18+ months to drive DH crazy about Disney planning

[tabrizia]

So dining, for the moment I'm assuming we have free dining and are staying at Port Orleans Riverside. I am going with us being there from October 19th - November 1st, because well I want to be there sooner rather then later and that is the closest of the possible dates.

We would arrive on the 18th. we actually would probably arrive on the 18th and do 1 night off site before checking in on the morning of the 19th if I am honest, but we'll stick with getting there on the 19th for meal planning purposes. That is 13 nights, which is 13 sit down credits.

Most likely since we don't know what time we'll arrive on Sunday we won't have a meal that night, so just quick service. Which means our first meal will be the 20th.

I like to take a day off after every 2 or 3 days in the park, basically a down day to relax, take things slow, visit downtown Disney etc. Down days would likely be Wednesday October 22nd, Saturday October 25th, Tuesday October 28th, and Friday October 31st (though on that last one we would be going the the Halloween Party that evening). Then we would be leaving mid afternoon on November 1st so no park that day either.

Meals I am pretty sure we will be doing: Tusker House Breakfast, Chef Mickey Dinner, Crystal Palace Breakfast or Lunch, Royal Castle Dinner, Be Our Guest, T-Rex, Coral Reef, Crystal Palace, and Sanaa.

The question is the other 3 meals, do I do another princess meal, I only have 1 DD and 2 DS. Do I do the character meal at Disney Studios, I think the older two may be a bit big for it by then. Do I do Chef Mickey again? Or do we go non-character meals since I have a decent number listed, and if we don't do character meals what do I chose?

DH can not eat meat other then seafood. DD has dairy issues. DS1 is extremely picky, but if there is mac and cheese, pizza or chicken nuggets he should be fine. We were not impressed with Boma the few times we've tried it, it was just kind of boring. We are not huge buffet fans (DH's issues make buffets a bit of a gamble), and we will have a bunch already with the restaurants chosen, so non-buffet options are a plus. I was thinking maybe another EPCOT option but I'm not sure which one.

I was thinking maybe Cape May as one of them, which breaks my whole no buffet thing I am aware.. I am thinking no signature this time, because with the 3 kids and the ages they will be at I don't think we really want to do one. If I go for Cape May I still have 2 to choose though.

Any thoughts from my non-existent readers? I am sure I will change my plans around half a dozen times anyways in the next 18ish months anyways, but I do like planning.

 

[KandyM]

Hi.

Your plans sound Super. I understand about the 18 months of planning. I have been working on my plans to go back August 2013 since we got home from our first trip April 2011! LOL!

Riverside sounds so great, it would be my choice also. I found your ptr by searching for Riverside threads. I am pretty worried about getting free dining in August due to rumored cutbacks on that. Only time will tell I guess.

Enjoy your planning!

Kandy

 

[shannon006]

Hi, I just found your thread I have read all your posts so far. I love that you are planning so far ahead.

We had 2 trips last, year, which was AWESOME. An anniversary trip, 4 nights, and an 11 night trip with 4 of our kids. 5,12,18 & 19. We had 2 rooms at the POP, with a pin for FD. Our oldest sons LOVED the freedom of having their own room for the fist time, and the freedom to park hop and eat when/what they wanted when we weren't together as a family.

I too am planning our next trip. Even though we had the blessing of 2 trips last year, my heart longs to go back. I think of Disney often through the day, it is my happy place

We prefer QSDP, and have paid for it. Although, with what they are now charging, there is no way we would pay for it OOP. We prefer not to be tied to reservations daily, but choose 1-3 TS per trip. We like to find the more unique QS places, as well as snacks.

We have stayed at AKL, and may rent points there for our next stay, for only 4 of us on our next trip, IF we are unable to get FD. Otherwise, I really love the POP. So who knows. We have stayed at CB and liked it, but I think it would be really fun to stay at PO Riverside. We love taking the water taxi when we visit DTD. We have walked around the resort and visited the CS there. We will have to wait and see when we are going, and what deals are going on at the time.

The time we are going in undecided as of yet. 2014, unless some miracle happens and we can go this year, but unlikely. So we are looking at end of January or early February 2014.

Well, I will be following your thread now, so keep the posts coming

 

[tabrizia]

Yay I have followers! Just note I tend to post in bursts, so I'll post a bunch for a few days to weeks and then go a month or 3 before posting again. I post more when the Disney bug is getting to me, and since it has been over 3 years, sigh, it is really biting right now.

Hi.

Your plans sound Super. I understand about the 18 months of planning. I have been working on my plans to go back August 2013 since we got home from our first trip April 2011! LOL!

Riverside sounds so great, it would be my choice also. I found your ptr by searching for Riverside threads. I am pretty worried about getting free dining in August due to rumored cutbacks on that. Only time will tell I guess.

Enjoy your planning!

Kandy

I am really hoping they don't cut back on the free dining. I mean a room discount would be nice as well, but free dining would open us up for a couple of extra meals we won't do if we didn't have the plan.

I really like the idea of Riverside, I have also thought about the new Art of Animation studios, but Riverside or even 2 value rooms are cheaper, and the suites almost never get free dining codes. Maybe one day though.

Hi, I just found your thread I have read all your posts so far. I love that you are planning so far ahead.

We had 2 trips last, year, which was AWESOME. An anniversary trip, 4 nights, and an 11 night trip with 4 of our kids. 5,12,18 & 19. We had 2 rooms at the POP, with a pin for FD. Our oldest sons LOVED the freedom of having their own room for the fist time, and the freedom to park hop and eat when/what they wanted when we weren't together as a family.

I too am planning our next trip. Even though we had the blessing of 2 trips last year, my heart longs to go back. I think of Disney often through the day, it is my happy place

We prefer QSDP, and have paid for it. Although, with what they are now charging, there is no way we would pay for it OOP. We prefer not to be tied to reservations daily, but choose 1-3 TS per trip. We like to find the more unique QS places, as well as snacks.

We have stayed at AKL, and may rent points there for our next stay, for only 4 of us on our next trip, IF we are unable to get FD. Otherwise, I really love the POP. So who knows. We have stayed at CB and liked it, but I think it would be really fun to stay at PO Riverside. We love taking the water taxi when we visit DTD. We have walked around the resort and visited the CS there. We will have to wait and see when we are going, and what deals are going on at the time.

The time we are going in undecided as of yet. 2014, unless some miracle happens and we can go this year, but unlikely. So we are looking at end of January or early February 2014.

Well, I will be following your thread now, so keep the posts coming

I love AKL, the whole having to pay for 2 rooms or rent points for it, or eventually buy into DVC (my choice, but not for a few years yet) cost of it however, means that deluxe hotels are not in the budget for a few more years. We stayed there for our 5th wedding anniversary in a pool side room, it was great, and I really do want to go back some day.

I really like the idea of 2 POP! or Art of Animation Rooms, but I think Riverside will be cheaper especially with free dining. I bet your kids loved their own room, I am sure we are going to have to do the two rooms or DVC thing as the kids get older, because 1 hotel room gets cramped even now with them at the small stage, I don't even want to contemplate it with them as teens!


We love sit down restaurants, especially at Disney. I really like the basic 1 sit down, 1 Quick Service plan, but if we have to pay for it, it makes more sense for us to go out of pocket, since we save no money using it (we end up ordering some of the cheaper entrees, we don't need that many deserts, and we end up paying out of pocket for appetizers). I keep doing the Math to see if it would work paying for it, since it is an easy time saver, and it just never works right when I add it all up. When it is free it is much easier to justify the extra money for appetizers etc though.

I have never been able to pare our restaurant list down to 3 or less, and I've tried before. I normally come up with at least 8 places we want to go for sit down meals, especially with a 13 night stay.

 

[tabrizia]

So I may have come up with the last 2 restaurants for us, I forgot that we love Raglan Road, so I think I'll add that in, and then reading some trip reports I see that Hollywood and Vine has Jake and Oso and Manny! Who knows if all of them will still be there in 18 months or so, but I bet the two youngers at least would love seeing them, so I think I'll add that breakfast onto the list. Wow maybe the first time we actually eat at Disney Studios since I went there as a teen with my family. I tend to find Disney Studios food, especially the QS options not to our tastes.

Of course I am now debating if we want to do 2 Chef Mickey meals (the answer is probably) so we may end up paying out of pocket for one of the meals (probably Crystal Palace breakfast).

I think that puts me as having a good handle on all the meals, only 18+ months out, yay! Next thing to do will be to figure out what day we're doing them on, but that maybe for the next post.

 

[KandyM]

Any kind of free dining would make me happy. We have five Disney adults so it is a huge savings. Regular dining plan sounds so great. My top picks for TS would be ohanas, BOG, Crystal Palace. Your choices all sound great too. I would probably not do the same TS twice in one trip since there really are so many different ones to try out.

 

[shannon006]

Any kind of free dining would make me happy. We have five Disney adults so it is a huge savings. Regular dining plan sounds so great. My top picks for TS would be ohanas, BOG, Crystal Palace. Your choices all sound great too. I would probably not do the same TS twice in one trip since there really are so many different ones to try out.

i agree in not doing the same TS twice . We have done Chef Mickeys for breakfast and dinner in the same trip . Wish we had spread them out . Really preferred dinner to breakfast there

 

[tabrizia]

I really want to try Ohana's for dinner, but I am not sure how well it would work with DH's meat intolerance. It seems like my best chance to go somewhere that resembles a Brazilian steak house (so want to go to one of those, but not likely with DH).

Since we are there for 13ish nights I don't mind repeating one meal if we do them pretty far apart, so beginning and end, but probably won't because there are so many other options. I always prefer dinners to breakfasts, so when possible (except for Crystal Palace) I lean towards dinner character meals over the breakfast ones.

 

[shannon006]

My son and DIL just got back last week from staying at The Boardwalk. They ate at Ohanas and loved it. They said it was the best meal they had on this trip. They also LOVED T Rex, as well as the San Angel. Even with the bad reviews they said it was one of the best. They love trying all new restaurants on each of their trips

 

[tabrizia]

I'll keep San Angel in mind, since I won't mind another EPCOT restaurant and we all like Mexican, even the picky one sometimes.

So I invited my Mom and Dad along, if they want to come for part of the trip. They'll stay at their timeshare, but go to the parks with us and dinner. It would actually work out decently since they will only stay for a week or so, so we have the other week to ourselves, and they can help with the kids, which means babysitting, so DH and I can go to our favorite restaurant Narcoossee's! I may actually add a second signature in there too for just me and DH, not sure if I go for a repeat, we both enjoy Jiko and Artist Point, or if I go for a new option. I do want to try California Grill, the last time I ate there I was 5 1/2 and my Grandparents took me and my sister there to eat, so 30 years ago! I also want to try Citricos, so that is always another option. Or if they come I may just do the one meal and not two.

The last time we went my parents came and the trip have some downsides, but I think I know how to make that not happen again, ie I plan for us and my parents join us as they want, rather then trying to set everything up for everyone. Having my parents there would help with some rides though since the girl might want to do some things that the baby still can't and the older boy child will still be a bit small to let go in a ride car without a grownup. Plus it makes it easier to split up to let the elder go on big rides and still let the littles have fun on rides their speed.

 

[tabrizia]

No real updates right now, since the vacation is still such a ridiculously long time away. I mean 18 months is an insanely long time, and I want to be in Disney now, sigh. At least I have picked a date, and currently it looks like it should work out money wise so that is something at least. It is weird to think we're going when DS2 will actually need a ticket to go in the parks! On the plus side I'll only need 1 stroller, since they'll be 3 1/2, 5 1/2 and 7 1/2.

Right now I am focusing on birthdays since all three have their birthdays within the next 2 months give or take 4 days. Need to figure out exactly who is getting what as a gift and figure out what we are doing for their party.

 

[shannon006]

Sounds like you will be busy with birthdays