Dining on the gold plan Questions...Help!!!!

[wasabi girl]

I booked my trip for December 2005 for 8 days on the gold plan? I got a list for my PS meal requests for the trip. There are several resort restaurants I know I want to try for dinner , some character breakfasts and so on...How do I plan all of this??? We want to do a couple of tours (Keys to the Kingdom, Backstage Safari). DH wants to golf, DD wants to go horseback riding, Then there are all of these meals to plan, fireworks to see, MVMCP...and it is our first ever trip. I feel like I don't know where to start.(And I thought paying was the hard part!) Any suggestions? Trip will be myself DH, and two DDs (17 & 19) we're staying at the CR to make getting around to our various activities (and showing up for all of those meals) easier! How do you go about planning everything? Do I need to have PS for every meal? Do we have to make reservations for our tours? Tee times for DH? Riding? How detailed do you get with pre trip planning? Help please!!!!

Sorry I put all of this on the dining forum...oops! I was reading hoping for ideas and just goofed. I'm sort of new here too.

 

[mousebrat]

We also posted experiences from our trip on the theme park board and the resort board. We suggest that you keep the tours down to just two. Being a first-timer, Keys to the Kingdom would be a great place to start. Wild by Design might be a good overview of the Animal Kingdom. Depending on when you are going, you probably don't need PSs for everything.

The way to start planning is to look at things that have to be on certain days, like tours. It would probably save you time to do the tour before doing the park, if that makes sense. Then you plan when you will visit the parks. You may be able to do a park a day - you just have to be selective about what you want to see and do.

After you know what parks and when, plan time at DTD where you can get some shopping in and catch Cirque. You may do DTD for dinner on more than one night - there are some good restaurants there.

When you've gotten to this point, start looking at where you want to eat and pencil that in. Keep in mind that you don't want to be taking Disney transportation just to eat. Trying to work in restaurants around what you are already doing.

You will find that with 8 days you will still have plenty of open blocks of time to fit in the other recreation activities.

We may not be as active on the boards in the coming months b/c we don't have another trip scheduled. Feel free to PM us, though.

 

[webray]

Oh the gold plan..fun fun fun.

When we did this...lol..because of the planning involved..I made spreadsheets. That way I had all the information and reservation numbers all in one place.

First we chose what parks we would visit on what day. We do this according to the early entry and parade/fireworks schedules. We always take advantage of early entry days at the parks.

We looked at what special things we wanted to do..horseback riding, etc, up against any special activities going on in each park that we didn't want to miss.

Then we decided where to eat..and yest it is plenty of food. We always had specific places we wanted to eat..we made all our ps's ahead of time..but..the good thing is..we could be flexible when necessary. If we wanted to change..we just called from the resort and took care of it. In fact..one time..we decided at the last minute we wanted to eat at Crystal Palace for breakfast..we walked up..saw the horrible line of people waiting to get in and people sitting all over waiting to get in. I dialed disney dining on my cell, told them what we wanted..what plan we were on. We had a ps (immediate I might add). We walked up to the window and was seated immediately. It was excellent.

So..I recommend planning a bit..but there is always room to be flexible.

 

[diswedwish]

We did the Gold Plan this past Jan. and enjoyed it. I did a *lot* of planning for it however...

This is what we do:
Figure out what tours you want to do, since they're only offered on specific days. Since it's your first trip, take into account how much time you'll be spending on the tours. On our last trip we did 2 tours, on our upcoming we're doing 4 which I think we'll like - but it does take substantial time away from your park time...

Then figure out what night to see Cirque.

Next it's on to what parks on what days, then you'll have an idea about where to eat and when. We made PS for everything - mostly because I'm a tad anal... lol Definitely make PS for character breakfasts and anything else you'd be upset if you were turned away from (just in case).

We made reservations for parasailing in advance (for this upcoming trip that and horsebackriding). We still had time to take out the watermice too but didn't plan that (gasp!).

I always had my trusty Passporter and allearsnet.com on hand, and enjoyed spending hours planning then re-planning stuff. We had a great time, but we were on the go constantly (forgot about that little thing called downtime in the planning process)

Have a great trip and if you have any other questions I'd be happy to answer them

 

[Chicago526]

What you really need to do, is first decide where you want to be on what day. Then every thing else falls into place. Before I didn anything else, I sat down and decided what parks to do (or not do) on what day. It also helped that I looked up last years park hours and fireworks schedule so I had a rough idea of park hours and show times. Once I determined where we'd be, it made picking where to eat and what non-park activites to do much easier. Here is my December itinerary as an example:

Day 1: Fly to Orlando, transfer to Poly, check in, dinner at 'Ohana's and desert durring MK fireworks at California Grill.

Day 2: MK all day. Pre-park open PS at Crystal palace, lunch is open, dinner at Tony's.

Day 3: Epcot all day. Room service for breakfast, lunch is open, dinner at Mexico.

Day 4: Non park day, sleep in. 10 AM PS for Chef Mickey's, lunch is open (we may not eat if we stuff ourselves at Mickey's) horse back rideing at 2 PM, 7:15 PM Hoop De Doo.

Day 5: MGM all day. Room service for breakfast, Sci-Fi Dinner for lunch, Fantasmic Dinner package at Brown Derby.

Day 6: Non-park day. Room service for breakfast, surprise Richard Petty experiance for BF in the morning, afternoon free, evening at DTD, dinner most likely at Fulton's (haven't decided yet).

Day 7: AK. Room service for breakfast, lunch open. Leave AK at 2 or earlier, break, then possible PS at CRT, then MVMCP.

Day 8: MK/Epcot. MK keys tour, then more park time at MK or break, then Epcot for dinner (haven't picked where yet, maybe Moroco?) and Illuminations.

Day 9, check-out. Breakfast will be room service or Kona's, transfer to airport, fly home

As you can see, since we know what park we will be at on which day, our location narrowed down our options of what restaurants we could choose from. I then picked the time I feel we'll most likey be hungry by (that's a bit of a gamble, but nothing else for it). I also try not to make more than 2 PS's for one day, otherwise you become a slave to eating and restaurant reservations. Also, we've spread out our non-park days to give us a break from the parks, so we don't get worn out. It's on the non-park days that we do some of the activities, like pool time and horseback rideing. The tour I left for the last day, only because this is BF's first visit to MK, and his first day there I want to do what we feel like doing and explore the park on our own, not be bogged down by a tour. Then later he can learn all about the behind the scenes stuff.

We only have 3 non-park PS's that aren't at our own hotel, CA Gril, Chef Mickey's and Hoop De Doo, this minimizes trying to get from our resort to another, which is THE most complicated type of transportation needed if you are relying on Disney transport. It's a personal choice, but I hate the hassle of resort hopping, especially just for a meal. For these three particular meals, transport from the Poly is simple, as CR is on the monrail line and there's a boat from Poly to Ft. W. But, if there is a place at a resort you're just dieing to try, just plan extra time for transport. I'd recomend keeping resort PS's at a minimum if possible though, unless you'll have a car you can take instead of the busses. Otherwise you'll be spending a lot of time on busses, and who wants that?

 

[LAinSEA]

You have got a great deal of time to plan. Involve your family. The Unofficial Guide and the Passport books are exellent choices to get an overview of what you can do for your trip.

The Gold Plan includes three meals each day, tours, activities, Cirque, etc. (We have done the "Silver" plan twice and found it to be plenty of food with only 2 meals each day.)

If it were my family, I would start planning by looking at this December's schedule for park hours (it will be similar in 2005).

- Determine how early your family wants to be up and about
- Determine which parks you want to visit each day
- Determine when dad will play golf (and what will the rest of you be doing?)

Having these three things decided will help you to decide when and where you will eat. This plan allows for any restaurant except Victoria and Alberts, restaurants at the Swan and Dolphin, or room service. Where are you staying? How many restaurants are on site? Our first trip we stayed at the Grand Floridian - there at least breakfast restaurant choices on site, it is a short walk to the Poly, a short monorail ride to MK or the Contemporary...lots of choices!

Lunches - you can do any restaurant in the parks or take a break at a different resort for lunch. Make time to see the different resort's holiday decorations!

The parks close a little earlier in December (MK has Mickey's Christmas party going on). Make plans to use those nights to go to DTD, see Cirque and have dinner before or after the show. You can also enjoy a great meal at Flying Fish or California Grill these nights. Your daughters are old enough to visit Pleasure Island with you and enjoy the comedy club, adventurers club and go dancing.

This will be a really great trip for your family. Taking the time to investigate now, discuss it with your family, and start to make decisions will help the time between now and Dec. 2005 go very quickly.

-Laurie

 

[BCV23]

Ooh, the gold plan...lots of fun. We first did it in 1983 and enjoyed it for many years until we started going more than once per year...APs make more sense for us now but I miss the Gold Plan.

As others have stated, I always planned on which park in the am to begin my planning. We would stay at that park until lunch. At that time, we either have a very nice meal in the park (Brown Derby, Mama Melrose, full service restaurants at EPCOT, etc.) or go to a resort restaurant. Grand Floridian Cafe is a nice choice for a MK am as is Kona.

Afternoons would be for golf, boats (the water mice are fun but so is taking out the larger boats...all included in the plan), swimming, etc.. Horseback riding would fit in easily here too.

After our break, we would go to a very nice dinner and perhaps a park. The restaurants at EPCOT lend themselves well to this strategy but so do all the great choices at GF, the Polynesian and CR. The Polynesian was our favorite resort...well it still is...because it is so easy to walk to the EPCOT monorail. But the CR is a good choice too.

And yes you will need reservations for tours. We always made tee times too and PSs for all meals. Having the PSs helped give the day some structure and it prevented us from suddenly deciding it's time to eat, everything is full and we'll do counter service. At the price of the Gold Plan, you want to hit the very best and most expensive restaurants.

We didn't do many tours although our eldest did a couple of the behind the scenes programs for children that were offered at the time.

By the way I don't think MVMCP tickets are included although that may have changed. Also, we always rented a car. Time is money at WDW especially on this plan and for MGM and AK it makes more sense to drive. That also makes it a snap to get to resort restaurants like Jiko and the EPCOT resort restaurants that aren't easily reached with WDW transportation from the MK resorts. With the bucks you will shell out for the gold plan, a rental car will seem like a drop in the ole bucket and will make life easier.

Chicago526, room service isn't included with the Gold Plan...or at least it wasn't last I knew. If you're on the platinum plan it is however.

Have fun, mousebrat.

 

[BCV23]

Whoops, make that wasabi girl!

 

[wasabi girl]

Thanks for the suggestions...I've got this sort of grid thing, bunches of notes....now to work..good thing my vacation is NEXT December. Has anyone eaten at CRT for breakfast? Is it worth all of the hassle to get a PS there?