September trip booked, adding discount later?

[Elizabeth Hollaway]

We booked our first ever Disney vacation a few weeks ago. (YAY!! ) It's going to be myself, my husband, and our 2 children who will be 4 and 13 months. We booked with Disney for 7 nights in POP with 5 day magic your way tickets with the water parks and more option. We booked with the hope that free dining would be offered in the fall (I know not guaranteed, but it would be a nice bonus to not have to worry about the extra cost of food). Now that ticket prices have gone up it's my understanding that if they offer free dining, for us to add it on they would have to cancel our existing reservation and book a new one. My fear is that since we booked before the tickets went up that we'll now have to pay the new ticket price. Could anyone confirm this for me? I'm hoping that if this is the case they instead might offer a room discount for the fall (again, I know not a guarantee). If they do this is it possible to cancel the room portion of our package and re-book with the discount while keeping our current ticket prices?

 

[Marionnette]

We booked our first ever Disney vacation a few weeks ago. (YAY!! ) It's going to be myself, my husband, and our 2 children who will be 4 and 13 months. We booked with Disney for 7 nights in POP with 5 day magic your way tickets with the water parks and more option. We booked with the hope that free dining would be offered in the fall (I know not guaranteed, but it would be a nice bonus to not have to worry about the extra cost of food). Now that ticket prices have gone up it's my understanding that if they offer free dining, for us to add it on they would have to cancel our existing reservation and book a new one. My fear is that since we booked before the tickets went up that we'll now have to pay the new ticket price. Could anyone confirm this for me? I'm hoping that if this is the case they instead might offer a room discount for the fall (again, I know not a guarantee). If they do this is it possible to cancel the room portion of our package and re-book with the discount while keeping our current ticket prices?

Wow! No one answered you and this was posted 5 days ago!

If you were to re-book your trip under any new promotion that Disney offers, you will pay the new ticket prices.

You cannot cancel a portion of a package and keep the remainder of the package, so if you wanted to take advantage of a room-only discount instead of keeping your current reservation, even the tickets would be canceled.

It's a gamble. Disney may or may not offer *free* dining. If they do, it may not be the same form of *free* dining that has been offered in the past. And even if they do, will the increase in the cost of your tickets make it less affordable than your current package?

Are you willing to pay the full price of the package that you currently have? Do you want to gamble that *free* dining will still end up being cheaper (even with the ticket price increase)? Do you want to look for a ticket seller who still has inventory available at the old price (and hope for a good room-only discount)?

Unfortunately, you're at a point where you need to make a decision soon. Those tickets that are still available at the old price will not stick around forever. Once the seller deplete their old inventory, they begin selling at the newer prices.

 

[Elizabeth Hollaway]

Thank you for responding! I figured I should have posted this on a different board after the fact, but I stalk this board the most.

I had been saving up Disney gift cards prior to booking, but since it's our first trip to Disney and I'm still a newbie with all our purchasing options booking with Disney seemed like the easiest option, even if it wasn't the cheapest. If we were to re-book with Disney if they offered free dining, or any other discount for that matter we'd be paying $150 more to get the discount. Granted dining may cost more, but I can't get past the fact that "free dining" would cost us $150. Either way I'd be making a decision on the possibility that the might offer fall discounts, when I know they may decide not to. I think we may just look for other ways to save on food. Since we're staying at POP we'd only get QS meals anyway. We'll be driving so eating outside the Disney bubble will be an option for us.