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

[sarah24]

Not before free dining. Your check in date has to be during FD. You can extend your dates after but not before. You would need two different reservations.
Someone else help on the ticket situation. If you do 1 room only and 1 FD can you use the FD tickets earlier?

Ok, I thought before we got it starting that first night we checked in. I thought in 2014, we had one reservation and free dining started the day after we checked in and we had it that first day of the reservation. I can't find anything that says the details on Disney's site even for old dates.

 

[aprescher]

t

first try to modify
If that doesnt work, try a new reservation BEFORE canceling the other... then once you have what you want booked, cancel the other.. but normall there should be modify or change button... some reservations you cannot self modify.. mine for example is a TA special with group rates,, anything that is not available via the normal disney site.. this only the TA can touch.

Thank you!!! Free dining would mean a world of difference for our trip and I'm so excited about the possibility. She booked normally through the website so hopefully we will be able to modify. I appreciate the advice

 

[OatsZoo]

Ok so while I wait and stew and over think - what would everyone say is the arrival day being the "best" I know arriving in Disney any day is awesome but I am sure seasoned travelers have input on certain trends/preferences. I am torn between a Friday to Thurs/Fri (still debating adding a 7th night) or a Sunday to Sat/Sun

This is going to be a long week!

If you are flying it is usually cheaper to fly mid week, we always fly into Disney on a Tuesday or Wednesday.

 

[FinnsMom7]

If you are flying it is usually cheaper to fly mid week, we always fly into Disney on a Tuesday or Wednesday.

The last 2 trips I think I flew in Wed or Thurs - but based on work and holidays I am trying to stay within a certain date range. Flights were all the same price until yesterday (of course) but I know they will fluctuate over the next few months anyway.

I think the FD wait has my brain scrambled about more things than need be LOL

 

[FinnsMom7]

Do you mean best in terms of getting room requests met? I think I've checked in on every day of the week and getting room requests met or getting a room that is ready early has been completely random for me.

I will say arriving earlier in the day is better than arriving late. If something is wrong with your room, there is more availability to make a change.

No but I hadn't thought of that point, add to my list of growing wonders - I always take first or second flight out, I want my vacation to start ASAP that day.

 

[momto4obkids]

I am confused by your statement... Your FD package starts on a specific date.. what do you mean by checking in a day or two before? Do you mean with a different RO reservation? a split stay? if so, your FD starts when you check in for the 2nd reservation.

as a tip if you do a split stay with FD, do your FD first and then the RO part.. This way you have your park tickets for the entire part.. with FD you have to get park tickets.. so let's say your FD is for 4 nights, and you do a split stay with RO, for 3 nights, you book your FD but when select park days, add those other day... ex. package for 4 nights, but a 7 or 8 day ticket.. your tickets are still valid when you check out of your FD room and check into a RO room.. Sometimes you dont have to phycically change rooms, sometimes you do.

You can actually do it the opposite way as well. You just need to go to guest services and have them make your tickets active.

We are staying at the Swan for two days on Thanksgiving Day and Friday after, then switching to CBR on the 25th with a package. I did it that way because I assumed free dining wouldn't start until the Saturday after Thanksgiving, if it was going to be available.

We will just go to the Guest Services at the International Gateway and have them make our tickets available.

 

[kindle&wine]

I am looking at your countdown and it looks as though you will be there the first week of Septemberish and the crowds are typically low so you may not need express passes. When we were there two years ago, the third week of August was quite busy and as we were staying onsite we had the express passes. We returned for a day later in our trip, almost the end of August while staying at a villa and the lines were actually shorter standby than they were with the express passes the week before. The parks were truly almost empty!

Also, for your consideration, I have heard people say that it can be cheaper to book a room at RPR to get the express tickets and then not even use the room. This would actually give you two days of express tickets if you wanted to look at a second day at Universal which is well worth spending two days IMHO.

Thanks, we went the same week last year and did One day with express pass - crowds were low but express was worth it to us! We walked onto everything except the Harry Potter rides that are not included but even then wait was no more than 15-20 minutes

 

[mousefan73]

Not before free dining. Your check in date has to be during FD. You can extend your dates after but not before. You would need two different reservations.
Someone else help on the ticket situation. If you do 1 room only and 1 FD can you use the FD tickets earlier?

There is a whole thread somewhere under tickets information on getting "activating" park tickets before your package begins... It has been possible in the past... google it disboards, somewhere there is that thread.

 

[momanmiN]

Thanks for all the info!

 

[mousefan73]

You can actually do it the opposite way as well. You just need to go to guest services and have them make your tickets active.

We are staying at the Swan for two days on Thanksgiving Day and Friday after, then switching to CBR on the 25th with a package. I did it that way because I assumed free dining wouldn't start until the Saturday after Thanksgiving, if it was going to be available.

We will just go to the Guest Services at the International Gateway and have them make our tickets available.

that's true.. i prefer fd then RO as the dining is valid until midnight of check-out, so I stretch credits that way.. though I can see some travel plans change ( flights etc..) and you add a room before after booking a package.. In this case you can activate before and also add a day. unless you like in my case have convention tickets.. THESE you cannot modify once check-in... the TA has to do it before hand.

 

[Rusty2rules]

I talked to my TA this morning. My original plan was 3n/4d with no add ons. I went ahead and told her to go ahead and extend it to 4n/5d and added the PH+. We agreed that it would be better to reserve the extra night now while the inventory is still there. Easier to add now and remove later if not needed than the other way around. An added bonus was I got the extras for less money because my original booking was before the price increases. Yay!

 

[sharonabe]

Ok, I thought before we got it starting that first night we checked in. I thought in 2014, we had one reservation and free dining started the day after we checked in and we had it that first day of the reservation. I can't find anything that says the details on Disney's site even for old dates.

You must be remembering incorrectly, because check-in day has ALWAYS been the catch. You cannot activate free dining before the free dining date. As others have said, you can do a split stay of room only for the days before that are not included in FD, and then a FD stay. Just make sure the tickets on your FD stay include the number of days you want with RO too. And yes, you can activate tickets before.

that's true.. i prefer fd then RO as the dining is valid until midnight of check-out, so I stretch credits that way.. though I can see some travel plans change ( flights etc..) and you add a room before after booking a package.. In this case you can activate before and also add a day. unless you like in my case have convention tickets.. THESE you cannot modify once check-in... the TA has to do it before hand.

But your way doesn't make sense to me. FD can extend beyond the end date as long as you check in on an included date. An example for this year's possible dates is those checking in on Dec 23 for a 10-night stay can have free dining for their entire vacation. Why would you want a RO after a FD stay?

 

[Susan Doeberl]

You CANNOT upgrade upon arrival. And the 48 hrs people have been quoting is for DVC. All "regular" folks have to add/upgrade/downgrade dining 72 hrs before check-in.



Seasonal pricing no longer exists. There are one or two places that have an upcharge for Thanksgiving and Christmas meals, but they will be listed on rustyscupper's list. You can trust the prices on the sticky as it is a CM who is keeping them up-to-date.



You have to go through the special offers page from the beginning of your reservation. From WDW's home page, scroll down to the bottom and click on special offers. Once FD is announced, there will be a link to follow and then all of it will load for you and add in automatically. If you don't go through special offers, you do NOT have free dining.

Last year I already had my reservations made and when free dining came up I went to my Disney experience reservations clicked on modify and I was able to select free dining. I didn't have to go through the free dining link on the special offer page to get the reservation for free dining.

 

[mousefan73]

You must be remembering incorrectly, because check-in day has ALWAYS been the catch. You cannot activate free dining before the free dining date. As others have said, you can do a split stay of room only for the days before that are not included in FD, and then a FD stay. Just make sure the tickets on your FD stay include the number of days you want with RO too. And yes, you can activate tickets before.



But your way doesn't make sense to me. FD can extend beyond the end date as long as you check in on an included date. An example for this year's possible dates is those checking in on Dec 23 for a 10-night stay can have free dining for their entire vacation. Why would you want a RO after a FD stay?

Because the RO offer is just too good to say no to. Last year for example we had FD at PoR for 5 nights and upped our ticket days to 8 or 9 as we had a RO special deal at BC.. BC for 208.00 per night which was special group rate. We could have done the whole vacation with that RO offer, but we still wanted some FDing and we also wanted to try the BC.. rack for BC with a FDing would have been over 400-450 a night. and too much for the whole trip. We checked into BC on switch day and still used of FDing. TS credit for Cape Day for dinner as those credits are good until midnight even after you check out.

 

[ratodino]

Thanks for the reply. I was just looking under basic rates - I don't think there are any posted promotions for November right now (that I know of). I'm so mad I didn't go ahead and book a room when we first started talking about a trip months ago!

I've been looking at the Poly mid-september and there was availability for all room types for the past month. Now yesterday, there is no availability at all. I'm hoping it's all part of the "glitch". Keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[JackieO]

I've been trying since last night to look up prices for Pop. Every time I click to see available rooms I get Stitch. I can see other resorts, just Pop gives me Stitch. Any ideas? Just a glitch?

 

[Greg36]

I've been trying since last night to look up prices for Pop. Every time I click to see available rooms I get Stitch. I can see other resorts, just Pop gives me Stitch. Any ideas? Just a glitch?

Mine seems to be working right now... Maybe try clearing your browsing history. I have found that helps when I have gotten those types of error messages in the past...

 

[FinnsMom7]

I've been trying since last night to look up prices for Pop. Every time I click to see available rooms I get Stitch. I can see other resorts, just Pop gives me Stitch. Any ideas? Just a glitch?

I had issues of no availability last night but today it has been ok, and I checked/priced about 5 different scenarios and dates

 

[Kindermouse]

Whoa-Suddenly there are a ton of rooms available for my dates when a couple of days ago it was showing next to nothing available?

 

[Attracted to Beasts]

Alright I just bit the bullet and called the Bounceback line! I coudln't deal with the stress of not knowing about DHs job and the possible move to VA and DS missing the first days of school! I spoke to the most amazing CM named Gallagher who put me on hold for 15 minutes and was able to make all my FD dreams come true! I was booked 8/24-8/29 standard WL FD BB. He was able to change me to 8/21-8/26 and keep everything else the same! The best part is the price only went up about $40!!! My reservations during those days aren't as good as my original dates (which is why I was holding off) but I think I'll be able to make it all work out! We'll just have to eat dinner a little earlier at places like ohana but who cares! I'm going to Disney world!!! I wish all of you the best and I truly hope you get exactly what you want! Remember to keep checking! The last 2 years I was able to get what I wanted by checking multiple times a day! Oh and to add according to the Disney website there was no availability at WL for my new dates (hence my stress) but they were still able to make it work.....so take the availability online with a grain of salt!