Platinum Dining Plan

[poly princess]

DH and I are curious, has anyone out there done the Premium or Platinum Dining Plan? How was it? Is it worth the money??

Thanks!
Poly

 

[Jonathan Swift]

Unlikely. Even when it works out cheaper, it's not much of a savings, and it doesn't happen often.

 

[Claire&TheBoys]

We did it a couple of years ago. Until the end of 2011, you could book either the Premium or Platinum Plans for just one night. If you checked in early on the first day (like 7 AM), you had that day and the next day (your "check out day") to enjoy the privileges of the plan. I read about it here on the DIS and my sister and I, along with our husbands, did an adults-only trip to do it. We had a room-only reservation on a Sunday night (arrival), "checked in" for our Premium Plan early Monday, and were able to use the plan entitlements until midnight Tuesday. We followed up with another one-night room-only reservation Tuesday night and left for home Wednesday morning. In the 40-ish hours we were on the Premium Plan, here's what we did:

-Had breakfast at the Pop food court OOP, got our mugs.
-Drove to Epcot and had early entry to do the 8:45 Segway tour.
-Finished tour, went to Le Cellier for lunch (1st credit).
-Spent afternoon doing Epcot attractions.
-Had dinner at Les Chefs de France for the Candlelight Processional (2nd credit).
-Went to 8:15 CP, then reserved viewing for Illuminations at 9:30.
-Shopped for souvenirs till 11:00 or so and were among the last out of the park.
-Went back to rooms to crash.

-Next morning, got up and had breakfast OOP at Pop.
-Went to MK for early arrival before park opening. Keys to the Kingdom tour 9:00.
-Lunch included in tour so no credits needed. Finished tour at 2:00.
-Spent afternoon at MK.
-Dinner at CRT, left just as MVMCP was starting.
-Drove to DTD for La Nouba show.
-Went back to Pop and crashed.

Doing it for only one night we definitely got our money's worth out of it, with La Nouba, 2 tours and 3 expensive meals. (Signature meals and CP only use 1 Premium/Platinum credit, not 2.) It was a whirlwind, but we are all Disney veterans and really just wanted a chance to do the tours and such.

NOW, you have to have a 3-night minimum stay to get the Premium or Platinum Plans, so I'm sure it's a lot harder to get your money's worth.

 

[ScottOKW2K]

One thing to note - the Platinum plan also includes V & A ( main dining room ) as one of its dining venues.

we were able to do the one night premium plan before Disney instituted the three night minimum. I will say - we had a blast ! Even with the new minimum I will probably do it sometime in the future.

If you are planning on doing this, here are some suggestions:

Bracket you plane stay. Give yourself a few days to settle in from traveling, then do your plan stay, and then another stay to rest from all the activity. Remember, the plan gives you 4 calendar days minimum, because it starts on the morning of your check in till midnight of your check out day.

Have a car. You will be going all over property during your stay. Not having to depend on Disney transportation will save you a tremendous amount of time. That extra time is more tours/events/etc. during your stay.

Plan, plan plan! Some of the items available under the plan have to be booked 180 days out, such as certain dining locations or fireworks cruises. Also, not every tour/event is available every day of the week, or some may have times that conflict with others. One example - there are three or four times of the year that La Nouba is "dark" for a week or two, so that the performers can have vacation or travel time. If your plan falls within those dates Disney will give you gift cards equal to the cost of the ticket that would have been provided under the plan. If you are not interested in this performance this can help reduce the cost.

Enjoy the heck out of it! If you enjoy all that Disney has to offer this will probably be the most fun you will have on a Disney trip.

 

[Lehuaann]

We did a 1-nt Platinum at AKL and can easily say, even with factoring in gratuities, we got more than double our money's worth...

Some of the activities/dining we did were - V&A, FF, Fulton's, massages, Illuminations fireworks cruise, 4-hr fishing excursion x 2, parasailing, La Nouba, and etc. It was an absolute blast, but I gotta tell you, we were exhausted! ...and that was with us having a car!

...but like pp's stated - all good things must come to an end. The 1-nt plans became wildly popular and Disney upped them last year to a 3-nt minimum. Not nearly as good a deal, but I believe savings can still be had if planned correctly.

One thing to keep in mind budget wise - gratuity is customary for the recreational activities with guides (fishing, parasailing, cruises). For instance, even though the $455 4-hr fishing excursion was included with the plan, we paid the guide around an $80 tip each time.

That definitely eats away at much of the savings.

However, we loved it so much, we plan to do it again for our 20th in 2015..and hopefully dine at V&A more than once...

 

[jmartinez1895]

My BIL gets the plat. plan and loves it, but I think they spend more time eating and getting to the restaurants then they do in the parks, but they are foodies. For him it is 100% worth it.