Dining Plan for One Night (multiple nights/reservations same resort)

[SamiL]

I used multiple waitlists to get my five-night stay at a single resort. Now I have five separate reservations. I thought about calling MS to merge them, but now I noticed I can add the dining plan on the DVCMember website. it's unlikely we'd get enough value out of a 5-night dining plan, but if I could purchase it for just the first night it could be a good value for us. Is there any downside to leaving the reservations separate and only purchasing the dining plan for the first night? I could probably call the resort and make sure we can stay in the same room the entire stay. Has anyone done this before? Is there something I'm not thinking of that could become a problem?

 

[Sandisw]

By not merging them, you risk not being kept in the same room and since the DDP is only on night one, it might increase those odds.

At one point, people were doing just this and DVC said it would no longer allow and that consecutive nights had to be combined.

And, we are seeing DVC auto merge on people, though I have never had it.

Now, we do a lot of split stays so it works for this strategy.

 

[Hubalorian]

I personally would find it hard to believe they’ll ask you to leave if you are at the same resort with same booking category. There is not a logical reason to have you move rooms unless they want mousekeeping to have to clean an extra room. Good luck!

 

[sbbobe]

Sandisw is correct in that you taking the chance of having to switch rooms. For our five split stays ( same room category) we have had to switch rooms twice. I will add that on one of our room switches we were upgraded to a one bedroom (SSR). Good luck and have a great time with whatever you decide to do.

 

[Sandisw]

I personally would find it hard to believe they’ll ask you to leave if you are at the same resort with same booking category. There is not a logical reason to have you move rooms unless they want mousekeeping to have to clean an extra room. Good luck!

Except that since the reservations will be the exact same, sans DDP, it simply may be that they do it for that reason alone.

They don’t want people to split reservations for DDP purposes. It’s a risk one at least has to be aware of and only one can decide if it would be worth it.

 

[Hubalorian]

Except that since the reservations will be the exact same, sans DDP, it simply may be that they do it for that reason alone.

They don’t want people to split reservations for DDP purposes. It’s a risk one at least has to be aware of and only one can decide if it would be worth it.

Completely fair, I could see that something they’d do.

 

[skier_pete]

I wouldn't risk it just for the reason of potentially having to switch rooms. The DDP is unlikely to save you enough money to be worth having to keep your bags packed up and send them to bell services. (Fact is also the DDP is unlikely to save you money period...)

 

[tjkraz]

By not merging them, you risk not being kept in the same room and since the DDP is only on night one, it might increase those odds.

At one point, people were doing just this and DVC said it would no longer allow and that consecutive nights had to be combined.

And, we are seeing DVC auto merge on people, though I have never had it.

Now, we do a lot of split stays so it works for this strategy.

It may be subject to even greater scrutiny in 2025 when WDW guests receive free waterpark access on their arrival day. A split stay means multiple "arrival days." Disney could further crack down on this to reduce the chances of people gaming the system.

I personally would find it hard to believe they’ll ask you to leave if you are at the same resort with same booking category. There is not a logical reason to have you move rooms unless they want mousekeeping to have to clean an extra room. Good luck!

We had an issue a few years ago with remaining in the same room for consecutive reservations. The resort had a wedding party incoming and had blocked off specific rooms several days in advance so that everyone would be grouped together. That block-off included our room. We were unable to stay in the same room because on our first reservation's "check-out day", they had earmarked the room to be part of the wedding party block.

This is probably an obscure scenario, but it does illustrate one of the potential problems. Fitting all of the incoming reservations together is often a big game of Tetris which has to be planned in advance. Without advance planning, there's a legitimate risk of not being able to accommodate someone with a Two Bedroom Lockoff reservation. Need to make sure that Studio + 1BR portions are being vacated on the same day.