Any suggestions for our Aug. Trip

[chuckcorden]

I will be leading my family to WDW on Aug. 17 for a week. We will be staying at the Villas of AKL (Jambo House, savannah view). The family consists of my wife and I (grandparents), my son and his girl friend, my daughter, and my other daughter (who lives in FL), her husband and our two grandsons (4 and 2).

I have planned our vacation rather thoroughly ("too thoroughly", my wife says). I have purchased the standard dining plan which I would usually not buy but with such a big group, I figured it would be the best way. (No arguments about paying) We have ADRs for Ohana (Dinner-Mon.), Coral Reef (Lunch-Tues.), Crystal Palace (Breakfast-Weds.), Les Chefs de France (Dinner-Weds.), Boma (Dinner-Thurs.), Teppan Edo (Dinner-Fri.), Raglan Road (Dinner-Sat.). All our dinners are early enough for the grandchildren so we can go back to the Lodge and give the kids (20 and 30 somethings) a chance to explore WDW on their own while my wife and I babysit. (Actually, my wife since babysitting is not my strong point.) The only exception is Raglan Road where I made later reservations for the kids so they could go clubbing afterwards.

If I counted correctly, my wife and I have one TS left and I figure to use it at the Hollywood Brown Derby or Mama Melrose's (two of our favorites).

What I am thinking about is not using the DDP for one of our meals so we (the group) would have one TS to spare. I am thinking of paying for our meal at Crystal Palace since I think it is the least expensive.

How do these plans sound? Does anyone have any suggestions about places that I have overlooked? Both my wife and I have been to WDW many times but it will be the first time for my son and his friend and my CT daughter since the mid-1990s when they were much younger.

[Hopefully]

Your plans look wonderful to me. You have a great plan for your family and I am sure they will be very grateful. We (grandparents) are taking DS and his GF in October to the F & W festival and looking forward to it.
We too are on the basic dining plan. We did decide to pay OOP for one meal so that we could go to Jiko's our last night (2 TS credits)
At this point though, I don't think your family would be able to get ADR's for a nice restaurant to use the extra credit if you did pay OOP for one meal. So at this point I would not do it.
Have a Great Trip.

[Maggie'sMom]

Originally Posted by chuckcorden

If I counted correctly, my wife and I have one TS left and I figure to use it at the Hollywood Brown Derby or Mama Melrose's (two of our favorites).

Brown Derby is a 2TS restaurant. If you want to do that one, you will have to pay OOP for another one anyway.

I agree that Crystal Palace would be the best to pay OOP for.

[natalielongstaff]

we loved Mama Melrose when we went