ANOTHER free dining question!

[leebee]

How do you know when free dining is offered? Do they make an announcement in advance, or does everyone just start getting up at the crack of dawn in late April and start surfing different sites until something pops up? I have a Disney VISA, I'm signed up with Mousesavers, I have a Touring Plans membership, and of course an MDE account and my membership here. Do any of the sites give advance notification of when the free dining offer will "open" or should I just plan on going to bed- and getting up- really early in late April?

 

[BrookieM2001]

Generally speaking, all the major sites and blogs will post when dining goes live several days before. The free dining thread on here will start to blow up too, so if you're not already, you should be following that. They wont be able to tell you exactly what time it goes live because its different from year to year, but we should know which night in advance. When we got dining a couple years ago it was 3:30am. You can always log on at 6am and call at 7, but usually it goes live in the middle of the night before that time, so if you're really hoping for FD, that would probably be your best bet. Good Luck!

 

[leebee]

Generally speaking, all the major sites and blogs will post when dining goes live several days before. The free dining thread on here will start to blow up too, so if you're not already, you should be following that. They wont be able to tell you exactly what time it goes live because its different from year to year, but we should know which night in advance. When we got dining a couple years ago it was 3:30am. You can always log on at 6am and call at 7, but usually it goes live in the middle of the night before that time, so if you're really hoping for FD, that would probably be your best bet. Good Luck!

Thanks! I already have a reservation for ASMusic with base tickets and DDP. No deals for me, so I'm hoping to snag free dining. What is the best way to go about this? Should I make an all-new reservation and then cancel the one I have, or will they just "upgrade" my existing reservation? Will Disney credit the money I've paid to the new reservation?

 

[BrookieM2001]

Thanks! I already have a reservation for ASMusic with base tickets and DDP. No deals for me, so I'm hoping to snag free dining. What is the best way to go about this? Should I make an all-new reservation and then cancel the one I have, or will they just "upgrade" my existing reservation? Will Disney credit the money I've paid to the new reservation?

Honestly, i cant remember if we had already added DDP to our reservation last time before we got FD but if so they probably just deducted that amount from our outstanding balance. We booked FD in April and didn't travel until October so we hadn't paid it off yet. IF you are trying to book online in the middle of the night, the easiest thing to do is be up when it drops (you will find lots of other crazies staying up all night and chatting here on the boards so no worries about being bored). Log out of you MDE on your computer and then log back in fresh. Then, when it opens for booking, first try to apply the promo to your existing reservation. This worked for alot of people when we booked and they were booked and back in bed in like 15 minutes. However, for some reason the room we had booked was not eligible for the promo because we were staying longer than 7 nights and the promo isn't set up for that, so we had to call. The best advice i can offer is to try calling the IT number from one phone and the regular number from another. The wait at exactly 7am was like 3 hours from the normal number but when we called IT, they switched us right to someone for dining and we got a CM within 15 minutes. it was suuuuuuuper fast! Have you paid your trip off yet? IF not, and if you cant add the promo to your existing res, you can definitely try making an entirely new res while you wait for the phones to open up since it always drops online hours before those lines open.

 

[friedela]

Generally speaking, all the major sites and blogs will post when dining goes live several days before. The free dining thread on here will start to blow up too, so if you're not already, you should be following that. They wont be able to tell you exactly what time it goes live because its different from year to year, but we should know which night in advance. When we got dining a couple years ago it was 3:30am. You can always log on at 6am and call at 7, but usually it goes live in the middle of the night before that time, so if you're really hoping for FD, that would probably be your best bet. Good Luck!

I have had the same question, OP! Brookie, where is the free dining thread? I can't seem to find it on here even with a search?

 

[BrookieM2001]

I have had the same question, OP! Brookie, where is the free dining thread? I can't seem to find it on here even with a search?

Here it is, they are always on top of it on these threads! Plus, when everyone is up all night it always gets pretty fun in there!

https://www.disboards.com/threads/official-2018-free-dining-plan-watch-wait-and-dream.3599732/

 

[friedela]

Thanks so much!

 

[bluejasmine]

SO we SHOULD be able to go online and add the discount code once its discount has dropped to reservations already booked? That would be wonderful not to have to be on the phone for hours!!

 

[BrookieM2001]

SO we SHOULD be able to go online and add the discount code once its discount has dropped to reservations already booked? That would be wonderful not to have to be on the phone for hours!!

Yep. As long as your beginning date is within the window, and your room type qualifies, you should be able to just apply to promo to an existing res. It doesn’t always go that smoothly, but that’s how it’s SUPPOSED to work!

 

[vleeth]

However, for some reason the room we had booked was not eligible for the promo because we were staying longer than 7 nights and the promo isn't set up for that, so we had to call. The best advice i can offer is to try calling the IT number from one phone and the regular number from another.

Is there a maximum number of nights you can get the free dining promo?

 

[leebee]

I want to make sure I know what I am doing before free dining drops. If I go to My Disney Experience, I don't see where/how to modify my reservation. Where/how can I add the free dining code? Can anyone walk me through this? (I realize it might not be obvious now as there's no offer... but I want to be ready!)

 

[TheRustyScupper]

As long as your beginning date is within the window, and your room type qualifies

1) AND, you are paying full rack rate for the room.
2) You need to do the math.
3) In some cases, it is better financially to take a room discount and pay for dining, than to pay full price for the room and get the free dining.
4) Also, remember that free dining is different for the different hotel classes (Value, Mod, Deluxe, DVC, FW Cabins).

 

[leebee]

1) AND, you are paying full rack rate for the room.
2) You need to do the math.
3) In some cases, it is better financially to take a room discount and pay for dining, than to pay full price for the room and get the free dining.
4) Also, remember that free dining is different for the different hotel classes (Value, Mod, Deluxe, DVC, FW Cabins).

I forgot about the room discount, but I think at a value it's more cost effective for us (2 adults) to do the free dining. What % do they usually discount a value resort? We already have a package with DDP and 6 day base tickets. No discount on anything, full rack rate, getting stuck in my craw. Free dining saves me $470, even with the upgrade from QSDP to DDP and adding hopper tickets. Not sure, though. If I can't get free dining I"m going to drop the DDP and take the money on a gift card; at least what I don't use will be available for the next trip. Sigh... I hate paying rack rate!

 

[22Tink]

I want to make sure I know what I am doing before free dining drops. If I go to My Disney Experience, I don't see where/how to modify my reservation. Where/how can I add the free dining code? Can anyone walk me through this? (I realize it might not be obvious now as there's no offer... but I want to be ready!)

When we wanted to apply free dining to our reservation a couple of years ago it wouldn’t allow me to modify my existing reservation. I had to cancel and rebook with the FD discount, so be aware that you may not be able to just add the discount.

 

[Disneylover99]

I want to make sure I know what I am doing before free dining drops. If I go to My Disney Experience, I don't see where/how to modify my reservation. Where/how can I add the free dining code? Can anyone walk me through this? (I realize it might not be obvious now as there's no offer... but I want to be ready!)

Go to my reservations and tickets
Look at your reservation - on the right hand side. You should see a place where you can click on cancel reservation. There may or may not be a modify button as well.

You are more likely to have a modify button if you made the reservation yourself over the Internet. If you made the reservation over the phone, you might not be able to modify yourself. At least that's been my experience.

 

[Disneylover99]

I forgot about the room discount, but I think at a value it's more cost effective for us (2 adults) to do the free dining. What % do they usually discount a value resort? We already have a package with DDP and 6 day base tickets. No discount on anything, full rack rate, getting stuck in my craw. Free dining saves me $470, even with the upgrade from QSDP to DDP and adding hopper tickets. Not sure, though. If I can't get free dining I"m going to drop the DDP and take the money on a gift card; at least what I don't use will be available for the next trip. Sigh... I hate paying rack rate!

The most you'll get off at a Value is 15%. Even if you're paying $200 for your room, that's only $30 off. Free dining is still the better deal.

 

[leebee]

Go to my reservations and tickets
Look at your reservation - on the right hand side. You should see a place where you can click on cancel reservation. There may or may not be a modify button as well.

You are more likely to have a modify button if you made the reservation yourself over the Internet. If you made the reservation over the phone, you might not be able to modify yourself. At least that's been my experience.

Thank you!! I have a "Cancel Reservation" and a "Change Reservation!" I can see I'm going to be up "late" or "early" (depending on if I stay up or get up) to hunt down free dining when it drops!

 

[Disneylover99]

Thank you!! I have a "Cancel Reservation" and a "Change Reservation!" I can see I'm going to be up "late" or "early" (depending on if I stay up or get up) to hunt down free dining when it drops!

Yes, it's change reservation, not modify. The only other thing is that sometimes even with those buttons, when you click on them, it says to call.

 

[sharonabe]

Thank you!! I have a "Cancel Reservation" and a "Change Reservation!" I can see I'm going to be up "late" or "early" (depending on if I stay up or get up) to hunt down free dining when it drops!

If that "change reservation" doesn't work, the fastest and surest way to still get free dining is to make a completely new reservation while keeping the old one. Don't cancel the one you have unless you get exactly what you want with a new one. Once the hubbub dies down from the initial drop, you might be able to call in and add it to the reservation you have now, but if not, then you still have free dining with the new one and you can then cancel the one you don't want. This does require making another deposit, but you'll get the one you don't want refunded.

 

[BrookieM2001]

Is there a maximum number of nights you can get the free dining promo?

If I’m not mistaken, it’s 14 days. But it’s set up usually in the system to go from a weekend to a weekend date and usually a week since that’s the normal vacation length. We went 10 days and started on a Thursday sontge computer wanted us to have a split stay that both qualified for FD. It made no sense but that’s what their system liked, so we had to talk to IT to get the glitch fixed so we could book for 10 instead of 7+3