Dining credits sharing?

[pooch]

the cost savings realized by free DDP would more than outweigh the cost of purchasing a currently unneeded 2 day ticket. DD and I are going with free DDP in Aug. She has an AP so doesn't NEED a ticket but I will get 2 day base tickets and upgrade mine at arrival. I will gladly exchange $163 in tickets I can still use later for free food for the trip! Of course, given a short 4 day trip, perhaps you can feed him for less than the price of a ticket. Perhaps you could price out what & where you'll be eating & compare that to how much it would cost to just add him to the package. I would call at least a week in advance to "add" him to the room and also call DME to be sure he's also added there.

And, last year, DD joined DBr & I for a few days of our Free DDP trip. I was able to add her to the room at check-in (CM said, "You can't possibly be 25. I think you're 17!" and didn't charge me to add her) but was not able to add her to the package. She drove up from Sarasota so DME was not an issue.

 

[Debbie Jean]

Let's be honest.... even Walt doesn't know!

In every cast member handbook there is a section called "Flying by the seat of your pants" That's why if you call Disney 3 times and ask the same question to 3 different cast members you will get 3 different answers... and they will all swear on their sainted mothers grave that what they are telling you is absolutely true!!

 

[catne]

In every cast member handbook there is a section called "Flying by the seat of your pants" That's why if you call Disney 3 times and ask the same question to 3 different cast members you will get 3 different answers... and they will all swear on their sainted mothers grave that what they are telling you is absolutely true!!

kind of like calling the IRS with a tax question...

 

[maxiesmom]

I talked with a CM this afternoon. He said it is not a big deal for ME, they are not going to leave a 7yo at the airport. I have to call a week ahead to let them know. As far as the EMH is concerned, the resort will transfer his 4 day ticket without dining to the KTTW card. We will have to pay out of pocket for his meals.

They will not transport anyone who is not on a Disney resort reservation. At the very least, you can expect to have to pay for him, and you may get lucky enough they would put him on a Magical Express bus. If not, you will have to pay for 2 people to use the Mears shuttle, as they will not transport him alone, not that you would allow that either.

Please believe the posters here! I would hate for you to show up at the airport and end up with a huge problem. Which is what will happen if you don't and your child to the reservation. It is easy enough to fix this, just downgrade everyone to the lowest pass possible, add your son to the reservation with the pass, and then upgrade the passes (except for your sons) once you get to the parks.

 

[aubriee]

They will not transport anyone who is not on a Disney resort reservation. At the very least, you can expect to have to pay for him, and you may get lucky enough they would put him on a Magical Express bus. If not, you will have to pay for 2 people to use the Mears shuttle, as they will not transport him alone, not that you would allow that either.

Please believe the posters here! I would hate for you to show up at the airport and end up with a huge problem. Which is what will happen if you don't and your child to the reservation. It is easy enough to fix this, just downgrade everyone to the lowest pass possible, add your son to the reservation with the pass, and then upgrade the passes (except for your sons) once you get to the parks.

I have personally seen this. The people just in front of us had an extra kid that was not on the resort reservation and he was not allowed to get on the DME bus. Now this kid was older (probably 14 or 15 y/o). They were right in front of us, where you check in at those two little podiums and they mark your DME booklet and ask how many bags you checked and then direct you to the proper line. When the CM saw the third kid, she asked why only three people were listed on the DME booklet. The people said the kid was a friend of their son's who decided to come, but because he had an AP, they decided not to add him to pkg because they didn't want to have to buy him a park ticket, as the rest of them were on the DDP and they were just going to pay OOP for his meals. The CM told them the kid was not eligible to ride DME and they would have to either get him a taxi or buy him a ticket on Mears and one of them could ride with him. She said there was no way to add him at the airport and they were not allowed to transport people not listed on the reservation, although since Mears runs DME if they booked him a transfer through Mears, Mears might place him on the DME bus, but she couldn't guarantee it and he might be placed in one of their vans. The family was upset and held the line up quite awhile arguing with her. Someone else came over and talked to them, but they didn't budge and just kept saying that without being on the room reservation they could not put the kid on a DME bus. The dad finally said to just forget it and they'd get a taxi.

Now the OP could get him on the bus back to the airport. Simply add him to the room at check in and then call the DME number and add him. You can't get the DDP at check in, but you can add someone to the room, which would then qualify them for extra magic hours and to use DME back to the airport. You'd have to pay and find another way to get him from the airport to the resort though.

 

[Firedad]

OK, just an update and thanks for all the info. I first called the Pop front desk twice on two different days. Both CM's said that adding my 7yo son was not a problem. I specified I was adding him to the room and not the package. It is cool with them and he can get his TTTW card for XMH's. I did the same thing calling ME directly. They added his name and his bus tickets and tags will arrive next week. On my second call to ME the person was confused since the first call took care of everything. Of course I will have a plan B if this all doesn't work, but I feel pretty good right now. Of course I also plan on paying OOP for the 7 yo's meals. I will also update this post when I am holding the ME tickets and actualy go on vacation. Thanks again.

 

[sjs314]

I do hope everything works out for you and your family. I do feel I should mention the fact that even dialing the phone number for POP or any resort for that matter does not actually go to the front desk it is still out sourced. Even when actually at the resort you do not get the front desk according to what I have read and it is best to appear in person at the front desk for any problems.

That being said I do know that on one of the resort threads here a CM that works at the resort had many times said to add a person or person before arrival since with the new reservation system it is difficult to add a person at check-in.

 

[Firedad]

Update: I got the additional ME tickets for my &yo son!! Now we can get to Pop and they will just add his name to the room without adding him to the package. So far everything is going as the CM said. Again I am planning on paying his meals oop. Thanks

 

[catne]

Glad the first part of this has worked out so well

Come back & give us a trip report when you're back...we love to hear about a great vacation

 

[sjs314]

Update: I got the additional ME tickets for my &yo son!! Now we can get to Pop and they will just add his name to the room without adding him to the package. So far everything is going as the CM said. Again I am planning on paying his meals oop. Thanks

Happy all is working out............have a magical time at Disney !

 

[Firedad]

OK for all that may still read this, everything went great. My 7 year old was added to the room but his tickets could not be added to his room card. No big deal just had to bring both ticket and room card especialy during EM hours. We paid for most of his meal out of pocket had no issue adding his meal when we wanted to. End result we had just enough credits without having to buy useless snacks or meals. Thanks all!

 

[cathydwin]

this may not have been true for you, but it was true for us... so let's say that "it depends" on whether or not you can add a last-minute guest to a package stay including dining... what it depends on? well, one can only guess... resort cm? the weather? way the wind is blowing? walt disney only knows for sure

When I did a solo trip back in Feb 2010, CM stated that I would need to add the dinning at least 3-4 days before I arrived so the systems [dining and hotel] could talk to one another! We have tried to add dining once at WDW but no go. good Luck