Disney Dining Premium

[hamlet35_2000]

I see lots of information about DDP with the credits for everything, but how does the Preium package work? I know we can eat wherever we want for lunch, dinner, breakfast--but what is their idea of that? What is breakfast-- one day it may be a Character Dining at Crystal Palace and the next day a muffin. How does Disney track these meals when you are on the Premium Dining plan? Anyone know? I'm leaving in a month, so there is no hurry...but I do need to finish up the planning and make the rest of the ADR's.

 

[scouthawkk]

DH and I were on the Premium plan last August. We loved it! Granted, we didn't take anywhere near full advantage of all the other extras the plan includes (We did 1 tour, and went to Cirque, but that was about it for the extras) so Disney definately came out ahead on that end of the deal. But as for the dining part, we did some damage, let me tell you!

Breakfast, lunch and dinner, just about anywhere (no room service, no V&A and nothing at Swan/Dolphin). Unlike the regular DDP, you don't have to worry about counting TS or CS (and no snacks included either). You get three meal credits per day (or is it night, I can't remember). They are not designated by type of meal, so you can use them whenever while you are there. And you get the same for each meal as you would for the TS credit on the regular plan. So, for an example, we ate at Chef Mickey for breakfast (full buffet plus drink), Crystal Palace for lunch (full buffet plus drink) and California Grill for dinner (app., entree, dessert and non alcohol drink)...all in one day. Another day we did the buffet at Trail's End for breakfast, Le Cellier (I think that's the name) for lunch after a tour, and then Citricos for dinner before heading out to Cirque (that was a really long day!). You can use the credits at CS places if you want, just as you would a CS credit on the regular plan. And you can use them at the Sig. places. The difference being that each place only subtracts 1 credit from your plan (not 2 for the Sig. places like on DDP). Just be sure you tell the server that you are on the Premium plan, I guess it has to be entered differently.

I will admit that it is a LOT of food! Especially if you are doing all sit down/TS type places, three times a day. And it takes a bit of extra time to eat that way. But we planned that trip around the food. The credits that we didn't use for ourselves, we just put toward treating my dad and step-mom to a couple of meals at the end of our trip when they came to visit us. The plan is a great way to try a bunch of different foods or restaurants that you normally wouldn't do, and you are not limited to having to do CS if you don't want to (we are not big CS fans, nothing wrong with them, but we prefer to have nice sit down meals instead). And no counting/saving credits in order to eat at the nicer places. You can even do the dinner shows for only one credit used.

 

[KinderTchr]

How much more is the Disney Dining Premium per adult?

We did magical wishes and used all of our wishes for dining. That was very cool. I think it is more equal to Premium.

My trip needs to be paid off by Oct 31. Can I upgrade to Premium after that?

Kaye

 

[heatherlynn444]

somoene told me that without park tickets it is basically 139 a night per person. someone correct me if i am wrong.

 

[tinkerbeth]

I would Loooooove to do the Premium Plan someday when just DH and I could go together ( a few years off... ) Imagine all those RESTAURANTS! And the tours too. I wonder how it compares pricewise to concierge?...that would be my other dream vacation. Concierge at AKL for a week with DH. We might not need many park tickets, just sleeping in, snacking in the lounge and swimming in the pool. Why did I have kids again???

Beth

 

[scouthawkk]

The premium plan was a lot more per person (and def. more than concierge). But keep in mind, it is not meant to be only a dining plan. It makes your trip more of an all inclusive (and what I wouldn't give to be able to do the Platinum plan that includes a spa service and room service...). You have unlimited access to any of the listed tours, recreation (horse back riding, boating, para sailing, fishing, mini golf, regular golf, including rental of clubs and cart...). Also includes Cirque (level 2 seating). It gives you park hopper for length of stay, as well as adds on the water park plus pack (same number of visits as if you were on the regular my way tickets and adding it on).

As I said above, we really enjoyed the dining aspect, but have regrets about not taking advantage of much else. If we were to do this package again, I would plan a longer visit and splurge for the non-expire ticket option. That way we would have time to take full advantage of the recreation, and not have to worry about using all the park days. That part could be saved for a future trip sometime.

I do know that this package costs more then just concierge (or concierge with regular ddp). I have been looking at options for next summer for DH, DS, and 2 DSis-in-Law (kids will be 4, 10 and 13). The premium wouldn't work for us because we would never take full advantage of everything. And there is no way the kids could eat the way DH and I do. I'd have to go back and look at all of my figures again for specifics, but I think I determined that the regular ddp will be the way to go with that trip, just not sure if we should toss in concierge so we don't have to bring breakfast stuff or not. I also figured it with the Family Magic Tour and Cirque tickets (both included in the premium plan) and tossed in a pirate cruise for DS and a round or two of mini golf for all of us, and determined that we would save money doing it a la cart then going with the premium, mainly because we wouldn't do enough of the "extras" to make it worth the difference. It was a lot of work, because I even went over menus and figured meals as we would eat them, as the kids would eat. (Needed to determine a budget of how much we needed to save.)

I will look to see if we kept all those papers (DH may have tossed them thinking they were junk). Feel free to PM me if interested, and I will pass along what I have.

 

[tinkerbeth]

Thanks for the info. I think paying for the no-expiration is a good idea. I don't know how much I would use the parks if I had all those other perks! I wouldn't do it with kids either, unless *maybe* I had a couple of older teenagers who could go on their own to do tours or hb riding or eat wherever they want. But I think it would be a great treat for DH and me. Then I got to wondering if maybe a Disney Cruise would be even better...I hope to do that for our 10th in 4 years' time. Hopefully the Mediteranian. But I know I'll end up taking the kids too. I'm a big marshmallow.

Beth