Split stay with dining plans. Upgrade question

[SocksRocks]

Hi, we've booked a split stay for next year with the free dining offer. It's worked out that we have 2 dining plans (I know this isnt the cheapest way to do it but i like knowing the food is budgeted for and we can be more adventurous than we would normally be) so we just need tips. This also means we have 2 sets of tickets, again this is fine as we needed 2 lots to cover the whole trip.
My question is, I've been reading a lot about benefits of upgrading to an AP but if i did this on the first week would it mess up the free dining for the second half of the split stay? How would they work out the price difference?

Thank you!

 

[Wood Nymph]

Hi, we've booked a split stay for next year with the free dining offer. It's worked out that we have 2 dining plans (I know this isnt the cheapest way to do it but i like knowing the food is budgeted for and we can be more adventurous than we would normally be) so we just need tips. This also means we have 2 sets of tickets, again this is fine as we needed 2 lots to cover the whole trip.
My question is, I've been reading a lot about benefits of upgrading to an AP but if i did this on the first week would it mess up the free dining for the second half of the split stay? How would they work out the price difference?

Thank you!

The dining plan is not affected by upgrading tickets, so you don’t have to worry about it

But you do have a problem with your two sets of tickets. You can only use one set of tickets if you want to upgrade to an annual pass. The other set would remain unused.

You would be able to apply the cost of the second set of tickets to a future ticket purchase. But all in all it’s a big waste of money to buy two sets of tickets for a split stay.

 

[SocksRocks]

But all in all it’s a big waste of money to buy two sets of tickets for a split stay.

Yeah but that's what Disney told me to do and as a relative newbie I didnt know how else to get tickets for 28 days..

 

[starry_solo]

Have you considered booking a room-only offer for the second part of the trip using an AP discount (if available)? You only have to have the activated AP upon check-in, not before....

 

[SocksRocks]

Have you considered booking a room-only offer for the second part of the trip using an AP discount (if available)? You only have to have the activated AP upon check-in, not before....

We wouldn't get the dining though would we?

 

[purple figment]

Wow, 28 days in DW!

I can see why you have two separate reservations since the dining plan has a 14 night max.

It might be worth doing the math to see how much it would cost to do the free dining with tickets for the first reservation. You can use those tickets to upgrade to the Annual Pass.

Then for the second reservation book a room only and pay for food out of pocket. Some restaurants will have Annual Pass dining discounts for specific meal periods/days of the week.

Alternatively, for the second reservation if you want a dining plan, you can call (cannot be booked online) and book a ticketless package which will be room and dining plan . All the rules of a package will apply ($200 deposit, final payment is due 30 days before arrival, fees and penalties for changes or cancellations). If a room rate discount comes out (AP or public) you can call and have it applied to the room rate portion of a ticketless package.

 

[Wood Nymph]

Yeah but that's what Disney told me to do and as a relative newbie I didnt know how else to get tickets for 28 days..

Two ten day, one park per day, ticket, depending on your travel dates is close in price to an annual pass, but that only gives you 20 days of tickets. If you are getting free dinning for twenty-eight days then maybe what you did isn't too bad of a deal. But it does leave you with eight days without tickets.

 

[Disneylover99]

Yeah but that's what Disney told me to do and as a relative newbie I didnt know how else to get tickets for 28 days..

Others have given you good advice.

It may still be the best deal to keep it the way you have it now. It depends on where you are staying, when you are staying in terms of possible room only discounts and how many people are in your party.

 

[starry_solo]

Two ten day, one park per day, ticket, depending on your travel dates is close in price to an annual pass, but that only gives you 20 days of tickets. If you are getting free dinning for twenty-eight days then maybe what you did isn't too bad of a deal. But it does leave you with eight days without tickets.

I think the OP has the 14 day tickets from the UK.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

Perhaps consider making your second reservation a room-only? If you intend to upgrade your first ticket to an AP, you do not need two sets of tickets covering 28 park days. Once you have the AP, you also get MM and dining discounts, which may end up being a bigger cost savings than two free dining packages.

 

[SocksRocks]

I looked into it and to make the 2nd reservation ticket less and add the dining plan it would cost me more than including tickets and getting free dining. But thank you for all the help! Learnt a lot already

 

[DisneyWishes14]

I looked into it and to make the 2nd reservation ticket less and add the dining plan it would cost me more than including tickets and getting free dining. But thank you for all the help! Learnt a lot already

Here’s a thought - if you are certain you will buy the AP, could you get the minimum number of park days on your second set of tickets to qualify for free dining? Perhaps that could save you a little money and then you could just save those tickets and use the value of the tickets for a future stay.

 

[starry_solo]

I looked into it and to make the 2nd reservation ticket less and add the dining plan it would cost me more than including tickets and getting free dining. But thank you for all the help! Learnt a lot already

Ok what you can do with those park tickets is to have them removed from your MDE and/or assign it to new names (create two names on your MDE to assign to) and maybe you can use it the next time?