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

[momto4obkids]

Can someone tell me if this is possible? FYI, I currently am booked at Caribbean Beach for my trip and qualified for the gift card compensation.

Book a deluxe resort for the first day of the trip. Then move to Caribbean Beach resort for the rest of the vacation. This way, I would qualify for the full dining plan for the full trip without paying for a deluxe resort (other than day 1)?

That's not possible to do.

 

[Dismomof2boys]

So we are definitely in the same boat! We are also a family of four Disney adults so the upgrade to the regular dining plan would cost us @$840. Still, better to get free quick service and upgrade than nothing at all if our dates aren't included. Sending you, and everyone on this board, a whole bunch of pixie dust!!!

I am not sure what your budget is, but check out Animal Kingdom Lodge. If the Visa offer does cover our dates, the Animal Kingdom Lodge will include the Regular Dining Plan and we won't need to upgrade. If it's $500 more, it may be worth it for you.

 

[LiaNWillsmom]

Can someone tell me if this is possible? FYI, I currently am booked at Caribbean Beach for my trip and qualified for the gift card compensation.

Book a deluxe resort for the first day of the trip. Then move to Caribbean Beach resort for the rest of the vacation. This way, I would qualify for the full dining plan for the full trip without paying for a deluxe resort (other than day 1)?

Nice try, but the packages are for your stay in each hotel, so your package for the deluxe would be just the one night, then your package for CB would start the day you checked in there.

 

[Meeko5]

Can someone tell me if this is possible? FYI, I currently am booked at Caribbean Beach for my trip and qualified for the gift card compensation.

Book a deluxe resort for the first day of the trip. Then move to Caribbean Beach resort for the rest of the vacation. This way, I would qualify for the full dining plan for the full trip without paying for a deluxe resort (other than day 1)?

You'd have to book as 2 separate reservations - so no, that won't work. You can't book one place and move to another without a separate reservation, or getting moved by the resort for whatever reason (overbooking, etc).

Not that I've ever seen or heard, anyway...

 

[Cheri Of All Trades]

Basically pain in the sesamoid bones (ball of foot). The bones might be fractured as well. I learned all about the foot today. I'm glad Disney isn't until end of November because the pain can linger even after it heals!

I feel your pain! I've got tendonitis in my Achilles tendon. Just got done PT but can take as long as a year to heal....and I just had my opposite knee replaced. Going in July...hoping to be able to walk!

Best of luck to both of you for a speedy recovery!


I just had my torn Achilles repaired surgically and had the last of my sutures take out yesterday.

 

[Stacie Rinehimer]

We liked the waiting area for buses. It's a covered bus stop with benches. I wish I could find a picture to post for you. There was never a large amount of people. If there was 20 people, some were going to DS- some to all different parks. Yes, the bus stops in each village to pick up. We stayed in Jamaica last trip, which was last stop to pick up for parks BUT first to drop off on our way "home". We had standard view and our room was right by the bus stop. Was super sweet after a long day! The walk to the pool was no far- we LOVED the view on our way. We also went the week right after Labor Day so crowds were super LOW. I was pregnant at the time but my husband and son rode EE 5x in a row no wait, same with space mountain. It's why we're going back in September this trip.
I just remember when we stayed at ASMo we waited and waited for buses and it was the last resort of the AS's to drop off. CBR to me just seemed to flow better.
I talked all this over with my husband yesterday and that was one thing he remembered was bussing. He's not so Disney like I (shame on him). My plan is to try and snag FD at CBR and I when I have more time to really plan and think through exactly what I want to do is when I will make the choice to upgrade or not!

We are in the same dilemma. Factoring in the GCs, it would be $60 to stay at CBR vs moving to POP. I can't decide what to do. It will be myself, my mom and DD14. We are only at the resort to sleep, so the construction doesn't worry me. We only really wanted to do a couple of TS, so having QSDP doesn't bother me.
It's the buses that have me worried the most since I've never been to CBR. What is it you like about CBR's transportation? It stresses me out since it's such a bigger resort. I've noticed there aren't ques for the buses so does everyone naturally "line-up" or is it a free for all when a bus pulls up? I know it's Disney, but it's still the real world with real people. If 5 people are waiting for a bus to MK and an empty bus pulls up, no problem. But if 20 people are waiting for a bus that can fit 5 people, it may be a problem. I love having my Disney spirit in my Disney bubble, but after a few days of missing buses because of people getting on the bus before me when I was waiting longer will break that spirit and burst my bubble. Ugh. Way too many factors.

Also, I need to ask. How are you coming up with the $60 per night? Maybe I booked at a different time than you but our average nightly rate is $208, take GC in count $133. We also have 2 rooms booked.

 

[KimBean]

[QUOTE
This line caught my attention. Many are saying Disney is going to miss out on money if they only offer QSDP at the mods. That MAY be true, but I doubt it will hurt their bottom line all that much. There will still be people eating in their restaurants. However, what they will accomplish is exactly what we see here. They have found a way to get at least a few more (possibly quite a few) into their deluxe resorts for the first time. Free dining allowed people who normally never ate at Disney restaurants a taste of that. Now many people can't imagine a trip to WDW without eating at the TS restaurants; they are as much a part of their vacation as the parks. Now Disney is getting some to taste what it's like to stay at a deluxe resort, and it may be harder for them to go back to their old way of doing things.

I can't agree more with you on this. I have been saying the same exact thing for so long. Disney knows exactly what they're doing. Marketing at it's best.
"Free dining allowed people who normally never ate at Disney restaurants a taste of that. Now many people can't imagine a trip to WDW without eating at the TS restaurants; they are as much a part of their vacation as the parks". The first time we ate at Ohana's was with free dining. And now Ohana's is a must every trip. The last free dining we did we ate at Boma's,...guess what....We'll be eating there again in December.
Free dining has giving us the opportunity to try new places that we otherwise wouldn't have even thought of....Some great....some weren't. but, part of the experience just the same.
So, Disney has done their jobs well...Even if we don't get Free dining, we'll still be eating at both locations.[/QUOTE][/QUOTE]

This is so true. We only stayed offsite and the only "signature" restaurant we had ever done was Fultons. Now, since having free dining I was asking the family's must dos for dinner and now that we have had a trip like that it is very hard to go back. We are also more budget conscious this time (last time was our 20th anniversary so we pulled out all the stops.) So I pitched a 7 night/8 day trip and my DH was like, uh... What if we stay at the cheapest value can we do 9 night/10 days. Now I'm contemplating adding a day.

Disney knows how to get ya!

 

[krisfan]

Pls confirm: going 8/24-9/1 two adults, one kid Age 11, and two kids age 8.To upgrade to reg dp its 580$ total right? .

Yes that's correct

 

[Icicles]

Here's a question: I currently have a room at CBR with the $75 GC. If we have to modify for free dining, will we lose the gift card offer? What do you all think? I am really bummed about the QSDP instead of DDP, but can rationalize the $616 to upgrade 4 adults and 1 child if I'm getting $525 in gift cards back.

Especially when eating two character meals (1 Mickey for DS (infant), 1 princess for DD) would cost $386 and I could get 7 full TS meals for all of us for just 230 more.

I have screenshots of 2 conversations with different agents asking about all kinds of modifications- adding promotions, adding RO, changing to Canadian discounted tix, adding dates... both pretty much said as long as I'm still staying at the resort.

 

[jdubbsx10]

Alright guys I guess I'm going with value for sure. I've never stayed at any values but POP with any room category is our first choice. What other values do you all prefer besides POP so we can have a second choice? Obviously not AoA LM rooms or ASMovies because those are historically excluded from FD. We were thinking ASMusic as second choice...not sure about ASSp...

 

[Obi Shaun Kanobi]

If Disney Ron is correct, I need some advice: Im booked at POR in December. Was hoping to get the regular dining plan. Looks like POR wont be included in December. So, do I switch now to POP and upgrade to the regular plan? Or, should I just book a whole new reservation on Monday when it drops and cancel my POR reservation? Still holding out hope that Mods get the regular plan. fingers crossed.

 

[thefull1030]

Maybe I missed it but did @Disney Ron mention PH or PH+ requirements?

 

[agassizsmile]

So on monday what device will you use a laptop or phone to book FD? Worried about phone being slow or freezing up.

 

[Neeky78]

Can someone tell me if this is possible? FYI, I currently am booked at Caribbean Beach for my trip and qualified for the gift card compensation.

Book a deluxe resort for the first day of the trip. Then move to Caribbean Beach resort for the rest of the vacation. This way, I would qualify for the full dining plan for the full trip without paying for a deluxe resort (other than day 1)?

The free dining is attached to your resort reservation, not you as a customer. So, no.

 

[Skallywag Steph]

If Disney Ron is correct, I need some advice: Im booked at POR in December. Was hoping to get the regular dining plan. Looks like POR wont be included in December. So, do I switch now to POP and upgrade to the regular plan? Or, should I just book a whole new reservation on Monday when it drops and cancel my POR reservation? Still holding out hope that Mods get the regular plan. fingers crossed.

If it was me, I'd leave things alone until you know for sure. I imagine there is going to be a lot of shifting around the first few days. A lot of people mentioned having more than one booking and then canceling one once the offer is released so there may be a bigger inventory later on.

 

[KimBean]

I know, all this talk about Ohana for breakfast has me trying to figure out if I can work it into our plans. My oldest has recently become a huge Stitch fan so I know she would love it.

I can't say enough about this breakfast. Only one we do.

 

[vanjust14]

I feel like so many more people have a heads up on the free dining drop this year. I just received an email from a WDW newsletter that I'm subscribed to and the writer mentioned that she would be setting her alarm early Monday "just in case" Free dining is released.

 

[CrazyPhillyDisneyFamily]

For those looking to switch up to Deluxe instead of Moderate, make sure you check the cost difference. For us, we would need to pay an additional $700 minimum to upgrade to Deluxe from Moderate.....even with upgrading dining on the Moderate to DDP from QSDP. Just make sure you really compare the math. It is only $400 for my family of 4 to upgrade from QSDP to DDP for our 9 day trip.

 

[KimBean]

Maybe I missed it but did @Disney Ron mention PH or PH+ requirements?

Nope.

 

[lok1sgrl]

I know, all this talk about Ohana for breakfast has me trying to figure out if I can work it into our plans. My oldest has recently become a huge Stitch fan so I know she would love it.

Booked the breakfast yesterday for our trip. We all love Stitch. So excited!