What will happen?

[Cinderelley]

I'm heading to WDW with 4 friends during the Free Dining. I'm going to be arriving 8/29. Two of the other girls will be there 9/1-9/10. The 4th may or may not be there for just a few days depending on how her sister is doing (she has an inoperable brain tumor.) The confirmation paper says that all guests have to check in together. Since we don't plan on checking in together, do they adjust the free dining whenever each person checks in? or will they cancel the free dining all together? Any other info you can give me?

[LibertyTreeGal]

I'm going to ask clarifying questions in hopes that it will help whoever does end up answering this --

Are you saying that you are all staying in the same room? If so, then I guess that everyone is paying for the same amount of park tickets, even though some are only staying a few days? And that you have the Dining plan for all those nights?

I think the reason you have no answer is because this is such a confusing scenario, unless I am completely not understanding you.

To be eligible for the DDP, all guests of the room must buy the same park package for the same number of days, connected to a hotel stay -- there is no ala carte. I do not believe you can buy it if it is not attached to your hotel stay. But it is sounding to me like you are getting a room for a certain number of nights and the others can come and go as they please? This is not "legal" by booking standards, as far as I know.

So I guess we just need clarification :mickey:

[Cinderelley]

Yes, we are all staying in the same room, and yes, we are all paying the same price for the room and park tickets. But due to life circumstances, not everyone can get there on the same day. I was expecting it to go like this -

8/29 - I check-in and get 12 days of dining.
8/31 - Two more people check in and get 10 days of dining
If Stacey can make it, she'll check in and get however many days of dining that she will be there. She's the hardest because of the uncertainty with her sister.

or will it be that I check-in on the 29th & the say "since you're whole party isn't here, you won't get any dining at all"? If that is the case, do I need to call and tell them that all my ADRS will be paid for and not on the dining plan?

[Nicki'sMom]

Ok, I ran into this back in Sept when I was meeting my parents for vacation at the world. They were flying in and we were driving and not going to check in at the same time. I had made the reservation for two rooms under the same reservation number and when I called to ask if it would be a problem if we arrived seperatley, Disney said they had to split our reservation into two. One for my family and one for my parents. They said if we didn't then it could forfit the dining plan because we did not check in together. PLEASE make sure you are covered! I would hate for you to get there and have a major letdown such as this. Call Disney and see what can be done to preserve all of your benefits. Good Luck.

[disneymom07]

In April when we went (on the DDP) my husband missed our flight. I checked in with my boys and told them that hopefully he'll be in tonite. They gave me his key to the world card. He ended up not getting there until the next day, since we were going to be in one of the parks, I took his key back to the check-in desk and explained that he would be there that day to pick it up. They didn't give me any trouble, but we paid for the DDP vs. getting it free when you'll be there. Hope this helps.

[Cinderelley]

Thanks for the info. What number would I call to ask about it?

[disneyfan328]

one more thing that I wanted to mention is that I believe that the "Free Dining" is only good for up to 10 days? I am sure someone else on here can clarify, but I beleive that to be the case. Max # of nights is 10 and your allotment of meals goes by the number of nights, not days.

[vamaggie]

I would definately check back with whoever you made the reservations with (travel agent? AAA?Disney?) to ask these questions and clarify. I too thought the free dining plan was only for 10 days and that everyone had to be on the same plan (# of dining plan days, MYW park tickets etc) So if you check in on the 29th, you would have your 10 days of dining (as would all those staying in your room and on the same reservation). Whether your friends come later, they too would have 10 days of dining and all would expire at midnight on the 10th day. Same with the MYW tickets--all have to be the same type (base, hopper etc) and have to be for the same number of days. If this is wrong I am sure someone will come along and clarify. Good Luck!

[Cinderelley]

The 10 days of dining would be fine. Actually, our plans only call for 10 TS dining credits anyway. I'm not sure what I would have done with the extra 2 days worth of credits when I was by myself. When I'm alone, I don't really like to stop and eat at a TS restaurant. But this is my friends' first trip to WDW. I wanted them to be able to enjoy everything, and I think it will be nice for them to experience some character meals and having a sit-down meal would allow us some "talk" time.

[wendy*darling]

Definitely call whoever you made the reservation through (hopefully it's Magical Journeys).
I am fairly certain that everyone in the room gets the same MYW passes and days of Dining Plan even if they are coming in later. Since you are staying more than 10 nights I am not certain how this will work or when the 10 days of DDP start and end. And I'm thinking your friends will all have to buy 12 days passes like you are getting.
You might be better off getting to reservations. One for when you are there alone, and another for when you will all be there together.
But you really have to get an accurate "official" answer.

[Cinderelley]

Definitely call whoever you made the reservation through (hopefully it's Magical Journeys).
I am fairly certain that everyone in the room gets the same MYW passes and days of Dining Plan even if they are coming in later. Since you are staying more than 10 nights I am not certain how this will work or when the 10 days of DDP start and end. And I'm thinking your friends will all have to buy 12 days passes like you are getting.
You might be better off getting to reservations. One for when you are there alone, and another for when you will all be there together.
But you really have to get an accurate "official" answer.

Yes, it was with Magical Journeys, but unfortunately, Disney has been giving Debbie different answers, so she said it sounds like it depends on the manager on duty at the resort. She said that it is only an issue because some people are putting fake names on the reservations in order to get more dining credits. (How can you eat that much?) Her suggestion was to bring in the flight information showing when my friends are coming in to show them when I check-in.

We are all getting a 1-day pass with the room, but when we get there, we'll be upgrading each of our tickets to the package that will suit each one of us. I may be going again in January with my DH & kids, so I'm considering just getting an annual pass.

I might just stay at AKL for the two days I'm going to be by myself. My other option is that I can get two free nights at either the Swan or Dolphin through my timeshare.

[January-2007]

Just want to add that you can get Magic Your Way packages for up to 14 nights now. That's new this year, it used to be up to 10 nights, but now it's 14. That means you could technically get Free Dining for 14 nights. We're getting it for 11 nights. I don't have any experience with your particular question, I just noticed a lot of people wondering about this little issue and thought I would clear it up.

[Cinderelley]

Just want to add that you can get Magic Your Way packages for up to 14 nights now. That's new this year, it used to be up to 10 nights, but now it's 14. That means you could technically get Free Dining for 14 nights. We're getting it for 11 nights. I don't have any experience with your particular question, I just noticed a lot of people wondering about this little issue and thought I would clear it up.


Thank you for clearing that up.