******Official 2017 Free Dining Plan Watch, Wait, and Dream

[Imbetterwithbacon]

Free Dining is very important, very very very important!!!!!

Like I said ... crazy about FD

 

[disneydreamer1980]

Like I said ... crazy about FD

If you've come here just to tell us we're crazy, then obviously you're the one who has a problem. If you want to discuss FD (which will save my family $3000 but I guess I'm "crazy" to want to save that much money) than go ahead, otherwise, just go...

 

[Rusty2rules]

Oh and to those who roll their eyes. None of this is necessary. No one will die without a vacation. No one needs to go to Disney world. But the wet blankets to our fun and excitement are akin to someone walking into the superbowl and saying what are people making a fuss over, worry about real life, no one will care who won in 5 years. Yep. No one will care. But as long as there are happy diversions from death, bills, and taxes people will participate in them. It's the whole point of living.

I'm going to put my two cents in here. Living is great and a necessity (duh). But, you know what? I believe you "buy" experiences. You don't rent them. Experiences make life worth living. That's how I was raised. I feel bad for these people who feel like they do everything in their life just to keep up with the Jones' and say "what's the point, worry about real life". My first trip to Disney with my family was in 2004 when my son was almost 10. To this day I can tell you all about that trip and he can, too. It brings a smile to my face just thinking about it. But I couldn't even begin to tell you what I bought material-wise in 2004, if anything. He and I went to Vegas last fall, his first time. He'll be able to tell his kids when he's my age "I remember the first time I went to Vegas with my dad...". I'll remember those, and other "experiences" like those, the rest of my life. My DW had never traveled until we got married. No weekend trips, nothing. Lived in the same house her hole life, same old same old. She's not going on this trip, but now one of her stipulations for letting my DS and I go this trip was that she and I still do our weekend trips through out the year. LOL She looks forward to them, makes life worth living. In my opinion, if you don't "do" Disney or other experiences like that, you haven't lived life.

 

[prettypatchesmsu]

I'm going to put my two cents in here. Living is great and a necessity (duh). But, you know what? I believe you "buy" experiences. You don't rent them. Experiences make life worth living. That's how I was raised. I feel bad for these people who feel like they do everything in their life just to keep up with the Jones' and say "what's the point, worry about real life". My first trip to Disney with my family was in 2004 when my son was almost 10. To this day I can tell you all about that trip and he can, too. It brings a smile to my face just thinking about it. He and I went to Vegas last fall, his first time. He'll be able to tell his kids when he's my age "I remember the first time I went to Vegas with my dad...". I'll remember those, and other "experiences" like those, the rest of my life. My DW had never traveled until we got married. No weekend trips, nothing. Lived in the same house her hole life, same old same old. She's not going on this trip, but now one of her stipulations for letting my DS and I go this trip was that she and I still do our weekend trips through out the year. LOL She looks forward to them, makes life worth living. In my opinion, if you don't "do" Disney or other experiences like that, you haven't lived life.

This is a great post. Brought tears to my eyes, thanks for sharing it! I used to worry so much about the future, we'll do this, we'll do that, when we retire etc. Well, my sister-in-law passed away from cancer, got sick extremely fast and fought three years before she died at age 40. It changed my life. Tomorrow is not a given, so in our family we try to enjoy today more. We go to Disney, it's our thing. Maybe others need to find their "thing" too. But for us, the experiences and memories we have made at Disney are priceless and worth every penny. We've worked hard to afford the trips, and still do. I wish we could afford to go more often truthfully. We talk all year long about our planned trip, what we will do and see. It brings us joy. And we talk all the time about our memories from our past trips.

Edit: Oh and I should say the FD is a huge part of our trips. We could not go and do Disney the way we want to if we did not have the FD. We've been before without it, and it was not as fun as the "Disney food" part of it is a big deal for us. And worrying about the costs is just not fun. We stay at Value resorts, so a Room Discount doesn't compare. And we are food lovers so a huge part of our trip is dining at Disney.

 

[Greg36]

Hmm, I have never heard of anyone but a TA being able to do the hold thing. I don't think a regular customer can, but I could totally be wrong. What you can do, is book it yourself then transfer the reservation to your TA. People do that a lot. Of course, if you book yourself and end up not wanting it then you can just get refunded your deposit pretty easily from Disney. Hope that helps.

I was told by a CM once that by signing into your disney experience, and then selecting your resort, tickets, etc., the system would 'save' your vacation for you without actually finalising and paying your deposit. The CM did not say how long it would be saved for, but I am guessing not very long...

 

[Disneylover99]

So a new off topic question to pass the time..

What would everyone say are there top three dining reservations for your upcoming trip ?

We always do Ohana .. We all like the food but I think I just enjoy the atmosphere the most. It's just one of those meals that scream "You're at Disney!" to me.
I'm looking forward to trying Homecomin' , as it's new and I love to try a few new places per trip.
And DH and I always do a date night, and we have Artist Point booked right now, though I am thinking of swapping for another signature. We've done Jiko twice and it's our favourite, but there are so many other good choices! I'm torn on this one!

Well, I'm only doing quick service this year, but if I were doing TS these would be my top 3 choices.....

Biergarten
Hollywood and Vine
San Angel

Love those places!

 

[Imbetterwithbacon]

If you've come here just to tell us we're crazy, then obviously you're the one who has a problem. If you want to discuss FD (which will save my family $3000 but I guess I'm "crazy" to want to save that much money) than go ahead, otherwise, just go...

Sorry didnt mean crazy in a bad way... good luck I really hope you get FD i agree it would be nice to save that amount of money.

 

[Attracted to Beasts]

The Beast (aka DH) just got a summer UOC in the mail! Im very excited about this....although FD is a better deal we at least now have some more options for August! I don't get why he always gets them....don't they know Im the one who does all the planning....he just pays for it! haha

 

[JackieO]

So a new off topic question to pass the time..

What would everyone say are there top three dining reservations for your upcoming trip ?

We always do Ohana .. We all like the food but I think I just enjoy the atmosphere the most. It's just one of those meals that scream "You're at Disney!" to me.
I'm looking forward to trying Homecomin' , as it's new and I love to try a few new places per trip.
And DH and I always do a date night, and we have Artist Point booked right now, though I am thinking of swapping for another signature. We've done Jiko twice and it's our favourite, but there are so many other good choices! I'm torn on this one!

This will be fun. I love dreaming about my trip and hearing what everyone else loves.

I've never done TS so this will be totally new for me. I'm REALLY looking forward to all of it. We have 8 TS reservations. I think my top 3 that I'm most excited for are:

1. CRT-I just read a blog review of this yesterday and now I'm even excited to walk up the stairs.
2. Ohana breakfast-We love the theming at the Poly and breakfast is my favorite meal!
3. All my quick dine favorites-this one might seem silly, but some of my favorite Disney times are in those quick dine restaurants. My kids (12, 21, 23) get up and do a crazy dinosaur dance when Walk the Dinosaur comes on in Restaurantosaurus. Sharing a giant cinnamon roll in Gaston's Tavern feels like we stepped into the movie. And the very first place I ate in WDW 16 years ago was Pecos Bills and it still feels like my "You have entered the happiest place on earth" place.

Getting excited!!

 

[BuckeyeBama]

So a new off topic question to pass the time..

What would everyone say are there top three dining reservations for your upcoming trip ?

For us it is usually Boatwrights, CRT and Ohana.

 

[Greg36]

So a new off topic question to pass the time..

What would everyone say are there top three dining reservations for your upcoming trip ?

We always do Ohana .. We all like the food but I think I just enjoy the atmosphere the most. It's just one of those meals that scream "You're at Disney!" to me.
I'm looking forward to trying Homecomin' , as it's new and I love to try a few new places per trip.
And DH and I always do a date night, and we have Artist Point booked right now, though I am thinking of swapping for another signature. We've done Jiko twice and it's our favourite, but there are so many other good choices! I'm torn on this one!

I would say ours would be Ohana. Love the food and atmosphere at Ohana. So much fun. After that I would say the kids love Tusker House. We always try to do this once on our trips. We love a lot of the options at Epcot, but I think Marrakesh would be right up there at the top...

 

[Nutbean]

So a new off topic question to pass the time..

What would everyone say are there top three dining reservations for your upcoming trip ?

We always do Ohana .. We all like the food but I think I just enjoy the atmosphere the most. It's just one of those meals that scream "You're at Disney!" to me.
I'm looking forward to trying Homecomin' , as it's new and I love to try a few new places per trip.
And DH and I always do a date night, and we have Artist Point booked right now, though I am thinking of swapping for another signature. We've done Jiko twice and it's our favourite, but there are so many other good choices! I'm torn on this one!

We're going for 14 nights and have 14 ADRs. The three that I'm most looking forward to are:

- Sanaa dinner
- Boma dinner
- Teppan Edo dinner

 

[talulabelle]

Welcome back, you've come to the right place. We haven't heard dates yet, but this is where we'll hear it first

Here's where you can learn about the dining plan. https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/planning-guides/in-depth-advice/disney-dining-plan/

Edit: thought I'd add a little info. Free Dining is a promotion that Disney has been offering for a number of years, mostly for Fall dates and typically coming out late April/early May. We won't know details about this year's offer until it actually comes out, but in the past they've offered quick dining at value resorts and table service at moderate and deluxe resorts. The rooms types, resorts, and dates vary from year to year and these are all the details we're gathered here to find out.

Thanks for the info! Glad to know I'm not joining the party too late.

 

[pigletto]

So many good choices!!
I've never tried Boatright's despite staying at POR twice. If we stay at POR I think we should this trip. I forgot about Boma and Sanaa too. I love love love both of those. I think AKL really has the best tasble service restaurants of all the resorts, but I am sure that comes down to food preferences.

And I didn't mean to exclude anyone on the QSDP!! Please include favourite quick serve as well. I'm looking forward to trying Blaze this trip and we always love Wolfgang Puck Express and Cookes of Dublin. We love the Disney Springs choices for quick serve.

 

[LongLiveRafiki]

Is anyone able to confirm whether or not TAs can apply package promos (ie. Free dining) online, or if they have to wait until 7am and call in to do it?

 

[Nutbean]

And I didn't mean to exclude anyone on the QSDP!! Please include favourite quick serve as well. I'm looking forward to trying Blaze this trip and we always love Wolfgang Puck Express and Cookes of Dublin. We love the Disney Springs choices for quick serve.

My favs are:

- Flame Tree BBQ
- Wolfgang Puck
- Be Our Guest

I'm looking forward to trying the new QS in Pandora too.

 

[pixie_mtl]

Kinda MY TA just told me something I did not know. Disney takes a hold of 3 days without a $200 deposit? Is this true? She said I could do it online if a deal comes out and I want to grab a 3-day hold. This ensures I don't lose the deal until she and I can talk. Anyone else done this 3-day hold thing and if so online?

I've never personally used the courtesy hold but did heard of it before. I made a search and was able to find some info

The length of the courtesy hold will depend on when you want to arrive. If you're within 14 days of arrival, Disney will not allow a courtesy hold. As a result, no travel agents are able to offer a courtesy hold either. If you're within 15 to 45 days of your requested arrival date, Disney will hold your request for 24 hours. If you're 46 or more days outside of requested arrival, you'll be able to hold the reservation for 3 days. (source: http://www.wdwinfo.com/disneypackages.htm)

 

[KimBean]

I'm going to put my two cents in here. Living is great and a necessity (duh). But, you know what? I believe you "buy" experiences. You don't rent them. Experiences make life worth living. That's how I was raised. I feel bad for these people who feel like they do everything in their life just to keep up with the Jones' and say "what's the point, worry about real life". My first trip to Disney with my family was in 2004 when my son was almost 10. To this day I can tell you all about that trip and he can, too. It brings a smile to my face just thinking about it. But I couldn't even begin to tell you what I bought material-wise in 2004, if anything. He and I went to Vegas last fall, his first time. He'll be able to tell his kids when he's my age "I remember the first time I went to Vegas with my dad...". I'll remember those, and other "experiences" like those, the rest of my life. My DW had never traveled until we got married. No weekend trips, nothing. Lived in the same house her hole life, same old same old. She's not going on this trip, but now one of her stipulations for letting my DS and I go this trip was that she and I still do our weekend trips through out the year. LOL She looks forward to them, makes life worth living. In my opinion, if you don't "do" Disney or other experiences like that, you haven't lived life.

That's right you got it!!!

 

[Wojodis]

Random question here for those who have already booked a reservation (no judgments please haha). Does anyone else have a strange code written in with their dining reservation and if so, do you know what it means? It's probably nothing but no CM can seem to, or doesn't want to, provide any explanation for. Just wondering.

 

[vever]

Is anyone able to confirm whether or not TAs can apply package promos (ie. Free dining) online, or if they have to wait until 7am and call in to do it?

My TA last year had to call in...