Gold Package vs Silver Package.. Anyone have any input?

[Senderella]

This is yet another of my second guessing myself threads...


I've been doing my homework (too many Disney books at my side) and trying to make sure we've got our mind made up before we pester Pam yet again only to change our minds another 50 times. :lol: I'm tryin to make Pams life easier so it doesn't get to where she sees my number on Caller ID or email address and ignore me :animwink:


We're debating between the gold & silver package. There's 4 of us going and 3 out of 4 are big eaters. Everyone but me. My DH & our friends can eat & eat & never gain an ounce. It's sickening. Anyhow..... we were thinking that the gold plan would be the way to go because you've got all 3 meals... but on the other hand.. we don't want to spend half our vacation sitting in restaurants. I've got the .pdf files for both plans that show everything. I started looking at the silver plan because of the 2 wishes per person that can be used towards meals. We figured a good breakfast & a good dinner while grabbing something on the fly for lunch would be the way to go. (if we really wanted something substantial I'm guessing there's a lot of places to grab a light sandwich right?) Does anyone have any input for me? We really liked the idea of the gold plan because we wouldn't have to factor in the price of meals into our spending money while we're there, but silver is looking good too because it's cheaper and we're not *committed* to lunch & the fact of possibly losing money if that makes sense.

Pam or Belle-- Any professional input at all?

If anyone's got any personal experiences on the gold & silver packages please let me know what you liked/disliked about them. I need as much help as I can get. I also need to make sure I know which would be the absolute best for us so when one of our friends comes down in a month from Houston and we get our other friend over, I'll be able to tell them ALL the facts so we can make a collective decision... LOL I need to know which one to push the most!!

Ok I'm rambling so I'll go to bed now.... Thanks again guys!

 

[Yellow Shoes]

I would lean towards the silver plan for the reasons you cited.

--you don't want to feel like all you did was go from PS to PS
--portions are huge at the restaurants
--the late breakfast/early dinner/significant snacking plan works well for most people
--I have read trip reports from people who felt the need to "get their money's worth" who ate a lot more food than they wanted, and more elaborate food than they wanted. They felt they should always order the most expensive thing on the menu. Believe it or not, they felt that it became tiresome.

Not included in either plan is snacks. There are some awesome snack options at the parks--Dole Whip, Citrus Swirl, Churro, Beaver Tail, Mickey Bars, hot dogs from Casey's, shaved ice from Japan, School Bread from Norway, etc etc.

Plus, as you already know, there is a significant price difference in the silver and gold plans.

I think that no one will go hungry on "only" the silver plan.

 

[AkiraRaptor]

We've used Silver for the last two years.

Here's my take on the packages...

They are very good if you use them wisely, otherwise you can stand to loose money on them.

From last years costs, it was $68 per person per day for Silver, and $138 per person per day for gold.

If you are going to spend that kind of money (or more), then they will be worth it, otherwise you are paying for the convienance and nothing much more.

We did alot of tours and ohter recreations available on the plans, and most of them cost much more than a single wish does. And unless you eat at expensive places, you can usally save the most money using it for non-food items.

The best thing to do is to work out a simple schedule now on where you may eat (B/L/D) each day and any recreational things you may do as well. Add up to cost, and see if the plan cost is more or less.

We save a few hundred using Silver, but I only used the wishes for meals that cost more than the wish cost was, and we did several tours which saves $20 or more per person, depending upon the tour.

At $138 a day for gold, we just couldn't justify it. A typical day is like $15 for breakfast, $20 for lunch, and $50 for dinner (yes, this is eating real good too!), So you've spent $85 plus the tax tips, so let's just say $105. So if you did nothing else each day, and spent that kind of money on food, you'de be giving $33 a day to Disney for nothing. That's over $200 a person for a week long stay, or $800 for your group.

That's alot of money going bye-bye.

It's all about the money... :lol:

Have fun!

 

[Yellow Shoes]

I'm sure you're aware of the dollar values of the wishes that AkiraRaptor cited above.

Since you seem to enjoy the planning process, I would suggest that you sit down with some menus and get an idea of what you would spend for meals. (www.allearsnet.com is a great source for menus)

I am assuming that you were planning on using the wishes only for meals. You can come out ahead, dollar wise if you use them for Cirque de Soleil or parasailing. That would, of course, mean time spent away from the parks. Don't know how that will sit with your travel companions.

 

[Senderella]

Originally posted by Yellow Shoes
I'm sure you're aware of the dollar values of the wishes that AkiraRaptor cited above.

Since you seem to enjoy the planning process, I would suggest that you sit down with some menus and get an idea of what you would spend for meals. (www.allearsnet.com is a great source for menus)

I am assuming that you were planning on using the wishes only for meals. You can come out ahead, dollar wise if you use them for Cirque de Soleil or parasailing. That would, of course, mean time spent away from the parks. Don't know how that will sit with your travel companions.

I know I saw the dollar value of the wishes somewhere but I can't for the life of me find it anymore. Does anyone know?

We were planning on seeing Cirque, but this weekend on Bravo it was Cirque weekend. They had a LOT of the different Cirque shows on pretty much all weekend long. Anyhow.. after watching it we decided it didn't really appeal to us.

I can't remember, but does the silver also include the entry to Disney Quest & the other places like that?

Thanks in advance for all the help I really appreciate it!

 

[AkiraRaptor]

The dollar value for Silver (at least last year in October) was $34 a wish...or $68 a person per day, since you get two wishes on Silver plan.

Most meals cost one wish, but a few signiture spots are two wishes each like Flying Fish, Coral Reef, Bistro, etc. ie the more expensive places.

The wish includes everything except for alcoholic beverages, so tax and tip are included along with the meal.

Cirque is about break even using wishes, I think you save less than $1 or so. So it's an even trade. BTW, Bravo did not show the WDW Cirque. I've never seen that one shown except in person at WDW.

I will say that my wife was not in the least interested in seeing Cirque in the past. I surprised her with tickets a few years ago. Suffice it to say, we've seen the show twice, it's very fun. My hands are always sore afterwaqrds from all the clapping you do. It really is an amazing show.

As for DQ, not sure what you're asking. Silver and Gold both require you to buy the base package first right? And the base package comes with Ultimate Hoppers, which include DTD, DQ and the water parks too.

Have fun!

 

[AkiraRaptor]

OK, I went back to one of my previous post about the Silver plan and copy/pasted the follwoing here...

----------------------------------------------------------

This is what we are spening ours on:

Coral Reef (2) - Save $1
Boma (1) - Lose $5
Mama Melrose (1) - Save $5
Gardens of the World (1) - Save $25
Flying Fish (2) - Save $20
UnDiscovered Futureworld (1) - Save $15
Liberty Tree Tavern (1) - Lose $7
Marrakech (1) - Save $2
Cirque Du Soleil (2) - Save $8
Yachtsman Steakhouse (2) Save $16

So I save $80 over what I would have paid cash all together. Not too bad, but you'll notice it was the tours that really did it for me. Without them it's only half that amount.

-------------------------------------------------------------

I did this estimate before we went in Oct. In reallity we saved about $100 each (myself and my wife) so we saved about $200. So for us it was a very good thing. The reason why...we ate like pigs at Coral Reef, Flying Fish, and Yachtsman.

You see, the waiters know it a wish, and you should tell them before hand. Then they get you to buy the most expensive stuff on the list and get you to use it to it's fullest eating all the courses alloted on the wish.

I know the bill for Flying Fish was absolutly huge. It was somewhere near $200 for my wife and I with tax and tip, and that's with no alcohol.

But like I stated above, the tours gave us big $ too, with the two of us that was $80 just for the tours, almost half the saveing for the whole thing, so we saved $60 on meal each for 7 nights of eating, so by the law of averages, we were saving $8-9 bucks a meal.

Again, like I said before...you really have to work it out. The first year we used wishes, we wasted a few away, but got lucky 'cos they messed up and didn't charge us twice at two places, so we ended up with 3 extra wishes...thanks Disney.

Have fun!