Wedding trip planning dilemma!

[CityGirlLost]

I am having a difficult time booking our wedding trip. We're both divorced with kids and this is a second marriage for both of us. So the trip will be the two of us and our four children. We're planning to stay in a suite at Art of Animation.

My fiance and I have the annual passes that come as a perk of the wedding but the kids don't. We all want to use the dining plan for the trip.

You can't book the dining plan apart from a Magic Your Way package. The MYW package includes park tickets we don't need.

I spoke to someone at group travel and she told me to call DFTW. I called DFTW and they told me to call group travel back but not to mention the word
'wedding'.

Does anyone have insight?

 

[MrsDrewsky]

Have you tried looking into using the assistance of a travel agent? We use dreams unlimited, so there isn't a charge, plus it's nice to have someone look out for the AP discounts for you.

I know you can add the dining plan to a room only reservation, we were able to do this last September. I am wondering if the tricky part is adding only two sets of tickets with the room and dining plan. Maybe you can just do the reservation as room and dining only, and then buy tickets separately through undercover tourist? You could save a few extra dollars this way.

 

[Icecoldpenguin]

I 100% agree with the previous person. Dreams unlimited is a good option.

Teresa

 

[LuvLuvLuv]

All you have to do is book a Room-Only reservation with Passholder Dining. You don't have to mention who does and doesn't have passes/tickets.

Purchase the tickets that you need from Undercover Tourist.

 

[CityGirlLost]

I gave up on calling Disney at all and went to the travel agent we usually use- Wendy at Magical Journeys.

This is what she said:
There are three packages types: one requires tickets and is eligible for free dining or other discounts, which is the Magic Your Way package. The other two are Military Plus Dining (which you do not qualify for) and third, Annual Passholder plus dining.

Annual Passholder you can do! AP Plus Dining means you buy the kids' tickets separately, pay full price for the dining plan, and if/when an AP rate comes out for the resort, we apply it and you get the discount on the room portion. Honestly with six people at a moderate or a value, that would be a frankly crappy discount for you.

The cost of the dining plan for the six of you is $163.16 per day or $1142 for the seven nights.

Even if the AP discount is 30% (which never happens at a value) Art of Animation would only save you about $900. AP discount is more in the 15-20% range at a value which would be between $330 and $430 off the room.

If you are booked as a package with 2-day base tickets per person and no free dining comes out, we can flip you to an AP dining package and eliminate the (2) tickets that you and Wayne would have to have and you would buy the kids tickets separately. If free dining does come out for that time period, you would hang onto the (2) tickets for you and Wayne (and hold on to them for after the passes expire) and upgrade the tickets for the kids at the concierge desk when you arrive from 2-day base tickets to however many park days you need.

If you want the dining plan, the Magic Your Way package is the way to go at this point. If you are booked room only and a free dining offer comes out, we have to completely re-book and re-deposit you. You cannot transfer your deposit from a room-only to a package.


So that's what we ended up doing. We booked MYW with only 2 day's worth of tickets and now we cross fingers and hope that Disney offers free dining at that point again this year.