New fall free dining offer CONFIRMED

[JTsMom]

UPDATE-Confirmed! It's live now on the website. Big savings for me! :) :) :)

This is all still in the rumor stage, so take it with a grain of salt, but I've been thinking this would be coming, and all the details make sense, so I'm betting it's true.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2768442

The thread is really long, but here's the gist of it:
Bookings Between August 3, 2011 - December 17, 2011
Travel Dates
October 2, 2011 - October 8, 2011
October 23, 2011 - November 5, 2011
November 13, 2011 - November 19, 2011
November 27, 2011 - December 3, 2011
December 11, 2011 - December 17,

Free Quick Service Dining for values and regular dining for moderates deluxe and villas

Minimum Stay: 3 Nights – Maximum Stay: 14 Nigths.


THE CODE FOR THIS PROMOTION WILL BE FCX FOR VALUES WITH QUICK SERVICE DINING AND FCY FOR MODERATES DELUXE AND VILLAS WITH REGULAR DINING.



You don't have to buy the photo book like in the current FD promo, if your first day is in the available dates, you're covered for the whole trip, and if you arrive too early, you can do two separate ressies and pick up park tix a few days early.

It may open up to Disney Visa cardholders a few days early (which I think is likely).

Again, this is just a rumor. All or any part of it might turn out to be wrong. For the past several years though, there has been FD, it has been during the same time frame with similar blackout dates, and it is typically released around this time. Good luck everyone! :)

[army_mom]

So for the free dining, you would pay the price quoted on the Disney website (basically full rack rate) since no other discounts will apply? Trying to figure out what will be best for us.

Also will new rooms "open up?" For example, if I could not get a reservation with the 40% discount I had, would it be possible to get a FD plan on that room? (I hope that makes sense!)
TIA!

[JTsMom]

yes and yes :)

It all depends on how many people, the season, and which resort you're staying in, but if you're staying at a deluxe, 40% is usually the best deal. If you're staying at a value, or have a lot of people, free dining is usually the best. We're booked at Pop, 2 adults, 1 child, and free dining will save us several hundred bucks over the 20% PIN I'm currently booked with.

[egoldber]

Whether or not "free" dining works for you depends on how you like to eat. We don't do many sit down meals, so for us, free dining doesn't buy us much.

[JTsMom]

It's QS for the values this time around, which should work out well for us. We want to do CRT and Ohana, so we'll have to pay for those, but it will still save us a bunch. Our Disney Visa rewards will almost cover our room, so we just have to pay for tix, transportation and extras. Assuming the rumor is true, of course. We've never done the QS dining before, but I'm hoping we'll like it. I'm a little worried with all of our allergy/diet issues, but we've gotta eat somewhere.

[Twoboos]

Ugh, the dates we are considering going are blacked out, of course. :( If it was free dining I probably would have gone for it!!

Probably for the best...

[army_mom]

I booked the dining plan for us simply because I wanted to not have to worry about the costs of all the meals and I want to experience some of the restaurants and character meals. DD does fairly well in restaurants and I am *hoping* she will do as well here. If we didn't have it, we probably would only do QS and that doesn't appeal to me as much. I ran the numbers and we come out WAY ahead with the 40% off since it is only the 2 of us. I can see how it would save a ton of money for large families, esp in the value resorts and am hoping they do it next Dec when we are meeting my brother's family!

[sste]

I know there have been threads about good dining options and I am carefully taking notes for the next trip. But, after what I experienced I think Disney should pay ME for eating their food! We did almost all counter service because our kids were not up for much sit down and most of it was very bad. Our character meals were def. the dining highlights for food quality and I am sure there are good-decent sit down meals out there. But for quick service most of it seemed like an act of aggression against the dining consumer IMO.

JTsmom, let us know if you hear any rumors of room rate discounts too. :)

[Gracemom]

Yay! We just booked our 6 night stay in December with free quick service dining. That should work out really well for how our kids like to eat. We've always had good luck with counter service. We got a great deal! Thanks OP!

[belovedgandp]

I've been booked since April with a 30% off room at a value resort with the dining plan. I was amazed that it only took a 15 minute call today to save us almost $300 for the exact same trip now with free dining in November.

[Gracemom]

I've been booked since April with a 30% off room at a value resort with the dining plan. I was amazed that it only took a 15 minute call today to save us almost $300 for the exact same trip now with free dining in November.

Good deal! Where are you staying? My DH wanted to stay at All-Star Movies this time, but we've stayed at All-Star Sports and Pop Century before.

[hellokitty]

I just realized today that they had FD during our dec stay! I switched us from WL (was having some doubts, I heard the rooms are looking really shabby) to POFQ and saved us $500! :D I'm happy! POFQ was the resort I originally wanted to go to, but DH wanted deluxe. When I told him about FD (we had dining added to our original pkg), he told me to go ahead and switch to a mod. I think we will be fine, since the room at WL doesn't sound that much nicer than the mods and we'll have our car with us, so I'm not too worried about depending solely on the buses.

[JTsMom]

I would think that would save you more than $500. Did you have a 40% PIN at WL?

[belovedgandp]

Good deal! Where are you staying? My DH wanted to stay at All-Star Movies this time, but we've stayed at All-Star Sports and Pop Century before.

We are at Pop this time. Did Sports four years ago the last time we went. I'm getting more excited!

[MMMommy]

We booked WDW with the free dining package for Spring Break, and I am thrilled! We are checking in on March 31, 2012, which is the last qualifying day of the promo. As long as you check on the qualifying date, the rest of your trip is under the promo.

[hellokitty]

I would think that would save you more than $500. Did you have a 40% PIN at WL?

Yes, we had a 40% PIN for WL, that's why the difference isn't as drastic, plus tix prices went up from btwn when we reserved WL and now changed to POFQ (my understanding is that if you changed your reservation after tix price hike, you would end up paying the new tix prices), so that probably meant a smaller difference too, but oh well. I'm excited though, b/c I've talked a friend of mine into going to WDW the same time we will be there and they are thinking about staying at POR. :) It will be neat meeting up with friends at WDW! :boogie: We started out as online friends and have had one meet up already and have always wished we could meet up again.

[JTsMom]

Ah, that makes sense then. Still, $500 will buy a lot of Mickey bars!

[hellokitty]

Ah, that makes sense then. Still, $500 will buy a lot of Mickey bars!

Well, we recently had to spend 2K on an unforeseen house issue (stupid builder's fault), so saving $500 on our trip helps me feel a little less aggravated about the $ we had to dish out for the house issue.

[JTsMom]

Well, that's not nearly as much fun. Don't you just hate that kind of stuff?

[hellokitty]

Well, that's not nearly as much fun. Don't you just hate that kind of stuff?

Yeah, what burns me up is that we had to hire someone to break up (perfectly nice looking) our front stoop and then pay for the same EXACT front stoop, b/c the idiot would poured it originally, had it sloped TOWARD our house and it was rotting the wood under the front door, which of course they neglected to put flashing on and was only discovered by accident by the guys who installed our FOURTH new door (fourth door on warranty, do NOT buy a feather river door, the company makes crap doors). So, it's not even an improvement to the house, to make it nicer, it's basically FIXING a mistake that wasn't even up to code to begin with. Pisses me off and makes me HATE doing any renovations, b/c we always find like 5 other things wrong when we do something.

[JTsMom]

Yeah, I'd be seriously ticked off about that one!

[clc053103]

Just a psa....particularly if staying at a deluxe, a 40% off room discount will typically save you more than free dining. Make sure you compare all available discounts for your best price!

Personally, I would love then to do away with free dining and just do room discounts. It makes adr's too hard to get.