? about Dream Maker Packages

[Pammy_from_WI]

Hi Everyone,

I'd like to hear from some people that used these packages. Are they really worth the money? I did some rough calcuations, we'd be using it mainly for eating breakfast and dinner. Looking at the Silver package.

For 7 days it came out about $1300 extra. Which I figured at about $60 per person per day (3 of us). This is just to upgrade from reg. to Silver.

At first it seemed like a nice deal, since you got some vip seating and such. But then I figured out a rough est. eating 3 character meals would only cost us about $150 per day. Which we'd NEVER do. Ok maybe I'd do that, but my hubby wouldn't. LOL With the package you only get 2 meals per day. Since we're going in off season. I'm now thinking this may not be a "hot" deal after all.

I think since we'd be using it mainly for the meal perks, it won't pay. I would assume we would only do a few character meals and a few dinner shows and the rest just grabbing a bite here there and I think for the week we'd be cheaper on our own.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this? We're on a Disney budget this year! HELP!!!

Thanks much!
Pammy

 

[cindy_k]

Here's my take on Packages and Budget and piece of mind.

I have gone to Disney both ways... and when I am on a tight budget, I prefer to use the packages even though they cost more.

The reason is that I book the vacation a year out, then take that whole year to pay for the vacation, sending Disney some of the money each month. Then when I finally get to Disney, just about everything is already paid for, except for the cheap breakfast's ( I grab at a snack bar ) and the suveniers.

If I didn't do it this way, I would stress the entire vacation about the money we were spending on food and it wouldn't be as much fun.

You can definitely spend less money by booking your own vacation Al A Carte. I just personally find that more stressful.

Have fun!!

Cindy in NY

 

[padisneylover]

We also always book a package for the same reasons above. It is really nice to have the vacation paid for in full before you go and you don't have to come home to the stress of bills. Also, we always come out ahead even with the equivant of the silver package. When we were there in April last year we had the package with two meals a day and ate a large breakfast and and an ealry dinner and ended up paying only about $50 extra for snacks and beverages over the package. We do tend to look for the expensive restruants that are covered on the plan so that we make sure we get our moneys worth. Last year eating a breakfast we still made out ok since we ate at good places for dinner. Another thing we like about the package is the tip is included and you don't have to worry about that when you are trying to figure out your expenses and when you figure what 15% of your dinning bill is any more it adds up quickly.
It does sound as though you do not plan on eating at two many sit down meals and if that is so then I would not take the package since you will definetly be cheaper the other way.

 

[honeymo78]

I have never used the silver package or it's former equivalent. However I have used the gold when it was deluxe magic. That is the one with 3 meals included and recreation. When I was younger we did this several times and once - about 8 yrs ago my mom had me keep track of all of our receipts to see if it really was worth it. THe main reason she was doing it at the time was to not have to take much extra money on the trip with us and so we could eat where ever we wanted. On that trip we "spent" $500 more than we paid for the package. A few years later when I went with just my brother he went water skiing and fishing - nearly $500 and we spent lots of time on the water sprites. I didn't keep track of all of our receipts that time but I'm sure that stuff put us over the top. I'm going in Aug on the gold plan and I will be doing a backstage tour and seeing Cirque. It is possible to get more out of the plan than the cost but you need to be sure you are willing to participate in all that the plan offers.

It would be possible for 3 adult eaters to spend $60/person in meals each day. Especially if you plan on doing the Hoop Dee Doo and Luau. It just depends on whether you are really going to pick a restaurant that has expensive food (fun for me to have a nice steak every night and yummy dessert). Whatever you choose I hope you have great time.

 

[hightown]

I've been going round and round with this question for a week now. I did get a quote through Dreamsunlimited. Have a Disney Club discount and also they have a $65 rebate if you book by 2/28. Price for Silver plan, 6 nights, Caribean Beach Resort, 11/10-16, King bed (don't know if that's more $) price was: $1989. It's my 9yr old daughter and me.

The price if I booked w/code, tickets (5day park hopper) one night disney quest, Hoop dee do, luau and other food: 1620.

It's 370 more but then will get use of parks on arrival and departure day; can go to water parks or 2x to disneyquest and would eat at nicer places probably. Have about had enough of counter meals.

Plus there's a good chance that there may be discounts later in year so gap may get smaller.

Decided to book the silver package. Will do as others suggest and stash money between now and then.

Can't believe it's only Feb and have already booked!
9 months to go!

 

[mom_rules]

We plan/start saving two years in advance.

We have used the Deluxe plan and are now going on the Gold Pkg. and We did save all our receipts and came out ahead. Then again, we golf, waterski, wakeboard, parasail, rent bikes, horseback ride, go to La Nouba and eat at every sit down restaurant we feel inclined to (food overload big time).

With our exchange rate it costs us more as well (about 1.6
right now) so I figure if I put a little at a time into a US account just for Disney it's like playing the stock marker. Sometimes you buy low and sometimes you buy high.

You only live once and in about 3 years neither of my "kids"will still be at home (one leaving next year for University). May as well enjoy things while you can.

 

[dansyr]

We are doing the gold pkg in March. The total cost of the pkg w/o air was about 1300 a person ( with DC discount). Last yr we just did basic pkg...room and tickets and it cost us about $900 a person. So for only $400 more, we are getting all our meals, cirque, recreation, tours etc. For us we will definitley be coming out ahead.

 

[lucysdad]

After spending a lot of time crunching the numbers, the bottom line is this: If you plan on doing a LOT of eating and a LOT of the recreation, you won't have much time for anything else, but the plan would break out pretty close to even or slightly ahead. If you eat at just two good restuarants a day, use the water sprites, a couple of parasailings, you will save lots of money just going with the Dream Maker package no upgrade, which includes the ultimate park hoppers. We were thinking of doing the gold plan for our 10-day trip, and after I figured out the restaurants and activities we would probably do, we saved almost $2500 not going gold plan. That's a lot of souvenirs.

 

[Pammy_from_WI]

Wow great posts! This is why I love this board!! I can always get wonderful replies!!

I think the plans are a great idea for those that want to do nice sit-down restaurants everday and take part in the extras. And I think if our DD was a bit older we'd probably go that route. Plus I like the idea of paying it ALL off in advance. I also think we'd use a lot of the extra perks on the silver/gold plan if we were traveling in peak season.

I really played with the numbers most of last night. We are not doing anything like parasailing, spas and such. Those would be nice if she was older, then I think we would. And since we'll just be doing the meals off either the gold or silver, it doesn't pay for us this round.

We figured out that we'd still be coming out ahead on our own with a decent breakfast, light lunch and very nice dinner. They charge over $60 per day for the 3 year old and there is NO WAY she'll eat that in food each day. Even doing three character meals is only $30 bucks without tax and tip.

So we've decided to wing it on our own this trip. I'm going to also do what some of you all did and save the recipts and see what we "really" spend. So next time we'll know if the plan is close or better. Thanks again to everyone who replied. Have wonderful trips!!!

Pammy

 

[mom_rules]

Just for an idea (also to justify it to my DH last trip): We saved our receipts and this is what we came up with-
One of our favorite restaurants is the Yachtsman Steakhouse.
Last Vacation, on the Deluxe Plan, our Dinner at the Yachtsman (4 adults) was $325.00 (they included our alcohol although they are not supposed to). My DS is a picky eater (read anything on a menu that expensive ie. filet mignon etc is what he'll eat) and a bottomless teenage pit-so it's not too hard to rack up quite a food bill. Dinners for 10 days was around $2700. We had a character breakfast each morning (because it was in our resort-very convenient). Bill was $80.00 every morning. We had a relatively light lunch every day (even 4 hotdogs, fries, cookie and sodas came to $50.00 at counter service). Add on 4 watersprites for one hour rental - $160; Parasailing for 4 (I think it was $80/person); Wakeboarding ($100 per hour), miscellaneous surrey bike rentals, one round
Golf for 4 (with carts and rental clubs) $736 ($184 ea)
$40 a round for minigolf (nice evening activity-went 5 nights), La Nouba $300 Anyway- it added up to around $5900-6000.
The cost of the gold add-on for the 4 of us for 10days was $5120 (through AAA). Plus you get some freebees thrown in ie. Lanyards and pins, leave a legacy tile etc. - and you only have to bring enough cash for souvenirs and extra treats.

 

[fairy god aunt]

If you do the Silver plan, do you get coupons for the meals or is it just charged to your room and then reconciled? Also, I am concerned that we might not use our two wishes per day. Can another member of our party, who is not getting a plan, use them?

 

[Gillian]

I was going to ask you how old your 3rd person was! Packages often work out better for adults than kids, which is why I was curious. Kids often don't eat that much, can share with mom & dad, etc.

Another thing to consider is how many park days you are going to have. If you do not plan to do parks every day, the dream maker package itself may not be worth it for you. Room only discounts are easy to get ESPECIALLY in the offseason (watch here & mousesavers.com for info) and the unlimited passes are really more than most families need.

For a week's stay, the 5 day park hopper plus is great. You can do 5 days of the 4 major parks, and use your 2 plusses for the water parks on different days. That still leaves you time to explore your resort, go shopping at downtown disney, etc. and still save a little money.

Happy planning! It's almost as much fun as the trip itself.

 

[Pammy_from_WI]

MMMM The Yachtsman!!! One of my fav places to eat!! Just had to toss that in!

We talked about it again last night after going through the pros and cons of going with the plan. Since we'll have our 3 yr old this time we're going to skip it and buy our tickets from a broker and try and get a good rate on ASMo, total budget trip this time. LOL

This way we're still planning on doing on big thing a day for food, like a character meal or a really nice dinner and just grab a bite here and there when we're hungry. Plus the hubby doesn't eat breakfast, so that would be the other problem.

I'm planning on 6 park days, one off day, then the 2 travel days. That's if I can talk the hubby (trying to make him a Disney fan like me LOL) into it.

I think we'll be doing a 6 day hopper+, which would give us some flexibility to hop around. Plus if we get a hopper, we can always use any unused days at another time. I looked at the lenght of stay, but with the two travel days, we never tend to do anything when arriving or departing. We usually do Chef Mickey's first day and just relax at the hotel, so length of stay is sort of a waste for us. In 1999 we did CMs and then Cirque and it was a perfect first day!

My hubby is making fun of me now because I'm in WDW planning mode! And here I didn't think I was going to get a trip to WDW this year.

Thanks everyone!

Pammy

 

[mom_rules]

Hi again,
DS is 15 DD is 18-we stay at the BC and walk over to
Epcot everyday/night. We take the boat (or walk) to MGM.
Since my kids are a little older we spend more time at these
two parks than any other. We spend one day each at MK and
AK-and also go to both waterparks. We are in a park everyone
of the ten days, even if just for a little while to do the things we
want most or to see new attractions since the last time. We also split up and go where we want to and meet up for meals.

 

[Pzor]

DH and I stayed at BWI from 1/25 - 2/1 on the Silver Package. We paid $3400 for the two of us ( no airfare) for a waterview room. (DH insists on spending the extra $ for the waterview!) I initially priced the vacation using codes and it came to $2500, so the upgrade to Silver cost us an extra $900. We always stayed on the Fall Fantasy or Sunshine Getaway which included breakfasts. We figured the Silver plan would be good because we would each use 1 wish per day on breakfast.
However, I really wanted to make the most of this because I knew just using the wishes for breakfast and dinner would never add up to $900 for us. I have to admit, it does hurt less when you're not laying out the cash for food.
Being we have a large breakfast, we usually would get a hot dog or something in the parks or at the BW, so we didn't eat a large dinner each night. What we did do was make sure we hit the more costly restaurants we normally wouldn't do, and used 2 wishes per person for these meals.
We ate at Yachtsman Steakhouse, Jiko, & Flying Fish Cafe for our nice meals. I also used a wish for a 25 minute massage at the Spa at Disney Institute, and one for a nice timepiece that has a little clock with Mickeys all around it and it says "While Walt's away..."
You do not have to use your allotted wishes each day. You bascially start with your total for the stay (ours was 28, 2 per person, per day) and they just deduct them as you go along. The only thing I stronly recommend is that anyone who uses wishes check each and every receipt. Our first breakfast, we noticed the receipt showed our remaining wishes at 24 when it should have been 26. I noticed the server had 4 guests listed on the receipt instead of 2, so I assume that's why the error occurred. It was no big deal, I went to the front desk and they took care of it immediately.
I don't know that I would do it again, but I wouldn't rule it out. Good luck whatever you decide!

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

Ohhhhh, that's interesting to know. I didn't know you had a certain amount for the days you stay and can use the wishes whenever you want during the stay. I thought if it was 2 wishes per day- you had to use just 2 wishes per day and if you didn't use them- you'd lose them.
Interesting..

 

[karenrc]

I've been trying to decide if I should change our package for the end of March to include the silver plan as well. I am having a really hard time finding out the details. I noticed a few people here have used this so I was hoping to get 2 major questions answered:

Everything says "over 125 restaurants" - does anyone know if places like Portobello Yacht Club, Wolfgang Puck's or Shulas are included?

What is included in a meal? I've seen appetizer, entree, dessert, non-alcoholic beverage but I also thought I saw that list plus salad or soup.

I have 2 teenage boys who are definitely gourmets in training and can pack away food. I think this would be a good idea but I always worry about things you "buy ahead" so I'm trying to (probably over) analyze this.

Thanks for any help!
Karen (who hasn't figured out the countdown thing but has 36 days to go until AKL!)

 

[hightown]

Thanks for posting your tip, Pozar about making sure the right amount of wishes are debited!

Karenrc, Interested in the answers to your questions, too.

Will add one of my own...If a child is on the silver plan, can they order off of the adult menu? A person can have only so many chicken nuggets! She's more into shrimp and ribs!

I'm really looking forward to going with the plan. After 4 trips, I'm sick to death of counters and our touring has slowed down. So I plan on making the most of this plan!

 

[mom_rules]

Dining options on the Silver add on:
1 indicates one Magical Wish required
2 indicates two Magical Wishes required

Dining (includes applicable gratuities, excludes alcoholic beverages)

1Disney Character Breakfast or traditional Resort breakfast ($20 per adult with tax and tip and $16 per child with tax and tip)
1Table-Service and Counter-Service lunch or dinner available at more than 125 participating restaurants throughout the Walt Disney World Resort
1Disney Dinner Shows (Hoop de Do and Polynesian Luau)
2Lunch or dinner at a Selected Signature Table Service Restaurant: Artist Point Dining, Bistro de Paris, California Grill, Citricos Restaurant, Coral Reef Restaurant, The Flying Fish Cafe, Fulton's Crab House, Jiko-The Cooking Place, Narcoossee's Restaurant and Yachtsman Steakhouse

Now, to try and answer your question (sort of): On the Gold Plan
dining Includes all Restaurants and Dinner Shows on Disney property except:

Victoria & Albert's
The Chef's Domaine at Citricos
Mickey's Backyard Barbecue
WDW Swan & WDW Dolphin restaurants
Downtown Disney Resort Area Hotels

Hope this helps.

 

[fairy god aunt]

Is there a list anywhere of the "more than 125" restaurants -- or does it mean any of the WD restaurants except those requiring two wishes? And, can we use our wishes to treat other members of our party? Thanks for all of the help.