What's my best bet ... free fall dining

[Amanda Johnson]

We are looking to go to Disneyworld checking in on Oct. 17 and staying for a few days. This is our first trip. It will be my husband, me & our 6 year old twins. I am not stuck on any one resort but would like one that would not be the most expensive. I've been reading this board a lot and it seems like free dining might be offered while we are there but nothing is guaranteed. What I was wondering is what resort is the best bet on getting the free dining, if we were to take a chance and book now. I really do not want to have to change resorts once we're booked.

And is it better to add the dining plan to our reservations and change it to free if it's offered or add it later?

Thanks!

 

[Mikie]

It's very hard to say what any .best bet" would be. Lots of people here actually recommend NOT booking ahead (especially your favorite resort choice) because the discounts are offered to fill empty rooms; if you book without a discount out, they already have a full room and no need to offer incentives. I think a lot of people were surprised last year at how fast the discount deals sold out last fall - I was able to apply a room discount to my POP room, but my parents could only get their Grand floridian room discounted if they upgraded to a Theme park view - getting them a better view but only saving $200 overall. Free dining had a lot of blackout dates last year and who knows whether they'll be similar or greater this year.

I booked my hotel ahead of time last year because I was going mo matter what and the discount just would have been icing on the cake. If your dates are flexible or you'll only go with a discount, I'd wait until later to book if I were you.

If you do book ahead, there's no real incentive to book the dining plan ahead of time unless you plan on booking a dinner show or Cinderella Castle for a meal. Those places require payment in full at booking OR if you have dining booked, you use your dining credit and no prepayment.

 

[scard192]

FD was blacked out last year from ~ October 3-25th/26th. In the past the Saturday after Columbus was when FD stared up again. No way to know what the dates will be this year. the more people that pre-book in anticipation of FD the less reason Disney has to offer the FD as they have what they consider sufficient bookings.

Less expensive resorts that are likely to be included in FD are: CBR, CSR, POP, Allstar Sports and AllStar Music.