Dining plan for only part of a trip?

[bangzoom6877]

I just read that DVC members staying at a DVC resort on points can add any of the dining plans to part of their reservation, and that it is no longer required to get it for the entire length of stay.

Sorry if this sounds ignorant...but...here goes...

Does that mean that theoretically, you could get the deluxe dining plan every other night of your stay? I know that the dining plan credits technically expire at midnight on your "check-out" day. So, let's say you stay 7 nights, and you only want the deluxe dining plan for nights 1, 3, 5 and 7, so you can spread out your credits on the days in between...can you do this? Or is there a limit?

I just found out about this, and even though our next trip is in summer 2012, we are already thinking about whether deluxe dining for a portion of our 10-night trip would be better than upgrading my ticket to the AP and buying the TIW card (which worked out nicely this past July).

 

[VLee]

Technically, it can be done; however, in order to have the dining plan on some days and not some days, separate reservations would have to be made for each day. If this was doable, all the stays would be on the same "travel" plan.
For example, for Day 1, you would make a separate reservation, then on the next day you would have to call again to make another reservation, day 3, call again, etc.
If you tell them that you want the DDP, you have to pay for it at the time.
I have made 3 separate reservations for my stay in November and plan to add the DDP only to the mid-portion of my stay at a later date. But as it stands now, all 3 reservations are on the same "travel plan." -- so I will not have to change rooms, etc.

 

[Sandisw]

Yes, it can be done. What they do is segment your reservation. If you call right at the 11 month window, I don't know if you can segment during that call or if you have to call back, once you pass the 11 month window for all the dates.

You do not have to actually add the DDP during the call in which you segment as it now has to be paid for when added.

I am thinking of doing this for one night during my August trip. I am waiting to see what happens with my reservation tomorrow as my 7 month window opens up and I want to change the first two nights.

If I get what I want, I will then call back and ask them to segment my first two nights so I can do the DxDDP for night 1. Then, I may get it for it for night 3, the night we change resorts.

 

[VLee]

Yes, if you are calling at the 11-month window, you must wait for the actual 11-month date to open up. You could not make separate reservations or segment until the window is open. I recently did just this.

 

[Sandisw]

Yes, if you are calling at the 11-month window, you must wait for the actual 11-month date to open up. You could not make separate reservations or segment until the window is open. I recently did just this.

Thanks! So, the best bet is to book your entire stay during the first call and then call back to segment later. That is good to know!

 

[VLee]

Thanks! So, the best bet is to book your entire stay during the first call and then call back to segment later. That is good to know!

I may have been misinformed, but MS told me that if I tried to segment later, then I would actually have to "cancel" that day and hope that it is still available for rebooking. That is why I ended up calling three times for booking my stay in November. I would be glad to know if that was incorrect information from MS.

 

[bangzoom6877]

Segmenting a reservation sounds very complicated. Hopefully they will work that out and make it a little easier to do in the near future.

I was looking at numbers yesterday, and thinking that our 10-night trip may look something like this:

Nights 1-4: DxDDP
Night 5: No dining plan
Nights 6-9: DxDDP
Night 10: no dining plan

That would give us a total of 8 nights on the DxDDP. We would stretch out the credits on the 5th day, when we wouldn't be on a dining plan that night, as the credits don't expire until midnight. We could also stretch out the credits for the 10th day. Only thing is, we would then have to pay for a character breakfast on the final morning of the trip (the morning right after night 10), as the credits would expire on midnight of night 10.

I looked at the cost for this in 2011 dining plan prices, and 8 nights on the deluxe plan would cost us $1615.68 for the 4 of us (2 adults, 2 children). Then we would have to add in the cost of an OOP character breakfast on the final morning of the trip. This past July, when I added up the cost of upgrading to the AP, plus the cost of the TIW card, plus the cost of food plus tax, it came out to $1686, based on 2010 prices and the 20% TIW discount. So, segmenting our reservation might be the way to go in 2012, but I have to see the dining plan prices when they come out. I know it is far off, but I'm crazy and I love doing all this planning and thinking about Disney!

Another option would be to do this:

Night 1: basic DDP
Nights 2-4: DxDDP
Night 5: no dining plan
Nights 6-9: DxDDP
Night 10: no dining plan
Final morning: pay OOP for character breakfast

I believe the total cost for the dining plans in this example would be $1533.68. Then we would pay for the breakfast OOP on the last morning. Now the question is...in the example above, how would they regulate the credits since night 1 is basic DDP (whose credits expire at midnight on night 2), and night 2 has the deluxe plan (whose credits will be in effect at before the basic plan's credits expire from night 1)?

OK, so I know I totally confused everyone now...sorry! If you are not confused and you understand everything I said, what do you think? We only go to WDW once every other year, so the AP is not a necessity, it just made more sense this past summer to plan the trip the way we did.

 

[disney ny]

Ok I am trying to understand this as maybe this is what I should do. So if I get the DXDP on say day 2 we would get those credits on day 2 but have until the end of day 3 to use them- so 3 ts credits to use day 2 and 3? Then if I did it again on day 4 I would have until the end of day5 to use those 3 credits? This might work out for us~Do I have to segment a reservation to do this?

 

[dmancuso]

Yes, your whole stay.

 

[TinkerBelle920]

I spoke with MS about this yesterday and they said they can segment the dining out but you would have to check in and check out everytime there was a change in your dining so if you did the plan every other day then you would pretty much be checking in/out every day of your stay

 

[disney ny]

I called and segmented my reservation today to get the DXDP on day 2 and 5. MS told me I would NOT have to check in and out as I have one linked reservation and one confirmation #. I was so excited about this- it is going to save us a lot of money as you basically have 2 days to use the credits.

 

[bangzoom6877]

I called and segmented my reservation today to get the DXDP on day 2 and 5. MS told me I would NOT have to check in and out as I have one linked reservation and one confirmation #. I was so excited about this- it is going to save us a lot of money as you basically have 2 days to use the credits.

That is very good news!

So, if I book my July 2012 trip this coming August at the 11-month mark, I could wait until January 2012 (when I make my dining reservations) to segment my reservation and add the dining plans on the days I need them, correct? I have until 48 hours before check-in to do this, right? And...I pay for the dining plan(s) I add at the time I add them, right?

Now one other question...if I pay for the dining plan when I add it, could I still change my mind and take away or modify the dining plan (as long as it's earlier than 48 hours before check-in)?

 

[Sandisw]

That is very good news!

So, if I book my July 2012 trip this coming August at the 11-month mark, I could wait until January 2012 (when I make my dining reservations) to segment my reservation and add the dining plans on the days I need them, correct? I have until 48 hours before check-in to do this, right? And...I pay for the dining plan(s) I add at the time I add them, right?

Now one other question...if I pay for the dining plan when I add it, could I still change my mind and take away or modify the dining plan (as long as it's earlier than 48 hours before check-in)?

Yes, you can cancel the plan. They would refund your money to whatever card you paid with.

I just sent MS an email today asking that my reservation be segmented for my August trip. I knew that I wasn't ready to book the dining plan but figured it was just as easy to have them do it this way.

I think we have decided to do DxDDP for night 1 and night 3. We will be at BWV for the first two nights and then move to BLT on night 3. I figured these were good nights to do it.

Plus, we will be there only 5 nights so this pretty much will cover the meals for 4 of the 6 days. I am excited to try the DxDDP as we never had!

 

[Ryansdad0727]

I just made my first DVC reservation for Dec 17-23 in a Treehouse Villa. Really excited and can't wait. I plan on calling and splitting the ressie for the dining plan later on. I was told it would not be a problem and that i would have to have the dining put on the KTTW card. It sounds like one extra trip to the concierge desk to get it done is all.

 

[bookwormde]

Yes if you are using 11+10 or 7+10 you have to go back and segment the reservation and the rooms must still be avialable to do this.

If the sytem is runnign correctly you do not have to change rooms, get new cards or anything else, although at the moments there tends to be more issues that successes

bookwormde

 

[disney ny]

One other note. When I did this yesterday the woman at MS told me they would segment it for me this time but in the future I need to "plan ahead' and segment at the time of reservation. She was a little rude about it which irked me since the option wasn't available to partially add the dining plan when I made my reservation last year. Anyway this may be something they get stricter about in the future. I don't see why.

 

[Sandisw]

One other note. When I did this yesterday the woman at MS told me they would segment it for me this time but in the future I need to "plan ahead' and segment at the time of reservation. She was a little rude about it which irked me since the option wasn't available to partially add the dining plan when I made my reservation last year. Anyway this may be something they get stricter about in the future. I don't see why.

That is why I sent an email to MS to have the reservation segmented. I figured I didn't want to deal with CM who either didn't know what to do or didn't want to do it.

I sent it Saturday and today got confirmation that it is all done, without any issues.

 

[TinkerBelle920]

That is why I sent an email to MS to have the reservation segmented. I figured I didn't want to deal with CM who either didn't know what to do or didn't want to do it.

I sent it Saturday and today got confirmation that it is all done, without any issues.

Do you mind me asking how you segmented your trip out? I am doing a 7 night stay in Sept. And I would like to do the deluxe plan 3 nights of our trip but not on consecutive nights. So if the first night I want the DDP and the second night I do not would I then have to check in and out on the day that I had no dining plan?

I would like to email and ask them to segment as well just wondering if you need to check in/out everytime there is a new dining plan or if it's everytime there is a change so even on the days where you switch from having the dining plan to not having it.

 

[Jenny-momof3]

I'm looking to rent points for our July trip this year. Is this something that the owner will need to do for me....or something I can do myself? I hate asking them to do so many different things. As it is...I'm already going to have to ask them to add the dining plan for me at a later date since I don't want to pay for the full thing now.

 

[rlovew]

I'm looking to rent points for our July trip this year. Is this something that the owner will need to do for me....or something I can do myself? I hate asking them to do so many different things. As it is...I'm already going to have to ask them to add the dining plan for me at a later date since I don't want to pay for the full thing now.

The owner would have to do it. I suggest thast when you are first arranging things you list off all the things you want and make sure the owner is okay with that beforehand so you don't have problems later.