Do you have to get the Dining Plan at booking?

[MommytoaSweetie]

Can we add it when we checkin at our resort? We received a Disney gift card from the IL's for Christmas, so we were going to add a meal at CRT, and with adding that in (and maybe one more character meal :)), it ends up being more than the dining plan so that would now be a better option for us (which wouldn't have before). So is it possible to use the gift card to pay for the dining plan when we check in? If we did that, would it then still apply to our already-scheduled reservations?

Thanks for your help!

[MariDisney]

Can we add it when we checkin at our resort? We received a Disney gift card from the IL's for Christmas, so we were going to add a meal at CRT, and with adding that in (and maybe one more character meal :)), it ends up being more than the dining plan so that would now be a better option for us (which wouldn't have before). So is it possible to use the gift card to pay for the dining plan when we check in? If we did that, would it then still apply to our already-scheduled reservations?

Thanks for your help!

You cannot get it when you check in. You must add it to your package a certain number of days (I think 3, but am not 100% sure) before you check in.

[TDC Nala]

If you are on a package reservation, you don't have to add it when you first book, but you cannot add it at check-in. You must add a dining plan to your reservation no later than 72 hours prior to your arrival date. You cannot make changes to a package reservation after that time. If you add a dining plan within 45 days of your arrival date you must pay for it in full as soon as you add it. If you add it before the 45 day mark you must pay it off with the rest of the reservation at the 45 day mark.

If you are a DVC member reserving through DVC Member Services, you have until 48 hours prior to your arrival date to add a dining plan to your reservation, but you will pay for it in full when you check in at the resort, and not before.

You would probaby be able to use the gift card to pay for adding DDP to a package reservation by phone - you would not have to wait until you check in to use it.

[MommytoaSweetie]

Thanks! I'll try to call our travel agent and add it this week. Do you know if that will mess with our reservations?

[TDC Nala]

Thanks! I'll try to call our travel agent and add it this week. Do you know if that will mess with our reservations?

It will have absolutely no effect on your reservations unless you have already booked a prepaid meal or event like CRT or a dinner show and intend to pay for those with dining credits. If you want to avoid having to cancel and rebook that reservation in order ot get the prepayment back, you will have to wait until you arrive and then specify that you are going to pay with dining credits for this reservation, at which time your prepayment will be refunded. But you can't just switch an already prepaid reservation to dining plan prior to arrival - you'd have to rebook it, and there might not be the availability necessary to do that.

[MommytoaSweetie]

Okay, cool, we can do that. We did book CRT because we didn't want it to book up since that was the only spot available since we decided this all last minute, but I'm totally fine with just having them refund/change when we get there - I definitely don't want to lose the spot. :) Do we just tell our waiter that we originally prepaid and now we want to pay with dining credits?