Ask a Disney Question: Can I get free dining after I’ve already booked?

This question comes to us from Joan, who asks:  “I booked a trip for December through AAA with the dining plan for three meals a day . Please tell me this would be free.  Thanks.”

Joan.  Thanks for reading Chip and Co and for your question.   Free dining has not been announced yet for December.  We don’t actually know if it will be, but the rumor is pretty persistent and from some good sources, so I’m thinking it might happen.  We’ll announced it here as soon as we find out any information.  

A good Disney certified travel agent will keep up with discounts as they come out and notify her clients.  The only problem with this is that sometimes there can be a delay in agents getting the information. This delay can take up to 3 – 5 days because of the way Disney makes this information available to their agents, which can mean that the agents who have better connections (or who are searching Internet forums for information) are getting their clients free dining while other agents aren’t even aware that it exists.   By the time an agent who isn’t “in the know” gets the information, there’s no more availability.  I’ve had this happen myself and ended up informing my agent that the discount was out there; he had no idea.

I mention this because you may also want to do some searching yourself.  I’ve found that the posters on Passporter and Disboards are pretty savvy.  If there’s a discount out there, they usually know the moment it’s been announced.  Keep up with those forums and check out Mousesavers, which has historical data on when discounts are released. 

If free dining is announced, call your agent and have him change your reservation to include dining, if there’s availability.   If this seems like more work than you want to do and you have faith in your travel agent, simply wait for him to inform you if free dining has been announced.  You may want to send him an email expressing your interest so that he knows to keep you in mind if something comes up.  By the way, you can do this with any discount, so if something better comes out, have him apply that instead.

One small but very important caveat:  You’re only allowed to have one discount at a time, so if your AAA agent already booked your trip with a discount  (say, a percentage off the room), you’ll need to have him switch that discount to free dining.   He’ll be able to run the numbers and tell you which one is a better deal.  Generally free dining is a better deal if you have more than two people and you’re staying at a value resort. For a couple staying at a deluxe, the room discount is a much better deal.

Good luck.  I hope this helps.

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