Dining plan for split reservations

[NikP]

I have a split reservation at SSR. The first night is on its own, booked with points from one contract, the rest of the stay is booked with another contracts points. I think they must be linked somehow because we are only receiving 1 set of magic bands. Can I book the dining plan for only the first night?

We have done this in the past but I thought it was no longer allowed.

 

[tjkraz]

No, you cannot do that.

Years ago they allowed DVC members to book split stays and only buy the DDP for a portion of the stay. Now, they don't allow the deliberate split stay bookings and will combine reservations in the manner you describe whenever possible.

Only time you could get away with it is if the actual villa reservation is different between the two segments of the stay (different resort, different room size, different view, etc.) But that would mandate a room switch mid-trip. If you have the same resort & villa type booked the entire time, they will combine the reservation and DDP is either all or nothing.

 

[supersnoop]

Did you book with separate contracts, as you say, or separate memberships?

The fact that you're only getting one set of bands makes me think it's a single reservation booked with multiple contracts. If they were truly separate reservations (and separate memberships which means they couldn't be combined), but you could book the dining plan for just one part of the stay.

 

[NikP]

We actually have 2 different member numbers because our contracts have different use years. Will that make a difference do you think?

 

[tjkraz]

We actually have 2 different member numbers because our contracts have different use years. Will that make a difference do you think?

You would do best to contact DVC and ask.

The fact that you are only receiving one set of magic bands suggests that the reservations have been combined. Disney's stance regarding the DDP is that it is a length-of-stay option. That's why they eliminated the ability of DVC members to deliberately split their stay and buy the DDP for shorter segments. Typically the only way around this is to do a legitimate split stay with portions of the visit falling into different resorts, views or villa sizes, all of which would necessitate changing rooms.

 

[LSchrow]

I have a split reservation at SSR. The first night is on its own, booked with points from one contract, the rest of the stay is booked with another contracts points. I think they must be linked somehow because we are only receiving 1 set of magic bands. Can I book the dining plan for only the first night?

We have done this in the past but I thought it was no longer allowed.

It's odd that you are only receiving 1 set of MBs - reservations made with two different memberships (NOT contracts, as others have stated) are separate. we often book a night or two with DxDDP using one of our memberships, followed by a stay in the same villa (same resort, room size, view) without DDP. Each has a separate reservation number, and we receive a set of MBs for each stay. The only problem we've had is that the housekeeping schedule may get mixed up (or totally omitted, as happened to us last October). We ask MS to mark the stays as a continuing reservation, & haven't had to change rooms.
Do you have two reservation numbers?

 

[gillep]

I would check with MS about the magic band thing and also to see if you an add the dining plan for the stay that you want. I booked a reservation at CCV in September and from the moment that I made it the reservation did not allow me to customize magic bands, they just were not available for that stay. I contacted MS and they had to escalate to tech support but apparently it was a glitch at one time and withinn a couple days it was all fixed and I was able to customize MBs.

 

[Dean]

I have a split reservation at SSR. The first night is on its own, booked with points from one contract, the rest of the stay is booked with another contracts points. I think they must be linked somehow because we are only receiving 1 set of magic bands. Can I book the dining plan for only the first night?

We have done this in the past but I thought it was no longer allowed.

If they are separate, you should be able to book the DP for one and not the other or different plans for each. If it's linked, they should be able to unlink it but they'd have to cancel any DP already reserved which doesn't sound applicable. There could be issues after checking in to the second reservation but they are fixable.

 

[NikP]

Thank you everyone for your responses. I am not sure I will bother adding dining plan for 1 day of our trip. I thought it might be worth it for the quick service plan to receive the refillable mugs but I’m not so sure it’s worth the hassle.

 

[Dean]

Thank you everyone for your responses. I am not sure I will bother adding dining plan for 1 day of our trip. I thought it might be worth it for the quick service plan to receive the refillable mugs but I’m not so sure it’s worth the hassle.

If the mugs are of value to you, it's likely a good choice since they will likely be good the entire trip. We would do so but we would arrive early and plan our dining options around getting value from the credits.

 

[NikP]

I called member services and they had linked the 2 reservations. I could add the dining plan to the first reservation, but they would have to unlink the reservations and we could possibly have to change rooms after the first night. I was told it is not possible to unlink, add dining plan to the one night, then relink to make sure we do not have to change rooms.

Do you think we would actually have to move rooms if the reservation was not linked? It didn't seem so complicated when we did this back in 2013.

 

[tjkraz]

It didn't seem so complicated when we did this back in 2013.

That's because Disney doesn't really want people to do what you wish to do.

If people could easily get the dining plan for just 1-2 nights of an extended stay, they would load-up on high priced meals during those days to maximize the value of that DDP purchase. Disney always intended for DDPs to be a length-of-stay purchase, gambling that most people will eat extravagantly on some days and more modestly on others.

 

[Dean]

I called member services and they had linked the 2 reservations. I could add the dining plan to the first reservation, but they would have to unlink the reservations and we could possibly have to change rooms after the first night. I was told it is not possible to unlink, add dining plan to the one night, then relink to make sure we do not have to change rooms.

Do you think we would actually have to move rooms if the reservation was not linked? It didn't seem so complicated when we did this back in 2013.

You can't do both, you either have to unlink them and get the DP or get the DP for the entire reservation. You might have to move and be orphaned for a few hours. You likely wouldn't but there's no way to know until the last minute. IMO it's worth the risk if you can manage if things work against you and the DP is worth it otherwise.

 

[clayfolks]

We have never had to change rooms when we have been in this situation. I'm not saying it couldn't happen, simply that it is unlikely as allowing you to stay in the room reducing housekeeping requirements. When we have a single night booked separately, we book that one night with deluxe dining. That way we have 3 TS meals over the course of 2 days. You have until midnight of check out day to use your dining credits.

 

[4evryoung]

I too have a split stay starting with Copper Creek. The CC reservation has not offered me magic bands. The second reservation (AKL) has offered customised magic bands as normal. I have been able to book dining plan for CC without having to add it to AKL. So I don't think it is anything to do with linking reservations -- I think it is just Disney IT messing up CC bookings. I shall just plan to use a band from my last visit when I am at CC.