Can Dining credits be used one day early.

[gr8tdame]

Hi,
We booked a free dining package and upgraded it to deluxe DP from jan 8-17, 2012. We want to fly in a day early... (better selection of flights) but FD doesn't start until the 8th.
I will book a room for Jan 7th at the same resort ......We want to go to HS to see the last day of the Osborne family lights.
We have booked Deluxe Dining as we prefer sit down meals and I know for a fact that we will never use up our dining credits.
1. Can we access our park tickets a day early?
2. Can we access our Dining credits a day early?
Thanks.

 

[TDC Nala]

You may be able to access the park tickets a day early (there is a tickets sticky on the theme parks board that may have more information about this) but you cannot access your dining credits until you check in for the package on the 8th.

 

[greengeen]

1. No
2. No

A package = a package. It starts on your package check-in date.

I am wondering, why people pay for dining they know they won't use? Even if you use every credit, the dining plan is not a good deal for many people, just wondering why buy it?

 

[hushupu]

You can access your park tickets early I did a couple of weeks ago. Dining credits are not put on you KTTW card until you check in to your resort.

 

[TDC Nala]

1. No
2. No

A package = a package. It starts on your package check-in date.

I am wondering, why people pay for dining they know they won't use? Even if you use every credit, the dining plan is not a good deal for many people, just wondering why buy it?

In this case it was free dining with an upgrade, so it wasn't paying in full for the deluxe plan. At any rate there are many guests who like the dining plan enough they use it even if they won't end up using all the credits. It's all up to them; there's always the option not to get a dining plan or to get the basic rather than the deluxe.

There actually is the possibility that they can pick up their tickets early if they are willing to go to a Guest Services at a park or Downtown Disney to do it, and they should also realize that the tickets they are given will be separate from their KTTW card when they do check in for the package (there will not be park tickets encoded onto their KTTW card, because they will already have the park tickets). I am not sure if I would ask to have the tickets put onto the KTTW card, because the more you ask someone to change something about your card, the greater a chance there is for something to go wrong.

 

[NHKristy76]

Sorry... We are in the same boat. We are arriving on Thursday and the dining plan offer didn't start until Saturday. I begged and pleaded but was told there was NO way that they would allow me to use the tickets, or any other element from the package, until Saturday.


We're planning to do some resort hopping, spend some time at DTD, and depending on the weather we might spring for some tix at Typhoon Lagoon.

 

[purple figment]

I begged and pleaded but was told there was NO way that they would allow me to use the tickets, or any other element from the package, until Saturday.


.

While you can't access the dining plan early, you can pick up your park tickets up to three days early. It has to be done at Guest Relations at a park or DTD; it cannot be done at a resort. Here is a link to Cheshire Figment's detailed explanation of the process (see #15I in the thread.)

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1452684

 

[Allison]

1. No
2. No

A package = a package. It starts on your package check-in date.

I am wondering, why people pay for dining they know they won't use? Even if you use every credit, the dining plan is not a good deal for many people, just wondering why buy it?

As others have stated, that is not correct.

Tickets can be accessed up to 3 days early. The CM's on the phone will tell you it can't be done but the people actually at Disney World will do this.

However, dining credits cannot be accessed early.

 

[Missytara]

This has happened to me the last two years with discounts.

I arrive the Saturday after Thanskgiving and the discounts didn't start until Sunday.

I have a 7 day dining package with an 8 day ticket. I linked my reservations so I did not have to move the second day.

I check in for the room only the first night and head over to a park and pick up my ticket at guest relations; I do CS OOP for my meals.

Then I check-in at 7:00 am the next morning when the computers roll over; get my KTTW card and head over to the Concierge desk. They put my parks tickets on the KTTW card and I am good to go.

 

[gr8tdame]

Thanks everyone for your replies.
We will eat OOP our first day. I may cancel the upgrade to DXDP. In Sept we had free dining for 6 nights. The last day we had 8 CS left and 15 snack credits.
We usually eat 2 meals per day and paid OOP for extra TS lunches.

 

[melifeld]

We will be there the same time you are in January. We did the same thing and upgraded to DXDP. We made several ADRs for signature restaurants, as we knew we would not eat 3 full meals per day. We will have 24 meals per person and I think we have 5 signature ADRs, so that will take up 10 of the credits and be very enjoyable in the process. Now if we can just figure out how to use all the snack credits, we will be in good shape.

 

[Missyrose]

Have you made ADRs for all your DxDP credits? You may want to see what's available and that will make your decision for you about the DxDP.

 

[gr8tdame]

We will be there the same time you are in January. We did the same thing and upgraded to DXDP. We made several ADRs for signature restaurants, as we knew we would not eat 3 full meals per day. We will have 24 meals per person and I think we have 5 signature ADRs, so that will take up 10 of the credits and be very enjoyable in the process. Now if we can just figure out how to use all the snack credits, we will be in good shape.

We use some of the snack credits to get a double espresso or cappuccino.
The day before we leave I use all the snack credits by getting treats from the gift shop.

 

[Missytara]

We use some of the snack credits to get a double espresso or cappuccino.
The day before we leave I use all the snack credits by getting treats from the gift shop.

Ditto: a few years ago there were four of us. I don't know how it happened, but we ended up with tons of snack credits. We did snacks to bring home to family.

 

[DisneyLoverUSA]

Thanks everyone for your replies.
We will eat OOP our first day. I may cancel the upgrade to DXDP. In Sept we had free dining for 6 nights. The last day we had 8 CS left and 15 snack credits.
We usually eat 2 meals per day and paid OOP for extra TS lunches.

If you have CS credits left you can use them in your resort gift shop or food court to trade in for 3 snacks, such as the chocolate dipped Mickey shaped rice crispy treat heads, or bags of candy. All snack credits can be used up right before you leave to get treats to take home with you. There is no reason to just let all those credits go to waste. Map out your meals. Use them for breakfast if you need to use them up.