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Disney World: Free Dining Plan??? |
Travel Info My fiance & I will be visiting Disney World for our honeymoon in Sept 2008 (first week, probably). I have heard that every year Disney offers a free dining plan for those visiting in Spetember. Right now if we have to pay for the dining plan we will have to stay a All Star resort (for our budget reasons), but if we get the dining plan for free we could stay at the Carribean of something equivalent. I also have heard you should make your meal reservations 180 days before you arrive, but if I wait for the free dining I will not be able to make my meal reservation at the 180 day mark. Have any of you had this problem and what did you do? If you have not had this problem what do you think I could do? Travel Tips Since you are going in 2008 prices are not even out yet. They should be out in about a month or so. So, at this point you are not even able to book your package. At this point no one really knows what Disney is going to offer next year for packages and also what they are going to offer for dining. I have heard that prices are going to go up next year (I'm thinking this year it only went up $1.00 from last year) but I think it may go up more, so I don't really know what will happen. Also, I heard that Disney is talking next year of not including the tip in the dining plan, which would mean you would have to pay an additional 18% (for the proper tip) Again, I don't know if this will happen, this is just a rumor. Now, if they do really increase the price of the dining plan, they may not offer it free again next year. They started doing the free dining each year after the bad hurricane season. They wanted to try and bring back travelers with a really good incentive, each year their attendance increases and they shorten the length of time the free dining is offered for travel. You can almost guarantee that they will offer a promotion for your dates and more than likely it will be a pretty good savings, however, it may not be free dining depending on how attendance is and how much the dining plan increases in cost. Since you don't know where you will be staying, the best thing to do is book your vacation at the hotel that you can afford now (when prices come out) Once you have it booked, then you can watch for discounts. If/when a discount comes out (which would be around this time frame next year) you or your travel agent can modify your room and then decide if it is enough savings for you to upgrade to a moderate. I wouldn't wait to book until the specials for your dates come out to avoid missing out on getting something at all. When the specials come out (especially free dining) the rooms can disappear pretty fast. Now as for dining, you should book the dining as soon as you know when you will be going and where you want to go. With the current dining plan the good restaurants are often sold out. Places like Le Celliers can be pretty impossible to get (especially at good times) if you wait too long. So, once you know what you would want, I would go ahead and book them. If you change your mind, you can always change or cancel what you have and go for something else. The easiest way to go would be to decide if you are going to get the dining plan whether or not it is free. If you plan to get it either way, I would go ahead and put it on the reservation when you first book it, that way it is taken care of. When you call to make your reservations, then you can tell them you are on the dining plan and it is all taken care of. Otherwise you will tell them you are not on the dining plan, then when you add it, it is best to call back and tell them that you are on the dining plan so you can change your reservations. I pretty much know the places I want to go, so I book them as soon as I can. Usually you can get a few reservations a little closer than that, but if you know what you want, I wouldn't take the risk. It is best to book them as early as possible. I personally would not want to wait until the specials come out for those dates, especially for a honeymoon, but more than likely you could get most of what you want. Hope this helps! Others Hey whats up. I've been to Disney many times and the Dining Plan is THE BEST! deal you can get, whether you buy it or get it for free. I think you can get a reservation for the free dining plan in Sept. around this time every year. But to answer your question. As I was planning to go there even before my package was completely booked I would call the restaurants and make a reservation, all they ask for is a credit card for like a $10 reservation deposit fee. They were all refunded to me as long as I made it to the place or cancelled with time. And if the place we wanted to eat in was booked full, if we were willing to be flexible with when we ate there, we could wait to see if someone cancelled last minute or sometimes a spot would open up. Since it was just my girlfriend and I we were lucky a couple of times with that happening at Cinderella's Royal Table and some other places. I suggest that once you figure which days you're going to be there you start calling and if you change your mind just call back and cancel, you have nothing to lose. Hopefully this helps. If you have anymore questions feel free to email me at dagame58@yahoo.com I enjoy helping people with Disney things. 180 day booking has more to do with the shows like Hoop Dee Do and the Polynesian Luau. Because you aren't traveling with kids, you can be more flexible with times and should be able to get enough places for the week. Go to www.allearsnet.com and start checking out the menus. Pick out where you want to go. Because it is off season, you should be able to upgrade your hotel and book restaurants as soon as the dining plan deal is offered, and yes you can do this just by changing your existing reservation. We booked in May for a trip at the end of August and all the hotels had rooms available for that week, even though northern kids are still on summer vacation. I recommend the Port Orleans resort, French Quarter as a mid priced hotel. Coronado Springs is a convention center and has people in business attire that spoils the atmosphere of good clean fun. Just a note: The dining plan has exclusions.. some restaurants are NOT covered. If you are going on your honeymoon, without children, you hould NOT miss dinner at Jiko. (in the Animal Kingdom Lodge) True romantic gourmets travel there just to eat there, and skip the parks. However, Jiko is NOT on the dining plan. (obviously) I still wouldn't miss it.. It tands as one of the best dining experiences my husband and I have ever had. honest. |
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