Premium Plan and Dining Challenges

[mdrankos]

We are going for a week in Sept. under the premium plan.

I'm finding that many, if not most of the restaurants from casual up are booked on the days we are planning to be in specific parks due to tours or Halloween events etc.

I've been to Disney many times but never under a "plan" and I've always just eaten whatever hot dog or chicken fingers were available in the park I was at. I have never had to worry about reservations before.

I am curious if others who have used a plan have left parks they were in to head to other locations just for a dinner or lunch reservation to ensure they get the most of their plan or if that turned out to be too big a hassle. I want to make sure we get the value of the plan and aren't railroaded into eating pizza slices every day due to everything being booked.

i.e. if you were in MK but you had signature lunch reservations in Epcot and then dinner reservations at Grand Flor. Resort, was it a beating to trek around that much?

Since we are there for 9 days, I'm not concerned with having to rush around or not getting to see the parks. I think there will be plenty of time so that may factor in as well.

 

[Jabba20000]

We almost always do a dining plan and we usually leave the park we are in for dinner and sometimes eat breakfast or lunch out of the park. We just tend to eat near the park we are touring that day so if you want to re enter after you eat it isn't too difficult. For example, if we are in the MK we will eat at a monorail resort or if we are in Epcot we will eat at the Boardwalk or YC.

Also keep trying every day to get a reservation at the park eateries if that is really where you want to eat. People change their plans and cancel ADRs all the time so you may get lucky.

 

[larryz]

A good time to try is the 45-day out point -- a lot of people will cancel just before they incur the non-refundable deposit at the 45-day out point.

But I agree with Jabba - keep trying.

 

[jedi jen]

We are going for a week in Sept. under the premium plan.

I'm finding that many, if not most of the restaurants from casual up are booked on the days we are planning to be in specific parks due to tours or Halloween events etc.

I've been to Disney many times but never under a "plan" and I've always just eaten whatever hot dog or chicken fingers were available in the park I was at. I have never had to worry about reservations before.

I am curious if others who have used a plan have left parks they were in to head to other locations just for a dinner or lunch reservation to ensure they get the most of their plan or if that turned out to be too big a hassle.

I do DxDP and when I first did it, I made some ADRs a ways off from where we were touring and we found it to be a real pain (time and energy wise). I will not ever do that again (for example, on MK day-made reservations at an Epcot WS location for lunch; that is two monorail rides, and walking through 2 parks one way). So I always get ADRs that are close to where we are touring. To me, there are good options just about everywhere. If at MK, we eat at CRT or a monorail resort signature restaurant. Epcot - there are lots of great options in Epcot and the Epcot resort area. DHS-we really like the Brown Derby. etc. We love the DxDP and do it every trip now.
I want to make sure we get the value of the plan and aren't railroaded into eating pizza slices every day due to everything being booked.

i.e. if you were in MK but you had signature lunch reservations in Epcot and then dinner reservations at Grand Flor. Resort, was it a beating to trek around that much?

I am not familiar with a signature lunch reservation at Epcot, but if it were me, I would not go to Epcot and back to MK for lunch....travel alone could be around 2 hours for the round trip. Dinner at GF from MK would work well.

Since we are there for 9 days, I'm not concerned with having to rush around or not getting to see the parks. I think there will be plenty of time so that may factor in as well. We regularly stay 9/10 days, and our next trip will be 14 days in WDW. There is always more to do. I find WDW vacations include lots of walking. So we still don't enjoy a huge hike and lots of time eaten up by transportation just for a meal. That is time we could be spending enjoying our resort, DTD, etc..

The Premium Plan sounds great. I am sure you will have a great time. With making ADRs, keep trying and look at all the options. We love the signature restaurants. We usually do parks in the morning, lunch near where we are. We take a break in the afternoon, and have a signature dinner. We love it.

 

[amylevan]

We only leave a park to eat if we are going to a nearby resort. (i.e. monorail resorts for MK, boardwalk area for EP or DHS and AKL for AK).

In general though our plans are:
1.Pre-rope drop breakfast at the resort we are staying at or the park we are going to
2. Lunch at the park we are at or our resort or something convenient to our resort - we take afternoon breaks
3. Dinner on our way back out for the evening - this is either at the park we are going back to or a resort near there.

It's too much hassle to travel farther than a nearby resort for a meal.

 

[mdrankos]

Thank you for the feedback. You guys confirmed what I had suspected. I will just keep trying. I still remember the old days when you could walk up to an eatery at the parks and get seated (albeit after a wait). To think that 3 or 6 months out, the restaurants are all booked up astounds me. The people who live closer and just decide on short notice to go for a fun weekend must not get to eat at all! (I tried to find a "starving" emoticon for this but there isn't really one so just insert one in your head.)

 

[tstidm1]

Also, Remember that you don't have to eat at Table Service meals on Platinum Plan. You get the most for the money that way. If your going to La Nouba one night, Have some place like Wolfgang Puck Express for Dinner one night. That's a very good CS place masquerading as a Table Service place. I think the key thing in a Platinum package is to use the La Nouba and the recreational opportunities. If your doing two weeks at Disney, Do a few days of playing miniature golf, real golf, hit the Spa, take a Illuminations cruise. That is what I consider the Platinum plan's value to be in.

 

[mjp12831]

I found premium to be too much because you end up worrying about your next ADR all day long which complicates touring.

The upside is that you can use 2 TS credits and eat at better places. I'd imagine that some of the 2ts places may not be as booked so check those out

 

[mdrankos]

Since you mentioned the illuminations cruise, how does one book that? I asked reservations and they said it was under the "Tours" line. I called and waited on hold for 50 minutes and the girl that answered put me on hold and then told me it was the hotel concierge that booked those. I haven't called them yet but I get the feeling a lot of people don't know about those.

I am definitely experiencing a little of that stress in trying to make sure we eat at the nicer places to get the bang for our buck, but I think some of that will go away when we get there. If we can't see 4 parks in 9 days and still sit down and eat occasionally, then I'm doing something wrong.

 

[nooneshome]

We did a plan once and I found the trip revolved around using it. We bounced all over WDW trying to make reservations and we didn't enjoy the parks as much as we would have liked. For us it was a lesson learned. Everyone needs to make their own choices based on their WDW style.

 

[tstidm1]

Since you mentioned the illuminations cruise, how does one book that? I asked reservations and they said it was under the "Tours" line. I called and waited on hold for 50 minutes and the girl that answered put me on hold and then told me it was the hotel concierge that booked those. I haven't called them yet but I get the feeling a lot of people don't know about those.

I am definitely experiencing a little of that stress in trying to make sure we eat at the nicer places to get the bang for our buck, but I think some of that will go away when we get there. If we can't see 4 parks in 9 days and still sit down and eat occasionally, then I'm doing something wrong.

The website calls the 407-WDW-PLAY number. If you are in Concierge level of a Deluxe resort, I would see if the concierge can help you before your trip due to having trouble with the play folks.

 

[purple figment]

I found premium to be too much because you end up worrying about your next ADR all day long which complicates touring.

The upside is that you can use 2 TS credits and eat at better places. I'd imagine that some of the 2ts places may not be as booked so check those out

You're confusing the Premium Plan with the Deluxe Dining Plan. The OP has the Premium plan which includes 3 meals per day (at 1 credit each - even for Signature restaurants) and includes a wide variety of sports and recreational activities, tours and special activities like La Nouba. The price difference is $179 per day for the Premium Plan and $85 per day for DxDDP.

To the OP: As a PP mentioned, with the Premium Plan reserve all the recreational and special activities and tours you want because that's what you're paying for. You'll also need to make reservations for your meals, but I would try to plan those around the activities and where you'll be doing them.

September is coming up very soon and people have been making reservations since March so don't wait much longer. Considering how expensive the Premium Plan is, you'll want to be able to do lots of activities, tours, etc.

 

[megs1313]

quite honestly it's a hassle and that's why we ditched the dining plan this time around....


HOWEVER, I really miss the plan! We really do like to eat at least two sit-down meals a day! Thankfully, we haven't had to have any reservations in advance hardly this trip...not sure why that is. If it were me, I would just keep shooting for the reservations you really want. You never know what will open up between now and your trip!

 

[Momofthreemen]

We are going for a week in Sept. under the premium plan.

I'm finding that many, if not most of the restaurants from casual up are booked on the days we are planning to be in specific parks due to tours or Halloween events etc.

I've been to Disney many times but never under a "plan" and I've always just eaten whatever hot dog or chicken fingers were available in the park I was at. I have never had to worry about reservations before.

I am curious if others who have used a plan have left parks they were in to head to other locations just for a dinner or lunch reservation to ensure they get the most of their plan or if that turned out to be too big a hassle. I want to make sure we get the value of the plan and aren't railroaded into eating pizza slices every day due to everything being booked.

i.e. if you were in MK but you had signature lunch reservations in Epcot and then dinner reservations at Grand Flor. Resort, was it a beating to trek around that much?

Since we are there for 9 days, I'm not concerned with having to rush around or not getting to see the parks. I think there will be plenty of time so that may factor in as well.

We are doing the Platinum Plan August 3 - 11. we Started planning over a year ago. We decided what tours and extra activities we wanted to do and what days they are available. Then we picked our dinning experiences to coordinate with these events. It took a lot of planning time but I think it is going to be worth all the effort. We we emailed the IPO, everything we requested was booked. Including the Chefs table at V&A. We knew a lot of ride time would not be involved in this trip. We wanted to try all the extras that the Platinum Plan provides. I is a once in a life time trip for us.
With the Premium Plan if you have a Travel Agent they can be a big help. IMHO if you are wanting to get all "the bang" for the price of Premium Plan ride time will be limited.

 

[thelionqueen]

I've never done the Deluxe DP but the regular plan was so much food and our schedule completely revolved around our ADR's. If you've been to WDW several times, and are renting a car, I can imagine it would be doable. But 2 TS per day, unless they are in the same park would be way too much running around for us. Some people really enjoy dining, and so do we, but I literally can't imagine that much food and the time it would take to do 2 TS in 2 different parks or resorts.

 

[mdrankos]

Awesome. All very good information and perspectives.

I guess because I've never used a "Plan" before, I never really thought about eating at the sit down places. The last time I went, reservations also weren't a really big deal like they are now.

Follow up question. Going in Sept, which is a relatively low attendance period, can you still walk up to places w/o reservations and ask for a table? Do they keep any tables open for walk ups or if you don't have a reservation, are you SOL. Honestly, you never really know how long you'll be in line for a ride etc, so I'm hesitant to make a reservation for every single meal. One day you might not even be hungry at your reservation time or people will have their heart set on a burger and not Chinese food.

 

[chartle]

Awesome. All very good information and perspectives.

I guess because I've never used a "Plan" before, I never really thought about eating at the sit down places. The last time I went, reservations also weren't a really big deal like they are now.

1. Follow up question. Going in Sept, which is a relatively low attendance period, can you still walk up to places w/o reservations and ask for a table?

2. Do they keep any tables open for walk ups or

3. if you don't have a reservation, are you SOL.

4. Honestly, you never really know how long you'll be in line for a ride etc, so I'm hesitant to make a reservation for every single meal. One day you might not even be hungry at your reservation time or people will have their heart set on a burger and not Chinese food.

1. It depends, if its free dining there are tons more people that will have the DDP and also need ADR's.

2. No

3. Yes I heave read posts that during FD there can be signs put up basically saying no walk ups. Also horror stories of people making no ADR's and not getting in anywhere except maybe resorts. Which could eat into your park time do to travel.

4. Thats why we don't do TS much it takes too much park time. Some say it only takes like an hour but that doesn't include time wasted not going on a ride with a say a 45 minute wait and you ADR is 30 minutes away. So you have to include that 30 minutes in your meal time.