Free Dining 2016 Version

[Tink1]

You can get a FREE Dining Plan when buying a non-discounted 5-night/6-day package that includes a room at a select Walt Disney World® Resort hotel and ticket with the Park Hopper® or Water Park Fun & More Option for arrivals most nights Aug. 23-Oct. 1, 2016, Nov. 15-21, Nov. 26-28 and Dec. 10-Dec. 21, 2016 when they book by July 8, 2016.

When you stay at a select Disney Moderate Resort, Disney Deluxe Resort or Disney Deluxe Villa Resort, you get the Disney Dining Plan with a variety of delicious dining options! When you stay at a select Disney Value Resort, you get the Quick-Service Dining Plan that allows you to enjoy a quick bite!

The number of rooms allocated for this offer is limited. Tickets and options must be used within 14 days of first use. Cannot be combined with any other discount or promotion. Advance reservations required. Offer excludes the following room types: campsites, 3-bedroom villas, Disney's Art of Animation Resort—The Little Mermaid Standard Rooms and the Bungalows at Disney's Polynesian Villas & Bungalows. Dining plan excludes gratuities and alcoholic beverages. Children ages 3-9 must order from children's menu, if available. Some Table-Service restaurants may have limited or no availability at time of package purchase.

Booking Window:
April 25-July 8, 2016

Arrival Window:
Aug. 23-Oct. 1, 2016, Nov. 15-21, Nov. 26-28 and Dec. 10-21, 2016


Length of Stay Requirements:
Minimum – 3 nights
Maximum – 14 nights

Full List of Offer Exclusions:
Campsites, 3-bedroom villas, Disney's Art of Animation Resort—The Little Mermaid Standard Rooms, the Bungalows at Disney's Polynesian Villas & Bungalows, The Villas at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, Bay Lake Tower at Disney's Contemporary Resort, Disney's All-Star Movies Resort and Disney's Port Orleans Resort – French Quarter. Disney's Port Orleans – Riverside is excluded during the following dates: November 15 to 21, November 26 to 28 and December 10 to 21, 2016.

Contact Magical Journeys today! (https://www.magicaljourneystravel.com/quote_request) (these rooms can go fast!)

Nanc

[mickeyman42]

just as an FYI, the "Canadian offer" is good for arrivals starting Aug 14th.

[LandFan]

Contact Magical Journeys today! (https://www.magicaljourneystravel.com/quote_request) (these rooms can go fast!)

Nanc

They are already out of Carribean Beach rooms unless you pay for a pirate room! I got my standard Carribean Beach Resort room at like 5:15 this morning and by 7:00 when I was helping a friend get theirs they were out and we had to go to Coronado for her. :(

[Tink1]

just as an FYI, the "Canadian offer" is good for arrivals starting Aug 14th.

Disney Visa as well starts August 14th. Forgot to mention that as well. (hectic morning)

[ibelieveindisneymagic]

I know a lot of people wait for this ... good luck to the MJ travel agents trying to get everyone booked and sorted today!

[Genie1953]

Disney Visa as well starts August 14th. Forgot to mention that as well. (hectic morning)

What are the details of the Disney Visa discount?

[Tink1]

What are the details of the Disney Visa discount?

Same as the General Public but the arrival window is August 14 rather than August 23rd, so they get some extra days

Nanc

[mydisneygirls]

Same as the General Public but the arrival window is August 14 rather than August 23rd, so they get some extra days

Nanc

I called this morning. Nothing is available for the Visa offer.

[The Hitchhiking Ghost]

They are really putting the screws to families with more than 4 people. I just did a search for our family of 5, for 8 nights starting on 11/26 and the best offer I could come up with was over $8,000. Yeah, no. Saw on their website that between Pop Century and Caribbean Beach that they had over 3000 bookings in the last 24 hours. Basically all I could find was club level at one of the Deluxes.

POR Riverside has always been our favorite moderate, pulling that out of the mix pretty much dooms any chances we'd have of going down there with this offer. As much as I'd love to, no way our budget can handle Deluxe accomodations, so we are pretty much eliminated.

[AdventurerKim]

In years past, we have gotten the free dining offer during Thanksgiving week at POP, even booking it late afternoon on the first day, but not this time. We already have a reservation, but now we are investigating other vacations since we didn't get the usual offer. I was even contemplating going to WDW for my birthday next year but not anymore. We'll miss you, WDW, but after 35 years of visits, it's time to say good-bye to this company.

[Tink1]

I called this morning. Nothing is available for the Visa offer.


In years past, we have gotten the free dining offer during Thanksgiving week at POP, even booking it late afternoon on the first day, but not this time. We already have a reservation, but now we are investigating other vacations since we didn't get the usual offer. I was even contemplating going to WDW for my birthday next year but not anymore. We'll miss you, WDW, but after 35 years of visits, it's time to say good-bye to this company.


Availability is very volatile and changes by the minute in the first days of Free Dining. Best advice is keep trying!

We were up at 4:30 am making adjustments yesterday and watched the rooms get scarfed up, it was wild!

Nanc

[Mickey's 4Walls]

First -I have had the Disney Visa since day one. We have always got the heads up and first chance at booking these offers- NOT THIS TIME. I didn't even get the email until 11:24am. Started calling - 162 times before I got through -then to find out all the room were taken- So very disappointed. Wonder if more rooms be added? and How will I KNOW??

[The Hitchhiking Ghost]

First -I have had the Disney Visa since day one. We have always got the heads up and first chance at booking these offers- NOT THIS TIME. I didn't even get the email until 11:24am. Started calling - 162 times before I got through -then to find out all the room were taken- So very disappointed. Wonder if more rooms be added? and How will I KNOW??

Exactly, not that it means anything, but my card also says Day 1 - Charter Cardmember.

As you stated, I'm used to seeing the Disney offer get released on say Thursday, with the notation that this offer will be expanded to the general public on Monday, usually giving DV card members a 3 day pre-booking window. As you said, I got the DV email after it was already open to the GP rendering it meaningless. Absolutely nothing affordable to us at the moment under this offer.:mad:

[VacationDisney]

I don't even think I got an email. We thought of going but after I read this post and called I can't afford what's left. Thought having the Disney Reward card had an advantage? Guess not.

[mrsstarr]

They are really putting the screws to families with more than 4 people. I just did a search for our family of 5, for 8 nights starting on 11/26 and the best offer I could come up with was over $8,000. Yeah, no. Saw on their website that between Pop Century and Caribbean Beach that they had over 3000 bookings in the last 24 hours. Basically all I could find was club level at one of the Deluxes.

POR Riverside has always been our favorite moderate, pulling that out of the mix pretty much dooms any chances we'd have of going down there with this offer. As much as I'd love to, no way our budget can handle Deluxe accomodations, so we are pretty much eliminated.

We have a family of 8 and when we went for spring break was more economical to get 2 standards adjoining rooms than to try for the larger suites. We ended up at Coronado Springs.

[mrsstarr]

I was able to book the dining deal just this afternoon at Pop Century no luck on the moderate resorts :(

[Mickey's 4Walls]

Check for rooms !!! I was just able to modify and get free dining!!!

[princessgirls]

I was able to apply the discount to my existing reservation at the Pop Century. I am paying the difference between the counter service offered and the Disney Dining I bought.
The savings for my family of 4 is $700. $100 a day....
It's better than the price I'm paying when I booked the trip. Happy dance!!!!
Julie

[pixiesmimi]

Anyone else as disappointed as I am in the availability of this offer and the discounted rooms? Nothing available for us the weeks we wanted to go in Sept and Oct. And the prices were twice the price of what we paid at the same time last year. Ridiculous! This is supposed to attract people to coming down? Why do they even offer these "discounts" if there is not going to be even enough to get past the first day it comes out? The ads make you think that anyone that tries to make a reservation during this time will get these offers. When they say they are limited, they aren't kidding. REALLY LIMITED. I probably won't pay any attention to these offers again. I'm disgusted. We finally got a room for October but it wasn't with any of these discounts and the rooms, period, were hard to get.

[The Hitchhiking Ghost]

We have a family of 8 and when we went for spring break was more economical to get 2 standards adjoining rooms than to try for the larger suites. We ended up at Coronado Springs.

What is more economical is a single room in the Alligator Bayou section or POR-Riverside. But I agree, getting two adjoining rooms at a value resort is most likely a lot more economical than having to go the Deluxe route. Either way, paying for an extra room I don't really want, or having to pay for a level of accomodation that I don't really need.

More like lose-lose than win-win.

[Genie1953]

They are really putting the screws to families with more than 4 people. I just did a search for our family of 5, for 8 nights starting on 11/26 and the best offer I could come up with was over $8,000. Yeah, no. Saw on their website that between Pop Century and Caribbean Beach that they had over 3000 bookings in the last 24 hours. Basically all I could find was club level at one of the Deluxes.

POR Riverside has always been our favorite moderate, pulling that out of the mix pretty much dooms any chances we'd have of going down there with this offer. As much as I'd love to, no way our budget can handle Deluxe accomodations, so we are pretty much eliminated.

We are in the same boat! We are excluded from all offers too. POR has always been our "go to" resort and since this is a special trip to celebrate retirement we don't really want to stay anywhere else. In addition we picked the dates for our 12 night stay so that we would be there for a few days of the Food and Wine festival and also catch a few Christmas decorations and attend MVMCP. We have a Disney Visa and still didn't qualify for any discounts that way either...mostly because we are staying at POR. Anyway it is worth it to us to pay more to stay there but would sure be great if we at least qualified for some kind of discount. So thankful that Denise at MJ is keeping an eye out for any additional discounts.

[pixiesmimi]

Why is POR excluded in the first place? I saw that and wondered what their reasoning is for excluding certain resorts. We are celebrating our anniversary and came last year the same week but the prices this year at the resorts are about double what they were last year. Why such an increase? That is why we tried for a discount or free dining as soon as it came out but weren't able to get anything we could afford until we moved our reservation one week and were able to get a military discount but that was almost nonexistent also. I guess we were lucky to even get a reservation and I guess Disney doesn't want the population to visit them by raising all the rates, ticket prices and offering nonexistent discounts and being exclusive on resorts.

[magicofdisney]

Why is POR excluded in the first place? I saw that and wondered what their reasoning is for excluding certain resorts. We are celebrating our anniversary and came last year the same week but the prices this year at the resorts are about double what they were last year. Why such an increase? That is why we tried for a discount or free dining as soon as it came out but weren't able to get anything we could afford until we moved our reservation one week and were able to get a military discount but that was almost nonexistent also. I guess we were lucky to even get a reservation and I guess Disney doesn't want the population to visit them by raising all the rates, ticket prices and offering nonexistent discounts and being exclusive on resorts.
I'm gonna say POR is excluded because they're not having problems pulling in the numbers there, outside a discount. From what I understand, the promos/discounts are heavily pushed toward hotels they need to fill, with a few sprinklings of other resort/room types in between. In the past, when POR was the ONLY option for families of 5 (wanting a single room), filling to capacity wasn't an issue. I'm guessing they're still riding that wave.