Adding Dining

[masim]

I currently have a room only at POR with a 30% off PIN for Sept. Hoping for FD to come along. Should I add a dining package and tickets now, to guarantee that I have availability at POR if FD comes out (cause we are 5), and hoping to get the regular plan. If only QS is offered we will probably switch to POP. Is it easier to add now and switch, or add later and probably have to cancel the whole reservation. I'm getting crazy over this.
any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

 

[ciera321]

You can't guarentee that there will be availability at a certain resort. When Disney has a promotion, they have a certain number of rooms at certain resorts. There may be no availability at you chosen resort, but that doesn't have anything to do with you already having a reservation. Hope that makes sense...

 

[masim]

meaning that if I have this reservation there is no guarantee I would be able to add FD to it, so there would be no benefit to adding the dining plan now?

 

[DisGirl1971]

I currently have a room only at POR with a 30% off PIN for Sept. Hoping for FD to come along. Should I add a dining package and tickets now, to guarantee that I have availability at POR if FD comes out (cause we are 5), and hoping to get the regular plan. If only QS is offered we will probably switch to POP. Is it easier to add now and switch, or add later and probably have to cancel the whole reservation. I'm getting crazy over this.
any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

You can not "add" the dining plan or tickets to a room only reservation. If you are looking for a free dining discount, you will need to be booked under a Magic Your Way package that includes room, tickets and dining. You will have to cancel your room only and rebook with a package to take advantage of a free dining discount. Also, it will take 2 billing cycles to get your refunt on your room only reservation and the can not/will not transfer the money from your room only reservation to your new package reservation.

If your dates are firm, and you know you will want the dining plan, then I would go ahead and rebook with the MYW package and apply a discount when they are released.

If you call within the first couple of days a general public discount code is released you should have no problems adding the code to your existing reservation.

 

[twinkles]

You can not "add" the dining plan or tickets to a room only reservation. If you are looking for a free dining discount, you will need to be booked under a Magic Your Way package that includes room, tickets and dining. You will have to cancel your room only and rebook with a package to take advantage of a free dining discount. Also, it will take 2 billing cycles to get your refunt on your room only reservation and the can not/will not transfer the money from your room only reservation to your new package reservation.

If your dates are firm, and you know you will want the dining plan, then I would go ahead and rebook with the MYW package and apply a discount when they are released.

I didn't know this. So since I purchased my tickets thru AAA and if I book a room at Wilderness Lodge I'm not able to apply FD if it becomes available in mid May? Please let me know...I'm considering booking hoping for FD.

 

[ciera321]

meaning that if I have this reservation there is no guarantee I would be able to add FD to it, so there would be no benefit to adding the dining plan now?

Right...If FD comes out for your dates, you'll need to call and see if there's availability at POR. If there isn't, then you'll have to switch to a resort where they have FD rooms, hopefully POP if that's where you'd like to stay.

 

[DisGirl1971]

I didn't know this. So since I purchased my tickets thru AAA and if I book a room at Wilderness Lodge I'm not able to apply FD if it becomes available in mid May? Please let me know...I'm considering booking hoping for FD.

That is correct, you would not be able to apply a free dining discount in that scenario. You have to be booked under a Magic Your Way package that includes room, tickets and dining - all purchased directly through Disney. You can not add tickets to a WDW package that you bought from an outside vendor like AAA, Undercovertourist or any other ticket broker.

 

[twinkles]

Thank you. How about if you have s DVC rental?

 

[smitch425]

Thank you. How about if you have s DVC rental?

The stipulation for free dining (in addition to park tickets) is that you have to be paying rack rate for your room. DVC guests are never able to use the free dining promotion.

 

[twinkles]

Jeez! They don't make it easy. I thought that since a friend of mine booked our trip using her points we were able too

 

[Disney*Dreamer]

I had a room only reservation with the 30% discount and was able to add dining and tickets. you cannot get free dining with a room discount, but you CAN add dining and tickets to a room only reservation.

 

[Disney*Dreamer]

You can not "add" the dining plan or tickets to a room only reservation.

Yes you can, I currently have the 30% off room only discount, and have added 7 day tickets and dining plus to the reservation. What you cannot add is Free dining.

 

[smitch425]

I had a room only reservation with the 30% discount and was able to add dining and tickets. you cannot get free dining with a room discount, but you CAN add dining and tickets to a room only reservation.

You can use a room only code with a package that includes tickets and paid dining, BUT you cannot simply add tickets and dining to a "room only" reservation. You would need to cancel the room only reservation and get a refund on the deposit and rebook as a package with a brand new deposit. Money cannot be transfered from one to the other, meaning you can't just say "put my original deposit on the new booking".

 

[Disney*Dreamer]

You can use a room only code with a package that includes tickets and paid dining, BUT you cannot simply add tickets and dining to a "room only" reservation. You would need to cancel the room only reservation and get a refund on the deposit and rebook as a package with a brand new deposit. Money cannot be transfered from one to the other, meaning you can't just say "put my original deposit on the new booking".

They have transeferred $ from one reservation to another for me in the past. I switched resorts, and they did it. This was only a year ago.

 

[DisGirl1971]

Thank you. How about if you have s DVC rental?

If you can are renting DVC points you can not apply a free dining discount, or any other disney resort discount, not even a room discount. Free Dining is the reason we have never bought into DVC. It's $2,500.00 more for us to rent points than to get 2 connecting rooms with a free dining discount. As long as Disney has free dining discounts we won't be booking or buying DVC.

 

[smitch425]

They have transeferred $ from one reservation to another for me in the past. I switched resorts, and they did it. This was only a year ago.

That is allowable as long as you are booking the same type of reservation. For example, a room only to another room only OR a package to a package, but not a room only to a package or vice versa. Switching resorts is a "change to your current reservation" making a "different type of reservation" is when money can't be transferred.

 

[DisGirl1971]

I had a room only reservation with the 30% discount and was able to add dining and tickets. you cannot get free dining with a room discount, but you CAN add dining and tickets to a room only reservation.

You simply can not add tickets or dining to a room only reservation. You would have to rebook under a package.

If you have a reservation that includes room, tickets and dining, that is a package and you can most certainly add a free dining discount.

There is no such thing in the Disney reservation system as a reservation with room, tickets and dining that is not considered a "package."

 

[smitch425]

DisGirl1971, lately I've been thinking we share the same brain.

 

[Disney*Dreamer]

You simply can not add tickets or dining to a room only reservation. You would have to rebook under a package.

If you have a reservation that includes room, tickets and dining, that is a package and you can most certainly add a free dining discount.

There is no such thing in the Disney reservation system as a reservation with room, tickets and dining that is not considered a "package."

No, but you told her that she couldn't add dining to the 30% off room on discount, and she can. She may have to rebook it as a package, but she can add dining. There are no rules agains having diing with a room discount. Maybe I am reading what you wrote in the wrong way, but perhaps the original poster is too, and I am clearing things up for her.

 

[DisGirl1971]

I had a room only reservation with the 30% discount and was able to add dining and tickets. you cannot get free dining with a room discount, but you CAN add dining and tickets to a room only reservation.

You can not simply "add" the dining plan to your resevation unless you are booked under a Magic Your Way package in the Disney reservation system. I believe the only exception to this is, if you are booked under a cast member discount and I beleive there may have been one instance of military personel being able to add dining on to room when they had previously purchased miltary tickets - those are the only exceptions I am aware of, the general public can not do that.