Annual Pass and Disney Dining

[TBaker]

We have a room booked for Feb 2020. It will be a room only package since my daughter and I have annual passes. My husband and other 2 daughters will need to buy tickets separately, and link them to our account. Are we still able to do the dining plan? When I looked online it said you had to purchase a package in order to be eligible for the dining plan. I can't imagine we would be penalized for being AP Holders?

 

[SaintsManiac]

We have a room booked for Feb 2020. It will be a room only package since my daughter and I have annual passes. My husband and other 2 daughters will need to buy tickets separately, and link them to our account. Are we still able to do the dining plan? When I looked online it said you had to purchase a package in order to be eligible for the dining plan. I can't imagine we would be penalized for being AP Holders?

You can call and have it added.

 

[TBaker]

You can call and have it added.

Thank you!

 

[Gehrig1B]

You will save more money, in my opinion, by eschewing the DDP and getting Tables in Wonderland... plus TiW applies to more restaurants and includes a 20% discount on alcoholic beverages. Just a thought.

 

[shocker]

We're done with DDP too. We have TiW instead. We eat when & where we want. TiW more closely matches what we want instead of someone pre-deciding how many 'credits' they can dole out to us.

 

[mickeynut1]

We have a room booked for Feb 2020. It will be a room only package since my daughter and I have annual passes. My husband and other 2 daughters will need to buy tickets separately, and link them to our account. Are we still able to do the dining plan? When I looked online it said you had to purchase a package in order to be eligible for the dining plan. I can't imagine we would be penalized for being AP Holders?

Yes, you can get room + DDP, which would be a ticketless package. If you have RO booked now, that will have to be cancelled/refunded and a ticketless package booked, requiring a new $200 deposit. The new reservation will follow the package rules of balance due in full 30 days prior to arrival.

 

[rangerxenos]

Realize that you will get a 10% Discount (sometimes more) with an AP at many, if not most Disney restaurants. The DP may not be the better choice.

 

[AngiTN]

You can call and have it added.

If you have an AP, you can actually do it when you book the room, if you book a promo with an AP discount.
During check out there's an option to add dining.
Though I've never tried it without everyone in the package having an AP

Though we too find TiW a much better bargain than buying the DP at full price

 

[TBaker]

Realize that you will get a 10% Discount (sometimes more) with an AP at many, if not most Disney restaurants. The DP may not be the better choice.

Thank you! That never even occurred to me!

 

[TigerlilyAJ]

I am in a similar situation. I just bought my first WDW Platinum AP, but my other five family members do not have one. I called and booked a room + DDP. The CM tried to get me to buy tickets, but I declined. Then she wanted to know when was I going to book tickets. I demurred, saying I wasn't sure if I would buy others APs, too. But do I have to buy tickets from WDW for the rest of the family? I could save $250 by getting them the PHs we want from Undercover Tourist. Does booking the DDP as an AP free you from having to buy PHs from WDW?
Anything else an AP newbie needs to know about discounts and other AP benefits?

 

[Devil13]

I'm AP and tried the Tables in Wonderland, didn't work for us and went back to the dining plan.

Every situation is different, explore all options and find what works for you.

 

[Party.Of.4-NY>>>FL]

If you have an AP, you can actually do it when you book the room, if you book a promo with an AP discount.
During check out there's an option to add dining.
Though I've never tried it without everyone in the package having an AP

Though we too find TiW a much better bargain than buying the DP at full price

You can definitely add a dining plan when not all guests on the reservation have an AP. I currently have this exact type of booking sitting in my MDE. In fact, two of the guests on the reservation currently have no linked tickets at all. And it’s like you say, when booking online with an AP-discounted rate, the option to add the dining plan shows up near the end of the booking process. Also, for anyone wondering, after booking this type of ticketless package, the ability to modify to a different dining plan, or remove the dining plan altogether is also available online.

 

[AngiTN]

I am in a similar situation. I just bought my first WDW Platinum AP, but my other five family members do not have one. I called and booked a room + DDP. The CM tried to get me to buy tickets, but I declined. Then she wanted to know when was I going to book tickets. I demurred, saying I wasn't sure if I would buy others APs, too. But do I have to buy tickets from WDW for the rest of the family? I could save $250 by getting them the PHs we want from Undercover Tourist. Does booking the DDP as an AP free you from having to buy PHs from WDW?
Anything else an AP newbie needs to know about discounts and other AP benefits?

No one, AP or not, has to by tickets from WDW to get the dining plan.

 

[TigerlilyAJ]

You can definitely add a dining plan when not all guests on the reservation have an AP. I currently have this exact type of booking sitting in my MDE. In fact, two of the guests on the reservation currently have no linked tickets at all. And it’s like you say, when booking online with an AP-discounted rate, the option to add the dining plan shows up near the end of the booking process. Also, for anyone wondering, after booking this type of ticketless package, the ability to modify to a different dining plan, or remove the dining plan altogether is also available online.

I guess I'm wondering if issues come up when trying to book FPs and such. Like, I'll need to buy the UT tickets and somehow (I've never done this before) link them to our reservation before our 60-day window, right? You say you have a reservation where two guests have no linked tickets. Can you do FPs for them without tickets?

@AngiTN Do you just mean that you can buy tickets elsewhere when you're paying for the DDP? My DDP experiences before this trip are exclusively Free Dining experience, where you have to book a package with PHs (although I don't know what that means for APs).

@Devil13 I know what you mean. There are so many posts here and big important Disney blogs that point out how the DDP won't save money in situations X, Y, and Z, how TiW is better, but few write about the ways DDP, whether free or purchased can help in other situations. For example, we're a party of six. No room discount EVER beats free DDP for six, esp as I want PHs anyway and every three years another kid becomes a Disney ~adult, making the gap between room discount and DDP value even bigger. Then, we are people where a WDW vacations means character meals, so the must-do meals on on our itinerary are all prix fixe and pricey.

 

[Party.Of.4-NY>>>FL]

I guess I'm wondering if issues come up when trying to book FPs and such. Like, I'll need to buy the UT tickets and somehow (I've never done this before) link them to our reservation before our 60-day window, right?

Yes, valid ticket media is a requirement for each guest booking FPs. Any guests without tickets will not be able to book FP.

You say you have a reservation where two guests have no linked tickets. Can you do FPs for them without tickets?

No. These two guests currently have no ticket entitlements linked to their respective profiles, therefore FPs cannot be booked for them at this time.

 

[AngiTN]

I guess I'm wondering if issues come up when trying to book FPs and such. Like, I'll need to buy the UT tickets and somehow (I've never done this before) link them to our reservation before our 60-day window, right? You say you have a reservation where two guests have no linked tickets. Can you do FPs for them without tickets?

No, you must have a ticket linked to someone to book FP. You just don't have to buy said ticket from Disney to link it to someone.

@AngiTN Do you just mean that you can buy tickets elsewhere when you're paying for the DDP? My DDP experiences before this trip are exclusively Free Dining experience, where you have to book a package with PHs (although I don't know what that means for APs).

Correct. I'm not talking about free dining, which is a package that Disney sells and you have to meet whatever requirements they set forth with the package to buy it.
I'm talking about buying dining plan. You do not have to buy tickets from Disney to buy the dining plan. You just have to have a stay at a Disney owned resort (which note, does not include all hotels ON Disney property)

 

[AngiTN]

I know what you mean. There are so many posts here and big important Disney blogs that point out how the DDP won't save money in situations X, Y, and Z, how TiW is better, but few write about the ways DDP, whether free or purchased can help in other situations. For example, we're a party of six. No room discount EVER beats free DDP for six, esp as I want PHs anyway and every three years another kid becomes a Disney ~adult, making the gap between room discount and DDP value even bigger. Then, we are people where a WDW vacations means character meals, so the must-do meals on on our itinerary are all prix fixe and pricey.

When you have AP and no need for the tickets TiW wins out every time. Especially when AP discounts are 40%-45% off the room (which is what it's been for the past couple of years.

 

[Trinity88]

DH and I have APs for our trip this August. My 3 kids do not. I bought tickets for them from UT and linked them to my account with no issues. I've already done FPs and had no issues there. Once the tickets are loaded to MDE, I don't think it matters where they were purchased from.

As for DP, we are thinking we'll do TiW instead of DP for the 20% discount. When I learned the 20% works at the POP food court, that sealed the deal for us.

 

[Welsh_Dragon]

Has anyone done DP plus AP and TiW?

 

[AngiTN]

Has anyone done DP plus AP and TiW?

Yes, this past New Years. We were booking at a time where there are no room only discounts available and to pay $200 down that day instead of the full price of the BWI CL room (which is close to $1000 at that time) I added the dining plan to get a package, figuring we'd spend about the same as we would otherwise. Plus we were able to make payments. I was wrong and we spent more on that trip than we do on same length of trips without DP. Mostly because they are simply too much food. We don't do QS so the lowest price plan was no good for us. Deluxe too much so we went with the Regular dining plan and tried to use up the QS where we could. We never did use all the snacks