Staying 16 nights with Free Dining???

[pook]

I am trying to figure out a strategy here. I want to book 16 nights. I know there is a "limit" of 14 nights of free dining. What I want to accomplish is to be able to use my 14 days of dining credits for the length of my stay. Since we will be going to Universal for a couple of days (in the middle of our stay, not the beginning or end), we will still have plenty of food enough for 16 days.

It is my understanding that the dining credits expire at midnight on the checkout date of the package, so if i just booked an ordinary reservation after the FD package for 2 days, I dont think we'd have food.

We are 5 AP holders and only getting the mandatory 2 day tickets. If we had to split the reservations up and buy 5 more 2 day tickets, it would be a budget buster.

Anyone have any ideas???

 

[CoolPool]

Essientially you are only looking at one day without food from the dining plan. The first 14 days are covered and if you leave a few credits for the 15th day - your "checkout" day for the 14 day reservation - then you'll be fine as they expire at midnight. So its just the 16th day/night and the next morning you need worry about. Maybe just accept that time will be OOP and budget accordingly.

 

[pook]

I was kinda hoping someone would have some sneaky idea, err, umm, I mean Pixie Dust for this situation.

 

[tripplanner2]

I would book the extra nights with a room only discount and buy the food oop. No way around it. Otherwise you have to buy 2 days worth of tickets for everyone in your party. They don't bend the rules with fd. They used to only let you book 10 nights for fd. We had 2 reservations but that extra set of tickets is still sitting in my safe. I always go for a package.

 

[pook]

I was hoping that maybe they'd activate the vouchers a couple days early if I did an early check in or somesuch thing, or that maybe the vouchers didnt expire exactly when they were supposed to.
Has anyone ever tested these theories?

 

[pook]

Oh, and thanks for your replies by the way!!!

 

[carebee21]

There's no way to bend the rules for it. What time are you getting in on your first day? Maybe you should make the first and last day as room only reservations, then if you're coming in late the first day, it's not a big deal. Otherwise, as others have stated make the last two days of your reservation room only. Then you really only have to deal with the last day without free dining. If you still have credits left, you could use leftover snack credits for breakfast food and maybe even a qs for a cold sandwich or salad and keep it in your fridge for the next day.

 

[Lehuaann]

I was kinda hoping someone would have some sneaky idea, err, umm, I mean Pixie Dust for this situation.

I was hoping that maybe they'd activate the vouchers a couple days early if I did an early check in or somesuch thing, or that maybe the vouchers didnt expire exactly when they were supposed to.
Has anyone ever tested these theories?

There's no sneaky or pixie dust way around it. The dining credits do not come in the form of vouchers, but rather on your resort room key card upon date of checkin. They will not issue dining credits early (before day of FD resort checkin) and the credits will expire at midnight on day of checkout.

Your only option is to book the trip into 2 separate FD packages and be required to purchase extra park passes. Sorry.

 

[padawans]

I have no idea, but have a great trip. 16 nights wow thats a long trip. Have fun.

 

[wdwmaw]

*get a coupon for RFC and eat their
* use the coupon from Planet Hollywood
* go to US at the end of your trip and your problem is solved, just use your AP to get a room only discount and use your AP for food discounts
* pack some food to eat on the final days
*print pizza coupons and get delivery to your resort
* on your last day of free dining get CS and snacks that will last another day and eat on that. We always get food packed for travel as we check out and we eat on pizza or sandwiches for a couple days after we get home.

 

[IMGONNABE40!]

Have you considered fasting for a couple of days either at the beginning or end of your trip?

 

[pook]

Have you considered fasting for a couple of days either at the beginning or end of your trip?

Thanks! Based on your Username, you are definitely the go-to expert on planning ahead

But seriously folks, what I probably will do is arrive Saturday morning instead of Friday night. That brings us down to 15 nights. For the last night, I'll book a room at the same resort without any dining. When I wake up on the last day, instead of hitting the parks, I'll hit the road. I may just leave 1 snack credit over and see if it is really expired on my way out of town.

Since I'll have extra dining credits, I may just book the Hoop Dee Doo and either the Luau or Backyard BBQ to use them up. I also lucked out with a ressie for Le Cellier, before the big switch to 2 credits, for the last night of our stay.

 

[nicki.momof3]

I would just move US to the end of the trip - why not?

Problem with credits solved.

 

[tinka-belle]

When we've done 15 nights (14 as FD and a last night as a room only res) we've used extra CS credits on the first check out day to get something that will keep in the fridge for the next day for lunch, maybe even breakfast if we have enough credits left. We are not big breakfast eaters, so sometimes just leftover snacks suffice for that. It's easy to have an extra few CS credits at the end of the trip, since we split so many of the larger meals during the two week stay.

You're staying two extra nights though. If you put those at the end of the trip there's no avoiding paying for food that 16th day. (I wouldn't advise two day old sandwiches or salads in the fridge!) If you bookend the trip with room only night on either end you might have better luck. An inexpensive OOP CS for dinner the first night #1, and extra CS credits used on your DDP check out day #15 to store some CS meals in the fridge for day #16.

We've gotten salads or sandwiches from our resort food court or grab-n-go and asked for dressings or sandwich condiments on the side to keep things from getting soggy during fridge storage. We usually have a late flight home so we check out and relax at the pool before our ME pick up.

 

[dancin Disney style]

We've stayed 16 nights before and only had 14 with FD. We tend to like the non stop flights which arrive around diner time so we only need one meal on that day which we pay OOP for at a CS place and book a room only ressie. Then we have FD from day 2-15. We always have snack credits left over so we will get a couple of bagels or muffins and some fruit. Then for day 16 we are back on room only. We have the snack credit items to eat that day when we want them. Plus since it's check out day we don't tend to be there very long...we have to head to the airport usually before noon.

 

[dclfun]

I also suggest grabbing some sandwiches and keeping them in the fridge for the day you don't have dining. There are quite a few places to get really good sandwiches and you can get chips and a dessert as a side. Unless you're in a value resort you'll have a fridge and even if you are in a value resort you can bring some ziplocs and store your food on ice from the machine. Other than that, then do a room only rate for the first night if you're coming in late and then start your package the following day. No way around the rules and yes, your credits actually DO expire at midnight. We had the DDP with a DVC vacation and had a split stay with the DDP only on the first resort ressie. We kept our room cards to use the leftover credits the day we moved to the new resort. The following day I tried to grab something from the Boardwalk Bakery because we hadn't used all our QS credits. Nope..it was expired.---Kathy

 

[pook]

Thanks DCLFUN for confirming the expiration thing.

I went ahead and booked it. We'll arrive early Saturday morning instead of dinner time Friday night. For that first night the best available rate at Port Orleans Riverside was $275 including tax. Not terrible if dining is free, but pretty high for a Moderate. At the tail end, I got a Florida resident rate for one night at $163 including tax. Florida resident rate (and AP rate) was blacked out for any of the other nights.

BTW Does anyone know if I can give away the 2 days worth of Park Passes, since we have AP's? If not, can I save them until my Ap's expire in 6 months?

 

[dancin Disney style]

BTW Does anyone know if I can give away the 2 days worth of Park Passes, since we have AP's? If not, can I save them until my Ap's expire in 6 months?

You can do either one.

 

[pook]

You can do either one.

How does that work? Are they actual vouchers? I thought maybe the passes would just be on the KTTW cards as well. How do I transfer the Park passes to a friend?

 

[clanmcculloch]

How does that work? Are they actual vouchers? I thought maybe the passes would just be on the KTTW cards as well. How do I transfer the Park passes to a friend?

They'll be attached to your KTTW card. I had mine removed in August so that my kids wouldn't accidentally swipe their KTTW cards and start the 14 day countdown on the tickets. I have them at home right now and I'll be upgrading 2 of them for people who we've invited to join us in February. They're regular park tickets. I did have to get this done at Guest Relations at a park because the people at the front desk said that the concierge should be able to do it (they didn't know how) and the folks at the concierge desk said they couldn't do it. Guest Relations is where they'll most likely know how to do it without messing anything up. Our dining credits were not at all affected by removing the MYW tickets from our KTTW card.