Exchanging counter service for snacks, and free dining for 5, 6 or 7 days?

[discnewbie]

Hi Everyone!

As you can all tell... I'm new at this. We're hoping to go to Disney next year (first time for kids, second for me!) and use the free dining. Originally we were thinking about going for 7 days, but using the free dining/magic your way package for the middle 5 and just adding the other two before and after days as travel days. However when I emailed the question to a Disney employee they said we could do that BUT we would have to physically check in and out of the rooms on those days, so I guess my original plan doesn't make sense. So then I looked into booking the 7 days as an entire package but just paying Magic Your Way for 5 days. Would the dining plan be for all 7 days, or just the 5 days?

Personally I'd rather get the gift card but that promo is not on at the time we are thinking about travelling (end of May). If I am missing another promo for this time period, let me know!

Thanks-- this looks like a great board!

 

[brockash]

The free dining is based on how many nights you're paying to stay at a resort, not the number of park days you have. There is usually a min. of 2 or 3 day park passes that you have to purchase, but I know it's not more than 5, so if you get a package staying 7 nights at a disney resort, and getting 5 day park passes, you'll get the free dining for all 7 nights you're at the resort.

 

[CR88]

We did something similar. We are annual pass holders so we didn't need park tickets but wanted to take advantage of the free dining and stay at POR last April. We stayed 6 days but only had to purchase park tickets for one day in order to get the free dining for our whole trip. We were then able to apply a credit from the unused park ticket to our annual pass renewal. It worked out nicely so I am sure you can get 5 days of park tickets and still get free dining for your whole trip.

 

[discnewbie]

Wow -- thank you both for such quick responses!

So maybe Plan B will work for us then... yay!

 

[TDC Nala]

We stayed 6 days but only had to purchase park tickets for one day in order to get the free dining for our whole trip.

For current free dining offers, a minimum of 2 day tickets is required.

If you stay at WDW 7 nights on a free dining package, you can purchase any number of days on your tickets, as long as you purchase at least 2 day tickets. You will get free dining credits for the entire 7 nights. There is no way to lessen the number of credits you get.

The information you got from a Disney employee is correct if you book separate room reservations - which would be the only way to get a dining plan for fewer nights. It would probably be more trouble than it's worth to book your first and last night as separate reservations. If I were you I'd just take the dining credits, they were free anyway (assuming you don't want to try for a room only discount) and you can use them anytime during your trip, even spring for some 2 credits meals or dinner shows with the extra TS credits if you're at a moderate or deluxe resort.