Split stay and free dining offer

[skedinger]

Hi everyone. I'm hoping an expert out there can help me with a free dining question as I've never worked with the dining plan before.

We want to visit WDW in August 2015 and stay for 14 nights. I would like to split the stay between CBR and BC, 7 nights each.

Is it possible to do that with the free DDP offer? My concern is that we would only be purchasing tickets once, but trying to stay in two different resorts. I would upgrade the dining to DDP while at CBR so that the dining was the same for all 14 days.

Any insight will be very helpful! Thank you!!

 

[2Tiggies]

To qualify for the dining plan, whether paid for or free, a park ticket per guest on the reservation needs to be purchased for each resort. You'd have to pull out a calculator and work it out. It might work out more cost effective to pay out of pocket for the second stay if you split. Split stays and free dining doesn't work out cost effectively, but it is worth crunching the numbers. If there are only two of you, with 2 additional park tickets for the second stay it might still save you over paying OOP, but it will save you less than FD at one resort for an entire stay.

 

[Elise79]

As Lee said you have to purchase tickets with each resort stay to qualify for free dining. Disney do not recognise "split stays" to them it's 2 different bookings (probably because each hotel is managed individually).

Another option (depending on the number in your party) would be to book free dining at CBR with your 14 day tickets then wait for a room only discount on BC. With the rack rates at BC a room only discount is likely to save you more than free dining and I would guess your OOP dining costs would probably be less than the cost of the DDP too.

 

[skedinger]

Thanks so much for your replies. I thought this was probably the case.

RO discounts are better for our family anyway. At best, we break even with free dining, which is why I've never really considered it before. I'll just have to be patient and wait for a RO discount for our dates in 2015.

 

[Elise79]

It might be worth doing some maths before ruling out free dining - I am on the laptop now so can see your signature - with a party of 4 Disney Adults in (I assume) one room at CBR I would say free dining might be better as long as you used all your TS credits if you upgraded.

If you are getting 2 rooms if might still be worth checking the numbers

 

[chmurf]

CBR standard room from 15th august, 14 nights, 14 days tickets, 2 adults (not even going by your signature with 4 adults)

upgraded to DDP = £2806

same stay, no tickets no dining ( = RO ) £1864
assuming a 20% RO discount : £1491

tickets for 2 : £598

hotel (with RO discount) + tickets = £2089

difference between FD and RO discount @20% = £717

£717 for 2 adults for 14 nights = £25.6pp.pn

£25 => $40 per person per night for food and beverage. That's the value of the QSDP

you're losing roughly $20 per person and per night with a RO of 20% compared to a free QSDP upgraded to DDP, except if you manage to squeeze in 1 CS meal and 1 TS meal for $40 per person per night ($40 is roughly the cost of a TS alone)

you would get even with a 30% RO discount for 2 adults, but that's never going to happen, that's Deluxes discount, not moderate.

the only way to make that work is to cut on the number of TS.

You lose even more if there are more than 2 of you in the room.

 

[2Tiggies]

OP whatever you end up doing, make sure that your tickets (and dining if applicable) are added to your first sector of your stay so that you have access to tickets from check in. If you add dining and tickets to your second resort, you wont' have park access in the first part without buying another set. In which case you could just as well add FD to both.

 

[chmurf]

OP whatever you end up doing, make sure that your tickets (and dining if applicable) are added to your first sector of your stay so that you have access to tickets from check in. If you add dining and tickets to your second resort, you wont' have park access in the first part without buying another set. In which case you could just as well add FD to both.

this

and if you have the dining plan for the first stay, dining credits don't extend over the second stay even if some remain they're lost if you don't use them all during your first stay
dining credits expire at midnight on the night of your first stay's checkout day