Tricky Room Reservation/Dining Plan Question

[karensokool]

Hi Experts! Please help me with this!

I have a reservation at the POP Century for Sept. with Free dining. We have the regular dining plan with one quick, one table, and one snack. It's for me and my two adult children. our reservation is for five nights and 6 days. We have park tickets for all six days for all of us. Now, Because of his college schedule, my son will be joining us a day late and there's a chance he may be leaving a day early. I know that the meals are pooled. If I keep him on the reservation for all 5 nights, will his additional meals remain in our pool? If I take him off those two days for both the park tix and room reservation, will he still qualify for the free dining promotion for the days he is there? Does It make financial sense to keep him on and use his extra meals or will decreasing his park hopper days to his actual amount of days (4) and taking him off the room reservation for those few days save more money? Finally, I will need to arrange a separate magical express for him both ways. Will that trigger a change in the reservation that will automatically remove him from the hotel reservation for those two days, thus removing his extra meals? Thanks in advance for this help! I'm lost on how to proceed.

 

[Queen of the WDW Scene]

Are you all in the same room?
If so then you can't even do what you're considering.
Everyone in the same room needs to have the same number of days on a ticket etc.
Just leave it as it is if you want the great free dining discount.
And yes the meals will be pooled so you and your other son can use them even if your one son comes late and leaves early.

Can't speak to the separate magical express for him but in that situation I'd probably just have him take an uber.

 

[WishICouldSpeakWhale]

Your son riding ME on different days than you has no impact on your resort reservation. As long as he is included in the reservation, he is entitled to a round trip as well.

 

[bumbershoot]

If you’re all in the same room, and that two days of tickets matters, downgrade all the tickets to 4 days. Then once you’re there you can add the two days back to the other tickets.

You can’t just take him off the room for two days. That’s not possible with a package.

If you want those meal credits, leave him on the package. You guys can use them.

Everyone staying onsite is entitled to a trip from and to the airport (in either order) from checkin day to the end of checkout day and anywhere in between . Super easy to make his DME reservation separately.

 

[Marionnette]

Hi Experts! Please help me with this!

I have a reservation at the POP Century for Sept. with Free dining. We have the regular dining plan with one quick, one table, and one snack. It's for me and my two adult children. our reservation is for five nights and 6 days. We have park tickets for all six days for all of us. Now, Because of his college schedule, my son will be joining us a day late and there's a chance he may be leaving a day early. I know that the meals are pooled. If I keep him on the reservation for all 5 nights, will his additional meals remain in our pool? If I take him off those two days for both the park tix and room reservation, will he still qualify for the free dining promotion for the days he is there? Does It make financial sense to keep him on and use his extra meals or will decreasing his park hopper days to his actual amount of days (4) and taking him off the room reservation for those few days save more money? Finally, I will need to arrange a separate magical express for him both ways. Will that trigger a change in the reservation that will automatically remove him from the hotel reservation for those two days, thus removing his extra meals? Thanks in advance for this help! I'm lost on how to proceed.

If you keep him on the reservation for all 5 nights, his unused credits will still be yours to use however you see fit. However, his ticket will expire with unused days on it that cannot be used by someone else.

You cannot "take him off those two days for park tix and room reservation". With packages, everyone is on the package for the entire length of stay and everyone has to have the same tickets.

You could:

1. Keep him on the reservation but switch everyone's tickets to 4 days to match his. When you arrive at Disney, you can add more days to everyone else's tickets. BUT...this would mean no FP+ in advance for a couple of the days that you're there,
2. You could remove him from the reservation entirely, buy him a ticket separately from your reservation and then add him to your room when you arrive. BUT...he would not get *free* dining.
3. You could leave things as they are, pay the extra adult fee for the two nights that he is not there, lose the value of 2-days' worth of his ticket and enjoy his leftover dining credits.

If it were me, I would choose #3. Certainly 2 days of dining credits out weighs the added cost of 2 nights' extra adult fee + lost value of 2 days admission. However, this assumes that you could actually put the credits to good use.

 

[bumbershoot]

Oh, but if you downgrade everyone’s tickets, then you will have two fewer days available to make FP+ arrangements with ahead of time. You’ll only be able to arrange four days of FPs until you get there and upgrade.

How much are the FPs worth to you two? Is it worth the cost of the son’s 4 vs 6 day ticket? (I personally would lean towards yes)


Forgot about the extra adult fee. Thanks marionnette!

 

[DisneyWishes14]

You have a few options, but adjusting the package so that your son is only on the reservation for a few nights with different tickets is not one of them. As PP's have mentioned, when booking a package, everyone on the reservation has to have the same ticket and dining components.

You could:

1) Leave it as is. You will end up paying 2 nights of an extra adult fee and 2 days of tickets that your son will not use, but you will have his extra dining credits to use during your trip. You can schedule different Magical Express transfers for everyone on the reservation. That won't affect anything on your package reservation.

2) Take him off the reservation entirely. If you do this, you can add him at check-in and then set up his Magical Express transfers. You can then buy him the tickets he needs, link him though MDE and still make his FP+ when you make your at 60 days. The only drawback is you will have to pay out-of-pocket for his meals and this may end up costing more than just keeping him on your current package reservation.

3) Downgrade the tickets on your package to 4 days and then you and your other son can upgrade your tickets to 6 days when you get to WDW. The only drawback is you won't be able to make FP+ for those extra 2 days until you upgrade your tickets.

Personally, I would just keep everything as is. The extra adult fee at Pop is $15+tax per night and the ticket price difference is about $25, so for a little more than $55, you can make all of your FP+ and end up with 2 extra TS credits, 2 extra QS credits and 4 extra snack credits.

 

[karensokool]

Thank you everyone! I was hoping to keep him on the res for the enitire time and use the extra meals but I wasn't sure if the magical express late arrival would start a chain reaction that would take him off the reservation for that night and decrease the amount of meals in the pool. Thanks for all the advice. I apreciate it!

 

[DisneyWishes14]

Thank you everyone! I was hoping to keep him on the res for the enitire time and use the extra meals but I wasn't sure if the magical express late arrival would start a chain reaction that would take him off the reservation for that night and decrease the amount of meals in the pool. Thanks for all the advice. I apreciate it!

You won't run that risk at all! Enjoy your trip and the extra meals!

 

[sndral]

My son’s gf often joins us a few days late. Just schedule DME for your son’s actual arrival and departure - do be on the look out for his DME package for departure on the day before he leaves and if it doesn’t arrive call and confirm.
We always just use the ‘extra’ dinning credits towards a few 2 TS meals & a couple of QS breakfasts (we generally do TS dinners and QS lunches using snack credits for a quick bite in the morning.)

 

[Luvs Mickey]

I could certainly be wrong here, but I think free dining requires 5 nights and 6 days, so bringing the reservation down to 4 nights most likely won’t work if you want to keep free dining. I would definitely keep as is.

 

[SharonZ]

I would leave the reservation as it is.