2018 Free Dining Watch Thread V3

[ellypres]

It looks like we might have to drive 19 hours instead of flying as tickets for the 5 of us is $3,000+!

Does anyone know how much it costs to park your car at Sports?

Also was wondering, is the free dining based on how many nights you stay at the hotel, or based on how many days you buy for park tickets? I was thinking if we have to drive down, we can still stay at Sports but visit other attractions in the Orlando area, but come back to dine.

 

[flakypuff]

I went with the 20% off room offer instead of free dining. They said I had to cancel and re-book and I was not going to pay the parking fees that I had to pay if I did so. Plus I have already paid half the room and they wanted to refund the money and get a new $200. It was just easier and I saved over $1300 not getting free dining after the RO discount. It was fun watching with y'all. See you next year!

May I ask, was the RO from Visa?

 

[SPOERLX3]

While the value of FD keeps going down there has never been any other discount available I've see that would be a greater discount for us. We're 2 adults and 2 teens staying at a Value and we always by PH'ers anyways. The best RO discount I've ever seen on a Value is 25%. At rack rate of $140/nt that would save us $315 for a 9 night stay. FD saves us far more in food costs.

FD is usually a bad value for those that do not eat much, or only 2 adults staying in a DLX when a 40% discount can be had.

Same here! I agree 100%. My family sure couldn't eat for $315.
It may be better for those staying deluxe.

 

[NoodlesMom]

It looks like we might have to drive 19 hours instead of flying as tickets for the 5 of us is $3,000+!

Does anyone know how much it costs to park your car at Sports?

Also was wondering, is the free dining based on how many nights you stay at the hotel, or based on how many days you buy for park tickets? I was thinking if we have to drive down, we can still stay at Sports but visit other attractions in the Orlando area, but come back to dine.

$13 per night

 

[Kelli Pooh]

That seems high but I guess it depends on what your original package was and what your TA had to add to get the FD. So each person to upgrade to regular dining is about $50 for a 5 day trip and the rate increase for a 5 day ticket was about $32 per person. Did you already have the park hoppers added to your package before your TA added FD? If not, they are about $100 each for a 5 day. (I can only give you pricing on 5 day since that is what my trip is ) it can sure add up

Nope it was a mistake. Basically not free dining at all! Just changed to a new package with increased new year ticket prices & room increase plus added regular dining on. So we lost our old price and now do not have free dining. Really sad today!!

 

[Disneylover99]

It looks like we might have to drive 19 hours instead of flying as tickets for the 5 of us is $3,000+!

Does anyone know how much it costs to park your car at Sports?

Also was wondering, is the free dining based on how many nights you stay at the hotel, or based on how many days you buy for park tickets? I was thinking if we have to drive down, we can still stay at Sports but visit other attractions in the Orlando area, but come back to dine.

It's based on the nights you stay at your resort. For example, you could stay for two weeks, get only four day tickets if you wanted and get free dining for 14 days.

 

[Kelli Pooh]

Keep pursuing this matter. This is not accurate at all. As someone who always books without an agent, I can assure you that when I've had a reservation or when I've looked into pricing, it is X amount of dollars. Once the free dining comes out and I've added it, there is no change at all!! I'm telling you, something is wrong. Free dining should not affect your previous pricing whatsoever.

I did keep at it and found out it was a mistake. She did not get free dining at all. We got a new package with increased ticket prices, increased room rates and paid for dining package. Not a happy day here!!
She has been amazing for many trips I do not understand how this happened!!

 

[SPOERLX3]

Looks like the Disney site is having issues again. Anyway, when people cancel rooms or packages does anyone know if the available inventory is adjusted immediately or does the system reset overnight? Don't know if we should keep looking throughout the day, or just a couple of times in the morning every day.
Thanks.

2 years ago, We needed a room for 5 on a budget, I couldn't get CBR when FD dropped but was able to get it around 8:25am. I was hitting the refresh button every few minutes and rooms changed alot!
Within the time frame from when FD dropped until I was able to get what we wanted, we had been able to move from all that was available at All star movie suites to the cabin and then to CBR. It seemed that the rooms were back into the mix as soon as anyone dropped them.

 

[G719]

Hmm... It looks like my park ticket in the package booked with Disney is $5 higher than when purchasing the tickets separately with Disney. For example, $2,029 for 6 day park hopper for 3 Disney adults & 1 child in the package, vs. $2,024 for the same thing if purchased separately. No big deal but I'm just curious if that happens to everyone too and if so, why?

Yes a package is a little bit more than buying each piece separately. You do get a few extras with a package.
https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/guest-services/vacation-package-magical-extras/

 

[Kathy Muniz]

After I booked my free dining reservation yesterday, I got on the phone with my family members who were also going during the same period (family reunion) as they had already booked their rooms before the discount dropped and told them to modify their reservations. They had NO IDEA that offers like free dining existed. After a bit of reservation resort shuffling around, a few hours of phone calls, EVERYONE going on this trip will get free dining! My relatives were really grateful for my advice, as many of them were on an extreme budget and getting free dining shaved thousands of dollars in costs off their upcoming trip.

We can hardly wait until we can stuff ourselves at the Satu'li Canteen.

That’s awesome!! So happy for you guys!!

 

[sharonabe]

Thank you for the idea! I would have never thought of that. Do you know how much is the price difference between a child's ticket & an adult?

About $21.

 

[SPOERLX3]

Yes. We're headed down for a quick trip starting Aug 27th so I'll see what I can get.

Yes, I agree. I was saying (not very clearly ) that if the Aug 2018 BB offer is FD then there's a good chance we'll see some sort of FD offer again next April.

Please come back and let us know if there is a FD BB!

 

[KaciF]

I got my FD yesterday morning without any real issues other than the site lagging, BUT I do have a FD-related inquiry that I was hoping you guys could possibly help me out on. Luckily, we only needed the minimum four park tickets offered with the package; however, we were wanting to upgrade our park tickets to APs once we arrived. Would that even be allowed (upgrading tickets) since our package is a part of the FD offer?

I hope this makes sense and that I'm posting per rules (I think this might be my first time posting here). I wasn't sure if it would be fine to ask here since it related to free dining or if I needed to move it elsewhere.

 

[SPOERLX3]

Nope it was a mistake. Basically not free dining at all! Just changed to a new package with increased new year ticket prices & room increase plus added regular dining on. So we lost our old price and now do not have free dining. Really sad today!!

I am soooo sorry.
Keep checking, hopefully something will come available.
Have you called and tried to talk this out with a manager?

 

[sharonabe]

I got my FD yesterday morning without any real issues other than the site lagging, BUT I do have a FD-related inquiry that I was hoping you guys could possibly help me out on. Luckily, we only needed the minimum four park tickets offered with the package; however, we were wanting to upgrade our park tickets to APs once we arrived. Would that even be allowed (upgrading tickets) since our package is a part of the FD offer?

I hope this makes sense and that I'm posting per rules (I think this might be my first time posting here). I wasn't sure if it would be fine to ask here since it related to free dining or if I needed to move it elsewhere.

Yes, you can upgrade to an AP. People save their FD tickets and do it all the time.

Have fun!

 

[Newbie1234]

Yes a package is a little bit more than buying each piece separately. You do get a few extras with a package.
https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/guest-services/vacation-package-magical-extras/

Hah, I had no idea these little perks exist with the package. Thanks!

 

[Kelli Pooh]

I am soooo sorry.
Keep checking, hopefully something will come available.
Have you called and tried to talk this out with a manager?

Thanks!
I have settled for free dining at All Star Sports for a much better price. I am still sad because I love Pop! My agent is going to continue to try for it.
Yes, I should talk to a manager but at this point I am just defeated today.

 

[BabybetterDisney]

I looked up my records. Last year my free dining at Pop 14 nights was $3652. This year, same hotel same nights same people around same time is $3927. Price increase: 8%.

 

[Stephluva]

Just wanted to drop by and say that this thread has been very therapeutic over the last few days while we were IMpatiently waiting for the FD offer to drop. Figured I would share my experience...
DH and I have specific travel dates because we will be traveling with DH’s extended family (they have a separate reservation from us and booked a few months ago, staying at WL). We booked our original reservation a few weeks ago - 8/12-8/19 standard room at Pop using RO discount. We added on the DDP and were planning on buying discounted park hoppers from a different site. We have the Disney Visa, so when FD dropped, we were able to take advantage of the earlier arrival dates.
I got up at 5:30am the morning of the coveted offer, but because of Stitch constantly eating all the pages and not being able to get through on the phone, I was finally able to secure us FD at 9:30am. I ended up making a new reservation - kept our travel days the same, upgraded to a preferred room, 7day PH, upgraded to DDP. Ended up saving $250 off our original reservation.
Thanks to all the information and great stories on this thread!

On a side note: last year we stayed at Pop in September with FD, and booked that trip in May! So don’t give up hope, keep checking!!

 

[ellypres]

Thank you everyone, for your help. I'm trying to book a new reservation with my daughter as 3 years old instead of 2, but it doesn't give me Sports as an option. But when I change her back to 2, Sports is back as an option...?!