Big Mess, how to make this all work...

[nicki.momof3]

I called Disney and they are saying, my DD and I are required to purchase tickets for both packages. Tickets with my parents and then tickets again with my husband and son. They require at least a two day ticket to be purchased in order to get free dining. Oh my, this is crazy!!!

Everyone on a reservation has to have the same package. So if you are staying with your parents for a few days they would have to do a split reservation. You would have to purchase tickets again if you are getting free dining for your room - same package for everyone.

Every year we (me and the 3 kids) go to WDW for 7 days. My DH can only go for about 5 because of his job. We love the dining plan. We always just get him the same package as us (7 day hopper and dining). Since we are in the same room we have to have the same plan.

On the days he is not there we use one TS a day. Since we are not using his those days we always have extra once he arrives so we plan 2 meals a day with the extra credits.

Always works out for us.

Personal Opinion - As a high school teacher and a parent your situation is a perfect example of why we do not pull our kids out of school (and why i rec. parents don't). We only travel on breaks. In the lower grades you can usually pull it off. As they get older it is very challenging to not impact them academically or after school activity wise.

 

[cindym]

I hate to bring this up, but when will his bball practices start if he makes the team? In our area they start the very next day and you are not allowed to miss unless you are dead! Not really, but you better be deathly ill. I really hope he makes the team and everyone gets to go on your trip. I had a daughter who was into sports and we had to give up alot during her Jr. High and High School years so I know what you are going through!

 

[mouselovenfamily]

On the days he is not there we use one TS a day. Since we are not using his those days we always have extra once he arrives so we plan 2 meals a day with the extra credits.

Always works out for us.

Personal Opinion - As a high school teacher and a parent your situation is a perfect example of why we do not pull our kids out of school (and why i rec. parents don't). We only travel on breaks. In the lower grades you can usually pull it off. As they get older it is very challenging to not impact them academically or after school activity wise.

We probably will keep the same package and just use the extra credits, then when they arrive we will live it up on TS credits.

I totally respect your view as a teacher, and believe it or not, I work for the school district in clerical. When we planned this, tryouts were the following week, then it changed. We do have a partial break the week of our vacation, so we were only pulling 3 days and getting a 10 day vacation. My kids are both in the top 5% of their class with advance courses. My daughter will also 18 college credits when she graduates high school this year. I'm very proud of them and would not do anything to hurt their education or chances in activities, like bball. It will all work out.

I hate to bring this up, but when will his bball practices start if he makes the team? In our area they start the very next day and you are not allowed to miss unless you are dead! Not really, but you better be deathly ill. I really hope he makes the team and everyone gets to go on your trip. I had a daughter who was into sports and we had to give up alot during her Jr. High and High School years so I know what you are going through!

Yes, he can't miss practice either. But there is no school Thursday-Monday. So if he makes the team, we will be back.

 

[robinb]

My parents are not on free dining, they have a 40% off code so if we stay with them we are paying dining the entire time plus $25.00 for me. So that's still about $1600 for me and dd in room with parents (tickets for 9 days $325.00x2=650 DP $42.00x2x9=756.00 Me in room $25.00x9=225)

We would be with my parents 4 nights. they have a package with free dining and 8 days of tickets.

OK. I'm confused. Do your parents have free dining or do they have a 40% code?

 

[mouselovenfamily]

OK. I'm confused. Do your parents have free dining or do they have a 40% code?

Sorry...dining plan with 40% off code. We would have to purchase DP if we stay with them. Our room is FD.

 

[robinb]

I think that just keeping the package and having extra credits is probably the way to go. You could also book a room in a Value/Moderate resort with a discount for those first 4 days and then pick up your tickets on the 2nd day there.

 

[nicki.momof3]

We probably will keep the same package and just use the extra credits, then when they arrive we will live it up on TS credits..

Since you are going to be doing exactly what we do every trip - have lots of extra credits and live it up. I would recommond that you get online asap and book some more meals - for our "extra meals' we always plan a nice lunch in the park we are going to be at and than have a late dinner some place else.

Given that your trip is soon - BOOK MORE ADR'S NOW

Have a great trip eating your way around the world.

 

[mom2rtk]

All I can say is.... MAN you guys take your basketball WAY too seriously in Blue Springs!!!! But remember, that's coming from someone in Independence!!!

We had a similar thing last year on our September trip. My then 14 year old went out for the Soccer team and made it. He was going to miss around 4 games during our trip (when we planned the trip he wasn't intending to be involved in ANYTHING!) The coach was OK with it, but he and my husband decided to stick around home a few more days to limit it to one missed game and 4 missed days of school.

My daughter and I got some girl bonding time in Disney, and they joined us mid-week, just in time for the MNSSHP tickets we had already purchased (thankfully). It worked great. We had extra dining credits and ate like kings all week. They didn't have any trouble catching the Magical Express when they arrived later. It turned out to be a great trip.

Good luck and be sure to let me know how it goes!

 

[mouselovenfamily]

All I can say is.... MAN you guys take your basketball WAY too seriously in Blue Springs!!!! But remember, that's coming from someone in Independence!!!

We had a similar thing last year on our September trip. My then 14 year old went out for the Soccer team and made it. He was going to miss around 4 games during our trip (when we planned the trip he wasn't intending to be involved in ANYTHING!) The coach was OK with it, but he and my husband decided to stick around home a few more days to limit it to one missed game and 4 missed days of school.

My daughter and I got some girl bonding time in Disney, and they joined us mid-week, just in time for the MNSSHP tickets we had already purchased (thankfully). It worked great. We had extra dining credits and ate like kings all week. They didn't have any trouble catching the Magical Express when they arrived later. It turned out to be a great trip.

Good luck and be sure to let me know how it goes!

Hi Neighbor!!! Isn't it crazy how much it can matter?? If he doesn't play this year, he is that much behind for next year, and may not even make the team next year! Considering DH is 6'8 and had a full ride to college, we do take it serious. DS is now 6'0 starting 8th grade and so he still has growing to do. He would have a good shot of making scholarships to some smaller schools with good grades and athletics.

It sounds like we will be doing exactly what you did. DD and I heading down in advance and the boys joining a few days later. It will be fun to have time with her, especially since it's her senior year and off to college next year. However, I'll feel terrible leaving the guys. She just bought a Nikon D5000 and I have the D90 so we plan on taking a serious amount of photos.

Now I'm in the process of redoing dining and flights. It's crazy to do it again, but everything is for a reason.

 

[mom2rtk]

Hi Neighbor!!! Isn't it crazy how much it can matter?? If he doesn't play this year, he is that much behind for next year, and may not even make the team next year! Considering DH is 6'8 and had a full ride to college, we do take it serious. DS is now 6'0 starting 8th grade and so he still has growing to do. He would have a good shot of making scholarships to some smaller schools with good grades and athletics.

It sounds like we will be doing exactly what you did. DD and I heading down in advance and the boys joining a few days later. It will be fun to have time with her, especially since it's her senior year and off to college next year. However, I'll feel terrible leaving the guys. She just bought a Nikon D5000 and I have the D90 so we plan on taking a serious amount of photos.

Now I'm in the process of redoing dining and flights. It's crazy to do it again, but everything is for a reason.

My older son is a senior this year too. I think he's going to one of the local colleges. He's not the sort to entertain leaving home. How about your daughter?

I couldn't believe last year when the trip plans changed. Like you, I had plotted every last detail, then I was scrambling at the last minute to move park days around, find new ADR's etc. And we ended up ditching AK all together. They only had 4 days, and we focused more on what they wanted to do those days. I let my son pick the last day's park spur of the moment. From an uber-planner like me, that was a big deal! So we ditched AK and went back to Epcot. He loved Test Track! One of the great joys of that trip was our DHS day though. He's NEVER been a thrill ride guy, but we did RnR together and loved it to pieces.

FYI: We didn't have ANY trouble with any of our ADR's by showing up with too few people. Back then we could still transfer ADR's here in the DIS, so I picked up a few extras last minute. They were for more people, but once again, not a problem at all.

I hope you and your daughter have a great time bonding over photography. Do I see dueling tripods in your future??????

 

[fla4fun]

Sorry...dining plan with 40% off code. We would have to purchase DP if we stay with them. Our room is FD.

There is one other option, depending on whether you are using ME or not. If you are, it won't work.

You can add people to the room at the point of check in, and they don't have to be on the same package. So you could be added to your parents room at check in, and pay the extra adult charge, without being forced to buy the dining plan or buying specific tickets.

So I would probably consider buying 10 day tickets for you and your daughter (somewhere like UT, where you can get a discount), staying with your parents and paying for your meals OOP, and then moving to the FD reservation when DH and DS arrive. Since the minimum ticket you can buy is a two day, you would have four two day tickets, or enough admission to cover four days for DH and DS, on the FD package.

The reason this won't work if you are using ME is because technically, you won't be listed anywhere as a resort guest until you become part of your parents room reservation.

Good luck!

 

[mouselovenfamily]

You can add people to the room at the point of check in, and they don't have to be on the same package. So you could be added to your parents room at check in, and pay the extra adult charge, without being forced to buy the dining plan or buying specific tickets.

So I would probably consider buying 10 day tickets for you and your daughter (somewhere like UT, where you can get a discount), staying with your parents and paying for your meals OOP, and then moving to the FD reservation when DH and DS arrive. Since the minimum ticket you can buy is a two day, you would have four two day tickets, or enough admission to cover four days for DH and DS, on the FD package. Good luck!

I've never heard of the option of just adding to a room and paying the difference. Interesting. If we did that we would buy a 8 day UT ticket, pay OOP for meals and the two day add on with DH & DS. I'll have to check that option out.
Thanks!

 

[fla4fun]

I've never heard of the option of just adding to a room and paying the difference. Interesting. If we did that we would buy a 8 day UT ticket, pay OOP for meals and the two day add on with DH & DS. I'll have to check that option out.
Thanks!

The important thing is that you have to do the check in first, then add the additional guests. It's something about having the computer system issue any package components first - once that is done, then the additional guests don't have to be on the package.

 

[Rylee]

This thread is a big mess.. gave me a headache.

Ok, so if I followed along...

Your room has Free Dining. You and DD might arrive a few days ahead of DH & DS, correct?

If you choose to leave your reservation as is, I just want to mention many people have posted regarding the check-in policy for the Free Dining discount - Disney/CM's can require all people listed on the reservation be present during check-in. This came about because some people added "ghost" guest to their room to gain extra dining credits.

Of course it will depend on the CM checking you in. I can tell you the one and only time we went for free dining, I was allowed to check-in without DH present, and his credits were activated, although DH was arriving later that same day. (DH, a singer, had a gig, so the kids and I flew down a few days ahead of DH. He's all about the parks, but the kids and I enjoy resort time, too, so we checked in to POR, no tix, no dining. On the morning of his arrival, we switched resorts and check-in for our package with tix and free dining. No problems.)

Probably the worst they would do is not activate their credits until their arrival, but I wanted you to be aware of the possibility so you don't assume you'll have extra credits to use.

 

[mouselovenfamily]

This thread is a big mess.. gave me a headache.

Ok, so if I followed along...

Your room has Free Dining. You and DD might arrive a few days ahead of DH & DS, correct?

If you choose to leave your reservation as is, I just want to mention many people have posted regarding the check-in policy for the Free Dining discount - Disney/CM's can require all people listed on the reservation be present during check-in. This came about because some people added "ghost" guest to their room to gain extra dining credits.

Of course it will depend on the CM checking you in. I can tell you the one and only time we went for free dining, I was allowed to check-in without DH present, and his credits were activated, although DH was arriving later that same day. (DH, a singer, had a gig, so the kids and I flew down a few days ahead of DH. He's all about the parks, but the kids and I enjoy resort time, too, so we checked in to POR, no tix, no dining. On the morning of his arrival, we switched resorts and check-in for our package with tix and free dining. No problems.)

Probably the worst they would do is not activate their credits until their arrival, but I wanted you to be aware of the possibility so you don't assume you'll have extra credits to use.

Welcome to my world!! This has been crazy! But it will be fine.

Thanks for your input and you are following correctly. So lets say DD and I do check in early, even if they only give us our credits, we should be fine. We should each receive 10 credits of each. So that should be enough to get us through till the guys arrive, then we can use theirs, right?? Since the DP doesn't limit the amount of credit used in a day, I think it will work. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Since my DS is missing so many days, we let him pick meals he really wants to hit. On our last day, after our friends leave, we plan on using 16 TS credits!!! That's a huge amount of food!

Planning is alot of the fun for me, and this has been nuts. But we are still going so it's still fun!

 

[PA Princess]

What a tough and complicated situation. It does seem hard to believe that removing two people from a reservation can mean so little difference in price, but when you see it all broken out it makes sense.

It is difficult to believe that at your son's age there is so little leniency with sports schedules and try outs (especially since they changed the original dates). Truly it seems like something could be worked out to avoid changing a family's entire trip.

For the most part we plan our trips to avoid school days. However, we have a family tradition of taking each child to Disney for their 5th birthday...all 3 olders had the good sense to be born in summer , but our last dd was born 12/20. So last year we pulled our 3 older kids from school (1 elementary, 1 middle school, and 1 high school).

By far the biggest deal was made by the high school and sadly not for academic reasons at all (teachers were fine and principal signed off easily). Son's swim coach tried to give him a rough time...until my husband spoke to the coach. Family first was the line we made and the coach had to respect that....period. He didn't like it, but he respected it and nothing further was said to ds.

Ds is a talented swimmer (he was one of only 2 who qualified for states last season on his team and he was a freshman) and he works hard (he made up two practices for every one missed from our trip...that meant being at 6 am practices before school many days last winter), and in the end I am sure all of that placated the coach as well. But seriously, I think people take school sports way too seriously...it can be kinda crazy.

 

[Rylee]

Welcome to my world!! This has been crazy! But it will be fine.

Thanks for your input and you are following correctly. So lets say DD and I do check in early, even if they only give us our credits, we should be fine. We should each receive 10 credits of each. So that should be enough to get us through till the guys arrive, then we can use theirs, right?? Since the DP doesn't limit the amount of credit used in a day, I think it will work. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Since my DS is missing so many days, we let him pick meals he really wants to hit. On our last day, after our friends leave, we plan on using 16 TS credits!!! That's a huge amount of food!

Planning is alot of the fun for me, and this has been nuts. But we are still going so it's still fun!

Believe me, I know exactly what it's like to try to plan family vacations for and active family... X 5! Our 5 children are 20 years apart, and everyone of them play/played sports, baseball, basketball, volleyball, track, etc., plus they are/were involved in numerous other activities, dance, band, choir, school and community plays, etc. In fact, our boys, 9 & 12, started L.L. baseball in May, then made All-Stars, and just finished Fall-Ball, playing on 2 different teams. Whew... I'm exhausted.

And, I can tell you... it doesn't get any easier. Even though our girls are older now, when we go on vacation, all are invited. That means working around college calendars and work schedules, and flying in and out on different dates. The last time the entire family was able to vacation at WDW together was 2006, prior to then, it was 2000.

I can't say what will happen at check-in. It's possible the CM will not ask to see all people on the reservation. If that's the case, the credits for all 4 of you will be available from the time of check-in. If they do require all of you to be present, I'm not sure how they will handle it when you say 2 will be arriving at a later date.

Hope it all works out and you have a great time.

 

[Tinkh]

Sorry, did not read the entire thread. Just wanted to broach something you could try. My niece plays travel softball, volleyball and basketball. Since my niece travels all over the country in softball all year round, she often ends up with overlaps. Try contacting the coach personally and ask them to schedule a private tryout. At our school and in our area these are quite common. It is worth the try. Good luck!

 

[Disneybuckeye]

Good luck to your son, and I am sure with all of the Dis help you will get it all straightened out. I do think you should vefity that practice does not start immediately. I had 3 kids who played 21 Varsity HS sports between them and they all had practices immediately after tryouts and practiced during school breaks. For example, during Christmas break my boys had practice everyday except Christmas for swimming and my daughter did not have practice only Christmas Eve and Christmas Day for basketball. Now, their teams were all really good (2 National titles, 8 state titles, 3 or 4 second place in state between them). To be competitive at that level in Div 1 in our state takes a huge committment during the high school season, and year round during club/AAU season, so we may not be the norm. College athletics are acutally easier on the schedule. Hope it all works out and you have a great trip!

 

[Microcell]

Sorry, did not read the entire thread. Just wanted to broach something you could try. My niece plays travel softball, volleyball and basketball. Since my niece travels all over the country in softball all year round, she often ends up with overlaps. Try contacting the coach personally and ask them to schedule a private tryout. At our school and in our area these are quite common. It is worth the try. Good luck!

Tee hee, my brain exploded two pages ago with all the factors! I like this option best! My DD's middle school calendar is sitting here on the desk as we also try to find the least intrusive, but most affordable option for our family.. so I understand how confusing things can get!