Adding someone to your vacation package for fewer days

[Suziewan]

I'm not sure if this is the right board, but I thought that there might be someone with some experience with this in this particular area.

My DS and I are booked for 9 nights at AOA on a magic your way plus dining package. At the time we booked we were not sure if my mother would be able to join us, or how many days she would be able to get off work. She is now certain about 4 days, so we wanted to add her to our room for the first 3 nights/4 days of our trip.

When I called the CM I spoke with automatically added her for the entire week and quickly gave me my new total. Then I explained that she would not be there for the entire week, but for just a few days. The CM said that she could not help with this and that we'd have to just show up with her at the resort and have her added to our room. She suggested I call the resort to get an idea of the additional costs.

I called AOA and they couldn't believe she'd told me to call them. Yes, they could add her to our room at the time of our stay, but they could not add on dining or tickets for her.

Has anyone had a similar situation before? What do you do when a family member is staying for only part of the trip? Can I buy a meal plan/tickets for her independent of her own room reservation? Will I be stuck paying OOP for her meals? I'm curious to know if someone has found an agreeable workaround for a situation like this.

Thanks for any help!

[danceintherain]

Originally Posted by Suziewan

I'm not sure if this is the right board, but I thought that there might be someone with some experience with this in this particular area.

My DS and I are booked for 9 nights at AOA on a magic your way plus dining package. At the time we booked we were not sure if my mother would be able to join us, or how many days she would be able to get off work. She is now certain about 4 days, so we wanted to add her to our room for the first 3 nights/4 days of our trip.

When I called the CM I spoke with automatically added her for the entire week and quickly gave me my new total. Then I explained that she would not be there for the entire week, but for just a few days. The CM said that she could not help with this and that we'd have to just show up with her at the resort and have her added to our room. She suggested I call the resort to get an idea of the additional costs.

I called AOA and they couldn't believe she'd told me to call them. Yes, they could add her to our room at the time of our stay, but they could not add on dining or tickets for her.

Has anyone had a similar situation before? What do you do when a family member is staying for only part of the trip? Can I buy a meal plan/tickets for her independent of her own room reservation? Will I be stuck paying OOP for her meals? I'm curious to know if someone has found an agreeable workaround for a situation like this.

Thanks for any help!

The information you have gotten is correct. All participants on a package must have the same dining and ticket additions. The dining plan must be added at least 72 hours in advance (or something along those lines) so there's no way to add the dining plan after arrival. You have a few options:

1) You can add her for the whole trip, and pay the applicable amount.
2) You can split your reservation to accommodate her shorter dates, but you will have to fulfill the package requirements for the rest of your stay if you still want dining (a minimum of a 1 day base ticket for each participant - 2 day for free dining).
3) You can get her her own room.
4) You can add her once she arrives for just the dates she will be there. She will be given a room key, but her tickets will be separate and she will pay out of pocket for any meals and she will not be entitled to Magical Express transportation until after you add her to the reservation.

Option #4 is probably the most cost effective.

[Suziewan]

Thanks Becca

Just to clarify, when you mean split my reservation, do you mean split it between two resorts and then just have her added to the first reservation?

I think option 4 will likely be the most cost effective too, I just find the dining plan so convenient, but I think this will likely be the way we go.

I appreciate your help

[KatieDRN]

Hi Susie!
We did this exact thing for our trip in 2 weeks. Although we did it through our travel agent, here is what we did. We added my mom onto our ROOM for the 7 nights, and they booked us for 4 day park hopper tickets. Therefore, because the dining package (ours is free dining!) is attached to your hotel room (not days of park tickets) we will be able to use the extra meals from my mom's dining package after she leaves (with us 4 days) and then we will just add the other 3 days to our park hopper tickets once she leaves. Does that make sense? No extra expense (unless your dining isn't free...) and you get to use the extra meals after your mom heads out! Hope this helps!

[nchulka]

I would just put her on for the entire week and then you all will have more dining credits to share The room will cost the same and the tickets will cost virtually the same since there is little difference between a 4 day and 7 day ticket. The only additional expense will be the cost of the meal plan. If you happen to be going during free dining you don't even have to worry about that

[danceintherain]

Originally Posted by Suziewan

Thanks Becca

Just to clarify, when you mean split my reservation, do you mean split it between two resorts and then just have her added to the first reservation?

I think option 4 will likely be the most cost effective too, I just find the dining plan so convenient, but I think this will likely be the way we go.

I appreciate your help

You can stay in the same resort, and possibly the same room the entire time, you would just need separate reservations.

I guess the other suggested option would work, but I'm pretty sure the extra credits would be difficult to manage whether you paid for them or not. I've heard conflicting information about how credits can be charged. Then again, I would feel compelled to use up all the dining credits I've "paid" for. Others might be fine leaving some behind, since you would be paying the same amount for everything else.