How does the dining plan work for a split stay. My plan is staying at a Mod for 4 nights then switching to a Value for 4 nights. Do I get 4 days of regular
DDP and 4 days of QSDP? BTW this is all during FD period.
If you know how to use
Free Dining to not lose money on tickets, your situation can be handled. FD requires the purchase of minimum 2-day base tickets for each person in one room. Your plan is to have two Free Dining reservations. For your first FD reservation, purchase tickets to cover all your park days for your entire trip (in your case, 8-day tickets?). For your second FD reservation, book the minimum 2-day tickets. When you check in to your second resort, have the Disney CM put these tickets on separate plastic media that you label, put in an envelope and take home with you. (Don't leave them on your Magic Bands where you could accidentally use them, getting them mixed up with the other tickets.) Later, on a future Disney trip, you can use these 2-day tickets by upgrading them at that time. They don't expire if they aren't used. You can also sell them to someone else legally.
Disney tickets are priced high for the first few days. Then at Day 4, they cost $10.65 to add another day, up to max 10 days. The price savings to you is this: an 8-day adult ticket with tax costs
$355.71. A 4-day adult ticket with tax costs $313.11. Multiply the 4-day ticket x 2 separate resort reservations =
$626.22. You would over-pay
$270.51 by using two 4-day tickets. Multiply that figure by the number of people staying in your room. The number is enormous!
The 2-day minimum ticket with tax costs $200.22, times the number of people in your room. If you can afford to set these tickets aside for a future visit, or sell them, FD with a split stay can work for you, money-wise.
You can also consider booking room-only for your Value stay. FD with QSDP can be about the same as just paying for meals out-of-pocket, not getting those 2-day tickets, and getting a room discount. Depends on how many in your party and their age. If you can find a discount going on, see how this compares to a FD offer. This year there has also been an offer for a ticketless package booking category, but I'm not sure if the offer has expired, or what the details are. Your best bet is to call Disney and ask about specials for your travel dates.