Premium Plan - advice needed please

[2Tiggies]

We will be at Disney next June-July. We opt for the QSDP and pay OOP for any TS we do. There are a few other things we'd love to do, including Parasailing on Bay Lake, Cirque du Soleil, the Steam Train Tour at MK and DD would love a few character meals if we can swing it. Anyway, when I ran up the totals for these roughly it was a bit But then I got looking at the Premium Plan, which is not strictly dining. You have to take it for a minimum of 3 nights (did it not used to be 2?) That would cover all of the above and we could throw in the carriage ride at Port Orleans that we didnt' get to do last year when I got horridly sick on vacation And since it includes the equivalent of Deluxe Dining, that would cover all the character meals too. So I thought, what if I got rid of 3 nights of my package reservation and replaced it with 3 nights on the Premium Plan?

I'm just a little confused about how the cost breaks down as adding it to a room only reservation doesn't work out the same as what it is reflected in on the website to break down as per night per person It looks like the park tickets (with hopping) are added in automatically for the number of days you book on that package plan, with the option to add days up to the usual max of 10. I assumed that you can't do it with a one day MYW ticket, but it is allowing me to do that and get a quote for it. What I'm trying to sort through here is that what is showing up in my quote doesn't seem to be exactly what is reflected in the description of what it all includes.

Does anyone here have any more info on this or happen to have used it before? It's not cheap, but still works out a darn side cheaper than adding all these activities and meals individually. I'm trying to prioritize and be honest with myself here because we weren't going to be doing ALL of the above; there are some must-do's in our list so we could probably selectively do it cheaper .... but then we could do all for less than paying separate for each. Oh decisions and dilemmas already - and still nearly 11 months to work more changes into the mix.

Any info would be much appreciated.

 

[Eddy]

I have used it in the past. Up until a couple of years ago you were able to get it for 1 night if you wanted to. Now it has a 3 night min. You would get a total of 9 meals which you could use on your check out day so you would have 4 days to eat the meals. Places that take 2 credits on the dinning plan only take 1 credit on Premium Plan. So you could eat at 9 signature places. As far as tickets go you have to buy at least a 1 day ticket. Since you are planning on paying out of pocket for your other meals OOP just buy all of your stay tickets with this plan. So you would have to do it at the start of your vacation. Or another option is to do the plan starting on your 2nd 3rd or 4th days there, you would pickup your tickets early. I have never done this but have read you can do this up to 3 days early. Just a side note on your ticket you are able to use it at Disneyland if you don't use at Disneyworld, that's what we did when we bought 1 day tickets for premium plan. If you do get it take advantage of all that you can. We did the Plantium plan for 1 night a couple of years ago again now 3 night min. With that plan you get spa treatments more tours and can even eat at Victoria and Alberts. If you have a specific question let me know

 

[2Tiggies]

Wow, thank you so much for all that information! That is enormously helpful to me as you have pointed out a few things I wasn't aware of (like only one credit being used for signature meals) and things I didn't think of (like starting it on the 2nd or 3rd day). I'm going to spend the evening sifting through everything we want to do and get a note of the actual prices so I can to a proper number crunch. In an ideal world I would have done this for 2 nights, and at least you have confirmed that my memory was correct that it wasn't always a minimum of 3. I'm going to have to figure out how to burn 9 TS or signature meals in 3 or 4 days now I had just assumed a signature would take 2 credits so I managed to almost halve the number of ADR's I was making but this throws a whole new slant on things. It was the experiences more than the dining that prompted me to look into this because none of them are small change so we could probably have this work for us and come out at a break even or even ahead, just based on that and a few meals. I need to see what else we have wanted/ would want to do that is included to make the most of it because this will definitely not be a yearly add on! I am probably going to be back with more questions once I've worked through all this. Thank you so much!!

 

[Eddy]

Just to let you know you would get 9 meals so you can get some QS meals and not all TS

 

[TDC Nala]

You can't add the premium plan to a room-only reservation, it has to be a package with tickets. If you're on a package to start with you would now have two packages and two sets of tickets. The non-premium reservation would have to be room only to avoid adding tickets to it. You are correct that is was not always a minimum of 3 nights. There used to be no minimum, you could get premium or platinum for as little as one night.

And although they get lumped in with the dining plans, the premium and platinum plans are not part of the Disney dining plan program and its dining component is not exactly the same as the deluxe dining plan - you can get all the 2 credit restaurants for 1 credit on the package plans. DVC reservations are not eligible for premium or platinum, and you cannot book a ticketless package with them the way you can with a dining plan. You also cannot upgrade a free dining package to either premium or platinum.

you are able to use it at Disneyland if you don't use at Disneyworld, that's what we did when we bought 1 day tickets for premium plan.

Now that they are switching to the RFID tickets it has been noted that you cannot at this time use WDW RFID tickets at Disneyland. The Disneyland turnstiles are unable to read the WDW RFID tickets.

 

[2Tiggies]

Thank you both for all the info.

I do understand that it's not a dining plan and it's really for the activities and experiences that I am taking it. I had posted this question elsewhere as I wasn't thinking of it from the dining perspective, but after no responses it was suggested I post here; it seems to have been a smart move as I have a lot of good info that I needed clarification on, so thank you so much.

Yes, the room/tickets is what I need to fine-tune here. We have more park days than pass days so I was thinking it doesnt really matter if we put the 3 days at the start or at the end because those extra 3 days, or even if I take a 2 day ticket with the P/Plan, would be a useful addition for us.

I'm just trying to see if I'm pushing a budget because it looks nicer as a package ..... It is certainly a good value for us as it will allow us to do everything we want to do at a break-even level, even if we only did one signature meal and one CS a day. I think I'm struggling against forcing more value out of it because ideally, if I were allowed to take it for 2 nights, we'd be in a perfect place. But I have to work with what we have and that's a minimum of 3 so I'm not quite decided how to do this.

There's a feel-good way and a smart way ..... WHY do smart and feel-good never go together like I want them to?!

 

[rockingrollercoaster]

may I ask how many in your party and ages please?

 

[TDC Nala]

We discuss it here because it fits here, but a lot of times people don't realize that the Premium and Platinum plans are separate from the Disney Dining plans.

 

[2Tiggies]

may I ask how many in your party and ages please?

Sure - its a party of two: me (adult) and DD who will be 12 by then.

 

[colachdec]

This has been helpful to me, as well.
We are planning a trip next Summer and were looking into this plan for a 4 day trip mainly for the experiences.
Do you have to book a specific hotel, ie.Deluxe, etc.?
Thank you!

 

[2Tiggies]

This has been helpful to me, as well.
We are planning a trip next Summer and were looking into this plan for a 4 day trip mainly for the experiences.
Do you have to book a specific hotel, ie.Deluxe, etc.?
Thank you!

No you can book it with any Disney resort (except Swan & Dolphin, I would assume). You pay the usual resort rates and then add the Premium Plan cost per person per night. You can drop the ticket to a one day ticket, as long as you have at least 3 nights on the Premium Plan.

 

[Eddy]

On the premium plan you can book any resort. If you want the Platinum Plan you need a Deluxe resort, I would suggest doing it for 3 nights and make the last night a room only, if you had to eat three meals a day it would take time from using the recreation and tours on the plan.

 

[colachdec]

Thank you for the responses

 

[DCDisney]

We did a mother daughter platinum trip last year for half our trip and it was wonderful. It is tough to get many tours though with someone under 16. We had originally scheduled the whole thing for the Dolphin and Seas tours but they both were cancelled for our trip. Our parasailing (scheduled for twice) was also cancelled but they gave us a gift cert valid for 1 year to make up the parasailing. We did do the jet ski tour which my daughter loved. You can do horseback riding, carriage ride, and archery at Ft Wilderness which we combined with a Hoop Dee Doo Dinner (got the front row center table!). The spa package was great. You can also rent boats and 12 year olds can drive their own little water mouse boat. We did almost all signature dining which my daughter LOVED. It wasn't really that expensive if you planned on doing some of these anyway.