Same room; Different arrival days

[MichiganMomto4]

Thank You!!
We did winter coats in January last time - I am looking forward to some hot weather in October! You will LOVE Coral Reef. Probably the best meal I've ever had in Disney. I am sad we weren't able to get adr's this time. But we are also doing Chef de France for the first time and I am excited!! This is a very last minute trip (booked only 6 weeks out - yikes!) so with free dining, the TS choices were limited but we are making the best of it and so excited to be going I hope you have a WONDERFUL trip, too

 

[bzzelady]

Question...

My DH and are are staying DVC starting October 11th and considering adding the DDP. Our DD may join us later in the trip for a couple of days (but nothing certain yet). Do we have to add her on now and pay for DDP for the whole stay...or just add her to the room when she arrives? She may not be able to come at all and if she does, it will only be for the last 2 days. I would like to just have it all prepaid, but want to know if this can be done or if I should just get a TIW card and manage meals that way.
Thanks for any words of wisdom and assistance you can offer

 

[crashbb]

Question...

My DH and are are staying DVC starting October 11th and considering adding the DDP. Our DD may join us later in the trip for a couple of days (but nothing certain yet). Do we have to add her on now and pay for DDP for the whole stay...or just add her to the room when she arrives? She may not be able to come at all and if she does, it will only be for the last 2 days. I would like to just have it all prepaid, but want to know if this can be done or if I should just get a TIW card and manage meals that way.
Thanks for any words of wisdom and assistance you can offer

I think that that should be fine. If you add her to the reservation before she arrives (but after you arrive), she'd even be able to use the DME (if she wanted). However, I'm pretty sure she wouldn't be able to get the DDP at all.

 

[TDC Nala]

You can add her to the room when she arrives. She will not have DDP, and will not be able to use Magical Express transportation from the airport. However, as the previous poster noted, you can add her as soon as you arrive, call DME directly and register her flight for a pickup, if she is flying.

There's no way to buy her DDP after she arrives. If you want her to have DDP you will need to add her to the reservation and pay for her DDP for the whole stay, no later than 48 hours before YOUR arrival. The only way to get a DDP for her that covers only her stay is to book her in a separate room.

 

[bzzelady]

Thanks for the answer! I think that if we would have to add her for the whole time, my DH and I could do some signature dining but we may have way more CS credits than we know what to do with. Snack credits wouldn't be a problem, thanks to Food and Wine

 

[princessmom29]

Even though it is "free dining"...it truly isn't free dining if you are going during a value or special time when the rooms are heavily discounted. Just do the math. For instance, if you are going where you can get a discount on the room and room alone, you will come out better just getting a room, and paying out of pocket for your meals. I've worked on my own numbers every which way, and just gave up and did the "free dining" just because it is something that we never did before, a novelty if you will, and I am in a position now where money isn't as tight as it used to be.(this will be our 16th or so trip with the kids...I don't even remember how many times we've gone).

Different families have different priorities. I for one don't like to be tied down to ADRs, and would prefer to eat on the run, grab a table where/when we can (or at least have 1 or 2 ADRs), even split meals. If you are a family that likes to eat and don't mind being subjected to ADRs (which we will be for the very first time), the I guess it might come out OK. All I know is that I am going to be eating steak six nights in a row...something I would NEVER do when not on vacation.

Not true for everyone. We DO NOT come out ahead taking a romm discount and paying OOP for meals. We stay moderate, and the room only discount even at 40% is never more than $600 on a week. Free dining was worth about $650 for us last year. With the possible exception of sharing desserts rather than ordering one for each person, we wouldn't eat any differently off the plan. Paying OOP for the food we ate would have cost us over $900, so FD is the best deal out there for us. I have heard this over and over so I kept the receipts and added them up to see just how much we were saving.Room only will only best FD if we ever decided to stay deluxe, and right now that is just not in the buget. During the time we travel it is about $1000 a week more to take a room only discount on a deluxe with DP over a moderate with FD. We cannot justify the extra expense.