Dining Plan with Annual Pass

[rangerman]

I am trying to determine if we will be able to purchase the Dining Plan under the following scenario:

2 Adults & 2 Children. One of the adults currently has a valid annual pass for park admissions and we have purchased 5 day tickets for the other adult and both children. We have reservations at the Port Orleans Riverside for April 2007.

Will we qualify for the dining plan or will the adult with annual pass have to purchase an identical 5 day ticket so that all people in the party have identical tickets? We have already made dining reservations so we know we will be able to utilize the meals in the plan.

We purchased the annual pass eleven months ago during last year's vacation as we were able to qualify for a hotel discount that more than paid for the pass on our visit to WDW in May 06.

Any advice/comments would be appreciated. Thanks in advance....Dave

 

[pinkrose]

Yes, eveyone in the room must have the same ticket.

I have an AP, but the other members of my family do not. We went in Nov. with the dining plan. How we did this was that we bought the package with only 4 one day base tickets (one per family member). Then I ordered my husband and kids hopper tickets seperate from the package. It worked out great!

 

[rangerman]

Thanks for the response.

So if I understand correctly, everyone in your party each bought a one day base ticket to qualify for the meal plan and then three of the people added additional days to their one day ticket after you arrived at the park? Very clever.

Were you able to do this at your hotel or did you have to do this covertly?

Are the number of days on the meal plan determined by the number of days/nights that you will be at the resort.

Thanks again for your help......Dave

 

[pinkrose]

Thanks for the response.

So if I understand correctly, everyone in your party each bought a one day base ticket to qualify for the meal plan and then three of the people added additional days to their one day ticket after you arrived at the park? Very clever.

Were you able to do this at your hotel or did you have to do this covertly?

Are the number of days on the meal plan determined by the number of days/nights that you will be at the resort.

Thanks again for your help......Dave

We ordered the tickets before we left from mapleleaftickets.com. They are a little cheaper than directly from Disney. They are an authorized Disney ticket dealer.

Yes, the dinning plan is based on how many nights you will be staying.

Happy to help :wave:

 

[ClemsonTigger]

Thanks for the response.

So if I understand correctly, everyone in your party each bought a one day base ticket to qualify for the meal plan and then three of the people added additional days to their one day ticket after you arrived at the park? Very clever.

Were you able to do this at your hotel or did you have to do this covertly?

Are the number of days on the meal plan determined by the number of days/nights that you will be at the resort.

Thanks again for your help......Dave

Exactly. I would suggest you look at DDE from your AP to get an appropriate discount for your dining.

 

[MPitzen]

Another suggestion would be if you plan on renewing your AP then you could get the five day tickets for everyone in the party and when you go to renew the AP you can subtract the cost of the unused 5 day tickets. Or, if you never use this ticket you can save it for a future visit. This would end up being a lot cheaper than paying for 4 single day passes and 3 four day tickets.

 

[pinkrose]

Another suggestion would be if you plan on renewing your AP then you could get the five day tickets for everyone in the party and when you go to renew the AP you can subtract the cost of the unused 5 day tickets. Or, if you never use this ticket you can save it for a future visit. This would end up being a lot cheaper than paying for 4 single day passes and 3 four day tickets.

That's what I did. I was going to be renewing my AP on that trip. I applied all but one of the tickets to the renewal of my AP. I saved one to use later (plus I still have a few snack credits to use before we left). If you plan to use all of them towards the renewal, be sure your dinning plan credits have all be used because if not, they will be voided.

 

[rangerman]

Thanks to everyone for the great suggestions.

The way our reservation currently stands is that we have hotel reservations for seven nights. In addition, one of the adults and two of the children currently have 5 day base tickets (the other adult has the AP).

My plan is to call and change the 3 five day tickets into one day tickets and then add an additional one day ticket for the AP holder.

On a subsequent call I would add the dining plan based on a seven night stay. Once we arrive, I would add days to three of the tickets (excluding the AP holder).

Does this sound like it would work or am I missing something?

Thanks again....Dave

 

[MPitzen]

From my understanding and what I have attempted in the past there is no way to add days to only some of the tickets in a package. You HAVE to have the SAME exact package including tickets (days and all options on them) for EVERY member of your package.

 

[Clotho]

That seems strange. I would imagine...like...what if one person decided to stay an extra day, and the others in the party had to go home? They would make that person buy a whole separate ticket rather than extend their existing one?

How do they track that at the gate? If you went up and said, "I decided to stay an extra 4 days. " Then they would say, "I see here you were traveling with three other people. Go get them. They have to add days to their tickets, too."??

 

[bayoutinkbelle]

That's what I did. I was going to be renewing my AP on that trip. I applied all but one of the tickets to the renewal of my AP. I saved one to use later (plus I still have a few snack credits to use before we left). If you plan to use all of them towards the renewal, be sure your dinning plan credits have all be used because if not, they will be voided.

I also have to renew my APs for me and my son before this trip. I bought the DDP with one-day base tickets, so I can use those tickets toward the AP renewal? Did I read that right?

 

[MPitzen]

I also have to renew my APs for me and my son before this trip. I bought the DDP with one-day base tickets, so I can use those tickets toward the AP renewal? Did I read that right?

Yes, as long as the tickets are not expired and you still have them you can use them and just say that you want to upgrade those tickets to an AP renewal.

 

[MPitzen]

That seems strange. I would imagine...like...what if one person decided to stay an extra day, and the others in the party had to go home? They would make that person buy a whole separate ticket rather than extend their existing one?

How do they track that at the gate? If you went up and said, "I decided to stay an extra 4 days. " Then they would say, "I see here you were traveling with three other people. Go get them. They have to add days to their tickets, too."??

If you have a package then your tickets are on your "key to the world" and they know you have a package... from what I understand all of the information from your whole package including the other members of your package are on the 'key to the world'. Therefore, they do know who else is in your party and if you go to disneyworld.com it directly says if you look at their package info that Everyone has to have the same tickets. I'm sorry, I know this is an inconvienence. Like I said before the best way around this is just to get whatever additional ticket, say the same five day ticket that you're getting for everyone else and then use that when you need to renew your AP. I do believe that it is cheaper, I would check, but I'm pretty sure to get one extra 5 day ticket than to get 4 1 day tickets and 3 4 day tickets. This is because the first day of the ticket is the most expenisve and you would be paying for that 7 times.

If there is someone else that has had a different experience I would be very intersted to hear on how they got 'around the system'.

 

[bayoutinkbelle]

Yes, as long as the tickets are not expired and you still have them you can use them and just say that you want to upgrade those tickets to an AP renewal.

Thanks!

 

[Chance]

That seems strange. I would imagine...like...what if one person decided to stay an extra day, and the others in the party had to go home? They would make that person buy a whole separate ticket rather than extend their existing one?

How do they track that at the gate? If you went up and said, "I decided to stay an extra 4 days. " Then they would say, "I see here you were traveling with three other people. Go get them. They have to add days to their tickets, too."??

The DP is linked to the room - so in essence they would have to add another night. In the scenario above - they would make a new reservation. They have about all the angles covered except the 1 day ticket - - remember though you pay a premium for the one day ticket and you often times can do very well using the AP discounts for rooms.

 

[Rob562]

If you have a package then your tickets are on your "key to the world" and they know you have a package... from what I understand all of the information from your whole package including the other members of your package are on the 'key to the world'. Therefore, they do know who else is in your party and if you go to disneyworld.com it directly says if you look at their package info that Everyone has to have the same tickets. I'm sorry, I know this is an inconvienence. Like I said before the best way around this is just to get whatever additional ticket, say the same five day ticket that you're getting for everyone else and then use that when you need to renew your AP. I do believe that it is cheaper, I would check, but I'm pretty sure to get one extra 5 day ticket than to get 4 1 day tickets and 3 4 day tickets. This is because the first day of the ticket is the most expenisve and you would be paying for that 7 times.

If there is someone else that has had a different experience I would be very intersted to hear on how they got 'around the system'.

Sorry to resurrect this older topic, but your info is not quite correct.

When you *book* a package, everyone on the package must get the same tickets and options, which is as you said. When you check into your hotel, everyone will get their room key card with those tickets encoded onto them.

The "trick" is that AFTER check-in, the tickets encoded on the room keys can be upgraded individually. Whether it's extra days, adding on a hopper option, or making it a non-expiring ticket, it can be handled on an individual basis.

For people who have a group made up of a mix of some people with an AP and some without, and you want to get the Dining Plan: Book the package reservation with all 1-day base tickets. After you check into the hotel, go over to the Guest Services/Lobby Concierge Desk (or whatever they're calling it now) and have them upgrade only the tickets that need to be upgraded.

The one trade-off with getting all 1-day tickets is that I believe you lose out on the pre-purchase savings, so you'll be paying the gate price for the upgraded tickets. In order to get the pre-purchase discount, you'd have to get everyone at least a 4-day park hopper.

My group is doing this in September for the Free Dining promotion. Some of us have APs, some don't. After we check-in we'll upgrade the tickets that require it, and those of us with APs will have a 1-day base ticket left over when all is said and done.

If you're going during a time when the Free Dining *isn't* offered, you should look into the DDE card and compare it to the price of getting the Dining Plan.

-Rob