Can we do a Split Stay with free dining???

[kandb]

I know the answer is probably no without paying extra for tickets but we are staying at POR and wondering if we can go to BC for our last 4 nights? Would we have to re-purchase tickets for our 2nd stay at the BC? My question really is, will it cost more then the upgrade for the price of the room at the BC? Thanks for your help.

 

[Missytara]

I know the answer is probably no without paying extra for tickets but we are staying at POR and wondering if we can go to BC for our last 4 nights? Would we have to re-purchase tickets for our 2nd stay at the BC? My question really is, will it cost more then the upgrade for the price of the room at the BC? Thanks for your help.

With free dining, you have to make it a package and purchase a minimum 2 day ticket - one day ticket for regular dining.

You can make your first ticket the length of stay and purchase the second ticket, not activate it and save it for a future trip. You can upgrade it after first use and pay the difference to upgrade.

 

[Sue M]

You are right, the problem is you need tickets for each package, and I believe the minimum is 2 day tickets for each person.

What some do is buy length of stay tickets on first res. then save the 2 day tickets for a return trip, upgrading them at the park to however many days they need. Of course this only works if you are planning a return trip. And on return trip planning a room only, not a package with tickets as you will already have tickets.

 

[minnie mum]

So the short answer is yes, it will cost you more. You might want to look at getting length of stay tickets with the free dining package at POR, then a room only discount for BC instead, and paying OOP for your meals. This might save you a lot more money than paying for free dining at BC.

 

[chasgoose]

So the short answer is yes, it will cost you more. You might want to look at getting length of stay tickets with the free dining package at POR, then a room only discount for BC instead, and paying OOP for your meals. This might save you a lot more money than paying for free dining at BC.

If you are staying at a deluxe, the room only discounts start to approach the savings you would get with free dining anyways. The current discount would pretty much cover the cost of the regular dining plan for two people. I would crunch the numbers to see what the best combination is (1. split stay with FD on both but more expensive per day tickets or 2. split stay with FD at POR and RO discount at BC and cheaper per day tickets) but I bet that option 2 will be your best bet.

Switching to RO may be nice because it could allow you a bit of a respite from feeling obligated to take maximum advantage of the dining plan. Load up on the more expensive restaurants for the first part of your trip and then focus on the cheaper OOP ones for the second half.

 

[kandb]

Thanks everyone. I had a feeling it would cost extra, but keeping the 2nd set of tickets for a future date is a possibility. Room only would probably be more because with FD, we have 2 adults, 2 disney adults and 1 child, so ddp would be well over $200/night. Our family also loves having a nice sit down dinner every night (actually I think it's mommy who loves it the most), and we have all our adr's planned. Thanks

 

[chasgoose]

I still think RO will save you more money. The 30% discount will save you $105 per night. The standard dining plan for your group costs about $240 per night. So if you did RO and then paid for the dining plan it would cost $135 more per night than getting free dining. Free dining only saves you $540 for the BC stay in terms of lodging and dining costs. I didn't factor in the cost of the deluxe dining plan since you still have to pay the difference with free dining anyways.

Lets say you stay 4 nights at POR and the BC. Buying two sets of 4 day tickets would cost about $200 more per person (the cost difference is roughly the same for adults and children) than buying one set of 8 day tickets for a total of $1000 for the trip. This cost goes up the longer your POR stay is. Thus free dining will still cost you about $460 more for your trip.

Also, you would have to pay extra in order to get the non-expiration option. For a 4 day ticket that will run about $90 per ticket for a total of $450. I guess that could be cheaper if you knew you were going to WDW again before your Disney child becomes an adult, but I would still price it out all the different ways.

Edited because I misread your post thinking you only had two adults and 1 child. As you can see you still save money because the extra costs for your tickets go up with each additional person.