Walt Disney World has announced some upcoming changes to current Advanced Dining Reservation policy. Beginning October 26, 2011, most character meal locations and all Signature Dining restaurants will require a credit card guarantee at time of booking, and all will carry a 24 hour cancellation policy.  The following restaurants will now require the credit card guarantee:

• 1900 Park Fare
• Akershus Royal Banquet Hall
• Artist Point
• California Grill
• Cape May Café
• Chef Mickey’s
• Cítricos
• The Crystal Palace
• Flying Fish Café
• The Garden Grill
• Hollywood & Vine
• Jiko – The Cooking Place
• Le Cellier Steakhouse
• Narcoossee’s
• ‘Ohana
• Tusker House Restaurant
• The Hollywood Brown Derby
• Yachtsman Steakhouse
• Victoria & Albert’s

Please note that if you cancel within 24 hours of your dining time, or do not show up, your credit card will be charged a $10 per person cancellation fee (Victoria & Albert’s is a $25 per person fee).

Several restaurants still require full pre-payment at the time of booking, unless you are participating in the Disney Dining plan, in which case, a credit card guarantee is required. These restaurants will carry a 24 hour cancellation policy, and the full amount of the meal will be charged if you cancel within 24 hours or do not dine.

• Cinderella’s Royal Table
• Disney’s Spirit of Aloha Dinner Show
• Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue
• Mickey’s Backyard BBQ

Reservations can be cancelled at any Table Service restaurant podium, any Disney World resort front desk, concierge or guest relations, online at DisneyWorld.com/Dining or by calling the dining cancellation number 407-WDW-CNCL.

What started at Walt Disney World has a way to encourage larger groups to travel together, Grand Gatherings will be unceremoniously discontinued as of January 28, 2012. The Grand Gatherings concept exists of two separate parts, a group reservation at Disney World consisting of eight or more people (which guaranteed that your rooms would be close to each other) and the Grand Gathering experiences, extra events that only Grand Gathering groups could book.

Disney will continue booking resort reservations together, but they will just be linked in the Disney system with no special designations. The Grand Gathering events have all been cancelled, and will not be available to book for travel after January 28, 2012. All experiences are still available to experience up until that date.

When the news first broke of the discontinuation a few weeks ago, we were hoping for several of the events to stay around for general booking. This appears to not be the case, possibly capacity was too low to offer these to everyone, possibly the profits were not there. We are sad to see many of these events go, hopefully Disney World starts offering some additional tours and special events throughout the parks.

Travel Dates: April 17 – 23, 2011

Walt Disney World has brought back the popular  coupon for discounted food in the theme parks. During the travel dates listed above, you can redeem a voucher to save 25 percent off of your entire bill with the purchase of any entrée at select restaurants. One note, you can only use the coupons during off hours, so before 11:30 AM and between 3:00 and 4:30 PM each day.

You can print out the coupons from an online source, or they may also be found in the parks in the following places:

Walt Disney World – In the Times Guide, at the bottom of select merchandise receipts, or at the bottom of receipts from select resort quick-service restaurants.

To download the coupons and print them from home, here is the link for Walt Disney World.

The coupons cannot be used with any other offer, and you cannot use them if you are paying for your meal with the Disney Dining plan. Taxes and tips are not included, and as always, you must have theme park admission to eat at any in park restaurant. Coupons for Walt Disney World can be used until April 23, 2011. Coupons are free, there is no cost to print them out.

Participating quick-service locations:

Magic Kingdom Park

• Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Cafe
• Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn and Cafe
• Columbia Harbour House
• Pinocchio Village Haus
• Tomorrowland Terrace Restaurant

Epcot

• Electric Umbrella
• Liberty Inn
• Sunshine Seasons

Disney’s Hollywood Studios

• Backlot Express
• ABC Commissary
• Studio Catering Company

Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park

• Flame Tree Barbecue
• Pizzafari
• Restaurantosaurus
• Tamu Tamu Refreshments

A similar discount is available for Disneyland restaurants for the same dates. Click here for the Disneyland Coupon.

In the Spring issue of Disney Files, the Disney Vacation Club quarterly magazine, there was an interesting article entitled Wishes Coming True. The subject of the article was upcoming changes that will be made to the DVC booking system, which will be called Wishes.

However, the article also gives us some interesting information about Lilo, the upcoming system to be used at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World for regular guest reservations. The new system will better incorporate some of the recently added initiatives such as the online check-in feature and Mobile Room Ready notification by text, along with some much needed changes. The most interesting of which is “Travel Plans”.

Currently, if you want to stay at more than one WDW resort during your stay, you are required to book multiple reservations, one for each hotel. Packages cannot be made to cover multiple resorts, you must start over on both tickets and dining plans. Seems kind of strange, coming from a company that is known world wide for great customer service. The great prospect of Travel Plans is that Disney will be able to now link multiple reservations into one Travel Plan, presumably allowing reservations to cover more than one resort:

The system will allow for Guest Services to create “travel plans” for guests, consolidating all segments of their Disney vacation into a single itinerary. Even guests who book multiple rooms or resorts for a trip will receive a single confirmation number.

It also appears that Lilo and Wishes will speak to each other, and you will be able to link a DVC reservation and Magic Your Way package together on one travel plan.

This is a much needed change to the Disney booking system, which will allow for much flexible booking of WDW and DL vacations. You will no longer be required to jump through major hoops to stay at more than one WDW resort during your stay. Currently, I do not have any information on a launch date. We may also see many more options made available to guests with this new booking system. I will post additional information as it becomes available.

This was originally meant to be a quick post on our facebook page, but there is too much information fit, so I decided to expand it a bit and post it here.

We have been getting a ton of questions about the free dining discount at Walt Disney World for 2010. To be blunt, no one knows at this point. In fact, I’m not even sure if Disney knows right now. If I had to venture a guess, I would say there is a 90% chance we will see free dining for 2010. I’m not sure what form it will take, but would gess it will be similar to the late 2009 free dining discount (free quick service at values, free Disney dining at moderate and deluxe resorts). Things are lining up pretty well for a 2010 free dining discount, bookings are still a little soft for the year, discounts have been available for every day so far in 2010 (including normally discount-challenged months in the summer), and we have seen the free dining discount every year since Disney released the dining plan. In short, it would be a surprise not to see free dining released again for 2010, but at this point there are no guarantees.

We usually do not know exactly what the discounts will be until they are released, or sometimes a day or two ahead of time if we are lucky. If we see free dining again in 2010, we probably won’t know what form it will take or the dates that will be covered until the actual discount is released.

So, when will we know?

The booking window for current WDW discounts expires on March 27, 2010, and those discounts are good for travel through August 14, 2010. We anticipate the next round of discounts to be released following the closure of that booking window.

Please note the following dates for discounts that were released in 2009:

• March 30, 2009 – Free Dining released for travel from August 16 – October 3, 2009
• July 27, 2009 – Free Dining (quick service at values, free Disney Dining at moderate and deluxe resorts) extended for travel from October 4 – December 17, 2009
• August 16, 2009 – Bounceback offer for WDW guests for Free Dining for 2010 travel dates  (travel from August 15 – September 30, 2010)

I would expect similar timing for the release of any 2010 discounts as well as the initial travel dates. Initial travel dates should be August 15 – September 30, 2010. If it’s released, expect to see free dining made available for August/September first, and then possibly be extended to cover more dates later in the summer and fall.

Update – April 27, 2010 – We are nearly a month past the expected release of Fall discounts for WDW, as Disney World continues to heavily discount summer travel. Rumor has been spreading we may see discounts for August 15 – October 2, 2010 released as early as Thursday, April 29 for Disney VISA cardholders, and on Monday, May 3 for the general public. The prevailing feeling is that we will see free quick service dining for value and moderate resorts, and free Disney Dining for deluxe and villa resorts. I hope to have further information soon.

Update April 29, 2010 – Disney is currently offering the Disney Dining plan free for Disney VISA cardholders. Soon to be released for the general public. Travel dates of August 15 – October 2, 2010.

Update May 3, 2010 – Disney is currently offering the Disney Dining plan free for everyone. Travel dates of August 15 – October 2, 2010.

To keep up to date on the free dining progress of 2010, follow us on twitter or facebook, or subscribe to our email updates here on MouseMisers.

Travel Dates: November 1 – December 24, 2009 and January 3 – March 27, 2010

Walt Disney World has released a new promotion that covers travel dates in 2009 and 2010. The buy 4 get 3 free promotion that was popular during much of 2009 has made a return, with a slight variation:

• Buy 4 get 3 free: Purchase a 7 night, 7 day vacation at a Disney moderate, deluxe or deluxe villa resort, and receive 3 nights and 3 days free. A savings of up to 45%.
• Buy 5 get 2 free: Purchase a 7 night, 7 day vacation at a Disney value resort, and receive 2 nights and 2 days free. A savings of up to 30%.

Stays can be longer than 7 nights, though you will only receive the number of night indicated above free (2 or 3, depending on resort category). Stays can be shorter than 7 nights as well, though your savings will be reduced drastically as you are leaving free nights on the table.

With the black-out dates around Christmas, your free nights cannot be between December 24 and January 3. So, a 7 night stay starting on December 21 will not qualify for any free nights, as you three free nights would be December 25 – 27. A 7 night stay checking in December 19 would qualify, as you 3 free nights which would be December 23 – 25. Checking in during this time frame, you may want to consider the 2009 Fall MYW package discounts, which will give you a discount on all nights through December 24, and will most likely be a better deal for you.

You may add any of the Disney Dining plans to this package (Quick Service, Disney Dining or the Deluxe Dining), though the dining plan is full price, not discounted as part of the package. This discount cannot be used with the Premium of Platinum plans.

To book this special deal, please contact our sponsor Mouseketrips. The buy 4 get 3 free promotion must be booked by December 20, 2009.

Starting October 27, 2009, Walt Disney World will move the booking window for Advanced Dining Reservations to 180 days, from the current 90 days. Walt Disney World resort guests will be able to book all dining reservations 180 days in advance of the day they check in, up to 10 days at a time. Non-Disney World Resort guest can make dining reservations 180 days in advance of their dining date. In addition to all restaurant reservations, all Disney resort venues will be 180 days as well, such as Fireworks Cruises, Tee Times and Fishing Trips. If you can make a reservation for it, you will be able to do so 180 days in advance.

Currently, some popular restaurants such as Le Cellier and Cinderella’s Royal Table are nearly impossible to find, even calling first thing 90 days in advance. This move should allow those who plan well in advance plenty of opportunity to book the reservations they want.

Starting on October 27, 2009, guests will be able to book dining reservations up until April 25, 2010.

Rumor is that at the time of the change, all dining reservations will require a credit card guarantee. No official announcement has been made, I will update this post if/when that change is announced.

Travel Dates: May 26 – June 7, 2008

Walt Disney World has released specially priced room only discounts for most of the Villas resorts at Walt Disney World, only the Animal Kingdom Villas are excluded. Only the night during the Travel Dates listed above are discounted, though you can extend your trip after the travel dates, those dates outside of the travel period would not be discounted.

Some Sample Rates:

• Saratoga Springs, studio: $204 per night
• Saratoga Springs, one bedroom villa: $319 per night
• Saratoga Springs, 2 bedroom villa: $519 per night
• Boardwalk Villas, studio: $259 per night
• Boardwalk Villas, 1 bedroom villa: $384 per night
• Boardwalk Villas, 2 bedroom villa: $684 per night

To book your Walt Disney World vacation with the special Villa discount, please contact our wonderful sponsor Mouseketrips, who specializes in making your Disney vacation special. Make sure you ask for code CXY!

We have been hearing rumors, that we since have substantiated, that Disney World will be releasing Magic Your Way package discounts to the general public on April 10, 2008. So, I know what you are asking yourself, will this be the free dining discount everyone is hoping for, or something completely different?

Since the Disney Dining Plan was introduced in 2005, Disney World has offered it for free as a “discount” during some parts of August and September each of the past three years. Here are the travel dates for the past free dining offer:

• August 21 – October 4, 2005
• August 13 – September 30, 2006
• August 26 – September 22, 2007

Based on discounts released late last year for travel during 2008, which offered the dining plan for free, we believe Disney will release the free dining discount again in 2008. Here are the travel dates for those discounts:

• UK Resident Free dining: August 10 – September 27, 2008
• Bounceback offer for WDW guests: August 30 – September 27, 2008

While it is possible that Disney may release another discount, and not the free dining, we fully expect to see the free dining released on April 10 to the general public. Expect the following time line:

• April 7, 2008 – Free dining to be released to Disney VISA cardholders
• April 10, 2008 – Free dining to be released to the general public
• August 30 – September 27, 2008 – Travel dates for free dining

So, with the free Disney dining coming up, here is what we suggest you do:

1. Book your package now for the resort and dates you want during the expected availability dates. We suggest you use an experienced Disney only travel agent like Mouseketrips. Please note that in order to get the free dining (assuming it is released), you must book a Magic Your Way package that includes the Disney resort and park passes. The park passes can be as short as 1 day passes, but they must be included.
2. Pay the$200 deposit on the reservation. If the availability dates change, or the discount ends up not being what you expected, you can cancel up until 45 days before your start date and get your deposit money back.
3. On April 10, let your travel agent rebook the reservation for you, getting you the free dining added to your reservation. If you are working with an experienced Disney travel agent, they will take care of that for you, and notify you of the changes. It will probably all happen before you wake up.
4. Start making your dining reservations, as you will be within the 180 day window. You can do this before April 10, but if you cancel your reservation, you will have to call back and cancel any reservations.

[Update 4/7/08] – Disney World has released the free dining program as we expected, currently to Disney VISA cardholders, and on April 10 to the general public. For more information, please see the Disney VISA free dining deal.