When am i most likely to get lucky enough for free dining???

[mdinecola]

I just booked two rooms in Sept. for my fam of 7 - which put me right at my budget - but am hoping to have saved enough for dining (2 adults, 2 kids) to be added before we go. If not, would LOVE to luck up on some free dining! Is Sept the month for that or should I move my res. in hopes of getting free dining. I'll pay for it if I have to, but free would really help out here.......

Thanks!

 

[StitchandPooh'sMom]

September is usually the month it is offered, and it has been offered the past several years at that time. Some people have reported getting PIN codes for free dining, but last year it was offered to the general public in March. Here is a list of discounts and release dates from mousesavers.com:

http://www.mousesavers.com/historicalwdwdiscounts.html#codetrends

If you haven't signed up for the planning DVD or registered your e-mail with Disney.com, you might consider it. Disney sends special offers via e-mail.

If free dining is announced, you will have to call and ask that the promotion be applied to your reservation, and it must be a package instead of room only. There are a limited number of rooms at each resort that will be available with the package, so call as soon as you read about it on the DIS and be flexible with resorts. You will have to pay rack rate for the rooms to get free dining, so compare that with any other discounts. Since it is just two adults and two kids (about $100 total per night), you might save more with room discounts since you have two rooms. Depends where you are staying and what discounts are released.

 

[torinsmom]

From what I recall, it usually starts sometime on late mid-late August and goes until mid-late September. I remember because we can never make it during that time because of school starting here August 25, and I have a work week before that. I think you will be fine with your dates.

Marsha

 

[rhpools]

April 1st is usually the first day to make reservations with free dining.

 

[amcc]

If you got any kind of discount now on your rooms, you would have to give that promo up to get the free dining promo. Reserving at Disney is a big game of crunching numbers (at least for me), so if free dining comes out, you might be best off switching one room (with 1 adult, 2 kids) to the free dining promo, and leaving the other room with whatever discount you have now (1 adult there, since I don't think the kids alone can be the lead guest) and paying out of pocket dining for the adult. Since it switches to a package for the free dining, you would also have to buy the tickets (at least one day) as part of the package, so you would not be able to apply any of the Give a Day vouchers to offset the price of the tickets.

I have 3 kids, so I run the numbers a million different ways to make sure I'm getting the best deals, not just falling for a good advertisement Regardless, have a GREAT time!

 

[aimlyles]

If I remember correctly when we went at the end of August in 07 they announced the free dining in February sometime!

If you have Disney Visa credit card I want to say they are one of the first to be notified about the offer and then the general public is notified. I could be wrong on that though but I think I remember signing up for my disney visa for that reason.