The waiting is driving me nuts!!!! I just want it to be over!!!! If the rumored dates are correct, I feel fairly confident that we'll be able to take advantage of free dining. Our dates are firm-8/20-8/26. We booked a package wtih 6 day hoppers and the regular dining plan and are staying at POFQ but really wanted to stay at the Contemporary or Poly but it was out of our budget. Free dining puts deluxe within our max budget. Since we are a family of 4(2 adults, 2 kids) and already planned/budgeted for hoppers, if we want to stay at a deluxe, free dining is a great deal for us. Our TA knows how much money we are willing to spend on a package at a deluxe resort and has a ranked list of our room categories. I'm pretty sure DH will get his wish of staying on the monorail. He went multiple times with his family up until he was in college and they never stayed anywhere other than the Poly so he's a bit of Disney snob. He was very disappointed that with hoppers and 4 people on the dining plan, deluxe was originally out of our budget.
However, if the stars do not align and we don't get free dining, we are still going to Disney in August and no matter where we stay, it will be a great family vacation.
However, if the stars do not align and we don't get free dining, we are still going to Disney in August and no matter where we stay, it will be a great family vacation.