Park Hopper Tickets/Free Dining - Conflicting Info from CM's

[canadiandisneymommy]

I have a 6 day park hopper attached to my free dining reservation in mid November. I want to know whether I can start using my 6 day park hoppers earlier if I decided to check in with a room only reservation a day or two earlier than free dining. The CM in the chat room said that I could but that I would not be able to book advanced FP reservations for my earlier nights. The CM over the phone told me I can't use them earlier and would have to wait until after I check in at the resort for free dining. I also have an annual pass and asked if I can use this instead for my November trip and save my park hopper for a future trip; the CM over the phone said yes and that I would have to do this at the concierge desk when I check in. Anyone with experience with any of these situations?

 

[alc571]

I would say that the CM over the phone is correct. You wouldn't have access to your park hopper pass until you checked in for your Free Dining reservation. If you have an AP, you can make your FP reservations at 60 days out from your earlier reservation, so long as your tickets are linked in MDE. And yes, you go to the concierge desk after you check-in and they will set your AP to be the priority ticket on your MagicBand so you're using your AP when you enter the parks. You can save your hoppers for when you renew your AP, or use them at a later date. The expiry only starts running from the first day you use them.

 

[Oneanne]

My last trip was a complex 10 day split-trip: first half sharing with three others at OKW using rented DVC points that someone else booked: second half on my own at POP with free dining. I got a 10 day PP which was linked to the POP part. I had doubts about this being right so called to confirm and was told yes, I could activate the PP on my first day at OKW. 60 days out from the start of the trip, I couldn't book any FP+. So I called again, several times, and was finally told no that wouldn't work, and that I had to get two PP, one for 2 days (the minimum allowed with a package) and one for 8 days... this was $200 more. After having been on the phone for about 5 hours across multiple calls, I was not happy - or pleasant. But they went thru their phone call archives and found the recording of the call where I was told it was OK and refunded the $200. The most frustrating part was that no one knew the right answer.

 

[siskaren]

You can activate a ticket attached to a package up to three days before the package starts, however, when you have tickets associated with a package, you can't book FP+ for dates prior to when the package starts.