HELP WITH FREE DINING QUESTION trip starting before aug 31

[michaelnyc]

after being on hold for almost 2 hours with disney world i found out the following
out trip starts august 24 and ends sept 06
free dining starts august 31
the phone operator told me we are not entitled to the free dining offer

what we can do is on the night of august 30 go to the front desk and ask for it to be applied to the rest of our trip
has anyone ever heard of this??
she said we can get it from august 31 thru sept 06 by asking for it mid trip????

help!!

 

[Disneydreamer23]

Why wouldn't you be able to apply It over the phone ? Usually you have a certain date you have to add the deal by I would call again and speak to some one else

 

[michaelnyc]

thanks, have been on hold tonight for about an hour now

 

[DisneyAubs]

You wouldn't be able to do it actually during your trip. For one thing, the booking window on this discount expires on August 8.

You can do a split stay if you would like and get the Free Dining applied to the second part. Bur remember that you would also have to split your tickets....you can't get the Free dining unless you are booking a package that includes both room and tickets. So the savings you get from Free Dining might be pretty measly (or even cost more!) by the time you purchase 2 sets of shorter tickets as opposed to the 10-day tickets or whatever you have now. Does that make sense? You'd just have to price it out and see which is better.

 

[michaelnyc]

this is sooo confusing
so i theoretically can split it in half
we have a discount code already applied
so they should be able to do the first 7 days at the discount and the second 7 days with free dining no room discount code

 

[michaelnyc]

should I ask for a senior cast member or a supervisor to help with this? do not want to insult the person who finally answers after an hour and half do not want to be "disconnected"

 

[Disneydreamer23]

Ask for a manager and you change your day is around you can leave a little bit later? You get such a better deal with Free dining

 

[michaelnyc]

to all
no good
just go thru after a little over 2 hours
if they split it in half and give me two reservations the price of the entire vacation increases $720.00
one week of free dining increases the reservation by 720.00!!!!
unbelievable

 

[stevehousse]

to all
no good
just go thru after a little over 2 hours
if they split it in half and give me two reservations the price of the entire vacation increases $720.00
one week of free dining increases the reservation by 720.00!!!!
unbelievable

Yikes! Where r u staying? R u not able to shift your vacation dates around a bit?

 

[michaelnyc]

normally we go from sept 05 thru 19th and never have an issue but this year it is my neice's first birthday and the rest of the family is going the last week of august due to the kids starting school first week of sept

we upped ours by one week to be with family and lost out on the dining

there should be a way disney can work it out but so far, nothing

 

[Master Yoda]

normally we go from sept 05 thru 19th and never have an issue but this year it is my neice's first birthday and the rest of the family is going the last week of august due to the kids starting school first week of sept

we upped ours by one week to be with family and lost out on the dining

there should be a way disney can work it out but so far, nothing

There is not a way for Disney to work this out.

Free dining requires a minimum ticket purchase and paying full price for the room. If the free dining was at the beginning of your trip there would be a way to work it for a portion of the trip. It is not possible with it occurring at the end without meeting the minimum ticket requirements which will negate any savings.

It is also not uncommon for a room discount to be a better value than free dining.

Don't be sucked in by the word "free". Nothing is ever free.

 

[dreamfinder]

If they did offer you a split quote, check to see how they broke down the tickets. They may have split the tickets right down the middle, half with each reservation. You should be able to get a longer ticket on the first reservation, and then the minimum required ticket for the second half. And then either use the 2 day ticket, or hold onto it for a future trip.

But the free dining/room discount depends heavily on the number in your party, and the resort/room type you are staying at. A family of 4 at a value tends to do better at a value with free dining, but a couple at a deluxe tends to do better with a room discount.

 

[AC21075]

But wait... If you bought the dining plan (even just for the 7 days that would be eligible for free), wouldn't that cost you more than $720? Are you not still ahead, somehow?

 

[HRHPrincessAriel]

But wait... If you bought the dining plan (even just for the 7 days that would be eligible for free), wouldn't that cost you more than $720? Are you not still ahead, somehow?

I think a lot would depend on what resort level you are staying at but I've seen people at times say the room discount can be better.

 

[wendysue]

There is not a way for Disney to work this out.

Free dining requires a minimum ticket purchase and paying full price for the room. If the free dining was at the beginning of your trip there would be a way to work it for a portion of the trip. It is not possible with it occurring at the end without meeting the minimum ticket requirements which will negate any savings.

It is also not uncommon for a room discount to be a better value than free dining.

Don't be sucked in by the word "free". Nothing is ever free.

Yes, our room discount is ALWAYS better than free dining. We add up all our dining receipts and it never comes close to what "free" dining would have cost us.

 

[AC21075]

I think the room discount vs. free dining trade off is pretty break even on average. It's really the second set of tickets that eats up all the savings when you split your vacation like that.

I just meant that (I assumed) he didn't have ANY food costs in his original vacation plan. Now he has seven days of dining plan meals, which I think would have been at least $720. Yes, it's not free, but it may still add up to food savings overall compared to his original plan.

 

[michaelnyc]

The first day of the free dining is the 31st , exactly in the middle of our stay
Master Yoda, it is not at the end of our trip, but exactly in the middle 7 days before and 7 days after
I was trying to get the free dining on the 7 days starting the 31st to the 6th, not free dining for the portion before

I looked up each menu for the 7 days and the meal totals of what we would be eating is less than $600.00
There are only 2 people in our party, the same two that have been booking trips for over 20 years with close to 40 visits since then

The $720.00 increase for 7 days does not make sense since we will be consuming less than $600.00 in food
The dining plan is $88.00 out of pocket a day and would cost $616.00 still more than we would consume
Just the thought that for out of pocket cost of $616.00 compared to our reservation going up $720.00 is alarming

 

[maxime29]

If you are like our party and booked your trip beginning on 12/20 then you know that the free dining is the best form of "discount" you will get during this period. It's nice knowing that we save up to the tune of $2,400 for the trip. (about $60 a day times five people times eight nights). We will be able to take advantage of a table service almost every night because of this (booking one that takes two tables).

I have never seen a room discount during this period. Disney has no reason to offer discounts during the week when pretty much every school system schedules their winter break.

(Now if the agent could stop being ignorant about the Magical Express reservations then everything would be perfect. This is a story for another thread...)