Dining plan question

[halssister]

I may be asking this at the wrong place but maybe someone here can help me!

DH and I are taking our son to WDW at the end of October, our first trip. We used Visa Rewards points to buy our tickets already. Initially thinking we'd stay off site to save money but now leaning towards staying at a Moderate resort for convenience (and the pools....my son has autism and all he really wants to do is hang out at a cool pool!)

My question is this: Is there any way to get a dining plan now? We already purchased the park passes so we can't book a whole vacation through them. If we get something offering free dining, is there any way to take advantage of it, or are we basically screwed at this point? Our budget is pretty tight and paying for extra passes or something is not an option. Thanks for any insight you can provide!

 

[TDC Nala]

You can only get a dining plan if you book a room plus tickets package, so you'd have to buy at least a one-day base ticket for everyone age 3 and over registered on your reservation. You also can't book free dining unless you buy tickets. If you really want the plan badly, you can buy the one-day tickets. They never expire and you can use them on a later trip, even upgrade them.

One option is to look into renting points from a DVC member, as DVC reservations don't require a ticket purchase to add a dining plan to a reservation. If you have another trip planned within a year, you could consider upgrading one of your adults' tickets to an annual pass. Annual passholders can purchase a ticketless package with a room plus dining. Neither of these options are available with the free dining promotion - that can only be booked with a room plus tickets package.