We're wondering if we're going to run into any trouble by doing this?

[jar311]

We booked our flights, hotel (value resort), deluxe dining plan and tickets all in one go. We're going for 8 nights and 9 days. Our package came to around $3,500 and flights only cost another $1,000 with WestJet. So all-in-all we ended up coming in quite a bit under our budget.

So, with all that being said, my little sister who just turned 14 in September just achieved something really special in her personal life with school. She's a very bright and dedicated kid. We have decided that to reward her we would surprise her and bring her along. She's very adult for her age and we'd love the company.

Anyways, we were hoping that we could just buy her park tickets using the 25% off Canadian park tickets special and pay for her flight. Doing that would only cost us around another $800, a very very good price. We know that Disney officially allows sharing meal credits now, so we figured since we get six meal credits a day we can sacrifice 1 each per day and just split the meal credits between us and do 2 meals each a day.

My concern though is something really catastrophic happening when we get there like her being refused into our room or onto the magical express to and from the airport or something like that.

I really would like to do this for my sis and we're really trying to do this within the rules and more importantly without having to be dishonest with Disney about it. We're not rich though unfortunately so we just couldn't afford to add her onto our deluxe meal plan, so we were hoping this might be an economical way to make it work for all of us.

What do you think?

 

[samsteele]

I think either you & your husband or your sister herself need to book & pay for her own room at your value resort. I can't see your plan working for either the room or magical express. Re sharing the deluxe dining plan meal credits, that may get awkward very quickly. She should be prepared to pay OOP for at least quick service meals or possibly look into the 2017 WDW 1 free quick service meal per day promo (if the dates work for you). Safest solution is for your sister to have her own value room booked at the same value resort that you are staying at. Edit: just re-read & noticed your sister is 14 yrs old. I don't think WDW will allow a minor to book a room.

 

[jar311]

Re sharing the deluxe dining plan meal credits, that may get awkward very quickly. .

From my understanding and research sharing meal credits is actually allowed by Disney now. Here's an example of just one thing I found about it.

It's more actually just the room I'm thinking about at the end of the day, we can always arrange alternate arrangements to the hotel I suppose.

 

[AngelDisney]

I agree that it would be awkward to share 3 meal credits for a two-people dining plan. Would you be able to fully enjoy your dining experience at all? Since the dining experience at table service restaurants is part of the special Disney experience, a deluxe dining plan is preferred to the regular dining plan. If you are planning to give up a dining credit each a day, what about changing your dining plan to the regular one and add her to your room reservation. She is considered a child for hotel reservation and shouldn't cost anything to add her. This may cost a bit more and you may not be able to enjoy the TS meals as planned. But it's your first time to WDW. I am sure you will be surprised by some QS food.

 

[ottawamom]

I have to agree with previous posts. Add your sister to the room reservation. They won't charge you anything more for the room. This way she'll be able to use Magic Express, take advantage of early/late park hours etc. I would adjust your dining plan arrangements if you must. I don't know if you can have two people on the dining plan and one not in a room or if everyone on the reservation must be on the same plan. We always pay OOP for our meals so I have no experience there.

Did you book your park tickets using the Canadian Deal? Maybe you could adjust your tickets to those and that saving would allow you to add your sister to the Dining Plan.

 

[Tinkershelly]

Dining plan rules requires that everyone in the room be on the same dining plan for the whole length of the reservation. So either you sneak her into your room (with all the risks that entails), or you shell out for another adult on the DxDP. I don't see another option, sorry.

 

[loves to dive]

If she is staying in the same room as you are, just add her to the room, it might cost $25 more but it will make things a lot easier as far as MB, fps, etc. I don't do the dining plan but from what I understand now you just have kind of like a bucket where all your credits are dumped to be used as you wish. So if you want to only have 1 TS and 1 QS a day for you and your husband, thus leaving a TS a day credit available for her, I don't think it would be a problem. She is still going to have to pay for her other meals but it shouldn't be too bad. I don't know how many snack credits you get but there are a lot of things like muffins, pastrys and such which are snack credits that will be fine for breakfast. They don't check who is on the plan at the table, they just ask if you are using it and then whoever pays for it uses the credits available on their room.

 

[Average Joes]

The Deluxe dinning plan is a lot of food. I would price out the 3 of you with some sort of room discount if available. Then you have the ticket's at 25% off. Generally getting the dinning plan is not worth it unless there was a decent discount. Would you not loose out on the 25% off tickets by booking a package? If there is a room discount I really think you are better off not getting the dinning plan. Especially with what I assume are less character meals with 2 adults and a teenager. There are calculators online to give you a general sense on what you would spend on food without a dinning plan.

 

[fan1080]

If you really want to keep a dining plan, drop down to the regular dining plan, and add her to your reservation. The cost of the dining plan will actually be less for 3 on the regular plan, than 2 on the deluxe plan.

We've done the regular dining plan, and found it was more than enough food for us.

Happy travels.

 

[Disneylover99]

If you really want to keep a dining plan, drop down to the regular dining plan, and add her to your reservation. The cost of the dining plan will actually be less for 3 on the regular plan, than 2 on the deluxe plan.

We've done the regular dining plan, and found it was more than enough food for us.

Happy travels.

This is what I would do.

 

[smiths02]

Dining plan rules requires that everyone in the room be on the same dining plan for the whole length of the reservation. So either you sneak her into your room (with all the risks that entails), or you shell out for another adult on the DxDP. I don't see another option, sorry.

Why can't they just add her at arrival? If you are not at room occupancy limits, you can add a person at arrival.

The only problem is that she won't receive benefits like 60 day FP+ or DME to get to the hotel (she can probably take it back with you).

Maybe someone with more knowledge than me can chime in, but I *think* you can keep your package and reservation as is. Buy your sister tickets. Hire a car service/taxi/uber whatever to take you from the airport to your hotel (she won't be able to take DME). When you get to the hotel, go to the check-in desk and tell them that your sister is also staying with you.

 

[smiths02]

From my understanding and research sharing meal credits is actually allowed by Disney now. Here's an example of just one thing I found about it.

It's more actually just the room I'm thinking about at the end of the day, we can always arrange alternate arrangements to the hotel I suppose.

Most people are reporting now that you can gift others meals. So if you get 6 dining credits per night (for you and your DH) plus snacks, use snacks for breakfast, 1 TS for lunch for 3 people (3 credits), and 1 TS for dinner for 3 people (3 credits).

 

[bankr63]

I think I would call Disney or my TA and ask for help from the professionals. Relying on a bunch of guesses here isn't going to help. A lot of these suggestions sound like complex workarounds to a fairly simple issue. Add her to the ressie, and if you have to ALL have the DDP, then slip it down to the lower level. Should be no problem buying your tickets separately at the discounted rate and adding then linking them to your reservation so that you get the 60 day booking window for FP+.

One thing to watch out for when making big changes to a package; don't let them cancel everything and rebook if using a C$ credit card. They will refund your payment and then rebook with a new payment which will cost you exchange fees both ways. You'll end up paying an extra 4-5% with the two extra fees.

 

[Average Joes]

I agree with bankr63 but I'll proceed to guess I ran a discounted Pop standard room into May. Not sure when you go or if you could get a discount. $1,380 for the room + $877 for 25% off tickets for the 3 of you. That is $2,257 plus food. $3,500 plus her ticket would be $292. So that is $3,792 with probably most of the food covered. The difference is about $1,500 or $166 for food per day plus whatever extra food you have to buy for her. Without that discount on the room that $3,500 seems quite good. Still decent with the discount if you don't want to ship groceries to the room for snacks, some in room breakfasts, etc.

 

[ottawamom]

I think I would call Disney or my TA and ask for help from the professionals. Relying on a bunch of guesses here isn't going to help. A lot of these suggestions sound like complex workarounds to a fairly simple issue. Add her to the ressie, and if you have to ALL have the DDP, then slip it down to the lower level. Should be no problem buying your tickets separately at the discounted rate and adding then linking them to your reservation so that you get the 60 day booking window for FP+.

One thing to watch out for when making big changes to a package; don't let them cancel everything and rebook if using a C$ credit card. They will refund your payment and then rebook with a new payment which will cost you exchange fees both ways. You'll end up paying an extra 4-5% with the two extra fees.

The guesses are simply because we haven't been provided with specifics as to the dates of travel/types of tickets purchased. OP if you can give us a few more details there are people here who can crunch the possibilities for you.

Bottom line is that your sister will have to be added to your reservation. Those under 18 are added for free. If Disney discovered her staying in your room they could kick you out.

 

[planningjollyholiday]

Dining plan rules requires that everyone in the room be on the same dining plan for the whole length of the reservation. So either you sneak her into your room (with all the risks that entails), or you shell out for another adult on the DxDP. I don't see another option, sorry.

Tinkershell is correct. Everyone in the room needs to be on the same plan for your length of hotel stay. You can't just add her to the reservation, that will not work.

 

[cdnSpinalTap]

Tinkershell is correct. Everyone in the room needs to be on the same plan for your length of hotel stay. You can't just add her to the reservation, that will not work.

You can however add her at check-in as long as you are below occupancy rules. We have done this in the past and it is fully legitimate. At the time the posted charge for this was $10 per person, but the CM did not end up charging us anything. When you do this, she will not have to be on the same (or any) dining plan. She will get a key to the room and have all the same rights and privileges of any guest.

If you want to keep the dining plan you have and you want to bring her, I would suggest this is your best option. Your only concern would be getting her from the airport to the hotel as she would not be eligible for ME.

 

[NAB]

your worried about her dining plan I would worry about the Magical express , she isn't getting on that at the airport with out that piece of paper or going back to the airport without it. Plus like others said she won't get into the parks early late because she won't have a mickey band saying she is staying on site.

 

[cdnSpinalTap]

your worried about her dining plan I would worry about the Magical express , she isn't getting on that at the airport with out that piece of paper or going back to the airport without it. Plus like others said she won't get into the parks early late because she won't have a mickey band saying she is staying on site.

If they add her at check in the only thing she would not be eligible for is ME. She would be able to take advantage of EMH.

 

[NAB]

If they add her at check in the only thing she would not be eligible for is ME. She would be able to take advantage of EMH.

Maybe I was reading it wrong but they were not going to add her at all just let her stay in there room and buy tickets for the park when they got there. So the first problem would be getting too the hotel with out ME.