Reservation Tips

[dakotix]

I'm hoping the answer to my question will lead to a helpful tip for everyone else. Like alot of people I am trying get the best deal when reserving my next disney trip. This year I am hoping to snag FD for the first time.

I have reserved CSR for January 9 for one week. I have also included in the reservation the dining plan. If FD is offered I will simply call and have them apply the offer to my reservation. In turn they will take the dining plan charge off my bill.

But what if they do not offer FD? I definitely do not want to pay for it because it works out better for my husband and I to just pay out of pocket for our food. Is it really necessary to have a dining plan attached to my reservation in order to take advantage of any upcoming FD offer?

 

[Tbiafore]

I am not sure I understand the question, but I will try and take a shot at what I think your asking...

If you want/need free dining, then dont book your trip until they offer it as you will never know if/when Disney will offer this so dont chance it if its a must or as you mention, just pay for your food out of pocket.

 

[mrsksomeday]

They can not upgrade a room only to a package with dining, they are two different reservation categories. They would have to cancel the room only and rebook a package resulting in you having to pay another deposit. They would refund the original deposit.

If you decided to go ahead and book do a package with dining. If the free dining doesn't happen they can take off the dining and keep the room and ticket purchase part of the package intact.

 

[aubriee]

You could do a pkg with just the room and park tickets. Leave the dining off until you see if free dining is going to be offered. Adding the park tickets will be enough to make it a package. However, be prepared to switch resorts or maybe even your dates. Free dining may not be offered for all resorts for your desired dates.

 

[fuzzlekins]

I just spoke to someone in reservations today because we're kind of in the same boat. Plus I was worried about the LM rooms being booked up if they do wind up offering FD during our stay. Her advice to me was to book the pkg with the dining and change it before we hit 45 days out, if necessary. When I asked her about likelihood that LM rooms would be included and when the '13 promos might be out, she said that she would expect them to come out b/w Sep and Nov. She also thought there was a decent chance that LM wouldn't be excluded since our week (early Feb) is one of the lowest attendance wks. Fingers crossed! If it is excluded, we'll move our reservation to another value resort. Incidentally, if you happen to have a Discover card, now is a great time to book your pkg. They're offering 5% back on theme parks (max of $75) through end of Sep. Rather than do the usual $200 deposit, I told her to do a $1500 deposit to take full advantage of the 5% back. It's still fully refundable. Then I can put the balance on a Disney Visa to earn 2% on that part when the time comes. I checked with Discover first since part of the pkg would not be tix, and the rep said it would indeed work and she would ensure it.