OFFICIAL 2020 Free Dining WATCH Thread - FREE DINING No Longer Available. First Post Updated with Details

[focusondisney]

There is confusion because the advertising on the Disney website states 5 nights/6 days stays.

The length of stay requirements show up on the page where you plug in your dates..The Disney website ALWAYS picks one length of stay but other lengths are always available. The advertising does NOT say 5 is the minimum or maximum stay required. It is an example.

 

[SL6827]

Ya think? Pretty soon it will be bubye.

A recession will hit again, when, who knows? But when it does, this deal may be a lot sweeter.

 

[G719]

There is a room only right now for August?

There's not. I was confused by this too. Room only goes through April 25. A couple months ago there was a pin code that some people got that was good for stays 3/29-6/30.

 

[focusondisney]

But if I put in Thurs Aug 29th, the offer only pops up if I enter end date of Wed Sept 2 or later...which is 5 nights.

August 29 is a Saturday. Aug 29- Sept 2 is only 4 nights. The night of the 2nd isn’t counted... that is the check out day. You would be booking the nights of the 29, 30, 31 & Sept 1.

 

[Disneylover99]

But if I put in Sat Aug 29th, the offer only pops up if I enter end date of Wed Sept 2 or later...which is 5 nights.

If your end date is Wed. Sept. 2nd, that’s 4 nights.......
Sat. Sun. Mon. Tues. then you check out Wednesday.

 

[focusondisney]

And there’s plenty of available rooms for those dates... I put in 2 adults for August 29- September 2.... and 25 resorts show up.

 

[DisKaren]

But if I put in Sat Aug 29th, the offer only pops up if I enter end date of Wed Sept 2 or later...which is 5 nights.

An August 29th arrival and a September 2nd departure is 4 nights.
I will have to put more thought into the 2nd part of your post. My brain is a little fried lol right now.

 

[DisKaren]

An August 29th arrival and a September 2nd departure is 4 nights.

eta: haha. Disneylover99 beat me to this.

 

[Disneylover99]

One thing I don't get is why is it called "free" dining.
If I put in Aug 29 - Sept 2 at Pop, the regular cost is $2553 where as "free" dining is $2953. Isn't that saying that food costs $400? If it was FD, then the value meals included would also cost $2553
Maybe because FD requires park hopper???

I’m not really following this, but think of it this way.....

You’re getting free quick service dining per person per day valued at $55. So a family of four Disney adults at Pop would get dining valued at $220 per day.

You need to pay rack rate and buy minimum 4 day parkhoppers to get this.

 

[Disneylover99]

eta: haha. Disneylover99 beat me to this.

And @focusondisney beat me. Lol.

 

[siren0119]

There is a room only right now for August?

My error - there normally is a room only that goes through August released in January but the current offer only covers through April

I'm wondering if they are holding back summer discounts because of the new rides opening and the impending 50th anniversary celebration. We still don't know when they are "officially" going to start the festivities for that. I saw on another thread that the Disneyland 50th was something like 16 or 18 months long, starting before the official anniversary date. If WDW does something similar they might be kicking off the celebration in May or June - and if that's true and lots of folks plan vacations for the anniversary period, we might not see any discounts beyond what is available now.

 

[DisneyMomx7]

Looks like some more resorts opened up later in the afternoon. I was able to switch from Riviera to Boardwalk and saved $500! Still hoping BC or YC will open up

 

[petunia]

Question about BB offers. If I had a BB offer from last year for this year and booked 2 rooms (max is 3 I think)..could you completely change the resort/length of stay etc if I called now, or because that date for that offer is over it cannot be changed? Thx

 

[Attracted to Beasts]

Question about BB offers. If I had a BB offer from last year for this year and booked 2 rooms (max is 3 I think)..could you completely change the resort/length of stay etc if I called now, or because that date for that offer is over it cannot be changed? Thx

I would call and ask, I was able to make a change to a FD BB in 2017. We made the reservation for WL August 2017 but during that year we moved from NY to VA and school started the week we were supposed to go (can’t miss the first day of school in a new school!) I called and gave them my sob story and they let me push my vacation up a week! Call the bounce back number though not regular Disney!

 

[focusondisney]

One thing I don't get is why is it called "free" dining.
If I put in Aug 29 - Sept 2 at Pop, the regular cost is $2553 where as "free" dining is $2953. Isn't that saying that food costs $400? If it was FD, then the value meals included would also cost $2553
Maybe because FD requires park hopper???

Make sure both offers are identical. Sometimes the room category availability is different. Every category might not be available with the discount.... it might be showing you a higher category room. I just went to the website to make a mock booking... I noticed that the regular package offer defaults to a 1 park per day ticket. But the free dining offer requires a park hopper ticket. Depending on how many people you are buying tickets for, that could account for the $400 difference.

 

[5kidsmommy]

One thing I always do before discounts drop is price out mock trips. My numbers were spot on. We always get hoppers though so that's not an additional cost for us. I ended up moving my trip to the week before I had priced out and I had a savings of about $50 over what I had priced out. lol

 

[brockash]

But if I put in Sat Aug 29th, the offer only pops up if I enter end date of Wed Sept 2 or later...which is 5 nights.

One thing I don't get is why is it called "free" dining.
If I put in Aug 29 - Sept 2 at Pop, the regular cost is $2553 where as "free" dining is $2953. Isn't that saying that food costs $400? If it was FD, then the value meals included would also cost $2553
Maybe because FD requires park hopper???

Is the room category the same? Even at values there are multiple room categories with different prices...otherwise yes the park hoppers make a difference as well.

 

[brockash]

Question about BB offers. If I had a BB offer from last year for this year and booked 2 rooms (max is 3 I think)..could you completely change the resort/length of stay etc if I called now, or because that date for that offer is over it cannot be changed? Thx

Yes, BB is different than General free dining. Whatever dates were available during the bounceback is what you have to choose from and you can change it as long as they still have rooms available/offer etc. during the dates you're wanting.

 

[focusondisney]

I'm wondering if they are holding back summer discounts because of the new rides opening and the impending 50th anniversary celebration. We still don't know when they are "officially" going to start the festivities for that. I saw on another thread that the Disneyland 50th was something like 16 or 18 months long, starting before the official anniversary date. If WDW does something similar they might be kicking off the celebration in May or June - and if that's true and lots of folks plan vacations for the anniversary period, we might not see any discounts beyond what is available now.

The 50th anniversary is October 1, 2021. There is practically no chance Disney will start a celebration this year, especially this summer, more than a year before the actual date. Yes, Disney does run their celebrations for more than 12 months. But typically most of that time is after the actual date. The celebrations might begin sometime next summer & run thru the rest of 2021 & into 2022. They “kick off” the celebrations near the actual date. They don’t end them on the anniversary date.

 

[pooch]

Got an email from my TA at 7:30AM. Trip all booked for the dates & resort I wanted. I have always been a control freak about my Disney trips but I have to say, I LOVE my DU agent. She is on top of everything!!