Upgrading/Changing Your Resort With Free Dining

[SRUAlmn]

Hi! We’ve been getting conflicting information from the Disney agents so I thought maybe someone on here could help. We’re currently booked with Sept free dining at Pop Century.

We’re considering changing to a moderate or deluxe resort and called to get pricing for the change. The person my husband spoke to said she could look it up and gave us a quote for one of our resort options (he didn’t ask about the others, grrr, haha.) So today I did a chat on WDW. com and (as I usually find) they were no help and told me to call. I called, and the person I spoke with told me that if the booking window for your discount/deal has passed, you cannot make changes to your resort? Since the free dining booking window ended in Feb she said she couldn’t help me and was actually very short with me ?

Can anyone confirm which is the case? Thanks so much!

 

[sommergirl25]

You can change resorts but would lose free dining. The promo would have to be active and resort with promo available to switch and keep free dining.

 

[Calee]

I changed resorts and kept my free dining promo a few weeks ago. Then just a few days ago I added a day and changed my room type and again kept my free dining. The CM I talked to both timss had to have guest services do it but they were very helpful and nice about it. I would call again. If there are rooms available it is possible.

 

[CosmicGirl]

I haven't done this myself but have been keeping track of changes like these for a long time in case I ever need it and the consensus is this: it can be done but only if there is free dining inventory left in the resort your want on the dates you want. If that inventory is there then guest services always has to get involved to make it happen.

Prices have changed since the end of the promotion (both tickets and rates at Pop) and I honestly don't know what they would charge you. My Pop reservation for September costs $400 more now for the exact same thing (rack rate + tickets without dining) so if I were to drop a few nights, which I may have to do, I could very well end up having to pay the same or even more.

 

[SRUAlmn]

You can change resorts but would lose free dining. The promo would have to be active and resort with promo available to switch and keep free dining.

I changed resorts and kept my free dining promo a few weeks ago. Then just a few days ago I added a day and changed my room type and again kept my free dining. The CM I talked to both timss had to have guest services do it but they were very helpful and nice about it. I would call again. If there are rooms available it is possible.

Thank you both for your responses, and interesting that (just like when I called Disney,) there are conflicting bits of info! I’ll call again and see!

I haven't done this myself but have been keeping track of changes like these for a long time in case I ever need it and the consensus is this: it can be done but only if there is free dining inventory left in the resort your want on the dates you want. If that inventory is there then guest services always has to get involved to make it happen.

Prices have changed since the end of the promotion (both tickets and rates at Pop) and I honestly don't know what they would charge you. My Pop reservation for September costs $400 more now for the exact same thing (rack rate + tickets without dining) so if I were to drop a few nights, which I may have to do, I could very well end up having to pay the same or even more.

Interesting! So when you say “guest services has to get involved” what does that mean? Is it not the person you speak to when you call the reservations number? We honestly are ok with Pop, might be cool if the sky liner is open by then. Our baby has been to WDW twice already and we stayed at Pop both times and it’s tricky for us to do anything (including shower) while he’s sleeping, so we thought trying a different room style like the AOA suites or something might work a little better ?

For Pop, the free dining promo saved us more than the room discount that’s normally offered for values. Maybe if a fall promo is released then that % off would save more than free dining would save us and then we could look into that option. Although, with SWGE, new Illuminations, Food & Wine, Skyliner, etc... opening I don’t think Disney is going to see much need to offer fall promotions?

 

[Calee]

Guest services is a higher level than the CM that answers the phone. You can ask to speak to them if the cm that answers seems to be unable to help.

 

[CosmicGirl]

Thank you both for your responses, and interesting that (just like when I called Disney,) there are conflicting bits of info! I’ll call again and see!



Interesting! So when you say “guest services has to get involved” what does that mean? Is it not the person you speak to when you call the reservations number? We honestly are ok with Pop, might be cool if the sky liner is open by then. Our baby has been to WDW twice already and we stayed at Pop both times and it’s tricky for us to do anything (including shower) while he’s sleeping, so we thought trying a different room style like the AOA suites or something might work a little better ?

For Pop, the free dining promo saved us more than the room discount that’s normally offered for values. Maybe if a fall promo is released then that % off would save more than free dining would save us and then we could look into that option. Although, with SWGE, new Illuminations, Food & Wine, Skyliner, etc... opening I don’t think Disney is going to see much need to offer fall promotions?

At the value resorts free dining is always going to be a better deal than a discount as long as you have at least two people in the room, especially if you're paying for the QSDP with the discounted room. The discount tends to be 10-15% and often only on Sun-Thu nights, so we're talking $15-30 off per night at most. An AoA suite would give you more space but it's also going to cost roughly twice as much as Pop. And I honestly don't remember if the AoA suites were eligible for FD this year, so you'd have to check that first.

 

[focusondisney]

You can change resorts but would lose free dining. The promo would have to be active and resort with promo available to switch and keep free dining.

This is not true. After a promotion ends, the normal CRO agents can’t make changes. However, they can either talk to guest services themselves or transfer you to guest services. Guest services can make the changes, but as PP said, the dates, resort & room type you want to change to must still have availability under the promotion. Not all resorts & room types will have sold out when the promotion ended. So if there is still something available, GS can make the change. People do it frequently.

 

[SRUAlmn]

Guest services is a higher level than the CM that answers the phone. You can ask to speak to them if the cm that answers seems to be unable to help.

Thank you!!!

At the value resorts free dining is always going to be a better deal than a discount as long as you have at least two people in the room, especially if you're paying for the QSDP with the discounted room. The discount tends to be 10-15% and often only on Sun-Thu nights, so we're talking $15-30 off per night at most. An AoA suite would give you more space but it's also going to cost roughly twice as much as Pop. And I honestly don't remember if the AoA suites were eligible for FD this year, so you'd have to check that first.

I think they were? I think only the little mermaid rooms weren’t but I’m not positive? And yes, that’s always been why we haven’t stayed at AOA. It’s nice to have the space but hard to swallow the double price tag for a fairly comparable resort to Pop! We booked a Little Mermaid room once (before we had our baby) and were upgraded to a Lion King Suite! Wish we could guarantee that would happen again! Haha!

This is not true. After a promotion ends, the normal CRO agents can’t make changes. However, they can either talk to guest services themselves or transfer you to guest services. Guest services can make the changes, but as PP said, the dates, resort & room type you want to change to must still have availability under the promotion. Not all resorts & room types will have sold out when the promotion ended. So if there is still something available, GS can make the change. People do it frequently.

Right! I figured needle in a haystack and we’re thinking maybe just keep it as is and just add a bunch of extras like upgrading to DDP and MNSSHP tickets or maybe an extra night? Still would be cheaper than changing resorts. From what I can see, our space issue will not be resolved without spending a few thousand more $ so prob not worth it!

 

[Jadyreen1282]

I was able to add a day to FD at POR a few weeks back for July. They were very helpful...like they had lots of openings or something....

 

[SRUAlmn]

I was able to add a day to FD at POR a few weeks back for July. They were very helpful...like they had lots of openings or something....

Good to know! Thanks so much!!