Hi Erin,
I can't speak to the cyclical option being removed in Plans (your post just alerted me to this), but you are still able to add them to 'Reminders' in the 'Connections' tab, which might be the best way to go.You can also look at adding them in mass to Plans via the 'Plan Maintenance' option under the 'Campaigns' menu. You can find more information about that here.
Hope that is helpful.
-Ryan
Edit- Sorry, just realized that the link to the Steps part of the help doc takes you to the main doc instead. You can find the "Adding Steps to Multiple Plans" in the Related Topics at the bottom of that page.