Any insight to who is considered “eligible?” I plan on giving Disney a call tomorrow AM, but wasn’t sure if it was worth the wait if anyone has similar circumstances. We’re booked end of April with DVC points and tickets already purchased through Undercover. We’ve booked a new September trip room-only directly through Disney. Any chance were eligible?
I think you are, depending on whether the resort you’ve booked at is included. But you do need to buy 2-day tickets as part of the package.
Wonder if I would be allowed to add those 2 day tickets on to my already purchased tickets for the cheaper add-on cost or if it would be a separate 2 day ticket at full price?
Please post your results here…we are in a similar situation. End of May DVC trip, with a back-up book at CSR in July. Didn’t think I was eligible, bit if I am, that would present a couple possible options.
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I just used the chat feature on the WDW website, the deal has to be booked over the phone (I’m going to try to call this afternoon while DS naps, otherwise in a few days when wait times hopefully go down). The CM said DVC renters are eligible as well, not sure if would apply to a new DVC rental at a later date- we’ve moved our new trip to AoA directly through Disney. I asked about the park tickets and I don’t think she really understood; she told me to try and get a refund from the third-party retailer as I would have to have new tickets for the free-dining package.
Still hopeful we get a 2 day add-on at the cheaper rate, as if we were adding them on at Guest Services while on our trip. Otherwise I guess it’s still a savings to get full price 2 day tickets in exchange for free dining. Will update when I hear more!
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I’m hoping they extend dates as well. We are going to re-schedule our March 15-22 trip until November.
Unfortunately I don’t think there is any way for free dining to apply to a DVC rental. I am guessing the CM meant DVC property bookings directly through Disney.
I imagine she was meaning that those who had a DVC rental stay cancelled could also book this offer.
But it would be a normal WDW stay, with full rate cash prices, even if you could stay at a DVC resort.
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Do you know off the top of your head how much full price 2 day tickets cost?
Luckily I have my planning spreadsheet open, the date based tickets are a little tricky, but for a 10/18 start date, a 2-day base ticket is $260.
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Do we have to buy one 2-day ticket, or one for every person in the room?
For a “free dining” deal, you would have to buy a ticket for everyone in the room.
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luckily!! I love you spreadsheet people.
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I just wanted to note that I called Disney early this evening and after being on hold for 23m 55s, the person who answered was not a cast member and couldn’t help me change my reservation. She said to call back in a couple of days. 
My children’s first family trip to Disney World was to begin tomorrow. I re-booked May 5th at the same hotel (Wilderness Lodge), spent countless hours re-booking FPs and dining reservations, now all has to start again. Hoping for the best planned trip with round three with dates in September with hopes that WDW will be open at that point. Good luck to everyone else! 
Sorry for the bad luck 
I was on hold for over two hours this morning but was able to move my May trip to September with the deal. Hopefully you’ll get someone helpful next time!
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Okay, I successfully talked to a cast member today. Our current trip, starting on May 5th (our original first trip as a family was originally planned to begin today :*{ ), is for five nights at Wilderness Lodge with Disney Dining Plus. No dates left in September for either the Wilderness Lodge or Polynesian that have the free ‘re-booking’ consolation offer from Disney.
Good luck to others with this special. Please let me know if you successfully changed your reservation with the free dining offer. Thank you 
Just to update our experience…called Disney and had zero wait time at all (yay!) I did choose “Special Offers” rather than “Reservations” as I’ve heard that typically has shorter wait times. The CM I spoke to was very helpful and nice, she wasn’t sure about the exact scenario regarding cancelling a DVC rental and then booking a new Disney resort stay with the FD deal. She looked into it and confirmed that a DVC rental could be cancelled and then a new stay booked through Disney would be eligible for FD (we’ve changed to AoA).
We would need to purchase a minimum of 2-day ticket each for DH and myself. Our third-party tickets are sunk cost, Disney cannot add-on to them (I want to clarify this again with a different CM as it doesn’t make sense to me that I can add ticket days at Guest Services once I’m in the park, but they can’t do it in advance 
). But I was told that the new 2-day tickets could be saved for use at any future date and I would just have to pay any price increase of the future current ticket price. Finally, she told me we could pay cash to upgrade to the standard Disney Dining Plan if we wanted.
I haven’t run any numbers or talked to DH yet, but I figured some other Liners may have similar questions. I’ve seen a lot of people complaining about the FD offer and how it’s not really helpful at all…I guess we’ll see!
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It is or was the case for a long time that you had to wait until you were at a park before adding days to a 3rd party ticket.
They have relaxed that somewhat now, I believe.
However for a special deal I suspect they never allow that. Adding extra days is cheaper than buying a new ticket, so you would be getting more of a discount.
But those tickets will never lose their value even if they expire.
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Final update: I ran the numbers based on where and what we’ve planned to eat and included the cost of food/drink that would be outside the dining plan, and we would actually spend $6 less if we don’t spend the money on 2 day tickets to get the free dining. We are doing 3 character meals, which greatly affect our dining costs, but there’s no way we’ll drop those!