Staying 5 days can I get dining plan for 4 days?

[CariB]

We are staying at Animal Kingdom using Disney Vacation Club points. My question is, can we get a dining plan for a day or two less than the number of days of our reservation?
Thanks!
Cari

 

[loganpaulsmom]

U have to get the dining plan for the amount of nights that you are staying. It goes by nights and not by days..

 

[Celestia]

The only way would be to have more than one reservation and only add the dining plan to one of the reservations. I have heard of some DVCers will have a one night reservation and get the deluxe dining plan for that one night have dinner the first night and two meals the next day. That way they get the mug too for their entire trip. The risk in doing that is that you might have to change rooms, also you do have the hassle of checking in and out. Many people do it and it works for them.

 

[TDC Nala]

Yes, the dining plan is allocated by nights, not days. If you stay 4 nights and 5 days you will receive credits based on 4 nights, not 5 days.

Second, even on a DVC reservation there is no longer any way to do this without booking separate room reservations. For awhile last year DVC allowed members to "segment" their reservations so they could stay in the same room and use different dining plans or a partial dining plan, but that has been discontinued.

 

[catra121]

What I like to do is spread out my meals to the arrival and departure days. The credits are allocated by nights but you can use them until midnight the day you check out. This worked out really well for my mom and I when we were on the Deluxe plan because we were able to have a nice lunch/dinner the day we arrived and used a credit for a nice meal the day we left. The regular dining plan doesn't ever feel to me like it has enough credits to do this...but the deluxe plan worked out well for the way we eat.

So just keep in mind that even though on a 4 night/5 day trip you will only get 4 nights worth of dining credits, you will be able to use them all 5 days and spread them out if you want to. You do not have to use them in any particular order as they are all pooled for the whole trip.