Question about dining pkg/etc.

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

Since vouchers are no longer available and let's say you were going with one adult, one 11yr old (ie: would be cheaper buying the meals at age 11 than being charged for "adult" price on dining plan) and 2 other children (ages 7 and 5... neither of which eat very much unless it's exactly what they like...)----

And let's say you also have enough park hoppers left over from the past (non-expired kind ofcourse) that you only need 1 extra day for the adult and 1 extra day for one of the children in order to have enough tickets/plusses for your entire trip (in order to equal the same amount of days/plusses for everyone on that trip).

Is it POSSIBLE to book a room with just the adult and one child, add on the 1 day tickets for that adult & 1 child when booking that room, and get the dining pkg for that 1 adult and 1 child.... and you all eat on just that? (and purchase with $$ anything extra if ever needed- because honestly we could all eat on just that).

Is that possible to do?
Because I've tried booking the room online (for June 2005) with 1 adult and 3 children-- when doing that you can't just buy 1 day tickets for 1 adult and 1 child- it makes you buy the 1 day ticket for EVERY PERSON in the room. We don't need those extra days for everyone in the party on this trip. But we also don't need the dining pkg to include every person in the room either. That would be a huge waste of money for us. (ie: we do not spend close to $90 a day for us when at WDW- some days more than others, but still doesn't avg to anywhere near $90 a day- since my then 11yr old does not eat like an adult...)

So would there be a snafu later if I booked the room with 1 adult/1 child, bought 1 day tickets with the room for 1 adult/1 child and also got the dining pkg for 1 adult/1 child? (meaning the other 2 children would either share meals with us or I'd buy them something they would actually eat- and we'd use leftover days on park hopper plusses from the past for the other days for all of us). Would that work?
(ofcourse that would mean if we ate at places that charged per person/according to age - like Cinderella meal at GF, that we'd use up the alloted child meals paid for in the dining pkg rather quickly- then once those were gone I'd just pay cash for food after that, right?)

 

[Cheshire Figment]

Just book "rrom only" and buy the two one-day tickets at the gate. If you call Disney Reservations tell the person you want to deal with "CRO" (Central Reservations Office) and not WD Travel and the agent will change hats.

Then just pay for the meals.

Also, if you book room only your deposit is inly one night's cost (including tax) and you pay the balance on check-in and you can cancel without penalty up to five days out.

 

[disneyjunkie]

If you do this, you'll only have two room keys. If you plan to take advantage of EMH, your whole family won't be able to take part. You have to show your room keys in order to get a the arm bands for EMH.

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

Well, while only having 2 room keys (or even one) wouldn't be a hardship to me (I'd actually prefer it- what 5yr old or 7yr old needs a room key? LOL) -- I hadn't thought of the use of EMH being hindered. Doubtful we'd all get up early enough to do that anyway.

Is the ticket price (for one adult/one child) done online when booking a room the same price as at the gate?

Also when you try to book online (on disney) for just room only- it doesn't mention including the photopass certificate. So that's one advantage to booking the room with the tickets at the same time (instead of room only)... even if those prices for the tickets are the same as at the gate!

Honestly if they charged adult price for me and children's price for all the kids ($10 each) I'd probably just go with that and we'd try to make sure we used them all. But I don't think it's cool that I'd have to pay $35 a day for my barely 11yr old that WON'T eat even nearly enough to make that worth it. The younger two I'm sure somehow could eat enough to make $10 each worth it... it's the $35 for my daughter (and honestly even $35 a day for myself would be hardpressed to make sure I didn't lose money on that deal too) that's really getting to me.
Meaning if it was $65 a day- I'd probably do it and just try to make sure we ate that much while there... but $90 a day for us is just ridiculously overpriced. They are not big eaters (and I'm a picky eater- lowcarbing...). So we just simply WON'T ever eat $90 a day worth. We avg'd about $70 a day for our last family trip (12 day trip) INCLUDING their father! (and he's the big eater of the family). We usually ate counter service once or twice a day with one sit down restaurant per day. Some days less- that's why the days like 1900 Park Fare meal, CRT, etc. -it all still avg'd out to about $70 per day. And this trip we wouldn't be going with him- the big eater. LOL

Now you see why I liked the vouchers better.

 

[Chuck S]

I really think you're better off booking room only, especially if you can use a discount code. EMH is not just in the mornings anymore, some parks are open 3 hours later in the evening for resort guests, and they'd need room IDs for that as well.

Remember, if you are eligible for a room only code, the cost of the dining pkg for your group would be $90 per day PLUS whatever the difference is in the discount room rate and full rack rate, since rack rate is required for the dining option.

Plus, why wouldn't you want your other kids to be listed in the front desk computer...what if there were some sort of emergency, like a fire or something, rescuers would not know to look for them in the room?

 

[disneyjunkie]

Well, while only having 2 room keys (or even one) wouldn't be a hardship to me (I'd actually prefer it- what 5yr old or 7yr old needs a room key? LOL) -- I hadn't thought of the use of EMH being hindered. Doubtful we'd all get up early enough to do that anyway.
(

You need the room keys for the evening EMH when the parks are open an extra 3 hours for onsite guest.

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

EMH is not just in the mornings anymore, some parks are open 3 hours later in the evening for resort guests, and they'd need room IDs for that as well.

Well my goodness. I obviously need to catch up on reading because I didn't even know about an extra 3hrs. (I thought EMH= extra magic hour meaning the extra hour one park each day was open early in the morning. What does EMH stand for now?)

I really really like the idea of open later rather than early. LOL

I don't think we'll be eligible for a room only code unless something happens before our trip in June? I don't have an AP this time.

I hadn't even thought about the fact of booking the room for 1 adult/1 child meant the other 2 kids couldn't be "added" once we got there (you know- booked a room and decided to bring more kids with ya *wink wink* LOL) -definitely wouldn't want them "invisible" in the case of an emergency or something.

 

[Chuck S]

EMH, I'm guessing, now stands for Extra Magic Hours so it can apply to morning or evening hours.

Even without an AP, sometimes there are room only codes for discounts, I don't know of any for June, yet...I really don't pay attention, since I'm DVC and rarely use a code, unless we arrive a day early (I allow extra time for road conditions when I drive). But they usually have some posted on the various fan-sites. Look for them in March and April.

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

So I should book a room now and hope for a discount rate later on?
I really don't know.. I've never booked that way before. I always got an AP rate or "come back" rate in the past when I've booked rooms there. I've also always bought discounted tickets online (not through disney website)- but this time I don't need that since we only need one day ticket for 1 adult and 1 child to have us all matching on how many park days/plusses we'd have for this trip.
And ofcourse I always used vouchers in the past. Everything is different.

Where can I find info about the extra magic hourS! (LOL) so I can see what parks are open later on which days/etc?