How to get the dining plan when we're getting free park tickets..

[Buttercup2009]

I am currently booked for a room only 7 night stay in November but I'm hoping for free dining to be released while I'm there. Someone I know is working on trying to get my travel party free park tickets and I think that in order to get free dining I would need to buy one day park tickets for everyone in the room, correct? If we get free park tickets, can I not use that 1 day ticket and just use the free ones and keep the 1 day ticket for a future visit? Thanks for any info!

 

[Amy&Dan]

Yes you can. You will have to get park tickets with the FD package However the tickets you get as part of the package can be saved for a future trip. They are good until you want to use them. We have friends going next month who will be using tickets they got with free dining back in 2006.

Just keep those tickets in a safe place!

Also at some point in the future you can add days to those tickets or use them to upgrade to AP's.

 

[purple figment]

You will definitely be able to save the tickets for use in the future. In the past free dining has required 2 day tickets for each person and rack rate for the room.

 

[vicki_c]

The current free dining offer requires paying rack rate for the room, minimum 2 day ticket for everyone in the room and the purchase of the Photopass Photobook for $90.90. If that offer is extended, you would have to calculate carefully to figure out if all that is worth it to you to get free dining.

But even to add paid dining, you have to add a 1 day ticket to make your reservation a package.

 

[aubriee]

The current free dining offer requires paying rack rate for the room, minimum 2 day ticket for everyone in the room and the purchase of the Photopass Photobook for $90.90. If that offer is extended, you would have to calculate carefully to figure out if all that is worth it to you to get free dining.

But even to add paid dining, you have to add a 1 day ticket to make your reservation a package.

True! With an AP free dining is just not worth it this year for me. I'd lose the room discount, have to pay rack rate for the room, then $172.53 (for a two day base ticket--including tax) for every person in the room, then another $90.90 for a Photopass Photobook that I wouldn't even want. If you are staying at a moderate or deluxe and don't have bunch of kids the room discount is much better deal. As an AP holder I can add the DDP without having to buy park tickets, if I use the AP discount. However I currently have the bounceback offer booked for my Sept and Nov/Dec trips. Under my current deal if I add the DDP to either trip I'd still have to buy one day park tickets I don't need. When the AP discounts come out, I'll just have to run the numbers on all scenarios and see which is the best deal.

 

[beroh2253]

True! With an AP free dining is just not worth it this year for me. I'd lose the room discount, have to pay rack rate for the room, then $172.53 (for a two day base ticket--including tax) for every person in the room, then another $90.90 for a Photopass Photobook that I wouldn't even want. If you are staying at a moderate or deluxe and don't have bunch of kids the room discount is much better deal. As an AP holder I can add the DDP without having to buy park tickets, if I use the AP discount. However I currently have the bounceback offer booked for my Sept and Nov/Dec trips. Under my current deal if I add the DDP to either trip I'd still have to buy one day park tickets I don't need. When the AP discounts come out, I'll just have to run the numbers on all scenarios and see which is the best deal.

I also have the AP this year and will have to also run the numbers for free dining. I think if you would have to buy the 1 or 2 day park tickets to get the free dining you could use those tickets to pay towards your next AP but you arre still loosing the AP room discount and the Photobook I have enough of my own pictures I don't even take my camera most of the time anymore. Though we may not be getting a new AP right away for next year and if we don't get the AP the ticket could be used for a future trip. Another thing a 1 or 2 day ticket has a very high cost per day as compared to a 8 or 10 day. We are going in 2 weeks and not even getting any dining plan this time, we are using the AP discount in a few restaurants instead.

 

[TDC Nala]

You should note it's now 2 day park tickets for free dining, not 1 day tickets. That should enter into your calculations. Plus, as noted, the current offer includes an extra $90 for the photo book.

 

[Buttercup2009]

Ahh...thanks everyone for the responses! I wasn't aware of the new package that requires a two day ticket plus the photobook. I definitely wouldn't want the photobook or to pay for two day tickets for everyone in the room so I think it would be in our best interest to just pay for dining OOP. Thanks!

 

[aubriee]

Ahh...thanks everyone for the responses! I wasn't aware of the new package that requires a two day ticket plus the photobook. I definitely wouldn't want the photobook or to pay for two day tickets for everyone in the room so I think it would be in our best interest to just pay for dining OOP. Thanks!

I'm afraid that's what alot of AP holders may think. I go to WDW several times a year and have always used either the basic DDP or the DxDDP every single trip since they first introduced them. For the first time in years I don't have a DDP booked for either my upcoming Sept or Nov/Dec trips. Both are currently booked with the bounceback deal I used when we were down there a couple of weeks ago and would require me to add one day park tickets to each in order to add the DDP. I have enough of those one day tickets I have accumulated over the years for various deals I've booked. Since I go several times a year and since you can only use one ticket at a time to upgrade to an AP, I just don't want anymore of those one day (or two day) tickets.

When I booked those two bounceback deals two weeks ago, I needed one more day for my Nov trip that wasn't included in the bounceback dates and mentioned that I'd just wait until the AP discounts came out to book that one day. The CM said that the AP discounts would not be as good as the bounceback deal this year. Since I got about 35% off and that's usually what the AP discount is at a moderate I chose to take my chances. I may or may not switch those deals to an AP discount when they come out, but as soon as I started running the numbers I knew the current free dining offer wouldn't work for me (not with it requiring rack rate, two day park tickets for everyone, and that stupid $90.90 memory book).

 

[lacy1101]

Am I correct that if we get a 2 day ticket, but stay for 3 nights, that we get the free dining for all 3 nights of our stay? IOW, the dining is linked to our resort reservation, not our tickets, right?

 

[TDC Nala]

Am I correct that if we get a 2 day ticket, but stay for 3 nights, that we get the free dining for all 3 nights of our stay? IOW, the dining is linked to our resort reservation, not our tickets, right?

Yes.