Reporting in on our very successful one day Platinum Plan trip!!
Day 1:
6:30am - checked in @ AKL. Room was ready, so we took our luggage up; saved time having to do it later in the day.
one problem checking in - the manager was not in until 7:00am, so we could not get our package (vouchers and such) until then. Took our bags to the room and by the time we were finished and back to the desk, mgr was in. Our pkg was not in the safe where it should have been, so she had to run downstairs to get it from another safe. Made us run a little late for our Breakfast res, but she offered to phone the restaurant for us to let them know what happened.
7:30am - Breakfast @ Cape May
8:30am - Drove to Epcot parking lot
9:00am - Entered park - went to The Land and changed our Behind the Seeds Tour reservation from 4:30 pm to 3:45pm (FWIW - they said this time slot cannot be booked ahead of time, only that day.)
9:30am - checked in for Dolphins in Depth
This was my favorite part of our Platinum Plan. We LOVED the dolphin interaction!!! There were only 2 other guests on our tour, so I think we may have had more time with the dolphins than if there had been more people on the tour.
12:45pm - we met up with the Seas Aqua Tour. We were able to stay in our wetsuits, which was very nice to not have to wiggle into those things twice!!!
This tour was also awesome!! I am claustrophobic, so it was difficult to get used to using the equipment and trusting it to give me air!!! Once I got past the fear of not being able to breathe, I had a great time!!
3:30pm - checked in for the Behind the Seeds Tour.
Not our favorite thing. We were really looking forward to this tour because we all love the boat ride. But we were not impressed with the tour. I think it may have been because we had a long-winded guide. Our tour took 1 1/2 hours!!! Missed our Surrey Bike ride because of this.
5:30pm - ran to our condo in town to get my shirts I forgot to pack!! Stopped @ McDonald's for a bite for lunch.
6:30pm - One round of Putt-putt @ Fantasia, then over to Summer/Winter for 2 more rounds.
9:00pm - Drove to POR for a 9:30 pm carriage ride. We arrived ~ 9:15 and got started early since the driver did not have a 9:00 guest. Very relaxing and enjoyable ride!!
9:45pm - drove to DTD for our 10:15pm res @ Planet Hollywood.
11:30pm - Back to AKL for the night.
Bad experience here. Did not like the room at all!! Very cramped and crowded. We have more space in the value rooms than we had here! Got in the room ~ 11:45pm. Went to take showers, and there was NO HOT WATER!!!!. Ran the water for 15 minutes in the bath and sinks, still no hot water!! We had to take cold showers before bed. Not happy campers!!!!
Day 2:
6:45am - Got up - got dressed.
7:15am - checked out of AKL, asked for a call from Mgr concerning the water issue.
7:30 - Stopped into the CS to fill drink mugs.
8:00am - checked in @ Ft Wilderness for Horseback Riding
8:30am - Hit the trail with awesome guides!! One other family was scheduled to be there, but did not show, so we had a private ride with our guides!
9:15am - Drove to Contemporary.
This was probably the worst part of the trip for us. We got bad info on the marina opening time. We planned to do Sea Raycers from 9:45-10:45, then Parasailing @ 11:00am. However, the marina does not open until 11:00am. So when we arrived and found that out, we went ahead and did the parasailing right away, since they did not have anyone scheduled. Bad idea!!! I forgot we had just taken our dramamine right after HB riding. It had not had time to kick in. DH went first and had a blast. Then DD and I went tandem. We were doing pretty well at first and really enjoying it, but then she started getting sick. We waved them to bring us in. After we got back on the boat, they were pulling in the parasail, and I got sick from sitting still on the water!! When we got back to the dock, I all but sprinted off of the boat and found the lounge chairs by the pool to collapse in. DD was right behind me!! We spent the next hour there, with DH getting cold cloths for our heads. We went back to our condo for the next hour or so until we felt better. Lot of lost time here, just because I forgot to let the dramamine kick in!!
12:30pm - Feeling better - Drove to Contemporary for 1/2 hour of Sea Raycers
1:45 pm - drove back to Ft Wilderness for 2d round of Horseback riding.
3:15pm - back to the Contemporary for another hour of Sea Raycers. Cancelled the 2d Parasailing reservation!!
5:30pm - Hopped over to the MK for snacks.
6:30pm - Cape May for Dinner.
8:00pm - Drove to POR for Carriage ride
Here's the only messed up reservation of the trip. CM accidentally scheduled us for Ft Wilderness instead of POR. Driver had an opening for 9:30, so we took it and altered our other plans.
8:15pm - Drove to Fantasia Putt-putt for 1 round.
9:00 pm - back to POR for carriage ride @ 9:30pm.
10:00pm - Drove to Summer/Winter putt-putt for one round.
11:00pm - Platinum plan over - back to our condo!!
All in all we had a very good trip.
There were definitely some glitches and a few issues, but nothing that we couldn't work with.
We did receive a call from the mgr @ AKL and were given a $100 refund for the cold showers.
The only advice I would give, is to call and double check all of your reservations. If I had done that, we would probably not have lost the time we did when we drove to POR to find out we did not actually have a res there! Not a big deal, but a hassle and an inconvenience.
Would I recommend doing this plan? YES!!!! My daughter said it was the best 2 days she has ever had! Going in, she was scared of the Dolphin Tour & the Seas Aqua Tour, because she is not a strong swimmer. But she overcame her fear and had a great time. She wanted to do both of those tours again. Her favorite was the Seas Aqua, the one she was most afraid of!!
Do this while you have the chance! I wish we could do it again before the new rules kick in, but I don't think we'll be able to swing it.
I am really glad we did it though. Every bit worth the money!!
I figured we ended up around roughly $3100 in value, and paid $1200!!
Forgot to mention, Cirque was dark on our days, so we also got $255 worth of Gift Cards to use on the rest of our trip!! So it was more like paying $945, plus we got the $100 refund from AKL, so actually, we paid $845!! WOW!!!
