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

[vikkil70]

My nervous jitters are through the roof because I have to rely on my TA to change my reservation and I might be just a little bit of a control freak!

I am in the same boat. We have always used a TA and gotten FD but it has been several years since we went and I keep hearing that inventory may be less each year and they may be trying to phase it out eventually so who knows what this year will bring.

I got real nervous this morning when I e-mailed my TA to make sure she knew all our option possibilities to adjust our reservation if needed and I got an auto-reply saying she was on vacation until Monday. I was so happy when she e-mailed me back herself and she told me she has heard the rumors and she has all our options and will be ready on Monday. Hoping to get a very happy e-mail Monday morning, and will have jitters all weekend.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

I'm getting there 11/27 it looks like a pretty good time to me.

We're arriving 11/26, maybe we'll cross paths! I'm a member or touring plans, and originally the crowd levels this week were all 2-4, then it recently updated, now they're more like 4-6. Either way, with a good plan all crowds are manageable, I just hope they don't go up again!

 

[mnmhouston]

I am in the same boat. We have always used a TA and gotten FD but it has been several years since we went and I keep hearing that inventory may be less each year and they may be trying to phase it out eventually so who knows what this year will bring.

I got real nervous this morning when I e-mailed my TA to make sure she knew all our option possibilities to adjust our reservation if needed and I got an auto-reply saying she was on vacation until Monday. I was so happy when she e-mailed me back herself and she told me she has heard the rumors and she has all our options and will be ready on Monday. Hoping to get a very happy e-mail Monday morning, and will have jitters all weekend.

I have total confidence in my TA as well. Makes life easy peasy! She is well armed with many back up plans!

 

[Disney Ron]

Is Art of Animation normally excluded?

Little Mermaid rooms are excluded, not the family suites.

 

[disorganizedchaos]

Well, not psyched about mods getting QS only but I suppose it's better than nothing. It would be incredible to not have to have a PH. We just don't use it with three under six years old. Plus, it's cheaper to upgrade to DDP than to upgrade to PH (for our family).

 

[bjcaed]

My nervous jitters are through the roof because I have to rely on my TA to change my reservation and I might be just a little bit of a control freak!

I feel you!! I am in the same boat. I sent my TA all my scenarios and rated them 1-5. Hope he gets us the best deal possible. I have always had better luck getting what I want during free dinning using a TA.

 

[menotyou21]

Crissi is 100% correct on this. Our TA does this every trip for us and we go 3-4 times a year. She gets the guaranteed connecting rooms and they are one reservation number.

This will be my last post on this; after which we can all agree to believe what we want to believe:

First: Please check out a few responses here: https://www.disboards.com/threads/connecting-rooms.3598443/#post-57478887

Second: To clear up the 1 reservation number: within the TAs reservation there is a number called a TW (travel with). Truthfully this is not 1 reservation. All 2 room reservations will have 2 reservation numbers attached to them. The Disney system will not allow a "2 on 1".

It seems to me some guests have had great success in being assigned connecting rooms; however, Disney will never truly guarantee a connecting room. If the party includes 1 adult and all remaining guests are under 17, they will put "guarantee" on the reservation - but as you can see on the "Connecting Rooms" post, one family (single adult/multiple kids stated they had the guarantee and still did not receive it).

I truly hope everyone here, that is requesting connecting rooms, is "granted their wish"! And Crissi, I hope your clients continue to have success booking connecting rooms with you.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

I've seen several sites (including "dads") telling people that FD drops between 7-8 am. People are going to follow this advice and possibly not get what they wanted. But I guess that will leave more available at 4am for us! Assuming it drops then...

 

[KimBean]

We're arriving 11/26, maybe we'll cross paths! I'm a member or touring plans, and originally the crowd levels this week were all 2-4, then it recently updated, now they're more like 4-6. Either way, with a good plan all crowds are manageable, I just hope they don't go up again!

yeah I am a member too. I've made my plans for each day already. I haven't noticed any big changes in the last month. But, I did try to select the lowest or second lowest park each day.

 

[TeacherInNeverland]

I've seen several sites (including "dads") telling people that FD drops between 7-8 am. People are going to follow this advice and possibly not get what they wanted. But I guess that will leave more available at 4am for us! Assuming it drops then...

I get up at 3:30am and you bet your buttons I'll be refreshing at 3:59am

 

[KimBean]

We're arriving 11/26, maybe we'll cross paths! I'm a member or touring plans, and originally the crowd levels this week were all 2-4, then it recently updated, now they're more like 4-6. Either way, with a good plan all crowds are manageable, I just hope they don't go up again!

Also last time I was there between 12/12-12/21 and it was great. I don't think it would be more crowded than that.

 

[squirrel]

The 13th or 21st?

That has always been the question. Some like me think that the 13th is for Disney Visa and Canadians and the 21st is the GP start date.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

I've decided that since mods aren't getting DDP, I'm going to book a suite at AoA (which my kids are way more excited about than the cabins) and upgrade. For a family of 6 (really 7, but one is a baby) there aren't many options. Really though, there's only a slight price difference between the cabins and AoA, but I was only going to the cabins because they're mod, and I was hoping for DDP.

 

[laurxx24]

Little Mermaid rooms are excluded, not the family suites.

Do you know anything about Room only offers and their dates? Sorry if this has already been asked!

 

[Lesley Wake]

I get up at 3:30am and you bet your buttons I'll be refreshing at 3:59am

I'll be checking every 5 minutes from 9pm PST (midnight east coast). Will probably try to watch a movie at the same time (but I'll be stuck in the bedroom, because wifi is better there than in the rest of the house).

 

[Disney Ron]

Do you know anything about Room only offers and their dates? Sorry if this has already been asked!

No I'm sorry.

 

[mousiemom]

This is me exactly. The planning is definitely part of the fun. When I booked our August trip back in January, I told my family - "lucky you guys, mom is going to be in a great mood for 8 months!" I love the planning and anticipation. When I hear of people going who do not plan, or even do any research, I think, man, they're going to come back with a negative taste in their mouths. I have found in my life (as I'm sure you have too) there are two types of people - those who get Disney, and those who don't. My friends who don't get it think I'm nuts. Thankfully I can come here and find a whole ton of nuts!

It is absolutely my favorite thing to do is plan and adr. as soon as we had our week we wanted i had the itinerary done and adrs the very next day. we all know the drill with not having a plan and FP! learned everything i needed to know here on the dis!

 

[kiki_65]

Us Michiganders didn't find it too cold to swim - but my kids are also a bit crazy

We did the exact same thing last year! How funny! Had the same dates as you and added a day on to the beginning to save $ on SW airfare (we're also from Michigan -- DH and I). We thought about going to Disney Springs on Black Friday since we arrived that day, but we opted to go to Hollywood Studios instead.

 

[Just Love Disney]

Last year we went the weekend after Thanksgiving based on how free dining fell. We typically fly, but airfare prices were just too high to make it worth it that weekend. I looked and looked and could never really find a good deal. The only day that was "cheaper" to fly on was the actual day of Thanksgiving.

This year if free dining comes out we are going to avoid arriving on that weekend just for that reason (if it is offered to start on that weekend). Flying is a lot easier for us and we were priced out last trip.

I am hoping that the airfare won't price us out! We'll have to weigh the pros and cons between possible free QSDP and higher air...

Weather was perfect, crowds weren't bad at all. Have a smart Fastpass plan and hit the parks early. If DH could get that week off this year we would be going then. We went 10/25-10/31 the year before and it was HOT and crowded.

We have gone the last few weeks of October for the past 5 years and the crowds have gotten increasingly worse with each year. This will be our first time going late November/early December. I hope it is warm, as in really warm. I really like the temps in late October even though it does get somewhat hot...

We went that week last year and didn't find the crowds bad. Higher than we have typically seen the week before Thanksgiving, but with a good plan it was fine.

We are though looking at going closer to Christmas this year (and know crowds will be higher) 12/10-12/17. I just didn't like leaving right after Thanksgiving personally. We had so much going on with Thanksgiving made it hard on us. I know others probably would be fine though. So we are trying a different week. Hah then I may feel like it was too close to Christmas

We always have Thanksgiving at our house. This year we may have to politely excuse ourselves after dinner and hop on a plane to Disney. Leave the clean-up for our guests

We swam, the pools are heated but air was chilly after dark. We all wore hoodies in the morning but by afternoon we're comfortable in shorts and tanks/tees. Hoodies again for late nights. But no hot sweaty days were fabulous! Even rode splash and kali

I'm praying for really nice weather. I can handle the fall heat (not summer) but can't tolerate the cold!

October was crowded, end of November was much better. We went week after thanksgiving last year. Greta weather, moderate crowds but with a good plan we didn't want long for anything. We are planning 2nd week of December this year and touring plans is showing crowd levels 4-6. I think a solid plan and good fastpasses will help no matter what the crowds are!

I would welcome lower crowds than what we've experienced in recent years during October! And agree, a solid plan with fastpasses well utilized makes all the difference!

 

[disneydreamer1980]

I plan on napping a lot on sunday, and just staying up all night. That way I can refresh every 10 minutes and I don't trust myself to wake up to an alarm. I have all these fears of oversleeping, the alarm not working, etc. , so I'll just stay awake till it drops.