Someone coming half way through trip

[pajammies]

If my kids and I are going for 7 days and my husband won't be meeting us until the third day or so, do we still have to pay full price for him.
For example, let's say we go in January and the Play, Stay and Dine promo comes out. Would we be able to get three people at seven days and one person at 4 days? Or do we just need to do all four people for seven days? I understand the hotel is likely the same price, I'm more talking about tickets and Dining plan.
The same question would apply if there is no promo coming in January.

Anyone ever have experience with someone meeting them half way through a trip?

 

[CAPTAIN HOOK]

For guests from the UK - all people in the party have to either order the Dining Plan or don't bother. Additionally, there would normally be room charges for the under occupancy of the room.

 

[pajammies]

I do believe you are right Captain Hook, I was just hoping I was wrong. I figured it wouldn't be easy to save money
Thanks

 

[CAPTAIN HOOK]

"Going to Disney" and "saving money" don't really go together !!!

My post is only from a UK prospective - things may be slightly different for US guests and packages

 

[dreamfinder]

Dining Plan needs to be the same across the board. Tickets however can be upgraded as needed. So if free dining is being offered you book all 4 of your party for the duration of hotel nights, with whatever dining is being offered, and then buy the 4 day ticket for your party. (Unless they change the minimum buy to 5 instead of 3) Then you upgrade the needed tickets from 4 day to 7 day. As long as you "check in" all 4 party members at the start of your trip, Disney doesn't know the better. This however means that he cannot use DME to get to the resort.

If you are having to pay for dining, then you could potentially have him be added as a "day guest", but this can only be done once you have checked in. If he is a "day guest" you would need to buy his ticket separately, and pay for his meals out of pocket, but he could do DME (would need to call DME after he was added). He would be limited to the 30 day FP+ booking in this scenario.

 

[pajammies]

Dining Plan needs to be the same across the board. Tickets however can be upgraded as needed. So if free dining is being offered you book all 4 of your party for the duration of hotel nights, with whatever dining is being offered, and then buy the 4 day ticket for your party. (Unless they change the minimum buy to 5 instead of 3) Then you upgrade the needed tickets from 4 day to 7 day. As long as you "check in" all 4 party members at the start of your trip, Disney doesn't know the better. This however means that he cannot use DME to get to the resort.

If you are having to pay for dining, then you could potentially have him be added as a "day guest", but this can only be done once you have checked in. If he is a "day guest" you would need to buy his ticket separately, and pay for his meals out of pocket, but he could do DME (would need to call DME after he was added). He would be limited to the 30 day FP+ booking in this scenario.

Tickets, if i remember correctly, are very cheap by the fifth day though. Isn't the price difference between 5 and 7 days minimal? Maybe not worth the hassle?

Ok then, one more question. If he left the trip early, would Disney care? So we pay full price for everything for seven days, he comes on the 2nd or 3rd day. Is there a downside to that?
Will DME care that he is not on the bus to leave? Can I just say he made other arrangements to get home. For that matter can we use his snack credits and so on?

 

[Rob562]

One note about people arriving and leaving different from the start/end dates of the reservation: Disney doesn't care. You could book a 7-night trip for two people and only have one of the people there for a single night and you'd be OK.

You can also get DME transportation on whichever days someone needs it, even if they're different from the start/end dates of the reservation. We're staying in a two-bedroom unit at SSR in November. Three of us will be arriving at the start of the reservation, two more arrive on day 4, one of the originals departs on day 5, and the remaining people leave on check-out day. Everyone is using DME.

The only trick when dealing with a complicated DME schedule is to *not* give your flight info to Central Reservations. You need to either call DME directly (866-599-0951) or carefully work your way through the online DME page, keeping "flight groupings" properly organized.
https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/airport-transportation-reservation/

-Rob

 

[dreamfinder]

Tickets, if i remember correctly, are very cheap by the fifth day though. Isn't the price difference between 5 and 7 days minimal? Maybe not worth the hassle?

Ok then, one more question. If he left the trip early, would Disney care? So we pay full price for everything for seven days, he comes on the 2nd or 3rd day. Is there a downside to that?
Will DME care that he is not on the bus to leave? Can I just say he made other arrangements to get home. For that matter can we use his snack credits and so on?

Yes, going from a 5 to a 7 day ticket would cost about $22 under current prices, so not a huge difference.

You can use DME, not use DME, doesn't matter much. I've had every member of our party come on a different flight on different days, I've also been added last minute as a day guest and got my DME booking the day of. My only concern would be with scheduling the DME (if you are dealing with dining) for arrival other than on day 1. Especially with free dining, they had started to crack down on making sure the correct amount of people were checking in. They didn't want to be giving you dining credits for free. I'm not sure what would happen if you tried to book that last person. You can definitely have the first 3 check in and then have the 4th book with DME directly, at least that way you are on property and can talk with someone in person in case something goes wrong. Leaving early should be even easier because they don't really care, you just don't book the return, or book it separately once you get to the parks. I just don't know how well their systems talk to keep track of who is where when and how many dining credits you should have, leading me to be cautious of late arrivals.

No dining? Arrive and leave at will, nothing much to worry about.