Airmiles & Dining Plan?

[peekkaboo]

Hello. I'm a newbie. I saw the posts about be able to use your airmiles to get theme park tickets at Disney World and Universal. I didn't know that, so thanks to this site, now I know

Now, my question is, if I use airmiles to get the theme park tickets, am I still able to get the dining plan for Disney and Universal? If so how do I get it because all I have seen so far is packages for MYW plus dining.

TIA

ETA: We will be staying on site at both places and is it worth it to get the dining plan in the first place?

 

[Gigi22]

Hello. I'm a newbie. I saw the posts about be able to use your airmiles to get theme park tickets at Disney World and Universal. I didn't know that, so thanks to this site, now I know

Now, my question is, if I use airmiles to get the theme park tickets, am I still able to get the dining plan for Disney and Universal? If so how do I get it because all I have seen so far is packages for MYW plus dining.

TIA

ETA: We will be staying on site at both places and is it worth it to get the dining plan in the first place?

The short answer is yes, and no. You can purchase tickets with airmiles. You can then purchase a separate package from Disney that has at least 2 days of park admission included, and you can get dining on that package.

There is no one size fits all answer to the usefulness of the Disney dining package. Many swear by it, some swear at it. Depends on your individual preferences. Do not think you must buy the dining package, many don't and are perfectly happy without.

Anything you arrange with Universal is completely separate from Disney, I haven't used the Universal packages, except for admission. The Universal hotels are very nice, well kept up, and there are perks attached to staying at an onsite Universal hotel.

 

[peekkaboo]

The short answer is yes, and no. You can purchase tickets with airmiles. You can then purchase a separate package from Disney that has at least 2 days of park admission included, and you can get dining on that package.

There is no one size fits all answer to the usefulness of the Disney dining package. Many swear by it, some swear at it. Depends on your individual preferences. Do not think you must buy the dining package, many don't and are perfectly happy without.

Anything you arrange with Universal is completely separate from Disney, I haven't used the Universal packages, except for admission. The Universal hotels are very nice, well kept up, and there are perks attached to staying at an onsite Universal hotel.

So, in other words, we can't just buy the dining plan by itself it HAS to be attached to a theme park ticket? lol

But if I do the buy option where I buy a 2 day ticket for ONE person, and get the dining plan, wouldn't that mean ONLY that person has the dining plan? So one table meal, one quick service, one snack, just enough for ONE person?

I'm asking because my father in law has a TON of airmiles where he collects from travelling weekly on business trips before he retired, so he has over YEARS and YEARS worth of airmiles, so hubby is planning on asking him to use them for our theme park tickets.

 

[Gigi22]

Yes, the ticket part of the package have to be purchased for each person, then you can buy the dining part of the package. A lot of people wait for "free dining" before buying a package. You may want to consider that option as well.

 

[Tinkershelly]

The dining plan for Disney must be purchased with a Disney hotel stay. The dining plan must be for the whole length of stay, everyone in the room must also purchase the dining plan and it must be the same plan for everyone in the room. So if there are two adults and one child staying at POP for five nights and they want the Quick-service dining plan, their reservation must include the Quick-service plan for 2A and 1C for five days, you can't drop any days and you can't drop any guests.

If you are talking about the free dining promotion, that must be a "package" which means it must include all the above restrictions and must include a certain number of park admission days per person purchased as part of the package (usually a minimum of three but it has varied), and it doesn't matter if you already have admission from another ticket or an annual pass.

 

[CdnCarrie]

You can book a package with Air Miles or with Marlin travel and use your Air Miles to pay it off. Usually booking with Air Miles takes less Air Miles than Marlin.

 

[DISNEY180]

The dining plan for Disney must be purchased with a Disney hotel stay. The dining plan must be for the whole length of stay, everyone in the room must also purchase the dining plan and it must be the same plan for everyone in the room. So if there are two adults and one child staying at POP for five nights and they want the Quick-service dining plan, their reservation must include the Quick-service plan for 2A and 1C for five days, you can't drop any days and you can't drop any guests.

If you are talking about the free dining promotion, that must be a "package" which means it must include all the above restrictions and must include a certain number of park admission days per person purchased as part of the package (usually a minimum of three but it has varied), and it doesn't matter if you already have admission from another ticket or an annual pass.

Something to think about if you want to buy the package is DONT actually use the park tickets that come with the package. If you never actually use they are good til you do even if it years from now and this way you can get your park tickets from Airmiles and keep the other one for another trip in the future.
This happened to us in 2011, we bought tickets before the annual increase but forgot them at home so had to buy more when we got home, this past holiday season we took the original ones we bought and used them..

 

[Tinkershelly]

Something to think about if you want to buy the package is DONT actually use the park tickets that come with the package. If you never actually use they are good til you do even if it years from now and this way you can get your park tickets from Airmiles and keep the other one for another trip in the future.
This happened to us in 2011, we bought tickets before the annual increase but forgot them at home so had to buy more when we got home, this past holiday season we took the original ones we bought and used them..

That's a good idea, however you need to be very careful these days with Magic Bands that you have the right ticket linked and the wrong ticket unlinked. There are lots of stories about people whose plans have gone astray when the wrong ticket media was activated on the band.