? about split stay and free dining?

[MAJ RN]

My family and I are taking a 2 week vacation to WDW in Feb. Originally I had planned for us to stay at WL the entire time, but now we may do a split stay with AKL. Our dates are 2/11 to 2/25, if I split our stay and have two seperate ressies will I not be allowed free dining the last few days of our stay? I was told by the Disney CM when booking my trip that since I booked on the beginning of a free dining time period I would still get free dining for the days that I was over. Any info would be wonderful or if there is already a link to a question like this i would love to read it. Thanks in advance!!


Melissa

 

[crashbb]

WDW considers a split stay to be two separate stays. This means that you'd need to buy at least a 2 day ticket during each stay to get free dining during both stays AND it means that the check-in date of both reservations need to be within the free dining window.

The CM was correct - as long as your check-in date is within the free dining window, you keep it the entire stay (up to 14 days) even if the window then closes. However, if you move to a different resort, you have a new check-in date (the day you check in to the second resort). If this date is not within the window, you cannot get free dining.

 

[3boys4me]

I would think that unless you changed resorts by the 2/17 that the answer would be no. It seems like it should be two completely seperate ressies. Just my thoughts, I don't know for sure. Let us know what you find out, if they do continue it, I may look into a change half way through. Again, I doubt it.

 

[TDC Nala]

The free dining dates are
2/11/11 - 2/17/11
2/25/11 - 3/3/11
If you want a split stay with both reservations on free dining, you will need to check in on the 11th for the first resort, and the latest you can check out and switch resorts is the 17th, so you would need to do the 17th to the 25th at the second resort. If you do it on the 18th, free dining is not available for the second stay.

Keep in mind that these will have to be separate resort reservations. There is a requirement that you buy at least two-day park tickets for each member of your party for free dining. This means that you have to purchase no less than two-day park tickets for everyone on both reservations.

Disney park tickets get cheaper per day the longer you buy them for, so to split a trip and buy tickets for each separate reservation will cost you much more than it would to just buy the tickets for the full trip with your first stay. Even if you do that, you still have to spring for two-day park tickets on the second reservation if you want continued free dining.

Be careful when figuring out your costs on the split stay. Having to purchase two sets of park tickets might negate most of the savings you may realize from free dining. Even if you are an annual passholder, for this type of reservation you will have to purchase two sets of 2-day park tickets for everyone.

On a 14-night split stay, if you need tickets for the full two weeks, it might be possible for you to book 10 day MYW tickets on the first stay (I am not sure you can buy these for any longer than 10 days) and then 4 day MYW tickets on the second stay.

 

[mickeynut1]

If you check into the second resort on or before 2/17, you will have free dining for the entire time. However, since free dining ends the 17th (and doesn't start up again until the 25th), if you check into the second resort on the 18th or after, you will not be eligible for free dining for that part of your stay. Disney doesn't recognize 2 resorts as a split stay, but rather 2 separate reservations.

 

[MAJ RN]

Thanks to everyone who has responded to my post. If we decide to do the split stay I will make sure to check in to the second resort on the 17th. We planned to do just 10 days in the parks and spend the other 4 exploring the other parts of the resorts. I thought about AP's but realize that if I split the stay that I would still have to get tickets for the free dining. Again thanks for all of the information, I will take it all into consideration when making the decision.


Melissa

 

[TDC Nala]

Consider not doing the dining for the second stay if you are going to be going off property. There are much better and cheaper places to eat than Disney if you're going to be driving around Orlando anyway. I can't tell if you mean you will be going off property to other Orlando attractions or you will just be exploring Disney resorts.

 

[MHSweb79]

We did a split stay last year and did free dining for the moderate resort and took a room discount and no dining on the deluxe resort. It worked out much better price-wise and we just paid OOP for the time we were at the Poly.