Booking one person in a room with ddp, and adding another at check in

[sharonabe]

Our most recent experience was 11/2017.

We didn't skirt anything - my sister paid oop for all her meals and has an AP and we paid the extra adult charge per person.

Technically, you did. For any package reservation, everyone in the room is supposed to have the same tickets, the same dining plan. Since she had neither, but was in your room, you skirted the package requirements for her. That's not to say you did anything wrong; you asked and were granted her stay with you. Disney knew she was there; you weren't hiding. But you didn't have to abide by the package requirements.

 

[Fern]

I think this is probably the case. I think it’s ridiculous, given the fact that you are allowed to share dining credits now and given that the additional guest is not for the full 5e length if the reservation. If I was checking in for 2 weeks with my kids, and I suddenly showed up and tried to “ add” my husband for the entire stay, I would totally understand. I’m sure this why I was told I could add someone as a “day guest”, even though I made it clearl he’d be staying IN the room. It sounds like Disney’s workaround for people who legitimately have the need. The package rules make sense, but not in some cases. In our case, my husband was able to squeeze a couple of days off from work and join us, but it would not have made sense to pay an extra $500 for the dining plan for him for the 2 days he was with us.

 

[tjmw2727]

Technically, you did. For any package reservation, everyone in the room is supposed to have the same tickets, the same dining plan. Since she had neither, but was in your room, you skirted the package requirements for her. That's not to say you did anything wrong; you asked and were granted her stay with you. Disney knew she was there; you weren't hiding. But you didn't have to abide by the package requirements.

The thing is that we were advised to do this prior to doing so - and we have done it at least once a year without issue for many years.

According to more than one CM once we checked in for the package as booked we FULFILLED the Package Requirements. After that we were free to add guests as long as we didn't exceed the room occupancy and paid the fee.

I don't think I skirted anything, I went to the front desk, gave them my sisters information, they gave me a MB, set up Magical Express for her and charged me a nightly fee. If this is so wrong why would a CM go to all that trouble, at least 8 times?

eta - she paid oop for every meal and snack we did not share credits at any time.
I have shared my personal experience and I am not interested in arguing or defending myself. ​

 

[Dbktmc]

The thing is that we were advised to do this prior to doing so - and we have done it at least once a year without issue for many years.

According to more than one CM once we checked in for the package as booked we FULFILLED the Package Requirements. After that we were free to add guests as long as we didn't exceed the room occupancy and paid the fee.

I don't think I skirted anything, I went to the front desk, gave them my sisters information, they gave me a MB, set up Magical Express for her and charged me a nightly fee. If this is so wrong why would a CM go to all that trouble, at least 8 times?

While I don’t doubt your experience, I do wonder why, if it was allowed for you multiple times, we were not permitted to do this. Our experience happened in June ‘16. Our travel agent had warned us that it was against the rules as well as numerous people on the disboards. Obviously, with you being able to do it multiple times, it must be cast member discretion.

I wonder if more people will do this to save money on the dining plan. I won’t try it due to my experience, but.....

 

[supersnoop]

Since Disney doesn’t publish an official policy on this, and since folks are having different experiences, we can only debate Disney’s intentions, which isn’t very helpful. I imagine we hear more of the failures than the successes here, so we can’t really tell what the odds are. In the end, you may have no problem or you may have a major problem. There’s no argument you can make to overcome a problem. As long as you go into the situation knowing the potential outcome, it’s all on you.

 

[SarahD112]

So if I’m understanding this...my son joining us midweek as a day guest...I CAN book his fast passes with ours (just buy a four day ticket and link it, yes?) but he CANNOT do EMH. If I’ve got that right, that doesn’t work for us. I’ll have to rework the plan. Please tell me if I’m understanding correctly!!!

 

[Nancyg56]

It will be a US booking.
I know the person won't have dining plan if I add him at check in, that's my whole question.
That I want him to be able to share my credits as he won't have dining plan. And I'm just wanting to make sure that won't be an issue, as I know it used to be that everyone in the room had to be on the same plan, before they allowed sharing with those not on the plan..

I am not at all sure your will be allowed to share. Yes, it has been allowed in the past however "rules" seem to be changing. Folks are reporting ther experiences and it seems to be okay most of the time so far, but who knows? I would not make this a solid part of your plan unless you can be okay with being told "No" at any given restaurant.

You’ll need to book the room for both of you and either pay for the dining plan for both of you or skip the dining plan. They seem to have cracked down because people were using it as a way to pay less for the dining plan.

Yes. I was Able to add ny son and DDIl several years ago when they surprised us at AKL. Now I would not want to chance it.
We added them after check in, but the policy seems to be very inconsistant now.

Only until check in - after check in your package requirements have been met and you can add additional guests as long as you don't exceed room occupancy limits.

Are you sure?

 

[Lehuaann]

So if I’m understanding this...my son joining us midweek as a day guest...I CAN book his fast passes with ours (just buy a four day ticket and link it, yes?) but he CANNOT do EMH. If I’ve got that right, that doesn’t work for us. I’ll have to rework the plan. Please tell me if I’m understanding correctly!!!

Yes, that is how it worked for us adding day guests in December. They were added in the resort system only for resort amenities, even DME. However, no DDP, charging privileges, or EMH. We didn’t test the EMH to see if that was true, but it probably was since they weren’t technically on the reservation.

If I wanted to add them to the package, the manager was able to close out and rebook the package.