Hi Kristin! My family often splits our Disney visits between two different
resorts -- it's so hard to pick just one!
While there are lots of benefits to moving from one resort to another
during your vacation, one drawback is that the dining plan doesn't easily move
with you. At your first resort, you can purchase park tickets to cover your
entire stay at both resorts, but you can purchase the dining plan only for the
number of nights you're staying at the first resort. Your dining plan credits
must be used by midnight of the day you check out of the first resort.
Unless you're an annual passholder, to get the dining plan at the second
resort you must buy park tickets for everyone in your party. You could purchase
just a one-day ticket, but you're probably aware that with Disney park tickets
"the longer you play, the less you pay per day." The one-day ticket is the most
expensive, and with every day you add, the price per day decreases, so that
after the fourth day, you're paying only a few dollars more to add days to your
ticket.
You'll need to do some number-crunching to determine whether purchasing the
dining plan at both resorts would be cost-effective. You'll likely find that it
is cheaper to purchase park tickets for your whole stay on the first resort
reservation, rather than paying for shorter-term tickets at each resort. The
question then becomes whether it's worth it to buy a one-day ticket for everyone
in your party at the second resort so that you can add the dining plan. If you
think the savings you'll have on the dining plan will outweigh the cost of the
additional tickets, it would be worthwhile. (Keep in mind that if you don't use
the one-day tickets, you could save them for a future trip.)
Hope this helps!