Is the Premium Dining Plan Worth it?

[tweetie]

My husband and I are thinking of going in December and it would be nice if everything was paid. He is an avid golfer so we would take advantage of 2 - 3 rounds of golf. We have never done the dinner shows or the Cirque Du Soleil, so with that being said I was just wondering if we took advantage of all of the things that are included plus the food is it worth the price tag of an additional $1788.00? (This is for 6 nights)

Thanks

 

[luckytobeme88]

We were seriously thinking for switching from Deluxe to Premium for our July trip, but decided to do the Premium next year. There's going to be 11 of us this summer, and not everyone will enjoy the same activities (ages 14 - 70) Next year, we will return with sister and her hubby. For the price of about $150/pp/night that gives you 3 TS credits a night (signatures count as 1 TS), 2 snacks and unlimited recreations and tours. I would suggest that unless you will be eating 3 big meals a day, why not take advantage of a little loophole in this plan. Since the meals credits are not per day use and you may use any un-used credit until MIDNIGHT of the day you check out (recreations and tours too), book a 5 night-Premium Plan Package and add-on an extra night with a room only reservation. You will be saving $300 among the two of you and still have plenty of food too.

Examples of recreations and tours costs:
Golf (18 holes) runs about $200/pp
Le Cirque (cat. 2) ~$86
parasailing $120/pp
Segway tour @Epcot $95/pp
horseback riding $42/pp

Whatever you decide, you will have lots of fun, but let's hope my suggestion saves you some $$$$.

 

[Sysyphus]

We just came back from our Platinum plan stay - I hadn't realised previously that even the signatures were only 1 platinum credit, so we did end up with a couple of unused credits, and some used quite "unwisely" - eg I used one for $8 Fish & Chips from the CS at Rose&Crown on our last day

Our Cirque tickets were $105 each (DD5's was a little cheaper), I did the Segway World tour and went parasailing, DW got a couple of massages, we ate at V&As.... we didn't get quite as much value as we could have done since DD5 was too young/short for most of the included tours, that said, her kid club activities and in-room babysitting were included so that helped, and we did a couple of "spur of the moment" things like a horse & carriage ride at Fort Wilderness when we arrived early for Hoop-de-doo, and a boat rental at GF when we found ourselvs with 45 minutes to spare...

 

[honeymo78]

If you plan on eating 3 meals a day, mainly TS, and will definitely use some of the recreation/tours it would probably be worth it.

Figure 2 rounds of golf = $400 and Cirque = $160 (if lucky's was pp), that leaves you about $1200 worth of food and other recreation for the rest of your stay to break even. Going with $20 for a breakfast buffet, $10 for a CS lunch and $50 for a TS dinner plus another $6 for 2 snacks - you're at $86 a person for each night, meaning just over $1000 for food. You could easily make up that extra $200 of value with another round of golf, parasailing or a tour. Of course if you opted for TS lunch or signature dinners you would end up with more money toward food and would need less recreation to break even.

thanks to lucky for some of the cost figures

 

[clownfish1452]

We always do the premium plan and love it. We like waking up and if you are too tired to go any where and just order room service. I think that by its self pays for it to me.

Sarah

 

[tweetie]

Thanks for all the input, If you buy a package we will probably do this package.