Question Re Dining on the Gold Plan

[KarenC]

We know the parks are going to be crowded during our upcoming trip between Christmas and New Years, and DH wants to play a lot of golf. We decided to upgrade to the Gold Plan and spend time eating, golfing and enjoying some of the other Disney recreation.

The gold plan includes Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner for each day of the stay. Does anyone know how that works? If we check in early, will we have to use our lunch that day, or can we save it for our last day there (when we have PS at Chefs du France)?

Any clarification is appreciated. I haven't been able to get an answer from the CMs.

 

[wilderness gal]

My family had the gold plan in May 03 this year, I thought it was pricey but the benefits outweighed the cost to me. My husband liked the fishing. Wanted the son to go on the jet ski's but not enough time.

You get 3 meals per day (these meals are considered vouchers/coupons) I can't remember the exact term. Example: It was me, my husband & son & my son's friend who were in our party. OK, 4 people X 3 meals a day = 12 meals/vouchers a day.
When you go into a rest., tell the waitress that you are on the Gold Plan, they will tell you what you can have or not, then at the end of the meal, you will sign the ticket & it will show how many vouchers/meals you have left for your trip.

My mistake or my husbands mistake; he let the boys go down to the Whispering Fork (the counter diner) & they only got brownie's & a coke and they charged them a whole meal per child for that. These boys were 14 years old so, they are considered jrs or adults (unsure). So be careful & not waste food like that unless it's your last night.

Any who, we had a 5 night 6 day package.
OK, 4 people @ 3 meals a day = 12 meals a day X 5 nights = 60 meals. That's how they do that, we had 60 meals to use in 5 nights & 6 full days. We got an extra night/ room only. So we used the 60 meals in 6 days/nights.

Hope this helps............

jean (Haughton Bucs)

 

[BethC]

Wilderness Gal did a good job explaining it.

Basically you receive 3 meals per NIGHT of your stay, but you can split up the meals on your first and last day if you like. So you could say eat lunch and dinner on the first night, breakfast on your last night, and breakfast lunch and dinner all the nights in between. Or you could eat dinner the first night, and breakfast and lunch on the last day, you get the picture.

Enjoy, it sounds wonderful!

 

[KarenC]

Originally posted by wilderness gal
When you go into a rest., tell the waitress that you are on the Gold Plan, they will tell you what you can have or not, then at the end of the meal, you will sign the ticket & it will show how many vouchers/meals you have left for your trip.

Thanks, that's what I hoped for! One question...what kind of restrictions are there on what you can have or not? I didn't see anything about that in the fine print. For example, can you have crab legs and lobster at Fultons? I assumed you could choose any appetizer, any entree and any dessert...is that not the case?

 

[wilderness gal]

We went to The Fulton's Crab House; in fact my husband ordered the King Crab Claws & steak (I think), he even took a picture of his food before he ate it. He said a meal like this had to be remembered.........

One of the big things that we weren't able to get was smoothies or milk shakes, that's what they weren't letting people get (or at least that's what we were told), but you could get just about every thing else you could get on the menu.

We would receive an appetizer, (some times the salad was the appetizer or at some places the salad came with the entree) and that way you could have the appetizer & the salad with that entree, of course desert, a cold non alcoholic beverage, and a hot non alcoholic beverage.

When we go back to Disney it will be on the Gold Plan again, I liked it. Like I mentioned earlier it was pricey but..... for the benefits of the package, it was a good deal @ least for convenience it was great.

We're a fan of the Wilderness Lodge, hopefully we'll be able to return in 2006 for our 20th anniversary & our son will graduate from high school in 2007. So hopefully, Lord willing......we will stay this time @ the Villa's.

This is only my 2nd post, so bear with me!!! I read these boards & I learned alot (the Disney Vets are terrific)...... We were also Disney Club members but.............. now that Disney Club will end Dec. 31st.

Hope you have a wonderful time @ the Wilderness !!!!
Soak in that atmosphere, how relaxing & tranquil it is. I like it because it reminds me of the woods, and I'm from north Louisiana so it feels like home to me.

Haughton Buccanner High School Band rocks !!!

 

[KarenC]

Thanks for that info! I think I knew "specialty drinks" weren't included. I was afraid there was a secret limited menu that I didn't know about...I'm okay now.

We've decided that since the crowds are so bad the time we're going to be there that we'd take advantage of things we could make reservations for--golf, horseback riding, parasailing, la nouba, EATING. For all we're getting to do, the gold plan is a good value for us.

Thanks again!

(Next year for you is almost like this year for us. DD graduated from HS in June and we celebrated our 20th anniversary in September. Senior year is a killer--I called it the long goodbye. Stock up on kleenex. I assume from your signature you're a band mom--what instrument does your son(?) play? My guy plays Bari Sax and DD plays clarinet)

 

[wilderness gal]

Our son is a trumpet player, a freshman this year.............. I told myself I wouldn't ride that school bus to one more marching competition but what did I do..........I rode that thing let's see 4 or 5 times this year. That school bus tends to help a parent get older or at least it makes you feel old, (the bumps & the sitting in the middle of the bus are the killers).

For graduation my son told us he wanted a laptop, we told him OK that's fine but.... if you had to choose between the laptop & a trip to the WL & Disney what would it be.... he said WL & Disney, to heck with the laptop. (Now that's a dedicated Disney fan).....

We have a small band of about 85 members & that's including the flag line.

My son also plays in the Shreveport youth symphony & gets to perform with the Shreveport Symphony once a year usually in May.

That marching season is a killer when it comes to the practice time, and competitions isn't it?

Hope you have a great time & take lots a pictures, hope your son has a blast & cherrish those moments, I never knew time could go by that quickly.

Haughton Buccanner High School Band Rocks !

 

[lovespugs]

Originally posted by KarenC
Thanks for that info! I think I knew "specialty drinks" weren't included. I was afraid there was a secret limited menu that I didn't know about...I'm okay now.

DH and I have been on the Silver plan before, and I believe the dining restrictions are the same as on the Gold plan. The only thing we could not get are the appetizer samplers for two, unless we both got that as our appetizer. In other words we couldn't get the sampler and also another appetizer. This only applied to the really big appetizers for two.

Also, we had several places (Teppanyaki comes to mind) encourage us to order the specialty drinks. Since the servers tip is based on what you order (15% of total bill), they seemed more than happy to have us drink a $4 smoothie instead of a $2 soda or tea. This definitely varies by restaurant though. We just made a habit of immediately telling our server that we were on the plan and asking what we could or couldn't order.

 

[GB]

What is the Silver Plan? I thought there was only one food plan. And also I thought I read somewhere that you could use unused meal vouchers for merchandise in the gift shops. Is there any truth to that?

Gina

 

[KarenC]

Originally posted by GB
What is the Silver Plan? I thought there was only one food plan. And also I thought I read somewhere that you could use unused meal vouchers for merchandise in the gift shops. Is there any truth to that?

Gina

There are 3 packages that include meals that I know of: silver, gold and platinum. The silver plan includes 2 "wishes" per person per night. These can be used for food, merchandise or recreation.

The gold plan is 3 meals per day and includes recreation.

Platinum includes a whole lot more.