Disney Dining Plan and Check-In Question

[adamcav]

Hello all. Quick question, ...

I am staying at AKL in September with the free dining plan. There are 4 members of my party total. Three of us will be arriving on a Monday and the fourth will be joining us the following Thursday. We are all staying in the same room. And of course we all have an identical MYW package w/ 8-day hopper (even the fourth person who will miss the first few days).

My question is, ... I was glancing at the confirmation sheet I received and noticed a special note that reads as follows:

"Please Note: Your reservation includes Disney Dining Plan components. In order to claim these components, all members of your party must be present at check-in or your reservation will be modified."​

This message worries me a little because the one member of our party will not arrive until Thursday. Am I going to have a problem at check-in with the package?

We did this same setup, with one member arriving late, last year and did not have a problem; but there was no special note regarding check-in last year on my confirmation printout.

Can anyone shed some light?
JPV, perhaps the "official" line?
Thanks in advance.

 

[SallyShine]

Ours said the same thing, but they did not ask to see everyone at check in (this was in April). I don't know if they are more strict when free dining is involved.

 

[JPVonDrake]

Hello all. Quick question, ...

I am staying at AKL in September with the free dining plan. There are 4 members of my party total. Three of us will be arriving on a Monday and the fourth will be joining us the following Thursday. We are all staying in the same room. And of course we all have an identical MYW package w/ 8-day hopper (even the fourth person who will miss the first few days).

My question is, ... I was glancing at the confirmation sheet I received and noticed a special note that reads as follows:

"Please Note: Your reservation includes Disney Dining Plan components. In order to claim these components, all members of your party must be present at check-in or your reservation will be modified."​

This message worries me a little because the one member of our party will not arrive until Thursday. Am I going to have a problem at check-in with the package?

We did this same setup, with one member arriving late, last year and did not have a problem; but there was no special note regarding check-in last year on my confirmation printout.

Can anyone shed some light?
JPV, perhaps the "official" line?
Thanks in advance.

Glad to help...

What will happen is if you are booked for a party of 4 guests, but only 3 are present at check-in, you will get only your Key to the World cards for the 3 Guests who are there. Your room's dine entitlements will temporarily be reduced (ie modified) to 3 Guests. When the other Guest arrives, they will get their Key to the World card, and your room's pool of dine entitlements will be increased to 4 Guests.

This measure is to ensure we provide the best Guest Service and to prevent Guests from falsely book additional names in the room to increase the number of free dine entitlements.

 

[adamcav]

JPV (or anyone else who can help), a small follow up to your response, ....

In total do we still end up with the same amount of dining points? More specifically,... Our stay will be September 25 through October 2nd. Three people arrive on the 25th for the full stay. Our fourth member arrives on September 28th and departs with us on October 2nd. Do we still end up with 28 sit-down dining points that we can use?

Of course our plan was to use some of the 4th person's points from earlier in the week to possibly do a "2-pointer" or two. Will this be possible?

Again, any info is much appreciated.
Thanks.

 

[JPVonDrake]

JPV (or anyone else who can help), a small follow up to your response, ....

In total do we still end up with the same amount of dining points? More specifically,... Our stay will be September 25 through October 2nd. Three people arrive on the 25th for the full stay. Our fourth member arrives on September 28th and departs with us on October 2nd. Do we still end up with 28 sit-down dining points that we can use?

Of course our plan was to use some of the 4th person's points from earlier in the week to possibly do a "2-pointer" or two. Will this be possible?

Again, any info is much appreciated.
Thanks.

Yes, you will still end up with the same number of entitlements, you just won't have access to use all of them until your 4th Guest arrives.

When the three of you check in, you will have 3 guests staying 7 nights, you you will receive 21 of each dine entitlements (21 table service, 21 counter service, 21 snacks) for your party to use.

Even though your 4th Guest does not arrive until Thursday, they are "officially" booked on the package for the entire 7 nights, so when that Guest arrives, your dine entitlements will be increased another 7 of each entitlement to the full 28 (minus what you have already used of course.)

Unfortunately, you will not have access to your fourth Guest's entitlements until they in fact arrive and check-in.

 

[adamcav]

JPV Thanks a million. This information was very helpful.

Fortunately we won't need to use the points saved from earlier in the week until after our fourth member arrives. So in the end it all works out perfectly and we can keep all of our advanced reservations the same.

Thanks Again.