Gold plan pro's & con's

[dennisnlisab96]

Please tell me about your experience with the Gold Plan!!! Did you like it...would you do it anain...if not why. My husband LOVES the idea of eating where ever and what ever he wants and not having to think about what the bill is going to be Being about to do the dinner shows and character meals also. Any feedback would be GREAT!!!!!

 

[simonmunro]

I'm pretty sure the guided fishing excursions are unlimited with Gold and that alone would turn my husband's head!

 

[dennisnlisab96]

I believe you are correct...my husband does not fish though! He does like to eat...I only wish I could eat the way he does!!!!!!

 

[mousebrat]

We are about to embark on a gold plan vacation. The best thing about the plan is not being a cheapskate once you get there. I was digging through stuff from our honeymoon and it looks like we shared plates and ate a lot of counter service. Not this trip! Also, you get to do the tours, which we love, and unlimited recreation. I would have never splurged for parasailing while at WDW before. You can also really get your moneys' worth with golf.

On the downside, a lot of planning is required to make sure you get the most out of the plan and don't lose money. For some, planning is the most fun part and for others it's a drag - kind of a personal preference thing. For our trip, we have a pretty detailed itinerary with 22 PSs, 5 tours, Cirque, parasailing reservations, parade viewing area reservations, etc. I thought it was kinda fun to work all that out, but I could see some people not liking that much structure.

 

[dansyr]

We did the gold plan once before and are doing it again in Sept.
We love it. Love dining at all the upscale restaurants...love not having to watch how much your spending. Love the opportunity to try other things such as parasailing, tours, and cirque we probably wouldn't without the plan.

The only con I can think of is I probably gained a good 5-8 lbs during vacation....oh well...I can live with that. I'll take it off when I get home.

 

[dennisnlisab96]

Planning is half the fun!! I keeps me busy until the next trip

 

[dennisnlisab96]

Anyone elase with opinions would be great!!

 

[diswedwish]

We did the Gold Plan on our Jan. trip for 7 nights and loved it

We saved about $1000 versus the Plan and booking things separately. We used up all of our "coupons" - meaning we did eat 3 meals a day. We did the Backstage Safari and KTTK tours, went parasailing, saw Cirque, and took out the water mice. It meant a lot of planning and a very structured schedule, but I love to plan so it was fun for me. We did a lot of character breakfasts, ate sit-down meals for all the other meals, and ate at the more pricey restaurants for dinner. We never would've done that without the plan since we're cheap normally.

If you can, book the first night room-only if you're getting in late. We didn't get to POR until after 11 pm so it made no sense to start the plan on our first night.

Really think about how much you'll be able to eat at the time of year you're going. We went in Jan. Cold weather = wanting to eat, hot weather = yuck, food? - for us anyway. We did feel absolutely stuffed at the end of the trip. Both of us got viruses, DH on the flight back (not fun), me the following day; I think it was from so much running around. We barely saw our room and didn't get to spend as much time at our resort as we'd like.

But overall we did have a wonderful trip and were glad that we chose to try the Gold Plan. Have a great trip

 

[joats]

We did the gold plan on our honeymoon and ate like pigs! We ate in any restaurant and never had to worry about it. However, we still didn't spend enough on the food (yes, I'm anal and added all the receipts) to brake even from the gold plan charge.

Last year we didn't do the plan and ate as we would normally (no skimping, believe me and my waist) and we didn't spend enough again.

There are a lot of pluses to the plan aside from the food, tours, boat rentals, etc. but for us, financially it just doesn't make sense.

 

[wasabi girl]

I'm in the beginning stages of planning our gold plan vacation. There seems to be a great deal of planning to be done but I don't really mind...it feels like 8 days isn't enough! A couple of things that are great about the gold plan are that tipping is included, there is unlimited recreation (I have older teens so this will be appreciated), and there is nothing to worry about once we are there! Every major item will have been paid for before we leave home. It will make our vacation as hassle free as possible (which is the point) One thing to think about is adding a day of room only at the beginning or end of your trip, our flight leaves early in the AM so our last night is room only. It doesn't make sense to pay for meals and park tickets that we wouldn't be able to use. Have a great time!

 

[Kimickey]

I'm sooooo glad I found this thread. DH and I have always done the Silver Plan. DH decided for next years trip lets try the Gold plan. On the Silver plan we found ourselves eatting three meals a day paying for maybe one or two meals but never paying for dinner, doing alot of the sport activites and we had to use our wishes as well as other things. Well we figured if we are going to pay for parts of our meals, why not try to Gold plan where the all are included. If we like the Gold plan we'll do it again if not oh well. I"m glad to see a lot of you enjoy it. This give us incentive to want to try it even more.

Thanks

 

[europai]

Are you limited to which resort you can stay in with the Gold Plan?

 

[cranbiz]

No, you can stay at any resort you want to on the gold plan. The Plan is just an add on, for a per person daily fee that must by added to each person in the room.

This year, we are doing the silver plan and originally booked POP, then got email and switched to AKL.