Well, that was sure anticlimactic..

[6loversofdisney]

As a frequent free dining lover, we have a community. We have people in the know who make a single post about it and make us all get butterflies. I started a thread about free dining one year that ended up with so many responses that it had to be closed down for a Part 2 to be started, and so on. Those of us of who have done this throughout the years have seen the trends, stayed up all night, learned to book online, etc. All to get what we wanted during the free dining promotion.

I had never used a TA before but had recently started making trip bookings and giving them to her, so she could be my eyes and ears (and it never cost me anything additional to use her). Well, this is the very reason I was able to take advantage of this upcoming offer which was rolled out today. She texted me at 6 am this morning and I've gotten what I wanted, thanks to her.

The hype and excitement and togetherness is missing, but I'm still very thankful I ended up with free dining again.

You got us, Disney! We never saw it coming...

 

[kaytieeldr]

Well, you could always start a watch thread for the October-December extension...

 

[Pumbaa_]

It was a shock for sure. Never saw it coming

I doubt very highly it will be extended unless star wars is delayed. Disney has no reason to offer free Dining when their largest expansion this century is coming

 

[TastefullyChris]

I know...but they were offering December dates for Free Dining as a bounceback offer! Hey, a girl can dream...right?

 

[Tinkershell76]

Happy I booked what I hoped for but definitely missing the excitement leading up to it! Bit of a let down this year. In the week leading up to it, I'd be gone for couple hours and there would be dozen new pages!

 

[mousefan73]

I was floored when my mom called and told me yesterday..... Called agent and bamm booked!!
I will miss the thread.... did keep my busy.. lol!! but my stress levels have definitely gotten lower... I was even smart and didnt book anything yet.. not to mess with inventor... maybe many did that..?? and now they were like we need rooms filled!!! but my guess is GE and construction have more impacts.. Plus many are stressing about their 401ks right now.

 

[Mrs Grumpy]

Still seems awful quiet compared to the past even after it was announced. Wonder how many people have not even started looking for it since it is usually later that it is released.

 

[RedWolf95]

Huge Shock! Especially being this early, Feb/Mar would not have been as big a surprise but January 2nd, wow! Did miss the thread and all the anticipation this year . We aren’t going this year but was able to help friends get a great deal when I heard it had dropped.

 

[minerva78]

I have a reservation in July and went to do a mock booking yesterday to see the price for a few different days. That's when I saw there was a free dining offer, for July! What the heck? I've attempted to plan a few Disney trips in the past, and this board was always filled with such anticipation, excitement, and stress over free dining. I hadn't been on the boards in a week and I wondered how I missed the excitement, how come I had no idea about free dining for these dates? Complete surprise. This is soooo different from the past. I am glad I was still able to get free dining, but yeah, it was very odd to just stumble upon it several days after it was rolled out.

 

[mousefan73]

Still seems awful quiet compared to the past even after it was announced. Wonder how many people have not even started looking for it since it is usually later that it is released.

I have my mom to thank.. you stumbled upon the news.. I was actually going to email our TA this week to start the process for our usual End of August trip... I ending emailing her in a panic OMG!

 

[curious_st]

Still seems awful quiet compared to the past even after it was announced. Wonder how many people have not even started looking for it since it is usually later that it is released.

I wonder how many people know about and want to book, but their pocketbooks are still in bad shape from Christmas.

 

[a1tinkfans]

We did free dining for years.. but do you think that the hype is down because the parameters/requirements are so much more and many don’t see the value.
The tickets, the resorts, etc. we don’t even look for it at all .. but our visits are much different than years back too.

 

[6loversofdisney]

We did free dining for years.. but do you think that the hype is down because the parameters/requirements are so much more and many don’t see the value.
The tickets, the resorts, etc. we don’t even look for it at all .. but our visits are much different than years back too.

.It's probably just the blindsided effect that Disney was looking for. They knew that we knew.

 

[bookgirl2632]

I was driving to work and the morning deejay on the radio show I listen to is a huge Disney fan. She mentioned that Free Dining had been announced. The minute I got to work, I went on the website on my phone and got lucky before the website started shutting down.