Meal Plan and tickets with DVC rental

[jigray3]

We have been considering renting points for a stay in a DVC property. As a fallback, we made reservations for the Wilderness Lodge through Travelocity, and had planned to get our base park admission tickets through a ticket broker, all in an attempt to save a little money. According to Disney, however, that the only way to get the Magic You Way meal plan is to book everything (room, tickets, and meals) as a package through Disney, which means no Travelocity, no brokers, and negates all attempts at saving money. In this instance, while we'd like the meal plan, we'd lose all the money we were saving on room and tickets, so it is cheaper overall to buy our meals out of pocket, at least until we spend more than our savings plus the cost of the meal plan.

My question is how this works if we go through the DVC. If we rent points and acquire a reservation from a DVC member, I understand we must purchase the meal plan simultaneously, but what about tickets? What happens if we rent an existing reservation? Can the meal plan and/or tickets be added after the fact?

 

[Chuck S]

DVC reservations do not ever include park tickets, you may purchase them where ever you wish, even if you get the dining plan. If you want the dining plan, inform the member you are renting the reservation from. They will make the arrangements for you, and you will pay for the Dining Plan when you check-in at your resort, DVC Member Services does not accept any sort of pre-payment for tickets or dining. Paying for the room is a private trasacton between you and the owner, just like renting someones house. Disney/DVC will not become involved in the transaction at all, even if things "go sour" between you and the DVC owner.

 

[JimMIA]

The info you received from Disney is correct. The MYW with Dining plan is a package and you either take it all or get none of it. It's not a menu of options to select from.

It's rack rate for the room (or a AAA discount), at least one base park ticket per person, and the dining plan for each person in your group for each night of your stay. Whether that saves you money or not, only you would know. If not, don't do it.

With DVC, you pay whatever you pay to rent your ressie, and you buy the dining plan for each member of your party for each night of your stay...but there is no park ticket requirement.

However, if you are going to rent a DVC ressie, you will need to go to school on renting because it is quite different from making a regular hotel reservation.