The Disney World Fall 2013 Deals are Out
By Dave Shute
FREE DINING AND ROOM RATE DEALS AT DISNEY WORLD
As predicted, Walt Disney World has released fall 2013 deals for free dining and for room-only discount rates.
Disney’s page on the free dining deal at Disney World is here, and its page on the room-only discount is here.
The specifics are pretty much as predicted, but I don’t have all the details yet. I’ll add to and correct this page as they emerge.
FREE DISNEY WORLD DINING DEAL SPECIFICS
Free Dining is available only for limited dates:
- September 29 to October 2, 2013
- October 18 to November 2, 2013
- November 11 to November 23, 2013
- December 12 to December 22, 2013
…and excluded from the deal are the following resorts:
- Campsites
- 3-Bedroom Villas
- Disney’s Art of Animation Resort
- Disney’s All-Star Movies Resort
- Disney’s Port Orleans Resort – French Quarter
- The Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa
Value resort guests are eligible for the “quick-service” dining plan for free, and moderate and deluxe resorts guests for the regular dining plan for free.
While this deal needs to be booked by September 15, availability is limited. So act now!
ROOM ONLY DISCOUNTS AT DISNEY WORLD DEAL SPECIFICS
There’s two room only deals, one covering stays from September 29 through November 9, and the second covering stays from November 10 through 22 (November 25th at the deluxes and DVC properties) , and then November 30 through December 23. The first needs to be booked by September 15, and the second by November 3.
Moreover, beyond the slightly different deluxe dates noted above, Family Suites at Art of Animation are included only September 29 to October 5, 2013, October 20 to November 2, 2013, November 10 to November 22, 2013 and December 15 to December 23, 2013.
Exclusion details are still coming out, but Campsites, Standard Little Mermaid Rooms at Art of Animation, and DVC at the Grand Floridian are excluded.
Typically, eligible deluxe and DVC rooms will see 30% discounts, moderates 20% discounts and values 15% discounts.
57 comments
we are planning a rtip next spring, and we are waiting to see if there will be free dining sometime in 2014. I heard that they may discontinue. Is this true? and if not, do you know when they will be announced? and what months do they usually have them? Just trying to get organized early
Michelle, there’s no “usually” to this. Disney is changing its approach, both in general and in response to the slowly improving economy. SO I don’t have a prediction to offer you right now. Do see this, tho: https://yourfirstvisit.net/2013/07/17/disney-world-room-rate-deal-for-2014/
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Is the Contemporary MK view part of the room only discount?
Jessica, I have no evidence that it isn’t…all I can suggest is trying…
Hi Dave!
Do you know if there’s any extra discounts for overseas residents? I remember that when the rumor of this discount was published it was thought that it would come out for overseas residents only at first.
Manuela, search “Disney special offers” and click on the official Disney page. The room-only artwork supplied by Disney that I saw earlier than today for South America, for example, had higher discounts. I don’t know if that’s still true…
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So, for the free dining, does your trip only need to begin within that time frame? For example, if I checked in on October 2nd, would that trip be eligible for the free dining?
Sarah, that’s right. The time frames are arrival dates. You can then get free dining for a trip of up to 14 days after, even if it’s the last day of a window!
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Hi Dave,
Called Disney this morning….waited for a hour on the phone….no good deals for AoA, which i booked for Oct.27-Nov.2. I changed to All-star Music and saved just over 1100. Its our first time @ WDW with 3A and 3Kids. Should I have stayed with AoA??? What do you think??
Philip, I have a detailed comparison of Music and AofA family suites beginning here: https://yourfirstvisit.net/2012/09/05/review-the-family-suites-disneys-all-star-music-resort/
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Thanks for the info – I’ve been waiting for this. Unfortunately, a few months back we booked through AAA and they have been USELESS – so much for a “Disney Specialist” – what a joke. The two AAA benefits they offer (special fireworks viewing and storytelling) were both sold out, so they have done nothing for us and now it looks as if they might be the reason we’ll miss this offer too. I’ve been calling WDW since 7 am to inquire about this discount, but cannot get through. I tried the live chat & had a 20 minute wait and then they were unable to help (couldn’t even give me the non-discounted room rates – seriously!?!?!). I know WDW coulodn’t change my reservations since i made them with AAA, but i’m trying to figure out what discounts would be best for us so when my AAA Agent saunters in at 10:00 am this morning I can tell her what to do, since she is apparently clueless. I am soooo frustrated. Dealing with with trip has been nothing but a headache and Disney has not been helpful at all. Also learned that we are paying top dollar to stay a the Polynesian (a special treat for our first family vacation) and now there won’t be a fridge in our room and they offer no apology! If we didn’t have non-refundable airfare, I think I might cancel the whole trip. signed, thoroughly disappointed.
Amey, I’m so sorry about the troubles with AAA. Maybe book an entirely new reservation and cancel AAA–or would that mess up your flights? The fridge issue is not a Poly issue, it’s resort-wide. There are alternatives (pack a folding fabric cooler, use ice form down the hall, use the cooler to bring souvenirs home) but it is annoying…
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Just me or it’s only a few hotels, right? We are booked at Port Orleans Riverside in a Royal Room as of right now. We liked the theme of it for our 5 and 2 year old…our 5 year old wanted fireworks over the bed. The only one I’d consider switching to if it offered would be the Polynesian, which I notice is 30% off. Do you think I’d end up saving anything or probably not? So sad there’s no free dining. I feel though if we switched our dates for it, we probably won’t get any of the reservations that we want. Decisions, decisions.
Angela, it varies by your exact dates and what view you’ve selected, but most of the time the least expensive Poly rooms are on the order of twice the cost of of the Royal Rooms, so you’d need a 50% discount on the Poly to save anything–which is not gonna happen.
The Wilderness Lodge might be an alternative for you as rack rates are $150/night less than the poly…
Just got off the phone with Disney. Started calling at 5:58 am this morning. After finally getting through to CM, was told both the discounted rooms and the room allotment for free dining are gone at Boardwalk, Yacht and Beach Clubs resorts. My CM, who was superb, handed me off to Guest Relations. The GR rep suggested I try calling every day to see if a room connected to one of the discounts becomes available. We have had reservations for our October 22-30 trip at Boardwalk since June 2012.
Bummer, Linda…the Epcot resorts are always hard to book during Food and Wine, so I’d expect they assigned very few rooms to the deal.
Wondering….I just tried adding Polynesian to my cart and it’s the same price it was months ago. Do they add the discount or do you have to call?
Angela, I’ve heard quite a bit that the system is defaulting to standard rates. Start with the room only deal page, hit the “check availability” button, and keep trying. The page is here: https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/special-offers/fall-room-discount/
Thanks! I will check that out.
58 minutes on hold, but finally got through to a WDW agent – who was very helpful. Unfortunately, because we booked through AAA (gag) he could NOT double-book me until I could cancel with them. Anyway, he was able to run all the numbers for me for our stay and the free dining actually works out better for us than the room discount. Please NOTE that the discount states for “6 night” minimum, but he was able to get that rate for us on our 5 night stay – so we won’t need to add a night and then changes our flights and incur flight fees for the change. So, i called my AAA agent – who is still on hold for disney and told her the sccop (oh, the irony). still waiting to hear from her & PRAY that she will book what this guy had available for me! If it turns out she is too late, I think I will be calling AAA management to complain – it is mystifying to my that you could be a disney “specialist” and not know what is going on and when to ready for days like these – sorry, but coming in at 10:00 am is unacceptable when you know phone lines open at 7 am.! Note to self: book next disney trip through disney directly!
Good luck, Amey! BTW, the minimum is three nights…
Hey Dave, I was just wondering why you think they aren’t offering the free dining the week after Thanksgiving (12/2-12/7). Being that that week is known for lower crowds, I find it interesting as to why they didn’t offer the FD. What’s your opinion?
Tbuff, those dates were on the pin code offer. My guess is that enuf pin code people scarfed them up that there were not enuf rooms left to put in on this offer.
Hi Dave,
Just wanted to say first that your website is fantastic and so helpful in planning my family’s first WDW trip!
We are booked at AoA because we are 7 in the family. Do you think that they will eventually include free dining for AoA later on? I’m hoping/thinking that maybe they are trying to fill up the vacancies in the other resorts first and then will release free dining to AoA.
Hi Debra, and thanks!!
I’m sorry, but no, I don’t think they’ll add resorts back in…
Tried ALL day (starting at 7am) and finally got thru @2pm (40 minutes on hold) only to find out that the free dining we have is a better deal than the 30% off our roommate…. At least now I know 🙂
That was exhausting….
Oh Carly! At least you know now!
I have been anxiously waiting for these deals to come out. We are booked for 10/5-10/12 at POFQ, so we couldn’t add FD, but should have been able to get the 20% deal. I tried forever to get through and finally got a CM. I was on the line for over an hour only to be told nothing was available. Do these deals usually sell out that fast?? This is my first time to book Disney, every other trip was not planned by me and they were 10+ years ago, so I am clueless. Seems kinda crazy to me.
Colleen, there’s been pin codes for these dates out for a while, the Military Salute dropped last week, and that don;t offer that money rooms on these deals. So yes, it’s not uncommon for the rooms to sell out fast…
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Hey Dave! Having the same problems on this end as everyone else! On hold for over half an hour only to be told that all the FD for POR-RS were gone. Do you know off hand if they add more throughout the course of the special or if I should just keep calling back on the off chance that someone has cancelled? Any advice would be greatly appreciated! You and your site have been such a life saver in the chaotic world of planning a Disney vacation!!!
Krystal, they don’t add more–that I know of–but cancellations are always possible. I’d call back–the waits won’t be so long after today!!
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Dave:
Thoughts on slow weeks being busy now because of FD. We are going 11-18/11-23 and could not find anything at POR to upgrade to FD. And seeing all the “all I can get is unavailable” tells on DISboards makes me scared are low crowd week will be busy now. Or is it just a case of limited rooms really meaning limited rooms for these new Fall deals?
Kimberley, resort occupancy is not a crowd calendar. The resorts don’t hold enough people–believe it or not–for there to be any material difference in terms of crowds between them being 70% booked and 100% booked.
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I am trying to select a resort with discounted room rate, is the free food eligible ON TOP of the resort discount? How do I know if I am looking at a discounted rate, should I just book and adjust later?
Mike you can only get one or the other. The deal you are getting should be continuously visible throughout your reservation. Start with the “check availability” blue buttons on the links to DIsney at the top of the page!
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I had an original registration from Oct. 5th-13th at POR but since the FD is not eligible for those dates and the POR wasn’t offered in the room discount, I asked my travel agent change us to the POFQ or CBR. She got us the CBR (she said the discount was better??) and we changed the dates to Oct. 7-14th to accommodate a seat sale on Allegiant. Loving the savings!!! 🙂
Great Lori!!
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