One thing to note is that you will only have the 60 day FP option for the length of the tickets. (to my understanding)
THat is a rumor that has been said but we will not know for sure whether 2 or 4 day park hopper tickets will be required until the deal drops.
I've been "in the chat room" and on the DISboards for two previous dining offers, and it dropped on the CDN website at the same time as our American friends, so I'm not concerned. In fact, we have often had a better offer than our friends to the south, with extended dates. Being on the west coast, it means trying to stay awake until 2 am rather than trying to wake up at 5!
Just a guess, but Im guessing because of travel expenses and their time of stay, since some tend to stay two weeks or more, other countries get it early so they can book quick because the go for longer periods and it gives them time to prepare.
Thank you so much for this. Over my years of researching FD here, this seemed to be the common consensus until recently.(Or at least I’d taken it that way...I’d just never seen the specifics to go along with it.) Because of this line of thinking, we’ve always waited to book until “drop day” and have done so successfully each time—even booking 2 rooms each year & sometimes three. Posts last year & this year had gotten me second-guessing myself & wondering if a different tactic would be best for my family in future attempts for this offer. Seeing your post helps me see that we’d still rather take the route we’ve always gone & hope that increases the chances of more rooms being allocated to the offer. I totally understand that some people need to go ahead & book for various reasons, but because our dates are more open during the year, each year we try for FD in the future we’ll still continue to just start from scratch on drop day & hope for the best! No matter which way you choose, I hope you all get exactly what you’re hoping for!This is exactly how it works. I go to church with a gentleman that used to work for Disney in the department that would analyse and set up all the promotions. This is how I found out about the FD the first time they offered it in 2005! Sooo, when I saw this post, I decided to give him a call to see how it worked. We just hung up and he said the way it was done when he worked there (before he retired) in 2012: When they start finalizing the promo's, they DO an analysis of available rooms at that time for the date range and every resort they are considering FD for. They have the "original" amount of rooms they need to fill for each day/week and have the preliminary # and they know which resorts will/will not be included at that time. They do analysis periodically all the way up to the DAY before FD is released and that is when the FINAL amount of rooms are set to be available with FINAL numbers. He said, within that time frame, it is crazy how many changes they make; room availability and even adding or removing resorts entirely up until the very last day. He said the room availability, once it is time for the FD drop, is set; then the analysis is done all over again on a bi-monthly basis after FD rolls out, until the last day that its offered. With rooms being canceled, moved, etc there are times they open a few more rooms on certain dates and resorts and other times there is availability that opens just because of the cancels and moves. Bummer he doesn't work there anymore or I would have a lot more information for all of us!
But you are correct believing pre-booking causes less rooms to get the promo! It helped me to decide, not to book until FD drops even though we are going with or without FD. We may not get the resort we want (2 rooms at POP) but I will check and re-check to see if anything opens up and ultimately we will be at Disney in December!
Good luck to everyone!Pixie dust that we all get what we want (or at least close)!
Thank you so much for this. Over my years of researching FD here, this seemed to be the common consensus until recently.(Or at least I’d taken it that way...I’d just never seen the specifics to go along with it.) Because of this line of thinking, we’ve always waited to book until “drop day” and have done so successfully each time—even booking 2 rooms each year & sometimes three. Posts last year & this year had gotten me second-guessing myself & wondering if a different tactic would be best for my family in future attempts for this offer. Seeing your post helps me see that we’d still rather take the route we’ve always gone & hope that increases the chances of more rooms being allocated to the offer. I totally understand that some people need to go ahead & book for various reasons, but because our dates are more open during the year, each year we try for FD in the future we’ll still continue to just start from scratch on drop day & hope for the best! No matter which way you choose, I hope you all get exactly what you’re hoping for!
The only reason that I remembered seeing that was because I always use the control F and search for visa just to make sure I’m not overlooking the free dining for Disney visa holders. It’s been there for a week or so. I started checking when the rumors were flying about FD maybe dropping last Monday
Buy the minimum amount of tickets you can for FD and save your tickets for a different trip or put it towards renewing your AP.
