Ticket/dining nightmare help someone!!!

[Stitch's Greatest Fa]

Ok, so this is the situation...

1 night BWI (just so i get to go under THAT archway on arrival in FLA)
then 6 nights offsite with my parents
then 1 night CR
9 nights WL

so far so good,

we (DH & I) hoped to get a 21 day ticket starting on the day we checked into BWI, yes this is possible, however I have just finished speaking to a really lovely lady from disneyworld.co.uk and she said that if I started my ticket then, I couldn't get the free dining plan when I stayed at CR/WL - apparently, the ticket and the dining plan have to start together.

Can anyone see a way round this? We want our tickets for pretty much the whole holiday OR does anyone know anywhere that is selling 7 day tix really cheap then I could get a 14 day one starting with my CR stay.

Advice please
thanks
Kay

 

[2Tiggies]

That's how they get you if you are staying with the Dining Plan. Each WDW reservation needs a ticket as part of the package to get dining, free or not.

You don't have to use your ticket from any specific date so I would be inclined to purchase the 21 day ticket with the 9 night stay for free dining and forgo the shorter stay's dining plan (or you could buy it but it seems silly).

For this to work though it depends who you book through. If you book through Disney your tickets will be on your room key card which you get at check in and this wouldnt work for you as you wouldnt be able to use your tix until halfway through your trip. However if you book through a TA, they send you paper tickets. We did Thomas Cook Signature last year and the tickets were paper as they often don't order them direct from Disney. Thomas Cook used Keith Prowse. This would allow you to have access to the parks from the beginning and you would just have the Dining added onto your room key on check in at WL. However you would need to do careful calculations to see if this is cost effective.

 

[Stitch's Greatest Fa]

2Tiggies: thanks for trying to help, I appreciate it, but I think you missed the point of what I was saying.

I know that you need a park ticket for the dining plan, the point is, I will have purchased a ticket through the Disney website at the very start of my holiday. Apparently though to get the dining plan, this isn't good enough, the ticket needs to start at the same time as the dining plan, it's apparently not ok to have a ticket for part of the hol, then use that same ticket to activate the dining plan later in the hol.

Staying at Disney for the first part of the hol is not an option for us in case anyone suggests it.

 

[2Tiggies]

Right, I got you now. Sorry, didn't register about the tix & booking at the same start date. Wouldn't you have to get a 14 day ticket at the start of your WL stay? I see you are only doing one night at CR so if you buy your tix on that booking you would only get DDP for that one night - then WL would become a new booking (?) Or am I wrong? I don't know what to suggest, but I am very curious to see (and hoping there is) a solution to this.

 

[fuse04]

We had this problem in 2007. We had 14 day park tickets and 14 days DDP, not a problem you would think. The first 7 days we were at AKL and the next 7 days we were at WL, all one booking via Thimas Cook, didn't even leave Disney.

However when we checked in at WL, they would not give us the DDP, even though we had the 14 day tickets, even though we had 14 days DDP receipt and even though they accepted I had paid for the tickets and the DDP

The problem was that the tickets were registered against the 7 days at AKL, so on their system there was no record of tickets against our 7 days at Wilderness lodge; to get DDP you have to have park tickets (unless DVC member).

I was in reception for over an hour trying to sort it out but WDW said there was nothing they could do and it was not there porblem, it is fair to suggest I was not entirely happy.

I then did two things, I instructed reception that I expcted it to be sorted by the following morning and I also phoned the Thomas Cook rep number and left a message about the problem.

The following morning it was indeed sorted, to my suprise. There was three five day parks tickets at reception for us. The strange things is that to this day I do not know not who solved the problem because we didn't pay for them, Thomas Cook never contacted us at any time, reception were uncertain and we never used the tickets (we already had the 14 day tickets).

 

[wayneg]

There is no way around it. Many have tried, as soon as you check out of a Disney hotel your DDP ends. To start it again you have to buy another ticket, thats how it works, they will not allow change of hotels with DDP unfortunately.

 

[Dizneemad]

Can you not purchase your 21 day ticket upon arrival and use for the whole holiday. And when you book into WL just purchase a single day ticket, I believe you only need to purchase a ticket with each booking and not a ticket for the full duration of the holiday.
This will leave you with a single day ticket but give you the DDP for the duration.

 

[wayneg]

Can you not purchase your 21 day ticket upon arrival and use for the whole holiday. And when you book into WL just purchase a single day ticket, I believe you only need to purchase a ticket with each booking and not a ticket for the full duration of the holiday.
This will leave you with a single day ticket but give you the DDP for the duration.

For Disney.co.uk & free DDP you have to buy at least a 5 day ticket

 

[Stitch's Greatest Fa]

Thanks guys, its what i thought. Think we will go but without DDP - we didn't think it would be free DDP anyway when we first hatched the plan, then to our surprise it was, we'll have a fab hol anyway!

 

[gemmybear83]

Thanks guys, its what i thought. Think we will go but without DDP - we didn't think it would be free DDP anyway when we first hatched the plan, then to our surprise it was, we'll have a fab hol anyway!

what about getting an annual pass and tables in wonderland card? (the tables in wonderland card costs $75 and gives 20% off dining?) You would only need one between the two to get the discount, but it depends on how many days you are there, and if yo would be returning whether you would get the value?