days staying at AKL. I have a small amount of hope that Free Dining could possibly be offered during our travel dates, but I know FD dates probably won't be announced until April. In the meantime our 180 days date for making ADR's would be in February, so I figured I would go ahead and just make my dining reservations in February with the assumption that we'd be booking our trip eventually with or without Free Dining.

But the more I thought about this, if I try to book ADR's 180 days out without any type of Room Reservation already booked, I will have to book ADR's one day at a time and miss out on the 180 day +10 benefit. And more than likely miss out on the hard time get ADR's.

So now I'm wondering... should I book a room only reservation for our desired check-in date in August so I can book ADR's 180 +10? And would this room only reservation need to be for 9 days if I'm wanting to make 9 days worth of ADR's? Or can it be a reservation for just one night while I wait to book a Free Dining package when/if it becomes available? Regardless of how many nights the room only reservation would be for, how much of a deposit to do I have to put down?

Does anyone see any issues with this plan that I'm not aware of? TIA!

 

[mi*vida*loca]

FD comes later in August. I'm not too sure about mid August.

I've always heard don't book anything since high bookings means less discounts.

 

[Parker Clan]

I wasn't aware of free dining being offered mid August ever. But I'm not expert hopefully someone else can chime in

 

[chris4disney]

According to Mousesavers website, last year the Free Dining was offered a week earlier to Disney Visa Card cardholders than to the General Public. I have a Disney Visa so I guess I was hoping that might happen again this year.

...COPIED FROM MOUSESAVERS...
Travel Dates 8/14/16-12/21/16 discounted package (“Free Dining”) for Disney Visa Card cardholders (blacked out 10/2/16-11/14/16, 11/22/16-11/25/16 and 11/29/16-12/9/16) 4/25/16, exp 7/8/16

Travel Dates 8/23/16-12/21/16 discounted package (“Free Dining”) for general public (blacked out 10/2/16-11/14/16, 11/22/16-11/25/16 and 11/29/16-12/9/16) 4/25/16, exp 7/8/16

 

[Disneylover99]

I would just book them one day at a time. What do you think you might be shut out of?

 

[chris4disney]

I would just book them one day at a time. What do you think you might be shut out of?

Well... for sure Be Our Guest. I think the rest I'm more concerned about getting crappy times.