Snagging Free Dining 2017?

[jendej]

Hi all! This is my first time posting here, though I've been lurking for a few weeks.
I'm planning my family's first ever WDW trip for next fall!!!! I have heard of a strategy of booking a room in advance for the time that free dining is typically available and then having the code added later once the offer is announced. Has anyone been successful doing this? If I were to try to do this should I book a complete package in advance (room + tix + dining) or just the room and tix?

Thanks in advance and I look forward to hearing all of your expert advice over the coming year!

 

[MakiraMarlena]

You can do this, but why would you? It won't save you a room.

If you book a room only, it will have to be changed to a package if you want free dining, which generally means cancelling and rebooking. So there's no point in booking a room only to serve as a placeholder for a package. You can book a package with tickets or a package with tickets and dining (do this if you will want the dining anyway, even if it does not turn out to be free)

The rule of thumb is, if you are going whether there will be free dining or not, book your package ahead of time so you can get the resort you want. You may have to change your resort or dates for free dining, if the resort/room category you booked isn't available on the offer, but if you're going anyway, you'll keep that resort if the discount doesn't apply for you.

If you won't go without free dining, then wait until the offer comes out. Free dining is a resort discount meant to fill up unbooked resort rooms. The more full the rooms already are, the less they will need to offer discounts to fill them.

If you're inflexible on your dates, you can go ahead and buy, but if you are flying to WDW and you can be flexible, better to wait so you know exactly what dates you can check in to get free dining. If you book air ahead of time and then can't make the free dining work with your check-in date, it's often pretty expensive to change flights.

 

[sharonabe]

It's not as easy as just adding the code. You will have to cancel your existing reservation and make a new one. You will also need to be able to be flexible with your days and choice of where to stay and which category of room. Free dining is limited, so the more flexible you are, the better.

If you are going with or without free dining, then I'd go ahead and make the reservation for your ideal time and resort, but I wouldn't add the dining yet and I wouldn't buy plane tickets yet. You can decide later if paying for the dining plan makes sense for you or not.

One note: The more people who book now decreases Disney's need to offer free dining, so if you can only go with free dining, I wouldn't book until it's announced, if it is.

 

[Accident]

I think your talking about the bounce back offer where you book it before you leave. I'm not sure what the current one is but last year there was a free dining offer for bounce back. You need to book it before you leave to get it and it'll have requirements like certain minimum amount of tickets, room and because it's free dining you need the dining package.. Being a package it's just a $200 deposit like normal. You can still modify the reservation with some restrictions after but try to nail down the resort and dates because that change might require rebooking and not having the bounce back price or free food.

again not sure if it's a free food offer again (or when you'll be there). you'll need to see what the bounce back deal is..

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Booking a room ahead of time will not guarantee you free dining.

Disney offer any deal -- including free dining -- against a limited inventory of room types and dates. They do it to fill those rooms. When determining inventory to offer, they look at how many rooms they need to fill. Any room that is already booked is considered filled, and counts against any inventory they might offer for the deal.

So if they have 10 rooms, and 2 are already booked, they might offer 4 rooms on the deal. But if they had 10 rooms unbooked, they might offer 5.

Now, that's a small number. Expand it to much bigger numbers. This is why CBR tends to be one of the easier resorts to get free dining at, because it is so big.

 

[disneymom0104]

I agree, booking early doesn't give any benefit, and it doesn't guarantee you will get free dining at the resort you have chosen when or if it is released. Only if you are going either way does it make sense to book early- like, you really want to stay at Port Orleans Riverside so you book now. IF you are able to apply free dining when it is released, great, if not, still great- you are going to Port Orleans. There are no guarantees. If you specifically want free dining, you are better waiting until that promotion is released (typically in late-April/early May) and then book accordingly.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

Adding the code later isn't a bounceback, a bounceback offer has to be booked while you are at WDW. and if the OP is planning their first trip to WDW for next fall, they likely aren't there now. so I'm guessing they are asking about booking a reservation now, and adding free dining to it later when the offer is released.

As noted, that's really only a good idea if you're going to keep the resort and/or dates you booked with free dining or without it.

 

[lawboysam]

I would like to add that you don't have to "cancel" your placeholder booking to add free dining. So long as what you have booked is eligible, you can just click to add the promo to your booking. I did this last year during free dining - and the "benefit" was that it took me about .5 seconds to book free dining, and I got to go back to bed that much faster haha?

 

[MakiraMarlena]

Yeah, they actually do have to cancel it if it is a room-only reservation. Room only and packages are not booked on the same system.

 

[Mickeycrocs]

If your going to go reguardless of free dining I would book it. I knew I was going to go this fall so I booked last spring and I had to book a new reservation.

 

[Kelly Sullivan]

I'm in the same predicament as the OP. I know the dates I want and they traditionally fall within the free DDP promo. If I book the package I want... room, tickets and DDP and then I am eligible for the free DDP can they just apply it to my existing reservation?

Then I'm thinking about the fact that if I book I'm limiting the number of rooms they will need to fill for my resort to offer the promo LOL ahhhh it's a vicious cycle!

 

[lawboysam]

I'm in the same predicament as the OP. I know the dates I want and they traditionally fall within the free DDP promo. If I book the package I want... room, tickets and DDP and then I am eligible for the free DDP can they just apply it to my existing reservation?

Then I'm thinking about the fact that if I book I'm limiting the number of rooms they will need to fill for my resort to offer the promo LOL ahhhh it's a vicious cycle!

Yes. As previous poster said, you have to apply it to a package - but just book your room + tickets, and it's really as simple as clicking about two buttons when it goes live.

 

[hollyrose1313]

Just want to add, especially if you are a newbie, I think using a travel agent makes changing a reservation to a discount a lot easier.
We have done it both ways, us watching for the discount release and spending hours that morning on hold and using a travel agent (we love Dreams Unlimited and Tracey) where she does the watching and waiting and rebooking for us and find it less stress for us to have her take care of it.
Have a wonderful trip!

 

[eeyoreandtink]

Its only better if you have a travel agent who will be as on top of things as you would be. I would be up at the crack of dawn the day discounts come out checking. If they don't do that for you, and wait till later in the day or whenever they can get to it you may miss out. Once those discounts are booked, they are gone. Travel agents can't do anything about that.

that being said, we are booked through and agent this time because their agency special beat the discounts Disney was offering for our preferred dates and hotel.

 

[GenGen22]

I've done this when booking with AAA. I booked my entire package and once free dining came available I called and asked to have it added and they adjusted my package.

 

[jendej]

Thanks for all the responses! We're still mulling over our options, but our friend has an agent she likes and is using for their upcoming WDW trip in February. I think for us the DDP is really only worth it if we get it for free (since there's 6 of us and we'll probably stay in an AoA family suite), and we may not stay on property the whole trip anyway (thinking of using points to get a rental near the beach for some of the trip). Thanks again!