What would happen if.......

[wfdiaff]

The dates listed are for illustration purposes only.

What would happen if, I had a tripped planned October 16th -22nd all arrangements made including flights and Disney comes out with a free dining promo that runs October 1st - 15th. So I decide to go ahead and book and additional day to my trip so now I have reservations October 15th - 22nd. I believe that I will now get free dining promo for my trip. However I don't check in until the 16th, ( remember my flights are already booked for the 16th) I'm not calling to cancel, I just no show. Do I lose my whole reservation, do I get to keep free dining?

You may ask, why would I do that? Extra night of room fees is $300 and to buy the dining plan is $800. Sounds like a $500 savings to me.

 

[ajwolfe]

I've never tried this so I can't say for sure but I definitely wouldn't try it. I would think that there would be an issue with you being a no show on the first day of your trip.

 

[wilkeliza]

I don't think you would get to keep free dining and you could possibly loose the whole reservation as a no show. The computer system will kick your reservation out as a no-show after a certain point which I believe is 7am the next day. There is nothing they can do past that point and they would have to re-book the entire trip. To get your original booking you would have to show them a compelling reason why you were a no-show (flight cancellations, sick kids, etc) and even then they aren't obligated to give you the reservation and you could be out the entire cost since there is a cancellation window for packages. You could end up getting the whole family down there and being told sorry we cancelled your reservation but for X amount of money you can have your tickets and room back and it will all be at rack rate.

 

[Hezzy04]

Stupid question but....if you preregister, would they even know if you didn't show up the first day?

 

[wilkeliza]

Stupid question but....if you preregister, would they even know if you didn't show up the first day?

Yes because not everyone gets the skip the desk offer. Most people still need to stop by the front desk.

DME would also be an issue because your flights are the next day.

 

[Tara1988]

There's also the chance that you would only get the offer for the one day, not the entire trip. I've seen it work both ways. I have booked an extra night before when I was planning to arrive much earlier than check in or leave later than check out. I've always let the hotel know what I was planning so there was never a problem

 

[aaarcher86]

There's also the chance that you would only get the offer for the one day, not the entire trip. I've seen it work both ways. I have booked an extra night before when I was planning to arrive much earlier than check in or leave later than check out. I've always let the hotel know what I was planning so there was never a problem

Room only would be for dates in the offer. Free dining is for the whole reservation if check in is included.

 

[Tara1988]

Room only would be for dates in the offer. Free dining is for the whole reservation if check in is included.

Ok. I wasn't sure exactly how it worked, but I had a friend who added a day just to get the discount and it made her price go up instead of down because she only got the discount for that day.

 

[aaarcher86]

Ok. I wasn't sure exactly how it worked, but I had a friend who added a day just to get the discount and it made her price go up instead of down because she only got the discount for that day.

Yeah, probably a room discount. It gets tricky sometimes, but FD/package discounts like Stay/Play/Dine go by check in. It's pretty cool if you grab that last day.

 

[lanejudy]

So I decide to go ahead and book and additional day to my trip so now I have reservations October 15th - 22nd.

You would have to change the full reservation, not book one additional night. While you can easily add one night, you would need to rebook the full period or the offer would not carry forward into the rest of the reservation. WDW no longer allows modifications to simply add or drop one night; they require a full rebook and the room must be available in their system for the whole (new) time period. You may need to change room categories or even change resorts, depending on what you already have booked and what is included/excluded/available through the offer.

As others have stated, the reservation system would kick you out as a no-show by 6am the following morning. My guess is they are pretty clued in to people attempting to do what you suggest, and would cancel your promotion for arriving too late. Worst case, they'd cancel the whole reservation and you could find yourself looking for a place to stay after arriving and purchasing new tickets. I wouldn't chance it.

Enjoy your vacation!

 

[buzznina]

As lanejudy posted, just adding one night would be treated as 2 separate reservations and you would only get FD for 1 day. You would need to cancel your reservation and rebook from the 15th-22nd.