Additional people staying on 4th night

[disneygrandma]

Our family will be staying for 7 nites in a 2 bedroom & a studio at SSR. The studio only has 2 people in it, and the 2 bedroom has 6 people. Our son and his family are going to Vero Beach for a couple of nites, and then back to Disney for 1 night before flying home. We're thinking of just having them stay with us, since there are 4 of them, and we would be able to add 4 more people to our rooms. (2 in the studio, 2 in the 2 bedroom villa)

They will be using ME to get to WDW the preceeding week, and will stay 5 nights on property. They plan to rent a car to drive to Vero Beach and back to WDW, and fly home the next day.......also using ME.

Here's where it gets complicated: our family group of 8 will be purchasing the Disney Dining Plan for our 7 night stay. We want to add our son & his family to the room for 1 night only, our 4th night. Because they will be using ME to fly home, their names would need to be on the reservation.....wouldn't they? But what about the Dining Plan? They would have no problem in paying for 1 night on the Dining Plan, but would that be allowed?

I would appreciate hearing from people who have had similar situations. Were you allowed to add people to your reservation for 1 night only? Did you have the Dining Plan? We're wondering how to handle this.

Thanks everyone!

 

[KatiebugsMom]

This past January (staying at BWV) we had a good friend from Tampa come over and stay with us making 2 enjoyable extended weekends for her to fellowship and worship The Mouse with us during our 10 day stay.

Well the DDP really puts a damper on things especially when friend needed her own room key to come and go as she needed (went back to Tampa to teach a few days then came back) and also get free valet parking for her car and enjoy extra magic hours with us. So she needed to be added to the room and with DDP each person has to be on the DDP for the entire stay. DDP works best for us so we really needed to have this added for DH and I. After looking at the actually nights friend as going to be with us, it worked out that it was economically sound for her also. She paid for the 10 day DDP and then used some extra credits for example to have an enjoyable TS at Citricos by herself (which was 2 credits for the meal).

However in your case one night is not economical or wise at all. It might be better for your party to maybe go on a cash basis for their own room for one night.

 

[Dean]

To add them to the reservation you will have to get the DDP for the entire stay for them or split your reservation so you check out then back in again. One option is to have just the 2 BR for your current group then get the studio for them for the night they need and not get the DDP for the studio.

 

[disneygrandma]

We would need the studio for the entire time, since our daughter's in-laws will be staying there, and would prefer the privacy. Our daughter & her family will be sharing the 2 bedroom with my husband & myself. We would adjust for the 1 night when our son & his family stayed.

I was worried that the DDP would be a problem in our situation, and it sounds like that's the case.

 

[CarolMN]

ME will also be a problem - they need to be on the reservation to qualify for it.

 

[tkillini99]

I'm new at this myself, but it seems to me you could possibly list the 4 people who won't be there the whole time as staying in the studio, and list the others as staying in the 2-bedroom and only get the dining plan for the 2-bedroom. The 2 people who need to could still use the studio, they would just be listed on the 2-bedroom so they would have the dining plan. I realize this would mess up the rooms keys a bit, but you could just make them non-charging and then not have to worry about it.

 

[kidsister]

This is only for one night...and probably for that one night not everyone (of the original 8_ will be wanting to do a late night magic hours.

So I'd just have them stay and not put their names on the registry.

As for ME...are you all using ME? They really don't keep track of who uses ME matched to the name of who is booked in the room at the time; it's more that you have a room ..or in your case two rooms. And you've mentioned that they were staying onsite the previous week...it's reasonable that they could have gone off for a few days and then come back and stayed with you a night and then are taking their return trip on ME (which they didn't use up on the week before lodging). Even if you all use ME , it seems like you are leaving on different days, so I wouldn't worry that ME keeps a head count.



But it seems that if they have a car to drive into the resort for one night, that it would be just as cheap to return it to the airport the next day as opposed to dropping it off within the World the next day. (and if they were keeping it one extra day, that might not cost much more if it's an add on to a week rental or nothing if it is a 6th or 7th day rental) There is usually no charge to drop off at the airport instead of another place in Florida.

Yes, to add them to the registry for just one night would require them to purchase the DDP for the entire stay. YIKES! I hate it that Disney requires this because frankly...you are going to have a LOT of food between 8 people...and probably enough for 12 people!

 

[disneygrandma]

Thanks, everyone, for all the suggestions. This trip is complicated in so many ways. Our son will be traveling with his in-laws for the first part of their vacation. The whole group has decided to use the ME. After the in-laws fly home, our son & his family plan to stay in Florida & visit Universal, as well as staying 2 nights at Vero Beach. It's during this period that they will have the rental car. This will be their first experience with ME, and I think they're looking forward to checking the luggage at the resort, and not having to return the car at MCO. Because their rental period will be 4 days, it would require a 5th day if they opted not to use ME for their return flight.

As far as the DDP goes, I agree that it's a lot of food. I would be more than happy to share with someone else. However, there have been so many negative posts about sharing. Also, we have several buffets, and HDDR planned. These meals are a flat fee per person, and when we added everything up, it appeared to be better financially for us to get the DDP. This will be the first time we've had the DDP, so we can evaluate it for our next trip.

The bottom line is that our son & his family want to turn their rental car in the day before they fly home, and then use ME. And everyone in our group is planning to get the DDP. I'll run the figures again, and make sure it's the cheaper route. If not, then we could do something different with the studio.

I might just end up calling Member Services tomorrow to see if another studio would be available for our son & his family on that one night.

Thanks again everyone for your input on this.

 

[disneygrandma]

I wanted to add that only 2 of our group of 8 will be using ME. They are flying home a day earlier than the other 6 of us. (Another reason they are in the studio, besides the privacy issue.) While I haven't personally used ME, I did have to call MS to arrange ME for our daughter's in-laws, and will need to do so for our son's in-laws. Based on my previous conversation with MS, it seemed like the names would need to be on the reservation before ME could be arranged. So there's my dilemma, how to get the extra names on the reservation for one night, and not pay for the DDP.

Thanks again!

 

[kda]

I might just end up calling Member Services tomorrow to see if another studio would be available for our son & his family on that one night.

Thanks again everyone for your input on this.

You know, this sounds like the easiest way to manage the situation. It's a studio for one night. There have been multiple posts similar to yours, without any simple answer.