Dining Plan and Required Packages

[SRUAlmn]

I just wanted to see if I'm the only one that's a little annoyed that the dining plan can only be added if you have a MYW package. We almost always do room only ressies due to receiving PINS, having APs in the past, etc... Does anyone know why you can't add the DP with a room only reservation? If I'm wrong, and you can, PLEASE LET ME KNOW We are going next week, and we'd love to do the QSDP, but the 40% off our room PIN was too good of a deal to pass up

Thanks

 

[2Tiggies]

It's business I guess. They want you to purchase dining, tickets and accommodation. By linking them it encourages people to book onsite and leads some to purchase at least a 1 day base ticket even if they don't need one, just to enable them to get the plan.

I assume you are talking about paid dining, not free dining? If you wanted free dining, even if you booked a MYW package, you would have to forfeit your discount.

No matter how you look at it, the park tickets and dining plans are linked. Howcome you didn't buy tickets? Do you have APs?

 

[2Tiggies]

Double post

 

[Faldred]

You can add the dining plan to AP or discounted reservations. They don't qualify for "free dining" packages, but you can do it.

 

[mousefan1972]

You can add the dining plan to AP or discounted reservations. They don't qualify for "free dining" packages, but you can do it.

AP holders can book a ticket-less package that consists of room + dining plan.

For any other type of discount (PIN, general public, bounceback, etc) a minimum of a one day base ticket purchase is required in order to get the DDP.

 

[TDC Nala]

DVC members booking through DVC member services are the only guests that can get the dining plan without purchasing a package. Although AP holders don't have to buy tickets to get a dining plan, they still have to book a package.

Many persons who book room only book them because they like the policies for deposit, change, cancellation, etc. better than they like those for packages - if they want a dining plan, they're stuck with the package rules.

If you're OK with booking a package to get a dining plan and buying tickets with it, call WDW, and check if your discount is applicable to a package reservation, or if there are similar discounts on packages for which you are eligible. If you only have a week to go it might be too late though.

 

[SRUAlmn]

Thanks everyone! I had no idea it was still an option. We had APs for the past 2 years, but didn't renew this year. We did room only because we got a 40% PIN and we have our GAD vouchers which we're going to apply to our tickets. Booking a package would have forfeited the 40% off our room and the base 1-day ticket from our GAD vouchers, so it wasn't worth it for us.

Yes, I'm talking about regular dining, not free dining. I'm a teacher, so we can never go when free dining is offered, but I did get a free QSDP PIN (actually, I got 4 of them!) but due to the reasons listed above, it wasn't as good of a value.

So....you're saying, we can add the DP to our PIN room-only reservation if we each buy a 1 night base ticket? If we did that, we could just upgrade those to the 6 day PHs and use our GAD passes to get the fast pass deal...hmm....

 

[TDC Nala]

So....you're saying, we can add the DP to our PIN room-only reservation if we each buy a 1 night base ticket? If we did that, we could just upgrade those to the 6 day PHs and use our GAD passes to get the fast pass deal...hmm....

Yes, if you convert the reservation to a package, add the 1 day base ticket and your discount is applicable to a package reservation.

 

[mousefan1972]

Thanks everyone! I had no idea it was still an option. We had APs for the past 2 years, but didn't renew this year. We did room only because we got a 40% PIN and we have our GAD vouchers which we're going to apply to our tickets. Booking a package would have forfeited the 40% off our room and the base 1-day ticket from our GAD vouchers, so it wasn't worth it for us.

Yes, I'm talking about regular dining, not free dining. I'm a teacher, so we can never go when free dining is offered, but I did get a free QSDP PIN (actually, I got 4 of them!) but due to the reasons listed above, it wasn't as good of a value.

So....you're saying, we can add the DP to our PIN room-only reservation if we each buy a 1 night base ticket? If we did that, we could just upgrade those to the 6 day PHs and use our GAD passes to get the fast pass deal...hmm....

Another option would be to upgrade your GAD vouchers to 6 day PH's as you had planned, and save the one day base tickets for another trip. As long as you don't use them in a turnstyle, they will not expire. The tickets will be encoded on your KTTW card, so be sure to put them in a safe place until your next trip. That would be a more cost effective option than using your GAD vouchers for FP's, since you will receive the value of a one day base ticket when you upgrade your GAD vouchers. That's $79 per adult! Have fun!

 

[SRUAlmn]

Another option would be to upgrade your GAD vouchers to 6 day PH's as you had planned, and save the one day base tickets for another trip. As long as you don't use them in a turnstyle, they will not expire. The tickets will be encoded on your KTTW card, so be sure to put them in a safe place until your next trip. That would be a more cost effective option than using your GAD vouchers for FP's, since you will receive the value of a one day base ticket when you upgrade your GAD vouchers. That's $79 per adult! Have fun!

Thanks! I had to do this last year when we booked the 4/3 package and I had an AP. It's nice to still have that for a future trip, but at this point, it's a matter of 'do we have an 'extra' $180 that we want to spend now for a future trip?' You know?

 

[mousefan1972]

Thanks! I had to do this last year when we booked the 4/3 package and I had an AP. It's nice to still have that for a future trip, but at this point, it's a matter of 'do we have an 'extra' $180 that we want to spend now for a future trip?' You know?

Yup, gotcha! We are AP holders, too, and only booked a package that required purchasing tickets once... it was December '08 and there was an awesome Disney Visa free dining plus room discount offer that was better than the AP rate, so we got 1 day base tickets even though we had AP's. We held onto them until April when we renewed our APs. Since then I haven't had an instance where a different discount beat the AP rate, so luckily we don't have any more 1 day base tickets lying around. That gets to kind of be a pain. Good luck with whatever you decide!

 

[SRUAlmn]

Yup, gotcha! We are AP holders, too, and only booked a package that required purchasing tickets once... it was December '08 and there was an awesome Disney Visa free dining plus room discount offer that was better than the AP rate, so we got 1 day base tickets even though we had AP's. We held onto them until April when we renewed our APs. Since then I haven't had an instance where a different discount beat the AP rate, so luckily we don't have any more 1 day base tickets lying around. That gets to kind of be a pain. Good luck with whatever you decide!

Thanks! I crunched and crunched and I just don't think the DDP would be a good deal for us. We don't normally spend $100 on food per day. The QSDP might be, but we like to do about 2-3 TS restaurants during our trip, so we'd be paying OOP for those and then we'd have a bunch of CS credits to use too.

So.....I guess we're keeping the reservation the same, BUT, thanks everyone for all your help, and especially thank you for letting me know that this IS an option. Good to know for the future