Dining Plan to Existing Park Hopper?

[Aurora's Spindle]

This may be a bit of a dumb question, but is it possible to add the Disney Dining Plan to an existing ticket? My family received five 5-day park hopper passes from Disney back in 2000, prior to the invention of the ticket expiration date; we just haven't been able to get back since then as a family. Now that we're all older, my fiance and I are trying to plan a trip for January of next year and I'd like to use my ticket, but we'd really like to try out the dining plan as well and were wondering if it would work out for us. Thanks for any help. :mickey:

[faline]

Probably not. The dining plan is part of a package which includes room, dining, and tickets. Until recently, one only needed to purchase a 1 day ticket to qualify for the package. Lately, Disney has been requiring that the ticket purchase equal the number of room nighs. Unless things change, you'll likely not be able to use the tickets with a package - unless you plan a long trip with part of it being a dining package and part of it being a room only and you use your tickets during the room only portion.

[Scar]

I agree that I don't believe you can do it. But before you make your decision, search some of the threads here about the dining plan. Many people (including me) don't think the DDP is a good idea.

[hlkeck]

Why not? Why can't you purchase the dining plan if you're staying on property? I would agree that you probably can't get free dining if they've changed the ability to only buy a 1 day ticket, but you should be able to buy the dining plan if you stay in a Disney Hotel.

[Tink1]

Dining is a component of the Walt Disney Travel Company Packages.

Dining is tied to your room package, not your ticket.

You can stay onsite with a Disney Reservation Center booking and not be able to get dining since it is not a Travel Comapny reservation. They are 2 companies under the Disney umbrella.

You have to have a Travel Company reservation in order to get dining, so you have to have some type of ticket media on the package.

Now, someone will most likely come on and talk about DVC reservations, which is yet another company under the Disney umbrella and a whole different set of rules.

Nanc

[Aurora's Spindle]

Thank you all, very informative and helpful. The DDP is something that I've gone back and forth about every time I read a thread on these boards, but the fiance wanted to try it. We'll see. :secret:

[DizneyRox]

Thank you all, very informative and helpful. The DDP is something that I've gone back and forth about every time I read a thread on these boards, but the fiance wanted to try it. We'll see. :secret:
The food, unfortunately, is the same regardless of your being on the DDP or not. When making your decision, compare the cost of the plan with how you would normally eat. For us, we would be hard pressed to spend the $40 a day each on what is part of the plan (when we go). That's just not how we eat at Disney.

For example, we don't usually eat a TS every day. We also don't usually do dessert either. We also tend to drink tons of water (summer) which would be OOP as well.

I don't find any value is prepaying for meals, I'd rather have my money working for me, not somebody else. You can always Xmas club the funds if you want to save up for the trip.

[r4kids]

If you are a passholder you can have just a room and dining package.

[Tink1]

Yes! forgot about that one, but remembered the DVC one. :thumbsup:

Nanc

[Scar]

You can stay onsite with a Disney Reservation Center booking and not be able to get dining since it is not a Travel Comapny reservation. They are 2 companies under the Disney umbrella.Nanci, can you explain this a little more. What is the difference?