dining plan if people join you mid-trip

[HappyCamperToo]

How does the plan work if three people are in the room from the start, but one teen joins us after a day?

We'll have to buy her the same admission ticket--isn't that right?

So, do they give her food credits for only the nights she's there, or (wishful) the same as the rest of us?

I thought I'd heard someone say something like just add her to the room when she actually arrives? Is this financially advantageous in some way?

What if she decides to leave early? Will they dock our account for her credits? You get dining credits all upfront, right, so what if they're all spent?

 

[Tricia1972]

In October we had the exact same situation with my sister joining us a day late.

About us - We are DVC, stayed at Saratoga Springs and my sister couldn't make it the first day.

We could either check in with her on day one, pay for that night's credits for her, and she'd just arrive the next day (she was also able to take the Magical Express without the rest of the group)

OR

We could check in without her on day one, pay for just our credits, and then check out and check in the next day. However, they couldn't guarantee us the same room the next day.

We crunched numbers and figured out how to use her extra credits and just paid for her from the start. Even if we'd lost on the credits $38.99 (cost of plan last year) was worth it to know we didn't have to move the second day we were there.

If she'd left early the plan would have been paid for in her name for the nights that we were there, so we'd have had her credits to use at our discretion.

Her park ticket (10 day hopper) would have expired as usual after she left, unless we'd paid extra for her to upgrade to a non-expiring ticket.

 

[HappyCamperToo]

We could either check in with her on day one, pay for that night's credits for her, and she'd just arrive the next day (she was also able to take the Magical Express without the rest of the group)

So you could check in for someone who has not yet arrived, even though Disney knows this because they are using DME the next day? Just checking. Sounds too good to be true....

 

[Tricia1972]

So you could check in for someone who has not yet arrived, even though Disney knows this because they are using DME the next day? Just checking. Sounds too good to be true....

It was no problem for us, I called several times before the trip to verify this, and even questioned further because of the DME. This is exactly what we did and it was no problem, even when sis used DME. (Though she hated it, but that's a whole 'nother story )

 

[jenseib]

I wouldn't even mention it. Just have her checked in the first day you are. The extra day on the ticket will only be a couple of dollars if you are staying for more than 4 days. I don't know if she would be able to use Magical Express though.