annual pass vs free dining....help

[suedisney]

I am so confused. I can get a room only ressie and pay for my annual pass with a dvc discount....or I can convert my room only ressie to a ressie with a one day magic your way pass in order to get the free dining for 3 nights. It is a difference of $200 and I think it's worth it to get free dining for $200.
What I need to know from the experts is....1.) I'm going to convert my one day admission into an annual pass the first day. Do I go into the park to do this or not use the admission first and go straight to guest relations?
2.) Since the disney phone rep told me I can convert this admission to an annual pass....I want the experts opinion on this. Has anyone done this to get free dining?
3.) can you still get the dvc discount?

 

[DisTwix]

I am so confused. I can get a room only ressie and pay for my annual pass with a dvc discount....or I can convert my room only ressie to a ressie with a one day magic your way pass in order to get the free dining for 3 nights. It is a difference of $200 and I think it's worth it to get free dining for $200.
What I need to know from the experts is....1.) I'm going to convert my one day admission into an annual pass the first day. Do I go into the park to do this or not use the admission first and go straight to guest relations?
2.) Since the disney phone rep told me I can convert this admission to an annual pass....I want the experts opinion on this. Has anyone done this to get free dining?
3.) can you still get the dvc discount?

Ok - I'll try to help... there are several different issues here....

1.) There are no room discounts given when using the free dining option - you must pay full rack rate.

2.) I'm not sure where you are getting that your difference is $200 -- is that ticket price, room price, ?? Basically, since you are getting an AP, you can use your AP discount on the room, but will not be eligible for free dining. I think that is what you are saying, but wanted to make sure I had it clear. I had this same issue for my trip - to use the AP discount on the room OR take free dining and buy a one day ticket (I already have an AP) - I decided that since I hadn't done free dining and was staying @ a Value, I could make the dining plan work for me (even tho I rarely do sit-downs).

3.) If you want to get the free dining, you can simply take the one day ticket and apply it toward an annual pass. You'll pay rack rate for the room, then your AP cost will be whatever the DVC cost is, minus the cost of the one day ticket. I can't see any reason why you won't be eligible for the DVC discount in getting an AP, since it's a separate transaction from your room/free dining.


For my trip, I am going to save my one day pass, and apply it to renewing my AP (for 15 months!) when it expires. So, sure, I'm out the cost of the one day ticket now, but will be able to recoup that money in the long run.

Hopefully that helps!!

 

[BrettS]

1.) I'm going to convert my one day admission into an annual pass the first day. Do I go into the park to do this or not use the admission first and go straight to guest relations?

Enter the park first. By using the ticket to enter a park it locks the ticket in to the current gate value. If the ticket was purchased before a price increase or as part of a package it might have a lower value, so by using it first you are certain to get the maximum amount toward your upgrade.

2.) Since the disney phone rep told me I can convert this admission to an annual pass....I want the experts opinion on this. Has anyone done this to get free dining?

Yes, people do it all the time and it's not a problem. The only issue that some people run into is that normally when you check in the one day ticket will be put on your KTTW card. Annual Passes cannot be on a KTTW card, so the ticket needs to be taken off the card in order to do the upgrade. Occasionally people report that when Guest Relations takes the ticket off the KTTW card the dining credits are also accidently removed. This isn't a big deal and if it happens you can go back to your resort to get the dining credits fixed, but if you're planning to upgrade to an AP anyway the best advice is to ask the person who's checking you in to give you a seperate ticket for your one day ticket rather than putting it on the KTTW card. Then it won't have to be removed from the card and you won't have to worry about this issue.

3.) can you still get the dvc discount?

Yes. Technically it's not really a DVC discount, but a DVC annual pass, which is a seperate product with a different (cheaper) price.