IMO the advise is the same, Dining plan or not, but the decision of whether to get the DP may be different in some situations. It would be dishonest to know they're coming and not add them ahead of time for the purpose of manipulating the DP. In this case you may not know early enough to get the DP for him even if you wanted to, we've had that happen to us several times.We have a reservation for just over a weeks stay in a 2bd. There are 6 of us booked to our room now and my son ( who is in college) says there may be a chance he can join us only for the last 2-3 days of our stay. Does anyone know if I will be able to add him for a couple days should he able to make the trip. Also, we wouldn't have much advance notice of him joining us, it would be more of a last minute trip. Thanks!
The rules that apply are 3 as I look at it. That all staying must be registered, that all in the room must be on the DP and that the DP must be added at least 48 hrs in advance. Obviously there are some contradictions in these rules that lend themselves to manipulation. IMO, and this is an absolute black and white issue as I see it, is that to make choices for the express or even main purpose to bypass these rules would be dishonest and that person would by definition, be dishonest at that time. However, there are situations where you simply can't follow all of the rules as it seems in your case where you truly don't know who's coming in time to abide by all of the rules, this seems to be your situation. I think intent is the key here but there are ways to handle it either way that are honest. If you truly don't know and won't until after 48 hrs, you'll have to decide whether you want extra credits for the DP or to have a person without a key (potentially) and without credits for their meals. I've paid for one who ended up not coming once and had 2 occasions where someone was planned to do a day visit and ended up staying. I've also had one time after the rules changed but before I was aware of the changes were I tried to add someone at check in and was unable though they were registered in another room where the reservation overlapped the one in question.
