Dining plan questions - very confused!

[jayhjay]

Can someone help clarify a few things on the dining plan for me? I know it is linked to your tickets and stay, but I am not completely sure how. We are looking at a couple of options for our trip and I am trying to figure out how dining would work.

1) Stay at POFQ for 4 nights then AKL for 2 - our TA said I would need to get a 6 day ticket, then 4 days of dining while at POFQ and no dining at AKL. THis is b/c otherwise I'd have to buy a 4 day ticket with dining, then a 2 day ticket with dining which is a more pricey way to get tix. But why can't I get 6 days of both dining and park if I am on prop the whole time? ALso, I thought you had to get dining for as many days as you had tickets? Or is that just as many days as you are in the room?

2) Rent DVC points for 4 nights and AKL for 2 - My understanding is that DVC can now get dining. So would I have to buy dining twice - 4 nights then 2 nights? And would I therefore need to buy park tickets 4/2 instead of 6? This is obviously more pricey.

Last thing, do meal vouchers expire when you check out? So if I did as the TA suggests and just get dining for the first 4 days in option 1, could i use the credits later in the trip? Or just pay cash then?

Sorry this is so complicated! TIA! JJ

 

[gigi1313]

let's see... i'll try to answer your questions...

if you do a "split stay" (two different resorts) then you are on two different reservations... and each reservation has to have it's own "package" in order to get dining (a package is room and tickets) so you can buy dining for your entire trip, but you'd have to buy new tickets (even a one day) for the second reservation...

the number of days of dining is tied to the number of nights in a particular resort, not to the number of days on your ticket...

dining credits expire at midnight on the day of check out... so if you switch hotels on tuesday morning, you can use your dining credits 'til midnight tuesday...

i know nothing about dvc, but i'm sure the dvc boards will have all the answers for you!

just a personal observation... we did a split stay last year between POFQ (9 nights w/dining) and AKL (2 nights w/out dining) and we were totally disappointed... wished we had stayed at POFQ...

 

[jayhjay]

just a personal observation... we did a split stay last year between POFQ (9 nights w/dining) and AKL (2 nights w/out dining) and we were totally disappointed... wished we had stayed at POFQ...

Really? Can you tell me more about why? It certainly puts a hitch in our plans, so if it is not a great option, it isn't worth the complication. My girls are so into animals and especially Lion King so I thought they'd really like it. They will be 3 and 5 1/2, FWIW.

Thanks for your other help! JJ

 

[gigi1313]

no problem... here's an excerpt from my trip report that explains...
<<i must say as much as we LOVED POFQ is as much as we disliked AKL... ick is all i can say... the room was or at least seemed smaller than POFQ... it was dark... just not that exciting... *and* we were hoping for a savannah view upgrade and we got one... for an add'l $50! location-wise we had an awesome room (4th floor zebra trail)... but we were annoyed at ourselves for giving up the dining for the let-down of AKL... live and learn!>>