What am I missing on the "Silver Plan"

[happydays]

For the life of me, I can't understand what could possibly make the "Silver Plan" any kind of deal whatsoever. I was quoted $1750 to add this onto our 7 night FTP (2 adults and 2 small children (7 & 4)). That comes to an average of $31.25 per wish.

It makes absolutely no sense to me to use these "wishes" for most of the items/meals they are good for as it would cost much less to just pay the price for the item or meal (particularly at breakfast and lunch). I mean - come on - even at the nicer restaurants, as it requires two wishes - there is no bargain there (spending $125 for two WITHOUT alcohol!!) The only real "slam dunks" I can see are the child care centers - which at $10 per hour become a bargain if your child is there longer than three hours. Or maybe the savings on an adult ticket for the Luau.

How do you folks who love this plan make it work for you?

Thanks for any enlightenment you can offer me

 

[LAinSEA]

We used "Discovery Magic" (now the Silver plan) twice...(2 adults who like to dine at the more expensive restaurants).

The first time it was a "steal" - 1 wish for every restaurant (V & A's & Fulton's excluded). Our dinners ranged from $75 (Rose & Crown) to $220 (California Grill) and Cirque du Solei was also 1 wish.

The second time, even with the select restaurants being 2 wishes, we still felt this was a good deal and we came out ahead using the wishes for meals only.

That said, using wishes for children's meals just doesn't make sense. I believe that there is no difference between adult and children's wishes...so parents can use the wishes (2 at a time for the select restaurants) and you can pay cash for the kid's meals. You can also use these for tours or Cirque tickets. It's also just one wish to go to the Luau or Hoop De Doo - a bargain considering the average wish cost ($30-33).

It is unfortunate that every member of your party has to be on the "plan" to take advantage of the benefits.

-LA

 

[AspiringCindy]

We used the plan in Aug with 2DD's. Most of the CMs encouraged us to pay cash for the children's meals($5-$7). Then us adults used the wishes for expensive meals. It really only pays if you make PSs for expensive restaurants. We did just that and our cheapest meal was $150. The drawback, the CMs want you to order alot(because their tip is a % of the bill total) which translates to a lot of time being spent in restaurants. I don't know about you, but I hate spending 2 hours eating lunch and taking away from park time. We decided to give the plan a try, but DH says never again!

 

[CindyKansas]

We only use our features when we eat at one of the more expensive restaurants. If DD only wants something to drink and just a little something off of my plate or DH's we just pay for her meal and save the wish for something else. Like Spa treatments, Cirque Du Soliel, or tours. We plan it accordingly. We have been to WDW many times and we like to do other things besides being in the park all day and we don't mind spending a couple of hours in a restaurant.

 

[kdibattista]

DH & I had the plan last year and LOVED it!!!! We loved it so much that we have it again for our trip in December. I cuoldn't tell you if we lost money, broke even or saved money but what I do know is that it was extremely convenient. We didn't have to worry about bringing enough money for food, etc because it was all prepaid. At the end of the week we ended up only charging $400 to our room (it's usually much, more more )

 

[>>^..^<<]

Hi - from what I have read on these boards - I think silver plan buyers are looking for a convenient, no hassle way to prepay their holiday (or elements of it) in advance - get all that out of the way and relax when they are there not worrying about the cost of meals.

It encourages them to eat at nicer places where if they were payng locally they might not go to.

It's a little like the people who buy Quick and Casual Meal Vouchers for 20.00 each (on eBay) - when the meal they use it on will probably cost on average 15.00.

They want to prepay these meals in advance and not have to budget their holiday cash - it's ironic that they may lose money in the long run but gain peace of mind.

>>^..^<<

 

[happydays]

Thanks for the feedback all. As I suspected, this plan is clearly not for us. But on the bright side, it's another good reason to hold onto my Disney stock.

Hope you all have great trips!!

 

[kdibattista]

Although we did not realize it until we got there, it allowed us to do things that we probably would not have spent the money without the plan (golf - well, okay, DH would have paid for that , spa - I never would have done that and this year we plan to do a tour and Cirque).

 

[BabyMo]

We used it last year for our honeymoon. I found it very convinient not to have to worry about splurging at the table service restaurants.

We live very comfortably, but when we dine out, we tend to favor more informal places (i.e. Chilis). For every wish, you are entitled to an appetizer, entree, drink, and dessert. The wish also covers tax/tip. Since this was my first trip to WDW (I grew up going to DL) I wanted to experience everything.

While we were getting our money's worth and more for the dinner meals, I found it very difficult to stuff myself at lunch every day in an attempt to maximize the value. I found it equally difficult to get my money's worth at the breakfasts.

Also, we found ourself with extra wishes (despite eating at all those restaurants!) but that's okay- we got a nice amination cell and some other knick-knacks.

I also encountered a greedy CM. After a not-so-good meal at Tony's Town Square, we tried to pay with our wishes. We received a lecture about how if we told her that we had the wishes, we could have gotten smoothies and this and that, etc. It never occured to me that she wanted a bigger tip until just now when I read Aspiring Cindy's post.

We only used our wishes for meals and knick-knacks. There was so much to do that we didn't have time for any of the other stuff.

I apologize for rambling. I think the Silver Plan is good if you are going to WDW for the first time. We are going back and I know exactly where I want to go and where I do not want to go. I don't think that I would get the Silver Plan again but I really really did enjoy using it. Does that make any sense?

 

[goofy4tink]

I have tried every which way to get the Silver Plan to work for us. Even with eating at sit-down restaurants 2 out of 3 meals and usually one character meal a day, I still can't get it to work for us. I'm still paying about $400 more than my ps's add up to. We don't do V & A's or the really expensive places. So, we'll just put everything on our cc and pay it off with the money we've saved for eating/gifts as soon as the bill comes in.