YOU Don't Get Free Dining, And YOU Don't Get Free Dining!

[smidgy]

No but there could well be cancellations and that could open some up

esp as it gets close to the 30 day before mark (when people have to pay the balance.)

 

[glm777]

Call back every day if you did not get free dining on day 1. That's what I did. On the first day I called over 200 times and waited 98 minutes to be told no FD rooms were available for POP! So I called every morning after that and Friday I was able to get the Free Dining promo for all three rooms at POP! Apparently they had added 10 more rooms to the FD promo at POP! It's a pain to keep calling and waiting on hold but in our case it saved our party of 6 over $2700! Well worth it for us!
We already had a reservation and was able to add the FD promo. Don't give up - keep calling every day!!

 

[glm777]

This, is in part, why I like being on the dining plan. It's not so much overall savings because we could go out of pocket for less money and I'm totally aware of that. But we wouldn't vacation the way we like to without it. We go to WDW, on average, every 3 years or so. We stay deluxe because I like the deluxe resorts overall and I like to stay on the monorail (I may branch out and try some of the Epcot area deluxe resorts in the future). We don't book a "top tier" room but rather a standard or garden view because I'm already trying my husband's vacation budget patience with me by staying deluxe. I know that if he is handed food expense after food expense, at Disney prices everyday of our trip, then he's going to have a less than magical time and his overall mood is going to impact the trip. We decided that if I present to him our vacation package (I'm the family vacation planner) with the majority of our food costs built into the final figure, he feels much more in control of our spending while we are in the parks and we can budget our vacation dollars for that figure easier. Because of this we are both fans of the dining plan. We like having ADRs and knowing that we definitely have a place to eat that we like. Also this allows us to eat in the signature restaurants that we like, along with the rest of our meals for less money per day most of the time. We like the TS over the QS places, we like character meals and we like taking a break from the parks and having family meals. Not everyone does and therefore those people probably spend far less on food than we do. The DDP allows everybody in my family to order whatever they want and also allows for fun Disney treats and snacks for our kiddos without feeling nickel & dimed every day and you're right in that this becomes psychological to an extent. This is just how WE like to do Disney. I am personally more relaxed if I budget everything ahead of time. So Free Dining is just a perk because I'm going to have a DDP anyway. If we can't afford to do Disney the way we like to do Disney on a given year then a free dining plan isn't going to change that for us. What it will do is make that bottom line look more attractive to us and sometimes that's totally psychological as well. The fact is not everyone has the same vacation priorities and that's ok. I'm sure there are people who got FD that have a much cheaper trip planned than I do and people who didn't get it that are paying a lot more than me and they couldn't really care less. Maybe we don't all have the same vacation budget this year or maybe there is a family that goes to WDW every year or multiple times a year so they want to spend less than I do per trip or maybe the resort itself is a different priority to a particular family than it is to the next family. In the end, FD is just a discount. It may decide your vacation or it may not. Just because I choose to spend money on certain things doesn't mean that I am doing so because I don't understand what I could be saving if I chose differently. Everyone loves a good deal but most of us also want the trip we want. That's where priorities come into play and no one's priorities are any worse or better than another's. They are simply YOURS.

Let me edit to add that I wasn't directing anything at you, MakiraMarlena. I was just expanding off of the "psychological" comment that I thought was accurate in my case!

 

[glm777]

My thoughts exactly!!!!!

 

[old feller]

So who out there got shut out from getting any type of discount from yesterday's frenzy of deals? Did anyone else feel like they were being penalized for having a previous reservation already booked, then not being able to get the FD or RO deal because of it? Oops sorry, you planned ahead by getting a room at the resort you wanted (garden wing at CR in my case), there is no "availability" for you. It's kinda like Directv giving all of their good deals to new customers only, while the loyal long time customers get squat. Why advertise great deals that not everyone can qualify for just because you already had a reservation? "No availability" to me means "We've already got your money. No reason to give you a break on anything". Well Disney, I spent 6 hours on hold yesterday to be finally told that we can't do anything for you.

Every year since FD has been offered I have been able to add the promo to my already-booked reservation with no problems with "availability". Now they've taken that away. And yes, I know all about pre-booking in anticipation of a FD deal. I have never looked at it that way. I'm a planner and like to get stuff done in advance. The FD is just a bonus if you can get it. I think by making it so difficult to get is the first step in eliminating FD for good.


Yes I'm venting

We are staying at pop...they are wide open now

 

[Tigerlily81]

I kept checking, as I was booking for a friend and they really wanted free dining, and sure enough, eventually found a free dining at POR, which was exactly what she wanted, so my advice would be don't give up, just keep checking for cancellations!

 

[NZDisneyFanGirl14]

We moved from Caribbean to all star music to get free dining the day it came out. I just checked now and managed to switch us back to Caribbean still with free dining. I'm so much more excited now since this is a once in a life time trip for us (coming from New Zealand) and I wanted to stay some where a little nicer.

 

[TheRustyScupper]

If Disney truly loved you, the way you love Disney, free dining would not be so limited.

1) You have heard the saying, "It is the Principle and not the Money".
2) Well, for Disney, it is the money.

 

[tinkerbella16]

Same here~ magical August deal. For our trip there is a $2,000 difference between my deal and the FD offer. I think I'll spend less than that on meals for DD(12) and myself for 6 days.

We also got a deal for September and it was way better than Disney's discounts. I was so relieved to not have to worry about FD or RO this year. Our room discount ended up being over 40% off a deluxe resort - couldn't pass that up! My sister wanted to stay at Pop this year and get FD, but we found that deal instead. So I was playing around when FD was released and I priced a preferred room at Pop for our dates and 7 day hoppers with free dining, and it ended up being $40 cheaper than what we are paying for Beach Club with a room discount - umm no thanks! I showed my sister the price and she couldn't believe it either. She was glad we booked what we did. I will gladly pay for all of my meals with discounted Disney gift cards. I get to stay at my dream resort for only $40 more than a value resort w/ FD. That really floored me lol. The savings we got this trip were huge! Have a great trip!!!!

 

[SGMCO]

Checked and there are still some openings for Mod-CBR (standard and Waterview) for Fall stays and Free Dining. Some people may have dropped there packages. These opening just started to appear in the last week are so, they may not last long.

 

[mom2rtk]

Checked and there are still some openings for Mod-CBR (standard and Waterview) for Fall stays and Free Dining. Some people may have dropped there packages. These opening just started to appear in the last week are so, they may not last long.

It's also possible that non-discounted bookings are down and they added more to the inventory.

 

[SGMCO]

It's also possible that non-discounted bookings are down and they added more to the inventory.

it's nice for those who would like to get FD and couldn't, We're going and booked when it came out for Free Dining at CSR. Hope this helps someone.

 

[smallworldnh]

For us it's important to get the free dining since it did save us a lot of money and it was nice not to have to worry about the out of pocket extra expense to budget it in! I've booked those dates in the past in anticipation of the promotion and have had no issues adding it except that once they moved us from ASSp to ASMu - no big deal! I am using the Disney Visa for the first time this time around and hope that maybe they'll still offer FD in advance of the public offering to make it easier to get!