2026-2027 Free Dining at Disney World Dates, Predictions & Info

ByTom Bricker
2700 Comments

The Free Disney Dining Plan is a popular Walt Disney World vacation package discount. This covers 2026 dates, deal rules & requirements, predictions & rumors for future dates this year and in 2027, and answers to questions including whether Free Dining is “worth it.”

If you’re unfamiliar with the Disney Dining Plan (DDP), we’d direct you to our comprehensive Guide to the 2026-2027 Disney Dining Plan. That covers the basics, what the DDP includes, how it’s changed since returning last year, and more. It also breaks down the value of the Disney Dining Plan and whether the paid version is worth the money, and much more.

The bad news is that Free Dining is no longer available to book for this year. The good news is that it did return, and with the most dates in about a decade, which bodes very well for 2027 and possibly (but not likely) another wave later this year! If you want to be notified immediately when Walt Disney World discounts are released, sign up here for our FREE Walt Disney World newsletter.

We’ve consistently notified our subscribers when Free Dining and other Walt Disney World deals are going to drop. Either in advance of their release or on the day they go live at ~7 a.m., which typically gives you a 2+ hour head start on Disney’s official announcement. That may not seem like much, but it makes a huge difference when booking.

In the last several months, Walt Disney World has released over a dozen different discounts. There are even targeted deals available through late 2026. This is a huge change as compared to 2021-2022, when many dates didn’t have discounts at all due to revenge travel and guest spending being so strong.

That coupled with capacity is why the Disney Dining Plan took so long to return in the first place. Those are both non-factors now, and things are more or less back to 2019 norms.

Before we turn to 2027 Free Dining, let’s take a look at this year’s deal dates:

  • June 28 to October 3, 2026
  • October 19 to October 31, 2026
  • December 6 to December 21, 2026

Again, Free Dining is no longer available to book in 2026. Or at least, it’s not currently available. The booking period ended April 30th, which was earlier than it would’ve been in a normal year. This could be because Walt Disney World plans to re-release 2026 Free Dining with different and/or expanded dates, which is something they’ve done with multiple deals already in 2026.

If more 2026 Free Dining dates were to be released, we would expect them in November, likely excluding Thanksgiving. It’s also possible to have different dates in October and December, while still excluding Fall Break, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve. We’ll keep newsletter subscribers posted!

This is all relevant to the return of Free Dining in 2027 because the deal is not offered out of corporate benevolence, but as an aggressive move to help boost resort occupancy numbers. That wasn’t necessary for the last couple of years due to pent-up demand. However, that has changed significantly, and now Walt Disney World is pulling several “levers” to try to incentivize demand.

As always, we’d recommend requesting a FREE no obligation quote from Be Our Guest Vacations, an Authorized Disney Vacation Planner and having those travel agents book for you. They’ll assist you with the planning process, help you choose the most economical dates, best add-ons, etc.

Equally as important, they’ll help you with discount comparison shopping. There are a ton of different discounts currently available for Walt Disney World in 2026, and many of these deals are better than Free Dining for many–if not most–guests.

That just scratches the surface of what will be released throughout the year, just what’s already available. It’s likely there will be several more discounts released in June/July and October, as well as early January 2027. At least one of those special offers will be Free Dining–but more on that below. Point being, what you see now isn’t everything that’ll be available for your travel dates.

On that note, here are some predictions about 2027 Free Dining at Walt Disney World…

2027 Free Dining Forecast & Rumors

Free Dining will almost certainly return in 2027, it’s likely to be released in multiple waves once again.

The first will likely be announced in late December of this year, and bookable starting in early January 2027. Eligible travel dates will likely span from around Memorial Day through August 2027 (prior to the start of the off-season), with possible blockouts during peak weeks. However, we wouldn’t be surprised if Independence Day is not blocked out, as that has become less and less busy over the years.

Finally, the first wave of 2027 Free Dining will likely be bookable for roughly one month. This won’t be noted up front–it’ll just quietly disappear from the available offers page. It’s also likely that this first wave of Free Dining will not be targeted, but instead, available for the general public to book. These are hardly bold predictions–this is based purely on past precedent.

To address this, Walt Disney World has been releasing more discounts. They’re doing it out of necessity. This is something we’ve documented, and we’ve repeatedly pointed out that they’re pulling from the 2019 playbook for discounts. That 2019 playbook included Free Dining.

Following this first wave, we fully expect a second wave of Free Dining for dates that are later in 2027. This is likely to become bookable between mid-March and April 2027.

The main reason Walt Disney World would not release discounts all at once for May through December 2027 relates to resort occupancy numbers. The company is really good at projecting hotel bookings, but it’s just like a weather forecast–more accurate as dates draw nearer and less accurate further into the future. Walt Disney World only wants to offer discounts as necessary to fill hotel rooms, so they release discounts in phases.

The most reliable set of second wave dates for Free Dining are usually in August to late September. Those dates are the slowest of the year at Walt Disney World, and have been the most common and consistent for Free Dining. Expect a second wave of Free Dining to encompass these dates during Fall 2027.

The second wave of Free Dining also might include portions of October, minus holiday weeks and fall break.

A scattering of November and/or December dates could be available again, and there’s likely to be a stretch in December after (but not including) the first week and running until as late as December 23, 2027.

One wrinkle with subsequent waves is that they could offer different guest eligibility. It’s possible for the second wave of Free Dining to be targeted towards only Disney+ subscribers or Disney Visa Cardholders, and have a few ‘borderline’ weeks when occupancy is reasonably high (e.g. select dates in October through December). Then a week or two later, the general public wave of Free Dining could be released that doesn’t include all of these dates.

Obviously, this is only a prediction–the actual dates and details of future waves of 2027 Free Dining could vary a little or lot, and it’s entirely possible that nothing is released at all! But we highly doubt it.

Again, we want to emphasize that this is not a rumor–it’s simply us analyzing resort bookings and past precedent on discounts, and making an educated guess. August and September usually have the best discounts of the year since demand is lowest, and we’d expect that to be true again in 2027 especially as nothing new is opening at Walt Disney World until Tropical Americas at the end of the year. October through December are usually busier, hence the potential targeting of Free Dining during those dates.

Disney also likes high levels of per guest spending numbers, and no other special offer helps achieve these high per caps like Free Dining. Despite “free” being in the name, it’s an advantageous promo from Disney’s perspective because it locks guests into full-price hotels and tickets. It also keeps guests on-site for the most part, since they have “free” meals at Walt Disney World. No other discount accomplishes all of these important goals for the company.

Either way, will be closely monitoring the 2027 Free Dining situation, keeping our ears open for more news about a return of Free Dining. Should something–anything–be released or rumored, we’ll send you an alert if you sign up for our FREE Walt Disney World newsletter.

We’ve consistently notified email subscribers when Free Dining and other deals on the day they go live at ~6 or 7 a.m., which is a 2+ hour head start on Disney’s official announcement at 9 am. That makes a huge difference when booking Free Dining–you won’t have to wait on hold for hours on the phone.

Free Dining FAQ

Free Dining is Walt Disney World’s most complicated promotion, and can be a huge headache to book. Between limited availability and navigating a seas of rules and restrictions, it’s easy to make mistakes. This section of the post covers the rules, terms and conditions, and policies that generally govern the Free Dining promotion.

We always recommend that Walt Disney World first-timers (or regulars who just don’t want to deal with the hassle) request a FREE quote from Be Our Guest Vacations, an Authorized Disney Travel Planner. Most legit travel agents do not charge for booking Walt Disney World vacations (and you don’t pay a premium for them–Disney pays them commission), so that’s really the easiest way to go.

With this special offer, Walt Disney World guests booking vacation packages with non-discounted resort hotels and park tickets receive the DDP for each member of their party for no additional charge. For obvious reasons (who doesn’t love free food?!), the promotion is incredibly popular and some resorts that offer free dining tend to sell out quickly.

Guests booking the Free Dining promotion for Value or Moderate Resorts will receive the Quick Service Disney Dining Plan, with guests staying at Deluxe or Deluxe Villa Resorts receiving the standard Disney Dining Plan.

There are some room exclusions for the Free Dining promo: 3-bedroom villas, campsites, Cabins at Copper Creek Villas & Cabins at Wilderness Lodge, Bungalows at Polynesian Villas & Bungalows, and Little Mermaid Rooms at Disney’s Art of Animation Resort.

These resorts and room tiers are all not eligible for Free Dining. Additionally, room inventory is limited across all resorts. In practice, this means that when you go to book, a particular category (standard view, garden view, etc.) may not be available for your travel dates–or your travel dates may not be available at a specific resort at all.

To take advantage of Free Dining, there’s also the requirement that guests purchase tickets that include either a minimum 4-day Park Hopper or the Park Hopper Plus option. Additionally, a 4-night minimum stay is required with a maximum stay of fourteen nights.

This means you can’t purchase discounted Walt Disney World tickets from an authorized reseller, which we normally highly recommend in our Walt Disney World trip planning advice. This is something to keep in mind when doing the math to determine if “Free Dining” is a good value for you.

When it comes to Free Dining, doing the math is incredibly important. Other discounts (such as a room-only discount) might be better for your family. Remember, there is no such thing as a free lunch; you have forfeit an alternate discount to qualify for Free Dining. We break down some of the math in our “Is Free Dining Worth It?” post.

If you have already booked a vacation package with an arrival date that qualifies for Free Dining, we recommend using the “modify reservation” link in your booking to apply the promotion to your package. This is the quickest and easiest way to apply the promotion.

You might see other advice that recommends calling to book Free Dining. This is outdated. If you call Walt Disney World’s reservation line, you will likely wait on hold for an hour (or hours) until you’re able to speak to an agent. Booking or modifying your reservation online is far quicker and easier.

Even if the online system crashes (which has happened) or moves slowly due to all the traffic, it’s easier to just keep trying online. Unfortunately, booking online isn’t always possible and technical errors do happen…so you might have to call and wait on hold.

If you are wondering which hotel to book for the Free Dining promotion, check out our new Best Walt Disney World Hotels for Free Dining post. It gives our preferred option for each resort tier. Oh, and don’t forget to make some ADRs for the best and most popular Walt Disney World restaurants.

With this Free Dining offer, Value and Moderate Resort guests receive the Quick Service Disney Dining Plan during the promotion. Guests at Deluxe and Deluxe Villa Resorts receive the standard Disney Dining Plan.

We highly recommend making Advance Dining Reservations as soon as possible. Yes, even before Free Dining is offered, if you can. Everyone gobbles up the good ADRs quickly for Free Dining dates, so if you don’t book early, you will be stuck eating counter service or unpopular restaurants for the duration of your trip.

To answer some other common questions: yes, you must purchase tickets with the offer even if you already have them (or an Annual Pass). No, bookings made with Disney Vacation Club points are not eligible for the offer. No, you cannot “stack” this offer with a percentage-off room discount (at least not in the U.S.). For those wondering about other Walt Disney World discounts, check out our Current Walt Disney World Discount Offers post for what’s presently available.

For details about which tier of the Disney Dining Plan includes or for recommendations about which restaurants to book to maximize your use of the DDP, please see our comprehensive Disney Dining Plan Overview Page.

Note that the Free Disney Dining Plan promotion is always based upon arrival dates. For example, if Free Dining runs June 27 to June 28 and you arrive on June 28 and stay until July 5, you are eligible for Free Dining–even though it’s blocked out for July 5 arrivals. (You didn’t arrive on July 5 in that scenario–you arrived in June.)

However, if it’s offered those same dates and you arrive on June 26 and stay for the same dates, you are not eligible for Free Dining, even though more of your stay falls during an “eligible” period than the first example’s. The work-around for this is doing a split stay, with the ineligible arrival nights part of one vacation and a second vacation starting at the first valid “arrival” date and continuing thereafter. Again, arrival dates are what matters with Free Dining.

In the section below, we have historical Free Dining dates for the last few years. The rest of what follows is historical information about the Free Disney Dining Plan promotion…

Historical Information

The following is not pertinent to current bookings, but we have found that readers find it useful to have details about past Free Dining promos when planning for the future and what to expect. Note that the dates are pretty consistent from year to year, with slight shifts for holidays, weekends, and special events, or other things that may be excluded from the Free Disney Dining Plan promotion.

Last year, there was no early booking window for Disney Visa cardholders, but there was an expanded date range (see below). The two years before, Disney Visa cardholders did have an early booking window. Exact dates are listed below. Most years, the general public is able to book Free Dining packages 5 days after Disney Visa cardholders can book.

In years past, Free Dining has been announced in late April, with booking opening first for Disney Visa credit card holders and the general public a few days later. The last couple of years, there was no early window for Disney Visa cardholders.

Here are the Walt Disney World Free Dining dates that were available from 2013-2025 for historical reference…

2025 Free Dining Dates:

  • May 27 through June 26 (first wave)
  • July 7 through August 6 (first wave)
  • June 29 to September 30 (second wave)
  • October 20 to November 1 (second wave)
  • December 6 to December 22 (second wave)

2024 Free Dining Dates:

  • July 1 to September 30 (Disney+ Subscribers)
  • July 1 to July 31 (Disney Visa)
  • September 1 to September 7 (Disney Visa)
  • December 9 to December 21 (Disney Visa)

2020 Free Dining Dates (Cancelled):

  • June 27 through June 28
  • July 5 through July 7
  • August 29 through September 8

2019 Free Dining Dates:

  • July 5 – September 30*
  • September 1 through September 18**
  • November 17 through November 27**
  • December 8 through December 23**

*First and second wave of Free Dining
**Third wave of Free Dining

2018 Free Dining Dates:

  • August 20* — September 29
  • November 24 — 27
  • December 7 — 23

*Disney Visa Cardholders could book for arrival dates beginning August 2.

2017 Free Dining Dates:

  • August 21* – September 30
  • November 14 – 20
  • November 25 – 27
  • December 8 – 23

*Disney Visa Cardholders could book for arrival dates beginning August 13.

2016 Free Dining Dates:

  • August 23* through October 1
  • November 15 through 21
  • November 26 through 28
  • December 10 through 21

*Disney Visa Cardholders could book for arrival dates beginning August 14.

2015 Free Dining Dates:

  • August 28 through October 2
  • October 25 through October 31
  • November 8 through November 19
  • December 15 through December 21

2014 Free Dining Dates:

  • August 31 – October 3
  • October 26 – November 1
  • November 9 – November 20
  • December 12 – December 23

2013 Free Dining Dates

  • September 2 to September 25
  • September 29 to October 2
  • October 18 to November 2
  • November 11 to November 23
  • December 12 to December 22

Other Free Dining Posts & Resources

If you plan on getting the Disney Dining Plan check out these other Walt Disney World posts:

Want more dining tips? Check out our 101 Delicious Walt Disney World Dining Tips. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. Planning other aspects of a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!

Your Thoughts

Do you think Free Dining will be released again in January 2027? Or will a rising tide lift all ships and result in Walt Disney World not “needing” to get that aggressive with deals? Are you a fan of the “free” dining promotion? Have any tips for free dining rookies? If you’ve booked Free Dining, what did you think about your experience with the deal? If you were unable to get it, where/when were you unsuccessful? Let us know what you think of the promotion and whether you’re planning on taking advantage of it in the comments!

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2,700 Comments

  1. Has anyone had any luck on adding free dining when travelling between 14-20 November? All the hotels say not available. My travel agent (Be Our Guest) wasn’t able to add to my existing booking I had at Caribbean.

    Reply

    1. I modified my reservation to dates that had free dining and once dining was added I moved back to my original dates and it stayed on. Same reservation #.

    2. Hmm are you allowed to do that. I went through an agent. Should I ask them to do that?

    3. ok just tried that online and didn’t work. It came up with the resort and said no room available so I couldn’t select a room. Even though if I look at those dates without free dining.

    5. I was finally able to do that yesterday at night, online, 14-23 november. There was availability at Caribbean but only preferred and pirate rooms. I change traveling dates and offer at the same time.

    6. Damn I’ve been checking back all the time but can’t modify my reservation as went through a vacation planner. I can see pirate room now but I’ve heard mixed things about them and I know Tom does not rate them.

  2. I got up at 4am Monday and was not able to modify my existing beach club reservation online due to too much traffic. Hubby called and was on hold for 2 hours and was told no free dining or discounts available for beach club. Checked when I got up Tuesday morning and was able to switch to yacht club at 20% enchanted fall discount which saved us over $700! It is just the two of us so for us this is a better value than free dining. Keep checking back, inventory is always changing! 🙂

    Reply

  3. I’d like to share some info regarding CBR and $75 gift cards. I was told prior to FD launch to call Disney reservations at some point after I make modifications and confirm that notes are made regarding $75 gc. I did just that and the cast member confirmed that they do need to make notes as they (reservation department) are the only ones that can see the orginal book date. She then got in touch with guest services at CBR to make sure the notes are seen on their end to insure check in goes as smooth as possible.

    Reply

    1. Some additional CBR – $75/night Gift Card News…..

      I just got off of the phone with a cast member at CBR and she stated that if construction was not going on when you are there (even if you booked within the time frame that they had it posted) then you would not get it and would not give a time frame on the construction completion. I do understand where she is coming from but I also pulled my old emails about the offer and it is not stated there (the stipulation – which means you would have them by their pixie toes).

      I would HIGHLY recommend that you pull anything that shows the offer that Disney posted about the original offer – just my thoughts…

      I also understand that at any given time, you can/will get a different answer from them.

    2. If you booked CBR before March 20th and received the confirmation e-mail that you will be gettting the $75 gift cards, you’ll get the gift cards. Unless you completely cancelled your reservation and made a new one for free dining, in which case, you forfeit the gift cards. The gift card offer is attached to the reservation number. I’ve spoken to multiple people at Disney about this on numerous occasions. Of course it’s not a bad idea to print that confirmation e-mail and bring it with you when you check-in, but there shouldn’t be any problems.

  4. Yes! Yesterday morning after being on hold for 2 1/2 hours (with them disconnecting with me one of the times) I got the reservation I wanted! 2 connecting rooms at Pop Century!!!

    Reply

  5. Yes! After being on hold for 2 1/2 hours (with them disconnecting with me one of the times) I got the reservation I wanted! 2 connecting rooms at Pop Century!!!

    Reply

  6. Dumb question time.

    I got the Free Dining booked with the Quick Service. If we went to a Table Service restaurant, can we use a credit and get a discount on the meal? Or would we just have to pay full price for anything we ordered.

    Reply

    1. Nope. I think a looong time ago, you used to be able to use 2 Quick Service credits on a Table Service meal, but those days are long gone (and I may even be wrong).

      You could, however, upgrade your free QS dining package to the regular dining plan which gives you 1 QS & 1 TS meal per night of your stay for about $20 per night. But everyone on the reservation has to do it and you must do it in advance. You can’t just do it for one meal. But something to think about depending on how many TS meals you want to do.

    2. Ashley is correct. I was booked at Riverside and wanted the Regular Dining Plan, so I upgraded to it and it cost me $21.17 per person per night, over the Free Dining QS Plan. We always like to have a table service each night of our trip. Keep in mind this could also include some character breakfasts/dinners that are worth 1 credit.

  7. Yesterday was a mess and I wasn’t able to update our existing reservation at the Polynesian Village (standard room) from August 25th-29th. We already have a package booked (since last November) along with non-park hopper tickets for 4 days plus the Disney dining plan. I realize I would have to probably upgrade the room and definitely change to park hopper tickets to get the free dining deal, but I checked ALL the deals and even non-discounted rooms/packages there and there is absolutely nothing during our dates, the week before, and the week after at either Polynesian Village or the Polynesian Villas & Bungalows. Does anyone know what’s going on there? Are both sites completely sold out of every room/villa at every price level? Are both sites excluded from every promotional discount? (Our dates happen to fall in a range where there are anywhere from 7-9 different promos being offered) Is it possible that they simply haven’t realeased any rooms for the Polynesian yet and they could be coming soon? I just found it really odd that there are NO rooms available at either location and at any price level/discount for several weeks at the end of August/beginning of September. Is it a glitch? Or is it truly completely and totally sold out? If anyone has any additional info that would be great. Thanks in advance! Happy travels!

    Reply

    1. I was able to make my change to our existing plans yesterday, but now today there are no rooms available with the Free Dining Package at Riverside either, so I think they are probably just used up, but keep checking back (daily) because this happened to me 2 years ago and a few weeks later they released more rooms in the Free Dining Package and I was able to get in on the 2nd round. Good luck to you!

    2. Hi Missy, Thanks for the reply. I think you are right that the rooms are simply gone because today I’m finally able to see the regular prices for both the rooms and packages at the Polynesian and if I tweak my vacation by just one day, a club level room comes up with the free dining discount. Unfortunately, I’m not able to tweak my vacation by that particular day since we’re combining with a Disney cruise and we’re at their mercy as far as dates go. Thanks again for the response. I will keep checking back just in case something pops up. 🙂

    3. Riverside has free dining coming on and off. I was able to book it yesterday . Keep checking esp early in the morning and late at night . One day it was only princess room, another just premium and yesterday there were all room types fir about an hout

    4. I’m booked at Poly in September and I had to change my room from a studio villa to standard in order to receive the free dining offer as the dining promotion does not apply to the Villas. The room discount was offered for both options though (the dining worked out to a much better deal for us so it was worth changing rooms for). I was logged in shortly after the promotions went live and had obtained the promotion by 5:45 amEDT. We are taking the trip with friends who tried later in the day and were unable to get either promotion. I think they must have really limited the number of promotions available unfortunately.

  8. Please help! I was finally able to get free dining today at CBR! YAY! I had to remove a day from the end of my vacation. I finalized everything over the phone. I went online after and noticed that I still had the same number of park tickets. I changed the number of park tickets and hit check out and then got the “I am going to Disney” screen and an email like I booked a new vacation. I still have the same reservation number. Did I mess anything up with the 75.00 gc offer?

    Reply

    1. As long as you did not cancel and just modified your orginal reservation, you’re good! Should still have same reservation number. I had to adjust my days to get free dining. I was told as long as I just modified things, I’d keep my GC’s.

      Your email should have something in it where it says date updated towards bottom.

      When phone lines clear up a bit I’d call or chat with someone online just to confirm your cards are still attached to reservation.

  9. I’ve had reservations at Pop Century for 4 months.

    I was just on the phone for 2 hours talking to a lady that must be new because she didn’t have answers to many questions.

    After all is said and done, after 2 hours she disconnected from me. She managed to cancel one of my reservations I’ve had for 4 months, and I didn’t get the free dining she was trying to set up because she disconnected me.

    So now I have 1 less room, and am out 2 hours of my life.

    Reply

    1. Well after that experience, I went online and booked 2 rooms myself just using the website. Go figure.

  10. Keep trying everyone! I thought all was lost after my TA did not get back to me yesterday until 12PM (everything for Value and most moderates were sold out for December) I just went on myself this morning and grabbed TWO rooms at All Star Music with free dining. Keep looking, keep calling. Disney will make it happen!

    Reply

  11. Still not able to add free dining to my reservation. Boo. I am going to keep trying and hoping something opens up! I keep reading that more people are having luck today, but I have been trying since 6am this morning (yesterday was a nightmare). Reeeaalllyy hoping to get lucky! LOL!

    Reply

    1. Make sure when you modify you go to “change offer” and change it to the free delicious offer, instead of just trying to “add dining.” I made that mistake at first yesterday morning!

    2. YES, I figured that one out yesterday. LOL! But GREAT NEWS!!!! I GOT FREE DINING!!!!!! aMY

  12. I called yesterday and was unsuccessful in adding free dining, but today it was available and I got it added. They confirmed i would keep the $75 gift cards. There must be people changing or dropping reservations. CBR King Bed 9/18-9/23. Online shows both king and standard available at CBR.

    Reply

    1. Same thing for me. Yesterday my Disney Travel Agent couldn’t get the dining plan added on to by December CBR reservation along with the gift cards. Today she was able to do it. Pretty excited!

  13. Yesterday was awful. Today is shaping up to be much better. I set my alarm for 3 a.m on Sunday night. When I got up, I kept refreshing and refreshing for the offer to be posted, and I finally gave up at around 5 and decided to try to sleep a little more. Unable to do that, I got back up at about ten to 6 and saw that it’d been posted while I was lying down! I tried frantically to add on the free dining to our existing reservation but only Pirate Rooms were available, and between the cost for those from standard, the addition of park hopper and the planned upgrade from Quick Service to DDP, it wasn’t worth it. So I decided to try the phones at 7. Ha! I got every kind of recording imaginable, dropped calls, dead air, etc. Finally I gave up.

    This morning, I check on a whim, and I was able to add it on to our standard room at CBR. Didn’t have to change the dates of our planned stay or anything. We should still get the gift cards too because I only modified the reservation, never cancelled it. (I’m printing out the letter they sent us about the gift cards with the confirmation number which is still the same, and praying there aren’t any issues at check-in).

    I still can’t even believe it. I keep checking My Reservations and Tickets in half disbelief, half fear it’ll somehow disappear. The deal seems far too good to be true.

    Keep trying, guys! It’s definitely worth it!

    Reply

    1. Glad to hear it worked out for you. I was able to book ‘free dining’ online yesterday for my stay at AKL in September… though I had to start a new reservation to do so. Like you, I keep doing the same thing where I constantly check my reservation to make sure it’s still there and that it’s not a fluke!

    2. I am a hardcore pessimist and believer of “If it seems too good to be true, it probably is!” (the perfect attitude for a Disney traveler lol) so I’m just as terrified something will happen to it as I am happy that I got it!

  14. We were able to keep our CBR reservations and gift cards by shortening our September 10th-16th by a day. This let us keep our standard room and gift cards. Does anyone know if we’ll be able to use these gift cards to pay the difference between quick service and table service upon arrival? Hope so as we’ve had our ADR’s since the 180 day mark and all our dinners are at table service restaurants….

    Reply

    1. You have to upgrade to the regular dining plan 72 hrs in advance so you wouldn’t be able to use the gift cards. You could probably use them for tips or extras though.

    2. Speaking with experienced Disney planners and visitors, there are a couple of things you can do to use the gift cards to pay for part of your stay. The first is to keep the quick service dining plan and all of your table service reservations and use the gift cards to offset the cost of paying out of pocket for the table service meals. The second is to book your stay with the minimum number of days of tickets. Once you arrive and get your gift cards you can add on days and use the cards to cover the cost of the addition. Unless something has changed in the last year, as long as you add days before you have used up the prepaid ticket days, you get the discounted price of additional days.

  15. Thanks to your recommendation for BeOurGuest travel, our wonderful agent Janelle was able to book rooms at CBR for Xmas. best piece of advice EVER!! Thanks Tom.

    Reply

  16. Booked at CBR before 3/20 and am getting the $75 gift card for a King Bed room. Late last night I was able to add the free dining plan online. Earlier in the day they were showing only pirate rooms, but as per other comments on here I kept trying and sure enough was able to add the free dining to my already existing reservation. So keep trying and hang in there!

    Thanks to the Brickers and all the posters on here! This is by far the best blog for Disney planning!

    Reply

    1. This is encouraging. I am in a similar situation and was unable to get free dining yesterday for my CBR standard room. Do you mind if I ask if you had already added a dining plan and park tickets to your reservation before you got free dining? I only have a room booked and keep getting the “No additional offers are available” box.

    2. Heather,

      I had tickets with 4 day tickets park hopper but no dining plan when I was able to add free dining to my standard at CBR this morning. When I selected the Free Delicious offer, a box popped up telling me that this would add on a dining plan to my current plan which does not include dining. I ok’d that and from there I was able to select the room, and then after submitting that, it let me upgrade from the free Quick Service to the DDP for the additional cost.

    3. I had the room and tickets booked, but no dining plan. I went in through “Change Reservation” and then clicked “Change Offer” (NOT “Add Dining”). It was about 10pm CST when I was finally able to get through. It was still glitchy, but first I was able to change my offer from “room only” to “Free Delicious” and then I updated the reservation with just the quick service dining. Then I had to go back in a second time and upgrade to the standard dining in a separate transaction. For some reason it wouldn’t let me add the free dining and upgrade all at once. Good luck!

  17. Switched from coronado to pop and upgrade to regular dining plan saved 1600 cm on phone was excellent and very informative…..

    Reply

  18. Looks like there have either been a lot of cancellations or they added some more rooms. There were multiple openings at the value resorts this morning. We were able to snag one for Pop Century!

    Reply

  19. Anyone on hold and its just silence with no music or promos? I originally had the technical issue and then when it said your options, I pressed 2 and it has been silence ever since. I already passed the 1 hour mark. Was contemporary resort even an option made available for the dining plan??

    Reply

    1. I’m on hold right now. Over and hour and just a humming silence. It originally said about a 60 minute wait……
      Hoping to change our CBR to a preferred room rather than a pirate room????

      Good Luck!

    2. That’s what I was wondering. I was online to modify mine as soon as the offer went live and it immediately said not available. When I called the lady told me it wasn’t available but she could check other resorts so I asked her if it was ever even available and she said she didn’t know.

    3. Don’t hang up, my hold was silent for over an hour…then I was put through and able to add the promotion

    4. The contemporary resort was offered when I went on because I was considering it. It would have been 5700 or so for my family of 5 (all my kids are over 10) so I went with the CBR as it was cheaper even after upgrading. Good luck I’m sure something will open up.

  20. Still haven’t heard from my agent….hopefully I do. If they are unable to get me the free dining then I’m going to start investigating renting Disney Points as overall it looks much cheaper.

    Reply

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