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2012 Fall Disney Free Dining for Disney VISA Cardholders

Travel Dates: September 30 – December 13, 2012.

UPDATE July 12, 2012: Walt Disney World has released this discount to all guests, a Disney VISA is no longer required. For more information, see the 2012 Fall Disney Free Dining post.

Walt Disney World has announced a new round of the Disney Free Dining discount, this time for Disney VISA cardholders only for the travel dates listed above. Not all nights are included however, you must check in on one of the following available dates:

  • September 30 – October 4, 2012
  • October 19 – November 1, 2012
  • November 9 – 15, 2012
  • November 23 – 29, 2012
  • December 10 – 13, 2012

Please note that in order to qualify for the free dining offer, your must check in during one of the available dates above. Your stay can extend outside of the available dates, you will still receive the free dining for your entire stay. Availability is extremely limited, and not all resorts may be available. You cannot check in before an available date and receive the discount, it is all or nothing, and it all depends on the day you check in.

Guests staying at a Disney World Value resort will receive the Quick Service Dining Plan for free. Guests will be able to upgrade to either the Disney Dining plan or the Deluxe Disney Dining plan by paying the price difference. The Walt Disney World value resorts include All-Star Sports, All-Star Music, All-Star Movies, Pop Century and Art of Animation.

Guests staying at a Disney World Moderate, Deluxe or Deluxe Villa resort will receive the Disney Dining Plan included for free. Disney World guests at moderate, deluxe and villa resorts will also be able to book the “Free Dining”, and upgrade to the Disney Deluxe Dining for the normal price difference.

Availability is extremely limited, and must be booked by September 29, 2012. It appears that all suites, campsites and 3 bedroom villas have been excluded from this offer, as well as the standard Little Mermaid rooms the new Art of Animation Resort. All other Disney resorts, including the family suites at All-Star Music and Art of Animations, as well as the other value resorts are included in the offer. Three night minimum stay required, and a maximum stay of 14 nights is allowed per reservation. You must also purchase a minimum 2 day basic park pass per person per reservation to qualify.

Please note this offer is currently only available to Disney VISA cardholders. A $200 deposit per room must be paid with your Disney VISA at the time of booking. We believe this offer should be made available for all guests starting on July 12, 2012.

To book this special Disney World “Free Dining” vacation package, please contact our great sponsor Mouseketrips.

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60 responses to “2012 Fall Disney Free Dining for Disney VISA Cardholders”

  1. Brande Avatar
    Brande

    I am so tired of the campgrounds being left out of every deal Disney offers!

    Reply
    1. Keith Avatar
      Keith

      Brande – No possible way they can include them in free dining. The problem with campsites is that they have basically unlimited capacity, so you can show up in a motor home with 10+ people. While the cost is similar to the value resorts, those resorts have a limit if 4 per room, so they can make it work. Plus, the campsites tend to sell out year round. Many people I know actually book a value room to get free dining, plus a campsite, they still come out ahead.

      Reply
  2. Brenda Avatar
    Brenda

    I wonder if that means they will include everyone in this promotion…lucky for all to go in Dec…we are Sept..hot, hot, hot…lol

    Reply
    1. Keith Avatar
      Keith

      Brenda – Yes, this offer will be released to everyone, no Disney VISA required, on Thursday.

      Reply
  3. Jen Avatar
    Jen

    Will this offer be available for canadians?

    Reply
  4. Keith Avatar
    Keith

    Jen – On Thursday, this offer should be made available to everyone.

    Reply
  5. Allie Avatar
    Allie

    I am a Disney Visa holder. I have already booked for October 14th through Oct 25th at Pop Century. Can I get in on this offer and how do I do that? We booked through Disney.

    Reply
  6. Keith Avatar
    Keith

    Allie – No, you must check in on an available date, the closest to your dates is October 19. You could split your reservation in two, but that would require buying 2 tickets for everyone, and probably won’t save you any money.

    If you book directly with Disney, you have to call them to ask them to apply any discounts that are released.

    Reply
  7. Tony Avatar
    Tony

    So at AOA….am I reading Little Mermaid rooms aren’t included but Cars suites are available for free dining??

    Reply
    1. Keith Avatar
      Keith

      Tony – Correct, the family suites are included, the standard rooms are not. The Little Mermaid rooms are basically sold out for all Fall dates so Disney did not include them in the discount.

      Reply
  8. Tony Avatar
    Tony

    OK…thanks! Hopefully something will be still available at AOA on Thursday.

    Reply
  9. Tom Avatar
    Tom

    Do you know if the dates will be the same when the offer is available to everyone? Was thinking of going Oct 17th but might have to move it.

    Reply
    1. Keith Avatar
      Keith

      Tom – Yes, should be identical. These are the same dates that were offered with the PIN code the last few weeks, so I don’t see any changes the next few days.

      Reply
  10. Matt Avatar
    Matt

    We booked last week for Oct 17th at Pop century, leaving on Oct 25th. We were going to get 8 day park hoppers.. Any chance the math works out to book 2 nights (17th + 18th) and get a single day ticket for the 18th, then book from the 19th to the 25th with the 6 remaining ticket days and the free dining? Also, does free dining apply to all (in this case 2 of us) guests sharing a room? If so, the math may work out..

    Reply
  11. Keith Avatar
    Keith

    Matt – So no chance of changing dates? It should be cheaper to do two reservations. You should be able to book one package for 10/19 – 25, with tickets to cover all your days, you can pick up tickets early at guest services. You will need to check out and back in 10/19, but you shouldn’t have to change rooms.

    Reply
    1. Matt Avatar
      Matt

      That’d be brilliant if we could buy all of our tickets for 8 days together and still get the ticket savings, but check out and check back in on the 19th. In theory, we should be able to just book 2 nights (for 17th + 18th) entirely separetly, then book a package for the 19th through the 25th with our full 8 days of tickets. In that case, we’d really only lose out on 2 days of ‘free dining’
      Thanks a lot! You just made my day 🙂

      Reply
  12. Keith Avatar
    Keith

    Matt – Correct. Don’t bother asking Disney about getting the tickets early. It works, they just won’t admit it.

    Reply
    1. Matt Avatar
      Matt

      Hopefully my last question 🙂 Does free dining apply to all guests staying in a room, or is it one free dining plan per room? Or is it handled somehow based on tickets bought for the room?
      Thanks again!

      Reply
  13. Keith Avatar
    Keith

    Matt – Everyone in your room gets free dining, but all guests in the room must be listed on the reservation. If you are trying to “hide” someone, they would not get anything.

    Reply
  14. Erica Avatar
    Erica

    We have the Little Mermaid standard room booked at AOA beginning 9/30. I read that these rooms are excluded from the “free dining” offer. Bummer! Do you think they will add these rooms to be included in the free dining offer later?

    Reply
    1. Keith Avatar
      Keith

      Erica – No, really doubtful they would be added. They are nearly impossible to find at this point, at full rate, I doubt Disney will discount them at all. I would look at moving to a family suite or another value resort. The family suite might be a wash once you figure in free dining, another value resort will certainly be cheaper.

      Reply
  15. heather Avatar
    heather

    We are going to October 15-21.We bought four days of park hoppers for the dates of 16,17,19,20 for a family of four. The 18 we are doing the not so scary halloween party. Would it be worth splitting our reservations just to save on two days of dining???

    Reply
  16. Keith Avatar
    Keith

    Heather – Really doubtful. You would have to buy additional tickets, the free dining requires the purchase of 2 day base tickets for everyone. That alone is going to be quite a bit more than the free dining for 2 nights. I would say at this point, if you can’t move your dates, hope for an alternate October deal to be released.

    Reply
  17. Courtney Avatar
    Courtney

    I have reservations starting on October 6, just missing free dining by two days. It would probably be cheaper to add two days to my stay to get free dining. I was thinking of changing my reservations to begin october 4th to get in on the offer. It would be the 5th before I could officially check in. Would that work?

    Reply
  18. Denise Avatar
    Denise

    Already booked POR last January with dining plan I am thinking with no discount. I didn’t really get a breakdown of my package. Will my room rate probably exceed value of free dining plan now? Is it worth it to switch to value and pay difference for regular dining plan?

    Reply
  19. Carol Smith Avatar
    Carol Smith

    I am going to Walt Disney world from, Nov. 28th thru Dec 6th, but I don’t have a Disney Visa Card, can I still get the free dining plan?

    Reply
  20. Mike Avatar
    Mike

    Keith, last year fall free dining and room only discounts were announced 8/3/11. Now that fall free dining has been announced ealier this year, do you expect fall AP and general public room only discounts to follwo shortly or not till August?

    Reply
  21. Suz Avatar
    Suz

    When is the wine and food festival this year in Oct ?????

    Reply
  22. Keith Avatar
    Keith

    Courtney – No, if you don’t show up on 10/4, Disney will cancel your reservation, so probably not an option for you.

    Denise – I am not sure I understand. If you booked a package with the room, tickets and dining, the free dining discount should just remove the cost of the dining from your package. Without knowing who is in your party, ages of kids, your current package, etc. I have no idea what is better for you. Consider contacting a travel agent and have them take over the reservation, they will make sure it is right and will be able to get you the best deal.

    Carol – This discount should be released to everyone on Thursday. Everyone = Everyone

    Mike – I have no idea. We still have yet to see any AP or FL resident deals for September, which is what I would expect next, though those could cover all Fall dates, guess we will have to wait and see.

    Suz – The Epcot Food and Wine Festival runs from September 28 – November 12, every day.

    Reply
  23. Bobbi Avatar
    Bobbi

    Will the general public offer have the same blackout dates? We have already made our reservation and purchased airplane tickets for the week of Nov. 3-10. I am really hoping that Disney is not excluding this week also. Thanks!

    Reply
    1. Keith Avatar
      Keith

      Bobbi – These are the exact same dates that were included with the PIN code that has been sent out over the last few weeks. I just don’t see anything changing, that just doesn’t happen.

      Reply
  24. Bobbi Avatar
    Bobbi

    Do you have any idea what the rationale is behind the excluded dates?

    Reply
    1. Keith Avatar
      Keith

      Bobbi – Disney releases discounts for dates that need some help in booking, which is why dates like Christmas week and Spring Break rarely see discounts, they don’t need the help. When you see black out dates like this, Disney feels those nights are pretty full, so no additional help is needed, or a big discount like free dining isn’t needed. We may see a lesser deal, like a room percentage discount for all Fall dates, we will just have to wait and see.

      Reply
  25. Heather Avatar
    Heather

    Since they are not offering this special for the week that I am going October15th. Does this mean there is a higher crowd this week? Is there some kind of special event going on?

    Reply
  26. Keith Avatar
    Keith

    Heather – No special events that I am aware, just simply that Disney feels the hotels are full enough without offering free dining. I don’t have any other explanation why some days are included and other are not.

    Reply
  27. Matt Avatar
    Matt

    Keith – I called disney today to ask about booking 2 separate nights to get me to the 19th, then booking the package starting the 19th to include the tickets we needed for the 17th and 18th. Sure enough, as you said, they insisted that your tickets are linked to the package room reservation and won’t be active until the package date starts. How do we get around this?
    And thanks again, you have been a huge help.

    Reply
  28. Keith Avatar
    Keith

    Matt – This has been an unofficial deal for a few months now, no one at reservations will confirm it, though I have known plenty of people who have done it.

    I have been hearing rumors that last few days that Disney is doing away with this, due to fraud, so I am hesitant to suggest that you do it now. Not sure what to say. Guess you can try it, but know going in that you may have to buy an extra day’s ticket at the gate.

    Reply
  29. Kari Avatar
    Kari

    How fast will these offers go? Do the value resorts usually book up soon after the offer is released? With this, going to try to change my work schedule to leave a few days early to hit an included date, but won’t know if I can for a few weeks.

    Reply
  30. Keith Avatar
    Keith

    Kari – The value resorts go pretty quickly. You can always book a new reservation and pay the deposit, $200, and cancel in a few weeks if it doesn’t work out.

    Reply
  31. Jessica Avatar
    Jessica

    Aarrrrrgh…..Every Fall we go to Disney and I agonize about whether to grab the free dining deal in case the room-only discount never shows (the latter’s a better deal for us overall, I believe.) Once and for all, is it possible to just book the free dining package and then cancel and re-book a totally different reservation if a better room-only deal comes out? I’m assuming we would at least know 45 days before our check-in date- 11/26 (I realize we would risk not getting the exact room we want.) I’m just not sure I understand what all the penalties would be if we cancelled a package within the acceptable time frame. Thanks!

    Reply
  32. Keith Avatar
    Keith

    Jessica – Yes, any money paid is fully refundable up until 45 days before travel, so before that point, no problems. Those room only discounts can be booked as packages, you just add tickets to the discounted room price, and dining if you want. If the room only deal comes out, and it is a better deal for you, you can just call and switch discounts, takes all of 2 minutes.

    Reply
  33. Megan Avatar
    Megan

    arggg we booked our air already for dec 5 to the 11th why does disney have to make life difficult! trying to decide if its worth it to spend $175+ to change air and go a week later?! do you think they will later adjust dates on this or was my week also a pin code week?

    Reply
    1. Keith Avatar
      Keith

      Megan – No, no additional dates will be added. The dates of the free dining are identical to the PIN code dates, the week you are going is just expected to be more crowded than others, so no discounts.

      Reply
  34. suz Avatar
    suz

    keith—do you think Disney will offer Free Dining during the Epcot Food and Wine Festival –For Everyone?????

    Reply
  35. Keith Avatar
    Keith

    Suz – As stated in the post above – “We believe this offer should be made available for all guests starting on July 12, 2012.” So yes, tomorrow.

    Reply
  36. Susan Avatar
    Susan

    If we booked our dining plan through our Disney VISA but the room through Disney Vacation Club and tickets from an outside vendor are we eligible for the free dining?

    Reply
  37. Keith Avatar
    Keith

    Susan – Nope. In order to qualify for free dining you must purchase a package that includes your Disney hotel, park passes and the dining plan. The room and tickets are at full rate, you can’t use DVC points to book a room and qualify.

    Reply
  38. Jessica Avatar
    Jessica

    Thanks, Keith. They had our exact room type and dates available with free dining, so I went ahead and booked. Now at least I know we have some sort of discount in case the room-only deal doesn’t materialize for us… I’ll keep watching for one, but in the meantime I’m going to calculate exactly what our meals will cost us for our week, so I can figure out if room-only discounts actually DO save us more money… On the one hand, we are vegetarians, so we almost always order the cheapest thing on the menu. On the other hand, we tend to do lots of buffets for the variety. On the other, other hand, we stay in deluxe resorts so 30% off makes a big difference. Time for some Disney math!

    Reply
    1. Keith Avatar
      Keith

      Jessica – Yep, always better to grab what is available rather than hope that something better comes along. I am pretty sure we will see room only deals, so if your math is done now, should be pretty easy for you to figure out if a new deal is better for you or not.

      Reply
  39. Rob Avatar
    Rob

    Kieth, I was just on the phone making reservations in advance of the free dining going public tomorrow. I enquired about the free dining plan. The cast member said my room type would be most likely excluded. I’m staying at BLT in a non suite with a theme park view. You can usually take what a CM tells you to the bank, in my experience anyway. Any thoughts as to why?

    Reply
  40. Keith Avatar
    Keith

    Rob – Bay Lake is one of those that is rarely available, we rarely see them discounted. There just aren’t many of them available to the public in the first place, so if you only have 5 rooms to rent out each night, and they are always booked, no reason to discount them.

    Normally, no, they really don’t know much, however, they have been dealing with the free dining for a few days now, so they probably have a good handle on what is and isn’t available.

    If you are just in a studio, I would strongly suggest you consider moving resort, either to the Contemporary or the Polynesian. The studios are tiny, and aren’t really the best option when compared to those other resorts.

    Reply
  41. tammy Avatar
    tammy

    When will free dining be announced for Jan 2013? Do you think that there will be free dining in late Jan 2013? If so any advantage in booking the package now or should I just wait until it is announced? Thanks.

    Reply
  42. Amy Avatar
    Amy

    I was told that they put aside a certain number of room levels for visa card holders. Do they also put aside a certain number for regular reservations or do they start where the visa card holders left off? For instance we are doing a standard room but was told the visa standard rooms were gone and we had to move to a garden room.

    Reply
  43. Keith Avatar
    Keith

    Tammy – If we see it (that is a really big IF), probably not until this deal expires at the end of September. Book now, there will be some discount for January released, you can always apply it later on.

    Amy – Nope, Disney VISA cardholders get first shot at availability, no additional rooms should be added. Usually the price difference between standard and garden view is just a few dollars per night, totally worth it.

    Reply
  44. Steph Avatar
    Steph

    Will the free dining be available at midnight 7/12, or what time do you think we can go online and book??

    Reply
    1. Keith Avatar
      Keith

      Steph – The call center opens at 7AM EST, the packages should be online sometime after that.

      Reply
  45. Jen Avatar
    Jen

    Its Thursday and I haven’t found the free dining anywhere for non Disney visa members. Did the date change?

    Reply
    1. Keith Avatar
      Keith

      Jen – Too early, it won’t be released until Disney reservations opens in a few minutes.

      Reply
  46. Karter Avatar
    Karter

    We booked through Priceline for Oct. 21-27 – is there any chance for the free dining option? We are staying at the all star movie resort.

    Reply
    1. Keith Avatar
      Keith

      Karter – Doubt it, you would need to contact Priceline though. My understanding is that once booked, they will not rebook anything for you. Hurry though, tomorrow is the last day.

      PS. Use a Disney specialist next time, it will be cheaper for you, and easier.

      Reply

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