You may or may not break even on the silver plan. Ask yourself how much of a difference that makes. Some people like knowing that some of the stuff they want to do is prepaid - and if they don't get the total "value" out of it they are fine. Others stress out about getting the value from the plan. Getting value from the plan is possible, but....
My advice to a first timer is to spend more time enjoying the activities in the parks and less time doing spa treatments, shows, going to expensive dinners, etc. Hoop De Doo is fun, but it takes an entire evening - which means getting your five year old some rest time in the middle of the day, which means less park time. Cirque is incredible, but once again, takes several hours to accomplish. Eating dinner at the nicer Disney restaurants will get value from a Silver Plan, but will your five year old be comfortable in those restaurants (will you be comfortable with your child there?) - and once again, its a time consuming option. What are you going to Disney for? For the first time visitor, it probably isn't to rent water mice, eat out, or get a massage. It sounds like you guys are going for your daughter, so plan days full of the MK, lots of dinners where chicken fingers are available that don't take an hour and a half, a character meal (or two), and a lot of pool time, early mornings followed by early bedtimes - none of which are effective use of wishes.
Skip the Silver Plan so that you can play things a little more by ear without feeling like you "wasted" a bunch of money. Make plans (its a lot of fun) but build in the flexibility to change them at a moments notice.
Next trip - when you have a better idea of the lay of the land and what you enjoy doing, you can decide if putting your daughter in Simba's Club for a night out at Jiko is worth it. This trip, you may all just fall in bed after a snack bar dinner at 8:00.
My advice to a first timer is to spend more time enjoying the activities in the parks and less time doing spa treatments, shows, going to expensive dinners, etc. Hoop De Doo is fun, but it takes an entire evening - which means getting your five year old some rest time in the middle of the day, which means less park time. Cirque is incredible, but once again, takes several hours to accomplish. Eating dinner at the nicer Disney restaurants will get value from a Silver Plan, but will your five year old be comfortable in those restaurants (will you be comfortable with your child there?) - and once again, its a time consuming option. What are you going to Disney for? For the first time visitor, it probably isn't to rent water mice, eat out, or get a massage. It sounds like you guys are going for your daughter, so plan days full of the MK, lots of dinners where chicken fingers are available that don't take an hour and a half, a character meal (or two), and a lot of pool time, early mornings followed by early bedtimes - none of which are effective use of wishes.
Skip the Silver Plan so that you can play things a little more by ear without feeling like you "wasted" a bunch of money. Make plans (its a lot of fun) but build in the flexibility to change them at a moments notice.
Next trip - when you have a better idea of the lay of the land and what you enjoy doing, you can decide if putting your daughter in Simba's Club for a night out at Jiko is worth it. This trip, you may all just fall in bed after a snack bar dinner at 8:00.
Sit back and let the WDW magic take over!! Yes, you need to make some plans and will need to nail down a rough outline of a plan before you go, but keep it very open so that you can just relax and explore WDW at your own pace.
