The other approach is get yourself a world-class plane, something on the order of Holtey, Wayne Anderson, Ron Brese or Konrad Sauer. Of course, they will each set you back a lot of bucks. Then learn to sharpen, and I mean truly sharp.
This sounds like a good job for the lowly card scraper. If you're doing more than a few panels though, i'd also invest in a scraper holder - save your fingers. I'm nothing more than a weekend warrior - this is a hobby for me, but i've never met a grain that wasn't perfectly tamed with a sharp $12 scraper. 10 minutes to sharpen / create a bur and 1/2 hour of practice -you'll have the tool mastered.
The wide belt sander at the local cabinet shop is a good option, but not the only way. If you're a purist with finishing, sanding to prep the surface isn't as desirable as planing / scraping.
I reluctantly learned to use the card scraper. Once i did, it seemed like a minor enlightenment. It's simple, incredibly versatile, cheap, and shears the surface rather than abbrading it (not usually critical to me, but a nice benefit for fine furniture).
Also, if you want to plane the tougher grains, what you're really after is a high cutting angle. A bevel up smoother would do the trick nicely. You'd want a good quality plane, but you don't need to spend the month's rent to get what you need. It can be as simple as puting a back bevel on a garden variety smoother. If you've got an old #3, #4, #5, or #6 hanging around, you could easily put a back bevel on the plane you already have. What you're after is a cutting angle somewhere around 50 or 60 degrees. Off the shelf, the vast majority of planes have a cutting angle of 45 degrees. Bevel down planes (most iron bench planes) have the blade mounted at 45. Since the bevel faces down, the bevel doesn't factor into the cutting angle. If the bevel is facing up (such as on block planes) you combine the blade mounting angle (usually 20 degrees) with the bevel grind on the blade (usually 25 degrees) to get at your effective cutting angle (usually 45 degrees). If you grind the bevel steeper, you raise the effective cutting angle.
On iron bench planes (bevel mounted down) you can raise the cutting angle by grinding a gentle bevel on the back of the blade. A 5 degree back bevel raises the cutting angle from 45 to 50, and so on.
High cutting angles deal well with difficult grain because they are more prone to shearing the wood fibers and less likely to lift the grain. Working shifty grain with hand planes or card scrapers also allows you to work the vast majority of the board without cutting into / lifting the grain. Just rotate the board and cut up to the area where the grain shifts. Then, you can take a little extra time just at the problem spots.
I've got a toolbox with a couple of "new" Veritas planes, old Stanley or Record bench planes that i cleaned up and tuned, and a Stanley block plane i bought new about 15 years ago. I don't keep them around if they won't tune up well. My point is that you don't need to spend a lot of money to have planes that take full width whisper thin shavings easily and reliably.
Maybe you could pick up an old bench plane used and start playing around with it. You'd probably be in it for no more than $15- $20. Takes the fear factor out of messing around with the tool, and you could get really comfortable about how they function.
Have fun with it.
paulh