Gold Plan ?'s and Dec 5-10 Crowds.. Planning for 2005

[DanaHesson]

Ok, I just printed my brocure for the gold plan. I was thinking if I started planning now, I could have it paid for well before the trip. I read somewhere you can mail in payments, kind of like a vacation lay-away. Has anyone done this? Also, has anyone visited in the week I am thinking of? How are the crowds? Any feedback on the gold plan? The sooner we make the decision, the quicker I can get it paid off!!! Also, Contemporary, Poly, or Floridian? Just me and my hubby, and the price difference is about 500.00 from least to most expensive of the three. We have never stayed on property...
Looking forward to lots of great dis-er advice!!

 

[DanaHesson]

bump... please help!!

 

[mom2rb]

I will be at Disney World this year from Dec. 3-12. When I get back I will let you know about the crowds. I don't know anything about the Gold Plan, sorry. About the hotels, $500 is a lot of money. I would find out more details first. We stayed in a garden wing at the Contemporary and I won't do that again.

Jamie

 

[Carrieberry]

I am pretty sure that even with the Gold Plan you pay the $200 deposit through the travel company and you can pay it off all the way up until 45 days before when it will have to be paid in full. As far as crowds, we went Dec 5-12 in 2000 and dec 1-8 in 2002 and the crowds were nice. We never had to use Fast pass except on Test Track, but you could even avoid that by riding it at night when everyone drifts into World Showcase for Illuminations.I think the longest we waited was maybe 20 minutes here and there at MK, it was the most crowded park by far, even on the weekdays. I think as far
as the hotel goes, just pick the theme you like the best. I agree, I would not pay the $$ for the Garden Wing of Contemporary. For me it would have to be a tower room. I always think that if you are going to do the Gold Plan stay at the GF, but $500 is quite a bit of money. Tough call, but Disne Magic to me would probably be the GF.
Have fun planning!!

 

[DanaHesson]

A couple people have said they wouldnt pay that to stay in the garden wings at contemporary. Why? We have never stayed on property, but my husband has wanted to stay at the contemporary since he was a child. Are the garden wing rooms lower quality?

 

[kyirish25]

Garden rooms at the Contemporary are the same rooms as the tower without the views. Kinda a love it or hate it type of room.

We for one love Contemporary but have only stayed in the tower. Nothing beats waking up and looking out the patio door to see the castle. Plus being within walking distance to MK.

 

[DanaHesson]

That is kind of what we were thinking too. Now I am kicking myself for being so practical. The more I cost it out, the more I think it is just too wasteful to do the gold plan, especially for this time of year. If we were going in a season when the parks were open later, we might would make enough use of the recreation to make it cost out, but in December with the MK closing at 6 or 7 pm, it just seems frivilous. But on the other hand, if it is Pre paid, we are more likely to Go for It and do the nice meals and really enjoy ourselves. Anyone done it? Do you feel it was worth the expense?

 

[shellybaxter]

If it's the nice meals that you think you'll use, why not just try the Silver Plan instead of the Gold. Maybe with pre-planning you could make that plan pay off for you. And that way you could plan to use your wishes at nice resturants during the evening time when the parks are closing early?

Shelly

 

[cjadkins]

I have to agree with ShellyBaxter on the Silver vs. Gold plans! We went last year on the Gold Plan. If you're doing it for the meals and not using all the extras, then it really isn't cost efficient... and eating three Disney meals a day can be taxing. We had PS's for three sit-down meals every day and it was too much (and we really like to eat good!) We'd still be full from the last meal and it would be time for the next. We would feel "obligated" to eat because it was already paid for, so we ended up walking around feeling bloated and stuffed all week. Not to mention- I gained 10 lbs. that week! If you use the wishes on the Silver plan, you can still eat nicely without the extra expense (and weight gain!)

 

[Mom to Jordan]

We went that week last year and found crowds very managable. There were a lot of people, but ride lines were never too long. I think a lot of people go just for the special Christmas activities. WE did fine resturants very busy and were glad we had a PS for everywhere we wanted to eat. We have never done the gold plan so I am no help there. AS far as the resorts, have you considered WL. It is a wonderful winter resort and decorated so beautifuly for Christmas. It is less than the three you mentioned. If the Christmas feel is important, I found the GF the most magical of the three. WE have not stayed at these but resort hopped to see the decorations. Polly and CT had less of a holliday feel to them.

Jordans mom

 

[TammiMcMan]

Okay, I just took a look at some of the pricing options. From what I can tell, you'd be looking at spending somewhere in the $3700 range. First of all, with the Gold plan, 3 meals a day is a lot of food. I like to stay active, but to get your money's worth out of this plan, you'd have pretty busy days.

When you look at the packages and try to do a cost analysis, sometimes it's just doesn't work out to be what's best for you. For instance, the Dream maker already includes ultimate park hoppers for each day of your stay. That includes the day you arrive and the day you leave. Is your flight arriving early enough that you can get in a full day at the park and when you check-out, will you have enough time to visit a park. Are you planning on visiting a park every single day of your vacation? If not, with the package, you've paid for something that you didn't use. When I first started staying on-site, I always did the package, but now I've found that I can stay in an upgraded room and purchase either standard park hopper passes that don't expire, or buy the more flexible length of stay passes when I arrive at the resort. (The length of stay pass savings is better on shorter stays though.)

Just as a comparison, I priced out the following:
2 adults, Dec 5-10th 2005, 6 days/5nights
Poly Standard room - garden view with Gold Package = $3730
or
Grand Floridian - main building concierge room only = $3372 + 5 day park hopper tickets (never expire) = $245 each for a grand total of $3862

The GF is the flagship resort of Disney and the most expensive. You could stay at Poly or Contemporary concierge for a little less money, but I can speak from experience at the GF. If you've ever seen pictures of the inside of the main building, you'll notice the floors that wrap around the lobby. Up on the 3rd, 4th and 5th floor are the concierge rooms. During the holidays, they have the massive tree on the first floor, the life size Gingerbread house and some beautiful victorian decorations. The concierge lounge is on the 4th floor and in the evenings, the orchestra sets up on the 2nd floor. They play holiday and Disney music. Throughout the day, the lounge has food offerings. Other than breakfast, it's more of a snack/appetizer spread, but you can get cold drinks, coffee, tea and water all day. At night they have out bottles of wine and in the late evening, it's cordials. Doing something like this would be almost the extreme opposite of the Gold Plan though. You really need to plan plenty of down time at the resort to enjoy everything, while the Gold Plan will have you hopping with meals and recreation. I guess it all comes down to what exactly you're looking for from this vacation.

Hope I didn't confuse you more.

Tammi

 

[DanaHesson]

Thanks Tammi!

I pretty much have decided that the way to go is stay on property, but buy the tickets seperatley. We can do a room at the contemporary for five nights for $1360 and the tickets for two would be $518 for a grand total of 1878.30. If I did the dream maker package the cost would be $2005. We live close enough to drive down (atlanta, Ga) and would Priceline a room for around$35 the first night so that we would be in the parks for the FULL five days. As fun as the idea sounded, it would be VERY hard for us to get the full value of any of their packages. I do greatly appreciate your input about the concierge level however. If staying at a property such as the Floridian or the Contemporary, it might be worth the extra cash to spring for the concierge level.

 

[tink2]

Dana- I think you've made a wise decision. We've looked at packages and just couldn't justify them once you compare doing everything separately yourself. Now let the planning begin!!!

 

[TammiMcMan]

No problem. The packages are so convenient, but when you really break them down, you can usually do better by booking on your own.

I'm also going to take a minute and send out a plug for one of the DIS sponsors, Dreams Unlimited. Again, when I first started our Disney vacations, I always did it on my own. The past few trips, I've gone over to DU and they are fantastic. I can't say enough nice things about their agents. It might seem kind of strange that you deal with them through e-mail and not the phone, but I haven't had a single problem with them and they've saved me money. When you book room only, you'll need to leave a deposit equal to one night and after that you're all set until check-in. But behind the scenes, the DU team will continue to look for discounts and specials. They can apply them to your existing reservation. They can also make priority seating arrangements for you and give you an itinerary. Let them know you have your eye out on a great concierge deal and they'll see what they can do for you. They have a great secure on-line website that will process vacation payments for you too. I know there are some who prefer waiting and others who like to see that balance slowly slide down to zero. You can easily keep track of your reservation, payments and balance on their website.

As a disclaimer, I'm not a travel agent, but I do play one on TV

Have a great day.

Tammi