Meal plan question

[disneyfan56]

My husband and I are staying at a DVC resort using our points. Our son and his wife are also staying at the same DVC resort using rented points. We want to purchase the meal plan, but when you rent points, you have to give your credit card number to the owner who is renting the points. That’s just crazy. We have a 1- bedroom villa, is there any down side to entering 2 “dummy guests” to our room reservation so we can purchase the meal plan for everyone?

 

[DisAl]

Don't know about DVC but for normal reservations your room cost will increase if you increase the number of guests on the reservation.

 

[Hcalvert]

My husband and I are staying at a DVC resort using our points. Our son and his wife are also staying at the same DVC resort using rented points. We want to purchase the meal plan, but when you rent points, you have to give your credit card number to the owner who is renting the points. That’s just crazy. We have a 1- bedroom villa, is there any down side to entering 2 “dummy guests” to our room reservation so we can purchase the meal plan for everyone?

I rent points and have paid with Disney gift cards for the dining plan. It is done with a three way call with member services. The same can be done with a credit card.

 

[Hcalvert]

Don't know about DVC but for normal reservations your room cost will increase if you increase the number of guests on the reservation.

It does not increase for DVC rentals. They cannot exceed room occupancy, which sounds like they are not.

 

[Phonedave]

My husband and I are staying at a DVC resort using our points. Our son and his wife are also staying at the same DVC resort using rented points. We want to purchase the meal plan, but when you rent points, you have to give your credit card number to the owner who is renting the points. That’s just crazy. We have a 1- bedroom villa, is there any down side to entering 2 “dummy guests” to our room reservation so we can purchase the meal plan for everyone?

You may hit some issues with your magic bands. Most likely your son and his wife are going to have to have two magic bands each. One set keyed to their room to open their door, and a separate set keyed to your room for the DDP. Likewise, their park admission is going to be tied to one of the bands and not the other, so you have to make sure that their FP+ reservations are made on the band with the admissions on them, or else the FP+ will not work (because if there is no admission media on the bands, then the bands cannot be scanned into the park)

Not really a huge deal, just something to keep track of.

 

[Jon81uk]

You may hit some issues with your magic bands. Most likely your son and his wife are going to have to have two magic bands each. One set keyed to their room to open their door, and a separate set keyed to your room for the DDP. Likewise, their park admission is going to be tied to one of the bands and not the other, so you have to make sure that their FP+ reservations are made on the band with the admissions on them, or else the FP+ will not work (because if there is no admission media on the bands, then the bands cannot be scanned into the park)

Not really a huge deal, just something to keep track of.

Bands are tied to an MDE profile. All bands linked to that persons profile access all FPs and all ticket.

 

[Phonedave]

Bands are tied to an MDE profile. All bands linked to that persons profile access all FPs and all ticket.

Exactly - So what doors are those bands going to open? The room they are staying in, or the room they are dummy guests in?

To the best of my knowledge, you cannot have your bands set open two different rooms at the same time.

They are going to have to have the bands registered to the parents room to get the DDP. They are also going to have to have them registered to their room in order to work as room keys for their room. In order to do that they are going to have to create a dummy MDE account for the dummy guests staying in the parents room, and use that for the DDP while using their real MDE account for their room (and FP+ and park media) so that they can open their door.

 

[Weather_Lady]

@disneyfan56 , if you're nervous about providing your credit card number to the DVC member from whom your son and daughter-in-law are renting points (FWIW, doing it that way is standard procedure for those renting points, since the member has to be the one to add and "pay for" the DDP for their renters), it might be simpler to alter the form of payment rather than have to create dummy reservations and dummy MDE accounts and juggle MagicBands around.

Just find out what the DDP will cost, purchase a Disney gift card or a VISA/Mastercard gift card in that amount, and then give it to your son and daughter-in-law so they can give those numbers to the owner from whom they're renting. The DDP will be paid-for and properly linked to their MDE account(s) and MagicBands, and your credit card numbers will stay secure. Easy-peasy!

 

[Jon81uk]

Exactly - So what doors are those bands going to open? The room they are staying in, or the room they are dummy guests in?

To the best of my knowledge, you cannot have your bands set open two different rooms at the same time.

They are going to have to have the bands registered to the parents room to get the DDP. They are also going to have to have them registered to their room in order to work as room keys for their room. In order to do that they are going to have to create a dummy MDE account for the dummy guests staying in the parents room, and use that for the DDP while using their real MDE account for their room (and FP+ and park media) so that they can open their door.

Yes that makes sense actually. Each named guest has a band in their account and then the dummy guests have bands. To use the DDP they will need to “borrow” the band that’s registered to the dummy MDE profile.

So the bands are linked to one profile each but they need extra profiles as well as extra bands.

 

[jaklgreen]

I would just skip the dining plan and pay OOP. It is more of a hassle to deal with, and you are hard pressed to save any money. If you want to pay for everyone's dining, then just give them a gift card with money on it.

 

[Hockey89]

I would just skip the dining plan and pay OOP. It is more of a hassle to deal with, and you are hard pressed to save any money. If you want to pay for everyone's dining, then just give them a gift card with money on it.

Agreed. This is such a hassle while you probably won’t save money while giving cash flow to Disney.

 

[Rob562]

My suggestion for the best option would be the alternative form of payment that others have suggested, either a Disney gift card or a Visa/MC gift card.

If you go the dummy-guest route, you should be able to get RFID cards at the front desk that can be linked to those two dummy profiles. Then just set aside the Bands created for the dummy profiles and give your son the cards. After that it's simply a matter of them scanning the card for the dining plan (your reservation) and their Bands for everything else (their reservation). The cards would also act as a room key to your room, if need be.

I'd suggest *not* trying to link both reservations to your son's account. It might work out, but I've had at least two CM's on the MDE Help Desk advise against it, so it's not worth the potential headaches.

-Rob