Grand and Deluxe Plans

[Jodi1980]

My goodness - you get a lot of things with these plans! Does anyone have any idea how much you pay for these plans?

 

[disneefamily]

Disnee Dad Says.............................About 25-30% more than if you book everything yourself!! LOL

 

[Eeyore1954]

Jodi-- the price varies depending on the number of people included on the package and the number of nights you plan to stay. The Deluxe Plan is slightly less expensive than the Grand.

JMO -- these are worth it only if you are staying for 8 nights minimum. Less than that and you simply will NOT have the time to utilize everything the packages offer. At 8 nights, you can barely squeeze in most of the "benefits" -- just barely.

A word of warning: You will probably not be able to eat all the food included in these plans. I don't know if the Deluxe includes a daily "snack". In May my DW and I did the Grand Plan for our 25th anniversary. Eating 3 meals a day was almost impossible; we never once made it to the "snack." To say we walked around bloated all the time is an understatement. (To say we "walked" is stretching the truth -- more like "waddled!")

Would we go it again? Probably not. For us it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. We'll stick with a "do-it-ourselves" package or if we do a Disney package again, it would be Discovery Magic.

 

[Jsbl24]

hey, i did the math and here's what it breaks down to the grand
plan comes out to $193/day per person more than no package,
no matter the hotel. the deluxe is $115/ day per person more.
so it just depends on if you think you'll spend that much per day
on each person. after doing the math we found out we didn't
come close, even with eating at a nice resteraunt every meal.
hope this helps.

 

[hmp2z]

I think it depends on how much use you feel you'll get out of the features, and whether you're willing to pay more to have the freedom of really doing whatever you want, knowing that it's already been paid for.
We did Deluxe Magic, with the 3 meals a day, and usually had a pretty nice lunch and very nice dinner. We made sure to order appetizer, entree, and dessert everywhere we went. We ended up just grabbing a quick breakfast from Gasparilla's most days, and still were absolutely stuffed. But the nice part was that we could sit down and order the lobster and filet mignon without having to count the cost. I'm the kind of person who worries about price, so the freedom of the plan was incredible!
We also did quite a few recreational activities, like horseback riding, bike rental, and water sprites rental, so that helped us get more of our money's worth, too.
When we came home, we calculated that even with all that, we would have saved about $600-700 if we had paid for everything individually. And we were on a 9 night stay at the GF. For us, though, the extra money was worth it, and in fact, we are going with the Deluxe Magic plan again for our honeymoon this August.
Cheers!
Heather P

 

[The Duchess]

We did the Honeymoon Grand Plan at the Boardwalk in 1997 and it was fantastic!
We stuck with the Disney Magic Plan at the Yacht Club in 2000, mostly because we had a two-year old with us, but we are returning on the Grand Plan at the Yacht Club this October, 2002. We only go on vacation every two years, so it's nice to splurge on this. It's pricey, but worth it. I see a lot of people discussing the concierge room floors. We stayed concierge in 1997, but we get the personal planner and all that stuff with the Grand Plan, so we requested the same room at the Yacht Club that we had in 2000, which we loved because it overlooked the lagoon and we could watch the Epcot fireworks from the balcony. Also it was far from the elevators, but had a back staircase that led to a door that went right out to the lagoon.
What are the perks of the concierge rooms? I know you get the continental breakfast and snacks, but we tend to have room service for breakfast and aren't really in the room most of the day. Can anyone fill me in on concierge perks?

 

[josierac]

Jodi
These plans are great if you do alot of the extra stuff and don't spend as much time in the parks. That is where you get your money's worth. Here is a link to a trip report about the Grand Plan. Follow the links at the bottom of each day to take you to the next day

Disney's Grand Plan trip report

 

[Janet2k]

Jodi1980, I have done the Grand Plan a couple of times and will do it again in the future. But I have vacationed at WDW way more times with just a "room only" reservation and then paying for everything as I went. Was it cheaper? Usually yes, but sometimes no since my family & guests tend to do an awful lot on our WDW vacations (multiple dinner shows, multiple fishing excursions, multiple hours in the Water Mice boats, and so on). It's up to you what type of vacation experience you want. I loved my Grand Plans and that is why I will do them again periodically in the future.

If you want an idea of what the Grand Plan and the other vacation plans will cost, go to the WDW Reservation Website and then select the number of nights, the number of people, the resort, and the vacation package plan that you are interested in. Once you've done that (and a little more), you'll get a quote.