Extra Guest part of stay and DDP?

[travelgirl06]

We currently have a September trip booked (without DDP) and recently started toying with having DMIL join us for part of the trip. If she joins us AND free dining is offered that might make more sense than our current room only discount.

So my question is this, suppose we are staying a week and DMIL comes for 4 days, will Disney allow me to add her to our room for those four days and can we buy tickets accordingly (I'm thinking we all need to "start" with the same ticket, but then can upgrade for those of us staying a week?). I presume she would get free dining for her 4 days and we would have it for our 7?

Any insights are much appreciated! I'm trying to at least come up with a few "options" before we get too far into the weeds of planning.

 

[4under4]

You have two choices...

1. Add her for the whole week
2. Do a split stay

If you book her for the the whole week, ALL tickets must be the same until you check in (at which point you can upgrade any subset you wish). You will end up with extra meal/snack credits (or she can eat 3 meals a day vs. 2). But you will only be able to make FP+ reservations for the number of days on everyone's tickets until you arrive on property and upgrade yours. If you do buy her a 7 day ticket, you can use her FP+ reservations even if she doesn't enter the park (unless that loophole gets closed before your trip).

The problem with a split stay is that you will end up paying a LOT more for your tickets as you will need to do a 4 and a 3 day ticket in order to get free dining for both parts.

 

[maxiesmom]

Note that if you do add her for the whole week, you will have to pay the additional adult charge for all of those nights. If free dining comes out, and is offered for the whole of your trip, the best thing to do is book a split stay.

 

[supersnoop]

Note that if you do add her for the whole week, you will have to pay the additional adult charge for all of those nights. If free dining comes out, and is offered for the whole of your trip, the best thing to do is book a split stay.

If free dining is offered, I think the extra dining credits would be worth the additional adult charge for the whole stay.

 

[maxiesmom]

If free dining is offered, I think the extra dining credits would be worth the additional adult charge for the whole stay.

To me, that is doing something you are not supposed to. And part of the reason why for a while Disney counted heads at check in. It would be dishonest to do, imho.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

You have another choice - don't add her until you arrive. There would be issues. Such as whether she needs to use DME and the fact that her fastpasses can't be booked at 60 days unless she is on the room reservation. She would NOT have any dining credits but she can buy her tickets separately.

You cannot add a partial dining plan. If you prefer to make just one room reservation, she either gets a full week of dining credits, or no dining credits.

With free dining you have to buy at least 2 day tickets for everyone. So she would have to have the same tickets as the rest of you. You could book just the 4 days of tickets she needs and upgrade the rest of you - but the issue there is that your party will not be able to book more than 4 days of fastpasses until you have upgraded your tickets.

And yes you can use the extra credits. They are allocated per room, not per person. There are now several disadvantages to adding a "phantom" person who will never show up (because if you want those fastpass bookings you now have to buy full stay tickets for your phantom), but that is not the case here.

 

[travelgirl06]

Thanks all! We'll chat with her and see how long she might be joining us to see if a split stay makes sense (I'm about 90% sure that buying two batches of tickets will NOT make the most sense though . Most likely we'll just stick with our room discount and add her to the nights we need on that, paying OOP for dining. But the idea of potentially "free" dining and not having to figure out bills at meals (other than tips) was fun to explore.

 

[Ava]

If you can get free dining, I would just add her to the full length of stay. The price difference between a 4-day and a 7-day ticket is only about $30. Even when you add in the extra adult charge per night of your stay, it's probably less expensive to do this than to do a split stay. Plus, you'd be able to use her extra dining credits and would not have to worry about anyone not being able to book FP+. I would try to time it so you are all arriving on the same day, and she just leaves early. That way there will be no questions at check-in.

 

[Nancyg56]

To me, that is doing something you are not supposed to. And part of the reason why for a while Disney counted heads at check in. It would be dishonest to do, imho.

DIsney does not care if you are all paying for the same package and one guest is not using all of the package details. The DDP credits are included in free dining, but that person is required to be using the same package for the entire stay. That means park tickets, adn the full adult per person charge in teh room.

 

[Nancyg56]

Thanks all! We'll chat with her and see how long she might be joining us to see if a split stay makes sense (I'm about 90% sure that buying two batches of tickets will NOT make the most sense though . Most likely we'll just stick with our room discount and add her to the nights we need on that, paying OOP for dining. But the idea of potentially "free" dining and not having to figure out bills at meals (other than tips) was fun to explore.

Actually, adding her to the full stay wil probably be your best bet. You are already paying for your room, and she wull have tickets for her length of stay, so if you figure what your OOP would be for her meals, you will probably be ahead. ALso, the credits are for th room, so you can use them as you please. Perhaps a signature dining experience would be nice.

 

[maxiesmom]

DIsney does not care if you are all paying for the same package and one guest is not using all of the package details. The DDP credits are included in free dining, but that person is required to be using the same package for the entire stay. That means park tickets, adn the full adult per person charge in teh room.

I agree. That wasn't what the post I was replying too was about. It was about adding the adult for the whole stay, even though they wouldn't be there the whole time. For a while Disney was indeed counting heads at check in in an effort to keep people from adding extra invisible people to their reservation.

 

[Nancyg56]

I agree. That wasn't what the post I was replying too was about. It was about adding the adult for the whole stay, even though they wouldn't be there the whole time. For a while Disney was indeed counting heads at check in in an effort to keep people from adding extra invisible people to their reservation.

Yes, that was for the phantom guests. Folks would but book extra guests and only but the minimum number of passes.