Regretting split stay :(

[Luv2trav]

Interesting I didn't know that. Always thought it had to be tied to you resort stay at check in.

Sorry, but that is incorrect info.

Guests can pick up their resort package tickets up to 3 days before that resort package check-in date.

This means that if check-in is, say, on a Thursday, the package tickets can be picked up at a theme park
Guest Relations as early as on that prior Monday.

 

[Robo]

Interesting I didn't know that. Always thought it had to be tied to you resort stay at check in.

One of the many things guests can discover if they keep current on the DISboards.

It's a great community of information!

 

[mickeyluv'r]

One of the many things guests can discover if they keep current on the DISboards.

It's a great community of information!

True, but CM's have told me this as well. Most guests trust that information/concierge desk CM's have reliable information about resort packages, and this question is slightly obscure.

OP, we did this on our first split stay too! I asked multiple CM's about getting our tickets early - one the phone before we went and twice at the resort.

Lucky for us, it was before FP+, and our non-ticket stay was just one day.

One potential solution would be getting Annual Passes. I don't know where you go your tickets, but if they are via WDW directly, it may be possible to convert them now to AP's. You would then qualify for the AP discount....which might be better than the free dining discount if your dates match. (You can combine AP discount plus the DDP, it is just a different discount. You'd get 30% off the room portion of your stay, while adding the cost of the DDP. Plus AP's get a few small bonus discounts on merchandise.

AP's cost more than straight 7day tickets, but- they are good for a full year. If you usually go every year, and can go one week earlier next year, then they may well be a good deal. (Because you'd be able to buy one set of AP's to cover two trips) Often, when we used to go during free dining- ASK!!!- we were offered a 30% off bounceback offer. You have to book it before you leave WDW. (I usually book it while we're waiting in the airport for our flight. ) If you book a great bounceback offer before check out, then you'd really be all set.

But I'm also not sure who told you that you can't book your FP+ until you check-in to the second resort. That doesn't sound correct. You should be able to book dining at the 180 day mark from the day of check-in, and FP at the 60 day mark. Further, for prebooking purposes - your crossover day will be part of the first stay. Guests are allowed- or rather expected - to go to a park on the day they check out. Unused dining credits are good until midnight of the day you check out. So if you check out of BLT on Auguest 10 say- you'd be able to book FP+ on Aug 10 as part of your BLT stay. You'd be able to pre-book dining and FP+ for Aug 11 when the AKV check-in date hits the eligible dates.

I think you'll fully be able to get A&E on your crossover day.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

Just checked a quick sample...
Sept 26 - Oct 18, rack rate on a AKV one bedroom Savanna view is about $788 with tax. There's currently a General Public offer for 30% off Which is a discount of $236 per night. The current AP offer only goes until Sept 27, but is currently going at 35% off rack (in this case about $275)

The dining plan is worth (with tax) $60.64 per adult per day, and $19.23 per child per day. So if you have two adults, and two children in the room....The value of the Dining plan is $160 per day.

If you have two adults and two children in your room, and you are going during the above dates- a 30% discount (plus paid dining plan) would almost certainly be a bigger discount than 'free dining'. However, you'd also have the freedom to book a 'room only' room so you aren't locked into the policies of the dining plan. We usually find that to be the best deal.

 

[Robo]

True, but CM's have told me this as well. Most guests trust that information/concierge desk CM's have reliable information about resort packages, and this question is slightly obscure.

OP, we did this on our first split stay too! I asked multiple CM's about getting our tickets early - one the phone before we went and twice at the resort.

Lucky for us, it was before FP+, and our non-ticket stay was just one day.

I don't understand your point.

Of course there is much bad info given by uninformed CM's.
(In fact, the "phone CM's" are REQUIRED to tell guests that they
can't pick up their package tickets early.)

That's why we here on the boards keep giving out the REAL information.


And, how do we know that it's "real?"

Because as soon as the info changes, a dozen or so other DISer's swoop in and let us know.

This is a great community of information.

From no other source will you find this level of near-instantaeous "peer review" of info.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

If you call WDW they will tell you that you can't pick up your tickets early.

When by all information we currently have here, you in fact can do so. There is a specific way to do it, which I believe is still outlined in the ticket sticky.

However, that won't help you with booking FP+ because you can't pick up the tickets early until you are actually at WDW and they won't show on your MDX for those days until you've done so. Probably way too late to book Anna & Elsa because they book up fastest out of everything.

 

[wdwlver]

CM's told me specifically over the phone that my only option was to buy tickets to cover VGF stay. I was upset but did it. Posted about it here and learned from Robo that I was purposefully mislead and I could've picked up package tix early. It was too late for me but at least lesson learned.

 

[princessap]

I agree, this would have been the easy and most logical way to do a split stay. However, OP since youve already booked this backwards, see if you cant follow ROBO's advice and activate your tickets early.

Our plan was to do that but life happens sometimes and things came up.

 

[princessap]

Just checked a quick sample...
Sept 26 - Oct 18, rack rate on a AKV one bedroom Savanna view is about $788 with tax. There's currently a General Public offer for 30% off Which is a discount of $236 per night. The current AP offer only goes until Sept 27, but is currently going at 35% off rack (in this case about $275)

The dining plan is worth (with tax) $60.64 per adult per day, and $19.23 per child per day. So if you have two adults, and two children in the room....The value of the Dining plan is $160 per day.

If you have two adults and two children in your room, and you are going during the above dates- a 30% discount (plus paid dining plan) would almost certainly be a bigger discount than 'free dining'. However, you'd also have the freedom to book a 'room only' room so you aren't locked into the policies of the dining plan. We usually find that to be the best deal.

thanks I priced it out and room only discount seemed better discount but maybe I am wrong and should reprice it…thanks for this helpful post..our dates are september 17-21 so will see…I anted to rent points for the whole trip but unfortunately things came up and life got in the way so now I have to do it through disney.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

I don't understand your point.

Of course there is much bad info given by uninformed CM's.
(In fact, the "phone CM's" are REQUIRED to tell guests that they
can't pick up their package tickets early.)

That's why we here on the boards keep giving out the REAL information.


And, how do we know that it's "real?"

Because as soon as the info changes, a dozen or so other DISer's swoop in and let us know.

This is a great community of information.

From no other source will you find this level of near-instantaeous "peer review" of info.

Seriously?

I posted partly because your answer was condescending. Just like this post.

Normal people generally trust the answers actual employees (of a business) give over answers given out by strangers on the internet.

"But some guy on the internet said I could get my tickets three days early."

I've had the misfortune of having to visit guest services a number of times. Most of the time, I have to speak to a manager to convert my regular park ticket to an AP, or bridge a ticket bought by a discount broker. I even had one CM accuse me of ticket theft when I wanted to add days to a UT ticket!

It's not nearly as simple as you make it sound to successfully remedy out-of-the-ordinary ticket situations.

 

[wareagle57]

I'm really confused about what the OP did wrong and how to avoid the mistake myself. The problem is not because it is a split stay is it? It is because they are using rented DVC points?

I still would not have thought you couldn't book FP+ 60 days out either way. Is there any way to do this?

 

[bumbershoot]

I have a triple split and could book FP's from first resort check in. I was surprised considering I had to wait out until second check in to finish ADR's

You must have had tickets attached to the FIRST reservation. That's not the OP's case.

True, but CM's have told me this as well. Most guests trust that information/concierge desk CM's have reliable information about resort packages, and this question is slightly obscure.
....

One potential solution would be getting Annual Passes. I don't know where you go your tickets, but if they are via WDW directly, it may be possible to convert them now to AP's. You would then qualify for the AP discount....which might be better than the free dining discount if your dates match. ...

But I'm also not sure who told you that you can't book your FP+ until you check-in to the second resort. That doesn't sound correct. You should be able to book dining at the 180 day mark from the day of check-in, and FP at the 60 day mark.

When Robo mentioned being current here, it's for the purpose of knowing that the CMs are flat out wrong on the issue of picking up the tickets. Yes, typical guests want to trust the CMs. It's unfortunate that they trust them. So someone on the Dis can get to know the reality, and know it ahead of time.

You can book the AP rate before getting the AP.

They can't book the FPs for the first reservation because you have to have tickets on that reservation to book FPs. The OP doesn't. They have it for the second reservation, and you can't convince MDE that you'll be picking them up ahead of time. So they have to get there, pick up the tickets as the CMs onsite will allow you to do, and THEN book FP+s.

I'm really confused about what the OP did wrong and how to avoid the mistake myself. The problem is not because it is a split stay is it? It is because they are using rented DVC points?

I still would not have thought you couldn't book FP+ 60 days out either way. Is there any way to do this?

If they had booked the package first, and THEN had the points reservation, and if they had bought long enough tickets to cover through their stay, it would have worked. The order was backwards for doing what they want to do.



If, as it seems the OP was saying, the room only discount is better than free dining, they could dump the package, just do room only, and then buy tickets to attach to their first stay. I don't think there's a way to get the dining plan without turning it into a ticketed package, though. That might not be what the OP wants.

 

[princessap]

I'm really confused about what the OP did wrong and how to avoid the mistake myself. The problem is not because it is a split stay is it? It is because they are using rented DVC points?

I still would not have thought you couldn't book FP+ 60 days out either way. Is there any way to do this?

I didn't do anything wrong it's just that because my tickets are linked to my free dining package I can't pick them up early so then I can't book fast pass reservations for our first stay.
Some people were trying to be nice and help out and others were condescending and saying I didn't do it right. Our plan was always to rent both parts but life gets in the way and sick parents, funerals and my mind was elsewhere and I didn't get around to booking it.

 

[princessap]

Just checked a quick sample...
Sept 26 - Oct 18, rack rate on a AKV one bedroom Savanna view is about $788 with tax. There's currently a General Public offer for 30% off Which is a discount of $236 per night. The current AP offer only goes until Sept 27, but is currently going at 35% off rack (in this case about $275)

The dining plan is worth (with tax) $60.64 per adult per day, and $19.23 per child per day. So if you have two adults, and two children in the room....The value of the Dining plan is $160 per day.

If you have two adults and two children in your room, and you are going during the above dates- a 30% discount (plus paid dining plan) would almost certainly be a bigger discount than 'free dining'. However, you'd also have the freedom to book a 'room only' room so you aren't locked into the policies of the dining plan. We usually find that to be the best deal.

Thanks. I just priced it out and the free dining is 600 more them room only so I would have to see if we would pay more then 600 in four days to make it worth dropping free dining ?!

Thanks for trying to help. Much appreciated

 

[suffieldhockeymom]

I didn't do anything wrong it's just that because my tickets are linked to my free dining package I can't pick them up early so then I can't book fast pass reservations for our first stay.
Some people were trying to be nice and help out and others were condescending and saying I didn't do it right. Our plan was always to rent both parts but life gets in the way and sick parents, funerals and my mind was elsewhere and I didn't get around to booking it.

The easiest solution is to reduce your FD package tickets to 2 days and buy UTC tickets for the entire stay and keep the 2 MYW tickets for another stay and link them to MDE.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

I didn't do anything wrong it's just that because my tickets are linked to my free dining package I can't pick them up early so then I can't book fast pass reservations for our first stay.

You COULD pick them up early (as long as it's not more than 3 days early), but you could not use them to make fastpass reservations for those 3 days until after you have picked them up. Until then, they will not be attached to your MDX account for those 3 days.

The problem you have is that you cannot pick them up 60 days early; you can't do anything with that until you have actually arrived at WDW.

If you want to make FP reservations sooner than that for those 3 days you will need to purchase other tickets.

The easiest solution is to reduce your FD package tickets to 2 days and buy UTC tickets for the entire stay and keep the 2 MYW tickets for another stay and link them to MDE.

This is really the only way to get by with everything you want to do and still come out holding unused tickets that can be saved and used another time.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

I'm really confused about what the OP did wrong and how to avoid the mistake myself. The problem is not because it is a split stay is it? It is because they are using rented DVC points?

I still would not have thought you couldn't book FP+ 60 days out either way. Is there any way to do this?

Nevermind, this has been answered.

 

[Marthasor]

Thanks. I just priced it out and the free dining is 600 more them room only so I would have to see if we would pay more then 600 in four days to make it worth dropping free dining ?!

Thanks for trying to help. Much appreciated

You can buy a ticketless, room-only discount + dining package if you would like.

My suggestion - drop the free dining AKV stay. Re-book under the room-only discount and add a dining package if you would like (you don't have to purchase tickets to do this). Then, buy tickets for your entire stay separately, link them to your MDE account and, voila, your FP+ situation is solved!

 

[princessap]

You can buy a ticketless, room-only discount + dining package if you would like.

My suggestion - drop the free dining AKV stay. Re-book under the room-only discount and add a dining package if you would like (you don't have to purchase tickets to do this). Then, buy tickets for your entire stay separately, link them to your MDE account and, voila, your FP+ situation is solved!

Don't u have to have tickets to add dining??

 

[princessap]

You COULD pick them up early (as long as it's not more than 3 days early), but you could not use them to make fastpass reservations for those 3 days until after you have picked them up. Until then, they will not be attached to your MDX account for those 3 days.

The problem you have is that you cannot pick them up 60 days early; you can't do anything with that until you have actually arrived at WDW.

If you want to make FP reservations sooner than that for those 3 days you will need to purchase other tickets.



This is really the only way to get by with everything you want to do and still come out holding unused tickets that can be saved and used another time.

Can iBook at 30 days out or no?