Free Dining Fall 2015? (and a whole lot more)

[Kristi113]

I've got the Disney Visa, and I used to put the deposit down on my room and am hoping for FD, but I've got a few questions:
1. When the offer is released, do I call Disney or Visa to get the free dining?
2. I'm staying in a budget resort and hoping to upgrade the FD plan. Do I need to pay that with the Disney card, or can I use any card for that?

I was thinking of applying for the Disney Visa to get ahead of the crowd in free dining. On the Disney website it says you get a $200 statement credit, but on the Chase website it says a $100 credit. DO you somehow get a better deal by signing up on the Disney website?

 

[vicarrieous]

I've got the Disney Visa, and I used to put the deposit down on my room and am hoping for FD, but I've got a few questions:
1. When the offer is released, do I call Disney or Visa to get the free dining?
2. I'm staying in a budget resort and hoping to upgrade the FD plan. Do I need to pay that with the Disney card, or can I use any card for that?

I believe:
1. You call Disney
2. You need to have the room deposit on the Disney Visa, but beyond that you can use whatever payment.

 

[donp]

I believe:
1. You call Disney
2. You need to have the room deposit on the Disney Visa, but beyond that you can use whatever payment.

Yes, that is correct

 

[donp]

I was thinking of applying for the Disney Visa to get ahead of the crowd in free dining. On the Disney website it says you get a $200 statement credit, but on the Chase website it says a $100 credit. DO you somehow get a better deal by signing up on the Disney website?

I had seen that as well. Was one the Premier ($49 annual fee) and the other the regular (no annual fee)?

 

[vicarrieous]

Yes, that is correct

Thanks for the confirmation!

 

[vicarrieous]

I had seen that as well. Was one the Premier ($49 annual fee) and the other the regular (no annual fee)?

I saw that difference as well and chalked it up to the difference between cards. I was looking online about possibly signing up then a few weeks later I got the offer of spend $500 in the first three months and get a $200 giftcard so I did that instead.

 

[lawboysam]

Yes, that is correct

Thank you both!

 

[donp]

I saw that difference as well and chalked it up to the difference between cards. I was looking online about possibly signing up then a few weeks later I got the offer of spend $500 in the first three months and get a $200 giftcard so I did that instead.

I have the Disney Visa, but had seen this as well. Told my friend about it, but he must have gone to the wrong site because he could only find the $100.

 

[Just Love Disney]

I don't know their situation but back when I was in HS and taking 4 AP classes at a time, that would have been extremely, extremely hard to make up that much work for 2+ weeks of being out. The homework workload is that of a typical college course. And often times AP classes can have a lab component where you need to be there to perform the lab or other assignment (chemistry, physics, maybe even calculus, etc.), so it becomes a logistics problem and not just about spending the time to do the homework. Then it gets even more complicated when you factor in the possibility for exams or other major projects in that time frame. I don't blame them at all for not wanting to miss school. AP classes are also extremely important for college prep in general. Also you have to factor in the mindset change - it can be very hard to get back into the classroom after an extended vacation, especially knowing that you are now behind your classmates and won't be able to use them as resources until you catch up. As much as I love WDW I would NOT have wanted to miss that much class back then, so I can sympathize.

Our son will also be taking 4 AP courses as well. Thank you for the insight on how it wouldn't be wise to pull him out for the extended absence. There's a lot more to factor in just besides the homework....I hadn't even thought about labs!

We book our 3 FPs between 10 & 2, and we easily used 8 in a day at MK. When you go to a kiosk, take the first thing you are happy with, and then try for something better on the app. We found much better availability that way.

Last year we were there for RD every morning so we were able to hit a few of the more popular rides in the early am. Then, we scheduled our FPs for mid to late afternoon but by that time of day, after all our pre-selected FPs were used, there wasn't anything left that was desirable. Maybe this year we'll try your method of FPs earlier in the day and then try to snag a few more when those are up. Also, thanks for the tip about the app having better availability.

Thank you for the info. I am trying to get first hand knowledge. Last year we stayed at Coronado and were excited to try a new place. We had an unfortunate experience of someone from housekeeping(or someone else with a key) going through our things and a few items went missing. I am sure it was a very isolated incident, but it made us not really want to return to that resort. The Caribbean looks very nice and we are determined not to let that one bad experience deter us from going back and enjoying the magic.

Yikes, that is a horrible experience you had! I hope you'll enjoy a theft-free stay at CBR

 

[vrajewski10513]

Hey Everybody!
My Fiance and I are planning a trip for our honeymoon and hoping to get free dinning. I have one quick question about it. We are getting married August 22, and want to ideally honeymoon August 26-Sept 2. Since our last dates might end on when free dinning begins, would we qualify?

TIA!

No. Your check in date has to be within the free dining window.

 

[lauradis]

not sure how many of you go to disney yearly like we do, but we got FD like 6 years ago at POFQ, and there was a thing on our desk in the room saying to call before you leave for a bounce back offer. We called and got FD in POFQ for the following year (They gave us like a 6 week span we could book in) so we did it. And have done that every year since and so we are locked in to POFQ where they dont even offer FD anymore. If you guys get FD this year and are repeat offenders, try booking a bounce back. even if you end up not going you can cancel the reservation and get your deposit back.

Don't for get to add $200 into your budget for the bounce back offer. There is a $200 deposit on all package resort reservations.

 

[lauradis]

Just a heads up... posts about that agency have been getting deleted. Google is your friend. Lol

Love the Google, not to fond of travel company. I love control when it comes to my Disney planning. Plus will they take Disney gift cards as payments?

 

[smitch425]

Love the Google, not to fond of travel company. I love control when it comes to my Disney planning. Plus will they take Disney gift cards as payments?

My agent booked the trip, but I am in full control of FPs and my lone ADR (we aren't ADR people). She will be applying all of our gift cards. Easy peasy. Even got a bonus waterpark day. Going to BB for the first time. The kids are excited about it. Lol

 

[lauradis]

We stayed at CBR this past Oct (2014) and booked FD at POFQ as a bounceback for Sept 2015 for 14 nights as well. Unfortunately, we will likely have to change our dates since it's not a good time for the kiddos to be taken out of school. The CM told us we could rebook POFQ or any other moderate for Oct 2015 with 30% off the room but the FD wouldn't carry over. We haven't cancelled our plans for FD at POFQ just yet as it's really hard to kiss $3600 worth of FD away Contemplating just leaving the kids at home in Sept. and DH and I can enjoy POFQ FD by ourselves

do it, Grown ups should be able to take vacation all by them selfs too.

 

[Honeybee83]

I don't know their situation but back when I was in HS and taking 4 AP classes at a time, that would have been extremely, extremely hard to make up that much work for 2+ weeks of being out. The homework workload is that of a typical college course. And often times AP classes can have a lab component where you need to be there to perform the lab or other assignment (chemistry, physics, maybe even calculus, etc.), so it becomes a logistics problem and not just about spending the time to do the homework. Then it gets even more complicated when you factor in the possibility for exams or other major projects in that time frame. I don't blame them at all for not wanting to miss school. AP classes are also extremely important for college prep in general. Also you have to factor in the mindset change - it can be very hard to get back into the classroom after an extended vacation, especially knowing that you are now behind your classmates and won't be able to use them as resources until you catch up. As much as I love WDW I would NOT have wanted to miss that much class back then, so I can sympathize.

Just to clear things up, I posted that before the poster said that the kiddos were in AP classes. Also, it was not meant as a judgement, but rather recognizing how difficult it would to give up such a great offer.

 

[Honeybee83]

We book our 3 FPs between 10 & 2, and we easily used 8 in a day at MK. When you go to a kiosk, take the first thing you are happy with, and then try for something better on the app. We found much better availability that way.

When we went in September last year you could only get a fourth fastpass or make changes to it on a kiosk. You could only use the app for the day before, or longer, never same day? Have they changed this?

 

[Honeybee83]

From my understanding, your first day (checkin day) would have to be included in free dining to be allowed it for your entire trip.

Correct

 

[smitch425]

When we went in September last year you could only get a fourth fastpass or make changes to it on a kiosk. You could only use the app for the day before, or longer, never same day? Have they changed this?

As far as I know nothing is different. Did you ever try changing it on the app after booking on the kiosk? We were there in Oct.

 

[Honeybee83]

Don't for get to add $200 into your budget for the bounce back offer. There is a $200 deposit on all package resort reservations.

I had seen a previous post where they didn't have to pay a deposit on a BB. I'm assuming if you do have to put down a deposit it falls under the same refund rules?

 

[Honeybee83]

As far as I know nothing is different. Did you ever try changing it on the app after booking on the kiosk? We were there in Oct.

I thought that I had, but with how many glitches they have had we could have just had a bad day for it. Good to know though.