Adding someone late to dining reservation with dining plan

jbolen2

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
i called in today to find out what the details on adding someone late to our reservation. I won’t know until 2-4 days out if my niece can go with us. The cast member told me that I can add her on our dining plan until 3 days out and after that she just gets added to our reservation as a normal guest. Has anyone else ever ran in to this situation? Also can I go ahead and add her to dining reservations with the plan of her having ddp? If so will they let us pay for hers out of pocket at that time or will it make us use one of our credits(making us short on credits)?
 

Weather_Lady

Well-Known Member
Yes, I would add her to your dining reservations now, especially if adding her bumps your party up to needing a larger table (e.g., from 4 people to 5 people, meaning you go from a 4-top to a 6-top) - otherwise if the restaurant gets booked up, you may find that there are no tables left for your party size if you try and add her later. If she dines with you but is not on the DDP, you can absolutely pay for her out of pocket and the rest with the DDP. It's no different from a "split check" situation in your typical restaurant -- just tell the server which meals are being paid-for with the DDP and which are being paid-for out of pocket, and they can charge you accordingly.

I think it's interesting that they said that if you added her to your room reservation too last-minute (less than 3 days out), your neice wouldn't be on the DDP with you, but would just be added to your reservation as non-DDP guest. I was always under the impression that if you wanted the DDP for anybody in the room, you had to buy it for everybody, which has led to consternation for some guests (e.g., having to buy the dining plan for all guests in the room, even if one person has severe dietary restrictions or just had laproscopic surgery and won't be able to get any use out of the DDP). If what they told you is true (and if I read your post correctly and your intention is that your neice be added to your room or room-and-ticket package reservation), you may have just discovered a loophole!
 
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Baldy

Well-Known Member
That was not our experience. My father ended up joining us one year (2014ish). We only found out the day we flew out. Even though he was only there for 2 days we were told he had to have 7 days of DDP since that is what the rest of us had. He’s diabetic and doesn’t do rides so we were hoping to just add him to the room.
In your case, I don’t think you will have a problem. If it turns out things have changed, you can just tell them how many dining credits you want to use and pay the balance.
Have fun!
 

dreamfinder

Well-Known Member
You don't need to have every member on the DDP. You hand them the card, and tell them how many credits you want to use. I'd add the extra body now to your ADRs as it will only get harder, especially if you need to bump up a table size.
 

Andrew M

Well-Known Member
This just happened to us with my brother who is a vegan. My parents came down and were on the dining plan. If they added him to the room anytime before check-in he would be forced to be on the dining plan, which doesn't really make sense for him. So they added him at check-in and he only had to pay an extra adult in the room fee of $15/day and wasn't on the dining plan.

As for the reservations, I wouldn't really worry about it. I have three kids and we just went down with a party that ranged from 5-15 depending on the day. All my ADRs were around 8-10 people and everywhere we went they had no issues adding or subtracting a person or 2 (or 3) from the reservation.

And like Weather Lady said once your on the dining plan, all the meals of that room get pooled together. So you can tell the server how many meal credits you plan on using for each meal. For instance I used my table service credits on adult meals and paid for some of the cheaper kids meals out of pocket.
 

jbolen2

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
This just happened to us with my brother who is a vegan. My parents came down and were on the dining plan. If they added him to the room anytime before check-in he would be forced to be on the dining plan, which doesn't really make sense for him. So they added him at check-in and he only had to pay an extra adult in the room fee of $15/day and wasn't on the dining plan.

As for the reservations, I wouldn't really worry about it. I have three kids and we just went down with a party that ranged from 5-15 depending on the day. All my ADRs were around 8-10 people and everywhere we went they had no issues adding or subtracting a person or 2 (or 3) from the reservation.

And like Weather Lady said once your on the dining plan, all the meals of that room get pooled together. So you can tell the server how many meal credits you plan on using for each meal. For instance I used my table service credits on adult meals and paid for some of the cheaper kids meals out of pocket.

I called back to verify and was told this time what you have said. If she’s added anytime before checkin then she would be able to havw the dining plan. If she were to fly in after check in she would have to be added as a day guest and not receive a magic band, be eligle for extra magic hours, or any other perks as a resort guest. Was the person you paid the 15$ fee done as a day guest like they told me she would be? I’m torn because if she gets done that way it really puts a damper on our plans.
 

Andrew M

Well-Known Member
I called back to verify and was told this time what you have said. If she’s added anytime before checkin then she would be able to havw the dining plan. If she were to fly in after check in she would have to be added as a day guest and not receive a magic band, be eligle for extra magic hours, or any other perks as a resort guest. Was the person you paid the 15$ fee done as a day guest like they told me she would be? I’m torn because if she gets done that way it really puts a damper on our plans.

From what I was told you can add her up until the day before arrival to still be a part of your package.

However if you decide to add her after she should still get a magic band to open the room, however the park tickets will not be on it and they may be linked to a card if she already bought her tickets. Either way you could always just buy a magic band and add her to tickets to it, or once she's in the system they should be able to add her ticket to the room one.

Once she's there you may have to spend a little bit of time explaining the situation to guest services just to make sure she shows up in the system alongside you guys, since that happened with my brother the first day in the parks. But as long as the $15/night extra guest fee is paid they will be eligible for extra magic hours just like everyone else.
 

dreamfinder

Well-Known Member
I called back to verify and was told this time what you have said. If she’s added anytime before checkin then she would be able to havw the dining plan. If she were to fly in after check in she would have to be added as a day guest and not receive a magic band, be eligle for extra magic hours, or any other perks as a resort guest. Was the person you paid the 15$ fee done as a day guest like they told me she would be? I’m torn because if she gets done that way it really puts a damper on our plans.

So adding someone before checkin (and I think with the DDP would need to be 3 days before arrival) would entail them to have the exact same package as the rest of the party.
Adding someone as a day guest I think officially means they aren't spending the night, hence the name, But they will let you add them for multiple days as long as you don't go over the occupancy limits, so it's a moot point. I know last time I was added as a day guest I was able to take advantage of MDE, and they asked me when I arrived if I already had a Magic Band as they had only prepared me a KTTW style card. I did, so it wasn't a problem. Technically I should have been charged the $15 fee, but don't believe they did.
 

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