Free Dining Sold Out

[StupidJudy]

I recently found out that Disney is offering free dining during the dates that I am going next (October 19-26). I called my travel agent to take advantage of the offer and she told me that free dining is sold out for moderate resorts; I didn't even know there was a limit. Is there any possibility of them offering it to more people? It seems unfair that I have had those dates booked for 6 months and am not able to get the free dining.

 

[Zummi Gummi]

Travel agents (nor DRC agents) have no way of knowing whether free dining is "sold out" for an entire class of resorts for the entire length of the promotion. There may be no availability during your travel dates, but there's no way for anyone to know whether it's completely "sold out" or not.

As for your situation...keep checking. Peoples' plans change and cancellations often happen. Be persistent, and availability may open up.

 

[wilkeliza]

I recently found out that Disney is offering free dining during the dates that I am going next (October 19-26). I called my travel agent to take advantage of the offer and she told me that free dining is sold out for moderate resorts; I didn't even know there was a limit. Is there any possibility of them offering it to more people? It seems unfair that I have had those dates booked for 6 months and am not able to get the free dining.

They don't typically open it up to more people. Also since you booked over 6 months ago they can claim that you aren't eligible for the discount. You could call Disney yourself but I'm not sure what that would do. Booking in advance can save you some but is also a risk because it is like buying anything else. If you buy it when it isn't on sale you can't take it back once it goes on sale and ask for your money back. Sorry that you don't get to partake in it but Disney needs people paying rack rate for their product for these discounts to be paid for.

Like I said you can call Disney yourself but there is no guarantee. They will tell you what they have open but it won't be at a moderate.

 

[StupidJudy]

Travel agents (nor DRC agents) have no way of knowing whether free dining is "sold out" for an entire class of resorts for the entire length of the promotion. There may be no availability during your travel dates, but there's no way for anyone to know whether it's completely "sold out" or not.

As for your situation...keep checking. Peoples' plans change and cancellations often happen. Be persistent, and availability may open up.

Thanks for the reply; I will try calling Disney instead of my travel agent to see if I can find out any more info!

 

[Monty]

If you have flexibility in you specific dates or in which resort you want, you may be able to still get it.

They allocate a limited number of rooms to each offer and when that number is reached for a given period at a given resort, the offer is no longer available for that period at that resort. Any previous booking can be modified to add the offer if it is still available, it doesn't matter how long you've been booked. What does matter is whether you've reached the point where the cancellation policies kick in, there may be an added cost to making the change if they have.

 

[graphite1326]

They don't typically open it up to more people. Also since you booked over 6 months ago they can claim that you aren't eligible for the discount. You could call Disney yourself but I'm not sure what that would do. Booking in advance can save you some but is also a risk because it is like buying anything else. If you buy it when it isn't on sale you can't take it back once it goes on sale and ask for your money back. Sorry that you don't get to partake in it but Disney needs people paying rack rate for their product for these discounts to be paid for.

Like I said you can call Disney yourself but there is no guarantee. They will tell you what they have open but it won't be at a moderate.

Well you I can say for a fact. You are completly wrong. Twice now I have booked early without the dining and when they offered it for free they let me have the free dining at no extra cost (except taxes). Once at a moderate and once (just two months ago) at a value resort. And the lader was when everyone on here said they were sold out.

 

[olinecoach61]

I recently found out that Disney is offering free dining during the dates that I am going next (October 19-26). I called my travel agent to take advantage of the offer and she told me that free dining is sold out for moderate resorts; I didn't even know there was a limit. Is there any possibility of them offering it to more people? It seems unfair that I have had those dates booked for 6 months and am not able to get the free dining.

Maybe look and see if a value or even deluxe have openings. If you are truly going to save a lot of cash with the free dining maybe you can offset the cost of a more expensive hotel room?

 

[lebeau]

I would be very upset with my TA. We booked early and the very morning that "Free Dining" was offered, Danielle from Kingdom Konsultants e-mailed me to let me know she was adding it to our reservations. Your TA should have been a lot more proatcive. In the future, I'd recommend a different TA. KK has done a good job for me so far.

One of the drawbacks of using a TA is that Disney can't really deal with you directly. So I don't think you'll get very far taking that route. I would definitely have a very frank conversation with your TA. And if they can't accomodate you, you may want to cancel your reservation and rebook directly with Disney or with another TA who will do a better job of looking out for you.

I wouldn't say you are out of luck. But it may be too late for those specific dates and that class of resort. Especially if your TA isn't actively on the look-out for availability.

Personally, I'd call KK and see if they can help you out.

 

[Timekeeper]

Booking in advance can save you some but is also a risk because it is like buying anything else. If you buy it when it isn't on sale you can't take it back once it goes on sale and ask for your money back.

Actually, a lot of successful businesses do offer ex post facto price matching, especially if it's their own prices that drop. A lot of business ad campaigns even focus specifically on this allowance, such as travel websites.

For example, does anybody remember this commercial:



It's just good business PR. If there's any class of customers that a business should not want to feel shafted when prices lower, it's existing customers.

 

[powlessfamily4]

We had thsat issue once and iur TA phoned basck everyday until it was available. He said they had opened another block of rooms for it?

 

[Master Yoda]

I did check your dates as well as your dates +/- a couple of days at the moderate resorts. The only availability that is being shown for the moderate resorts are the cabins at Ft Wilderness. Unfortunately, the cabins at Ft Wilderness are a fairly significant step up in price. There is very limited availability at some of the moderate, deluxes and DVC resorts. Depending on your party size (2 adults probably not, 2 adults and 2 kids age 10 and up, maybe) you might be able to make somewhat of a lateral move price wise to a deluxe resort or the cabins. If you want to step down to a value you should be able to shave a good deal of of your total but you will be taking a step down in your accommodations.

In a nut shell you current package costs $X. See what that same amount can get you elsewhere. You might not make your total go down, but you might be able to make your accommodations go up.

What I would do is check yourself online before calling your TA. Find out what is there, see what you like and then call him/her and have them make the change.

If you really need a price drop to make the vacation work with your budget, keep checking yourself and if something opens up call your TA immediately and have them make the change.

 

[wilkeliza]

I wasn't trying to say you don't have the ability to and I know that Disney does add the promotion if they still have rooms with the discount available I was just simply saying if it truly sold out for that class of hotel then you probably won't have luck just adding it on. They only release so many spots at each resort for every discount an once they are up they are up.

You can do as others have said though and price out thugs at the value or deluxe and see what happens there.

 

[bethymouse]

Actually, a lot of successful businesses do offer ex post facto price matching, especially if it's their own prices that drop. A lot of business ad campaigns even focus specifically on this allowance, such as travel websites.

For example, does anybody remember this commercial:



It's just good business PR. If there's any class of customers that a business should not want to feel shafted when prices lower, it's existing customers.

Yes. I totally remember that commercial- 80's right? The Sony Walkman! Wow! Circuit City is now out of business BTW. It certainly wasn't that easy to do that! I think Wal Mart claims to do that, but I've tried w/ bananas and the clerk said she couldn't do it! I would say book through Disney itself. I have tried travel agents and other "companies", and the price is just about the same if not exactly the same quote! As far as I know, Disney never "sells out" of free dining. It depends on where and when you want to stay. It's a good thing to have "flexible" dates. Good luck!

 

[Timekeeper]

Yes. I totally remember that commercial- 80's right? The Sony Walkman! Wow! Circuit City is now out of business BTW. It certainly wasn't that easy to do that!

Best Buy does it too (they're still in business BTW). Plenty of retailers do. The idea - which makes perfect sense - is that the consumer could simply return the overpriced item for a refund, and then buy it again at the lower price. So there's no point in denying the customer the difference between what they paid and the discounted price, so long as the difference is refunded during the applicable return policy period.

 

[disneygirl76]

I recently found out that Disney is offering free dining during the dates that I am going next (October 19-26). I called my travel agent to take advantage of the offer and she told me that free dining is sold out for moderate resorts; I didn't even know there was a limit. Is there any possibility of them offering it to more people? It seems unfair that I have had those dates booked for 6 months and am not able to get the free dining.

There are a set amount of rooms at each resort available for free dining. Unfortunately, it is unlikely that there will be a cancellation that you can get, but no impossible. For example, for our upcoming trip, I booked under Free Dining at Poly, then needed to switch resorts. The room I wanted at POR - the Royal Room - was not available with free dining so I switched it to CBR instead. I checked every day on-line - sometimes several times a day - to see if a Royal Room came up under the reservations and one day...it did! So I went to "book" it and then called WDW. The Cast Member was able to book it once I logged out and didn't want to book that room any longer. So I was able to get the room I wanted under free dining! Keep trying and calling and checking and see if anything comes up! Sending you some pixie dust!

 

[DisneyJoe]

The idea - which makes perfect sense - is that the consumer could simply return the overpriced item for a refund, and then buy it again at the lower price. So there's no point in denying the customer the difference between what they paid and the discounted price, so long as the difference is refunded during the applicable return policy period.

Travel offers and promotions are used to fill empty rooms. When Disney creates an offer, they have already calculated the room occupancy rate for each and every resort for all dates in the periods and have determined what percentage still need to be filled with the new offer. If a resort is already above a certain threshold for a set of dates, it is extremely likely that you will not be able to get the offer for those dates. Other resorts will be well below that threshold and will have more availability for the offer.

If you wish, you can try to convert your existing reservation to the new offer, but the fact that you already have a reservation is actually hurting the equation.

Cancelling the room and hoping the room is then available for the offer is not guaranteed.

 

[HoneyMnShawnee]

I called the morning (very early) Free Dining was released wanting to book French Quarter. I was told that French Quarter and Riverside had no availability for Oct 21 to Oct 26, that Caribbean Beach only had free dining in the Pirate Rooms and Coronado had 1 king bed room available. That was it. I was told that with POFQ and POR being so booked up for that week already Disney didn't even allot free dining rooms to those resorts. I had the choice of the values or deluxe level resorts. I chose Pop because I figured a value with free dining was better than nothing. Sorry to hear you didn't get what you were looking for.

 

[Magical Dreamer]

I called the morning (very early) Free Dining was released wanting to book French Quarter. I was told that French Quarter and Riverside had no availability for Oct 21 to Oct 26, that Caribbean Beach only had free dining in the Pirate Rooms and Coronado had 1 king bed room available. That was it. I was told that with POFQ and POR being so booked up for that week already Disney didn't even allot free dining rooms to those resorts. I had the choice of the values or deluxe level resorts. I chose Pop because I figured a value with free dining was better than nothing. Sorry to hear you didn't get what you were looking for.

I called at 7:01am to modify my reservation and was on hold for an hour and a half....when I finally got a CM she said there was no longer any availability at POR.

Luckily, I had a offer for POR up on my computer at the time and was able to book a new reservation. The next day I cancelled my first reservation and moved the funds to the new reservation.

 

[bethymouse]

Best Buy does it too (they're still in business BTW). Plenty of retailers do. The idea - which makes perfect sense - is that the consumer could simply return the overpriced item for a refund, and then buy it again at the lower price. So there's no point in denying the customer the difference between what they paid and the discounted price, so long as the difference is refunded during the applicable return policy period.

Best Buy was hanging by a thread for a while as I recall. But, I see what you're saying.

 

[bethymouse]

They don't typically open it up to more people. Also since you booked over 6 months ago they can claim that you aren't eligible for the discount. You could call Disney yourself but I'm not sure what that would do. Booking in advance can save you some but is also a risk because it is like buying anything else. If you buy it when it isn't on sale you can't take it back once it goes on sale and ask for your money back. Sorry that you don't get to partake in it but Disney needs people paying rack rate for their product for these discounts to be paid for.

Like I said you can call Disney yourself but there is no guarantee. They will tell you what they have open but it won't be at a moderate.

I believe that sometimes sale items are excluded from the offers that if you find it somewhere cheaper, we'll pay the difference. There's always a catch!